April 16, 2019 • 53 mins
So...just how amazing was Tiger's victory on Sunday? Where does it rank all-time in sports comebacks? How soon will we see him tee it up again? So many things to cover in this weeks podcast...we recap the awesomeness that was the 2019 Masters! We are PLAYING THROUGH!!!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't mind us where playing Through Here's Froggy and Whacker.
Ladies and gentlemen. Here we are a podcast that I'm
not sure we thought we would ever do, but when
I'm extremely excited to do with Froggy. From the Elvis
Urrand Morning Show at Froggy Radio on Twitter and Instagram.
At playing Through a Podcast on Instagram at play through
(00:24):
Golf on Twitter. You can't hear my voice still has
not recovered. From Sunday Afternoon. UM joined by Brian Whacker,
who I'm starting to get slightly jealous of because now
he has attended both victories on the comeback Trail at
Brian Whacker One on Instagram and Twitter. Brian, you were
there to Gusta National Golf Club Sunday afternoon and watch
(00:45):
what arguably is one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.
Tell us what it was like. Well, I'm gonna take
this stuff furnace, intree, comeback and sportswristy, but we'll get
into that later on. UM. Yeah, the office here was incredible.
One of the coolest things he was that I was
roaming around, uh the eighteenth Green and into the clubhouses
(01:09):
Tiger was finishing up. UM. We've seen all of the
past infinance, all of the green Jackets, UM, a number
of them, six seven, eight of them had gathered in
the champions locker room said hey, let's put on our
green jackets, have a drink, sort of come down to
congratulate Tiger. There was Bernard Longer, there was Zack Johnson.
(01:29):
Adam Scott was there, Uh there as they said, they're about.
Bubba Watson was there. There were about half a dozen,
maybe eight guys past winners, and I've never seen that.
I've I've covered now eleven Masters and I've never seen
that take place before where you had all these past
winners and then a bunch of tour players as well.
(01:53):
Justin Thomas stuck around, uh and came back at Ricky
Faller was there. Of course, Justin and Ricky or our
eyes that hang around the Tiger down in South Florida
and they play a lot of home games UM with
each other. So this was this was really cool from
that standpoint to see not just the fan reaction and
(02:13):
I've got another story on that by the way that
that we can get into in a few minutes, but um,
just to see all of the past winners and everybody
gathering around there and it's really just chaos unfolding on
the on the back Fawn of Augusta, Nashville was really
cool and just an awesome atmosphere. How's you imagine? Yeah,
(02:33):
I mean, let's get back, you know, I want to
go back to I remember we were doing the podcast
twenty December of twenty seventeen. I believe it was there
was seen I get my dates mixed up. But he
did the press conference and said, you know, I've had
a great career. I've had a great run and I'll
never ever forget these words. Anything I do from here
(02:54):
on out is just gravy. And that was when you
said to me, we're done. Like we've seen it, We've
witnessed greatness, we've watched it. We're lucky that it's happened
in our lifetime. But listen, man, his body has just
broken down. He's not going to be able to do
it again. And that that wasn't something that we were
just saying. That came out of his own mouth. It
(03:15):
was we were done. And then we've said, you know,
we saw the simulator video where he showed us swinging
the golf club, and then we saw he came back
at the Hero the first time, and and the Tiger
crazy maniacs like me got excited and thought, well, here
we go. And you were very honest and said, listen,
it's a golf course that's very wide. It plays in
(03:37):
his strengths. You know, he still drove it all over
the place, and it's not the same. And and and
you know, I always wanted to make more out of
it than it was. And and I was always guilty
of making every little morsel a meal because I wanted
it to I wanted him to come back so badly.
And not that you didn't. Being a golf fan, I
(03:57):
know that you also wanted Tiger Woods to come back, Brian.
But I thought he was done. Look, I'll admit it.
I and I was way wrong. And you know, I
mean it's easy now to look at I mean, certainly
you look at when the comeback started. You said, okay,
well look clearly, it's not that he's not done. He's
gonna put some golf and we'll see what happens. But um, look,
(04:20):
I I wrote a story a couple of years ago
when he missed the Masters, reporting that he was he
was going to be able to um or he wasn't
gonna be able to play the Masters, according to several sources,
and and one of those sources was actually in Tiger's
presence at at an event or at a at an occurrence.
(04:42):
Um five days before I had written a story and
this source it said, look, Tiger really was. He was
in bad shape, could barely walk. Um, you know, all
he could do at the time was taught, and he
really I thought he was finished. The particular person thought, man,
I don't know if he's going to play golf again.
