So we’re saying The Players is better than all 4 majors?, Phoenix Open goes into another Super Bowl, Pat Reed domination

Now the shotgun start in golf is full of mathematics. There's 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 here we go. Alright, alright, alright. Gentlemen, start your engines! Greetings and welcome to a Monday edition of the Shotgun Start. It is February 9th. Andy, how are we doing? Brendan! I'm doing all right. I got to say, I took a full swing last night. I attended a 40th birthday party. and a little worse for the wear flew in flew and came in hot to chicago and and uh tore up the town last night that's great the 40th birthday party circuit is like the wedding circuit when you're whatever 26 27 30 or whatever it is when you do you have like eight weddings in a year then you do you redo it except you're you don't have the stamina or shape that you did when you were 26 and all of a sudden you're on this 40th birthday circuit. I'm kind of getting past it, but I just went through it. I had one and then I had to coach a youth basketball game the next morning about 10.30. I was like a shooter from Hoosiers, just coming onto the floor. It was just a disaster. That's a dangerous circuit that you're jumping into right now. I awoke. I'm on the trip to Chicago. I've got my daughter with me. I awoke to my daughter punching me in the back at 7 a.m. So it was quite the way to wake up. It really set the tone for today. How about the playoff? Elise got her up, did us a solid ending it quick. This is inevitable. It's more inevitable than Scotty. It's unbelievable. Of course, we plan to go live at whatever. We figured 5.50, 5.45, 6 o'clock at the latest. I now look at the little ticker, which, you know, PJ hit start. It's at the 48-minute mark. We're, of course, only three minutes into the pod, but like our back-end system, recording system, we're at the 48-minute mark. Hideki just jamming us, jamming us again. You know, and it was bound to happen. The guy couldn't hit the fairway, you know, for anything the whole day. Not sure he deserved a win based on how, you know, He scrambled his ass off and got the ball in the hole eventually on the front nine, but was very, very, very poor. Off the tee, and it came back to bite him in the ass in regulation on the last hole, in playoff on the last hole. Got some bad break. Bad break. I'm kidding. Like, oh, he got caught a tough break. Hit a pole or something, the rope pole, and pounced into the water. Well, if you hit it, you know, 40 yards offline, that kind of stuff can happen. But he took it to extras. And now we are live on YouTube as they kick off the freaking Super Bowl. And yeah, that's the alternative program. Did they just kick off? I don't know. I can't. I've got to get my peacock. Do it. Doing the coin toss right now. Coin toss. We're still good. We're counter-programming. Is that the Sam Darnold jersey you got on, PJ? It is the Sam Darnold jersey. Is that new? No. No. This is from 2018, brother. So you jumped in. this is if you're a Jeff man and you're rooting against Sam tonight I'm judging you hard a lot of green 14 out there I feel like we've talked about this before and the Nico Echeverria and everybody else will be upset but I don't care it's Super Bowl Sunday they're flipping the coin right now um what's the worst like jersey let's stick to our football teams that you have on hand that you were just like I mean the Browns of course that they're relevant these jerseys are moot like after 12 months for most of them what's the worst one you ever you ever binge or you splurge shot ever is vernon golston for sure ever vernon golston period uh currently like in the realm of being an adult that would still fit me uh i ordered a levy on jersey the day we signed him and that obviously was an unmitigated disaster so that was uh that's good i had i had a william green because I was obviously loyal to BC and loved him at BC. I had a Peyton Hillis jersey. That one's nice at least. I had a Nate Vasher jersey I got right after he went to the Pro Bowl. I have a Zach jersey too. I think I wore my Zach jersey twice, literally two times. Well, it's come back around. You have Darnold and you're using it tonight here for the Super Bowl. It's, of course, not a Seahawks edition, but I'm glad you're getting some use out of it. What do you make of the Phoenix Open? Chris Cotterup wins his second time in whatever it is, four events, won the Sony, now wins the Phoenix, chases down Hideki, kind of hangs around, hangs around, obviously started hot on Thursday, and then clips him. Obviously, we saw this last summer. Like, like when he's close, he kind of, he kind of wins. Like he's able to get himself across the line, uh, in a way that not everybody of, of, of his similar caliber age group is able to do yet. I gotta say, um, I mean, this is a star being born in front of our eyes. Obviously the power, um, today's performance kind of, it felt like he was out of it. I think like one of the things that happens with golf telecasts, if Scotty makes a run, And it kind of takes the oxygen and attention away from everybody else. But then all of a sudden, you think Goddard up to kind of too far back. And then he makes a run flurry to finish and he gets it done. And I got to say, Chris Goddard up. He's jammed me twice now. I recorded my Friday pod early on Friday for next week. And me, KVV and Joseph talked about Goddard up for like 10 minutes. And he won. he wins this week so it's like you know everybody's gonna be talking about that the uh the last time we talked about chris gotter up at length on the pod he won before it was released also so sony or was it okay okay or not amex uh yes sony sony it was like you know he was a prescient topic in both these pods and he goes but i think like you know just surmise and and i don't want to take too