Woodland's triumph is the story of the year, DLF rumors, & the Tiger Ryder Cup question

Now the shotgun starting 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 engine! Greetings and welcome to a Monday edition of the Shotgun Start. It is March 30th. Andy, how are we doing? I'm doing fantastic. It's a Victory Monday in my household. Yeah, you have multiple reasons. I think it's a Victory Monday in every household in golf because of the Gary Woodland win, which we'll get to in a minute. You have the additional cherry on top, a significant cherry, the whole Sunday, the whole deal, the fighting of Lion Eye of Illinois are going to the Final Four. Very exciting, very excited. Great times, boom times. First time in the Final Four since my freshman year of college. That's amazing. Yeah, lots of chance about going. I don't think I've been pulled off. But as some of my friends pointed out, the next time they go, you might be a grandpa. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, that's the thing. Should we disclose our upcoming travel, like what you have on your docket, or should we talk about that for a second? You're obviously going to the Masters, Augusta National, next weekend. Following that, did I just lose you? Uh-oh, I think he just unplugged. PJ, jump in here. He did just unplug. He just unplugged. He completely just unplugged. I can see it. There's a moment of panic on his face as he did it, and then he went frozen. We're live on YouTube, which is great. I'll get to his upcoming travel schedule. We have a doozy. If he were to add the Final Four on the front end of that, it would be quite a bunch of April. All right, just some housekeeping. We did about 40 minutes on Tiger Woods getting arrested on suspicion of DUI on Saturday morning. So we did that Saturday with Kevin Van Volkenberg. That is in the feed. If I need to explain to you how to go find that, I can't help you. But just look ahead. That's in there. If you want to hear a pure Tiger talk, I thought it was a pretty decent conversation with some smart fellows about Tiger and the state of Tiger Woods, not his golf game and the coverage of him and what we should expect in demand of him, if anything, at all going forward. And this Monday morning live is going to be primarily, maybe a little bit of follow, clean up on Tiger at the end, but primarily on the golf from the weekend. Open LPGA DP World Tour. I got some nuggets on Hero and Andy's back. What'd you do? Well, the street sweeper went by. So I had that closed the window that was open and in the process, I hit my computer, which is like on a dock that has all the things plugged in and the cords. When you went frozen, you had sort of this moment, this like face of like panic. I do like something we had lost. Yeah. Well, because I touched the computer, which I do would be problematic probably. Illinois is going to the final four. I think, you know, you got to go, but I mean, you don't have to go. It's Saturday in Indianapolis. We're due to be at Augusta Sunday night. After that, after Augusta, we're going to Scott. The problem is if they win, then you're there Monday. You have to stay. What do you do? Yeah. You got to stay for the national championship game. Then you're not like the other issue. And this is a greater sports situation. Do you even want to go watch the game in a football stadium? Do I want to go watch Illinois play in Lucas oil field? The thing that I'm kicking myself about, I was looking at flights. I just I should have bit the bullet gone down to Houston. It would have satiated my whole, you know, situation for the Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was the way to do it. You go down, you go to the regional final, you get the celebratory and then, you know, you watch from the comforts of your own home. I just I have like, I have such little interest in watching a basketball game in a football arena with a quarter of your fans. Like the other thing about it is everybody buys, you know, the two two game package, which is awesome. But the arena, it's like a corporate gathering. Yeah. I've been to a final four. It's not super great. I don't know. It's one of those like Ryder Cup situations where like being there isn't all that great. The way they've done it, Super Bowl. I mean, if your team's in it, you're living and dying with everything. I don't know. You've got, you know, the good news is you face the plucky sympathetic underdog and Dan Hurley. Again, your nemesis. Could we have, you know, in a matter of like essentially three months, four months, your football team beating your arch nemesis in the postseason and your basketball team being this guy, you've just excoriated for like four or five years on this podcast now. I mean, seems like a, I don't want to say Yukon is, Yukon is excellent. Obviously a great program, but a decent draw if you're talking final four for the, for Illinois. Like I know they whipped you early in the season, but a decent draw. Everybody's going to be good in the final. We, you know, if you look at that first game of the season, we had, Keaton Laughler played like 18 minutes because we didn't know he was, you know, there you go. One of the 10 best players in college basketball. So I don't know. We'll see. I don't want to talk about, we got plenty of time to talk about it, but that being said, I texted my, my college friends chain about like four minutes into the Duke Yukon game. And I said, I think we really want to play Yukon because I didn't want to play Duke. They got so much tail. I don't know. I think any, any team you play at this point is going to be good. And, and so we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited. I'm constantly optimistic. Um, you know, we'll see. They've been, they've been really good. The Houston win at Houston was like Thursday night. Everybody's diminishing it now because it was, they, they beat the crap out of them, but that was, I think one of the wins of the tournament. Yeah. Absolutely. Big win. All right. We'll follow up. We'll be talking about it probably consistently through the week as, as that comes Saturday night. Uh, is it the first game? First game. Six? Yeah. I mean that, that Michigan, uh, Arizona games could be. My, my six year old stands to make thousands, thousands of dollars in a pool. If she, uh, if we get Michigan over Yukon, she has all four final four teams, six year old, thousands of dollars. So I'm not going to root. I don't think I can root against Illinois, but, uh, it would be. The poor earth households could be rooting against Illinois. But I don't know. It's Michigan over Yukon. It was what she needs, but, uh, yeah. Did you just hear that as clearly as I did? Uh, the poor earth