Tiger police report and decision to step away, ANWA’s quirky format, and Kelce on Masters call

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 everyone. It is April 1st. A little bit of change of pace here at the start. We had an original opening and then the Tiger News intervened since we recorded. So I'm just going to update you here at the top. Obviously some of the conversation I had with Kevin VanValkenberg became moot or irrelevant based on the Tiger statement that he would be taking time away. Some developments late in the afternoon, evening of Tuesday after we recorded. First of all, he pleads not guilty. That's the court matter. Pleads not guilty to DUIs. Retain the same attorney as you had in 2017 who had to knock down to reckless driving. Never a good situation when you have an old DUI attorney to call on again for a repeat issue. But he pleads not guilty and will retain the same counsel and probably pursue a lesser charge. Then shortly thereafter, Kevin and I talked about how it was odd. We hadn't heard anything from anyone. The tour from Tiger is representation. Mark Steinberg was at Houston taking care of his other client, Gary Woodland. It was odd that we hadn't heard anything. Well, that all flooded out this afternoon and evening. We hear from Tiger Woods about 6.40 p.m. on Tuesday. He says, I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today. That is not acknowledging per se a problem, but acknowledging an issue. He fully recognizes it's very serious and a quote, situation. I'm stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery. I'm committed to taking the time needed to return in a healthier, stronger, more focused place, both personally and professionally. I appreciate your understanding and ask for privacy for himself and his family, which he is of course should be granted. A decent statement, quite frankly. Seems like he will seek some sort of treatment for what appears to be a painkiller issue, painkiller problem. The reason I brought Kevin in was the police report that came out, finding more specifics about what the police observed in him. There was a lot of what we've observed of him, quite frankly, from afar on television, sweating and glassy-eyed. At times, he seemed lethargic and not fully with it. But also that there were two pills found that were hydrocodone. Kevin and I talked about that. This statement came a little later, so he will be stepping away indefinitely to work on himself, seek treatment. Which I think is a great first step for Tiger. Obviously, we all wish him well and hope that he finds the lasting cure and treatment, or figures out how to battle his addiction and his problems in a more lasting way. Shortly thereafter, the PGA Tour issued a statement, pretty basic milk toast boilerplate stuff. They needed to do so, hadn't heard from them. Given Tiger's prominence, they needed to weigh in. One came from the Tour itself, just saying we will support him and his focus on his health. Then another came from Brian Rolap, suggesting that he will support Tiger. He's been influential, and his friendship and perspective have been invaluable since he joined as the CEO of the PGA Tour. That's the latest on Tiger. There was far-fetched pondering about whether he would continue to stay in the field of the Masters. The statement doesn't explicitly say that. I guess he could be stepping away for seven days, but no. He is almost certainly done. He's out for the Masters, which seems appropriate, given where he's at, given the discussion and focus around him at the current moment. Wouldn't be good for him to show up to Augusta with the current state and the current coverage. He will be out for that. We had heard nothing. I had heard there was an FCC meeting today at about 4 p.m. Presumably, he was not going to show up for that. We learned a statement later on that he was not present for that. He's stepping away, obviously, from FCC, not just golf, not just the Masters next week. The FCC, where he has a role, a leadership role, quite frankly. Josh Carpenter had some supplemental reporting on that, that the tour spokesperson said they do expect him to come back into that leadership role when he is ready, and able, and willing. This isn't a goodbye, a permanent restructuring, and a divorce. He didn't seem like he was appropriate to contribute to that committee, that all-important committee in the current state that he's in. He will be stepping away. Those are the latest updates on Tiger. It seems to make sense. It would have been a circus at the Masters. It wouldn't have been good for him. It wouldn't have been good for those around him. I don't think he's, of course, has the right. He's earned the right to play the Masters based on his career and his accomplishments. I don't know that this seems like a great decision or the appropriate decision. That's the latest on Tiger. This obviously came in after Kevin and I had talked and we hadn't heard much, but just wanted to reflect on the police report and where we are with the Tiger. This is the latest in the Tiger story. Fortunately, now this gives us a temporary resolution. We won't have anything up in the air. A limbo of Monday of Masters week or even going into this weekend. We'll focus on a little bit on Texas Open and then jump right into the Masters without the Tiger question linkering. Without further ado, we're going to jump to a discussion with Kevin Van Volktenberg on the details of the arrest, the police report, and then more on the future of Tiger. Before we do a medley episode with Meg Adkins on ANWA and then Joseph Labanian is favorite, the Valero Texas Open with some amusing news and nuggets and your schedule for the week. So that's this Wednesday edition of the Shotgun Start. Let's get to Kevin. Greetings and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Shotgun Start. It is April 1st. Kevin, how we doing? Brendan, we have to stop meeting like this. The Tiger gets in trouble and all of a sudden I'm making multiple appearances on the show for a week. What's going on there? You're welcome here anytime. It doesn't have to do with Tiger controversies. You'll be on next week from Augusta live from Augusta. We cannot wait to get down there. We've got two houses. We've moved up a little bit in the world. I wouldn't say we're getting reckless with the funds. We've just got great sponsors. We've come a long way since the original Bixby house for the Shotgun Start in 2019. Speaking of Tiger. But we're very excited. Very excited. You'll be with us frequently next week as we get down to the Masters. Things are happening. We've got a lot of good content coming. But I really am here today to talk about the other disaster that emerged this week, which is to Sean Watson. I saw that Haslam said he was going to be potentially another home run. He could still work out this deal. Haslam, what's that? I mean, Andy's not here. I feel like it's my obligation to talk a little bit of Brown's football. I think this is your carpet bagging Ravens fan. You're just trying to jam me right now as a Baltimorean. I'm not even really a Ravens fan. I enjoyed it when you called him a corrupt dishonest criminal organization. I mean, Lord knows that I was someone who helped reveal some of that criminality. You didn't. You know my history. You were in there and the inside like Bob Woodward breaking up. I've been in there for a long time. Get into the Rod and Moral Center as you were. Now, I look. Yeah, I mean, I want to stick my head in an oven. What are we doing? This is our owner of our football team. I don't know. I, you know, I side with the YouTube comments are when we talked about Illinois Final Four. Like the non-golf stuff's got to go. I was like, well, you got to go. You just got to find a different pod. I'm sorry. This is not that pod for you. No, sorry. We're trying to get, we have some professional consultancy services just telling us how we should do this and that. And then he just stares back at them. Like, I don't think you know what this is all about. I mean, we're not talking about golf right now. What is that metaphor? Jimmy Haslam just like, I love that he bought the box and the box went in the shitter. The NBA team like, yeah, like it just, he's got the kiss of death everywhere he goes, you know, Wiggled out of a rebate issue. I'll just leave it at that. True. He could throw Tigers away. Maybe he's got an attorney. He could throw Tigers away. What is the next metaphor? A swing and a miss, but it could be, is it 01? What are we talking about? He's been here. It's verifiably, incontrovertibly the worst trade in the history of the NFL. I think what's more than a swing and a miss at this point, it just destroyed the franchise for at least five years. Could be 10, but it could be a home run. What I saw one of the Browns bloggers, the blog boys today, I think it's Pete Williams or Pete, somebody, I forget his name. It was like, what they failed to understand is like literally every fan, every fan is completely and entirely done with the Sean Watson. He wants no part of this, wants him off the team, out of their lives completely. Doesn't even want the even remote 1% chance. And our owner just walks into traffic when he doesn't have to and brings him up. Like it talks about how it's this grand possibility. Could be a home run. No one wants this. No one. The fans are done with them. It's just, what an idiot. What a complete idiot. I saw it's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. He's in the building. He's working out Dylan Gabriel is gone. Dylan Gabriel has a friend in the building all off season according to Munkin. I saw Shadr gave Munkin like an elephant, some kind of brass elephant of some kind. A horse's head. I don't know if this is a Godfather issue or what's going on, but a gold-plated horse's head that he keeps on his desk. Did you see why Munkin, they do the coach photograph? Todd Munkin. 30 of 32 coaches were there. McVay was not. Todd Munkin art, you know, who dresses like a cop from NYPD blue with the detective look, blazer and jeans, untucked shirt. He wasn't there because he was getting a haircut for the picture. He missed one. What? I will show up in defense of Todd Munkin. They scheduled this picture. They sent out the email of when the picture's happening and the picture never happens at that time. Todd Munkin's never been a head coach before. He doesn't know that. I was very angry the first time I attended the owner's meetings because I wanted to be in the presence of this picture that goes viral every year. And I missed it because I showed up at the assigned time. So I stand with Todd Munkin on this. I will just say though, if someone who were to miss the NFL coach's photo, if I had to pick someone who would do that, it would probably be someone who left Derek Henry on the bench when he had 200 yards rushing and just forgot about him entirely for the fourth quarter. I would win game against the guy. So far as to say the Brown's head coach feels like no matter who it is, feels like the person who would potentially miss this. I do feel bad because we have some international listeners and I think they the NFL stuff is very kind of confusing to them. What I would love is if one of those international listeners who follows the NFL, who understands the tragic comedy that are the Browns, if they could help us translate what English Premier League team is the equivalent of the Browns so that we could sort of refer to them. Because I know like Man U is down right now and they're kind of a laughing stock in compared to what they once were, but they're like the Yankees or like the NFL equivalent would be the Ravens or something. Like probably Steelers or something like that. But I would like to know what is the what is the like Premier League equipment of the Browns so that we can continue to call back to that. Well, in theory, they wouldn't be in the Premier League anymore because they get really if they sucked it. That is true. Or being Syria. I think that's how you pronounce that. Is that the fancy football boy name Syria? Because we have the rights to Italy. I don't know what that means. The Browns won the rights to Italy. I don't know what that that means. You can recruit a bunch of tough Italian guys to play defensive back for you. They were announced they made a big show of this while our owners talking about the shot. Our coaches kicking on time for their hair cut. Shadoo, Shadoo, throw me the ball. Come on. Come on, Shadoo. Oh, Kali Gluck Zimmerman treated the meme of the Italian chef loading like a penne into a con. He was like, they won the Italians in five months from now. Anyway, Browns talk. I can't believe April 1st, they're tormenting me. I just want to talk about the Masters. I want to talk about Andwa and they're tormenting me. You're killing me here. I brought you in to