much away from that conversation but some guys just have it. Some guys get in the mix and they get it done. I think Goddard is one of those guys where we saw him obviously, and they talked about it on the telecast, staring down Rory at the Genesis and beating Rory McIlroy in a final group. This is equally impressive where you have a big-time field, big-time leaderboard, known commodities on a course that all these guys are horses for and uh chris gotter of wins i mean that drive the way to finish on the 18 in the playoff the huge drive and uh obviously got a nice kick but making the birdie awesome stuff still has never has never played a masters and he's going to go to the masters with four bja tour wins kind of nuts right i mean i i wonder how often that's happened before um i know like scotty obviously has gotten hot but he probably played a master you know you've had players win a bunch in the first four months bg's got three yeah that's that's fair yeah that's true he's he's yep this year's first timers at the masters is incredible some real talent yeah yeah top 20 players 25 players in the world so uh congrats to chris goddor up uh hideki what can you say i mean he was a disaster he was a disaster all day i think like the i thought cbs was pretty good covering like swaying stance equipment like um you know he was testing a new shaft i believe it was at sony they said and then he was you know finally put it in play i don't know if it was this week it was actually in play uh he was a mess uh data golf said i think they had a good stat you know when he finally again missed the 18th fairway the amount of strokes he lost if he were to win would have been like third behind brian campbell at the deer last year and Cam Smith when he won that sort of miracle players missing all the fairways at Sawgrass, which is a little different. I don't want to say he didn't deserve to win, but it was kind of a nightmare. He chipped in on the one part three, got his birdies on the part three, missed every single fairway on the front nine, and it was just a nightmare the whole way. It felt, I don't want to say appropriate. You don't want to be negative, but the way he lost was kind of a piece of the entire day. Yeah. He was just holding on for dear life. And I think to his credit, to get to where he got to with what he had, that's a professional golfer round right there. You want to know what makes PGA Tour players PGA Tour players. You go watch where that guy played from all day and look at the score that he shot. He shot a 68 with a bogey at the last, and he was awful, certifiably awful off the tee. And that's the thing that makes these guys so good. I mean, if he would have won, that would have been an all-time gritty performance from him in the sense of having so little. And what's usually so reliable for him is just being kind of a monster, tee to green. And today, just being so bad off the tee. I mean, he was missing it both ways. He had the high right ball going and the low left, as we saw in 18. That's not easy. He had to be standing on the tee just like no clue where the ball was going. I mean, he got, I don't want to say fortunate, but that was a 50-50 ball in 17 regulation that was like maybe going in the wad. I was not trying to put it there and like could have gone in the hazard there. and it was like such a soft bounce yeah so and it's interesting that whole over the years we've seen you know some that like get the rocket ball bounce forward and left and then others I mean that one was sort of hit dead so he got fortunate there and yeah every time you looked up it was like he was in like desert or schmutz just trying to like scrap one back into play and it was to Goddorup's benefit by the end of the day and credit to Goddorup I mean, Hideki made him work for the three with the miracle kind of drop and then up onto the green. Credit to Goddard. This is over. I'm done. Have you looked at their stats on the week at all? They're actually hilarious to look at. So Hideki was 70th in the field off the tee. Lost five shots, basically. 4.8 off the tee. Goddard picks up four. So, Goddorup's plus nine there. And then, so Hideki's second and approach to the green. Goddorup's third. Goddorup's third and around the green. Hideki's second and around the green. And then Hideki picks up six shots on the green, and Goddorup loses almost a shot. So, he was like, you know, Goddorup, he picked up seven on him off the, or eight off the tee for Goddorup, and plus seven for Hideki on the greens. And then everything else is pretty level. Which is just the opposite of everything we've come to know about Hideki, at least in terms of narrative, right? Now, I don't know about, and I think statistically over the course of his career, right? He's at a tour average or often below average when he's, you know, this clinician, Dita Green. Yeah, it was, I would say someone else sort of felt more appropriate to win after watching that for five hours. Did you at any point, did you feel like Scotty Shuffler was more likely to win than anyone? No. That's what I thought. I thought he was too far back. It was a long. I mean, it's insane that he was even in the mix. Yeah. Given the start. I mean, what a crazy finish. What a round today. That was, he was so close too to getting into that playoff. yeah in the end he was you know a shot shot a shot shy probably you know go back and think about a few of them but it's hard to say he had zero bogeys it's not like you know you know could you have eagled 15 or you know it's kind of ridiculous trying to figure it out where you pick one up um but the way it was portrayed was like all right here comes scotty he is going to win it was just there's so many birdie opportunities for like the guys behind him on the back nine it just felt like a long reach that he got within you know