1149: 12 Storylines For The Chevron Championship

! Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast, here. Got a preview coming here shortly of this week's Chevron championship down in Houston. Before we get to that, I want to remind you that playing the right golf ball for your game is massively important. And if you're not, you are leaving shots on the table. This is why Titleist offers three tour proven golf ball models to fit different flight, spin and field performance needs. Probe one, this is my choice. It gives you low long game spin, maximum short game spin and a penetrating ball flight and a very soft field. That's the deal breaker for me. I got to have a golf ball with soft feel. The Probe one X it flies in a higher window and spins more on full swings. It has a slightly firmer feel. So if you're looking for, you know, maybe a little bit more spin out of your wedge game, or, you know, if you like a firmer feel golf ball, Probe one X is your choice. And there's Neil's new Probe one X left dash. I don't think that's the official name of it, but it flies high like the Probe one X does, but with dramatically lower full swing spin and even firmer feel, it's also the fastest ball in the lineup. So you owe it to yourself to find out what combination of flight spin and field best fits your game regardless of handicap. If you're a high handicap golfer finding the right golf ball is perhaps even more important than it is for the low handicap golfers. I know Casey on our team learned a lot from the play in the Probe one X and how much that spin helps her on approach shots being able to stop and hold greens that she couldn't previously hold. So head to titles.com to learn more information about this without any further delay. Let's get to our preview. All right, folks, we are here. We have made it first women's major championship of the year. We are recording this episode on Thursday, April 16th for the listeners sake here to get out ahead of some travel next week for the big guy. And let me introduce the big guy himself. Hello, Mr. Big. Hi guys. Happy to be here. Feels like the women's season is like properly starting. So excited. Mr. Cody McBride. Hello, Cody. Hello, Mr. Solly. Excited. It's Chevron new course. Hopefully not the same old baggage, but we'll see. A lot to talk about on that front. TC is here as well. Hello, Mr. T. Ron. Greetings, gentlemen. I'm glad to hear that we are considering this a major right from the jump. I think it gets what a two or three year grace period and then and then we will make the final verdict on whether this remains a major moving forward. I don't think we've ever given anything a two to three year grace period. I think it's one year. We're going to see how Memorial Park plays. Well, Memorial Park Slaps though. We know that. But the overseas we got, we were going to break it all down. We got a lot to talk about on this. Randy's going to give us a little bit of a history of the Chevron, how we got here. We are going to go through 12 of the biggest story lines for the 2026 Chevron. Talk a little bit about the golf course. Of course, the new golf course that will be playing. We're going to make our picks to win who won't win a few questions to round it out. So big. How do we get here? Where are we playing this year? Take us to a little bit of a history of this championship. I don't have to put a time limit on you like I normally do with stuff with TC. I don't think but a brief history if you will. Yeah, yeah, we'll keep it brief. Here's what you need to know. This event started back in the early 70s. Okay. This was founded in 1972 to be specific by a businessman named David Wallace who worked for Colgate Palm Olive TC. I don't know your thoughts or feelings on the Colgate business empire. Not a trap draw. Not a trap draw. I do use Colgate toothpaste. I switched over from Crest to Colgate about six or seven years ago. I'm a proctor in gamble. I was a PNG loyalist. Still not a trap draw. We're keeping a move in here we're keeping it moving. Get to David Wallace and Dunder Mifflin that era. Yes, yes. 1972 David Wallace and Dina Shore. Okay. Dina Shore is an important name to know. Perhaps people know this tournament as the old Dina Shore. I got to put a hand up. I'm not like super familiar with Dina Shore's game but just a quick kind of Wikipedia research session. Dina Shore is a true just entertainer throwback Hollywood type. Okay. She's now deceased. She passed away in 1994 but she was very, very popular in the 50s, 60s, 70s. Was married to Bert Reynolds for like five years in the 70s. So just like a very Hollywood type. Like a Bob Hope. Yes. Dina Shore enjoyed golf. Okay. And so that's where she comes in. She played golf. She just really enjoyed the game and so she used her celebrity in conjunction with David Wallace and those people to found this tournament. They put it at Mission Hills Country Club which is just outside Palm Springs and Palm Springs is where Dina Shore lived. So this tournament from its inception was the richest purse in women's golf. At the time it began in 1972 it was the purse was more than double the LPGA championship which is now the KPMG women's PGA and the US women's Open. So big deal right from the start. Big purse, big celebrity backing and this was the tournament in Mission Hills, California, Palm Springs. They play the tournament in 1988. Amy Alcott won the event and in a moment of pure bliss ecstasy she jumped into the pond surrounding the 18th green there at Mission Hills and this would begin the tradition that I know we're going to talk about it this year but this would begin the tradition of jumping into the pond. It didn't take hold right away though. In 1991 Alcott won again. She jumped again this time along with Dina Shore and this was kind of the real catalyst. And so in 1994 a woman named Donna Andrews she was the first non-Amy Alcott winner to jump into the water and I think this is when the the tradition gets firmly cemented. So that pond at Mission Hills it was known as Poppy's Pond. That was in honor of Terry Wilcox who was a longtime tournament director for the then you know it's had many names but for the Dina Shore. So I know we're going to talk about the winter jumping into the pond. Another thing to mention that I think is is is important to what this tournament was in 1991 a women's festival began concurrent with the golf tournament in Palm Springs. We had our buddy Travis Hill of the golfers journal on I gosh several years ago now. He grew up in this area. I think the way he dubs it it was lesbian lala palusa. It was just this it was at the time the largest gathering of lesbian and queer women in the United States. It was a week-long celebration with music with art just a true like coming together and it was always around this golf tournament. This went on through the 90s through the 2000s through the 2010s. In 2021 Chevron bought the naming rights to this tournament and this is kind of where things really start to shift. They would eventually move this tournament to Greater Houston beginning in 2023. We can debate whether this is a good move. This probably isn't the episode to do that. I know the longtime people who have a history at Mission Hills Country Club have always thought that was the wrong move to move the Chevron out of Palm Springs. But in 2023 it went to Greater Houston and went up to the Woodlands. They had to dredge. There was a pond at the 18th green of the net of the Jack Nicholas course where they played this event the last three years. They had to dredge that pond. They had to clean it. They had to put in netting to keep like alligators away. A lot of people were wondering will the winner still jump? Lilia Vue won the event in 2023 and she took the plunge and continued the tradition. Nellie Corta did the year after her and we've been going since then. Mal Saigo last year made the jump even though she can't swim. I think it was a little scary for folks. So, Solly, this year is the first year of this event. It's still in the Houston area but it's moved from like very suburban the Woodlands which as Cody has told us time and again like it's not really Houston. They've parked it very much closer to the city center at Memorial Park. Of course we've seen this as a PGA tour stopped the last several years but it's much more connected with the city of Houston. And so, unfortunately the women's festival is a casualty of this move to Texas. That's no longer, you know, it's no longer really lesbian lala palooza. It doesn't seem like Houston's the best environment. Yeah. So, this is just a tournament that has a rich history on the LPGA tour in the women's game but I think is at a crossroads with its identity with the scale of what the LPGA tour was. This event made sense for a lot of years and it was great in Southern California but as the LPGA has wanted to grow and expand and especially as purses at the U.S. Women's Open and the AIG Women's Open have grown. This event just feels a little bit in my opinion too much like a signature event and not enough like a true major championship. And so, we'll talk about Memorial Park. We'll get our reaction on what we think about that. If I can real quick, let me just run through. This tournament tends to yield in its recent history, first time major winners. The first tournament I really distinctly remember watching the Chevron was 2018 when Pernilla Lindbergh in eight playoff holes outlasted in B Park. They had to come back. They suspended play Sunday night. They had to come back Monday morning and they finished up. Pernilla was a first time major winner and since that time, you had Jinyoung Ko in 2019, Mirim Lee in 2020, Patty T in 2021, Jennifer Kupcho in 2022, all first time major winners. Lilia Vu continued that in 2023 in Texas. Nelly Korda won in 2024. She was not a first time major winner. The lone exception to this list and now last year, Mal Saigo, she captured her first major title. So, will that trend continue? I don't know. We're going to talk about it. But that's kind of why, how we're at Memorial Park as quickly as possible and kind of what this tournament is and has been on the LPGA tour. Thank