June 16, 2025 • 57 mins
John Middlekauff reacts to J.J. Spaun winning his first major at the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh, PA. John revisits his previous take regarding if Cinderellas in gold are done in regards to Spaun pulling off an improbable victory. John debates whether the Oakmont course is the most difficult in America. John also reacts to Rory McIlroy's continued confrontations with the media and wraps up with a Middlekauff Mailbag to answer your golf questions.
03:43 - Are Cinderella's actually dead?
06:31 - J.J. Spaun
14:39 - Oakmont is the hardest course in America
29:07 - NBC U.S. Open broadcast
29:35 - Rory McIlroy vs the Media
36:13 - Mailbag
36:42 - What's going on with Rory McIlroy?
39:50 - Unfair coverage for LIV golfers at Majors?
43:48 - Should the PGA tour consider more difficult courses?
46:02 - LIV Golf 50:40 - Benefits of finger lock grip style
52:12 - How to play a consistent 18 holes
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on? Everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
John Middlecock three and out podcast, How are we doing?
Hopefully everyone is doing well, and uh, probably not as
well as JJ Spahn who just won the US Open.
JJ spawn at one hundred and twenty to one on
DraftKings before Thursday, and he took the first round lead,
was one hundred and twenty one to win. So one
(00:40):
of my big takeaways or takes coming into this tournament
was Cinderella's are dead. I believed it too, because the Xanders,
the Rory's, the Schefflers, the ROMs, the Brysons, they had
just taken over the majors for the last six or
seven majors, and honestly it hadn't even been that close.
And then JJ Spond one hundred and twenty to one
(01:01):
wins the US Open. Very very cool, awesome moment for
him on really on seventeen and eighteen. It's always cool
to see like the underdog bank some like eighty foot
putt and like how's he gonna celebrate and he's tugging
his caddy. So we'll dive into Jjspond. The course obviously
is a fascinating conversation because do we want chaos?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Do we want carnage.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I thought I did, and then as a consumer on
my couch for the last couple.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Of days, So I don't know. Is this doing it
for me?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Do I like some more birdies?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Do I like it?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This difficult, so we'll dive into that. We'll take some
of your questions as well at Golo pod is where
we do our golf podcast. I think we get some
questions about Rory McElroy and his I don't really know
what's going on with Rory, but kind of a bizarre
couple months after an incredibly hot start to the year
and finally winning the Masters, kind of going the other
way somehow. Scottis Scheffler still like finished, I think in
(01:59):
the top two at one point in times it's like
a Scotti Scheffer a couple puts away.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
From winning this tournament.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
His floor is incredibly high, but he didn't and the
still photo of him at the end looked like he'd
had enough, like he'd just climbed Mount Everest. But you
can listen to this podcast if you listen on Collins feed.
Make sure you subscribe to three and Out podcast. We
have our own feed, put go Lo on there as well.
Everything goes up on the YouTube channel. You can check
(02:25):
that out. We have a football podcast coming up this
week as well as John Schneider GM for the Seahawks,
will join us.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And we're off and running.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
But before we talk about any of JJ spawns, when
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last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. When I said I
think on our preview US Open pod, we did five
of the biggest stories that I thought coming into the weekend.
Obviously Bryson Scottie Rory led the charge when it came
(04:01):
to players, and then my two other big stories were
Cinderellas are Dead and obviously Oakmont. The course anytime you
go to widely considered the hardest course in America. And
that's the player saying that. That's just not the media
or people on the outside. The players are all reiterating
this is the hardest course I've ever played. But I
(04:22):
truly believed when you factored in the difficulty, my take
on the Cinderella was just based on evidence. Ever since
the split, we have seen a couple guys rise. Obviously,
Bryson has you know, become a dominant, dominant player. He
got ejected this week. But Rory, Scotty, Xander, I mean,
the top guys. And it's not even just the top guys,
(04:42):
it's who they're competing with down the stretch, right, it
was Rory versus Bryson. It's been Scotty versus Morikawa and Ludwig.
It's been Scotty versus Ram. It's been uh, you know,
Rory and Xander versus Hovelin. It's been the top guys
all duking it out in the majors for the last
couple of years, and not since Wyndham Clark, like two
(05:03):
years ago, have we had Like God didn't see that
one coming. And even looking back at that one, you
saw the picture that went viral from tront at No
laying up, I mean, dam losing his mind in that
locker room.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
But I don't just say things to say them, like.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I truly believe like it's going to be really really difficult,
given where we're at with technology, given it how far
these guys are hitting it and how well the top
guys are playing. I mean Rory's finished in like the
top seven in the US Open for like six straight
US Opens and literally finished second the last two. Scotty's
on a tiger like run. Listen, say what you want
(05:40):
about Bryceon I mean, up until this weekend, and really
up until Friday, he had been a dominant player in
the majors. So it's like, you have some guys. I mean,
those three guys, when their careers are over are going
to be known as some of the greatest players of
all time. They're in their prime. I mean, Rory's a
little older, but they're dominating in these big moments, like
how can you bet against them? And then every once
(06:01):
in a while in a sport like this and this
is where it paralleled tennis so perfectly. It's like, and
I'm not some huge tennis guy, but for the last
thirty years at least of my life of following sports,
when I was young, it was like Agassi and Sampris.
Then it turned into Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and now it's
this crew of like Alcatraz and this guy Center and
(06:23):
it's just the same guys every single Grand Slam are
either in the final four or in the finals, and
for the most part, if there's a group of three
or four of them, two of them are a locked
to be in the finals. And that's what it felt
like golf was gonna be like. And then this week happened.
And it's one thing. Golf tournaments are long. Anyone who's
been gambling on golf knows that. You know, when you
(06:44):
take a first round lead, you can't just like put
that guy in stone. It's really hard to fend everyone off. Obviously,
JJ Spahd played excellent on Thursday on a course that
was kicking everyone's ass. You had guys struggling to break
like seventy five.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
He shoots four under.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Part he doesn't make a bogie and he's just kind
of rolling, and he's had an excellent season. He has
multiple seconds I try to figure out how much money
he had made in his career. It's hard because the
PGA app is so delayed. I think, give or take,
he had about he had made. Now he's thirty four
years old and he's been on tour for a while,
like twelve or thirteen million dollars so far in his career,
(07:20):
which obviously for most of society is a lot of money,
but relative to golfers, you know nothing crazy right this year,
coming into this tournament, he will he had made like
five and a half million dollars after today, which I
think the prize was about four point three million dollars.
He will have made about ten million dollars this year,
(07:41):
so he won't have doubled how much he has made
through the course of his career, but he made about
forty percent of his career earnings in the last six months.
He is on an incredible heater this year, and I'm
kicking myself, not because I should have bet on him,
but I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It was probably like January.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'm in the car when I'm driving around running errands
in the morning, I typically will flip around between Coward
and the Golf Channel, and Colt knows who works for
CBS and his podcast partner Sleeves. They have a radio show,
and Colt was saying, I just played with JJ. It
might have been the member guest, it might have been
the member member of some tournament at Whisper Rock where
(08:22):
all the good players play golf here in Scottsdale, and
He's like, I'm telling you, this fucking guy is playing at.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A really, really high level.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Obviously, Colt played on the PGA Tour, played at SMU
knows what.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
It looks like.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So I was like God, and then I actually think
the next week was the Honda and Hawaiian JJ played
really well. And if you've just watched his season, like
he became or he was a revolution, I mean literally
a ball revolution at Sawgrass from winning the players in regulation,
then he goes in the extras on Monday, hits in
the water and gets boat raced. It happens finished a second,
(08:55):
still makes two and a half million dollars or two
point two million, probably more money than he'd ever made
in a tournament in his life. He only had one
career win coming into this season. And then today you
know you're watching obviously it's just a complete blood bath.
You're like, what's the final score going to be? It
felt like before the rain came minus two or three,
and he's just like bogey bogie bogey. On the second hole,
(09:18):
he hits the pin, it goes back like one hundred yards,
gets totally boned, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
On the third hole, hits the rake.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I mean, he's just getting bad break after bad break,
and you're like, I don't even think he's playing that bad,
but relative to the other scores, you're like, it just
might not be his day. Listen, you're JJ Spond. You
finished fourth or fifth at the US Open. That's an
incredible accomplishment. Like that's a really, really big deal. I
would bet if I pulled up JJ Spond's Wikipedia right
now he has never finished before today in the top
(09:46):
five in a major. No chance, actually I would. I
would one hundred percent bet against that. Looking today, he
has never finished. He has one top twenty five in
his career in majors, and that was at the Masters
in two in twenty two. He hasn't even played in
the Masters in twenty three, twenty four.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
He played it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
This year, he finished thirty seventh at the PGA Championship.
He did not play in a major in twenty four.
He played in one major in twenty three and he
missed the cut. He played in two majors in twenty
two and he missed the cut in one of them.
He played in one major in twenty one and missed
the cut, and just a couple of weeks ago at
the Memorial, he also missed the cut. So this is
a guy that, like, you know, it's the crazy part
(10:26):
about golf that any moment you get hot, you get
in the right position in a tournament like the US Open,
a lot of stuff, like in any golf tournament, a
lot of it's out of your control, and luckily the
course just started a dejecting guy after guy. I mean,
at one point today it looked like Sam Burd's gonna
win the US Open, Sam Burn's gonna win the US Open.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And then you look up, you're like, did Sam Burns?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Where did he finish? Sam Burns finished tied for seventh.
Him and Adam Scott. It felt like one of those
two guys was gonna win it with like eight or
nine holes left Adam Scott. Adam Scott shot seventy nine today.
Both those guys shot nine and seventy eight, and JJ Spond.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Just kept plugging.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
He kept plugging, he kept plugging. All of a sudden,
it's like, God, he's even and everyone's over par, and
then he fucking drives the green on seventeen hits the
shot of his life. Honestly, it reminded me a little bit.
If you can remember back to twenty twenty, when Colin
Marikawa won the PGA Championship at Harding Park, it's sixteen
or seventeen. I think it's seventeen. Uh cool course, but
(11:25):
uh it's seventeen. The drivable part four, I mean, if
you're playing the tips, you gotta hit a perfect drive.
And he played that cut and he drove the green,
tapped in for eagle, and he won the tournament.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I mean, it was the reason he won the tournament.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
When he drove that that green on seventeen. You're like,
I texted a buddy immediately. I'm like, if he knocks
us in for.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Eagle, it's over.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And then he two plus for birdie, and you're like, God,
he's in pretty good shape. And then everyone else is
falling apart. Hovelin, you know, screws. I guess Hovelin made
a good chip on seventeen, but was still a couple back.
You're like, I don't know, he's gonna need him to
bogie and he'd aft to Birdie. This is gonna be
JJ's moment, and then he knocks it in on eighteen.
That my take was humbled by the fact that in
(12:08):
golf randoms, especially in the US Open, like the Masters,
there are gonna be people that play well there, but
the top dogs in golf, especially now that Rory's won it.
Scotti Scheffer's obviously extremely comfortable there. You know, John Rahm
is extremely comfortable there. Right, those guys are going to
be factors if they're playing well. Bryson has kind of
(12:29):
figured that out. The PGA Championship, for the most part,
does not play like the US Open, so length is
a big factor. And if you look Scotti Scheffler, John
Rahm last year, Xander Schoffley, Victor Hovelin, Bryson d Chambeau,
I do believe those two tournaments are typically gonna be
I might need to change my outlook a little bit
for the US Open because when you get moments like
(12:50):
this and listen, I root for carnage, I do one
time of year. I'm cool with it, but then you're
watching it, You're like, is this that fun to watch?