basically we're going thursday night you know this is going to be a cut sweat right and it did he got through comfortably it was in the 30s or something when he when he finished friday night 36 or something on the board but we went from a cut sweat on thursday to 65 67 64 to nearly nearly getting a playoff or win for the third time but it just felt the way it was being portrayed on social media and a little bit about it was like all right here comes the guy that going to win the tournament and he it just it was like more of a monumental task you could throw out that stat like i love how they would always talk about like tiger how often could tiger win from behind it's like well i mean how often does he need to win from behind like you're you're you're you're creating this set of circumstances that are like close to impossible and then like using it as some sort of detriment or, or, or, you know, hole in the resume. Right. And it's just a preposterous notion. It was a long, long shot still though. An impressive runner up or T3, I suppose is how he finishes. I mean, it's crazy. He goes 73, then he goes 65, 67, 64, just locked in playing, you know, it's the old adage that there's a 90 hole tournament. He would have won. Is that an old adage now at this point? This was Palm Desert. A chuckle bit. Something we could chuckle about here. What other notes you got? The whole event was great. I mean, what a great leaderboard for fans. Like a great mix of big names. You know, having obviously Hideki and Scotty there with the young guys. Between Goddard up and Akshay and Thor. Yeah, Thor. Thor, who had the lead at 17, you know, tied for the lead. going to i loved his quote uh that you know jill lomanya keyed us into this uh apparently he's crediting tgl with his ability to handle the crowds at the phoenix open like noise and i don't know time i love that i never get tgl uh reps like like when they blare in music at practice on an nfl uh nfl training camp or before the super bowl uh so thor though he had the lead essentially he was tied pushing Hideki. It looked like it was going to be Thor and not Goddard up there for about 50 minutes or so. It turned out to be Goddard was the one that caught him. That's the crazy thing about this finish, this event in general is it looked like it was Thorbjörnsson's. Between Scottie and Thorbjörnsson's move, it just kind of masked Goddard up and he's just sitting there. God, Hideki's got to feel like he booted this. The bogey on 18 obviously is the killer but then not getting up and down on 17 i thought was you know he could have iced the tournament right there obviously and and i think that's the one that you'll probably he probably lays up and wait awake about a little bit more do you have uh what are your what are your thoughts on god or up um it feels like he's now a bona fide i mean he's certainly catnip for like the uh for the internet crowd i think he you know he's sort of this burly jersey boy um i think he's he seems fantastic he seems like he seems like he has a certain level of self-deprecation a certain level of lightheartedness and amusement a certain level of like um badass when like he is in the in the race right as you talked about getting it across the line. And I think he's is he like a bona fide top seven American? Eight American? Like we were talking about long shot Ryder Cup potential last July for August. Probably should have been on the team. In hindsight, sure. But feels like he's on his way to a P Cup this fall. And yeah, he seems like a great person for the game to embrace, the tour to embrace and push as one of the, you know, not just for his golfing abilities, but I really sort of enjoy his personality, whether it be on social media, on the golf course. And he seems to be keenly aware of like, I don't know, the conversation and ability for him to go and like make something more of himself. And that's what I kind of appreciate about him. We've had some frequent stars from America, or at least good golfers, the best American golfers, have been some sticks in the mud occasionally, and I don't know that he's that. Who are you inferring as a stick in the mud? I don't know. People more concerned about rent control and things like that and distressed debt. I don't know. What do you think about Cotter? It's a pretty open-ended question. I mean, I'm pouring one out tonight. My usual go-to source right after the moment for world ranking numbers numbers he got to he appears he got hacked um he's sad sad too yeah yeah uh that was that was a tough tough break not to be able to go see what where he's at but i mean he's got to be fringe top 10 owgr at this point yeah i don't think that arrow's pointing more up with a young player in the game than him right now. And I think like the big question, I think we've seen him do it on, on the toughest golf courses with, with the way he performed at the open at both opens last year, you know, he'll be playing his fourth major of his career, I believe at the masters. Yes. I think the question, you know, my big question will be, is this a, are we in, Is he going to be like a hot run golfer where he gets hot and then there's lows? Is this guy going to be pretty consistently at the top? What are we looking at? Are we looking at a guy that could be in the top five of the world rankings? Or what I feel like we've gotten a lot of in recent years is the guys that float between 7 and 20. Would Max Homa be an example of that? Yeah. Like obviously another guy who gets wins, ton of wins. You got to jump in here for a second. We got to we got to we got to clean up on aisle five. And you're OK. You're watching the he's he's on dad duty while we record this and try to get done by the quarter. Pidge, what were your observations from Sunday? I texted Joseph at probably right when it went to CBS after watching the Golf