you, Big. That is a complicated history indeed. And we will get, I promise we'll circle back to kind of the golf course. It's merits as a major championship, what people can expect and how the city of Houston is going to respond and the positive changes that come with this in the back half of this. But before we do that, we are going to get, it's not like an ad transition, but it's not. We're going to get to some storylines here. We're going to talk about the golf and the upcoming major championship. We are going to each cover three storylines that we are looking forward to. Three kind of questions we have going into this. Three things we're anxious about. Three things we're excited about seeing in this coming week. And Rainey, we're still going to throw it to you first. Save a little energy for the back half. I know we're taxing you. A lot of big pitch innings here off the jump. But first storyline, off the top of the board, first draft pick. What's the biggest storyline for you heading into the Chevron? I think, I posed this in our agenda. The question that I think you can ask at every major these days is, it's just around Nellie Cordo. And so my storyline is, is this Nellie's tour or not? We're just coming from Augusta on the men's side where I think we see a distinct like Rory McElroy, Scotty Schaeffler. Those are the dudes on the men's side. And Rory's got six majors now. Scotty has four, but there's like a clear separation. And you kind of know where the major championships run through on the men's side. On the women's side, I think it's a bit less clear. And I know we're going to talk about several players, but I just think it starts with Nellie. Nellie is the face of the LPGA tour. I consider her the face of women's golf right now. In saying that, she has just, and I do say just one, two majors. And so I think, every major is a big opportunity for Nellie to kind of separate herself from her peers at this stage in her career. I think a third major would be a big step would, quite honestly, it would put her alongside Minji Lee and Inji Chun and some of these other women, current players with three majors. And so I guess I kind of just yearn for some dominance on the women's side. And we saw Nellie two years ago, you know, winning seven times and five straight starts. Like, I just wanted to keep going. And so, yeah, is this Nellie's tour? Is this not Nellie's tour? You know, come here, be the favorite, back it up. Like, I think that would be great. And coming off of some pretty rocky, shaky finishes for her winning contention the last few times. A lot of runner ups. Yeah. Yeah. Her four finishes this year. She won the Hilton Grand Vacation Tournament. It's not a real tournament. Was second at the Fortinet Founders Cup. Second at the four championship at Wild Horse Pass. And then T2 at the Aramco to Lauren Coglin at Shadow Creek. Yeah. Four events. Her worst finish so far is a tie for second. Shaggy starts. I understand that we're expect, I, I'll get there. I understand that we'd expect her to like run through the finish line. That's the player that we want Nellie to be. And so far that she's kind of proven that she hasn't been able to do that. Except for when we look back at 2024, which wasn't that long ago. What I'm super impressed with so far with Nellie is that she usually starts the year off pretty shaky and doesn't have the pieces put together. And she seems to have the pieces put together and she's making smarter decisions scheduling wise. Now a lot of people can give her a bunch of crap for missing the Asian swings and not playing as many tournaments as others, but she's clearly found a recipe because I'm sure she agrees with what we're saying right here, Big. She also wants to win majors and she's changing her schedule to be able to fix that. She's not playing in LA this week, so she can maximize her prep with her coaches. So she does show up to Houston and be able to actually win. So yeah, I think that that is the biggest storyline, not only on player dominant side, but also the marketing side of the LPGA tour and women's golf at large. We, everybody is, is waiting for Nellie to, to take control, take the reins and run because that's really where this, this boost that everybody's thinking is coming is going to come from. Yeah, I just, that putt that she missed, the short putt that she missed is still just haunting me a little bit from, from the one, uh, a bit Sharon Heights. Yeah. Is that a month ago now? Yeah, she's gotten the early season golf channel, short misputt montage already. And good, and good on them for, uh, for putting that montage together because that has been Nellie's things. And I'll say this, there's some bad info put out sometimes on this here podcast. Nellie has gone to the mallet before. We've covered this. We apologize for that. Okay. Well, she, she's bounced back and forth quite a bit. I will say this year and, and we don't get nearly as much data as we know, but, uh, KPMG performance inside, she is gaining 4.01 strokes total, uh, so far this year, clearly, uh, above and beyond everyone else, she's positive in every single category, except for putting. Uh, she's given up a half a stroke to the field there every single time. So she clearly knows that's what it is. We'll see when, sorry, I'm excited to hear what you dive in about Memorial Park and the setup here, but I'm just guessing the, uh, like it's mini Verdi greens that they have down there at, at, uh, Memorial Park. I'm guessing that that is going to be super comfortable with where she's practicing at right now. So I think we're going to see a really good putting week coming from Nellie on greens that aren't going to be really like crazy fast. Nellie's results here real quick before we go to the next storyline starting in 2020. And this is across mission bills and the Woodlands. We don't know about Memorial Park, but she was T2 in 2020, T3 in 21, uh, did not play in 22 solo third in 23, one in 24, and then tied for 14th last year. So, you know, her, her floor here is like, really it's like, she's going to top 10. I think we just want to see that dominant performance, you know, leave no doubt Nellie. The Woodlands was a great course fit for her. And it looked like if that, if that tournament was going to stay there for a long time, she was going to be able to rack up some majors there, but, and we'll get into kind of course fit and set up here. But if it, if it plays near the yardage that they're, that it's, it listed at playing as should be a good thing for Nellie Korda. I think it's a, it should be bombers featured heavily here. Cody, second storyline. Yeah. I'm going to go to the, like the one woman who's had to hold up that wall, that defense on Nellie twice so far this year. And that's a hoi joe cam, uh, phenomenal to victories to, to start out this year, uh, currently up to number three in the world. Um, it's just, it's just crazy. And she is, is I would say leading the effort now on the Korean side and they're, as Korea themselves try to like fight off all the Japanese young stars that are coming up in the game. We, we grew up, I think a lot of us got super into women's professional golf in the 2010s. When you just saw every single Korean was like winning majors left and right. It's just crazy to see from 2010 to 2019. They won 23 major championships as a country, uh, and only three since then. So we'll, we'll see what happens there. But, um, you know, Hoi Joi is 30 years old. She's having a heck of a year. Uh, the two victories, like I said, and then she, she actually played really good exhausted. And she talked about how exhausted she was at shadow Creek, finished tied for 13th there. But if you look at Memorial Park and again, I don't want to get ahead of, of course, Fitz or anything, but I think of the group, I don't know, TC, have you played Memorial Park yet? I haven't. No, I've watched a lot of that tournament, but I haven't, haven't played it personally. Okay. So from the one person here that has played it, like it's pretty wide off the tee, but it is a hundred percent a second shot golf course. And it's going to be awesome to see the women coming in from a much different clubs and trajectory into greens that are pretty firm and runoffs all over the place. So you got to be dialed with your approach play and your short game has to be rock solid because there's just runoffs all over the place. That's going to have really sticky Bermuda that's coming up through that overseas. No one's had a better short game so far this year than, than H.J. I could ride for her any, you know, every single day, every tournament. I think she's awesome. Big. I know this is a homer take, but like the fact that we got to spend time with her last year is just like incredible. She's such an awesome person and I'm so excited to see her, you know, hopefully contented this first major. Cody question for you on, on Joe, Kim, will she have a driver hit at a different ball speed other than 141 or 142? Not probably not 140 or 143. Is it in play? That's something to watch for. I want to see if she hits even one single shot. That's not 141. I'm, that is not me making fun of her ball speed. That is me marveling at the consistency of which she hits the ball and refusing to, refusing any temptation to swing harder at it. Cause it looks like she swings at 30% of her capacity and it, she is one of the most remarkable players to watch because it is a drastic, the different style. There's not a ton of drastically different styles on the LPGA tour, but like you compare her to Nelly and it is drastically different. So I wouldn't be surprised, of course, if, if those two were dueling in some way again, I do have some on that. When we played with her, I asked her specifically about the tempo and she said when they're kids and when they start being taught golf as kids in Korea, that their instructors, they have them all line up and they're not going and doing like individual swings, like, you know, at their own pace, like we teach, you know, kids here in the States, what they do is they all line them up and they all swing at the exact same time and rhythm together. So the instructor would be like