households is rooting for Dan Hurley and you can't say that. That is what I heard. Uh, that's what I took away from it, which is very disappointing. Uh, not only rooting against you, but maybe rooting against me in a way. Yeah. That's what it felt like. It felt like a shot against you too. No, I'm just saying those are, those are potential stakes. There'll still be food on the table, but that's, that's out there for us this weekend. Um, do you need me to send you some Illinois gear for the game on Saturday? I, I feel like you're going to be, you're going to be back in the line. I maybe as hard as most Illinois fans. Uh, yeah. No, I'll hand up. I had a, I had a good old crash out last night after you. That was, I, I said a lot of things. I did a lot of yelling. Um, that was just, I mean, we're better than them. We literally killed them twice. I mean, I don't understand this. I, it's just the worst thing to ever happen. This is my color work. Calla, you know, it's the worst thing in the world. Uh, my back. Yeah. Well, I welcome you onto the Balkans. The Balkans. I am the biggest story. I can be a fan of the history of the world right now. This is, this is it. I can't handle this. I actually, I cannot handle this. I'm not emotionally equipped. Brush up on your Serbia and we're, we're going to, we're gone. We're going to Indy. We're going to Indy. I love it. All right. We'll talk more hoops. I, I, there's some recency bias that Connecticut one was amazing. The people are saying it's better than Latiner. Better. I don't know. It was incredible, incredible game to finish off the weekend. So, um, all right, one of the best, that may be one of the worst things in the world for PJ. One of the best things in the world, honest to God, best things in sports, story of the year, maybe in sports, certainly probably in golf, unless something, I don't see it happening, but the story of the year in golf is Gary Woodland winning in dominant, dominant fashion, the Houston open, the scores, we'll talk about the golf and the scores, new scoring record, all these things. He's playing great golf. He says, like it did matter in the end, like what the margin was, but like the story of the year, Gary Woodland obviously had brain surgery at a lesion pressing against his brain. He had prior to that, the, the, the part of your brain that controls fear, uh, anxiety, you know, he was consumed by fear and then they had an MRI lesion, uh, was on his brain, removed it. This has been documented in full swing. He's been fairly open and, and, and, uh, really courageous about it. Then a few weeks ago at the players championship, he talked about how he is suffering from PTSD from that trauma, from the brain surgery, from the lesion and the impacts of it. Um, and you know, this dramatically affects, uh, who he is, his ability to play golf, his ability to play golf in the public sphere with people around him and the way he suffers, uh, from PTSD and the way, the way it impacts him. Um, you know, been very tearful, emotional interview with Rex Hoggard. And here he is three weeks later playing some of the best golf of his life and winning by five shots. He used to open his fifth PGA tour when he obviously has that US Open. It's his first victory since that 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach. Uh, an incredible, incredible story to watch, to witness, to listen to, uh, him before and after and during this win. Uh, an incredible story, uh, for the PGA tour. Really one for the, one for the record books. The, uh, I mean, it's with what's going on, the PTSD and just the anxiety. I, I mean, how challenging of a sport golf is just at its core mentally. The idea of Gary just playing, I think was amazing. Um, and playing through the things that he was dealing with to go out and just utterly dominate his tournament from start to finish. At age 42, when 41, when seemingly, you know, your best golf was a decade ago. This is, um, unbelievable, unbelievable story. Uh, you know, you mix in the fact that he talked about during, during the tournament, he was dealing with like 10 holes where some of the hardest golf he has had to play. Um, you know, tour, tour security, having to like, you know, kind of like beef up his presence just to keep like, you know, I don't think Gary Woodland fans, fans are like, you know, yesterday was probably like the high watermark for Gary Woodland fans and the general pop population of golf. But like a Friday, you know, it just kind of shows the, the extent of what he's dealing with when like a Friday round is, is causing such, you know, like a lot of internal issues and mental issues with, with like getting through the round. Um, amazing, amazing. And it just, what a, I mean, overcoming adversity, uh, the power of getting your kind of problems out in the public sphere and what that can do for you also is like, you know, I think that's like the biggest takeaway of this whole thing is just, it's never a bad idea to talk about what you're going through with people and let people understand what you're going through because that's only going to help you, um, with your, with your struggles. It seems, is, is my big takeaway from this. I mean, it's an invisible, it's sort of an invisible injury, right? It's hard. That's what I, like, I can't, I can't appreciate this fully, right? I can appreciate him, uh, an empathize and be understanding of whatever it is he's going through. Um, but, but I cannot appreciate him. We cannot, it's not visible. It's not hobbling up the fairway with the injured leg. It is, uh, something that, you know, we did quite frankly, a lot of people certainly didn't know that he was going through this until he disclosed it publicly with that, that interview with Rex Hager. And then you talked about the, the effect and power of getting that out in the public sphere and hopefully like sympathy, empathy are so easy to give. It's not, it doesn't cost you anything. It's, it's, it's not, it's become harder and harder in society, but it's just, it's so easy to be empathetic, right? It doesn't cost you anything to understand people's pain, to listen and, and try to understand it. Um, that's just, it's, I don't know how that's become more difficult, uh, in modern society, but you know, that's the effect of speaking about it out loud. And he talked about how it's felt like a thousand pounds off of his shoulders since he's gone out there and talked about it. And it's hard to know. And the effects, I can only hear, I can't appreciate it. I've had friends who've had, you know, panic, anxiety disorder, stuff like that, but I can't appreciate that. And it sounds like, you know, just people getting a little close to him and not ill-intentioned