I respect the shit out all these guys. I can't
even imagine how difficult that course was. Just to play
eighteen holes like that wasn't fun for anyone. I mean
it was fun for JJ when he won it, but
(13:11):
I mean it was he was probably wanting to shatter clubs,
like this is going off the rails, right. The rough
was outrageously long. The greens are I think one problem
with this course, which again is known as the hardest
course in America, is I heard I was listening to
one of No Laying Ups post round. It might have
(13:32):
been on Thursday, and one of their guys, Neil, said that,
you know, the hard part about this course is like
a lot of famous courses, there are different landmarks and
you got a pretty good idea. Oh, now they're on
this hole. This is the shot you need to hit
on this hole. Oh I love this part three if
you go to some of the most famous courses, right. Obviously,
the masters were very comfortable with Pebble Beach, were very
(13:53):
comfortable with the layout of the course, some of the
holes at Saint Andrew's. And then you get to this course,
which has the universal respect number one course in terms
of difficulty in America, and all the holes kind of
blend together. So from a viewing standpoint, if you've never
played there, you're going fourteen kind of looks like fifteen,
(14:14):
kind of looks like thirteen. There's another long part three,
so that part of the viewing experience isn't that exciting? Besides,
you just know if you missed the fairway. We all
know you're fucked, and after you've watched a couple of
days that you're like, this guy's got no chance, this
guy screwed. I don't even need them to break it down.
So there's a randomness if you do not hit it
straight off the fairway, which on a lot of terms,
(14:35):
especially the Masters, doesn't really matter as much always factored
into the US Open. This one is legitimately impossible, and
especially as it got wet, it got even crazier. So
there was and I'm not trying to diminish anything from
JJ Spawn's victory, but there was. It felt like a
little more randomness with this tournament than typically in the
(14:56):
major tournaments.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I'm not saying JJ spawn was a the best player
because he had the lowest score, but this thing felt
a little wacky, and listen, maybe that's just part of
US Opens, but I do think the golf media in general,
they're huge on this golf. On the ball roll back,
they're beaten that drum ball roll back. You know two
people that do not care about the ball rollback, the
(15:18):
players they don't want it, and the fans don't care.
But the media is driving this. Then they love it
and listen, there are like I do understand if they
hit it a little bit shorter, they'd have more options
at different courses. True, but the one thing you see
is like some of these shootouts. The media hated the
Valhalla last year when Xander won. Guess what, pretty entertaining
(15:39):
for most people because birdies at a course like this
are very hard to come by, which is part for
the course at the US Open. But as just a consumer,
you know, the ending of the tournament is exhilarating, but
like I'd say, sixty plus holes of the tournament was
kind of like huh, I mean, and I get it.
(16:01):
Johnny Miller's taking shots like Bryson d Chambeau. You know
why he's watching this tournament this weekend because he can't
hit a fairway and part of US opens it in
the fairway.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
But this is an individual sport and it's driven by
the stars. And when you're just kicking half the stars
out before Saturday, And while Scotty was kind of in
the mix, he kind of wasn't. But you know Rory,
who knows shooting seventy five every day, hucking clubs, shattering
tea boxes, It does diminish the experience a little bit. Now, luckily,
(16:32):
this is only one time a year, and you could
argue it's like once every four or five years because
of the course. But while I came into this tournament
thinking Cinderella has had no chance, dead wrong and I
couldn't wait to watch the course kick the players ass,
I kind of gotta take the l on that too,
because I'm watching and I'm like, I'm kind of bored.
I'm gonna go play golf on Saturday. I consume major
(16:52):
golf course tournaments like I do NFL football, like I
love it, and I just I'm glued to the couch.
My wife knows. There is the Super Bowl, and then
there are four other super Bowls and they're called the Masters,
the PGA, the US Open, and the British Open. Now,
luckily the British Open so early time, we got half
our days, you know, on Saturday and Sunday. But this tournament,
(17:14):
like it's a pretty big deal on Saturday and Sunday
didn't do that much for me. And I do be
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Speaker 1 (20:13):
I also think there was a shot today of and
this is what Neil had mentioned on No Laying Up
is like they don't do a good enough job of
kind of giving different camera angles. And I forget who
was on the green, but one of the camera angles
kind of went to the side of the green instead
of the overhead, and the green looked like a roof.
You know how roofs slant. That's what the green look like.
(20:35):
You're like, this is this looks impossible? How could you
put on something that looks like it as a forty
five degree slope? What do they always say about the
masters that television does not do it justice because you
can't tell the undulation of the holes, how the downslope
and the upslopes, and no lie is flat though on
TV and overhead shot it kind of looks like a
(20:56):
football field. It looks flat. And even with these greens
which are clearly sloped just at an extreme level when
they're when they have the overhead shot of Victor Hovelin
with the punt, you can tell he's playing it five
feet to the right or seven feet to the left
because that's where the ball starts. But you can't understand
it with the slope of the green. So you could
(21:18):
argue that the cool aspect of the course does not
show on television. And let's face it, most people that
consume this tournament are not on the property. This is
a television product. That's the point of this business model.
And NBC takes a lot of shit because one they
bought this tournament back from Fox for like fifty percent
(21:39):
I think even less than fifty cents on the dollar.
It might have been for like thirty cents on the dollar.
And they do exactly what they've done before they bought
the tournament. I mean, there are a lot of shots
today that they don't even have shot tracker on, Like, guys,
this isn't the cognizance that this isn't the Hunda Classic,
this is the US Open. How do I not have
a shot tracer on every fucking shot this twenty twenty five.
(21:59):
But I think you could argue that television didn't do
this course justice because as the tournament went on, the
course does feel a little bland on television, which clearly
it's not and anyone that plays it, and if you
watch any of these YouTube videos of the guys of
the creators of Bryson, the course looks cool the way
they do it, yet when they're doing it on television,
(22:20):
it's just not quite as good. So I guess, as
a long winded way of saying, I was a little
disappointed as a viewer. And I don't even know if
it's the course fault, because the course lived up to
the hype. I mean, one guy under par at the
beginning of the week, they started pulling all these players
like would you sign up for even par? Would you
sign up for two over par? And I mean a
(22:41):
lot of these guys were taking these scores and looking back,
you one hundred percent would have signed up for even
par right one. I mean it took a guy making
a seventy foot put or whatever on eighteen to break even.
Par So the course lived up to the hype. It
kicked the shit out of everybody.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I mean, it destroyed most of these guys.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So, I mean Bryceon d Chambeau not even sniffing the cut,
you know, ejecting the Justin Thomas as some of these
guys was, I guess cool, but then at the same
time it's like, do you really want that?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I kind of torn.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
But I mean some of these guys down the stretch today,
Hatton fell apart, Hovelin actually played pretty well. Robert McIntyre.
I mean, look who played pretty well in this tournament
beside JJ Spond, Robert McIntyre international guy used to the elements,
Hovelin grew up in like fucking Iceland, Cam Young from
New York, Haddon, UK rom comfortable in the elements. Obviously,
(23:38):
scheffler Is couldn't put. So I mean Ben Griffin having
himself a good season. Xander Schoffley the sneakiest T twelve
I've ever seen. I don't know if I saw Xander
Schoffley hit a shot today, shot sixty nine Koepka actually
pretty solid T twelve as well, seventy three, seventy one
on the weekend. But Roy McElroy somehow finished in the
(24:01):
top twenty. Did not see if you would have asked
me before, I just looked at the leaderboard. Or do
you think Rory McIlroy finished. I would have been like
thirty third, tied for thirty third. He finished tied for nineteenth,
So it shows you and tied for nineteenth was plus
seven like you finished in the top twenty five. Jordan
Spieth finished in the top twenty five with eight over par,
(24:25):
shooting seventy two on on Sunday. So I mean, I
think at the end of the day, I don't think
this is something that people would want a lot. And
that's always something that people push back against when it
comes to this tournament or just tournaments in general. Is
it's too easy, too many birdie fests. I do think
(24:46):
that's kind of entertaining, you know. I think we see
this in the NBA. People push against three pointers, and
I think there is a line where three pointers can
be boring, just like there are a line like when
Steph curR and Klay Thompson were hot in their prime,
they could shoot one hundred and three pointers and everyone's entertained. Right,
But do I want to see some random guy shooting
(25:06):
twenty eight percent bombing threes from the from the corner?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:10):
No?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Do I want to see tournament after tournament where thirty
under part is winning the tournament?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
No?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
But do we make too big of a deal about
seventeen eighteen under? I think we probably do because and
that's hard. It's why some of these guys it's difficult
for them to play. And I think if anyone that
follows the corn Ferry Tour, you know, on a weekly basis,
to make the cut on the corn Ferry Tour, it's usually,
(25:37):
like I would I don't know what the average is
over the last couple of years, but if I had
to take an educated guess, I'd bet it's like six
or seven under. And typically a lot of these tournaments
to win the corn Fery Tour is well over twenty.
So that means if you're like ten or eleven under
on the week, you're probably not sniffing a top twenty.
And like that.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
There's a balance of that. You don't want to.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
See that on the PGA Tour, But we do like explosive,
you know moments, and that speaks of the day to
day where I felt like it like lacked a little juice,
like it kind of wasn't working.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I got a pretty good idea, I.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Think what works and what doesn't when it comes to
some of these events, But I don't know, something is
just a little off unless individual sport not huge names
might have been it might have just been the nature
of every single guy getting their ass kicked. But they
go to this crazy rain delay, and anyone that if
you're watching this, then you know live in the Northeast
or the South. I've never lived in the South, but
(26:33):
you know, being in Philly, I would imagine Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Same thing.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
These rainstorms can come through and for a forty five
minute hour and a half it feels like, is this
the hardest I've ever seen or felt it rain? Then
all of a sudden, it's just gone, and that clearly happened,
and they go to a rain delay and NBC immediately
just goes. They don't even go to like Dan Hicks
or Tarrico. It's like, hey, you want to get a
mic in front of Sam Burns, Adam Scott, JJ spond
(26:58):
Terrell hadn't you want to just bullshit with these guys.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
People might be cool content.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Hey, you want to get a caddy on camera?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
What's it like out there? What are you guys doing?
Speaker 1 (27:06):
What do you experience? You want to get some guys
that just finished. Hey, hey, can we use it for
like twenty minutes to kill some time? Kind of do
a roundtable. Can you imagine the NFL if there was
a delay in a game and it was gonna be
like thirty minutes in a huge game, a playoff game,
or a late December game. Going to an event from
like two thousand and eight, and they went to tiger
(27:28):
which I understand because if I'm an NBC executive and
we need a break and we're not gonna do any
content on site, which is fucking insane, We're just gonna
cut to something pre recorded. They didn't go to like
last year's event. Hell, they didn't even go to twenty
sixteen Oakmont where the tournament was being held. They went
all the way back to two thousand and eight tiger Woods.
Two thousand and eight tiger Woods, but they went to
(27:50):
the Saturday round. Why cause Saturday round. He's making like
crazy Eagles he's chipping it in.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
It was incredible.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
But think about that they went to a delay. It
went to two thousand and eight Tiger Woods Saturday, and
they didn't really even explain it. They just threw it
up there.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
It was like, okay, I'll watch this for a little bit.