back through, back through and they're all synced up like that. So she's like, that's where I got my tempo from and I've just never changed it. Wow. That's, it's interesting. Randy, what are you cruising at for your, for your ball speed these days? Probably pretty similar. Yeah. Yeah. Truly. I have a game made for this tour. I was just going to throw in one interesting thing about, about Hyoju Kim is she won the Evion in 2014, which was her very first major appearance and then nothing since then. And a boatload of top 10s, a few runner ups, but it is definitely somebody that can win this tournament, for sure. Runner up last year, different golf course, but I remember I asked her, what does she like about Houston? Of course, the barbecue. So she got it. She got to be feeling good. Good food city. TC. Well, first of all, I want to say that the people of Carlton Woods, even though they've been some of the most hostile, aggressive, great people, people that I've encountered in the last decade in golf, both verbally and with their leaf blowers. I hope they're doing well, including P, P and Lady J who I believe live in that community. All of that said, I think my first thing off the top of my head is this is the first big litmus test for the LPGAs enhanced improved broadcasts. We saw, you know, we've seen Shadow Creek, we saw it at Sharon Heights. I didn't watch too much of the board championship at Wild Horse Pass presented, but you know, like that one, that one just didn't didn't really rise to the level on my, it's a turkey shoot down there and it just didn't really appeal to my sensibilities. But I think this one is, it's a, like it's already wired for, you know, tournament golf as far as like they wired it for the, they used to open a few weeks ago on the men's side. They should have good infrastructure out there. Let's see if this thing feels distinct from last year's run at Carlton Woods, because I think that if they're, you know, like they're probably working out the kinks testing stuff out at those first few events where they did this. And now it's like, all right, it's prime time. We got to, this is a major championship broadcast windows are bigger. Let's, let's see, let's, let's stress test this new, you know, FM globals kind of rejuvenation of the LPGA tour broadcast, because that is the product, right? And if you want to get like, if Nelly comes like runs out to a first round lead or a second round lead, that's how you're going to get new fans into the game is presenting awesome product on Saturday and Sunday to showcase what she's doing well, or to showcase the drama and, and, and then introduce a bunch of other players along with her. It's a huge spot. I mean, you, I've been extremely critical of the way golf channel has handled this event in the past, just same graphics, same announcers, same cameras, same views, just from the high tower cams and just a ton of putts and no bringing the golf course to life. The golf course didn't really, wasn't really elevated to major championship level prior to this as well. But like you got to, I said this a bunch, like you just can't have Terry Gannon saying 30 times, this is a major championship, and it feel like a major, like you just, you won't be doing that down the stretch of the US women's open, they will not be saying this is a major championship. Now she's trying to become a major champion. That's what's the only thing that identified it as a major prior. And you can elevate that with different graphics, different music, different, you know, cameras that you're using different a style of presenting it. And this is, I don't think they're going to get all of that right in year one of this kind of makeover. I'd be, that's probably an unfair expectation, but it needs to be different than the wild horse pass. And that's a big, Yeah. And I think it's, it should be a great opportunity with some handheld cams and some ground level stuff to show some of those things you were talking about Cody with the runoffs and the just, you know, like the second shot in nature of this golf course and the intricacy of the design and, and you know, just some of the stuff that doped it out there. That's that, that doesn't really, it gets washed out from above, but if you're seeing it from ground level, it's like, Oh, okay, get it. There's, there's a lot of, a lot of, a lot of nuance, a lot of subtlety, a lot of strategy out there. Yeah. I would just add, because we're recording this the week before, I haven't seen NBC's like personnel roster for the week. Saul, you mentioned Terry Gannon, like, is it Terry? I assume it's not Dan Hicks. I assume it'll probably be Morgan and Terry, but, you know, what, what type of on course reporting do they have? It's, it's, I totally agree. It's, it's a huge test. And I wish I was more optimistic. I'm, I know we'll see some, some better camera views, some drone shots, but yeah, I'm, I wanted to feel like a major. Not to insult anybody who's listening here, but if you have no clue what we're talking about last November at the CME Tour Championship, newly LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler announced that LPGA was support from FM and Trackman. They're going to have 50% increase in the total number of cameras, three times more microphones, slow motion camera capabilities, drones and quadruple the number of shot tracing capabilities. They will all be used to heighten focus on player storytelling, more walking talks and a whole bunch more. And so far, you know, we've seen it a little bit and bits and pieces. And we mentioned the, the Nelly, Miss Putt collage there that they had, but I don't know if I've really totally seen what this new power, firepower is supposed to actually be yet. So we'll see you guys at right. It's a, it's a big week for that. I feel like we got glimpses of it at Sharon Heights, just, you know, more handheld cams, showing off some elevation change, more drone stuff, a little bit more sense of place, just a little different pacing. I agree it, it can probably still be flexed up. And hopefully this does feel elevated in that way, but it also think Sharon Heights, like probably the, the like topo of that property, the light, when it was coming in, like it doesn't really matter where you put the camera, you could just like turn it anywhere and point it and your people are going to be like, Oh my goodness, that's gorgeous versus, you know, Mavora Park is going to look a heck of a lot better than Carlton Woods. I'll tell you that. It will. Yeah. Like we will get, yeah, well, you can stay tuned for next week, you know, we'll have some, some plenty of info on Sharon social covering all of the other announcers and all that stuff, but with big having some, some travel next week, we had to get in front of that and travel makes it easy to fall off your wellness routine airports, hotel rooms, long days at the course. It's not exactly ideal for powders or complicated supplement snacks. I need something that fits into my bag without slowing me down. And that is where grooms comes in. Grooves are convenient comprehensive formula packed into a snack pack of gummies a day. This isn't a multi vitamin, a green's gummy or a prebiotic. It's all of those things. And then some at a fraction of the price and as a bonus, it tastes great. It's a wonderful snack. TC's got some right here snacking. I always see him snacking on his grooms generic multi vitamins only contain seven to nine vitamins, grooms have 20 plus vitamins and minerals and 60 ingredients, which include nutrient dense and whole foods. They have low sugar or sugar free options. So if you need a little bit of help stay in regular grooms includes six grams of prebiotic fiber, which is three times the amount of dietary fiber compared to leading greens powders and more than two than two cups of broccoli, skip the broccoli, just get your prebiotics from from the grooms save up to 52% off with code NLU at grooms.co that's code NLU at gruns.co again, it's Canadian website.co grooms.co code NLU for up to 52% off how about that deal. So all right, I it's time for your storyline. I know I'm playing a favorite here. I'm playing a hit here. But I genuinely think this is a good opportunity. Our friend Lauren Coughlin won a very difficult golf tournament shadow creek just a few weeks ago. I don't necessarily think this week is going to play especially difficult. But I do think it is going to play long. If this golf course is going to you know, the listed yard is over 6800 yards with five five par fives. Lauren is a long hitter. Lauren hits it, you know, when when not only is she long but from her approach play is really good. So longer approach shots are going to play into her hand in theory as well. She putted really well with shadow creek her putting stats don't look amazing for the over the course of the year. But when it got difficult, it went really, really well for and I think this is a really good opportunity. She's had some some good opportunities in major championships. This being one of them. I know it was at a different golf course. But I think this is aiming towards a this is the type of setup where I would get excited for her game like us open us women's open right now. I'm not like, Oh, this is LC style. But this kind of golf course I feel like is and I think there is a very solid chance we could be having an extremely fun Sunday Sunday show this upcoming weekend. It's not a home game. But it's like a very, very familiar have spent your time share life. Exactly. Very comfortable environments for her. I mean, she might be one of the few people that are disappointed that it is leaving the woodlands because that's where you know, she spent all of her time. I don't know how much she's gone down to Memorial Park on Fair Advantage, just like Lori. Yeah, no, I hear you though. I mean, I know it feels it feels like we're building there. Right. It does. You know, we talked about players, some just take off like rocket chips and some kind of just make those incremental gains and you can really start to plot their ascension that way. And I think Lauren, it just feels like as you say, we're she she just keeps leveling up. And