or malintentioned, like, but he has this trauma and can send him into a sort of a spiral, as, as, as how he described it. And, and, uh, even this week, but recently, you know, since his surgery, um, kind of have to go into bathrooms, in between holes and like, and release this anxiety and people, uh, you know, has this effect in the middle of a round and you have crowds around you. And this week he talked about in the middle of a round, I think 10 holes to play, he had to go into scoring and ball his eyes out. And that is hard to see. That's the only way it manifests. Like, you cannot appreciate or understand maybe what he's going through in that moment. It sounds like tour security, his own security have really stepped up to sort of, uh, understand the situation as best they can. Um, I mean, you think about also with the career he's had, um, what a competitor. And in terms of still going out and doing this, despite being going through this, it'd be so easy if you're Gary Woodland to pack it in and say, Hey, this isn't worth it. I don't want to do this anymore. And like, I, I've had a great career and I have enough money, but like to go through this week in week out for so long. And I think the competitive drive behind that, like, you know, he talked about it a little bit in his post round press conferences, like, you know, he, he's a golfer. He's a competitor and this is like what he wants to do. And, and I, and I think like that's like dealing with this and dealing with the anxiety I could only imagine, but like it would drive so many people to quit. Right. I mean, golf is, um, you're, you're interviewing with the, uh, Amazon director. I thought he had some interesting thoughts about like golf is sort of this ultimate mental test. And I think it was you or him was like the amount of time between shots, right? There's not the rhythms of basketball. You can, you can, you can affect yourself in basketball. You can miss free throws, but like the rhythm, right? Uh, the rhythm of, uh, it's more mental than, than a lot of sports, right? Where, where it's quick twitch and it's reactionary. Uh, this is the time in between shots, the time of thinking, getting to a shot over putt. It is an incredibly mental game before you bring in any PTSD before you are battling any disorder, before you are battling any trauma. And to think of like what he has to talk about, I have to slow my heart rate down, slow my thoughts down. A lot of golfers just have to do that as a regular course of business. He has to do that, uh, you know, while dealing to combat and, and confront his PTSD, which is dramatically impacting him. And he's able to do it. He's able to do it. He's talked about, you know, this battle is like, this is a huge step today, but this isn't like cure me. This isn't changing anything going forward. But I don't know. It was just a great sort of Sunday afternoon to celebrate Friday was, was pretty Friday, Saturday morning. We're pretty dour, pretty dour. And it was just a really, really, um, great Sunday to celebrate him and his battle. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it was, I mean, amazing story. It's, um, I, uh, I can't, as you said, I can't imagine how it, how it feels. Um, but I think it does show really the power of, of kind of letting people in on what you're, what you're doing, like, what's good, what you're going through. And it's kind of prescient with, with the other big story in golf this weekend is being honest with yourself and others about what you're going through and allowing people the opportunity to help, um, allowing the other, uh, the opportunity for the BGA tour to beef up its security for your peers to maybe, you know, you know, not subconsciously, but your peers to show you more support and what the support of others. Can, can help you accomplish. Um, it's really hard. And, and I think golfers are, are really prideful people and, you know, it's an individual sport. It's really hard. I think on tour to, to reach out or ask for help, um, or be open about what you're going through. And, um, you know, it's, it's neat to see someone, you know, be so candid and honest. Uh, just, you know, I think it was, it was like three weeks ago when that Rex Hoggard interview dropped and, and then see them winning it, winning a golf tournament three weeks later. It's, um, it's unbelievable. He seems to be one of the best guys out there on tour. Um, and, um, I think like I, uh, I'm, I'm so happy this happened, uh, for him and, uh, and I, you know, hopefully, you know, we see a lot more of Gary, uh, competing at a high level. Yeah. He, uh, he seems to be universally beloved even before brain surgery, even before the disclosure. He's battling PTSD. He seemed to be pretty universally, uh, which is hard on the tour. Like it's hard to like not rub somebody the wrong way, offend somebody, upset somebody. Just even whether they're, uh, uh, they take the appropriate view of you or not, or take the appropriate conclusions that you're not, but he seems to almost have like everyone in his corner. I'll say like the coolest moment for me watching it was when men will like, like take the, take the stage and he's firing up the crowd. And I thought that like, that was the first moment that really got me is like, you just don't see them bones came on, you know, right after it was like, you know, I've been on this tour like, you know, 35 years. I've never seen that. Um, that was super cool to me. Uh, all right. New scoring record. He leads the tour and driving distance. He's in the field at Augusta. He says probably top the bottom as good as I've played on tour to someone who was a, you know, top 15 player in the world. Uh, major winner, obviously, uh, complete control this week. He has Randy Smith back in his corner as his teacher. That whole story is a little interesting about how like he left agencies and Randy, you know, obviously his son is Blake Smith, then Randy and he stopped working together as a teacher and pupil or player. Um, but it seems like he's playing pretty good golf, really good golf, obviously. Did you see the ball speed numbers? 190s. 196 on Sunday? Yeah. Felt like everybody, anybody who was contesting in this was 190 plus. That's a separate discussion maybe about Memorial Park, but Woodland's always been a little bit of a different like athlete. Obviously he's always been a different cat off the tee. I even before like speed training, speed training was in vogue, you know, optimization was in vogue. Feels like he just took the whole, uh, the whole, the genie out of the bottle. It's just like, I'm just going to swing as hard as I can. Yeah. Yeah. He, uh, he leads the tour and driving distance very, he's not had a good year, uh, on approach and irons, but maybe, you know, he's switched shafts and his irons working more with Randy. Who knows? Who knows? It's a great player. Tons of prodigious talent. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I'm, I'm curious to see where it goes. I mean, obviously the, uh, the performance was exceptional. You look at like the players around them and, you know, everybody's in the, you know, there's a ton of players in the 12th, the 12th, the 16th under camp and, and Woodland just, I mean, it was pretty much no doubt Sunday. I, there was, uh, you know, very little, uh, to worry about unless you were a Duke fan. I mean, we've seen some, we've seen some big leads blown between, you know, Shane, Laurie, Berger, some of those recently. I was like, this, this can't happen. I mean, it was like four, they got the seven. Yeah. The seven. I was like, all right. After 11, he was up seven. Yeah. It's like, this isn't going to happen. This is not happening. You know, Sudarshan was, was tracking them out. Our guy, Yelamiratsu was, continued his hoarding, his hoarding of Sydney's, Suni, what's posting low numbers. Um, yeah. 646. He's a force. He's, he's up on the leaderboard. He's, he's showing out. He's saying, listen, I'm going to be on TV every week, just like you. Um, also earning their way into the masters. This was the last top 50 OWGR week before the masters earning their way in alongside Woodland gets in via the victory. Winning a PGA tour, full field, full, full points event. Joining them into the top 50 are Berger, Nikolai Hoygard, who had a pretty uneven day or underwhelming day, I should say. Nikolai Berger, Jake Knapp nearly set the course record with 61, sort of hit the lip there for, but shot 62. Uh, speaking of speed boys, Jake Knapp and Matt McCarty. So the masters field is up to, I believe 93. Tiger May WD, who knows what you're taking Valero, you may get a new unique winner there is not previously qualified. So we're in the low nineties for the masters with those additions of five yesterday, including Woodland. Um, also notable, uh, Johnny Kiefer, who's kind of been MIA, pretty high expectations, really good player on the corn fairy tour last year. A young talent, great personality. He finishes T3, his best finish so far, but, but hasn't had a strong start to the year. Good, good finish for him. Um, any other notes from Houston open? The story was Woodland. Are you anti Johnny Kiefer just because of his Ravens fandom? No, not necessarily. Uh, by ish. No, I mean, I, yeah, it's a black mark in his, in his personality and moral centering, but, um, uh, I've, my whole thing is my problem. Cause they're all my neighbors. I live in Maryland. My problem is with the Ravens organization. They were not the people who, who are fans of it. They, they accepted the team. They accepted stolen goods. That is a problem, but they just accepted what was dropped in their lap. So, uh, no, I don't hold that against him. Do you think they should all be Browns fans? No, they don't have to. It is great to see Johnny Kiefer, uh, get off, kind of get off the side. I, I, we've had so many instant successes on tour where they're just immediately good that, and, and like, listen, like we're talking about 10 of us or whatever Johnny Kiefer is and his PGA tour career. This is a fast ascension. Um, but I think like it, we, we glaze over how challenging it is to come up, uh, onto the PGA tour, adjusted new tour, adjusted new courses and, uh, and the way of life on, on the PGA tour. Uh, but great finish by him. And, uh, I'm excited to see him in the hunt a lot more. Uh, that's it for the Houston open amazing story. Listen, we need more Baltimore Ravens representation at the waste management on 16. You know, they'll be, they might be competing for a Super Bowl that time next year. I don't know. Um, I don't hold it against him, but then in the same sentence as, as, as this mark against your personality. Well, a moral centering. I mean, we saw what happened with the, the whole NFL is out on them with the Crosby shenanigans. It's just a a moral soulless, you know, enscriptedest franchise. They shouldn't have been allowed to set a side trade. Oh God. It sounds like Miles Garrett might get traded to the bears or somewhere else. They restructured his contract. That would be just a way for making them move. I don't think so either. Memorial Park Cooley doesn't make it Story would have been the first grandchild of a Masters champion to play in the Masters He had a WD because of a back injury, which is a bummer Yeah, that was a bummer he's played pretty good golf For more than a year now almost and that's a bummer bad time to have a back issue Can I ask you a question? Please? Are you excited to write the Sam Stevens capsule? For the Masters for our website coverage No, no, but to be honest, but he's playing good golf seems like a good guy. He's fun We need Sam Stevens back from Kansas, I know he's from Kansas good player played well at LA He's been decent been a good player on tour. I'll write that up Sam Stevens. They gotta do that today All right, it's the Memorial Park capable of hosting a PGA tournament I think they need to keep staying there, but you know the overseas It's a great experiment having it at a real actual municipal But you talked about speed demons on the speed demons on on the leaderboard good for you know what works well the Bermuda When it was Bermuda rough there was penalty for not hitting the fairway Like I look at scoring and the type of play that was rewarded pre in the fall versus now It's completely different golf course with the overseas and like I know people don't like talking about grass You know like it's a little unsexy part, but like this absolutely shapes How the golf course is played I mean Brooks talked about it. He's like I've never seen it in the overseas It'll be interesting to see how it plays. Well, you know how it plays is everybody just swings as hard as they can because ryegrass is the bane of of Golf course existence so the thing you should you know, everybody anybody that their golf course ever talks about converting to rye Unless you're an area where like you have to do it for for like I need grass to grow And this grows here you should just condemn whoever suggests it and It is just a it is just a bad grass for golf and what it does is it just diminishes skill and I think like in In terms of this this golf course the way it's set up It is so advantageous to just take out driver. It is as hard as you can And when there's your meter rough like Bermuda roughs hard. You don't know what it's gonna do You want to avoid it at all costs all sudden the fairways feel narrower even though they aren't