start with Tiger Woods. We're going to do a medley episode. Andy is otherwise then disposed with one of the great living architects for a future video. Doing a medley. Going to have Meg talk a little and watch stories to watch Joseph on his beloved Texas Open, his major. The last true defender of TPC San Antonio. He'll come on and talk about that. Kevin, I wanted to talk to you about the serious news of the day. There's further details coming out about Tiger Woods. The police report, which he's been often, you know, in the past has deferred to that. It's all in the police report. Not sure he would do that in this instance because it's not a particularly flattering picture. Several reporters had the details of this. SeanSockofGolf.com was the earliest. I saw the athletic between Brodie Miller, Gabby Herzig also had a report. It was getting around mid-morning. According to Sean, Woods claimed in the report that he looked down at his phone as the vehicle in front of him was stopping. He then tried to overtake it. They tried to get around it. You can interpret that how you would to avoid a rear end. I'm not sure. But was looking at his phone. He's got to talk about Jordan Spieth about taking the pledge there and not glancing at your phone. The officers observed Woods as lethargic, slow and quote, sweating profusely. His eyes were glassy and bloodshot and quote, extremely dilated. I would say most critically, you know, I look, I would say those are descriptions that we call could apply to Tiger in recent settings. Where we've seen it. If we're being honest, right? Aspects, elements of that, whether it be on TGL on TV or some other instance. Most critically, two white pills that were found in his pocket after he had been placed under arrest and searched and they were hydrocodone. Vicodin would be another name for that. That is a painkiller. He told the officers he's had, I believe, seven back surgeries and 20 operations on his leg. Which is when they asked if he had medical conditions. Just to say, you know, observe quote, several signs of impairment. They also said he was alert and talkative and he had hiccups during the entire investigation. I wish this wasn't so serious so that we could make jokes about the hiccups for years because the hiccup repeatedly hiccuping throughout the entire thing is the one funny element of this whole thing. But I mean, obviously not funny. That is a personal hell. I wouldn't wish on. When you have the hiccups, man, and you can't get rid of them, not the sidestep here. That's a tough one. Tough one. I don't know what that onset, maybe just, you know, whatever was laughing about something. But most pertinently, I would say there were two hydrocodone pills in his pocket. He said he had taken some medicines that morning. That part is redacted of what he is on. His prescriptions seems like a hippo thing. Obviously, if he's on, he's prescribed those and declared what he took that morning. Does this change anything about how you initially interpreted the story? My initial reaction is no. It feels like the hydrocodone pills are a little bit of a smoking gun in a way. Not that there was any great sort of mystery about what was going on. I don't think it changes really anything. It makes it harder for the people who want to say that he didn't do anything wrong here, that he blew 0-0-0 on a breathalyzer, so they got nothing on him. It's pretty obvious, I think, that there's some issues going on here that are going to need attention. Some people are frustrated that we're kind of dancing around this, that the media in general is dancing around this, that we didn't bring up the slurred speech stuff before this happened. I understand some of that frustration. It's a complicated thing. I don't think that the reaction would have been particularly positive if we were on here every week, being like, man, Tiger looks absolutely just loaded at TGL. What is wrong there? He's sweating this and that. I think we've kind of alluded to it in some ways. I think all the people who are kind of taking a victory lap on some of this stuff about the media did such a bad job of this, I think that's kind of gross too in its own way because it's... There is a... Yeah, you're kind of just wanting to sort of rub it in. You're kind of basically being like, Tiger's a horrible person. Why is the media protecting him? The media is sort of complicit in all this. Listen, if you want to have a nuanced conversation about did the media do a good enough job of covering Tiger over the years, I probably would have to start with what is the media, but that's a conversation that you and I have had before. Are we doing a good enough job? How do we address this issue? When people are talking about it, they don't ever want to talk about it on the record, so what do you say or do? We have stories that we would not share because someone is sort of... We're basically asking ourselves to have some journalistic principles and not kind of blab every single rumor that we can't confirm or don't know is true. So it's a mess, man. I feel empathy for Tiger because he's obviously in a lot of pain and he's obviously dealing with this. Let's just be honest about it. He already went to rehab once for a dependence on pain addiction. His agent flat out called it that. Wouldn't refuse to call it addiction, sorry, but a dependence on using pain medication from various surgeries, and that was almost a decade ago. So it's clear that these issues, as they often do, have returned. I think it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to continue to be sort of excusing him. You're seeing people like, well, I hope he still plays in the Masters. Like, God, can we have any sort of perspective here about how that probably wouldn't be the healthiest thing for him at this point? If he's in a lot of pain and can't play golf without these kind of medications, you really want him to walk six, seven miles over two to four days at Augusta. That's cool to you to see him put himself through that much pain. I feel like part of our addiction to him is like a co-dependency relationship, is that he in turn needs it too, that he wants that adoration, and I don't think it's healthy for us to continue to give it. Yeah, I think in relation to the coverage, I think we certainly hear stories, but I said last Saturday when we did our first reaction to this, I'm not sure there brings a ton of value just passing on some sort of tale of hearing he was zonked out or incoherent or slurring his words. What it does do though is you get accumulative, predibly sourced tips about that, and it impacts how we present and portray him to you, hopefully. Rich Lerner had an interesting quote on a podcast, and I was like, we have to stop pretending. I can promise you, we were never pretending here that he was this sharp as attack engaged a leader of the PGA tour. He had a leadership role. I promise you, we do not interpret him and portray him that, and that's how it affects our coverage, but there's no value, I think, in just passing along a bunch of tales about how maybe he was not coherent at a certain... What was evident to the eyes and ears on TGL, I think, was plenty. I thought it was worthwhile bringing you on with that. I mean, those were pertinent details. I don't think it changed my perception of it, but it was pretty cold, hard. I know Defunds and Trinny will just get blow all... I'm not saying it's hold up in court, but it is impactful. Yeah. I mean, I think one thing that journalism has sort of evolved is that you don't have to take the police for their word on things. He will certainly deserve his day in court. There's no reason why Tigers should have submitted to your analysis test. You are not obligated to violate your own Fifth Amendment rights for the sake of the police, but from if what is being alleged is true or is clear on the body cam, you don't have to be drinking alcohol to be impaired. And when you can't... And they've read through the police report, like, he couldn't do basic clapping exercises. He couldn't walk on one leg, obviously, like part of that is maybe his surgery stuff, but it's clear that he was not right and that he was not completely there. They had him sit on the bumper of the car and do some of these things. I always think about the first accident they was in when they found him asleep by the side of the road and they asked him, like, can you touch your toes? And he was like, no, I absolutely cannot. And just like how much pain he must have been in, that was 10 years ago. Yeah. You know, that was... Yeah. So, I don't know. And I just... I find the whole thing to be a little bit messy and a little bit like we're just ping-ponging back and forth between, you know, defending him or criticizing him. And none of it is like, we're not going to come to any like a conclusion, any sort of real answers that everyone's going to agree with. Just know, I wrote a piece for ESPN in 2022, a year after the first accident, or excuse me, the most recent accident, we almost lost his leg. And the reaction to it was pretty negative. Like, and it was asking some of these same questions that we're asking now. Oh, yeah. There was a lot of people really angry, really like, F you, you don't... Tiger, I know you anything. You piece of shit, you know, this and that. I mean, I got a lot of hatred from a lot of people and it was basically like as respectfully as possible being like, you know, like, why didn't we ever get any answers to why you were going 85 and never pressed on the break and why you were essentially like stopped at a stoplight for seven seconds when it turned green, you know, right before this accident, clearly something was wrong with you. And why did the police basically just decide, oh, yeah, we're just going to not make any kind of, you know, charges here, not even any like destruction of property, nothing like where it was. I think it was hard. If people who ask say, well, the media didn't ask for it, tough questions. Like, there was a great example. I asked it and the USPN was really nervous about it, to be honest, when I was writing it. And we had to work through like, is this respectful? Is we making sure that we're not, you know, implying anything that we don't have an evidence here. And so I think it's a little disingenuous for people to be like, man, the golf media is so in this pocket. Like, not only is the golf media like super fractured, but also like some of us did ask hard questions and it kind of went nowhere. And the reaction was pretty much overwhelmingly, don't do this. Yep. Yep. I do think, yeah, this is going somewhere. I think the police report was another incident, you know, occasion to, or the story was advanced in a way, obviously for sure today and worthwhile having you on to react to it and discuss it. We will. I'm pretty positive on this podcast move on from this to the golf. We're very excited about the golf. I think Joseph is excited about the golf this week. I'll have him on to talk about his beloved Texas open. But thank you, Kevin, for jumping on. Shout out. He's got some exceptional writing coming. We have our course, every whole act guide up for the masters. We have a lot of, you know, player profiles, just stuff with the irons and the fire. Kevin has advanced our coverage in a big way this year. We can't wait to get there, but I think the work done in advance has been awesome and substantial. So subscribe to the newsletter, the pods, website. Websites are still a thing and we are going to keep committing to the website and, you know, well-designed pages and writing on the website. So follow us next week, this week. A lot of good preview content coming. Kevin, thanks for jumping on. Appreciate it. I know, I know there's some of you out there who aren't subscribed to the newsletter. If you hate Twitter, X, whatever the heck it's called. This is a great way to get around that and to still see all of our content. So please subscribe to it. All right. Thanks, Kevin. We'll see you pretty soon. Great. All right. Thanks to Kevin for his time. He will be with us in August next week. We can't wait. We got a lot of content already planned and obviously we'll be reacting and doing content on the fly, whether it's newsletter writing, website writing, podcasting, obviously. We'll be fired up. We can't wait. Weather looks glorious so far. Early weather report. Sunny, sunny and warm. And if you're in for sunny days ahead and we all are with the weather turning, you can stock up on sunglasses, new sunglasses at ShadyRays. ShadyRays.com. It's our new sponsor, new eyewear, sunglass partner. Look at this. PJ is jamming with graphics to use the code shotgun. That's easy enough for me to remember. Now we get this graphic. ShadyRays.com. If you're serious about your golf game, your vision on the course matters. I would say that's an accurate statement. You got to be able to see the play golf typically. And I know there's some blind golfers that are quite successful, but vision matters generally speaking. I'm sure ShadyRays is happy with that digression. 