I thought that that win at Shadow Creek on a very difficult golf course, playing with Nellie Corta and the final group, you know, winning by five shots, not not buckling to any type of pressure, like that has to fill her with so much confidence coming into a week like this. I'm very excited. And I might partially walk back something I just said, I just like, I think I said something like, yeah, I don't expect the course to play especially difficult. And I'm like, wait a second here. The LPG at Torrey is trying to make their golf course is more difficult and more challenging. And this is a major championship. Like I don't know what they actually can do from I don't yeah, I don't know how firm they're going to be able to get it. And how difficult they're going to be able to make the golf course. But I think they're going to take more make more of an effort to do that than they potentially have in the past for this championship. And that should play into her hands, I think is, I think just with the five par fives, I think we're still likely to see good scoring. But that doesn't mean that there's not going to be some challenge involved with her. Like, I think the margins were so thin and shadow creek with how firm it was. It just full confidence in her iron play. Like hit the right shot at the right time. And then even to see that that wedge she hit into the last hole, shadow Creek 72nd hole was just like, All right, like not only did did she win by five, she ran like she ran through the line. She she put an exclamation point on it. I thought that was that was really cool. And yeah, it's like, like that's her progression as a player, it's fits and starts. But it feels like there's incremental improvement, even when the putter wasn't cooperating earlier this year, she had the calf issue or Achilles issue. And it's like, I just, she's always getting better at something. And it's, it's kind of slow and steady wins the race. And I think at some point, it's going to, it's going to pop in one of these majors because her game was built for one. Back to the top of the order. All right, I mentioned in kind of my, my spiel about this tournament specifically yielding first time major winners. And it has done that a lot in recent years. And so guys, storyline, will the Chevron yield another first time major winner? Who will that be? I would like to present to you my current top five players without a major championship. I expect there to be Astros tally disagreements here. Yeah. Astric tally just missed. So let me run through my top five and you tell me where I'm stupid, where I'm wrong. Number five, I didn't want to put her in this list quite honestly, but on the strength of European tour wins and a 2022 LET player of the year award, I'm putting Lynn Grant here at number five. Wow. After TC just quit her, you're going to make him relapse like this. We expected a lot more. I think it's safe to say out of Lynn. She's what 26 years old now. She has one twice on the LPGA tour. But she's my number five for best current player without a major. Number four is Angel Yin. She has two LPGA tour wins. She has top six in all five majors, top fives and four of them. She's had runner up finishes at the Chevron and the US women's open. She's just somebody that kind of shows up a lot and especially in the bigger events and on the more difficult tests. So Angel Yin is my number four number three. This player has seven wins on the LPGA tour. She has finished top seven in all five major championships. She's had runner ups at the KPMG and the AIG women's open in her career. This is Japan's NASA Hataoka. She I think has fallen a little from top of mind, you know, with the influx of new Japanese talent arriving on the LPGA tour. But don't forget about NASA. And in Houston, you know, she's named after the space program. So she's number three. Number two, eight wins worldwide. Has top six at all the majors. She's had runner ups at the Chevron, the US women's open and the AIG. Charlie Hall. She's another one. You know, when she's on, she plays such an exciting, just invigorating brand of golf. Big questions on whether she can close a major. I think it's a pretty fascinating case right now, but I gave Charlie Hall number two spot. And the number ones should be very easy. It's Gino. Gino Titicum, number one player in the world can quote all the stats, but I think we're still waiting for Gino to break through. So that's my top five. Just missing the board. I had LC. The EY twins are very good. I just don't know if their body of work puts them into my top five yet. Rio Takada, another very good Japanese player. Hateron Roo from South Korea. Those were other names I considered. I can't believe you didn't put LC on the top five. LC, Lottie? Lottie Woode. Rose Zhang would be two. Are you doing this based on resume? Are you doing this based on I tended more toward resume. And so that's why I didn't have either of the EY twins. But if, if, you know, as far as like who's got the best shot to win this week, the EY twins would be above, you know, a lot of these names in the top five. And I think LC will be ahead of like Lin Grant and A's. I'm going to say I would, I would take, I'll take LC over Lin Grant. 10 days out of 10. For sure. You know. I don't know how I got so much flak for the Hateron U pronunciation. And Randy can just do whatever he just did with that. It just breezes right past like nothing, absolutely nothing. You just say it quickly enough and you just keep going. That's my Hateron Roo, whatever. I don't know what you did. Hateron, Hateron. Hateron, Hateron, you. There's almost like a D sound in there. Yeah, that's what I got. I was leaning into the D sound. Everybody yelled at me for that or just TC. I should have known that. That's not necessarily every thing. That's not how she even pronounces it. Hateron U. Yeah, there's no D. That's Hateron. It's like a, it's like a soft D. Hateron. Hateron. I don't know what the Hyoju that Cody had going on earlier. Hoi joy. I think it was at some point. I just try to say it as fast as I can. Yeah. Keep it moving. No, I think this is with my head. I've been working on these guys. I know that I'm not the trap draw, but just blanket me a culpice for any mispronunciations for eternity. Yes. And honestly, I feel like I know how important it is and I know how, uh, how much a sign of a respect it is. I will sit here and read and go over these names. Then when you get to the point in the podcast, you're just sometimes you're just like, oh my goodness. Panic. So please, please. All the people were trying, man. The hard thing is like, how do you say this? Like to say like a Japanese name, you almost have to do like a Japanese accent and it can sound like offensive when you do it. Unless you like speak Japanese, uh, you know, the proper way, like it's, it's not like Maschidah. Probably like they just annunciate it different, but then you sound like an idiot when you go that way. So when you try to say it like your English way, it's extra confusing or extra brain melting. It is quite challenging. Every time we reference a Japanese name, just guys and he'll, he'll spell it out phonetically with all. We're trying. Okay. Uh, and speaking of, I'm next on the list last year, we had an awesome winner in Malcaigo at the Chevron championship. And I mentioned earlier when I was talking about, uh, H.J. Kim, that like there's this new dominance in the Japanese women in, in the professional game, and it's so awesome to see they currently have five players in the top 20. That's the most by any other country. South Korea has four. The United States currently has three, excuse me, four, and then Australia has, you know, kind of the rest besides the, the sampling of single representation there, uh, nine total in the top 50. They're absolutely dominating the game and they're showing up so deep. Will a Japanese player go back to back? And I would say that there's no other place that I kind of want to look, uh, not just back to back of the Chevron, but back to back major championships is the winner of our AIG women's open last year, uh, Mia Yamashita. And I think that she is rounding into form at the right time of year. She does have one miscut this year so far in Arizona, but that tournament truly doesn't count. Um, she played, she played really good at Shadow Creek finish solo fourth there. And then it just been like slowly plotting her way and getting warmed up for a season. She's so good. She was the LPGA tours rookie of the year last year. Not only with the AIG women's open win, but also one in Maybank as well to round out the season out. She is not like us, you know, she was not a rookie last year. She is so good at golf. And, uh, I think this could be a tournament, really good tournament for her. Tc. Yeah. Guys, I am once again wondering if Gino has that dog in her and she slid down the board. I'm not going to lie. Uh, does she even need it out here? Like, how are they going to set it up? If it's, if it's a birdie fest, I think she has a better opportunity. Um, you know, like damming. Yeah, exactly. That's kind of been my platform with her for the last 12 to 18 months. It just seems like if it's, if it's an under 14 or fit, like if it's, if it's harder than, than 14 or 15 under par winning score, it seems to eliminate her from contention, whether it's a major or, you know, it just seems like she, she does well in the, in the turkey shoot events. In fact, over eight LPGA wins Tc, the lowest to par she has been is 16 under. So there, there is some, like, now she's won by like four strokes at 17 under par. So she didn't need to like get all the way there, but she, yeah, she, she's never won a difficult tournament on the LPGA tour. I haven't really been close to my memory. I mean, I don't mean that literally, but like it's not, there's no instances that come to mind of like when the, some of that's just, there's not that many tests out there that are set up in that form or fashion, but I don't know. Like you look at, I think you look to it like her, her US women's open record, not good. Uh, she's got a solo T6. She missed the cut last year. Women's, women's British open, not