And it was cool.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
First first shot they showed it was him hitting it
from like the patrons to the back of the green
where he ended up making like a one hundred foot
eagle putt.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But it's like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And it's why, like I do think the criticism of
the network and NBC and the way that they do golf,
because think about how they do football.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
It feels like a super Bowl every night. How seriously,
they take the NFL with Tarico, with collins Worth, the production,
it's a real big deal, and it does feel like
with golf.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
It's like I.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Couldn't believe when they went to the rain delay, which
is no one's fault, nothing you can do that. They
just immediately went to tiger Woods two thousand and eight
Saturday round. It's like, guys, you got all all these
players intense, Like just get a guy on a mic
they're literally doing that. They're just sitting there. Hey JJ,
(29:05):
what was it like when your ball hit the pin?
Did you are you mentally losing it right now? Hey Sam,
do you feel like you're in a pretty good position
to win this tournament?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Adam?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Like, what are the nerves like right now? Knowing that
you have an opportunity to win your second major of
your career? And like they were talking about on the broadcast,
become a Hall of Famer because Adam Scott has said
I guess in the past that he doesn't view himself
as a Hall of Famer because he only has one major.
They didn't do any of that. All these guys are
sitting around, got a million fucking microphones.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
It's crazy how bad my allergies are here and ares
I've never had allergies in my life, and my allergies
now are pretty outrageous. I did want to hit on
this Roy McElroy, and I went back. I'm glad that
I didn't react on Saturday night to this tournament because
I think it would have been.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Probably pretty aggressive.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Roy McElroy is acting like the press treat him like
he's a sitting president or something like he is about
to be asked like what do you think of the
ice raids and what's your stance on the trans movement.
I mean they're literally asking you, Rory, how's your driver working?
Why did you hit a sand wedge on thirteen? And
(30:18):
I do get when you go back to the PGA
Championship and the driver story leaked. Clearly the people at
the PGA that test the driver told the media about
Rory and that's where the story leaked, even though Scottie
Scheffler and other guys also failed to test. So in
that individual instance, I get being mad, and I get
(30:39):
even not talking for a couple of days, I get
it totally understandable. Emotions run high, even if I technically
kind of want to disagree with Like, Bro, you're the
most famous guy in the sport. Part of being Michael Jordan,
part of being Tiger Woods, part of being in this
position is like taking the arrow sometimes, which you have
in the past, but it doesn't just end when you
(31:01):
arbitrarily wanted to end. But in an individual instance, I
get being like f you guys, totally understandable. Now we're
like two months later, and for him to come out
and say like I'm mad at you guys, like, what
are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Like mad at some guy that writes for golf dot.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Com like Rory to say, and I saw Paul McGinley,
who is a big part of the Golf Channel, say like,
I don't really recognize this Rory. He does just look
kind of angry. Now, obviously this course can be pretty frustrating,
but he helicoptered countless clubs, he shattered.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
A tea box.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
He's refusing to talk the majority of the time, So listen,
I'm not into psychoanalyzing what's going on in the guy's life.
Who knows what's happening at his home. He had a
divorce that almost happened a year ago. They reconciled.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sometimes problems don't just go away. But clearly, whatever's going
on right now for a guy that looked like his
season was about to be a rocket ship. He won Pebble,
won the Players, then won the fucking Masters. If you
would have bet at that moment, do you think Rory's
gonna go on to have a massive season, win like
five times another major? Or if you would have said,
(32:15):
do you think he's just gonna mail it in and
suck from there? On out. I think ninety percent of
people would have been, like, he's gonna have an awesome season,
no pressure, everyone's supporting him. He's just everyone's rooting for him.
It's fun to watch him play. He's just kind of vibing,
and it's been the complete opposite. And listen, money success
(32:37):
impacts us all differently. Rory's been rich for a long time,
so money doesn't impact how hard he's been practicing. He's
grinded the last ten years trying to win a major.
He has been filthy rich. But clearly that moment of
winning that championship, whatever that did off the course, to me,
has manifested it into the way he's kind of operating
(32:59):
and acting. And we're geting a different guy because whatever's
going on is not the human that we witnessed destroyed
JJ spond in that playoff to make those incredible shots
on Sunday at the Masters, and that sucks, you know,
like it Listen, did it suck to have Bryson missed
the cut?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Of course, it's golf.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
It happens, right, I mean, look at John Rahm last year,
had a foot issue, played bad in the Majors, kind
of got his mojo back, and John Ram's just kind
of back being in the mix. Scott He's had some
weird moments last year at the at the British Open,
you know, is bitching and moaning. Like, I give you,
it's golf, it's hard, right, But whatever's going on with
Rory is not an enjoyable experience. And I don't know why.
(33:43):
I mean, he's not really given much insight into it,
but I think we're past the point of like he's
just mad.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
At the quote unquote.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Media that like Sirius XM and golf dot com and
the PGA Tour dot Com are asking, Hey, what's up
with the driver? Hey Rory, how is that seven iron
on fourteen? Like, bro, what are we even talking about that?
There can never there's never been a time in the
history of sports where it's been easier to be an
(34:14):
athlete and get asked questions. And there's definitely never been
a time where it's easier to be a golfer and
get asked questions. I think it shows what a complete list.
Golf has always been a rich man's country club bubble sport.
It has become less like that to the public, given
there are more public courses and access to golf, though
(34:36):
the prices post twenty twenty are outrageous in most of
these places where we live. I mean, to play a
ship banger course is like sixty eighty one hundred dollars.
You used to be able to find the crappiest course
in America. You could play for like ten twenty bucks.
Now it's like you couldn't sniff a course for underd
and fifty bucks and anything half decent running like one
(34:56):
hundred and fifty dollars. So it maybe it's shifting back
the other way. But a lot of these guys on
tour live in there, a little bubble member at all
these country clubs, fly private for you know, starting in
their early twenties, hard to have a great grasp on society.
In a weird way, it felt like Rory did, and
now whatever happened over the course of the last couple
of months, it felt like he's kind of lost it.
(35:17):
It's why sometimes when you see a Cinderella moment happen
like JJ Spawn, you kind of find yourself rooting for
it because you're like, that guy's kind of relatable, unlike
some of these other guys, right, Like I bet Jjspahn
flies a lot on commercial airlines. I bet jjspawn doesn't
live in the biggest house in Scottsdale, right, I bet
(35:39):
JJ spawn like drives a car that more often not's
gonna look like minor yours than DJs.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And it's why, like as it kind of took shape,
root for him and listen, anytime you're the guy at
the top of the mountain, it's where the wind blows
the hardest, so you're gonna take the most shit. Ask
lebron as Brady, as Tiger, ask Rory. But like part
of it is like more is asked of you to
have thick skin and be able to handle it, and
for him to constantly be mad. I just bo you're
(36:11):
laughing at that bad unless it is and we just
don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
This is very bizarre and honestly kind of off putting,
you know, as someone that roots for the guy.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
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(36:44):
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Speaker 1 (36:57):
Let's end on this, Let's answer a couple questions and
get out of here at Golopod. At Golopod is the Instagram.
You guys can fire in those dms whenever I don't
even I mean, is there a golf tournament this week?
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Maybe? Is the Travelers in two weeks? And who knows?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
There might be a signature event this week. I haven't
even looked, But if there is, maybe we'll do some
gambling stuff later this week. But at Golopod, firing those
dms get questions answered on the show. This from cal question,
what's going on with this guy? He needs to be
admitted to the looney bin or just get some medication.
He's speaking about Rory when a USGA official he sent
(37:38):
me this post approach Rory about his media availability. As
he walked from the scoring room to the clubhouse without
stopping and said I'm good and kept on walking. He
did talk on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
But I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
It's a lot of people when you're just a nice guy,
if you're in the public eye all the time, you're
gonna screw up. You're gonna say things that are gonna
piss people off. I'm sure I say things every single
day on my podcast that someone disagrees with, whether it's
a serious thing, whether it's not serious as part of
(38:13):
you know, talking and anytime that you're a pro athlete
and you're the top pro athlete, you're talking in front
of a camera and a microphone all the time, like
you're allowed to make mistakes. But I think this Rory
is like owning himself in this situation. He's making it
worse a lot, like Marikawa did a couple months ago.
It's like, Bro, this isn't this complicated. These people aren't
(38:36):
asking you tough questions. Just say yeah, man, I was emotional.
I stormed off on Sunday. I regret doing that.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I was pissed off.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I wanted to win. Totally get it. We all would
do if we were in your shoes. It's not that
fucking big a deal. But constantly doubling down, like screw you.
I don't know you shit, Like, bro, who.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Are you even talking about? Who are you talking to?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
And you do all the television partners something, you do
all these tournaments that you are making money off some
where do you think the money comes from the sponsors?
Do you think this money just comes from the sky.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Now, Rory is so.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Rich, he's so out of touch with that flow.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Maybe he just at this point doesn't give a shit anymore,
which I kind of.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Feels that way because it doesn't feel like he cares
that much, which is his prerogative. But him saying like, oh,
they can't force me to do It's like Rory, it's
not about forcing or not forcing. It's just about like,
this is the business you're in. We all have parts
of whatever business we're in that suck every single human
whether you're in sales, whether you're a janitor, whether you
run a construction company, whether you're a doctor, There is
(39:36):
a part of every single one of our jobs, no
matter what if you starting quarterback, whether you CEO of
you're Jamie Diving, you run Chase, there is literally something
or a couple things in your daily you know, operating,
You know operation that you do, you despise doing that,
You put off or something you do on a weekly basis,
(39:59):
or like I'm dreading doing this, welcome to life, and
you still got to do it. And Roy's like, well,
technically don't have to do it.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, you don't have to do it.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
But speaking is part of I don't know this business
that is professional sports and the generating mechanism that brings
the I don't know cash that pays for your hundreds
and millions of dollars that you have in the bank
that didn't just it doesn't just exist because you're awesome
at golf. There are a lot of dudes awesome at
golf all over the world that no one ever watches play.
(40:29):
But you play on this PGA tour. That's this vehicle
to generate the coin. Do you think the question for
the golo mailback.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Speaking of the PGA Tour and live, do you.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Think the golf world, more specifically the broadcast partners can
ever get over the live PGA split. I watch both
tours pretty regularly, and I find it frustrating at the
majors when they just put when they hardly go into
detail on any of to live guys. A great example
is Ortiz. As I type this he's within striking distance
on a Sunday in a major. The broadcast only says
(41:02):
he's never finished a high in a major. The dude
is having a really solid year on lift. I just
don't get why we can't celebrate all golfers, regardless of
where they choose to play. Cheers, brother, Well, I think
you'd have to ask them specifically. I mean, was it
last year in the US Open when Brandal Shambily was
(41:22):
I mean actively rooting for Rory against bryceon like he
can I like Brandew, I'm a huge Brandal Shambily fan,
but he can't deny that he was rooting for Rory.
But we know where he stands. Tweets about it all
the time. He listen to some people, definitely in the media,
to some people in general, you know, get very on
their moral high horse about the Saudi situations, like guys,
(41:45):
our countries balls deep in business with them. Like so
it's like you're gonna worry about the golfers, Like, give
me a break. I never even you know, live it's
paying us now we're talking about a little me and Colin.
But anyone that's listened to me for a long time morally,
I was unfazed by it. I did not care. I
(42:07):
would have taken the money too. If they would have
thrown in front of me, if you would offer me
two hundred million dollars like Bryson, d Chambora or Brooks Koepka,
zero chance I would have turned it down.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
None.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
And I think there's a jealousy factor on the players,
some of them that stayed because they clearly could have
got one hundred and one hundred and fifty million dollars
and that money's gone now, that money no longer exists
in the sense of it's been reported that lives done
giving out the huge bonuses. Bryson just talked about it about,
you know, renegotiating. We'll have to see how that plays out.