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It feels like I just lost one at March Madness about a week ago. 40% off two pairs, SHOTGUN for SGSList Nurse. The code is SHOTGUN. You get 40% off two pairs. Try for yourself. The shades rated five stars, but over 300,000 people, real people, presumably 300,000 lined up and rated these five stars. Go to ShadyRays.com. Code is SHOTGUN for 40% off two pairs. We will jump now to Meg Adkins. Talk a little, Anwa, and then flip over to Joseph Omonia, get into Texas Open, and all the rest for the schedule for the week. We now welcome in Meg Adkins of Friday Golf. Meg is our women's golf reporter on the beach. She's going to be at Anwa, the Augusta National Women's Amateur for a third straight year, fourth straight year. How many years in a row is this, Meg? Making me do math right off the gun. I think it's four. I think it's four. I think it's four. That's right. So this has become a little tradition for us, the Friday coverage. The biggest women's amateur event, maybe, is it bigger than the US Women's AM? Are we saying that now? Are we allowed to tiptoe into that? Is that kosher? I think it's got loads of history now. This is our seventh edition. Not nearly at the same level as the women's AM or other of the premier amateur events, but it's Augusta. I think there's only one Augusta. There's something about this week that's different, that's bigger, that's grander, than even the biggest AM events out there. Even bigger than some of the women's majors. It'll regularly outrank and rating some women's majors. That's the power of Augusta. So there is this foushion bargain with the whole thing, right? Like, yes, Augusta, paying attention to the women's game. Thank you. Put your weight and your heft and your imprimatur on the women's game and boost it and do all you can for it. Well, at the same time, I don't know, the USGA, the Robert Cox trophy, all this history, all these legit actual history, I would say, 100 years history. Then, as you noted, seven years. Augusta National, obviously, has much greater history, but seven years only in the ANWA. It's hard to take issue with it, outshining, outrating other things because they are getting behind the women's game, but that is sort of the give and take. No, and at least it's not essentially on top of the, what was then, you know, Kraft, Nabisco, ANA, Chevron, but of course, LPGA was the one that had to move out of the way. Yeah, it was. It was. And it's funny how, you know, not many years down the road that sometimes really gets brought up anymore when this week comes about. Yeah, listen, like, I think if you're in the women's golf space, you'll take any spotlight, any attention you can get, right? And this is a big, big stage for some of the best young players in the world. The scheduling issues have gotten better, obviously, right off the jump. It was like, here's the spot we're taking, move out of the way, women's major. It's still, you know, the LPGA will be playing a big, you know, venue this week at Shadow Creek, so they're still stepping on toes a little bit there. I think it'd be ideal. And not saying that, like, the LPGA, veterans and pros need to move out of the way for these teenagers, but I do think it would be nice if they weren't kind of stepping on each other's toes, because I think a lot of people, women's golf fans too, may just be turning in, tuning in to Shadow Creek on Sunday once, you know, the annual is wrapped up. So, yeah, I agree with you. It's hard to, like, critique in nitpick. This is more attention in one of the weeks to circle on the calendar for women's golf, right? But, yeah, it's, it's, it certainly has in short amount of time gone to the top of the list in terms of what's out there for women's golf. Interesting. I would imagine Fred Ridley knowing, like, that he has daughters and wants to boost and support the women's games. That was the only initiative. It wasn't to, I would imagine, alpha or move others out of the paint, but that was, that's just sort of what comes with the Augusta, the Augusta Heft. By the way, I love that event at Shadow Creek this, Shadow Creek this week is the Aramco Championship. What a time to be in bed with big Middle East oil. Love it. Totally. What a great time. Yeah, yep. I think they had that in mind, you know, they're hoping for this scenario. Yeah, when they, when they officially welcomed the PIF and the Saudis as a, as a co-section LPGA, L-E-T event. This is just what they imagined happening overseas. This is going on. Every player should have to answer a question about their thoughts on the straight, whether they should open, how they should open up the straight. That just has to be natural tie-in to the brand. I would love to hear some strategies from, from the players there. All right. So you mentioned Ann was gone to the top of the list. Where are you with the 2026 edition? You're going to be there. What day are you going in Thursday? Or no, I'll be, I'll get in like late Wednesday, late afternoon, Wednesday. So we'll get champions second round Thursday. That cut line is always fun to watch Thursday. Friday, you have the awkward practice round where you can get some quotes here and there that the gals get to see Augusta. They're the first people to see Augusta, you know, outside of, you know, players here and there going for a visit. So that's always interesting. And then Saturday, yeah, the main event. But with, with this year's edition, I think, like major storyline and, and name that anybody, maybe you watch the women's majors and you tune into ANWA on that maybe yet, like everyone, that's, that's aware of ANWA knows the name, Astris Talley at this point. I, she's, when she was 15, she finished T8. That was her first, you know, go around at Augusta. The runner up finish last year, the fireworks on one with the, with the eagle. There's just something about Astris that if it's a big stage for women's golf, she finds her way in the mix and finds her way towards the top of leaderboards. I'm excited to watch her and see what she does. I think she's developed obviously, obviously a bunch in the few years that she's been playing ANWA. I think a lot of that you can look towards the, you know, the US junior teams, the national junior development programs of which she's a big part. I watched her at Lancaster in 2024 when she was 15 and when she was in the top five, I think, going into the weekend. I think you can like probably say that was towards the top of her ceiling that week, right? Like as a 15 year old, that's probably pretty darn happy with that, how she played there. And it's just like, she looks like she fit in back then when she was playing that well. She certainly fits in with the best of the best. She just showed that again last week in Arizona, you know, again, going into the weekend in the top 10 with, I think it was 22 of the top 25 players in the world at the Ford Championship in Arizona. So she's got the game. She's got, I think, kind of that, that factor for getting in the mix and making a name for herself. And I think there's certainly a very good chance that she's champion come Saturday. I feel bad for the aggregators, the content creators, the tick talkers that Miles Russell, top 10 did, top 10 did from one PGA Tour event to the next. Or the Kip Korn Fairy Tour, I believe, from one to the next. So he was, I think, assigned or planned, scheduled to Cady for extras and is not because he should be, he's playing a Korn Fairy Tour event, which is still a junior goal. I think they may have kind of made that arrangement when they both won the junior Invitational a few weeks. Yeah, yeah, Sage Valley. Yeah, that's the early catnip call of the week is out the door with Miles. That's right. Miles Dittmer. Yeah. Yeah. What else, what else should we look for this edition of ANWOC? I kind of was writing a little bit for the newsletter about, you know, just, there's always, the top players are always going to show up to this, right? It's always going to be whatever, 49 of the top 50 or whatever it may be. But I think what's kind of fun and different and makes it, I know we talked about Astros has a little bit of a front runner, but this is always a wide open event. Part of that's due to the format. You kind of get the champion's retreat gauntlet. It plays difficult. And then you have like an 18 hole sprint at Augusta National, which is a tough place to go sprint at, especially if you're only seeing it for the first or second time even. So you have what is always kind of open, open anyone's game type of field. You have your favorites. But what's interesting this year is a lot of the top players are playing really, really well and coming into this week hot. Talked about Astros, Farrow Keefe from Texas. She's won three times this spring. Our currently row mine friend, the program had an article that just came out about how she shot 64 in a practice round at Augusta National recently. So there's some familiarity there. There's some good feeling there. Did they get practice rounds? Do we know what's the situation there? Okay. Interesting. I know they have to start capping it for some amateurs for the get into the Masters, right? I think that's the Bryson role, maybe. If anyone in the USM, you've lived at Augusta, but the practice rounds. Some get invitations. There's some find their way on. I think it sounds like she played there shortly after the Darius Rucker, that collegiate of it with some other players and stuff. But yeah, that's got to feel pretty good for Farrow Keefe. I mean, like Kira Romero, top ranked player in the world. She's playing very well. They had a little press conference with her and she just talked about how good she's hitting the ball. That swing is pure. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if she's up there. She played in the final group last year. A lot of these players, this is the third or fourth go around a fifth or sixth, if you're Megagone. She's another one to talk about as a contender after. Something going on with her. She's not played her last two college events, I was told, and then declined media today in Augusta. Nobody really knows what's not trying to ignite speculation, but it does seem like something's going on. Not playing her last two college events and then not really wanting to talk about it, which is fine. Yeah, I'm interested to see what the first round at Champions looks like for her with that going on. Yeah, but yeah, the Stanford just contingent. I think that Paula Martín, San Pedro, Andre Revolta, they're all on the top, whatever, seven of Wagger. Everyone's winning recently. You get that many players feeling that good coming into this. With the history now that we have, many of them have gotten close or almost across the finish line. I think that'll just make for Saturdays always a ton of movement on the leaderboard, high numbers, people going low. Wouldn't it be surprised if we're in some sort of playoff situation again? I think that's kind of, you just have the cream of the crop rising up right before this annual kicks off. Andy was making a similar point about the Masters. I'm going to try and agree with them totally. I'd have to look into it, but just like all the best players playing well, but that's kind of changed a little bit. The Collin Moore, Cowherd, things like that. But yeah, it does set it up where it's early enough in the year that you think like, it's not right at the start of the year, but early enough where people aren't worn down or injured or anything like that. You have the best players with some reps playing well. So yeah, that's good. That's, I mean, that sets up well for a good leaderboard and a strong final. But like you said, the formats, the format can create like unpredictable results, right? I mean, we've seen top players, Rose and others win here, play well here, but it is sort of a sprint. And champions is, I'm going to say it's funky. I love that. It's just the Nicholas and Palmer nine. Gary player has been fond of just poking Augusta and talking about the poor management and all these things, but they won't let him play with his sons and all these. I wonder if it's because they've cut out the player nine in the rotation of the Van La. I'm shocked we haven't gotten some sort of quote from him about the outrage and the disrespect of not having his nine as part of that routing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this has been kind of my bone to pick, I guess, with this kind of from the jump is, this is, this gets more attention, like I said earlier than, you know, every other amateur event, some of the women's majors on