good. She's got a T7 otherwise, like pretty middling results. And I think those are the two, the two events that are set up properly every year to test all facets of your game. And she hasn't really passed the test with flying colors at those. So she just, yeah, just a few numbers to kind of back all this up. Uh, last two full seasons, so 24 and 25, she's made 32 starts on the LPGA tour outside of majors and she has 23 top 10s. And in the 10 majors, the lat in 24 and 25, she had three top 10s, a runner up at the Evian being kind of her, her closest where Grace Kim quite honestly stole that from her. But yeah, we just haven't seen her be as, you know, the, the Gino Tittacom that she is week to week on the LPGA tour. We haven't seen that in majors. And I think the further we go without seeing that, it, it just becomes a bigger and bigger story. So yeah, I think this is, this is a big one this week. I, it's every major, I think from here on out is like, it's a big spot for Gino until she wins at least one. And she's not coming in with the, like very good Gino form. Either. I mean, she won in Thailand back way back in February, but has had no top 10s since coming back states. I'd even before leaving the Asian swing. So yeah. And I think like she's missed two of the last 10 cuts in majors. So, and I get it. She's 23, like she just turned 23. But also she's been a pro for five years, right? Or she's been, she's been playing majors. She's played, she's played 27 major championships already, right? So it's not like we're talking about a small sample size or, so I would love nothing more than to see Gino and Nelly or Gino and LC square off down the stretch, but I think we're kind of reaching the point with Gino where it's like, all right, like, like it'd be one thing if it was kind of like the Ricky Fowler, you know, or JT before he won a major, like, all right, he's, he's won a bunch of, like he's won PGA Tour events or he's finished top five in a bunch of these things and he just hasn't gotten over the hump. I think with Gino, it's like she's, like she hasn't even finished top five in a bunch of these things. She's got five top fives and 27. Yeah, I'd struggle to reach back for a comp even on the men's side of somebody that, you know, wins a ton with great regularity. Kind of like Cantley. But like, she wins more than Cantley does. Like, it's like super high floor does win some now, but yeah, we just are not seeing in the majors yet. It would be, it would basically be like if I'm not throwing, this is not a dog whistle here for TC, it'd be like if Rom hadn't won two majors, like that's what it would be like. It's basically Rom level of play week to week basis. If Rom had never won two majors, that's basically what Gino would be. A bit of a stretch there, but I think we got there. I am going to say, I rarely end up picking Minji Lee and she sneaks up on me more often than she probably should. But I just find it, I'm curious if she can elevate to becoming a four time major champion, like joining the likes of Laura Davies and Meg Mallon and separating herself from Lydia Coe, like Lydia versus Minji. I think Lydia's wider resume is better, but if Minji becomes a four time major winner, I like her chances more than I do Lydia's as it stands right now. And it feels like she should have more majors than Anna Nordquist, who also has three majors. Nancy Lopez, NG Chun all have three. And I think four would just put her in a completely different class in her era. And I'm stretching the word era a little bit. She didn't play with Sayri Pak, but you know, Sayri Pak has four, Yanni Sang has five, or sorry, Sayri has five as well, I think. But kind of getting her closer to that level, I think we'll probably view Minji Lee's career through an entirely, entirely different lens. And I feel like we don't Second shot off course. I know. Yeah. Is that so far? Could be if it plays firm, if it plays difficult, a short game, like the way she scrambled around Frisco last year, like, and scored really well on a difficult setup there. Has me has me thinking thinking Minji. I'm not it's almost like the Kepka thing. I'm not going to get caught forgetting about Minji ahead of this week. She, sorry, I think it's a it's a great it's a great point that it's weird. Taking out Yanni Sang, who is still playing and has won five majors, but it's not really competitive these days. The active leader on the LPGA tour has three majors and I, I, it just goes back to like, I think it'd be good for women's golf to kind of have somebody getting into that four, five, six major territory mark, just to just a set of standard, right? To have everybody else start really chasing. Especially with Lydia saying that she wants to start winding down her career in the coming years. Yeah, I am curious. So Minji has won the US Women's Open. She's won the KPMG and she's won the Evian. If she were to win the Chevron, would this count as a grand slam for her? Because I know the LPGA kind of does like you have to win four out of the five for it to be a grand slam. So that might be it's so convoluted, but that could be, you know, if she were to win this week, I think maybe it would be a grand slam. I don't think the LPGA wants to open that door. I think, because I think the answer there is one of these things is not a major. If, if, if you could win four of the five and it'd be considered a grand slam. Yeah, no, I agree with that. But I just don't know technically speaking if, if they would. I don't think so. She's not one of women's, uh, edgy women's open, right? So correct. There'd be no grand slam combination that wouldn't include that one, even though that became a major in like 2013 or 2014 or something like that. Yeah. Uh, just historically, and I know we're at a completely new golf course. This is the weakest of Minji's, uh, kind of majors that were where she's had the least amount of success. So yeah, we'll see. Interesting. Uh, she, she is somebody that it's like easy to forget about, but you don't want to forget about. Yeah, that would be, that would be a mistake. Uh, and where she won, um, was it 2022? U S women's open at Pine Needles in, in North Carolina. Yeah, you can make a, there's great, all kinds of great places to play golf around there. Now is actually the time to visit Pinehurst resort at the cradle of American golf. Pinehurst is more than the fame number two and anchor site of the U S open. It's Tom Doak's masterfold number 10 for historic hotels and newly built luxury cottages at Pinehurst. Number eight, the one of a kind entitlist shop at Pinehurst and the new Peter Mallar shop, a trio of dynamic dining experiences in station 21 plate and the upcoming wire grass. Pinehurst blends timeless charm with the very best in the game today. Visit pinehurst.com to plan your stay. So it might be a major guys, because I'm in major championship segue form. I'm not going to lie. I, uh, I spent a couple of days this week with Bill Corb bank, I'm talking to them about Pinehurst number 11. Just coming along and oh my gosh, it's, it looks so awesome. Uh, so yeah, I'm excited to excited to get back up there later this year. Um, number two is just the more I play golf on that course, the more I like it's just the best public golf course America. I continue to continue to innovate there at Pinehurst every, every single year. So all right, last round here, Randy, one more, one more go around for the round out our 12 storylines. Okay. Uh, I, uh, this storyline, I'm really curious how this hits you guys. And it's not like super specific to this week, but I think it's something to see. We might just need to start monitoring. I think we have been monitoring and I'm calling it where did all the American stars go? I, my thesis is I don't love where American women's professional golf is at the moment. I, it's, you have Nelly Corta. Okay. So, so you have somebody at the top. Uh, LC is currently ranked 12th in the world. She's the second best American, but you start going down the Rolex rankings. Okay. And no shade to LC, but she's won three times, you know, no major. The next American, Angel Yen ranks 16th, two LPJ wins, no majors. And then the other ones in the top 50 at the moment, Andrea Lee has won LPJ win, no major. Uh, Austin Kim has not won on LPJ tour, but she's a setting coming. Yes. Cup Cho and Lindy Duncan. And I just think, you know, like Yelime No is a name. What do we do in there? Megan Kang has never really materialized as a major winner. Alison Corpuz won the U S women's open, but has not done much since then. Lily Avue was on top of the world and because of injuries and, and whatnot, like she has fallen, Rose Ang has not materialized. Like I think I thought she would at this point. So I just, you know, you go back at different points in time, uh, and just using the world rankings as a measuring stick. I just feel like there's not a tongue going on right now in American women's pro golf outside of Nellie. And, you know, like if LC could win, that would be fantastic. But I'm just wondering like where this next real crop of elite players, who is it and when do we see them? Because we're not quite seeing it right now. Loki kind of a lot of riding on this asterisk tally, the ascension. I mean, yeah, you have Gianna Clementi on the Epson tour. She'd be maybe another name, but you know, Cody talked about like the Japanese wave is here and they're not going anywhere. The Koreans are always strong. You know, it's, it's, I just feel like the Americans have not really kept up. Swedes are not strong. The Swedes stink, TC. No, the sweet. Hold on. All right. Well, one of them won a major last year. The one that nobody expected to win. You got Ingrid should, should start winning at some point here. You've got like, I feel like there's, the dope along that conversation is the point. No, I know, but I'm just saying for, from a, from a relative perspective, like the Swedes or the, or the Brits, like there's, there's, there's some strength there relative to population size into, you know, they're punching above their weight. I am, I'm very disappointed in the Swedes play to be like completely honest. I think if you look at