Channel coverage all day. It was amazing that Hideki was even in the situation where he was leading the tournament much less with the talent behind him. Siwu didn't have a great day. Nikolai threw up all over himself. Kind of disappointing. He rallied, but the situation on two where he ended up all the way on the left and had to take a drop. And that was, I feel like that set him off. Thor, I thought it was Thor. And there was, I know you asked Andy, was there any point where you actually thought that Scotty had the best chance to win? I would say no, but there was like a five minute stretch where I was like, oh, it's happening. He's coming like right there. I thought I figured you needed to get to at least 17, which is what it ended up being in a playoff. But he just ran, ran out of holes. But interesting to see what you can you can spot a field to 73 on Thursday and still come in a tie for third is quite a place to be. Seriously, this only boosts his sort of standing, I would imagine. So I looked up pre-hacking Nosferatu said that Goddorup can get as high as fifth. I don't know with Hideki performance ahead of him if he's going to end up getting that high, but I would assume he's going to be in the top 10 after this. where does Phoenix rank for you in terms of like golf event? There was a lot of chatter about, you know, Hovland said it was tame, much tamer this year. I kind of get, you know, whatever, it's fine. It's just a different deal. People wear costumes. Some of them are amusing. Most of them are not. Almost all of them are not. And like, there's a lot of like social media content around the event, but I think that sort of obscures how good of a, a golf tournament consistently delivers. And I think like the course, you know, I've been writing and talking about 17 now for like 12 years. And it's become like too mainstream. Honestly, talk about how 17 is a great fun golf hole. Today's pin was fun as hell and fabulous. But I think when we talk, when we just all you share on social media are like the people running in, the people in their costume. Like you, this is almost pretty consistently in like pretty firm shape. It was today. You were seeing balls get nuclear bounces over greens when they landed on greens. It was messing with guys. And obviously, if you missed the fairway and come for the rough, you weren't going to be able to stop it. And I feel like that's become a consistent theme here with the condition of Scottsdale. And so we get caught up with the biggest party on earth or whatever, the biggest party in golf. And it kind of has slotted itself as one of the best actual golf tournaments, golf course condition tournaments. uh for regular pga tour events yeah i i think at on the golf course or golf tournament like it is overlooked and underrated because of the whole narrative about it especially like the front nine is is you saw that throw plenty of guys for a loop out there today the back is the back is gettable and and you that's what everybody just talks about but the front if you can get out there and put up a number going out, it is a huge advantage. I mean, you saw what it did for Scotty today to even get him back into position. Andy, don't you know the groundskeeper here, the maintenance guy? No, he doesn't work there anymore. He's upholding his tradition of firmness here. Yeah, I think, I mean, this event is spectacular in terms of like, yeah, there's what you guys were talking about the, you know, I think the party atmosphere obviously has its pluses and minuses. Um, and you know, some of the minuses are like, it distracts from how good the, just the golf product is. I mean, I think like one of the things that like the golf course, like we've, I, as you said, Brendan, like everybody talks about the 17th hole. There's, it's really a fun finish and it's really similar. in a way to like sawgrass, how sawgrass finishes. It's like, it's just gives you an opportunity to have these big swings. And, and the key to it is like, there's risk, whether it be on, on with 17, you know, 15 is kind of like a gimme, but I, you know, even today it was, it was fun watching like where, you know, Thor Bjornsson just like plays 15 phenomenally and Hideki has to lay up and you're like, oh man, not making a birdie here would be big for Hideki. He makes the birdie. I just, you know, 16 when it gets firm the way it is, I really like that back pin where it's like if you land it, you have to hit such a good shot to get it close. And if you land it a little bit too far, it rolls back into where you saw Thor Bjornsson. Yeah, this event I was thinking about, and I think I said this on Friday a little bit, But I mean, if I was just drafting PGA Tour run events, this one goes pretty high. It goes way before so many of the signature events. I would agree with that. I also think the slot is awesome. Yeah, it's perfect. It would be a shame, honestly, I think, to move it, to lose it and start next week. I think it's so tied in with Super Bowl week. obviously you get a situation like today that sucks but i think it like i i i don't know i feel like those are two like so tied together for me that i would have a hard time moving it i can't recall them ever having like major weather issues obviously it's phoenix but like there was it was muddy one year one year like yeah they had hail you get frost in the morning you get frost delays and they never finish by darkness the first two days even this week this this week with reduced fields and all that. But, uh, but it's, it's always, it was 80 and no wind essentially for four days. You know, I think there'd be worse ways for the tour to spend some money than to get, I guess like the issue is you can't trust them to build really good tournament courses, but legitimately, uh, this golf course and, uh, sawgrass elevate the tournaments. Obviously Riviera