the LPGA side of things. And it's got a format that you don't see ever that is not replicated anywhere with the day off Friday and then one round, one sprint at Augusta national. And I think it's interesting, like you look at some of the winners and they've kind of actually struggled with Augusta national. I can thinking particularly of Rose Zhang, like she shot 76 the year that she won it, but she had that lead from champions retreat. She's 76, 74, 75, 75 in her four ANWA appearances where she played, where she made the cut. Like Meg Agone, she hasn't ever gotten close to breaking 70 at Augusta national. It's like, would you have like totally different winners and storylines if it was 54 holes at Augusta national? Probably. Yeah. I mean, it's just interesting. And then you have the people who kind of go low. A. Galitsky last year from Thailand, she plays for South Carolina. She shot 66. Like she's a super high ball hitter. It's really far. And it's just kind of interesting that, yeah, you may have somebody jump out like Rose Zhang did the year she won too big lead, like Meg Agone did last year with her 63 in the first round at champions. And then it's just a whole different ball game with Augusta. And it's either, yeah, build a lead and hold on or you're freed up at Augusta. And it's more, you know, fit your game like a Galitsky or like a Bailey Shoemaker. She also shot 66. So it's wonky. It's the wonkiest of formats out there, honestly. Champions is pretty punishing, right? Yes, it is. Usually like the cut line is kind of the cut to get to Augusta is pretty remarkably high or low, however you want to measure it, but it's punishing. Like the leading score usually is just a little under par frequently after 36 holes there. Why is that? Just tough for the women's game or just tough in general? Yeah, it can get firm. It's normally pretty breezy out there. They'll stretch it out and it's long. I'm sure, you know, honestly, probably part of it is some of the nerves. Like I mean, the crowds at champions are huge, but you get good followings, especially on Thursday when you're kind of getting towards that cut line and there may be some big names on that cut line. But like Augusta National, the crowds there, like that's like nothing any of these players have seen, except if you've been to ANWA four or five times and you know what you're getting into. So it's just, it's the premier amateur event in terms of attention. We get, I mean, there's three hours on CBS Saturday, like that's major-esque TV coverage. And it's just, it's funny to me that this is the format for this premiere event. And I will, one of these years, they're going to get jammed with the weather. And they got close one year where it was like, okay, finish up and at champions on Friday, let's set our cut line and then rush over to Augusta for the practice round because all the players get the consolation prize of playing the practice round. And they don't have any room on the back end because Sundays drive chip and putt. Oh, they have all the, they can move those pits out of the paint. They're going to push those two to the side. All those helicopter parents just crying in their beer, those crazy youth sports. You move them out of the paint and make them just, you know, slink away down Washington Road. I'd be happy, quite frankly. I'm hoping that happens, that ANWA should, you know, absolutely happen if they have to push into extra debt. Oh God, ANWA cancelling drive chip and putt. Oh, absolutely. Get the crazy golf parents out of there. I'd love it. Yeah. Yeah. It is like when you think about it. Now, I've played champions for a while. I think it was 2017 or 18. There can't be two like dramatically different courses, you know, in the same championship. With that, I know they're generally in the same area, but I think like walking off the first tee down that hill might be the, would be the biggest elevation change you'd get all week at champions. Like there's totally different planets of like land when you play in terms of undulation and golf on uneven lies and uphill downhill, side hill, just feels like you're on a different planet compared to champions. I would imagine. Yeah. It's not great prep for the 18 at Augusta, right? It really isn't. So you got to get that prep in during that practice round Friday. So yeah, it's odd. What other notes or takeaways you want us or I'm sorry, items you want us to focus on for this? Is there a best case scenario for like women's golf for ANWA? Is it asterisk tally? Is it simple? That simple as that? I think it is asterisk. Yeah. I think another one that'll get some attention already getting some attention is the SMU Emily Odwin from Barbados. I think you will appreciate her mentor is the one and only Ian Wisdom. I guess he has a house in Barbados. This is, Beth Ann Nichols kind of had some reporting on this. So I love that little tidbit. Yeah. She played in here. I hope not a mentor in all things. Like I know. Bar fighting, drinking. I don't know if you can get it. If there's cars in Barbados, hopefully she's just taking swing lessons and golf lessons, golf mentorship from, from Woozie who we love and adore. But yeah, you don't want him as a mentor in other things. Yeah. If I see Emily getting a hot dog at the halfway house, I'll be worried that she's taking on more of his habits. No, but I think that that's a very cool story coming from Barbados all the way to ANWA. She played at Aaron Hills and kind of, I liked a little nugget from that Beth Ann article about meeting Charlie Hall and Charlie, she's like, where are you from? Emily says from Barbados and Charlie's just like blank stare. And it's like, is that where we're on us from? And that's like her only connection to Barbados. So that's pretty good. Yeah. So there's always going to be kind of a feel good story. I think it would just be really cool to see her make the cut and play on Saturday at Augusta. But no, I think like one thing to watch that maybe you kind of only get on site, but I think as the coverage has gotten better, you'll have on site reports and everything Thursday afternoon during that cut line when emotions are super high. You have some people in the field that are happy to be there, will be happy playing their practice round at Augusta on Friday. And then you have others who it's, they will be very upset not making it to Saturday at Augusta. And you see that range kind of all clustered right around scoring in the 18th and ninth greens at champions. And it's a, it's a, it's a highly emotional area to be around. They still do the hard cap at 30, right? There's no ties, right? There are ties now. Okay. They added in ties. I love that sort of cut like seven for two playoff. They would be at champions. I was kind of fun, but I get it. I get it. Everybody through to Augusta, I guess, of your T 30 or but fine, fine. Okay. Good. Well, uh, well, last one I had was, did you see Stanford team is wearing some Sunday red, even though they have a Nike deal? I saw Josh Carver, like what's going on here? Are they like, it's the no mage to Tiger, the other Stanford, I mean, it's an interesting week to get in the Tiger business, but, um, it is. Yes. It's a choice. Are they out from under? This is an official college event. So they can just decide to wear off brand. They can represent Stanford and not whichever way they want. I guess they're gonna have to represent Stanford if they don't want. Correct. You'll see the, the, the college golf bags swapped out for big and blazoned Callaway or Titleist with Azaleas and flower. This is, this is activation overload with, with, uh, with head covers with, with hats with, um, with all of that. And I'm guessing, yeah, right. The NIL year. Yeah. NIL era. Everybody. Yeah. The amateurs can get their piece. Love it. I'm guessing Sunday red got in there with a, with the ANWA, you know, contract deal of some sort. So, mm hmm. Got it. Got it. All right. All right. Well, we will be looking forward to your coverage. You're going to be in the Friday newsletter. Visit the podcast. I think it's done Saturday by like 2.33 usually right by Saturday on NBC. Get the big network coverage. Always one of the highlights of the year. Great. Like sort of, uh, entree then into the masters. It's much better than watching the Texas open. Uh, it's a great Saturday watch. So, uh, we'll look forward to your coverage. Read you all weekend at Friday. Newslet recap Sunday recap Monday in the newsletter and look forward to it. Thanks for joining us, Mike. Of course, it's a great, great week. Always a fun one. Uh, I'll get PJ a review of the new candy bar, uh, from the, from the concessions area. So, get the hard hitting stuff in there too. You're always like, this has become a tradition where you're like a head, you're like on the front lines and you report back about merch, merch, shop, hide out hot items, food items and how the course looks and all this is one of my favorite traditions throughout. Yeah. Yeah. First look, first look. Love it. Love it. All right, Mike. Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it. Safe trip to Augusta and, uh, we'll, we'll be following all weekend. Sounds good. Thanks, Brendan. All right. We now welcome in the boys, boy one, Joseph Lamania, boy two, PJ Clark. Uh, we're going to round this out this episode, this medley episode. This might have everybody, business Pete might have him joined just everybody on staff. Just do a full round robin for this episode. Um, boys, I mean, I, I, Joseph, I don't know if you heard, I don't know if you know, I could hear you talking while I was waiting backstage. Sounds like you're, you know, you want to be upgraded from boy to man, but I'm getting reports. Like it was listening backstage. You're just moved into a new apartment. You have no garbage cans. It sounds like you just have a garbage bag in the middle of the floor of your new apartment. You've closed everywhere. So I just, that's a life I would love to go back to a place of time, chuckled about that garbage bags just in the middle of the floor without a receptacle. Uh, PJ, I got PJ all worked up today talking about, uh, you know, uh, stereotypical Yukon fans. Let me just put it that way. Maybe Italians who are very excited about their Yukon future. You just, what are you sort of going nuts? You were ranting, you said that you just copy paste. They're probably Yankees fans too. Yeah, definitely Yankees fans. This is my definitely where to chain. I was angry. I'm still angry. I will be angry for the foreseeable future. I told you about it. Yeah. Met some Yukon fans. You're all worked up. So I'm excited to have the boys with me. Uh, boys will be in person next week at Augusta. I think this is both your first time at the masters, uh, as a media member. Is that fair to say? That's correct. That is fair. What are you most excited, anxious about next week? Trepidation about anything most of looking forward to? What, what, what do you think is going to happen? What are you excited about? What are you looking forward to? All right. It's looming. It's looming. It's got to be looming over your heads right now. I don't want to like get inside your brain, but you got to be excited. You've got this big deal coming down. Well, I was going to say before, you know, you, you preempted with some of the Yukon and apartment talk, like it is amazing that the one tournament a year that people outside of golf actually care about. Like we've had 11 months and it's finally here. And then in four days after that, we get the masters. So focused on the Valera, Texas open, but when the masters comes, the masters comes. Uh, no, I have not been to the masters as a media member or as a patron. PJ, I know has as last year. So I think the part that if anything gives me anxiety, it is people saying that it will meet your expectations, like that no matter what your expectations are, that gives you anxiety. Why does that? Because I don't, I think it's going to meet my expectations, but I don't want to show up and be like, yeah, that's what I expected. I kind of want to be blown away. So, uh, that if there's anything that gives me anxiety, it's that, but I'm really, really excited. Uh, I think, I mean, I just have anxiety when I wake up in the morning. So it's kind of, you know, it's not, nothing really is adding on so much. I'm very excited. I'm very grateful for the opportunity. Are you looking forward to anything specific? Um, I think my biggest moment of the week is when we are done with the live preview on Tuesday afternoon slash evening. When we hit the end, when I get the end live stream button that day, it will be potentially the biggest relief of my life. So that's what I'm looking forward to. TJ, like we, our relationship with the audience is that screw ups are a feature and not a bug. They expect the low bar. You should have no anxiety