So anyways, I would just I would just point out for anybody that's condemning Memorial Park look at how it played Before they went to the ryegrass. Yep You mentioned Brooks Kepka sort of a step back for him PJ was the push notification you got the the breaking news So he'd been playing well Kepka. I don't think this changes a lot But what was the push notification you got? ESPN sends push notification that Brooks Kepka who was six over at the time with two holes to play was in danger of missing the Cut at one under on Friday afternoon. I think it was actually Statistically impossible for him to make the cut at that point, but I'm glad we got a push notification Hey little Sam Stevens facts. Oh, yes Did you know he's a third generation golfer? I think so Meg may have Meg fellow Kansas may have mentioned that pro golfer his grandfather Johnny Stevens Made 30 pg8 tours starts in the 60s. There we go Let's I'd like to see you get in there and poke holes in the 30 starts. Is that more like 10? Counting raising against the history Accounting of the pga tour. All right. Yeah, and that is dad Charlie made two starts in 1992 On the Cord Ferry tour. This is what Wikipedia says, but that's the probably was the Mean was that Nike that was pre Nike that would have been pre-nike and you are yeah, I don't want to Ben Hogan tour Maybe then maybe maybe Not yeah Hogan might be right. Um, also July 4th, baby No, we call me a Stevens. There we go. All right So congrats to Gary Woodland, that's it for oh another one like Marco Penn's we were puffing our chips I guess Pengie a great pick. I someone said he MC. I was like what no, he didn't he's top five top 10 Faster on Friday. This is the problem. We shouldn't have been touting our picks. Yeah, I can't tell Gotta keep our heads down. Just stick to the stick the fundamentals and the models and stop touting We talked about what the model was was spitting out. We talked about Min Woo You know back in a familiar kitchen I feel like we were all over this PJ at a tops a T6 with God her up We were all over this we just picked the wrong speed demon wrong horse. Yeah. Yeah, the wrong sprinter All right, well Kimbley pods didn't didn't talk about how speed was a prerequisite at Houston, but we did yeah That was it. That was a unique insight we have Only here All right Gary Woodland was hot with the putter incredible putting performance to Capture his fifth PGA tour when you want to improve your putting You know, you know G-Dubb's really good friends with who? Perfect practice ambassador Dustin Johnson. That's right fellow basketball players They're like best friends guys who can dunk a basketball they found common ground on that. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you know, I bet DJ did Slip them a perfect practice man. That sounds like DJ just out there proselytizing handing out goodies trying to help people Something to point out a bit about G-Dubb. I know this is an ad read shame to all the people that that skipped over this G-Dubb like legit is not very good at reading greens But if you have the perfect practice putting Matt and a good caddy Who reads the greens for you perfect practice putting Matt? You could just master hitting putts down a line Yeah, which I think it's the best skill you could possibly have for putting is like the confidence to hit a line And that's what I love about this putting Matt. It's got the training lines You can develop a straight back and straight through stroke. It's got the auto ball return highest quality Matt for realistic putting experience crafted with unique crystal velvet material that ensures smooth and precise ball movement simulating real greens You can get it at perfect practice.com. The code is fried egg for 20% off That's a good chunk of change. Look, you're not gonna go broke getting the perfect practice Matt. It's a nice easy training tool It's you know, you can make it convenient to put away Nothing that my wife will shout at me about for getting in the way you can roll it up and get it all the way quickly perfect practice calm the code is fried egg and 20% off with fried egg at perfect practice.com alright Let's get off the Houston open a good PGA tour story there with woodland Continuing on the DLF another good story in my opinion Alex Fitzpatrick Fitzpatrick with one of the rounds of the year a 69 at DLF, which was a Punishing punishing high winds extreme setup From the owner got it got some of his hooks into it the owner who wanted an even par finish Conspiracy theories that fit see Alex Fitzpatrick He made a seven on the last hole to ensure that the winning score was not double digits went down to nine under Really one of the rounds of the year given the condition the fix was in on the 18th hole Could have been to get it under double digits I was told the 18th pin was completely unnecessary that you'd rather be like way long than short of the green Completely the way he navigated to a seven was perfect and that's exactly what he had to do So Fitz he wins a week after his brother wins a valis bar obviously like a Strawed good amateur career highly touted amateur Had a lot of exemptions early on is now going the path You know struggled to get all the way up and stick on the PGA tour now going the way of the DP World Tour Getting a win and really hard conditions playing well improved golf a really good story Congrats to Alex Fitz, you know, he's not always in the shadow of his brother, but you know, he actually is using it And that's a he's definitely a great talent in his own right But you know, he's in the shadow of his brother and that could be a tough spot to be Yeah, it completely different careers, you know Fitz. He stayed stayed in school, you know, he's he stayed in school He's a good role model Yeah, yeah, Alex he stayed in school his brother, you know left after six weeks in the Chicago's big 10 team Who isn't in the final four? But But you know like complete polar opposites like Matt Fitzpatrick immediate immediate success and pro golf like immediately was one of the hundred best players in the world Alex Fitz has had to you know work his way up and It's great to see him get this win Big question I had out of out of this weekend that DLF was is Chikara the new battleship He loves it there. I mean he just I thought for sure he was gonna win. I was I woke up and I watched the end I was shocked. He wasn't ahead by four or five shots He's amazing The next question are you ready to apologize? And admit that the bumblebee Andy Sullivan is is a potential rider copper No, I'm not ready to apologize. No, we've got 18 months I'm not ready to apologize based on the t3 finish at the hero Indian open not ready He's number four of the race to