(05:04):
It's because it didn't look like I mean, at least
given the present state like it. This was not a
guy who could play golf, so of course. And then
then he has spinal fusion surgery, which really was like
the last and that was the number of weeks later. Um,
he has spinal fusion surgery in the spring, and that
(05:26):
was the last step. If that didn't sort of work
and he wasn't able to heal the way he did,
that was it. There was there was That was the
hail Mary. Yeah. And I don't think the spinal fusion
surgery was done with the thought of playing golf. I
think the spinal fusion surgery excuse me was done. I
hope to have his life back, to be able to
be a parent, to be able to spend time with
(05:47):
his kids. I don't think that. I think he had
put in playing golf out of his mind. He just
wanted to be able to be a human being and
enjoy his life and get around. Golf was second. It
was was distant thought. Even after he comes back, he
has the maid for tabloid to rest on the suspicion
of d u I Um. Of course, charges would later reduced.
Where he found passed out behind the wheel of his
(06:10):
car on the side of the road at two o'clock
in the morning in Jupiter. Um. Then he goes to rehab.
Then there's some other things. I mean, this guy, you know,
has undergone, you know, take the physical stuff. And then
and this goes back to my point of the greatest comeback,
because look, Hogan was was nearly killed and head on
(06:32):
car accident, um and came back and won and won
a lot. But I had on collision with the bus.
But look that that was an incredible, incredible comeback. And
I'm not even sure like you want to compare one
against the other. Both are both are incredible obviously, but
the fact is you look at the world that Hired
exists in the fish bowl that he exists in. Now,
(06:55):
that only makes things that much more difficult. Uh from
an emotion will standpoint, a mental standpoint, and it overcomes
all of that, all of that ship to come back
and to be at this point where we are now,
from go back two years from today, I mean, it's remarkable.
(07:16):
And when you really think about it, if you want
to put it all in perspective. Since he's come back,
he's played in five majors. Last year at Augusta National
there was a lot of pressure. We all thought coming
out of the second place finish in Tampa, and he
had contended at bay Hill. We really thought last year's
Masters was gonna just that was gonna be it, and
then it was too soon. Then he gets to the
(07:38):
US Open and he misses the cut, and so that
you know, the expectations are slightly tempered. But you take
the last two majors of last season, he was there
on Sunday afternoon, holding the lead in one of them
and contending at the other, and then he shows up
at Augusta Nationals and he wins. You're talking the guys
played five major turn them and he's contended or held
(08:02):
the lead or one in three of them. And the
last three. It really is remarkable how far we've come
in two years, that we went from a guy was
never gonna play the game again to now the last
three majors in a row he's either held the lead, contended,
or one. That's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, and now, and
(08:28):
I wrote this Sunday night for golf I just dot com.
You can you can read the story. You know, eighteen
is still in play nowt now eighteen the conversation can
be had again. The record Jack Nicholas record of eighteen
major championships. You know that people were like, look, let's
let's just enjoy that he's able to play golf again, right,
(08:49):
and then it's okay, he's able to win again, and
and it's like, well, okay, maybe he can win the
fifteenth major and that would be remarkable. Well now he's
done that, and so now he only three only, but
he's three back of Jack Hying his record. And you
look at the venues coming up, uh best page for
(09:09):
the PGA Championship where yep and Pebble Beach for the
US Open where he's won, and look Royal Port Rush
for the Open Championship he's never played, Um, but it's
a links golf course he's got He's won three British
Opens or three Open Championships. It's certainly not out of
the realm of possibility to think, um, under the right
(09:32):
circumstances and conditions and and his game being informed, that
he could win there. So um, you know, certainly, I don't. Look,
it would be a lot to ask to say, oh,
you know, he's gonna win to two more majors this year,
but he could certainly win another. And I don't think
any of us would be stunned. I mean, it would
just add to the comeback into the legend, into this
(09:54):
the story. But um, and then you you know, obviously
goes back to augustin National. Every you remember, uh, you know,
Jack one there at forty six for his last major,
so the Tiger. While the fascinating thing to me about
this victory was that, um, you know, the last time
(10:16):
he had wanted Augusta was two thousand and five, and
there's been a lot of golf, a lot of changes
to the golf course since then. It's been lengthened and
some of the uh, you know, he was no longer
a guy who could sort of dominate with his length
there and it was quote unquote tiger proof. Now, he
certainly had success playing playing well there since two thousand
(10:38):
and five, but never really um how to chance relate
to win on Sunday until this year. And the fact
that he was able to win this year proves he
can win on this new, newly lengthened Augusta Nationals. Look
look at the fourth pole or the fifth pole, Rabbic,
I don't think he's a fan of the fifth hole.