about any issues. All right, we've recorded this in cars, planes, trains, automobiles, like don't worry about that. Is there anything about the media center you're looking forward to? I predict one of you, I predict one of you, because you could take your phone into the media center, obviously, all the way in. So you're on the grounds, obviously, you cannot take it out of the media center. I'm going to predict one of you as a reflex, you know, you get up at your desk, you put things in your pocket as a reflex. One of those is always your phone. I predict one of you wander out of the media center with your phone and you end up, you get down, hopefully you catch it soon enough, you get down to the drop off area, you're about to go on the course, realize your phone is in your pocket. And if it's PJ, I hope you don't die from heart attack, because it's just a reflex. It's not, it's not intentional. It's no ill, you know, malintent. You just throw that's your year 2026, you just, you know, you kind of get your keys or you get your notes, you get your phone, you throw it in your pocket, you walk out, it's just part of your, part of your person at this point. I predict that could happen to one of you. Yeah, that feels like, that feels like something I would do. And feels like something I'd have a heart attack over. I am, I'm ready to be daunted by the press conference room. I, because, you know, you, you know, it's the big, you know, arena seating with the desks. And that feels like just a big moment. I'm, I've never been a big press press guy. What is it? Why is it? I don't know. It's just a big, big scene. It's not like flash quotes. I don't even like flash quotes. But I certainly am not going to like being in the big, you know, literal thunder dump. So that, that I'm a little anxious. What's your call for answering questions? It's okay. I've never been a press conference guy, you know, it's hard as a journalist to not be a press conference guy, but it's always given me a tremendous amount of anxiety. I don't want to bother anybody with questions. I don't want anybody to think I'm like looking at them while they answer questions. I don't want to make eye contact with people. So that is a source of anxiety for me. I generally found press conferences like the players are in a more defensive posture, if that makes sense, as opposed to just talking to them on the side one on one. But, you know, sometimes it's the only time you get, or then, you know, or you're giving them a window, I don't know, giving the rest of the room a window into what you're thinking or trying to pursue. I don't know. There's a different value, certainly for press conferences, but I'm not going to. Sounds like PJ might need to step away from the game for a while to work on some things. I mean, that's some stuff to get worked out. You're telling me, but we're going. We got what, five days, so whatever. We'll be out of play. I think you're in first. You got to take care of a few things. Set up the house, maybe buy some shampoo. I got to buy soap and shampoo and water. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I've learned my lesson on that. Lamani, anything else? You're looking forward to excited about, you know, Visa-We being a media member or press, I should say. I think that's the term that it is. You know, honestly, yeah, I think PJ talking about it last year, about how happy everybody is when they're on the grounds, seeing people tweeting about like that they won the master's lottery and just how excited they are to experience it for the first time or hearing all these stories on different podcasts. I've heard people like, was listening to Roussillo and somebody wrote in about that they're getting their first master's experience and how excited they are. I just think the general vibe, how pleasant the place is and how excited everybody is to be there and how happy everybody is. I know that no phone thing gets overplayed, but I'm really excited for that to not have my phone and just to kind of experience probably that as much joy between Monday and Saturday as exists in professional golf. So I think that part of it I'm pretty excited about. Yeah, I would agree with that. That's a lasting image for me last year that I'm excited to be back. It makes you happy or at least make me happy to be around so many other happy people, which is I just think it's pretty cool and not something that you get every day. Yeah, yeah, good. Well, you will keep us young and remind us that we got a good refresh our perspective. But yeah, I agree. It's stressful, a lot of work. Can't wait. We got a good crew gone full crew, full house gone. I'm excited. Also, not to bring it back to the apartment thing, but for one second because Brendan, I think you will and PJ, I'd be interested in your take, but I think Brendan will be especially have an opinion on this. Speaking of no phones, the or the opposite, this apartment I just moved into the only your keys are purely digital. Gone. And if you lose, if your phone dies or something, you cannot get into the building. In a sense, it feels like we've gone backwards. I hate it. That's so dumb. I can't stand it. Always replacing the battery on my key like a keyless, you know, the remote start and all this stuff. I hate it. What's wrong? Why can't we just have real keys, normal keys? We do or both. You know what I mean? Yeah. Alternate like, you know, two options. Yeah. Why can't we use it? Relatedly, not to take us even further on a tangent. Why can't we use cash anymore? I know. It seems ridiculous. At the arena for the March matter. I hate the digital tickets. I just want a paper ticket. I want them to rip the stub. Like I can never, you know, I lose service. I don't have. You gotta download it. I get it. It's supposed to be, I bought it on Teakpeak, but it's actually supposed to be transfer. Like I have had big holdups at the gate on multiple like, why can't I just have. And you can't be that guy. Freak can't be that guy. Paper ticket and just rip the ticket for me. Are you with the group, you're with the group of four and two go in an hour ahead and then that just becomes a huge thing and transferring the tickets. Yeah. I sound like a Luddite, but I feel like we've gone back. That and touch screens on the Soda machines are insane. Why can't we just like, why do I have to hit like a path that's navigate this path of 20 buttons, like diet? And then just not that I get Soda more than once a year, but I was flabbergasted. I will not, I will not hear Slender on the Coke freestyle machine. That's a bad take. I don't know what even that is. It's a bad, bad take out of you, but the rest of it's fine. Yeah. Excited for the masters. Very good. In short, very excited for the masters. All right. Well, I'm pumped too. I'm getting ready. You got to get through Easter weekend here and then one last, uh, a ride home. What? What do you got to get through the Valero, Texas? So I swam this stuff that gets set on this podcast. I mean, I got to be honest. I have had head down and masters prep, masters work, masters writing, research. I don't know much about what's going on at the Valero, Texas open. Let's get to our schedule for the week. It's a TP, C, San Antonio, the Oaks course. Quote, one of the oldest tournaments on the PGA tour. Uh, this is the Valero, Texas open. It's on golf channel four to seven, four to seven, six PM finish on NBC on Saturday and Sunday, right before the final four starts on Saturday. Sunday, I think we'll be in transit on the way to Augusta. Uh, defending champ is Brian Harmon in what was probably the worst PGA tour event of the year last year, just a blowout non-competitive. Uh, I'm not suggesting Brian Harmon's a bad winner and unworthy. It just wasn't very competitive and everybody was a hunt to this event sucked. Blavanya, that doesn't mean that happens every now and then. It was an awful, awful tournament. Did not think you're, I honestly think you're overstating how bad it was, but go on. I do, I do remember it being really bad. It was bad. Didn't he run away? It was hard, right? Didn't he shoot like a 75 on Sunday and still win by three or something? Yeah, whatever. Continue with the schedule for the week. Notables, Ludwig Oberg, Tommy Fleetwood, now of a big with private equity, Blackstone, alternative asset management, just the, the innocence loss from the boy, Tommy Fleetwood, Ricky Fowler, Brian Harmon, Hideki, Colin Moracawa is listed here, but he has since W.D.D., another troubling trend. Jordan Spieth is there, you know, rocking balls on top of the, on top of the hotel that get free relief. J.J. Spawn is, it rounds out, I guess he's still, still in Notables. Still making Notables. U.S. Open Champion. Um, Joseph, why do you like this event so much? What are we looking forward to this week? I applied you, you know, you have a credential. Are you going? You talked a big game. You're not even going to get there, are you? You're going to have a seat there and no, no show the whole time. I've been too good for this Texas Open you claim to love. I don't even, I don't know where that's coming. I'm hoping to get down there. Yes. So that, that takes care of that. Um, you know, who's not going to be there is Corey Connors, which is a little bit of a mystery to me. Two-time champion who's not even playing that well this year could use the points. I'm actually shocked he's not in the field, but yeah. Well, he's Garrett. He's gearing up for his T eight next week. He's just warped up his art. I'm worried that he might be hurt. I don't know that it's a positive sign, PJ, but why do I love this event? Look, if somebody was, I know I've talked about the golf course a lot. If somebody is really interested in building the next generations of the best golf courses in the world and studying the best designs in the world, I don't think they need to go to TPC San Antonio. I don't think that's something that they're missing in their knowledge of the best golf courses in the world. But I think from a, what tests professional golfers, there are some things that TPC San Antonio does very well, namely why'd misses get crushed? And I still think some people in the gambling and the DFS community miss some of this when they say that, you know, the rough is short and you don't have to be that accurate. It's true. You don't have to be the most accurate driver of the golf ball in the world, but you cannot spray it. And the guys who are cutting, you go into a bramble there, the oak tree, like it's just, you're essentially toast. So you saw the famous Kevin Knuckle, like you just don't, if you go way off the fairway. And that's a lot of the holes out there. And the par fives are like true two long shots, not a foregone conclusion that you're going to make birdie. And that's a big part of why the winners the last few years haven't been that far under par. I mean, Brian Harmon won last year, like nine under. I think I have, yeah, nine under the year before Akshay was 20 under, but third place was 11. Akshay and Denny McCarthy kind of ran away with all time performances. Yep. You have to hit the ball very well here. There's often wind. It's always going to be firm. And I know it's, you can't always base the quality of a tournament based on its past winners, but like Brian Harmon, Akshay, JJ Spahn, Korty Conner, Spiers, Farley Hoffman, all-time leading money leader at the Texas Open. It is a true ball striking test. And I think if you wake up and you love PGA Tour Live and you get a cold, windy morning at TPC San Antonio, it's really fun to watch who can actually golf their ball. So again, if this tournament were to go away, I would be, I would be sad. It's not the, I'm not going to argue that it's one of the best tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule though. It's not, I understand that, but it is a really good test of professional golf. Man, you're getting romantic about waking up on a Thursday morning, the wind is blowing and it's cold and the PGA trip, like you're really romantic. You almost had me there romanticizing. It's like, I could, it does feel like a true love. Like you're not bullshitting us. Real ones remember, I think it was the 2015 Valero Texto, might even like 16 or 17, one of the greatest wave splits in the history of the PGA Tour. Like the flags bending sideways, I think 21 of the top 25 were all in one wave. If you didn't enjoy that morning, I don't know that you're a real golf fan. The COVID golfers will never understand. I feel like we've gotten a lot of anecdotes about like some college events there where it blows like 70 miles an hour and like you just did possible, the possible to get the ball in the hole. I don't necessarily, I'm not like super anti this event. It's just you're focused on the masters. We're like head down in the masters. Like in a vacuum, it's probably fine. If