(42:37):
Now he's kind of an outlier, But I do think
the broadcast partners like whoever you're in business with, and
it's a serious business partner.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
So let's use CBS.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
CBS is embedded with the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour
is a huge deal to CBS. It's a lot of
programming for him throughout the year, and they have been
partners for a long long time. So anyone that you're
in business with and you have like there's and you've
made money with there should be some sort of loyalty
(43:09):
to that. So I get some of these commentators that
are really close with people on the PGA tour having
a bias, right, they did pick a side, and they
can't hide Kevin Kissner, who is now and I'm not
saying he did this, He's a PGA Tour member, Like
(43:29):
that's his crew.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
These are his guys that stayed.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Now, who knows, maybe if you're having beers with kids,
he doesn't actually care, but like if you told me
he did or doesn't like love the situation, it's kind
of understandable. So we're all products, especially in business of
like who are you in business with? Anyone listening to
this that knows people in the booze business knows that
(43:54):
it's a really big deal to them. When you're with
them and you order their competing brand, they were like, no,
order the different one. Do you think it's because they
really love the taste that much? Or it's like, no,
we're not doing business with these motherfuckers. We're trying to
take them down. It's part of life, that's part of
you know, that's part of business. So I think there's
(44:14):
a competitive thing there. I do think they get treated differently,
for sure. You know, you don't have to treat Bryson
and Rahm differently because we know him so well. But
I'm with you on Carlos Otz. He's clearly a really
talented young guy that I don't know that much about, right.
I would love to hear more, but you're just You're
just not gonna get it, so I don't expect it
to come.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
A big fan.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
I watch every major with my dad and thought about
the US Open. That is really the true test of
the year, and isn't a birdie fest. Do you think
it would be beneficial for the PGA to have a
yearly tournament that rotates the top course every year that
they intentionally make extremely difficult for the pros. The common
golf might find it boring, but people like us who
(45:02):
enjoy the carnage would love to see these guys struggle
more than once a year at the US Open, and
it's not always super low scoring like it could be.
What are your thoughts, Also, if you're ever in Rochester,
New York, just play some golf at Oakhill. I don't
(45:22):
think a lot of the guys would play. I really don't.
I don't think they'd show up. I don't think they'd participate.
And you can say they're really soft. But if I
told you you're Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay, would you
rather play the eighty five Bears or the two thousand
and one Ravens or would you rather play the Jags?
(45:48):
What do you think they're gonna say?
Speaker 2 (45:50):
So?
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I think part of it is people try to avoid
difficult situations. Mentally breaks you down when you don't have to.
And most of these guys now are so rich they
can pick their schedule, the business model they don't, you know,
unlike on the PGA Tour and like live, you don't
have to play any tournaments. It was thought forever that
it was gonna be forced to play these signature events,
(46:12):
and it's Rory's proven. Scott Scotty and Rory both have
skipped signature events over the last couple of months, and
not because they're injured.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
They're healthy.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
So I think one's enough after watching this, and I'm
pro carnage to a point until I've like I kind
of want to be entertained, it's not really entertaining me,
so I would say that's not gonna happen because I want.
I don't think they would get the buy in. I
think there would be courses they would volunteer, say hey,
come to my course. We will trick this bad boy
(46:44):
up and kick the shit out of these guys.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
And I think the guy's just one show.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
I've been thinking about the backlash live golfers have faced
and wanted to get your take. Why do you think
players jumping from the PGA to live get so much
flak while similar shift entertainment, like big name actors moving
from traditional Hollywood studios to streaming platforms, seems to go
mostly unnoticed or even celebrated. In both cases, there was
(47:09):
once only one clear path of success until a player
came along, offering top talent, more money in flexibility. Yet
live golfers are often vilified, while actors making similar moves
are seen as progressive or smart. Is it a source
of the money, the tradition of the sport, or something
else entirely.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Well?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I think with a movie, right, what show was I
watching recently? I was watching Stick, the Owen Wilson golf
show that they put on Apple TV. That if that
was on Netflix, if it's on Apple TV or if
it's on Amazon Prime, if enough people are talking about it,
I'm going to end up watching it and liking it,
(47:53):
and ultimately, like I'm not invested into CBS, into Netflix
in the Amazon, I.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Don't really care.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Right, Like when I went to see a movie, for example,
as a kid, I don't go to movies anymore. It
didn't matter to me what studio produced the movie, if
the stars were in the movie, Like when I was
a kid, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, Tom Hanks,
you name it, Denzel Washington, they drew you to the movie.
(48:22):
You didn't give a shit. The As you get older,
you know more about like the directors. You're like, oh,
Scorsese film. But when you're young, you don't care. It's
like this guy's just really famous. I want to go
watch the Rock, right, I want to go watch this
famous actor in this movie. You don't know who directed it,
who produced it. You don't care. And I think there's
an element like an actor is an independent contractor slash
(48:46):
independent business in himself a lot like golfers. So like
when you have there are only so many golfers that
truly move the needle and the numbers under ten, and
when they play against each other, it helps and it matters.
Watching Tiger play against Phil is much better than watching
(49:06):
Tiger play against some random even though it's still Tiger playing.
But when you get Tiger playing against a legendary player
like that. Part of what made twenty nineteen in the
him winning the Masters cool is like can't lead DJ final,
like there were other famous guys there that we know
(49:27):
or knew at the time, Like this is a pretty
big deal, right.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
And Golf's an individual sport, so.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
You can't separate and live take Took, Bryson and Ram
and look, Hatton is a really good player. I mean,
these guys are like righter cuppers. And when I remove
if there are obviously there's top one hundred players, right,
but there's a big difference between like the top I
would say twenty ish and if LIV takes four or
(49:56):
five of those top twenty guys, it does Deman finish
some of these bigger tournaments, non majors, And obviously there's
a jealousy factor and there's animosity and some of a
lot of these guys you know, said no, So there
are a lot of different variables, but at this point
in time, I think we've seen this sport, just like
(50:18):
any individual sport is not strong enough and it's just
Golf's a niche operation.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
This is not football.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
But even football couldn't overcome if some league just stole
Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert like it would
be it would hurt the league. So I think there
are a lot of factors here and inevitably, like they've
had conversations and working towards stuff. Who knows when it
actually plays out, but like it's I understand why people
(50:49):
were mad. I understood why people took the money, and
I understand while this is not a sustainable model for everybody,
and inevitably, whether that's in two years, that's in ten years,
I don't know when I'm done even guessing or slash
even caring. That's why at first my reactions like I
want to do business with Live. It's like, well, they
got top players, so if I can get access to
(51:11):
the top guys, Uh yeah, let's they can come on
the pod, you know, Can I get John Ramin? Can
I get Terrell Hatton on the pod? Because I like
PGA tours, giving me those guys. So I we're at
the point now it's twenty twenty five, so let's let's
attempt to figure it out. I played baseball growing up,
played golf for about two years now. I still grip
(51:33):
the club like a baseball bat. What is the benefit
of the finger lock or different grip styles. Does it
help with more consistent swing or do you think it's
essential to learn how to hold the club. I've tried
every once in a while in interlock in my fingers,
but it feels awkward. You'd have to YouTube. I would
YouTube like golf coaches talking about the golf grip and
(51:53):
the interlock. I don't know the benefits in terms of
grip pressure. I would say you definitely have better grip
pressure in terms of holding the club than a baseball bat,
which is obviously a lot heavier than a golf club.
I've been playing golf. I mean, I was awful at baseball.
I quit after a little league. I've been playing golf
much longer than I ever played baseball. So the interlock
(52:16):
grip is like what it feels like to you with
the baseball bat. Gripping a golf club like a baseball
bat feels.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Weird to me.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
The interlock grip, even when I just do it with
my hands standing, you know, sitting on my office chair
feels like a normal movement to my hands.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
So I.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
Can't imagine there'll be many good players over the last
fifty years that did not have an interlocking grip. Could
be wrong, but let me say this differently. There's a
very very short list of guys in the history of golf,
definitely modern day, that grip it like a baseball bat. Okay,
last question. I've recently gotten into golf and have noticed
(52:57):
that my first few holes go well at my plans,
my play starts to go downhill. Do you notice this
with your game? Is there a solution as simple as
slowing down and taking more time for each shot. Also,
you keep track of your handicap. How much have you
improved since you started playing well? I mean, I've had
a handicap for thirty plus years.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
So it's gone up and down. I would say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
I mean, I would say my downfall of golf is
I struggle with eighteen holes.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
I mean, I have a ton.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Of respect for all the guys that play professionally collegiately,
because you're playing day after day. So it's not even
just eighteen holes, it's you might have three straight days
of having to focus on every given shot. I shot
eighty three yesterday and I finished triple. I finished five
over in the last four holes, which is by far
(53:46):
the easiest stretch. So, like I mean, if I just
usually I finish even or one under on that stretch
and I finished five over, it might have been you know,
had a transfusion and then a beer. But I just
I kind of didn't focus on a web shot and
all of a sudden it kind of spiraled, and all
of a sudden.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker 1 (54:06):
And if it wouldn't have been for probably like a
ten foot par putt on seventeen, it would have been
six over in the last four holes. So focus on golf,
It's what. The game of golf is much closer to
the like I would say kicking in football, elements of baseball.
It's a lot of thinking and a lot of a
(54:28):
lot of focus. You know, in basketball and football you
just get to play. Obviously, in football you have to
know the play. But if I'm a tight end and
I'm running a five yard out route and I have
an inside release, if the guy shaded over my right shoulder, right,
Like I just get to play full speed.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
I just get to play. Right.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
If I'm the offensive tackle and I have a reach block, like,
I just fucking go full speed. Right if I'm the
linebacker and it's gonna be third and one, like I
know this is probably gonna come between the guard and
the center buckle that chin strap and just go. You know,
golf like the harder you try sometimes the worse you play.
But you do need to try, but you also need
(55:06):
to focus. So it's just it's a mentally to It's
what makes it just a fun, unique challenge that no
matter how good you get, it keeps you coming back
for more. No matter how bad you are, every good
shot kind of keeps you interested. It's one of the
only things that kind of, you know, for us as
you get older, helps you meet new people, gets you outside.
(55:29):
I mean, I don't know what else would get me
outside for five hours.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
And one hundred and five degrees.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Not many things, probably nothing beside a swimming pool. So
I think it's just it's a special game slash activity
that you always are in the in the process of
trying to figure out. But I would say, one of
the more difficult aspects of the game of golf is upstairs.
(55:57):
And even once you get to you know, let's say
I'm just let's say you're a twenty handicap. You keep playing,
to keep practicing. If you're a decent athlete, it's pretty
easy to start kind of working your way from like
a ten to a fifteen or excuse me, like twenty
fifteen down to a ten. Once you get into that
single digits, Like I've hovered between a six and a
(56:17):
three handicap for really probably six seven years now, and
I wonder if I've hit a ceiling. Not because I
don't have the shots, I mean I can. You can
watch me play a two hole stretch where're like it's
got like a plus two handicap, but mentally I don't
really have it. I'm not I wouldn't say I'm a
mental midget, but I struggle, like in life with just
(56:38):
I don't know if it's eighty D but just pure
focus where I have a lot of respect the people
that just can consistent, you know, scratch and better golfers.
If you're not like a college golfer, how do you
how do you able to focus on the shots for
five hours.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (56:52):
It's what makes the the game difficult, but it's also
what makes it fun because even once you start rolling,
you kind of feel yourself. One bad shot will humble
your as.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Fast, so wind on that.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
Congrats to jjspond US Open champion and Oakmont I Guess
for kicking.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
The shit out of everybody
Speaker 1 (57:14):
The volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on? Everybody?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
John Middlecock three and out podcast, How are we doing?