I'm gonna go out on a limits that he's not
(10:59):
a and of the fifth hole, right, bog is it
every day, but still manages to win the golf term. Yeah,
I mean there's a good a whole those length and
fifty yards, right and and and he still manages to somehow. Yeah,
he made bogie there every day, but he's still figured
out other places where he could make birdies and do
what he needed to do, right. And that's the thing
(11:20):
is that you know, and I know everybody misses putts,
I know what happens, But do you know that he
led the field in missed putts in side, he led
the field. So if he makes half of those, the
guy runs away with the golf tournament. He runs away
with it. It's not even a one shot lead. He
runs away. This could have been so much more, right,
(11:43):
And that's the difference now, Like, that's the difference with
Tiger at forty three versus Tiger or even thirty. To
me is that, Um, you know, putting is one of
the real arts of the game. In the touch and
field that goes into it tends to sort of a
road as guys get older. We we don't see guys
(12:05):
typically get better at putting as they get older. It
just doesn't happen. Um, it's just not the way that
came in. So um to your point, like, I'm not
surprised that he missed a bunch of short pots because
that's what we've seen this year, but he figured out
other ways other things do and and look, let's be honest,
he got he got plenty of help. Four guys in
the last two groups of six or threesomes, you know,
(12:28):
so four the last six guys to tee off hit
in the water on twelve, Um, Molinard hitting it in
the water inexplicably on fifteen. Um he had some help,
so things went his way from that standpoint, Now, was
Molinari feeling the pressure of Tiger breathing down his neck?
(12:49):
You know? I mean, this is a guy who made
a bunch of putts throughout the course of that round,
a bunch of six, seven, eight ten foot par putts
um that were clutch. But did did he eventually crack
under that under that pressure? You know? I don't know.
It's it's easy to sit here and say sure, but um,
it's hard. These guys are trying to win a major
(13:11):
championship in Tiger with that experience at Augusta, and and
really looking calm and comfortable, and you know, like I
asked him in his press conference afterwards, if there was
a moment um either when he gotten there earlier in
the week or even during the tournament early on, where
he felt like, you know, this really could be my week.
(13:32):
And the response is interesting in that he said he'd
been two things. One he'd been preparing for this week
for six months. He'd been putting his focus for the
last six months on this golf tournament with the types
of shots he needed to hit. And one of those shots.
Was hitting a draw August is the place you have
(13:53):
to be able to hit the ball right to left
on occasion. Um, you don't see a lot of faders
often win there. So Um, so he finally felt comfortable
with the driver hitting uh, right to left shots where
he could just kind of let it go in the
same thing with some of the other irons and in
plays like that. So to me, there were shops throughout
(14:16):
the course of the week that he really just finally
felt comfortable with that he'd been working on and he
was able to execute those. Um. You know, so that's
the golf course. Now clearly he could win on again. Right.
You gotta think for six months he just did it.
He basically for six months. Yeah, the other tournament's Eve
been playing this year where we have talked about he's
(14:36):
had some struggles. Um, he really wasn't And it's not
that he didn't want to win, of course, he teed
it up. He wanted to win, but he has had
much like he used to do earlier in his career.
He wants to peak for the majors. So he spent
six months getting ready for this golf tournament and he
won it. You have to think that moving forward, as
(14:58):
we're going to get into the p g A Championship,
which has been moved and that's now the next major. Uh.
As we get into the PGA Championship, that he is
going to be trying to hit shots and mimic shots
that he will need to hit on that golf course
in order to be comfortable. And that's where his focus
will now turn to. Do you agree? Yeah? Now, the
interesting thing about that is Augusta is a place where
(15:22):
you can you know, you can hit it a little
bit crooked off the tee uh, and it's not going
to kill you. You know. I've thought about this, like
if you look at the Tour Championship in East Lake
where he won um, that was a golf course where
once he he played well enough those first couple of
days to put himself in position he could play, he
(15:43):
could continue to play well. And it was also a
place where he wasn't really going to get himself in
a lot of trouble. There weren't hold um like you
go back earlier last last year, go back to the
early last year the Honda Classic, where he had he
had played well, but there are holes coming down the stretch.