it were in whatever, mid-March or something, two weeks ago or a different time, it's probably fine. You just kind of head down on the masters. But do you feel like it's good at Gusta Prep in any way? The same way the old champions? You know what? Can we? Look at you all fired up. I honestly, with Houston too, when we talk about Augusta Prep, it is so ridiculous. I think this whole idea of Augusta Prep and the Tour prepping these guys for Augusta is completely... The agronomic... Ridiculous. Conditioning, the agronomic... If you better go to Memorial Park, I don't think you could find one person, no matter what their condition is, that thinks they're at Augusta National. And I like Memorial Park, but they could not be more different. This whole idea that the reason we're trying to get... I'm talking about the old champions, of course, the old one, when they had the shell used to open. But same problem, probably. Agronomic. All right. I don't know. The notion that these are supposed to serve as prep for Augusta, I think is kind of crazy. But no, it's not great prep. It's not quality. Do you have a one-and-done pick? Who do you like? Are you still like last time? I'm still deciding. I don't know. I'll tell you tomorrow. We got to do five guys to monitor. Oh, all right. Fine. Let's do five guys to monitor at the Texas Open. Joseph has the honor, as this is his event of the millennium decade. I think we got a good list for you, PJ. Hey, Joseph, as a carpet-bagging Texan now, as you've jumped... That's the second time I've used this pot. I think I called the KVV that about a Ravens fan. What ranked the Texas PGA Tour events in order best to worst? How compelling they are as a fan? What is it? It's four, right? Schwab, Craig Ranch, Valero, and Houston. I'll say... I guess we now have the Good Good Championship, but that doesn't count. It hasn't been played yet. Well, I mean, Houston Open might become a signature event. I don't know if you saw that news story. Jim Crane, he of the all-achieving Astros franchise, wants it to be Tier 1 or Track 1, whatever they're calling it. I have the Texas events rated when I do my annual course tier. It's pretty high, maybe because it's firm and often windy. I don't honestly think pretty highly of these events. I would say quality of the tournament, not just the test. I would probably put the Schwab Valero in Houston, I think are all pretty similar. Then Craig Ranch is just way down. I do agree that if the Valero had a better time, a better date, it would be viewed a lot differently. Everyone's focused on the Masters, but as much as I like the event, I think it would be hard for me to put it above even the Schwab or Houston. They're all tied. They're all like the second tier event that kind of work. They're all fine. Are we allowed to pass judgment on Craig Ranch though, before the big... The landing. ...debut of the renovation? That's true. A lot of negative feedback. That was so much equivocating. You're like, three are good. One is bad. I asked you to rank them. That's what you did. I would be interested in your... What do you guys say? How would you rank them? I like Houston a lot. I love Houston. I love watching Houston. Colonial is the real deal. Colonial for me is like a legit OG tour event. Has the course been obsolete a bit? Sure. I think that's a great event with real history. Also, not a great spot on the calendar. After that, I'd probably go Houston. Then I'd go Valero, and then I'd go CJ Cup, Byron, Nelson. But there's different eras. That's where the current era is. A lot of events to choose from. We'll see. Maybe it's the good, good championship eventually. It goes to number one. All right. Who do we have? Five guys to monitor at the Valero Texas Outfit. You're taking Andy's spot. Five guys to monitor. Let's PJ. Let's get into it. I don't remember the exact order that we put these in, but trying to fill Andy's shoes here. Let's go number one. Lucas Glover. He has missed three straight cuts after ending his radio show, his Sirius XM radio show. My question is this Samson in the book of Judges, Losing His Hair, Loses His Power? Has Lucas Glover lost his mic and lost his power? It's interesting. He needs that. It's like his therapy. He needs to be on the radio hooting and hollering about how the injustices and the misguided tour leadership. He's bogged down by politics now. As the president of the pack, he can't handle it. Can't handle it with his play. It needs an outlet instead of an inlet taking in everybody else's story of how he ended up there after saying he wouldn't do it for 12 years. This is an interesting one. I like that. Lucas Glover. This is a Norman course. I should also mention he wasn't playing great before. That didn't fit the narrative. I'm glad you're being honest. A true honest takesman. All right. Who's next? Who's the next guy? Who's next, Peejay? Oh, Charlie Crockett. Yep. We got another Crockett in San Antonio. Is he returning to defend his family's honor at the Alamo? I think this is a good storyline. Don't worry that he's from England. That has nothing to do with it. We got another Crockett in San Antonio. Brendan, Charlie Crockett, somebody to monitor. Can I ask a question? Who is Charlie Crockett? I don't think I've ever heard of or seen this individual until this guy to monitor. Well, that's why I'm putting him on your monitor. He Monday queued in. Okay. There we go. I wish the best for me. It does seem like remember the Alamo would be fitting if he could show out in San Antonio. I mean, God, I watched the Davey Crockett show go. I'm dating myself, but King of the Wild Frontier. Is there like an ancestry or 21 and me type activation that could do to me where they figure out if he's related to Davey? Could you imagine if he was? I mean, he's got a... Crockets are there. All right. I love that. Charlie Crockett looks like a sort of like a punky punky guy. Got the gold chain. Is that what's got going on there? He's got a headshot. I'm PGATOUR.com. Which I was surprised to have. I don't mean in a bad way. He looks like he's got some edge to him. This next one, I think, is my favorite of the five person. I don't remember what's coming. Oh, Jordan Smith. Battling for low Jordan S on Spieth's home turf. Brendan, do you know their respective official world golf rankings? Right. That X cup standings. I'm going to guess. Excuse me. I'm going to guess Spieth is like 65 and Jordan Smith is like 75. That was good. That was good. Jordan Smith is 67th. Spieth is 63. We may have a changing of the guard of the low Jordans and Spieth is getting a favorable setup. Familiar territory. He's played very well here. Going to be hard for Jordan Smith to overtake him, but it could happen this week. Hey, you know, Spieth's strokes game approach numbers have been decent right now, which I'm sure you're ready to just blow an Alamo sized cannon right through with that narrative. Worst case scenario with the Masters. If Spieth just body bags Cameron Yon at the end, would that have you just like crawling back to the media center? I don't know how PJ feels. I kind of want the Cameron Yon thing to go back down. Cameron Yon to me is kind of like Bitcoin. You need to flush out the people who don't have the paper hands. We need a little dip. Everyone to say he stinks again. We're going to stay there and we're going to win the Masters next year. There was a jeweler, I believe. Is that an accurate term? A jeweler on Twitter today by the name of Ben Baller. I think he's fairly prominent commenter for reasons unknown to me, but he said Cameron Yon. He was doubting Cameron Yon. Well, he said he doesn't have it in him to finish in the top 10 at Augusta, which is something that he's already done two times. Was that a class of wine you just threw back on this podcast, LaManya? Hold that up again. It's Rafter Dark. Was that wine? We don't drink in podcast here. Rafter Dark. We've done this for eight years. Certainly not in view of the camera, at least. P.J. Connecticut. I'm 48 hours into a move. Can we get to the fourth? What is that? What is that nice bottle of Charles Shaw that you just throw in the garbage bag in the middle of the family room in your new apartment in Austin? What are you doing? All right. Two bucks shot. We're off the rails. Cameron Yon. I would prefer if Cameron Yon won the Masters to be clear, even if it means Dan Orlovsky also feels joy. Another Yukon fan that I'm not happy with at the moment. However, I would accept a Cameron Yon win. We've already alluded to this fourth guy moderated this week, so this will be quick. Yes. Charlie Hoffman. It's been a tough start to the 2026 season. He has missed seven straight cuts, but now it's coming back to, I mean, this is basically Hoffman's alley, I think. Who else? Spieff, Hoffman. Those are the two that dominate. Yes, tough start to 2026 to use his terminology. He's the fourth guy to monitor. Hoffman's alley. Can you be a good event if your course is known as Hoffman's alley? I'm sure that's what Greg Norm when he designed this sort of fun house of horrors. Didn't have modifications by Sergio. I believe Sergio got his hands on this a little bit and modified his burgeoning design career earliest days. I think that's the combo. I believe if I'm not mistaken. What a dynamic dude. Hoffman's alley. Now it's known as. Okay. Okay. All right. And then number five, PJ. Adrian Sadier. I think it's probably Sadier. Would he be the most beloved French athlete in San Antonio if he gets the job done this week? What's the, oh, Victor Wemby? Is that what you're getting at? He's more beloved than Wemby? Could be anybody. You think Wemby comes out and watches if he's got a big lead on Sunday? He ambles over to the TPC San Antonio Oaks course. I mean, if you're a French sports fan, you've probably already been thinking about moving to San Antonio with what Wemby's doing, probably going to be there for the next decade. I feel like if Sadier wins and you know that he's going to be coming back year after year, just kind of strengthens the case. So I think that is a real story to watch. Hey, are people in Austin, do they have an NBA team and which way do they go? Or are they just not NBA? Are they agnostic? Cowboys fans, as far as football goes, basketball, I'd say you get mostly Mavericks fans, at least was my experience at the university. Not a huge professional sports town. Some soccer fans, unfortunately. I was going to say the soccer team is big, I thought. I thought they do well, at least. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's a huge sports town outside of the university. I mean, it'd be a good time to get on the Spurs bandwagon, I would think. But, okay, five guys to monitor. I love it. Do we have picks for the Valero Texas Open? Do you have a pick? You're going to say, oh, come back to me tomorrow after the podcast is done recording. You go first. You go first. You go ahead. Lead us away. Joseph said, you know, you got to be accurate. You got to have a good approach play here. I'm riding the Russ bus. I think he's kind of live next week, even. But I think if we could get a good result for Russell Henley here, I'll take it. Okay. Not a decent pick. Good pick. It's a big, it's a jumbo purse. I forgot to call that out. It's 9.8 million, which I guess is just pretty much par for the course at this point. But it's a big purse. Good time to use Russ Henley. LaManya, who's your pick? Who do you like? You go. I'm getting mine picked. All right. I'm going to continue. He's going to, doesn't have a spot yet next week, but got to go to the most high profile tournament. If you want to win hearts and minds, greater pop culture, you know, icons. We know it was Sudarshan, Sudarshan, Yellow Mirageu, and his continued barnstorming attempt to woo the court, Sydney Sweeney. I don't know if she's even eligible. I don't know if Sudarshan is eligible anymore. But that's the theme we're going with here. A good pick. He's a good station to station baseball player. I'm going to go with Sudarshan Yellow Mirageu. He's going to play his way into the Masters. And then, you know, there's going to be rumors of rumblings. Is Sydney Sweeney on a PJ flying it like that one Sunday? We thought Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey were coming to the Masters. It's going to be this year. Is Sydney Sweeney coming to watch Sudarshan? I'm going with that guy. He's a good pick. Sydney Sweeney stuff aside. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I honestly think he's an interesting name to watch this week, just because he's got a lot of speed. I agree. And when you don't have the speed fully harnessed, it can get tricky out here. So I'm actually just interested in learning a little bit more about how good he is this week. This is a good task form. Totally different than Memorial. He has just such like, how would the term would be? The effortless, it looks unforced speed. You know what I mean? It doesn't look like he's heaving himself. It's bizarre, right? It's a little different. I like that approach. It's a little different. Yeah. It's sneaky speed, I should say. Who's your pick? I'll give Thor Bjornsson. Let's take Michael Thor Bjornsson. What was that? What was that ground? All right. No, it's fine. Hey, Siddarshan's not asleep or any more either. So let's just level set. I think Thor Bjornsson, he's winning a golf tournament soon. And yeah, that's true. That's fair. These are all major champions that have won recently. I could see it. TBC, San Antonio. That would get me excited to Thor Bjornsson win at an iconic golf course. I'll go that way. All right. Good picks. Thor Bjornsson. It's the handling and yellow mirage you are picks to win the Texas Open. We'd love to see Siddarshan at the Masters next week. Thor is not in either, right? He was in the 60s, OWG. He's not in the field yet. So he's got a win. Everyone's going to tell you Ricky though. Ricky out being in the Masters is some kind of travesty, even though he's only played in one of the last five. That's where I thought you were going when you did your not in the Masters yet. You got to appeal to the Masters. I thought you were going with Ricky. Oh, a lot of people picking Ricky. I have not been dialed in on anything Texas open this week. Well, the Internet would like to see Ricky next week. So I think by that metric, you inherently have to pick Ricky this week. All right. Valera, Texas Open, a punishing test that, you know, you got to play T-degree in golf. You just have to. It's very diametrically opposite of what we saw last week, kind of, right? I mean that like you have to be T-degree in semblance of sharp. All right. Continue on with our schedule for the week. On the LPGA Tour, we have the Aramco Championship at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. Just a coming together of heartwarming, understated brands in Shadow Creek and Aramco. Love that. Love that. Just a real classic throwback tale there. Understated for the LPGA. The purse is 4 million, which I'll just say is not enough. If you're getting into bed with the Aramco, you should be higher. 4 million, not enough. Notables in the field are Hannah Green, Brooke Henderson, Charlie Hull, Hujukim going for three in a row, Lydia Ko, Nelly Korda, Minji Lee, and Ataya Titicul. This is primetime viewing on Golf Channel, 7 to 10 PM with a 9 PM finish on the weekend. Sort of overwhelmed a little bit early on with Anwa going on, but good Sunday, 9 PM finish on Golf Channel. The Aramco Championship at Shadow Creek. What a heartwarming tale that will be to watch. Love, open up the straight. Watch the Aramco Championship. That'll help open up the straight. More eyeballs on the Aramco. All right. Continuing on with women's golf, we have the women's amateur, the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Champions Retreat Golf Club and Augusta National Golf Club. Two very different venues, very different courses. This is 1.30 to 3.30 on Golf Channel Wednesday. You might be listening to this on April Fool's Day. 1.30 to 3.30 on Thursday. This is roaming coverage. I don't know if it's officially in the truck tour broadcast, but a lot of shots showing and roaming on the ground coverage. Saturday is the main event on the big course that is 12 to 3.30 on NBC, which has come to become a nice Saturday tradition. Just talk to Meg with some of the names and storylines to watch about the quirky format. So that's your full ANWAP preview with the coverage 12 to 3.30 on NBC finishing. Notables we've already gone through. Don't need to do that again. Elsewhere, we have, oh my God, the drive, chip and putt finals are included on the schedule for the week here. You love that. That's big for you. 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Golf Channel on Sunday. It's just run its course. I've had it. I've had enough. I suppose I got thrown into the youth sports scene and I just don't. I have no time for these parents. I have no time for the kids either. I understand it's a great initiative to grow the game and get kids into golf and spread the gospel, but I just, I'm worn down by the youth sports parents. These parents at this drive, chip and putter are really trying to be thirst buckets. That's all. If you could snap your fingers and delete either drive, chip and putt or the Little League World Series, which one would you do? Probably the Little League World Series. It's a lot more inventory. It's like a whole month. Drive, chip and putt only provides like three hours of relief. Little League World Series is a whole month with all these ridiculous kids and the coaches peacocking about. I'm into that. I love it. So that's your schedule for the week. I'm pretty worked up about the youth sports these days. My latest is, you know, Instagram has, what's the T? Time out? Get a time out? No, any more technicals for you? Just any, any more technicals? No, just got the one. So I will say someone on our bench got a technical the following week and everybody thought it was me. A lot of parents thought I got the technical. So I'm living with that. I don't know whether to bring it up and say, you know, no, that wasn't on me. I've seen it, all the hurly discourse and him getting in the ref's grill the other night. I was kind of thinking about you, Brendan. Come on. I'm nowhere near like that. I don't get at the refs at all. What I'd like to put a fatwa on, you know, how Instagram has, you know, they flag, you know, inappropriate content, you know, you can't, there's all sorts of moderation. They need to flag, delete, moderate all, all youth sports accounts. All these kids are creating these accounts and it's like Joey Smith, class of 2037, you know, super lacrosse elite class of 20. Like that's all Instagram now is for it's a vessel for these kids to post highlights that are all doctor. None of this shit matters. They're not going to be in high school for another eight years. Some of them I intimately know and have seen and brother, you know, half the time I don't know if you're shooting or passing when you throw the ball in the air. Like this is a thing and they're creating these graphics committed. I want to say I've committed to switch youth sports programs. I'm not talking about high school. They do it for high school now. Eighth graders are like taking my continuing my athletic career. You might be. You might, you might play freshman basketball or freshman football. They're all posting these graphics with, you know, flames and lasers in the background. All this bullshit on Instagram. It says I've committed to go play, you know, baseball at this school and now they're doing it like sixth grader is changing football programs. Like I'm taking my talent. They use that phrase now that LeBron, the scourge that LeBron has left of taking my talents to. And that's coming from him. We Instagram has to get on this as if it was inappropriate images, delete them all, youth sports. I'm talking it's going into grade school and the parents are driving it class of like 20, 36, 20, this program, the word elite youth sports. I got to slow down. The word elite has no meaning anymore because everybody just says, you know, this is so and so tri-county elite. You're not elite. Your parents just paid for it. Your parents paid without everybody thinks they play travel now. This is true Brown's fan. Trying to defend the honor of Joe Flacco and elite quarterback, trying to bring, bring elite back. Well, now they just everybody says they're elite. That's a sign you're probably not at this point. That's less scared if you come in and you say, you know, so, so county elite. It's ridiculous. What's going on? Believe I played on a team called the elite. That was my Well, I mean, it's crazy. You want to just be like, you want to just be like the Suffolk County just okays. Like, what are you, what are you looking for? The Speeps. Just say, you know, your nickname, Suffolk County Hawks or whatever you want to be and just go kick ass. But this whole like elite to marketing arm means nothing. And all it is like, you know, to be to play travel sports, you had to be good. You had to be like top three or four. Now it's just do your parents have the cash to pay for it. And of course, it's a race to the bottom because everybody, you know, my kid can put one foot in front of the other and can walk, which means you could probably play travel sports and I could pay the four grand or five grand or 10 grand, whatever it is. So now every, it's everybody jumps in and if they follow each other and all like, oh, I'm playing travel lacrosse club lacrosse. Great. That doesn't mean your kids any good at lacrosse and it doesn't matter what they're doing because he's 10 years old anyways. Right. And all that matters is how because he's probably held back. That's the other thing. They go by great. So they hold them back. Right. So now you're, you're, you know, fourth grader who's 11, but none of that shit matters because all of a sudden you're just relying on your size where not developing skill. And then when everybody becomes your same size at 13 or 14, it's everybody, it's puberty. Now they have better skill and you're in for like the whole gray shirt and thing has been totally disproven as like, it's just a total like it's sort of a fool's errand and like gives you a yield to immediate results. That's I sports city use for it. Sorry. I will say that, I mean, this is 15 years ago now, but we, we had a buddy repeat eighth grade and he's still made fun of to this day. Well, that's not the case here anymore. It's like more accepted than not weekly on a weekly basis. He will still get made fun of. I see this all the time. I'm not gonna spit like, Oh, she or he is great, but they're bigger and stronger. And then by the time they're 14, they're like, they're already not fast enough. I could see it. You could see it now. Everybody's going to catch up in size and speed and skill. The skills are all going to level out and they'll probably have more skill because they weren't relying completely on being twice the size of the person. That's kind of improvement in soccer and baseball already. Anyways, that's my mini use sports. I mean, there's also a great golf, probably great golf conversation down there too about like, do you actually have to play AJGA events? Like, do you have to play events that cost $300 to get into? Like, no, there are going to be some really good pros that don't do any of that. We have to, like it's on the parents. Like the parents, like, well, if Billy's playing for Super Tri County La Crosse Elite, that means Johnny can do it too. And like, I don't want to be left behind. And so that is where we start this sort of Keep It Up with the Joneses Race to the Bottom stuff. And none of it matters. None of this shit matters. You won some tournament in the middle of nowhere on a random weekend in March. None of that matters. I played AAU basketball with an amazing team. It was one of the great experiences of my life. And I remember all the kids I played with, I legitimately don't remember a single thing like we want. We were good. Like, I don't remember winning the whatever county cage classic. Like, I know we won some stuff, but I don't remember that. I remember like playing with those kids. This is the thing about travel sports. It's like, I won the whatever, the super law, whatever, some random tournament. It doesn't, that doesn't mean anything when you're 11 years old, it's fleeting. And they post the medal on Instagram and then move on to the next one and try to recruit kids from it. Anyways, are you familiar with baby Gronk? Vaguely. Okay. I think this is what this is stemming from because this is, I mean, he's got like millions of followers and it's just this kid who's not, not going to be an athlete. Sure. Who is just, you know, taking official visits to play college football at like all of these schools and like met Livy Dunn on campus at LSU two years ago and went like mega viral. He's like, you know, eight, 10, whatever. Yeah. This is the baby Gronkification of America. I look so in short, the drive chip of putt, not, not, not my favorite thing right now. I love sports. I love you sports. They should absolutely pursue all those activities, but we've sort of twisted the, twisted the goal of them or the purpose of them quite significantly. The next thing it's going to have, there's going to be some junior golfer with a million followers who can't drive chip or putt and they're going to get a sponsor exemption and someone's going to try to explain why that's actually a good thing. Or they're going to get a YouTube video. Well, that opens up Pandora's box. You can play on the YouTube tour now if you really want to. How, however, will there