Dubai He's been Fantastic if P read wasn't there everybody be talking about the bumblebee. Yes, that won't they'd be talking about I Mean what what if we go to Luke Donald next year? I can't you know? Sorry, we're out of John Rom's but can I interest you in a bumblebee and that's what he's got a sub in for a dare manner I'm gonna get him up. I mean I'm at corner him at Augusta next week And I'm gonna I'm gonna demand a demand answers about the bumblebee Luke Tom. All right, there we go You want a good unsubstantiated rumor about the LF? I Don't got love one. I got off your boy Mateo Manacero finally getting into top 10 No, but I mean that's just proper proper skill set for proper challenge. I had Multiple people tell me like this is legitimately for young players like major championship mental grind They say it was firm little every hole fit see was like I don't I honestly didn't know how many birdies I made both rounds like you just get off the course you go to the next hole You're like I could make seven here. You could have just made five birdies in a row could make seven people said Legit mental mental grind like a major that did not the course Not the atmosphere, but a mental grind like a major mentally. It's like a major. I'm bloody knackered was a text I got um But along the course setup second source confirming the owner is just vehemently Pushing for like an even part finish and Can get his thumbs on the scale and tries to get his hands on the setup push out the pins grow up the rough Make it firm firm firm as possible to the point where the DP World Tour might tinker tinker with the weather report The official like you know their weather report, you know, here's what's expected to suggest higher winds to keep the owner at bay Like oh look we got 50 and then weather port did just extreme gusts Look we got 50 mile an hour gusts. We can't put the pins there We can't do this that there might be some fudging of the official tour weather report to keep the owner at bay from further You know advocating and trying to get his hands on the setup just an incredible Incredible set of circumstances in India on the DP World Tour. I love the tour We got to bring a signature event to DLF. I Mean Yeah, it sounds like an incredible mental grind. Let's do it. It's fun entertainment values always there There was conspiracies there were conspiracies about Akshay Taking a dive just gassing one by the whole the MC at the last Two rounds early Friday night conspiracy Frock shei he did to his credit stick around for like nine hours like apparently sign autographs But I mean we had this setup with the owner looming Only gonna be two more days of just punching in the face incredibly firm DLF a Conspiracy corner was that it was that did he did he Purposely take a dive to avoid two more rounds and get back to can I ask you a question? State side for the Masters what? Is there any sport that glorifies signing autographs more than all? Good question it's like it's every it's it's literally like hey this guy Destroyed a T-box sign But he signed autographs for an hour after I mean look This guy is a huge asshole, but Do you see a signing autographs for kids? They do no sport glorifies it more. It's unbelievable like Credit to the players who do it like okay? I applaud you for doing it, but I blame the social teams the absolute You know glazing rights holder broadcast the non-stop glazing and The social teams that like great like you know Ricky seems like a nice great fellow like Genuinely, but how do we have to see the 250th video of him flipping a ball to a kid like just to just continue to prop up the Like we got it You you might you're onto something there. I'm trying to think of other sports Maybe tennis I bring in our former NFL executive PJ Clark into the into the podcast what what her What what what does the autograph signing look like in the NFL? What is there how much autograph signing our players doing? Basically just training camp like on a game day like you'll have a handful of guys in the tunnel like very very few not Usually anybody like relevant if you want any starters You got to go to training camp and then you have to you know as an executive You have to kind of force guys into doing it for the most part. So it's not you think golf Autograph signing should be celebrated. Yeah, I do. I think golf is the most accessible Sport by by far to the relevant players absolutely. Yes, I Don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I would celebrate it sure one thing I'd be into is like a Con piece of content whether it's video or article Maybe I shouldn't give this away is a player. I think it'd be anonymous player strategies for avoiding autographs Yeah, so this is like me trying to avoid like the Girl Scout cookies table outside the coffee shop Like I would just love to hear some strategies from the players So like I know the ones like after the round after the round don't get me after the round But like what else to not come off as a huge a I would love some some strategies for that I think probably a lot of them pull their phone out and act like they're on the phone walking the phone is a classic Oh, I gotta go do media. That's a big training camp one. Oh, you want like the quarterback? So no, I gotta go do a radio hit. Sorry like that's that's a big one. I don't have a pen Yeah, I don't have a pen is always well, that's easily Do that because the kids are gonna have all the good piss ants have their sharpies ready. Yeah. Yeah, I love it Like strategies, what's the most extreme avoidance you've gone to? Who's the autograph King Bryson or Ricky? Why people say Phil sometimes too Phil gets thrown in there Not tiger, I don't think I got not Scotty Lot of demands of Scotty's time right now for autographs and otherwise Bryson Bryson takes it international. I don't know if Ricky's bringing it to the people as much as Bryson is I mean Ricky's been doing it since that's fair Bryson was in diapers that that is fair Bryson says it energizes him it like reggae it gives him like the motivation to go hit balls and stuff like what was that quote in South Africa Alright, that's it. Actually suck around and signed but but emcee got back on the plane do all the states and the LPGA back-to-back For who'd you Kim? Nelly Korda. We're going back-to-back to two events of our own founders and the for a championship She beats Nelly Korda. She's going to third in the world 69 in the final round Korda started four shots back shot a 567 when Eagle birdie to try and push her to the limit but was too late there to catch you to Kim She's the first multiple event winner on tour this year Of course, you know that went all the way to the wire with 29 unique winners