Hopefully everyone is doing well, and uh, probably not as
well as JJ Spahn who just won the US Open.
JJ spawn at one hundred and twenty to one on
DraftKings before Thursday, and he took the first round lead,
was one hundred and twenty one to win. So one
(00:40):
of my big takeaways or takes coming into this tournament
was Cinderella's are dead. I believed it too, because the Xanders,
the Rory's, the Schefflers, the ROMs, the Brysons, they had
just taken over the majors for the last six or
seven majors, and honestly it hadn't even been that close.
And then JJ Spond one hundred and twenty to one
(01:01):
wins the US Open. Very very cool, awesome moment for
him on really on seventeen and eighteen. It's always cool
to see like the underdog bank some like eighty foot
putt and like how's he gonna celebrate and he's tugging
his caddy. So we'll dive into Jjspond. The course obviously
is a fascinating conversation because do we want chaos?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Do we want carnage.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I thought I did, and then as a consumer on
my couch for the last couple.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Of days, So I don't know. Is this doing it
for me?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Do I like some more birdies?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Do I like it?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This difficult, so we'll dive into that. We'll take some
of your questions as well at Golo pod is where
we do our golf podcast. I think we get some
questions about Rory McElroy and his I don't really know
what's going on with Rory, but kind of a bizarre
couple months after an incredibly hot start to the year
and finally winning the Masters, kind of going the other
way somehow. Scottis Scheffler still like finished, I think in
(01:59):
the top two at one point in times it's like
a Scotti Scheffer a couple puts away.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
From winning this tournament.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
His floor is incredibly high, but he didn't and the
still photo of him at the end looked like he'd
had enough, like he'd just climbed Mount Everest. But you
can listen to this podcast if you listen on Collins feed.
Make sure you subscribe to three and Out podcast. We
have our own feed, put go Lo on there as well.
Everything goes up on the YouTube channel. You can check
(02:25):
that out. We have a football podcast coming up this
week as well as John Schneider GM for the Seahawks,
will join us.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And we're off and running.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
But before we talk about any of JJ spawns, when
you know, I got to tell you about my friends,
my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast,
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(02:54):
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(03:37):
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last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. When I said I
think on our preview US Open pod, we did five
of the biggest stories that I thought coming into the weekend.
Obviously Bryson Scottie Rory led the charge when it came
(04:01):
to players, and then my two other big stories were
Cinderellas are Dead and obviously Oakmont. The course anytime you
go to widely considered the hardest course in America. And
that's the player saying that. That's just not the media
or people on the outside. The players are all reiterating
this is the hardest course I've ever played. But I
(04:22):
truly believed when you factored in the difficulty, my take
on the Cinderella was just based on evidence. Ever since
the split, we have seen a couple guys rise. Obviously,
Bryson has you know, become a dominant, dominant player. He
got ejected this week. But Rory, Scotty, Xander, I mean,
the top guys. And it's not even just the top guys,
(04:42):
it's who they're competing with down the stretch, right, it
was Rory versus Bryson. It's been Scotty versus Morikawa and Ludwig.
It's been Scotty versus Ram. It's been uh, you know,
Rory and Xander versus Hovelin. It's been the top guys
all duking it out in the majors for the last
couple of years, and not since Wyndham Clark, like two
(05:03):
years ago, have we had Like God didn't see that
one coming. And even looking back at that one, you
saw the picture that went viral from tront at No
laying up, I mean, dam losing his mind in that
locker room.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
But I don't just say things to say them, like.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I truly believe like it's going to be really really difficult,
given where we're at with technology, given it how far
these guys are hitting it and how well the top
guys are playing. I mean Rory's finished in like the
top seven in the US Open for like six straight
US Opens and literally finished second the last two. Scotty's
on a tiger like run. Listen, say what you want
(05:40):
about Bryceon I mean, up until this weekend, and really
up until Friday, he had been a dominant player in
the majors. So it's like, you have some guys. I mean,
those three guys, when their careers are over are going
to be known as some of the greatest players of
all time. They're in their prime. I mean, Rory's a
little older, but they're dominating in these big moments, like
how can you bet against them? And then every once
(06:01):
in a while in a sport like this and this
is where it paralleled tennis so perfectly. It's like, and
I'm not some huge tennis guy, but for the last
thirty years at least of my life of following sports,
when I was young, it was like Agassi and Sampris.
Then it turned into Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and now it's
this crew of like Alcatraz and this guy Center and
(06:23):
it's just the same guys every single Grand Slam are
either in the final four or in the finals, and
for the most part, if there's a group of three
or four of them, two of them are a locked
to be in the finals. And that's what it felt
like golf was gonna be like. And then this week happened.
And it's one thing. Golf tournaments are long. Anyone who's
been gambling on golf knows that. You know, when you
(06:44):
take a first round lead, you can't just like put
that guy in stone. It's really hard to fend everyone off. Obviously,
JJ Spahd played excellent on Thursday on a course that
was kicking everyone's ass. You had guys struggling to break
like seventy five.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
He shoots four under.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Part he doesn't make a bogie and he's just kind
of rolling, and he's had an excellent season. He has
multiple seconds I try to figure out how much money
he had made in his career. It's hard because the
PGA app is so delayed. I think, give or take,
he had about he had made. Now he's thirty four
years old and he's been on tour for a while,
like twelve or thirteen million dollars so far in his career,
(07:20):
which obviously for most of society is a lot of money,
but relative to golfers, you know nothing crazy right this year,
coming into this tournament, he will he had made like
five and a half million dollars after today, which I
think the prize was about four point three million dollars.
He will have made about ten million dollars this year,
(07:41):
so he won't have doubled how much he has made
through the course of his career, but he made about
forty percent of his career earnings in the last six months.
He is on an incredible heater this year, and I'm
kicking myself, not because I should have bet on him,
but I'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
It was probably like January.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'm in the car when I'm driving around running errands
in the morning, I typically will flip around between Coward
and the Golf Channel, and Colt knows who works for
CBS and his podcast partner Sleeves. They have a radio show,
and Colt was saying, I just played with JJ. It
might have been the member guest, it might have been
the member member of some tournament at Whisper Rock where
(08:22):
all the good players play golf here in Scottsdale, and
He's like, I'm telling you, this fucking guy is playing at.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A really, really high level.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Obviously, Colt played on the PGA Tour, played at SMU
knows what.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
It looks like.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So I was like God, and then I actually think
the next week was the Honda and Hawaiian JJ played
really well. And if you've just watched his season, like
he became or he was a revolution, I mean literally
a ball revolution at Sawgrass from winning the players in regulation,
then he goes in the extras on Monday, hits in
the water and gets boat raced. It happens finished a second,
(08:55):
still makes two and a half million dollars or two
point two million, probably more money than he'd ever made
in a tournament in his life. He only had one
career win coming into this season. And then today you
know you're watching obviously it's just a complete blood bath.
You're like, what's the final score going to be? It
felt like before the rain came minus two or three,
and he's just like bogey bogie bogey. On the second hole,
(09:18):
he hits the pin, it goes back like one hundred yards,
gets totally boned, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
On the third hole, hits the rake.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I mean, he's just getting bad break after bad break,
and you're like, I don't even think he's playing that bad,
but relative to the other scores, you're like, it just
might not be his day. Listen, you're JJ Spond. You
finished fourth or fifth at the US Open. That's an
incredible accomplishment. Like that's a really, really big deal. I
would bet if I pulled up JJ Spond's Wikipedia right
now he has never finished before today in the top
(09:46):
five in a major. No chance, actually I would. I
would one hundred percent bet against that. Looking today, he
has never finished. He has one top twenty five in
his career in majors, and that was at the Masters
in two in twenty two. He hasn't even played in
the Masters in twenty three, twenty four.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
He played it.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
This year, he finished thirty seventh at the PGA Championship.
He did not play in a major in twenty four.
He played in one major in twenty three and he
missed the cut. He played in two majors in twenty
two and he missed the cut in one of them.
He played in one major in twenty one and missed
the cut, and just a couple of weeks ago at
the Memorial, he also missed the cut. So this is
a guy that, like, you know, it's the crazy part
(10:26):
about golf that any moment you get hot, you get
in the right position in a tournament like the US Open,
a lot of stuff, like in any golf tournament, a
lot of it's out of your control, and luckily the
course just started a dejecting guy after guy. I mean,
at one point today it looked like Sam Burd's gonna
win the US Open, Sam Burn's gonna win the US Open.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
And then you look up, you're like, did Sam Burns?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Where did he finish? Sam Burns finished tied for seventh.
Him and Adam Scott. It felt like one of those
two guys was gonna win it with like eight or
nine holes left Adam Scott. Adam Scott shot seventy nine today.
Both those guys shot nine and seventy eight, and JJ Spond.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Just kept plugging.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
He kept plugging, he kept plugging. All of a sudden,
it's like, God, he's even and everyone's over par, and
then he fucking drives the green on seventeen hits the
shot of his life. Honestly, it reminded me a little bit.
If you can remember back to twenty twenty, when Colin
Marikawa won the PGA Championship at Harding Park, it's sixteen
or seventeen. I think it's seventeen. Uh cool course, but
(11:25):
uh it's seventeen. The drivable part four, I mean, if
you're playing the tips, you gotta hit a perfect drive.
And he played that cut and he drove the green,
tapped in for eagle, and he won the tournament.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I mean, it was the reason he won the tournament.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
When he drove that that green on seventeen. You're like,
I texted a buddy immediately. I'm like, if he knocks
us in for.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Eagle, it's over.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And then he two plus for birdie, and you're like, God,
he's in pretty good shape. And then everyone else is
falling apart. Hovelin, you know, screws. I guess Hovelin made
a good chip on seventeen, but was still a couple back.
You're like, I don't know, he's gonna need him to
bogie and he'd aft to Birdie. This is gonna be
JJ's moment, and then he knocks it in on eighteen.
That my take was humbled by the fact that in
(12:08):
golf randoms, especially in the US Open, like the Masters,
there are gonna be people that play well there, but
the top dogs in golf, especially now that Rory's won it.
Scotti Scheffer's obviously extremely comfortable there. You know, John Rahm
is extremely comfortable there. Right, those guys are going to
be factors if they're playing well. Bryson has kind of
(12:29):
figured that out. The PGA Championship, for the most part,
does not play like the US Open, so length is
a big factor. And if you look Scotti Scheffler, John
Rahm last year, Xander Schoffley, Victor Hovelin, Bryson d Chambeau,
I do believe those two tournaments are typically gonna be
I might need to change my outlook a little bit
for the US Open because when you get moments like
(12:50):
this and listen, I root for carnage, I do one
time of year. I'm cool with it, but then you're
watching it, You're like, is this that fun to watch?
I respect the shit out all these guys. I can't
even imagine how difficult that course was. Just to play
eighteen holes like that wasn't fun for anyone. I mean
it was fun for JJ when he won it, but
(13:11):
I mean it was he was probably wanting to shatter clubs,
like this is going off the rails, right. The rough
was outrageously long. The greens are I think one problem
with this course, which again is known as the hardest
course in America, is I heard I was listening to
one of No Laying Ups post round. It might have
(13:32):
been on Thursday, and one of their guys, Neil, said that,
you know, the hard part about this course is like
a lot of famous courses, there are different landmarks and
you got a pretty good idea. Oh, now they're on
this hole. This is the shot you need to hit
on this hole. Oh I love this part three if
you go to some of the most famous courses, right. Obviously,
the masters were very comfortable with Pebble Beach, were very
(13:53):
comfortable with the layout of the course, some of the
holes at Saint Andrew's. And then you get to this course,
which has the universal respect number one course in terms
of difficulty in America, and all the holes kind of
blend together. So from a viewing standpoint, if you've never
played there, you're going fourteen kind of looks like fifteen,
(14:14):
kind of looks like thirteen. There's another long part three,
so that part of the viewing experience isn't that exciting? Besides,
you just know if you missed the fairway. We all
know you're fucked, and after you've watched a couple of
days that you're like, this guy's got no chance, this
guy screwed. I don't even need them to break it down.