that, it's, it still shocks me that in that class coming out of the academy between Ludwig, Lynn and Maya, that Maya's the only one with a major that that's really like, you know, Ludwig has had chances there. I did not expect between Maya and Lynn that she would be the, the shining star and she burns bright when she does, but man, the lows are so low that it's hard to keep up with Ingrid. I'll meet you there. I think she had a, a good start to the season, you know, her full year last year with that win in LA and then just really had some rocky patches. And I think, you know, she's been pretty honest about trying to figure out how to play the professional game and professional life and hope that she'll settle in there a little bit. But you're right. I do know that like the amateurs that we have, and we have a good pool of amateurs that are, are teeing it up in the Chevron this year, but like Chiara Romero, nobody ever really talks about, she's the best amateur in the world right now. I know Astrid gets a lot of the headlines because of how young she is and where she shows up and things like that. But there are people, Farrow, Keef, I just, I just don't know like truly where the depth is big that you're kind of searching for because it's not like it doesn't jump out at you. Right. It's like, if LC hadn't won Shadow Creek, you know, if she was kind of scuffling at the start of this year outside of Nellie, there's, there's really nobody that like there's no American woman that's a threat. I don't think to win a major right now. And that's like, just kind of prepping for this. I was like, holy shit, it just kind of hit me like, this isn't a great spot for American women at the moment. American men either kind of different scales, but I think they're going to get smoked at this whole time cup. But if you say that every time, like a lot of you, but they have to keep dragging out Lexi, you know, like that's, it's yeah. So if you, we can, I don't want to make this like an entire thing, but if you look at the US team right now, rankings wise, it's Nellie, Angel, Austin Kim, Yelimi, no LC and Andrea Lee. That's your six. That's a solid six. The two highest that will come from Rolex will be Jen Cupcho and Megan King. And then the rest will be picks. The names that we're missing out on that are like right there is going to be Lindy Duncan and Alison Corpus. That's, that's a tough, tough list. And I'll say this. Sarah Schmelzel or yeah. Yeah. I mean, Sarah's weight, she's like 12th in points right now, but then you get down there, like Lucy Lee is 10th in points, Megan King's 11th, Schmezzel's 12th, Jenny Bay, Rose, Lexi still in 15th. I think the, one of the shocking things for me when we look at it for a, you know, Solheim Cup specific on the European squad is how different that European team could look this year. And them coming off back to back, you know, a retain and then an outright win. You have newcomers and in Lottie, you're going to have Maya and Lynn. Celine will still be there and Carlotta. The rest of them is literally, you know, the Jara Tambirlini, Helen Breen, Mimi Rhodes, Manon DeRoy, like a bunch of rookies. I think we're going to see this year for the European squad. That's right. I think Lynn is so much stronger in match play or as a, as a weapon in that, then, then she's just building a 72 whole score. It just underscored, like if you took that American squad and they were playing a women's president's cup, like they would be such big underdogs to us, an international women's, like it'd be, they might not win one of those for 50 years. Nellie said, remember she got caught on the hot mic because women's open. I'm like, yeah, we get, we get our ass kicked if there was a U S versus a career or something like that. Yeah. I feel like as Americans, we like underdogs. Maybe that's the thing to do is set it up as like do that and then say, like, yeah, maybe you're going to get smoked for the first few years, but this will make everybody come together and start doing the right stuff. Do I have been saying that about the U S rather cup team? T C nobody's coming together. Okay. I got brand of saying Justin Litter should be the captain. Anyways, Cody, you're up next. Yeah, I was going to make a case here for Charlie Hall because I figured if somebody's in the top five in the world and they're not really mentioned, but big, you did an awesome job of mentioning her for people who should win a major that that's like a gaping hole in her and Gino's resume. So I'm going to flip it. We mentioned Min G, but there is a hotter player in the world than Min G from Australia. And that's Hannah Green three wins so far this year, all, you know, either in Australia or part of the Asian swing. She's only played one of the mainland LPGA tour events this year. And that was, uh, add in Las Vegas, the shadow Creek, and she missed the cut there. Not really too concerned about that. Well, we can throw that one out as an outlier. But man, so impressed with her, a major champion already. Somebody who clearly has everything clicking. We mentioned it a couple of times, but she went back to back to back wins with her husband on the bag, cadding, cadding for her. He's no longer the caddy. I think he's just like moved over to kind of manage your duties as they're trying to figure out what they're doing in the States. But man, there's nobody that's making more putts. She's just making everything. And I think if you look at, you know, Memorial Park, that again, it's going to be gettable if you have a good short game and just keep it in the fairway. And it seems like the way Hannah goes about, like about just plotting her things. She loves Wilshire and we're not getting Wilshire this year. But when I think of the layout of like just plotting yourself around a map, I think that's like a very good comp to Memorial Park. And that's why I think Hannah Green continues to just like ring and ring and ring for me. Too quick, just stats to back up what Cody's saying. Nobody happier to leave the Woodlands than Hannah Green. She missed the cut all three years at the Woodlands. And shockingly, Cody does not have a top 10 in the last three years in major championships. So I think this season's majors are yeah, they're big for Hannah. Like let's I think she's going to show up. It's really interesting to look at her, her year last year. Because she started finding form late, but she had, I mean, she missed, she missed, she was 68th at the KPMG Women's PGA 16 over, which from a course perspective, you would think that firm and fast and dry would kind of resonate her. And then missed the cut at the Evian, missed the cut at the Women's Open, missed the cut in Portland, missed the cut in Canada, and then kind of started to find, find some form and then played great heading into the fall in Korea and in Maybank and then just carried that over in the spring. So it's it's one of those things you're just like, man, like it's just Jekyll and Hyde with her, very streaky. Yeah. So. T.D. My next one was just like, I think it's always an interesting case study when we get to see, we'll get to see it this year. A U.S. Women's Open as well of like comparing and contrasting the men's and women's games. And I think from a course strategy and course management perspective from a, like this place, sorry, I know it's been a kind of a haven for some BSI's on the men's side. I would say like, you know, some would maybe consider like a Brooke Henderson, maybe she's got a little BSI in her. She's just got a female ladies BSI a little bit. So it's like, is that going to shine? Like, is the architecture actually going to shine here? Or are the women, you know, there's so much more accurate off the tee? You know, are they going to just kind of pick this place apart and be really patient? I think if they set it up long enough, they'll have to hit a lot of drivers and kind of try to go for different angles and, you know, hit it over some of the dog legs. But yeah, I'm just, I don't know, I'm really, like, I loved it when they did the back to back weeks at Pinehurst for the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open. I just think that's cool when we get context around, you know, certain expectations for certain shots on the golf course and then you see a totally different side of the coin. Yeah, that's kind of translucent. My final storyline is just Will Memorial Park feel like a major championship venue. And I think that part of that goes to what you're talking about of how the course is going to fit the scale of the women's game and the shots going to be interesting or the holes going to be memorable. And like, what's the what's the environment going to be like? I think a big selling point from moving this from the suburbs into the city was the hope that it would feel a lot more connected to the community. I hope it's been promoted a lot better than it has been in the past. And I hope we get some crowds out there and some support out there that makes it feel feel big and elevated again, probably I've been stuck on this of like, it takes a long time to create traditions, which I get some of the discussion around moving some of the old traditions into into different golf courses that we talked about off the jump. But it's going to take a it's going to take time for this. You know, if it stays at this golf course for six, seven, eight years, who knows how long I don't know what the future of this championship really holds, but it will be very different in years six, seven or eight, then it will be in this first year. And it's it's it's going to be hard to I don't want to rush to a judgment on this. But I think it is a huge ask to have a golf course be to have a golf course that is not a historic venue in terms of people's memory of it and have it be an annual stop. It's just going to get graded on a really, really, really harsh curve because like the elevated events, I mean, Evion is one that's kind of in a similar bucket, which I think we've grown that golf course has grown on all of us, but like flip over to men's side, like the constant is like Augusta and the masters, right? And if this isn't even trying to be anything