elevates the tournament, the golf course, Pebble's pretty solid. If the tour had three more great golf courses, it would really help. Regular golf courses. And they have $1.5 billion. They could invest $150 in it, and they have three more tournaments that could be great. But they would obviously probably hire Lanny and let him go. I'd be really careful where you're going right now, Andy. You're a couple steps away from working. Recreating the TPC network? Well, no. Working yourself into a shoot and suggesting that the players is the major. The number one. The bigger ahead of all the majors because it's elevated. You're very close. It's not even a major. It's ahead of all the majors. It's more than a major. You're very close to working yourself into a shoot here. Before we work ourselves into that shoot, I do think we should talk about how somebody might look. Look how? going to going to TPC Scottsdale for this elevated event yeah that could be one way you could look at it and your and your mob jack belt we have we have some new talking points Let me just get to them here I think it more than a talking point It's definitely a script. Person one, we're about six weeks out from spring, which means golf season is almost here. Person two. Person two. Yep. Time to freshen up the wardrobe and finally replace those old belts with Mob Jack. Vintage works for cars and watches, not belts. The best move is heading to mobjack.com and checking out their patterns and color combos. The designs are clean and colorful without being loud. Handcrafted in small batches right here in the U.S. The quality really shows. I love that the patterns are fade resistant. 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We hit the jackpot partnering with these people. Mobjack with no C. All right. Anything else from Scottsdale you want to clean up? CBS, I thought was good. We talked about them last week. We threw them in flowers in their return. thought there were a couple slip-ups like the Wagner thing like after Scotty had chipped or putted in from off the green I don't know it felt like a little forced or too late for that I know you can't you know pre-anticipate Scotty rolling one in from there but I don't know some shot thought that felt like a little forced when we were watching the leaders on 16 and go through the cauldron um and miss Scotty walking to 16 go ahead yeah I I didn't like that either I think obviously this is working something new in they gotta try stuff and it's be so hard to nail exactly how you do these things you know while they happen i think what would have been more interesting to me with with johnson and it is like get them out in front especially on today's tournament um get them out in front of the groups have them do the chips from various spots around 17 green you know everybody's going for it and showcase that you know and you know so many guys are going to bail right and that ship's so difficult like showing that and explaining like the nuance of the green i think would be more interesting than like being like this is how scotty putted out of you know grass because the you know grain was into him i think that it was informative it was just like it felt oddly timed it was and there was so much going on at the time you know and this is going to be a work in progress obviously but i do think they you know they the the diverse amounts of voices like with humor um like they you know serious analysis they just have like a really nice mix of personalities in that in that broadcast i had a question for you you two both of you yeah all right um people you you always forget how young akshay is actually just turned 24. Thor Bjornsson's 24. Who do you buy for a better career right now? Gun to your head. Thor Bjornsson. Yeah, I think Thor Bjornsson. Who do you buy? I think Thor Bjornsson, but it's hard because Akshay's already done so much. And he's actually younger. Alright, I lost my internet, but I'm back. Here's the joy of live. You got me? Yeah. You got me? All right. I didn't lose you at all. I didn't lose you for a second. Who'd you take? Akshay? I missed your answer. I think I'd take Thor Bjornsson. I agree. I do think Akshay always is constantly undervalued in the best young player. He's so young. Oh, I agree. I agree with that. One thing that would be funny, obviously, if Wagner was doing 17 ships, that would have to be taped. But I do love the idea of everybody waiting to hit up. Wagner scurrying around the grave. That'd be great. They could get a little ball boy for him. Like Wimbledon that runs out. Just standing there at attention. That hole was fabulous again today and the pin was great. That's it for Phoenix unless you got some other notes you want to unload. I think we got to just talk about P. DP World Tour. Quote from P. Reid. It's always been a dream of mine to be an American who wins the race to Dubai and we're off to a fast start. I just don't think that's true. Always been a dream when you were growing up in Texas and Louisiana dream has to win the race to Dubai. I do think it's become a career goal of his as he's growing as a golfer. Oh, I disagree. I disagree. I could see that being a, you know, not the race to Dubai, but the Euro Tour money list. I mean, the Euro Tour was so good when we were kids. I agree. I'm just parsing his language like very, very close. I just don't know that. He's such a happy boy. I agree. He's giddy. He's giddy. Well, he goes win playoff loss win in the Middle East. Has not been beaten in regulation. Has he was in that. Was he in that Dubai invitation all the week before the Dubai Desert Classic? I think three events at least. Yeah. In the last three events. I should never leave the Middle East. He's just no new sultan of the Middle East. It's like an American quagmire. He just gets stuck and never leaves the Middle East. I want