So there's a randomness if you do not hit it
straight off the fairway, which on a lot of terms,
(14:35):
especially the Masters, doesn't really matter as much always factored
into the US Open. This one is legitimately impossible, and
especially as it got wet, it got even crazier. So
there was and I'm not trying to diminish anything from
JJ Spawn's victory, but there was. It felt like a
little more randomness with this tournament than typically in the
(14:56):
major tournaments.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I'm not saying JJ spawn was a the best player
because he had the lowest score, but this thing felt
a little wacky, and listen, maybe that's just part of
US Opens, but I do think the golf media in general,
they're huge on this golf. On the ball roll back,
they're beaten that drum ball roll back. You know two
people that do not care about the ball rollback, the
(15:18):
players they don't want it, and the fans don't care.
But the media is driving this. Then they love it
and listen, there are like I do understand if they
hit it a little bit shorter, they'd have more options
at different courses. True, but the one thing you see
is like some of these shootouts. The media hated the
Valhalla last year when Xander won. Guess what, pretty entertaining
(15:39):
for most people because birdies at a course like this
are very hard to come by, which is part for
the course at the US Open. But as just a consumer,
you know, the ending of the tournament is exhilarating, but
like I'd say, sixty plus holes of the tournament was
kind of like huh, I mean, and I get it.
(16:01):
Johnny Miller's taking shots like Bryson d Chambeau. You know
why he's watching this tournament this weekend because he can't
hit a fairway and part of US opens it in
the fairway.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
But this is an individual sport and it's driven by
the stars. And when you're just kicking half the stars
out before Saturday, And while Scotty was kind of in
the mix, he kind of wasn't. But you know Rory,
who knows shooting seventy five every day, hucking clubs, shattering
tea boxes, It does diminish the experience a little bit. Now, luckily,
(16:32):
this is only one time a year, and you could
argue it's like once every four or five years because
of the course. But while I came into this tournament
thinking Cinderella has had no chance, dead wrong and I
couldn't wait to watch the course kick the players ass,
I kind of gotta take the l on that too,
because I'm watching and I'm like, I'm kind of bored.
I'm gonna go play golf on Saturday. I consume major
(16:52):
golf course tournaments like I do NFL football, like I
love it, and I just I'm glued to the couch.
My wife knows. There is the Super Bowl, and then
there are four other super Bowls and they're called the Masters,
the PGA, the US Open, and the British Open. Now,
luckily the British Open so early time, we got half
our days, you know, on Saturday and Sunday. But this tournament,
(17:14):
like it's a pretty big deal on Saturday and Sunday
didn't do that much for me. And I do be
interested to see the television ratings. The NBA Finals are here,
and this is your last chance to bet on the
NBA until next season, and the DraftKings Sports Book, an
(17:34):
official sports betting partner of the NBA, is pulling out
all the stops to make it the finals. To remember,
one team will be crowded the champ and the other
will be lost to history. Who you got winning at all?
Obviously everyone's picking the Thunder, not gonna lie. Don't hate
dabbling a little on the Pacers five to one to
win the series to the NBA Finals. They just destroy
(17:55):
the one seed. The Cavs work the Knicks. I think
people are sleeping on the Pacers a little bit. I
get the Thunder a good but I think people are
underrating the Pacers. All season long, DraftKings has been the
go to spot for NBA player props and that doesn't
stop now. Who you got carrying their team to the chip?
Try placing a bet on your personal MVP to drop thirty,
forty or fifty. I would expect, obviously Shay, but definitely
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Speaker 1 (20:13):
I also think there was a shot today of and
this is what Neil had mentioned on No Laying Up
is like they don't do a good enough job of
kind of giving different camera angles. And I forget who
was on the green, but one of the camera angles
kind of went to the side of the green instead
of the overhead, and the green looked like a roof.
You know how roofs slant. That's what the green look like.
(20:35):
You're like, this is this looks impossible? How could you
put on something that looks like it as a forty
five degree slope? What do they always say about the
masters that television does not do it justice because you
can't tell the undulation of the holes, how the downslope
and the upslopes, and no lie is flat though on
TV and overhead shot it kind of looks like a
(20:56):
football field. It looks flat. And even with these greens
which are clearly sloped just at an extreme level when
they're when they have the overhead shot of Victor Hovelin
with the punt, you can tell he's playing it five
feet to the right or seven feet to the left
because that's where the ball starts. But you can't understand
it with the slope of the green. So you could
(21:18):
argue that the cool aspect of the course does not
show on television. And let's face it, most people that
consume this tournament are not on the property. This is
a television product. That's the point of this business model.
And NBC takes a lot of shit because one they
bought this tournament back from Fox for like fifty percent
(21:39):
I think even less than fifty cents on the dollar.
It might have been for like thirty cents on the dollar.
And they do exactly what they've done before they bought
the tournament. I mean, there are a lot of shots
today that they don't even have shot tracker on, Like, guys,
this isn't the cognizance that this isn't the Hunda Classic,
this is the US Open. How do I not have
a shot tracer on every fucking shot this twenty twenty five.
(21:59):
But I think you could argue that television didn't do
this course justice because as the tournament went on, the
course does feel a little bland on television, which clearly
it's not and anyone that plays it, and if you
watch any of these YouTube videos of the guys of
the creators of Bryson, the course looks cool the way
they do it, yet when they're doing it on television,
(22:20):
it's just not quite as good. So I guess, as
a long winded way of saying, I was a little
disappointed as a viewer. And I don't even know if
it's the course fault, because the course lived up to
the hype. I mean, one guy under par at the
beginning of the week, they started pulling all these players
like would you sign up for even par? Would you
sign up for two over par? And I mean a
(22:41):
lot of these guys were taking these scores and looking back,
you one hundred percent would have signed up for even
par right one. I mean it took a guy making
a seventy foot put or whatever on eighteen to break even.
Par So the course lived up to the hype. It
kicked the shit out of everybody.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I mean, it destroyed most of these guys.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
So, I mean Bryceon d Chambeau not even sniffing the cut,
you know, ejecting the Justin Thomas as some of these
guys was, I guess cool, but then at the same
time it's like, do you really want that?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I kind of torn.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
But I mean some of these guys down the stretch today,
Hatton fell apart, Hovelin actually played pretty well. Robert McIntyre.
I mean, look who played pretty well in this tournament
beside JJ Spond, Robert McIntyre international guy used to the elements,
Hovelin grew up in like fucking Iceland, Cam Young from
New York, Haddon, UK rom comfortable in the elements. Obviously,
(23:38):
scheffler Is couldn't put. So I mean Ben Griffin having
himself a good season. Xander Schoffley the sneakiest T twelve
I've ever seen. I don't know if I saw Xander
Schoffley hit a shot today, shot sixty nine Koepka actually
pretty solid T twelve as well, seventy three, seventy one
on the weekend. But Roy McElroy somehow finished in the
(24:01):
top twenty. Did not see if you would have asked
me before, I just looked at the leaderboard. Or do
you think Rory McIlroy finished. I would have been like
thirty third, tied for thirty third. He finished tied for nineteenth,
So it shows you and tied for nineteenth was plus
seven like you finished in the top twenty five. Jordan
Spieth finished in the top twenty five with eight over par,
(24:25):
shooting seventy two on on Sunday. So I mean, I
think at the end of the day, I don't think
this is something that people would want a lot. And
that's always something that people push back against when it
comes to this tournament or just tournaments in general. Is
it's too easy, too many birdie fests. I do think
(24:46):
that's kind of entertaining, you know. I think we see
this in the NBA. People push against three pointers, and
I think there is a line where three pointers can
be boring, just like there are a line like when
Steph curR and Klay Thompson were hot in their prime,
they could shoot one hundred and three pointers and everyone's entertained. Right,
But do I want to see some random guy shooting
(25:06):
twenty eight percent bombing threes from the from the corner?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:10):
No?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Do I want to see tournament after tournament where thirty
under part is winning the tournament?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
No?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
But do we make too big of a deal about
seventeen eighteen under? I think we probably do because and
that's hard. It's why some of these guys it's difficult
for them to play. And I think if anyone that
follows the corn Ferry Tour, you know, on a weekly basis,
to make the cut on the corn Ferry Tour, it's usually,
(25:37):
like I would I don't know what the average is
over the last couple of years, but if I had
to take an educated guess, I'd bet it's like six
or seven under. And typically a lot of these tournaments
to win the corn Fery Tour is well over twenty.
So that means if you're like ten or eleven under
on the week, you're probably not sniffing a top twenty.
And like that.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
There's a balance of that. You don't want to.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
See that on the PGA Tour, But we do like explosive,
you know moments, and that speaks of the day to
day where I felt like it like lacked a little juice,
like it kind of wasn't working.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I got a pretty good idea, I.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Think what works and what doesn't when it comes to
some of these events, But I don't know, something is
just a little off unless individual sport not huge names
might have been it might have just been the nature
of every single guy getting their ass kicked. But they
go to this crazy rain delay, and anyone that if
you're watching this, then you know live in the Northeast
or the South. I've never lived in the South, but
(26:33):
you know, being in Philly, I would imagine Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Same thing.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
These rainstorms can come through and for a forty five
minute hour and a half it feels like, is this
the hardest I've ever seen or felt it rain? Then
all of a sudden, it's just gone, and that clearly happened,
and they go to a rain delay and NBC immediately
just goes. They don't even go to like Dan Hicks
or Tarrico. It's like, hey, you want to get a
mic in front of Sam Burns, Adam Scott, JJ spond
(26:58):
Terrell hadn't you want to just bullshit with these guys.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
People might be cool content.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Hey, you want to get a caddy on camera?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
What's it like out there? What are you guys doing?
Speaker 1 (27:06):
What do you experience? You want to get some guys
that just finished. Hey, hey, can we use it for
like twenty minutes to kill some time? Kind of do
a roundtable. Can you imagine the NFL if there was
a delay in a game and it was gonna be
like thirty minutes in a huge game, a playoff game,
or a late December game. Going to an event from
like two thousand and eight, and they went to tiger
(27:28):
which I understand because if I'm an NBC executive and
we need a break and we're not gonna do any
content on site, which is fucking insane, We're just gonna
cut to something pre recorded. They didn't go to like
last year's event. Hell, they didn't even go to twenty
sixteen Oakmont where the tournament was being held. They went
all the way back to two thousand and eight tiger Woods.
Two thousand and eight tiger Woods, but they went to
(27:50):
the Saturday round. Why cause Saturday round. He's making like
crazy Eagles he's chipping it in.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
It was incredible.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
But think about that they went to a delay. It
went to two thousand and eight Tiger Woods Saturday, and
they didn't really even explain it. They just threw it
up there.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
It was like, okay, I'll watch this for a little bit.