close to that, but like that's the kind of the what is exciting about the women's open, the KPMG women's PGA and the IG women's open is the rotation and the visiting of historic venues. And it's going to just be a big hurdle to climb. And I know big we've talked about that just clearing that signature event, hurdle and feeling like a major championship is a massive one. And I'm suspect on this, despite it being a good move, this is a better move than what they were doing. And I do want to celebrate that, but I'm still suspecting that field that getting that that itch in that feel like this is a major championship. So I think it's a good point. I think it ties into our discussion previously about the broadcast partner and just how important it is for them to show us the golf holes, get us familiar with this venue, right? And especially the back nine and the strategy. And you know, if this tournament is going to be at this golf course for this foreseeable future, like we need to start learning these holes and the strategy. And it just is it's incumbent on NBC golf channel as well to to really lift that lift this up. And so yeah, I know we've talked about all that, but it takes a whole effort. So on the golf course, so the scorecard yardage as it's listed par 72, 6,811 yards, just under 3300 on the front nine, just over 3500 on the back nine. I'm flagging this guys, we could be potentially headed for a pace of play disaster. And I'm just going off of a long scorecard yardage and the flow of this like five par fives, five par threes is not sound like ideal for pace of play. It opens par five par three par five, which the third is reachable as it stands now for 80. I would think would play more reachable than the first hole is going to play 533 as listed. That's less than ideal also like a if if you have people waiting for greens to clear on three that can back all the way up to to two. And I I'm nervous about that. And I don't I hate when we get to these women's events and the the pace of play thing becomes like the storyline of it. And and that's all any all anybody has to talk about. But I'm worried about that part. There are if I'm counting right five holes where it looks like they have the possibility of moving tease up the 13th is listed at 384 yards. But there is a a T location at 260. I think that we've all agreed that's one of the most exciting holes to watch on the men's side is that short par four with dramatic pinehurst like runoffs to all sides to the front part of that green. And I that's the whole I'm most definitely most excited to watch the women play the 14th hole is listed at 530 but can play as short as 487. The 16th hole listed at 548 but can move up to 514 and 17 is listed at 414. But there is also a T listed at 264 there. So possibility of flexing that hole into a drivable four as well. I would think they would do that on Sunday if I was trying to create a little drama in the back nine there with the final hole being 412 yard par four. So lengthy golf course. But possibility of flexing a couple teas here and there and going to be plenty of birdie opportunities with the with the volume of par fives. Yeah, the men's like they set up 7400 plus 7475 for a par 70 as well. So they you know they cut down there's three par fives when they set it up for the Houston open there. So yeah, I'm like 3800 yards from the tips. So I think it's definitely one of those things where like I don't recall I mean maybe it's just because the pace of play is so bad week to week anyway. On on both tours they're like I don't recall any pace of play. Massive nightmares from men's perspective but also they're not setting this up to really challenge these guys like a major championship. It's a warm up event for the masters. So if they do you know really push it on the women's side it could slow it down like crazy. It slows up on 16 on the men. A lot of people waiting on 16 to hit their second shots in there and then 17 same thing like if they have it up or if the winds helping a little bit just because you can throw it all the way up to the left and have it run down to the green. That's the only spot that really sticks out from watching the main PJ Taurus coverage. But I agree, Solly. I don't know. What do you guys think of 72 verse 70? Do you think the LPGA tour went through that thought process at all of bringing it down or or truly like it's just a number doesn't matter? I wish I knew like specifically more details about the course to be able to say well I mean if you change the par on like you know the third hole is designed to be a par five and for this reason alone I maybe I can answer that by the end of the week Cody but I'm you know where I'm at on camp on the actual par like it doesn't it doesn't really actually matter but I guess maybe counter to what I've been saying like maybe that is again a bit of an encouraging sign of how difficult they might plan to make it knowing they don't probably want 20 under to win with the five par fives maybe they lean a little harder into into the setup and into the challenge of it that's that's a hope I think because I mean there's we saw that with the men's this year like there's some pins like that pin I think was on the fourth hole where everybody was having a mess but you can make some difficult pins on this golf course it's probably not going to be Thursday Friday if they got to get everyone through on that on that level but over the course of the weekend I think they can make this pretty decent challenge do you guys know you know famously because on the pga tour they're trying to use it as a setup for Augusta and so there's not like much rough to speak of Cody have you heard anything on like will there be I assume we'll see more rough this week right well the will the grass in the course look different I believe it said that the rough's going to be a two and a half inches and maintained a two and a half so not not a lot of rough at all everything's basically it's cut tight all the way around and then run run offs into that first cut I think it was two inches maybe but not not what you'd think of there's no no going to be any long rough but then again big as we know from you know being out at LPGA tour events and things like that they don't really miss a lot of fairways so that's true Cody has it been dry like super dry in Texas too like it's windy yeah so it's one of those things too like I think like that I think you'd almost rather have a ponderance of short grass that is going to just for sure make for a bunch of weird short-sighted stuff yeah I think you know it was a weird year for us because we didn't get very much rain at all from like November through the beginning of January when when rye over seated rye really needs moisture to keep going so it's kind of a a later like growing for the rye which has it's been interesting to watch around here just courses battle because you can definitely see the like the oversee now is struggling because the temperature is up and you're struggling to maintain it but at the same time like you just have like the gnarly Bermuda coming through like trying to choke it out so you could see some very very interesting you know pitches and chips and stuff like that which I think is perfect that's that's how Memorial Park should play so we'll see how it plays out all right we've stretched it out that was 12 storylines plus the golf course it is time we are done beating around the bush it is time to make our picks who will win who will not win I I don't know if I I've done this yet like I I made this I made this agenda I don't know if I have my pick in place I might have to play off some of your guys so I'll start with you Randy who's your pick to win and who will not win all right let me start with who won't win God this kills me to say I'm gonna take Gino for won't win I just her form hasn't been great I just don't have a ton of confidence this week unfortunately so she is my pick to not win trying to fly close to the sun there my pick to win oh god I'm stuck between my head and my heart my heart obviously would would be LC what a what a great moment that would be I'm gonna be born I think it's Nelly I think God she's played such good golf she's she's had really good success in this event I know it's a new course but everything points to her being in contention Sunday and and I'll take I mean it's not much of a of a stretch here but I'll take Nelly quarter to win brave brave brave man I'm gonna take it's fine to take Nelly if you take Gino not to win I think that's a brave take Cody you're next that's very well said big you you literally took my picks I don't I don't know what else to do maybe maybe I'll go out on the limb here and no I'm not Nelly's gonna win this tournament I love the fact that she's not playing this week and getting a bunch of practice in I think it sets up very very well for her and her style of game but also she's like gonna absolutely feast Gary Woodland esque like totally utilizing her power and distance and is just gonna eat that golf course apart Gino ain't gonna win Nelly's gonna bring it she's TC yeah I was gonna yeah Gino's my pick not to win so cool god um but and I was thinking about getting cute with Austin Kim or Hannah Green or Yamashita especially with Mal Saigo is gonna get her champions dinner hopefully Thomas Keller is is the chef again this year last year it was it was Nelly and they had a you know the caviar tuna tartare um cream mushroom soup uh snake river farms filet really proper proper meal and I hope this year there's a nice Japanese inspiration element to it but uh all that said I'm gonna go with Lydia I think Lydia um all the stuff we've talked about just with regard to kind of precision with your iron play and navigating some tricky greens and uh obviously can put lights out when she's on and it's it's one of those things I think she's got all the shots and she's got the the wisdom the patience um to kind of tackle a pretty strategic pretty pretty dried out test for the most part so that'd be awesome can you imagine a Lydia Nelly duel I mean that would be amazing sorry solid you no I'm gonna he's gonna pick in what I teased here I'm