to know. He's going to get his card via the Top 10 DP World Tour. He's just going to. He's well on his way. You called it, although you did it in a little too harsh, sort of demeaning terms about being a seven-footer in a gym with fifth graders or whatever your analogy was. Who said it was harsh? You? Yeah. He's like a seven footer. It's disrespectful to Nathan Kimsey and Nacho and the like. It's just disrespectful. Kellum Hill wasn't going to get the best of P two weeks in a row. We knew that. That's true. That's true. What I want to know is how far does he take this? Is he playing the magical Kenya Open in two weeks? How deep is he getting into DP World Tour life? Is he just going to run the table? I think even he has his limits while he's sipping his strawberry drink or whatever it is. No inclusions. How deep is he going to go on the DP World Tour circuit? Do you know how many OWGR-sanctioned events he played last year? I'm going to guess 15. Asia Tour events. 18. He played 18 times plus a full live schedule. He effectively played like 33 to 35 starts last year. I can see him playing everything. It's awesome. To the Hanan Classic. Is he going to DLF in March ahead of the Masters? He might pave a new path to number one by virtue of being suspended. He's just going to beat up on these guys for an entire year. I mean, he's going to be in the top 20 of the world rankings. again, Nosferatu going down to just crippling my ability to talk about where they're going to be ranked. He's going to be in the top 20 in rankings. It would be like an old Gonzaga team beating up on the West Coast Conference, getting a number one in the poll. They're like, do we know? Is he the number one player? We're not sure. They're doing it again this year. They got absolutely beat to crap by the one good team they played this year. Who was that? Connecticut? Michigan. Michigan. Okay. Yeah, that's right. By 30 points. So yeah, that's my big question. How deep is he going to go? P is hot. He's coming home. Colin Marcau is the only American to finish number one on the European tour. P is now in line to maybe make a run at number two. You have anything else from the cutter class? I did. I got like quotes from a caddy. He's like, this actually is a good golf course and this is why p would succeed here he said you know there's real width there's real width width uh on both fairway to green and off the t and the the minor shift in angles from t to fairway it's not bad and in the cross ones it actually makes it a real challenge so that kind of stuff to see p succeeding in that kind of environment is unsurprising for players player I mean, he had to take down, you know, your guy, Angel, Ayora, you know. Yeah, who else? Sam Bradbury. Gregorio DeLeo. DeLeo. Big Tuan. Nacho. I need Duplessis. What is T-15? Dom DeLeo's kid. Give him a run for the money. I love it. Dan Brown, by the way, I don't know if you saw him in Phoenix this week. We have a real character has joined the PGA Tour. We'll share more about him later, but Dan Brown is living it up in Phoenix. Dan Brown, Players Rookie Media Day is on the list for the boys. We sent, I don't know if I even told you this, but the deck for what we're going to do with the players, I termed it Rookie Combine with the boys, and the boys are going to put the rookies through a combine there. So maybe Dan Brown's going to be involved. On the Corrine, what rookie are you most excited to talk to? We were saying Penji is probably going to have a lot of hoopla. So we were looking at the RNP, Christopher Rytan, other options that might not have as much hype as Penji. We got time, right? We got time a month. Who else? There'll be a lot of hype around a lot of guys. I want the Canadian guy, Sudarshan. yellow mirage he'll get a lot of what about aj eward finally get him out of his dad's shadow we'll get some bio is he in the field uh all right toasty so i would assume so continue do you want to talk about brandle's take i've got a news let's rip the results james nicholas wins the kft a star golf championship presented by mastercard congrats to him guy has been sorry like some people pop him because he's like you know he's obviously very popular on social media and like everybody you know handsome fella and all that but like guy has been grinding his ass off to be a golf pro and a tour pro and he wins that's really cool story he got recruited to play football at Yale played football then joined the golf team became an all Ivy League like one of the best players in the country but he played at Yale and I mean his backup plan to golf is being like an orthopedic surgeon he's going to be a doctor if this doesn't work out. It's a cool-ass story. I agree. Congrats to him. Winning. That's a real tour to win on. That's not some Mickey Mouse minor league. I mean, anything. That's a big deal. Liv Riyad, Elvis Smiley goes and gets it. Beats Jon Rahm by one. That was a Saturday result. It's a tough look for Talor. Why is that? he's hailed himself Sam Presti of live and Cam Smith went out and made the, maybe made the move of the off season getting Elvis. Cam Smith boosting says he thinks Elvis could be the best player in the world after the, after he just won. I mean, you know, obviously it's, you're riding high then, but you know, we've heard a lot of hype from Australia about Elvis smiley and, and some justifiable results as well to go with the hype and, you know, being your John Rob and obviously others in the field, Bryson, David Pooge was in the mix. It's a real victory for a young guy like Elvis Smiley. And the Ripper win the team event based on Elvis camp. Congrats to them on their early success in Riyadh. Good to just see an all-around good teammate. Guy that does wonders in the locker room, in the dugout. Mentoring a kid and showing him how to hit it to all parts of the field with Mark