And it was cool.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
First first shot they showed it was him hitting it
from like the patrons to the back of the green
where he ended up making like a one hundred foot
eagle putt.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But it's like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And it's why, like I do think the criticism of
the network and NBC and the way that they do golf,
because think about how they do football.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
It feels like a super Bowl every night. How seriously,
they take the NFL with Tarico, with collins Worth, the production,
it's a real big deal, and it does feel like
with golf.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
It's like I.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Couldn't believe when they went to the rain delay, which
is no one's fault, nothing you can do that. They
just immediately went to tiger Woods two thousand and eight
Saturday round. It's like, guys, you got all all these
players intense, Like just get a guy on a mic
they're literally doing that. They're just sitting there. Hey JJ,
(29:05):
what was it like when your ball hit the pin?
Did you are you mentally losing it right now? Hey Sam,
do you feel like you're in a pretty good position
to win this tournament?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Adam?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Like, what are the nerves like right now? Knowing that
you have an opportunity to win your second major of
your career? And like they were talking about on the broadcast,
become a Hall of Famer because Adam Scott has said
I guess in the past that he doesn't view himself
as a Hall of Famer because he only has one major.
They didn't do any of that. All these guys are
sitting around, got a million fucking microphones.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
It's crazy how bad my allergies are here and ares
I've never had allergies in my life, and my allergies
now are pretty outrageous. I did want to hit on
this Roy McElroy, and I went back. I'm glad that
I didn't react on Saturday night to this tournament because
I think it would have been.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Probably pretty aggressive.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Roy McElroy is acting like the press treat him like
he's a sitting president or something like he is about
to be asked like what do you think of the
ice raids and what's your stance on the trans movement.
I mean they're literally asking you, Rory, how's your driver working?
Why did you hit a sand wedge on thirteen? And
(30:18):
I do get when you go back to the PGA
Championship and the driver story leaked. Clearly the people at
the PGA that test the driver told the media about
Rory and that's where the story leaked, even though Scottie
Scheffler and other guys also failed to test. So in
that individual instance, I get being mad, and I get
(30:39):
even not talking for a couple of days, I get
it totally understandable. Emotions run high, even if I technically
kind of want to disagree with Like, Bro, you're the
most famous guy in the sport. Part of being Michael Jordan,
part of being Tiger Woods, part of being in this
position is like taking the arrow sometimes, which you have
in the past, but it doesn't just end when you
(31:01):
arbitrarily wanted to end. But in an individual instance, I
get being like f you guys, totally understandable. Now we're
like two months later, and for him to come out
and say like I'm mad at you guys, like, what
are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Like mad at some guy that writes for golf dot.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Com like Rory to say, and I saw Paul McGinley,
who is a big part of the Golf Channel, say like,
I don't really recognize this Rory. He does just look
kind of angry. Now, obviously this course can be pretty frustrating,
but he helicoptered countless clubs, he shattered.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
A tea box.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
He's refusing to talk the majority of the time, So listen,
I'm not into psychoanalyzing what's going on in the guy's life.
Who knows what's happening at his home. He had a
divorce that almost happened a year ago. They reconciled.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
You never know.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sometimes problems don't just go away. But clearly, whatever's going
on right now for a guy that looked like his
season was about to be a rocket ship. He won Pebble,
won the Players, then won the fucking Masters. If you
would have bet at that moment, do you think Rory's
gonna go on to have a massive season, win like
five times another major? Or if you would have said,
(32:15):
do you think he's just gonna mail it in and
suck from there? On out. I think ninety percent of
people would have been, like, he's gonna have an awesome season,
no pressure, everyone's supporting him. He's just everyone's rooting for him.
It's fun to watch him play. He's just kind of vibing,
and it's been the complete opposite. And listen, money success
(32:37):
impacts us all differently. Rory's been rich for a long time,
so money doesn't impact how hard he's been practicing. He's
grinded the last ten years trying to win a major.
He has been filthy rich. But clearly that moment of
winning that championship, whatever that did off the course, to me,
has manifested it into the way he's kind of operating
(32:59):
and acting. And we're geting a different guy because whatever's
going on is not the human that we witnessed destroyed
JJ spond in that playoff to make those incredible shots
on Sunday at the Masters, and that sucks, you know,
like it Listen, did it suck to have Bryson missed
the cut?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Of course, it's golf.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
It happens, right, I mean, look at John Rahm last year,
had a foot issue, played bad in the Majors, kind
of got his mojo back, and John Ram's just kind
of back being in the mix. Scott He's had some
weird moments last year at the at the British Open,
you know, is bitching and moaning. Like, I give you,
it's golf, it's hard, right, But whatever's going on with
Rory is not an enjoyable experience. And I don't know why.
(33:43):
I mean, he's not really given much insight into it,
but I think we're past the point of like he's
just mad.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
At the quote unquote.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Media that like Sirius XM and golf dot com and
the PGA Tour dot Com are asking, Hey, what's up
with the driver? Hey Rory, how is that seven iron
on fourteen? Like, bro, what are we even talking about that?
There can never there's never been a time in the
history of sports where it's been easier to be an
(34:14):
athlete and get asked questions. And there's definitely never been
a time where it's easier to be a golfer and
get asked questions. I think it shows what a complete list.
Golf has always been a rich man's country club bubble sport.
It has become less like that to the public, given
there are more public courses and access to golf, though
(34:36):
the prices post twenty twenty are outrageous in most of
these places where we live. I mean, to play a
ship banger course is like sixty eighty one hundred dollars.
You used to be able to find the crappiest course
in America. You could play for like ten twenty bucks.
Now it's like you couldn't sniff a course for underd
and fifty bucks and anything half decent running like one
(34:56):
hundred and fifty dollars. So it maybe it's shifting back
the other way. But a lot of these guys on
tour live in there, a little bubble member at all
these country clubs, fly private for you know, starting in
their early twenties, hard to have a great grasp on society.
In a weird way, it felt like Rory did, and
now whatever happened over the course of the last couple
of months, it felt like he's kind of lost it.
(35:17):
It's why sometimes when you see a Cinderella moment happen
like JJ Spawn, you kind of find yourself rooting for
it because you're like, that guy's kind of relatable, unlike
some of these other guys, right, Like I bet Jjspahn
flies a lot on commercial airlines. I bet jjspawn doesn't
live in the biggest house in Scottsdale, right, I bet
(35:39):
JJ spawn like drives a car that more often not's
gonna look like minor yours than DJs.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And it's why, like as it kind of took shape,
root for him and listen, anytime you're the guy at
the top of the mountain, it's where the wind blows
the hardest, so you're gonna take the most shit. Ask
lebron as Brady, as Tiger, ask Rory. But like part
of it is like more is asked of you to
have thick skin and be able to handle it, and
for him to constantly be mad. I just bo you're
(36:11):
laughing at that bad unless it is and we just
don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
This is very bizarre and honestly kind of off putting,
you know, as someone that roots for the guy.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
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Speaker 1 (36:57):
Let's end on this, Let's answer a couple questions and
get out of here at Golopod. At Golopod is the Instagram.
You guys can fire in those dms whenever I don't
even I mean, is there a golf tournament this week?
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Maybe? Is the Travelers in two weeks? And who knows?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
There might be a signature event this week. I haven't
even looked, But if there is, maybe we'll do some
gambling stuff later this week. But at Golopod, firing those
dms get questions answered on the show. This from cal question,
what's going on with this guy? He needs to be
admitted to the looney bin or just get some medication.
He's speaking about Rory when a USGA official he sent
(37:38):
me this post approach Rory about his media availability. As
he walked from the scoring room to the clubhouse without
stopping and said I'm good and kept on walking. He
did talk on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
But I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
It's a lot of people when you're just a nice guy,
if you're in the public eye all the time, you're
gonna screw up. You're gonna say things that are gonna
piss people off. I'm sure I say things every single
day on my podcast that someone disagrees with, whether it's
a serious thing, whether it's not serious as part of
(38:13):
you know, talking and anytime that you're a pro athlete
and you're the top pro athlete, you're talking in front
of a camera and a microphone all the time, like
you're allowed to make mistakes. But I think this Rory
is like owning himself in this situation. He's making it
worse a lot, like Marikawa did a couple months ago.
It's like, Bro, this isn't this complicated. These people aren't
(38:36):
asking you tough questions. Just say yeah, man, I was emotional.
I stormed off on Sunday. I regret doing that.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I was pissed off.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I wanted to win. Totally get it. We all would
do if we were in your shoes. It's not that
fucking big a deal. But constantly doubling down, like screw you.
I don't know you shit, Like, bro, who.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Are you even talking about? Who are you talking to?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
And you do all the television partners something, you do
all these tournaments that you are making money off some
where do you think the money comes from the sponsors?
Do you think this money just comes from the sky.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Now, Rory is so.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Rich, he's so out of touch with that flow.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Maybe he just at this point doesn't give a shit anymore,
which I kind of.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Feels that way because it doesn't feel like he cares
that much, which is his prerogative. But him saying like, oh,
they can't force me to do It's like Rory, it's
not about forcing or not forcing. It's just about like,
this is the business you're in. We all have parts
of whatever business we're in that suck every single human
whether you're in sales, whether you're a janitor, whether you
run a construction company, whether you're a doctor, There is
(39:36):
a part of every single one of our jobs, no
matter what if you starting quarterback, whether you CEO of
you're Jamie Diving, you run Chase, there is literally something
or a couple things in your daily you know, operating,
You know operation that you do, you despise doing that,
You put off or something you do on a weekly basis,
(39:59):
or like I'm dreading doing this, welcome to life, and
you still got to do it. And Roy's like, well,
technically don't have to do it.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, you don't have to do it.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
But speaking is part of I don't know this business
that is professional sports and the generating mechanism that brings
the I don't know cash that pays for your hundreds
and millions of dollars that you have in the bank
that didn't just it doesn't just exist because you're awesome
at golf. There are a lot of dudes awesome at
golf all over the world that no one ever watches play.
(40:29):
But you play on this PGA tour. That's this vehicle
to generate the coin. Do you think the question for
the golo mailback.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Speaking of the PGA Tour and live, do you.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Think the golf world, more specifically the broadcast partners can
ever get over the live PGA split. I watch both
tours pretty regularly, and I find it frustrating at the
majors when they just put when they hardly go into
detail on any of to live guys. A great example
is Ortiz. As I type this he's within striking distance
on a Sunday in a major. The broadcast only says
(41:02):
he's never finished a high in a major. The dude
is having a really solid year on lift. I just
don't get why we can't celebrate all golfers, regardless of
where they choose to play. Cheers, brother, Well, I think
you'd have to ask them specifically. I mean, was it
last year in the US Open when Brandal Shambily was
(41:22):
I mean actively rooting for Rory against bryceon like he
can I like Brandew, I'm a huge Brandal Shambily fan,
but he can't deny that he was rooting for Rory.
But we know where he stands. Tweets about it all
the time. He listen to some people, definitely in the media,
to some people in general, you know, get very on
their moral high horse about the Saudi situations, like guys,
(41:45):
our countries balls deep in business with them. Like so
it's like you're gonna worry about the golfers, Like, give
me a break. I never even you know, live it's
paying us now we're talking about a little me and Colin.
But anyone that's listened to me for a long time morally,
I was unfazed by it. I did not care. I
(42:07):
would have taken the money too. If they would have
thrown in front of me, if you would offer me
two hundred million dollars like Bryson, d Chambora or Brooks Koepka,
zero chance I would have turned it down.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
None.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
And I think there's a jealousy factor on the players,
some of them that stayed because they clearly could have
got one hundred and one hundred and fifty million dollars
and that money's gone now, that money no longer exists
in the sense of it's been reported that lives done
giving out the huge bonuses. Bryson just talked about it about,
you know, renegotiating. We'll have to see how that plays out.