gonna take Lauren uh I this a Homer I like that I'm gonna go with it um I was I want to take Nelly not to win just for the fun sake but I think she will finish minimum like top three so it's probably not smart thing to say if if you're gonna take Lydia I'll say Lydia will not win DC I do not I'm not feeling Lydia this week um and I I'll I'll I'll do a big Randy here I can I feel confident Gina's not gonna win also I'll I'll put two names in the bucket that's four for four on Gina come on Gina that's tough yeah yeah make it like I like Gina now all right now to the highlight of the pod there's gonna be a pool near the 18th green uh that the winner the winner is going to be jumping into this was heavily circulated on the social medias uh over the last several weeks Randy I'm curious your your opinion on this uh attempt at moving a transition of poppy's pond uh to to the lake alligators and now a a pond a pool whatever it is they've installed here next to the 18th green of their municipal course yeah um truthfully when I first heard it I thought it was the dumbest thing I've ever heard I thought you know why this is not where we need our focus and attention prior to this championship we get some course flyovers please yeah let's let's nail the setup let's nail the broadcast like that's where I really want the attention to be um I think I think this I think the jump means more to the players than we realize and so I I think if the players are saying like hey this is a good tradition and one we want to keep going like does does the pool ultimately have any bearing on this will be a good championship or not like I don't think so so I think it's largely like a fun story a dumb story but not a super important story and I guess I I net out like if the players want it great do it I where I'm a little bit more reserved is like turning this pool into like a giant pond and and really messing with the idea of of the design and like what what this course is um but if they want to have a temporary pool during championship week great and and I you know there are some pictures floating around like it looks very bad right now but there's going to be hospitality built up around it like I think when we actually see it tournament week it's not going to like look as weird as it does so I I'm kind of on the fence here I wish I could get more worked up about it than I can I just yeah if they nail the broadcast and they nail the setup like jump your heart out let's let's all jump in the pool honestly I feel like we'll all have won and Randy I gotta admit I have like a slightly different opinion of this since going to the masters last week as we're recording this of like walked around there for three days practice rounds all anybody cares about during the practice rounds is the skip it shot like it's like the thing all right it's skip it all the players are skipping over the water I saw a caddy hit a shot he skipped it over that's all anybody on the grounds is talking about and there is an appeal for like a casual fan a a a something yeah something to be known by like is this is this thing designed for uh you know the people that are going to go an hour and a half on a preview uh on a podcast of the like it's not of course not and it's still it's silly it's very silly shouldn't be the top priority like again if they're nailing all the other stuff that's fine but there is and I've evolved on this since it happened I really thought it was the dumbest thing ever but now I'm like all right if you are trying to like keep like the tradition of this tournament I like this better than the lake at Chevron that should have never happened like that was silly that's because poppy's poppy's pond was like a little man made it was almost like a hot tub anyways poppy's pose too shallow right so a caddy broke his leg jumping into it at one point but so like this is better than better than the pond I think the pond would be a disaster to put in on on 18 I'd rather than keep the pool than that install a huge pond for uh you know for players to jump into so there is if you want to grow like galvanize the community a little bit giving like just a little something to know the tournament by of like oh yeah the winner runs and jumps in the pond is not the worst uh jumps in the pool not the worst thing you could have so yeah they're taking a beating publicly uh again I think that has more to do with the idea of installing a pond for like municipal golfers short right of the 18th green which like was not in Tom Toak's architectural plans when he redid this golf course so I'm closer to being okay on this one with understanding it's not for me I have no idea where TC's gonna go with this. No I think that's where I'm at like I'm not gonna feign any any outrage here I have very similar uh evolution of my thoughts first too of like oh like that is so stupid we're gonna mess with you know architectural integrity of this not only Tom Doak but Brooks Kepke designed okay and the great man John Bredemus the original guy yes and uh yeah but all that said uh I think Cody raised some interesting questions. No I'm gonna get there don't don't steal my. Oh my god. I'm gonna get you up. He's asked me. I do have some questions here okay uh first of all I agree if if this is what the players say they they love the fact that the the Dinosaur, the Nabisco, the the ANA um you know any name that we want to call it if we want to stick with with tradition and the jump is what sticks to them I'm all for it and yeah it looks super goofy and the internet's gonna internet and you know we've already seen updated pictures and it looks a heck of a lot better with uh you know some build out and stuff around that but as TC said I do have some concerns because this is a municipal run facility I think you know part of this tournament is it's happening and if you listen to the Chevron re-craps to last like three years I said in every single one why don't we just move this tournament out of Carleton Woods to Memorial Park so I feel like if I'm anti-Memorial Park or if this doesn't go good a lot of this is is on my shoulders and listen I'll carry that weight with me but it's a public run facility first of all it seems like they constructed this a little quick I'm a concerned with the codes permitting issues uh I don't know if the if the the size of the wall they might have some insurance things coming on because it's not that deep solid you mentioned it people have broke their legs before jumping in out in California I think this one's only like four feet deep troubling because it's also a public swimming pool on on city on ground is does there have to be a lifeguard around like does it have to be manned I feel like there's again insurance and coding concerns that are going on to the the great man Jim Crane and the Astros Foundation I feel like instead of making this temporary pool this year we could have went down and just rented a dunk tank for the year and and put some you know a banner or something like to add around it and we can ride your lemon to throw throw some money of course TC we could there's just seems like there's so many more options if you're telling me that this pool that's just to the right of the sand trap on the right you know the right front portion of that green that's going to be done and I you know I just don't know how this pool is going to going to hold up with like we got nothing but rock in the ground around there you know is is the earth going to start to push this this pool back out and you know that's not going to make dope happy at all he's going to have to come back and redo the 18th hole so I don't know a bunch of silliness there but in all honesty I don't care because if it's a tradition that they want to keep as big said at the top of the show great on them people are going to get their jokes off and that's fine but I respect and I appreciate it's fine right sure it brings more attention to the tournament on that front and and then if they're getting the the important shit like the broadcast and the set up right and people are going to stick around and and become fans it's just a little bit more pressure to get the other stuff right where it's like oh you you went through the trouble of putting in this pool but like the broadcast sucked or the setup so you know it's like they're they're putting a little bit more pressure on themselves will this in the history of the chevron there's never been more pre tournament shatter about the chevron then that's true so it's doing something yeah will this pool be red staked is it part of a ti o grandstand i would love to see a shank into it you know people in hospitality gets it like could you jump in the pool if you're if you're a fan or if you're cool is this reserved only for the for the players it is very close you think it's going to be open for like is that like a VIP area you know there's there's there's there's two pools in the at the jags stadium there's a pool there i don't know if they still have one out in arizona the diamondback stadium right i'm gonna go out there yeah i did ask if it was open for sponsorship they said this already been sold so before there you guys not to you randy i think if they open it up to hospitality we should think about getting some path like we should be in the pool for a tournament day it's like how windham the windham championship has that beach yeah out there with the big castle like they should just lean all the way into it and have a big tiki bar sitting out there and all right that is the end for a major more than a tiki bar and big beach but i love it that is it for our chevron preview everyone enjoy the tournament we myself kody and big will be live this upcoming sunday to recap the tournament come join us on sunday evening we're gonna have a lot to talk about i'm sure so thank you everyone for tuning in and we'll see you here on sunday crack on cheers ready to launch your business get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs shopify especially designed to help you start run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand marketing tools that get 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