be an aim point controversy at drive chip and putt again this year? Will we actually get pace of play in forward, right? Mr. Chairman Ridley was all about that. That was called that out. I forget. I, it was, what was the word that the British reporter used in the question? Yeah. It was John Hopkins. I think that's his name. It was something incredible. We have to bring that up next year. The little, the little chap or the little wheel. Yeah. Yeah. I have the transcript. I would love that. Like a kid's going to win and he took too long and now if a sudden he's just bawling his eyes out because he took too long. I mean, I think it's probably wrong to make an example of the 11 year old before you make an example. I, that I actually, I disagree with you. We got to dip this in the blood. If 11 year olds are aim pointing, it's time. I know that. Anyway, John Madrid and DeMonte, Dishart. Yeah. Love that. Anyways, I had just, I, that was about 10% of what I want to say about you, sports, but it's fun. We've got a big spring ahead of us. All right. That's your schedule for the week. Master's fact of the day, a quiz, quiz. How many multi-time winners are there in the field? More than one time winner in the field right now. In this field? This field, 2026 field. Who do we like? Tiger was one. He is no longer in the field. Is he, oh, he's officially removed. Okay. He said he's taking a break. Maybe the break lasts until next Thursday, but I don't think that's the case. I was counting him. He's out. There are five. You can't look, it looks like you're scanning something right now. Get off the top of your head. There are five. I have, I have, I have Bubba, Phil. Yep. Scotty. Scotty. Those are the three I had off the top of my head. Tiger's four and one more. Well, I wasn't counting him. It's a hard one. It's a harder one. Still playing in the field. Not Bernie. Similar. Similar vein, similar subset. Jose Maria a lot. Okay. So we have four. Phil, Jose Maria, Bubba and Scotty. Yeah. Yeah. All we hear about is how the masters is like really only like 10, 12 guys can really win it. Right? It's actually, there's these guardrails have come up. Are you surprised there aren't more like modern repeat winners? More modern? Like Phil and Tiger are essentially done. Like I'm not going to say they're done. Like their competitive careers are essentially over. Jose Maria's out. Bubba, I would suggest is out. And it was like kind of a quirky, lefty, just absolute perfect talent skill set for it. And then there's Scotty. Scotty's really the only one where I could see he could win four or five. There's just not a lot going on compared to we had Watson and Lawner and all these guys who have recently left the stage within the last 15, 20 years. Is it harder to repeat? Or is this just sort of a, or is is this the right amount you'd expect? I was a little surprised by that. I mean, I think it's kind of the same argument that you can get into with any historical context. I think everybody is just better now, whether that be because of equipment or the fields are just deeper or the bottom of the fields are better than they were 20 years ago. I think the bar is just higher. I mean, it's just a thing that was happening with frequency, like Faldo and then Lawner and then a lot of the ball. It was just happening with the greater frequency it felt like. I think I can actually get behind that, Brendan. I think the best players of the generations, Augusta does allow you to separate. You probably should win a couple. Like, I think what you're kind of getting at is that DJ only winning one is a little, is probably a little surprising. Like that's probably somebody who should have been a repeat winner and Rory probably should have been a repeat winner. There's time for him. I guess. Yeah. On the board right now, he's the most realistic. Some people consider speed to have three. He only has one though. But I'd say on the board, he's probably the most realistic. Scotty, obviously, wouldn't surprise you if he had one. Rom, Rom, Rom, Rom, Rom still has plenty of time. Sure. He still has plenty of time. So maybe this kind of corrects real quick in the next three to four years. I think what you're getting at is that DJ and Rory missed some opportunities. And if we said that there were seven in the field, like it probably wouldn't seem like a lot of them. Not a lot. It's just, there's no tiger and fill out there where it's four or five right now. And I guess maybe Scotty is the one that's coming for that throw. Okay. All right. That's your master's fact of the day. And interesting, just checking the cross tabs there. News? Tommy Fleetwood has a new hat sponsor. It's really bad. Alternative asset management, Blackstone, private equity firm. I talk about swinging hard from just the romanticization of, oh, he's wearing a hat from the Pebble Beach Pro Shop. And now he's got a gold boy on his hat. People are so charmed by this to, I mean, private equity firms right now have the same sort of PR standing as politicians, if not worse, in America. It was interesting. The tweets were like, this is like, you could have said Tommy Fleetwood just became, I think Chris Powers had one, like Cowboys Duke Lakers and a fan. And he could have announced that and it would have been a better PR move. I don't have any grand take, quite frankly. Just a hard left turn for it. I mean, it's a hard left turn. I just, the hat is terrible. It's a terrible hat. It's the chunky logo. It's giant. Awful. The brand itself is one thing that you can reckon with however you want. I'm not here to tell you how to feel about private equity. I can tell you if the hat sucks and I'm disappointed in a man that I had higher expectations for to at least not work the logo in a little bit better. It looks ridiculous. The real pros wear and power hats, right, PJ? Yeah, Brent, I think this of all weeks, he's been going around wearing the hats, of course, is that he's actively playing at. So it was definitely disappointing to see him do it this week. Valero week. I've been looking forward to the Valero hat TPC San Antonio hat all year. So that was the biggest disappointment for me. But honestly, respect to Tommy, he played the game. People wrote stories about him being a free agent and he cashed out. You kind of, it's not shocking. No, not shocking at all. Probably got a nice chunk of change. Jason Kelsey is coming to the Masters. Boy, oh boy. My fellow Cleveland Knights native got just blown to smithereens by Golf Twitter. This was not received well in the golf corners of the world. What are the specifics, PJ? He's doing the part three contest in some former fashion for ESPN. Speaking of Tommy Fleetwood, he's going to be the on-course reporter at the part three. So you're going to get Frankie Fleetwood and Jason Kelsey discussing Try and Me Hardest. Shove down every throat you could possibly have. Yeah. Yeah. Why were people so worked up about it? Kelsey's just they've had enough of the golf Masters as a sacred space, even if it's just the part three contest. We don't want Kelsey coming in hollering about like it's TGL. Certainly part of it. I also think there's a level of Kelsey over saturation probably that it's football offseason at the moment. But he's just doing the part three contest. I mean, he's not up in the Vern Tower at 16 on Sunday. Sure. But my point, how many golf sickos are you even listening to the part three? I actually not going to defend Thirst Bucket Moves, but I really don't have a problem with this. And it's probably a pretty good strategy for the Masters to bring in some people who normally don't pay a lot of attention to the Masters. And if Jason Kelsey is posting about it, maybe bring in some some people into the fold. I honestly don't have a problem with it. I mean, it's going to do gang buster numbers on social. It's going to be it's going to be electric. Like it's very clear why they're doing it. Okay, I'm fine. I'm okay with that. But I do. I kind of had enough, even though like I have the biggest place in my heart for this Cleveland Heights native, the Kelsey boys, but I've kind of had enough of that for now as just golfing or not golfing. I mean, it could be Dan Orlovsky. So we skated by that way at least. I bet I bet he's down there. You know, there's a lot of these ESPN talent people floating around the media center. He might have to get into get into it, confront him in the media center. Your first media, first Masters, you know, toss for that's great, man. Squabbling with these. I'll ask. I don't even have to ask where he was for like, St. Andrews. I'll ask him where he was for the 2025 Wyndham camera. Not what big game. What big game is he called? What big game says Dan Orlovsky been around for? What big camera young wins his Dan Orlovsky been around for? What? All right. I think that does it. You guys got any other miscellaneous notes? I had other news. There was an interesting story written about a question you posed to Brian Rolab, LaManya about bundling properties and with for a right steal by Jim Nugent. I don't know that we need to get into that too much, but just they want to do it. Maybe there's room to pick off. They've offered to extend the alliance ahead of the opt out with the DP world tour. And you know, Brian Rob would like to do it, would like to bundle, would like even a piece of equity if they're welcome. It's like, I bet they would. I bet they would like a piece of equity in the majors, but just for supplying the talent. It was an interesting report. I don't know if there was anything super groundbreaking, but that continues to be an under current, but the first major of the year of men's major will probably be a somewhat subject off to the side under the tree, I imagine next week. It doesn't sound like the majors are super open to that right now. And can the tour really force them to share some sort of revenue? It would be interesting. That would some kind of hold out would be one of a PR nightmare for professional golfers who probably don't need another PR nightmare with all the money. I'm not going to play the masters because their purses aren't high enough. That's not happening. Can you imagine? Yeah. Yeah. That's been my whole confusion this entire time. It's like, what leverage does the PGA tour even, yeah, we're supplying the talent. They get invited to the tournament. They can show up if they want. What are you going to do? It's a tough spot, in my opinion. I think, like, allegedly Theo has been driving that one. Theo Epstein, we need our cut from the middle. I just, I don't see how they, maybe they've thought, gamed it out and there's a hammer they can throw. Or come down with. Seems challenging. Theo should go save baseball for like the fourth time. I think the players, just more needed that way. The players want them to keep pushing the purses. And, you know, the USGA can't fund their grassroots initiatives because they had to bump their purse to $40 million, $50 million. You know, I think that seems to be something they're trying to push. I don't know. All right. That does it for news. What else you guys got? Anything else to clean up? I think the only, the only other thing we kind of skated over Colin Morricala with drawing that does. Yeah, I had in my notes. Kind of an impactful one for next week. Since the only reason I guess anyone cares about the Valera is what it means for next week. There you go. Colin with drawing actually is, you know, pretty big player who could legitimately win the masters next week. We'll see if he even plays, but if he's dealing with ongoing back issues, that's a big contender to go down and only furthers the narrative that this tournament is as open as a lot of masters have felt in a while. I also feel like we've said that though over some of the past open couple of years, but yeah, it does feel open. It's open to like 10 guys, maybe. How about the Zeta that qualifies open, I guess? It does feel like dominant favorite. It feels like people aren't talking enough about Justin Rose. I'll just, I'll just throw that out there. Good one. That's fine. After 20 pines, everyone's like, Oh, Justin Rose is going to be a master's pick. And now, like two months later, no one is just not even on people's radar anymore because everyone else has been playing well and he hasn't. But I think Justin Rose deserves some thought there. TGL title. Yeah. I mean, big time players play, make big time plays and big time games. Want a TGL title, baby. All right. We're excited. That does it for this Wednesday edition of the Shotgun Star to Medley, Beefy Medley now at this point. But thank you for tuning in. First of the month, we'll be back Friday. We got a special, special, another beefy flashback Friday episode coming with Andy, myself, Kevin, master's theme, taking us into next week. That'll come on Friday. We will talk to you then.