(42:37):
Now he's kind of an outlier, But I do think
the broadcast partners like whoever you're in business with, and
it's a serious business partner.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
So let's use CBS.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
CBS is embedded with the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour
is a huge deal to CBS. It's a lot of
programming for him throughout the year, and they have been
partners for a long long time. So anyone that you're
in business with and you have like there's and you've
made money with there should be some sort of loyalty
(43:09):
to that. So I get some of these commentators that
are really close with people on the PGA tour having
a bias, right, they did pick a side, and they
can't hide Kevin Kissner, who is now and I'm not
saying he did this, He's a PGA Tour member, Like
(43:29):
that's his crew.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
These are his guys that stayed.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Now, who knows, maybe if you're having beers with kids,
he doesn't actually care, but like if you told me
he did or doesn't like love the situation, it's kind
of understandable. So we're all products, especially in business of
like who are you in business with? Anyone listening to
this that knows people in the booze business knows that
(43:54):
it's a really big deal to them. When you're with
them and you order their competing brand, they were like, no,
order the different one. Do you think it's because they
really love the taste that much? Or it's like, no,
we're not doing business with these motherfuckers. We're trying to
take them down. It's part of life, that's part of
you know, that's part of business. So I think there's
(44:14):
a competitive thing there. I do think they get treated differently,
for sure. You know, you don't have to treat Bryson
and Rahm differently because we know him so well. But
I'm with you on Carlos Otz. He's clearly a really
talented young guy that I don't know that much about, right.
I would love to hear more, but you're just You're
just not gonna get it, so I don't expect it
to come.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
A big fan.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
I watch every major with my dad and thought about
the US Open. That is really the true test of
the year, and isn't a birdie fest. Do you think
it would be beneficial for the PGA to have a
yearly tournament that rotates the top course every year that
they intentionally make extremely difficult for the pros. The common
golf might find it boring, but people like us who
(45:02):
enjoy the carnage would love to see these guys struggle
more than once a year at the US Open, and
it's not always super low scoring like it could be.
What are your thoughts, Also, if you're ever in Rochester,
New York, just play some golf at Oakhill. I don't
(45:22):
think a lot of the guys would play. I really don't.
I don't think they'd show up. I don't think they'd participate.
And you can say they're really soft. But if I
told you you're Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay, would you
rather play the eighty five Bears or the two thousand
and one Ravens or would you rather play the Jags?
(45:48):
What do you think they're gonna say?
Speaker 2 (45:50):
So?
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I think part of it is people try to avoid
difficult situations. Mentally breaks you down when you don't have to.
And most of these guys now are so rich they
can pick their schedule, the business model they don't, you know,
unlike on the PGA Tour and like live, you don't
have to play any tournaments. It was thought forever that
it was gonna be forced to play these signature events,
(46:12):
and it's Rory's proven. Scott Scotty and Rory both have
skipped signature events over the last couple of months, and
not because they're injured.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
They're healthy.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
So I think one's enough after watching this, and I'm
pro carnage to a point until I've like I kind
of want to be entertained, it's not really entertaining me,
so I would say that's not gonna happen because I want.
I don't think they would get the buy in. I
think there would be courses they would volunteer, say hey,
come to my course. We will trick this bad boy
(46:44):
up and kick the shit out of these guys.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
And I think the guy's just one show.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
I've been thinking about the backlash live golfers have faced
and wanted to get your take. Why do you think
players jumping from the PGA to live get so much
flak while similar shift entertainment, like big name actors moving
from traditional Hollywood studios to streaming platforms, seems to go
mostly unnoticed or even celebrated. In both cases, there was
(47:09):
once only one clear path of success until a player
came along, offering top talent, more money in flexibility. Yet
live golfers are often vilified, while actors making similar moves
are seen as progressive or smart. Is it a source
of the money, the tradition of the sport, or something
else entirely.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Well?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I think with a movie, right, what show was I
watching recently? I was watching Stick, the Owen Wilson golf
show that they put on Apple TV. That if that
was on Netflix, if it's on Apple TV or if
it's on Amazon Prime, if enough people are talking about it,
I'm going to end up watching it and liking it,
(47:53):
and ultimately, like I'm not invested into CBS, into Netflix
in the Amazon, I.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Don't really care.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Right, Like when I went to see a movie, for example,
as a kid, I don't go to movies anymore. It
didn't matter to me what studio produced the movie, if
the stars were in the movie, Like when I was
a kid, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, Tom Hanks,
you name it, Denzel Washington, they drew you to the movie.
(48:22):
You didn't give a shit. The As you get older,
you know more about like the directors. You're like, oh,
Scorsese film. But when you're young, you don't care. It's
like this guy's just really famous. I want to go
watch the Rock, right, I want to go watch this
famous actor in this movie. You don't know who directed it,
who produced it. You don't care. And I think there's
an element like an actor is an independent contractor slash
(48:46):
independent business in himself a lot like golfers. So like
when you have there are only so many golfers that
truly move the needle and the numbers under ten, and
when they play against each other, it helps and it matters.
Watching Tiger play against Phil is much better than watching
(49:06):
Tiger play against some random even though it's still Tiger playing.
But when you get Tiger playing against a legendary player
like that. Part of what made twenty nineteen in the
him winning the Masters cool is like can't lead DJ final,
like there were other famous guys there that we know
(49:27):
or knew at the time, Like this is a pretty
big deal, right.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
And Golf's an individual sport, so.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
You can't separate and live take Took, Bryson and Ram
and look, Hatton is a really good player. I mean,
these guys are like righter cuppers. And when I remove
if there are obviously there's top one hundred players, right,
but there's a big difference between like the top I
would say twenty ish and if LIV takes four or
(49:56):
five of those top twenty guys, it does Deman finish
some of these bigger tournaments, non majors, And obviously there's
a jealousy factor and there's animosity and some of a
lot of these guys you know, said no, So there
are a lot of different variables, but at this point
in time, I think we've seen this sport, just like
(50:18):
any individual sport is not strong enough and it's just
Golf's a niche operation.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
This is not football.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
But even football couldn't overcome if some league just stole
Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert like it would
be it would hurt the league. So I think there
are a lot of factors here and inevitably, like they've
had conversations and working towards stuff. Who knows when it
actually plays out, but like it's I understand why people
(50:49):
were mad. I understood why people took the money, and
I understand while this is not a sustainable model for everybody,
and inevitably, whether that's in two years, that's in ten years,
I don't know when I'm done even guessing or slash
even caring. That's why at first my reactions like I
want to do business with Live. It's like, well, they
got top players, so if I can get access to
(51:11):
the top guys, Uh yeah, let's they can come on
the pod, you know, Can I get John Ramin? Can
I get Terrell Hatton on the pod? Because I like
PGA tours, giving me those guys. So I we're at
the point now it's twenty twenty five, so let's let's
attempt to figure it out. I played baseball growing up,
played golf for about two years now. I still grip
(51:33):
the club like a baseball bat. What is the benefit
of the finger lock or different grip styles. Does it
help with more consistent swing or do you think it's
essential to learn how to hold the club. I've tried
every once in a while in interlock in my fingers,
but it feels awkward. You'd have to YouTube. I would
YouTube like golf coaches talking about the golf grip and
(51:53):
the interlock. I don't know the benefits in terms of
grip pressure. I would say you definitely have better grip
pressure in terms of holding the club than a baseball bat,
which is obviously a lot heavier than a golf club.
I've been playing golf. I mean, I was awful at baseball.
I quit after a little league. I've been playing golf
much longer than I ever played baseball. So the interlock
(52:16):
grip is like what it feels like to you with
the baseball bat. Gripping a golf club like a baseball
bat feels.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
Weird to me.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
The interlock grip, even when I just do it with
my hands standing, you know, sitting on my office chair
feels like a normal movement to my hands.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
So I.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
Can't imagine there'll be many good players over the last
fifty years that did not have an interlocking grip. Could
be wrong, but let me say this differently. There's a
very very short list of guys in the history of golf,
definitely modern day, that grip it like a baseball bat. Okay,
last question. I've recently gotten into golf and have noticed
(52:57):
that my first few holes go well at my plans,
my play starts to go downhill. Do you notice this
with your game? Is there a solution as simple as
slowing down and taking more time for each shot. Also,
you keep track of your handicap. How much have you
improved since you started playing well? I mean, I've had
a handicap for thirty plus years.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
So it's gone up and down. I would say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
I mean, I would say my downfall of golf is
I struggle with eighteen holes.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
I mean, I have a ton.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Of respect for all the guys that play professionally collegiately,
because you're playing day after day. So it's not even
just eighteen holes, it's you might have three straight days
of having to focus on every given shot. I shot
eighty three yesterday and I finished triple. I finished five
over in the last four holes, which is by far
(53:46):
the easiest stretch. So, like I mean, if I just
usually I finish even or one under on that stretch
and I finished five over, it might have been you know,
had a transfusion and then a beer. But I just
I kind of didn't focus on a web shot and
all of a sudden it kind of spiraled, and all
of a sudden.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker 1 (54:06):
And if it wouldn't have been for probably like a
ten foot par putt on seventeen, it would have been
six over in the last four holes. So focus on golf,
It's what. The game of golf is much closer to
the like I would say kicking in football, elements of baseball.
It's a lot of thinking and a lot of a
(54:28):
lot of focus. You know, in basketball and football you
just get to play. Obviously, in football you have to
know the play. But if I'm a tight end and
I'm running a five yard out route and I have
an inside release, if the guy shaded over my right shoulder, right,
Like I just get to play full speed.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
I just get to play. Right.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
If I'm the offensive tackle and I have a reach block, like,
I just fucking go full speed. Right if I'm the
linebacker and it's gonna be third and one, like I
know this is probably gonna come between the guard and
the center buckle that chin strap and just go. You know,
golf like the harder you try sometimes the worse you play.
But you do need to try, but you also need
(55:06):
to focus. So it's just it's a mentally to It's
what makes it just a fun, unique challenge that no
matter how good you get, it keeps you coming back
for more. No matter how bad you are, every good
shot kind of keeps you interested. It's one of the
only things that kind of, you know, for us as
you get older, helps you meet new people, gets you outside.
(55:29):
I mean, I don't know what else would get me
outside for five hours.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
And one hundred and five degrees.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Not many things, probably nothing beside a swimming pool. So
I think it's just it's a special game slash activity
that you always are in the in the process of
trying to figure out. But I would say, one of
the more difficult aspects of the game of golf is upstairs.
(55:57):
And even once you get to you know, let's say
I'm just let's say you're a twenty handicap. You keep playing,
to keep practicing. If you're a decent athlete, it's pretty
easy to start kind of working your way from like
a ten to a fifteen or excuse me, like twenty
fifteen down to a ten. Once you get into that
single digits, Like I've hovered between a six and a
(56:17):
three handicap for really probably six seven years now, and
I wonder if I've hit a ceiling. Not because I
don't have the shots, I mean I can. You can
watch me play a two hole stretch where're like it's
got like a plus two handicap, but mentally I don't
really have it. I'm not I wouldn't say I'm a
mental midget, but I struggle, like in life with just
(56:38):
I don't know if it's eighty D but just pure
focus where I have a lot of respect the people
that just can consistent, you know, scratch and better golfers.
If you're not like a college golfer, how do you
how do you able to focus on the shots for
five hours.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (56:52):
It's what makes the the game difficult, but it's also
what makes it fun because even once you start rolling,
you kind of feel yourself. One bad shot will humble
your as.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Fast, so wind on that.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
Congrats to jjspond US Open champion and Oakmont I Guess
for kicking.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
The shit out of everybody
Speaker 1 (57:14):
The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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