last year Start for the LPGA have I mean Nelly is in it. Nelly's in the battle here. I don't know if this is a Sunday rivalry it is right now in March, but a good start a good sort of consistency Week to week and Nelly seems to be playing really good golf as is who'd you Kim a fascinating career? Winds of major at 4 in 14 as like an 18 year old then kind of you know She's stacked that one a ton on Korea But stacked a good amount of LPGA wins with like these four and five year gaps of like kind of Wondering and now number three in the world again now in a very strong Ascendant gap again or ascendant trajectory again. So it's like the perfect representation of golf It feels like you have it that you lose it and it comes back She's 30 so still plenty of time and already compiled a great career They've got a major coming up in whatever about four weeks less than a month So congrats to her for championship on the corn fairy tour We have one of our own Montgomery County, Maryland Denny McCarthy as company Davis lamb wins on the corn fairy tour down there the club car championships Yeah What's the other day? What hold that against him? But uh Davis lamb wins on the corn fairy tour emotional for him That was on TV on golf channel great player. What's another name? Talked about like, you know, you think you can win, but you don't really know you you know, I was confident I knew I could hate I knew it belong But like that doubt always exists and sort of that's an incredible Validating moment for him blades Brown was in it at the club car Savannah event But but Davis lamb holds him off Another one for for the neighbors around here. Then I'm a Denny McCarthy has I think he went to same high school as Denny McCarthy Has company so Davis lamb hopefully I just can't believe there's a Davis Davis that went to high school in and Maryland I mean, yeah, it's from the mean streets of Potomac Think his mom is a Congressional is one congressional club championships. So yeah, yeah, we could we could ask him about cabin John We could you could he would know he would have cabin John facts for you. I'm sure So congrats. There's Walt Davis Chatfield Davis lamb Were they both that know her name together? Am I not mistaken double Davis? So I think there was I think they were together another name. Uh, it could be wrong But congrats to him for winning the corn fairy tour Ho classic You see a Chicago finish T10 Rio, yeah, I Didn't see that God Also, Lonto Rio East Calis like I was like that was our era. That was our time, you know I think you cow and And man a Sarah finish T10 this week. I want to what a throwback like 2012 2011 I mean God remember you should cow just kept getting special exemptions to the Masters Because he was you know, this is the great hope from Japan is like a teenager Uh, I guess that's good to see him on a leaderboard At the Ho classic peach. What do you got for champs tour minutes do sync rumbling all over the field? I mean, I think that that's it is you know in in light of recent events It feels like the Ryder Cup captaincy might be truly a wide open door And I think we have the perfect guy we have a proven winner to just walk right through it I mean, this is he makes a two on the 18th hole for an Albatross to give him the lead and never gave it up That was the 18th hole of Saturday never gave it up held off zatch How that big earn T2 or Andy he's coming for first time all year, but I mean You're the PGA of America. You're you got a you're looking around you got a you got to just pick the guy right in front You prove a winner you we might have another Keegan's I I say we we go zatch Bring a better manner. Oh my god bring them back give him another shot Look at look go days do it on the on the champs tour I Feel like re hiring Adam Gase or something like what are we doing? Who are you? Oh, well, you know, they have a packet They hack it Why would we go down that road? You got to give a guy a second chance sometimes sure Somebody's got a guy Sometimes you just don't you don't have to give them a second chance either I Love that we go three major winners and zatch and Ernie and still and then we just go to Charlie We afford what a champs tour leader board that is still second Frank a Brighay the boo stopper what an eclectic board Freddie Ackerson get up there Couple a couple years ago. He was a he was a factor in congressional last year if I remember correctly The junk man Freddie Ackerson love that who's been more disappointing Ben Crane or Soren Kielsen I Don't know I mean big big crane It's it's in there like he's he plays well in the first round every week and then just falls apart like I'm not selling my Ben Crane stock But soren I guess soren was pretty disappointing we thought soren was gonna burn the world down last year I mean soren Soren won the 2016 Masters if you go back and rewatch it But okay, I'll have to find that addition should that be a 10 a 10 year retrospective Are you gonna write that why soren won the 2016 everybody talks about you know other guys But soren kelton actually won the 2016 Masters you think it'd be available for interview for that top for that story You can pitch it to him. I'm sure he's available. I don't know if he'd agree with you that he wanted Speaking of the Masters, let's go to news real quick The new player facility debuted great unveiling catnip carnival of the week new pictures The pampered F's pavilion for all the players, you know, I would love to be critical and call them pampered F's but As a media member hand up hand up Come to the Masters. We are quite pampered ourselves. Maybe even more pampered. So it's kind of hard for me to direct direct Jabs even in a sort of sarcastic way at the players Doug Ferguson at an article got a tour of it. It seems like Amateurs and have lockers next to Masters champion. I don't need to go into they got massage tables and restaurants and Weightlifting and incredible. There's a camera so you can watch him come out of the tunnel as they go to battle to play the Masters round One thing I had Fortunately for Augusta for the Masters for telly's not in the field because if he was he would not be getting to run all How's he'd be asleep on those massage tables or in a corner of the player facility and just be living there Eating breakfast lunch at dinner working out Maybe for telly when he can get in the field eventually will will just take up full-time residents in the new player facility A note in Ferguson's article Doug's article It isn't for everyone and this is what I was most curious about Only players and their immediate families. I don't know that seems ambiguous enough You can claim immediacy in different ways players immediate families coaches caddies