Leishman. powerful powerful first baseman but you cannot you know you cannot diminish his intangibles He brings to the locker room for Ripley Top prospect Getting to watch John Oleroon the cage for games That's what Elvis has. All right. Jackson Coivin. We got to give a nod to him at the Amar Ari Invitational in Hawaii at the Mauna Lanai. Of course, breaks a 30-year, 36-hole scoring record set by Tiger Woods, I believe, at the Pac-10 championship. It was the Pac-10 then. By going 62-62, 20 under, that was a 30-year scoring record, obliterates Auburn's 54-hole scoring record by seven shots, wins, I think he won the individual title by five. The team, Auburn, won the Invitational. Obviously, he didn't shoot 62 in the third day. I forget what it was, but it was still won by five. A big early season stake in the ground from the number one amateur in the world. The kind of guy who can separate. Guy's a stud. The real deal. Brandel Shambly worked himself into a shoot. This felt like that meme from Kendall Roy saying, you're too online. You've lost touch with reality. You've got to come back to us. You're too online. This is Brandel. Just the ultimate... He's a brilliant commentator on golf for a lot of years, but he can be provocative. He can kind of you know, you have to talk a lot and we say some crazy things and this I felt like was a little too far over the edge. This on the back of the marketing campaign of the PGA Tour is ramming down our throats that March is going to be major. Brandel said, so in every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is major, the players to me stands alone and above all the other four, above all the other four major championships as not just a major. It is, in my estimation, the best major. No, no, no way. Now, this is like, I would say here, we're dealing with opinion. But here, I think we're dealing with fact, and he's wrong on this fact. When you look at the Players' Championship, with all due respect, the other four major championships is the best field in golf. It is the deepest field in golf. I think that is factually, that part is not accurate. Well, no. See, this is where the data boys will work themselves in a tizzy and say it is. You know, this is statistically correct. You know, but like this is statistically correct because players 51 through, you know, 125 in this event are really good. You know, and there aren't any of these handouts. But here's this plain, simple truth. If I was going to go down the street and ask any lay person, any lay golf fan to list out major champion favorites, you know, at any major championship, it would probably go along the lines of Scotty Shuffle, Rory McIlroy, John Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Xander, maybe. That's the top five. and two of those top five contenders are not in the players. Those are two of the five biggest names, biggest names in major championship golf that are not in the field. And we can talk about why they aren't in the field, but that alone is like a disqualifier to saying that you have a great, you know, this great field. You don't have literally two of the shortlist favorites. And, and that's like, I don't know. Are the majors this year going to have John Robin, Bryson, DeChambeau in their field? Yes. Yes. All the players. No. I think that by in and of itself distinguishes it from the others and not in the good way. Not in the above and standing above all the others. You know who also won't be at the players? Who's that? P. Reid. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Blocky doesn't have a path. Yeah. Yeah. There's others. There's plenty of reasons why. But he adds, and by virtue of the fact that only one person in his 50-year history has managed to successfully defend it, I would argue that is the hardest major championship to win. I don't think that's persuasive. I don't think that has... Can we find Colonial? I don't know. We can find a PGA Tour event that hasn't had a repeat of defense. John Deere? That makes it. Does John Deere? Probably stricter. Any really great player doesn't go back to it. I mean, how many of the Masters have gone back-to-back? Faldo? And that's it, right? I think. Yeah. Especially since it moved to TPC Sawgrass. Save one hole is the argument. I think he's talking about 17. Save one hole is arguably the best golf course. They play a major championship on shot from a shot value perspective. Shot value is such a fake term and not term. I just. I don't know why he needed to go here. He could like. All right. It's a great event. It's a major in your hand. They have the rights to the U.S. Open and the Open, and they do ANWA. I'm sort of shocked that he's just putting it up above all those. It's bold, but he's a bold takesmith. He's very bold. This comes on the heels, of course, of the marketing push by the tour saying March is going to be major. I thought this was interesting. Shane Ryan reached out to someone from comms on the tour being like, what are we doing here? Are we going back to the well? Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it, as they say. Are we going back and doing this? You guys are just going to declare it's a major, which, of course, brings it more into scrutiny, more under the microscope, more under a negative lens for a reason that, like, dissecting it. In recent years, we've just been kind of celebrating it. But they want to put themselves out there to be judged like that, the response to Shane Ryan says, fans and players have long discussed the player's championship status as a major. We understand that is not for us to decide. You know what? Orthetically, I'll just add, it sounds like you're trying to decide it. That's bullshit. We understand that's not for us to decide, but you are telling us. Ultimately, it is up to our sport and its fans to recognize what the professionals who play the game already know. I will add a little unsubstantiated rumor to this. We're going down player well. Phil on Twitter responded, I've won it. It's not a major. I'm told the tour nudged a friendly media face to go around a recent event. It's called a fall series event. Go around asking all the players at that event, is the players championship a major? I believe all or a great majority said no. And that story then never got out. laying the groundwork for this subsequent marketing campaign. I don't know. I don't know why we have to debate this. I don't know why we have to talk about this. I love the players. I think it's about as well-run as any event in golf. It is so dialed in when you go down there. I'm looking forward to going down there in a month. It's exceptional. Such a cool event. I think creating this discussion again and the tour is doing it, pushing it, is just sort of an own goal. And do you think this comes from the equity boys saying, we don't own the top four events. We're just going to call our shot and make it one again. First of all, thanks for saying I don't sound offensive. I think that's naive to the prior 15, 20 years. Listen, I think if you don't first succeed, try again. No, but the tour can't help itself. They need to get one of these events into the next level. And it's like they try to do this. It's just everything comes back, Brendan. Everything comes back. What I hate about it is that puts the players on the cross-examination stand. And now we have to pick at it. No, it's not. Just wait until Siwu and Haesatsune deliver an epic performance. and people will be asking if the President's Cup is as good as the Ryder Cup this year. That's fine. Whatever. That's fine. That's coming next. I know. The discourse is exhausting. All right. I think that does it for this quick Super Bowl live counter program. Before we get there, we've got our live show. You guys, next recording, we'll be in the great city of Chicago. I got bumped up to first class. That doesn't happen to me much. There must just not be a lot of people interested in going to Chicago right now. The weather's going to be nice. Seeing some 40s and sunshine. Great. Love it. Might lend itself well to PJ getting on some boats and going up Ferris wheels. Yeah. Ferris wheels. But it came to my attention that some of these ticket websites have written descriptions about the shotgun start. This one's from Event Ticket Center. These third-party sellers of tickets? Yeah. They're about the event section for the Shotgun Start podcast, live podcast. Shotgun Start brings their dynamic blend of alternative indie and punk rock to Evanston Space in Evanston, Illinois. Mark your calendars for an electrifying performance on February 12th, 2026 with a showtime at 7.30 p.m. It's actually 8 p.m., I believe, right? That's like the least of our inaccuracies in this right. This Minneapolis-based band is set to deliver a high-energy live show promising an engaging night of original music within the renowned intimate venue. The Shotgun Start's visit to Evanston Space offers fans a direct connection to their powerful sound and captivating stage presence. Which, what of that description are you most worried about living up to? Powerful stage, powerful sound. Is that what it was? Powerful sound and calculating stage presence. I think I'm concerned about the band part. I have no musical talent. I don't know about you. I mean, we could get some, you know, start tapping on the table and make some percussive sounds. sounds i if if for i mean i'm worried that someone is going to buy a ticket under the guise of this write-up and then come to the event and they're just gonna have two jokers up there talking about golf sometimes about golf like that would concern me is they're gonna get some all indie music enthusiasts just just totally suckered on this write-up and show up at space and then this is what you get. That'd be worrisome. I got another one. It's a shorter one from Vibe Map. It's a Vibe Map app. Okay. Welcome to the electrifying live performance by the Shotgun Start at Evanston Space in Evanston, Illinois. On February 12th, 2026 at 7.30 p.m., get ready to be blown away by the raw talent and energy of this dynamic band. Known for their high octane performances and infectious stage presence. The shotgun star guarantees a night you won't forget. I actually think we can come through on that last part. I think we can guarantee it won't be a night, but if you're buying based on that, you certainly won't forget it because you'll show up and it'll be a discussion about the Western Open. is this some ai like how are they where are they getting this info that it's gotta be ai it's just some 24 year old intern and putting ai descriptions into some app oh we're gonna have to bring a few instruments just in case you know we need to go impromptu off the off the cuff uh all right that does it check out tickets tickets on the website uh the actual website for space i hopefully has an accurate description buy tickets we'll be there thursday i'm flying tomorrow can't wait to see everybody pj will be there kvv will be there uh i have a lot of friends in chicago hopefully get to see everybody you got friends and family it should be a fun night we're gonna be there an hour early check out the website go ahead i think we got lotties uh you know we're gonna make a lotties run one night sluggers sluggers i don't apparently we have a line to the sluggers yeah yeah all right can't wait excited to see you guys this week and see everybody on thursday at space buy your tickets they'll be uh available till till showtime uh enjoy your mondays we made it to 11 minutes of the second quarter of the super bowl if you've been watching us then i guess you just don't care about football but uh we'll talk to you on wednesday We'll see you next time.