Trainers and other members of the support team. I think that's a wide net too wide for my liking But no public no press and no agents Which is interesting is an agent a support team It's it's interesting that the net goes to support team, but not agents. I Can't wait to hear the grief from the agents all week at well The Ranges just coaches and caddies right the agents are not allowed on the range like there are many other majors another interesting I just that's all I About us getting shut out of there. Were you expected by that or were you surprised by that? No, I'm not surprised by that. I'm not I mean we could go in the old locker room to the left there, but No, I'm not surprised for shut out by that The guys just trying to find solace or eat and get some media members scurry and through Getting them aside. There's a story. I never thought I I've never thought once about going into the locker room and an event I Went into the master's locker room on a Sunday like morning just rummaging around for tidbits, but no, I don't it's like you can get them elsewhere Doesn't seem like the spot to go great great story recently a media member getting a player when he was on the massage table I couldn't go anywhere and get in questions Insight from him. So yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen at the master's the player facility or on the treatment table So that's the news from the master weather report looks good We'll have more on and walk coming on Wednesday weather looks good so far a long ways to go On ways to go long ways to go but looks not a lot of rains right now Had other news we could talk about it on Wednesday any tiger follow-up We had a whole podcast on that the notable one Ferguson I think had a Doug the same Doug associated press reporter said he was days away from a Ryder Cup decision Which we'd heard like the end of March is a deadline is that really a deadline, you know He can kind of say yes or no is it should it be his decision to make anymore separate question now? You know, I don't know that it should be so kind of to the to the point of Our pod a little bit. I think it's kind of time for golf to stop enabling him you just like what You tell me do you would you do you want this this state of tiger as your Ryder Cup captain? I think that's not really what you would want So, you know, like do I would I would I like a 100% there sharp Tiger Woods as an eventual Ryder Cup captain? Absolutely, but I think it's time where you know if you're the PGA of America like you don't want like It's not good for him. It's not good for you. It's just like you put him in a public sphere where there's like there could be further embarrassment and issues and I just yeah, it's it seems like a separate and very different from Gary like disease and and problem that he's battling that you know, you so eloquently put on our Saturday podcast like You know, they have to want to help themselves like that is a huge thing and so You know, I think thrusting him into the captaincy would be just disastrous for all the reasons you know, yeah, and like this is where Golf needs to help Tiger a little bit. Yeah This shouldn't even be an available option, I don't want to be you know, like I but given given where he's at like this shouldn't be an even available to him and The PGA tour and we haven't heard really from them regarding the situation But he should not be reshaping the PGA tour all These things should not be happening. They should they It's hard to speak declaratively like this but like If this happened at in corporate America with an executive They would be gone and Like it would be saying like Even if it was a leave of absence to work like there would be stuff that to come back like Tiger Woods should not be shaping in the current state of where Tiger Woods is mentally and physically should not be shaping the PGA tours future or an instrumental part of Shaping the PGA tours future and all the mumbo jumbo about hundreds of hours of this and that this is It is time to it's time it it's time for golf to to Remove all the responsibilities that they have thrust on him and I want to be clear like a lot of this is golf's fault They've thrust on them. So he has the peace the quiet and the time to Work on himself if he would like to work on himself now. That's the big thing No, until until he realizes there's a problem There or admits that there's a problem none of this is going to happen But if golf just keeps acting like nothing happened and this isn't a problem Then it's less and less likely that Tiger will ever admit that it's a problem. Yeah I thought we saw some signs of golf kind of Suggesting that maybe it's not a problem. I thought like the broadcast wasn't great on Saturday saying thankfully Nobody was hurt and we can move on and get them some help All right, there's there needs to be a mix of critique and You know the tour the tour would lose a lot of credibility if that in my opinion I don't know if like you consider the tour to have a lot of credibility begin with but maybe you do their professional organization They came out and did the same sort of party line of like how instrumental he is we kind of knew that was The way we communicate to you here is is fully understanding like what's tigers where tigers at and and What is maybe actual contributions and presence are on that but you know and we're not going to portray it in any way Other than how we understand it. But yeah, the tour would lose Some credibility if the talk just go right back to it. And I don't think they will I don't think they can If he was having that big of an impact to begin with Debatable but certainly should not have the opportunity at this point He can be a conduit to the players if they're they're still that reverence and respect and they would listen to him But uh, yeah, he can't be can't be in that position of prominence. Uh, and that's same some same probably goes for the Ryder Cup um all right Brando's suggesting he needs to give it up and go away to get right no champions tour. I think that's there's something that's shading that way And other yeah other than that maybe some legal exposure to reading over the weekend for for tiger We had about 40 minutes on that talking about all manner of like the danger He's putting other people in not just himself You can listen to that podcast it went up saturday morning on the shotgun start feed But uh, this was a nice nice reprieve from that with gary woodland winning at the houston open We will be back With you on wednesday talk a little anwa Valero texas open the mania's favorite event of the year better than the masters. Maybe if you asked him Uh, a full week ahead. We'll talk to you on wednesday