(16:04):
There um fifteen six seventeen with a lot of water
and difficult holes in places where you can make a
big number. East Lake is the opposite that. There there's
really no water um and play there for the most part. Um,
so there's really nowhere for him to make a big number.
So once he got into position and he's playing against
the small field and in half the fields already out
(16:26):
of it by the weekend anyway, essentially, and and and
just there to collect, you know, a paycheck and maybe
work on the game. Um. You know, the field really
narrows and in the competition sort of slides away and
then it's Tiger really only have to beat a handful
of guys. And it was was so everything really was
(16:46):
like stars aligning. And the same thing with augustin National
when you get to Sunday, Um, you know, yeah, there's
places where you can make big numbers. We saw that
on twelve. We've seen it once. We've seen guys you
that in the past. But given his experience and his
comfort level and and having one again already so there
(17:09):
he he wasn't going to put himself in trouble. He
knows where to miss. As he said on Sunday afterward
he he knows not to go out the flag on
twelve and seeing everything unfolding him around around him, Yeah,
I'm just gonna play it safe. That's the play. Hit
it on the green, take your two pot, and get
out of here. You know you're putting. He's actually putting okay,
(17:31):
especially on longer puts. So you know, the strategy and
the experience around that place really makes a difference in
given his knowledge and his golf. Like Q, he he
wasn't going to make a big number coming in. But
I wonder if his strategy on twelve real quick, I
wonder if his strategy changed because Mullinery did tea off
(17:52):
first and he dunks it in the water, and I
know he now went third in his roll back down
the hill into the water too. And twelve and there's
the only one that hit it the middle of the green.
But I wonder if that strategy changes if let's say
Francesco knocks one in their ten feet, Tigers still aimed
middle of the green, just over the bunker and play
(18:14):
for three. Yeah. I think Tiger still plays conservatively because
he knows the risk it just isn't worth it. Because
the point is he knows where to miss. Okay, so
this is a little left. He's okay. Uh. If you
if you go out the flag and you miss anything
to the right or short, you're you're making a big number.
(18:34):
You're you're really taking yourself out of the golf turrent.
So from that perspective, yeah, play it a little. You know,
maybe he would have gotten slightly more aggressive, but he
still would have given himself probably no closer than a
T for a put. And then take your shops because
he knows he can take a shot of thirteen. He
(18:56):
knows he can take a shot of fifteen, which he
did um on both of those holes. And by the way, again,
you hit it offline at best page to the p
g A, you could end up in some trouble. You
hit it offline in public beach the US Open, where
you don't need a lot of drivers there. But that's
a little bit dependent upon how the course is playing too.
(19:16):
If it, for whatever reason, plays a little softer that
time of year than it normally would, then yeah, you
might take a little more driver in. Um, that's gonna
bring some other guys into the fold. But you can't
really hit it offline. And some of these other events
off the tea, whereas Augusta you can kind of get
away and luck he was very fortunate on the level,
(19:37):
and I realized for nitpicking here, he's very fortunate. On
eleven on Saturday and Sunday, he blew it right both times.
I was actually down there when he when he um
hit it there on Saturday and got a terrific break
because it was a wide open shoot to the green. Um.
If he's five or ten feed farther to the right,
(19:57):
he's blocked out. And it's been two Sunday number two.
You said there's a hazard just to the left of
where he pulled it left, and the ball just came
straight down. He was able to chop it out and
get out of there with a bar exactly. So I
mean you can't hit them, you know, And we thought,
oh boy, here we go. He you know, mL and
I makes that huge part on one stave par and
then Tiger share enough, you know, he gets the old
(20:20):
snap going on too, and and the luckily the ball
gets knocked out to your point because there's a creek
down there and it all runs down toward that creek.
I've seen Rory mclory and plenty of other guys hit
it into the hazard there. You know, we saw we
saw Brooks Kepcot on Saturday. I think it was hit
it down, you know, into that area and then struggle
(20:40):
to get out and make double bogie that. You know,
he's very fortunate in that regard Um. So again it
goes back to original point, Like the conversation now is
how many more majors can he win? Because it's clear
he can win. He's already won a major. There's no
there's no reason to think he can't win another or
maybe even three more. But we have said this, you know,
(21:02):
we've had this conversation and it's something you kind of
brushed over. And I do want to believe that in
some way, shape or form, that little bit of intimidation
factor that he had that was so big back during
what I'll call Tiger one point oh or whatever you
want to call it. Um, I think there was a
(21:26):
little bit of that intimidation factor that is going to
creep back in I do you know, listen, Francesco stared
him down and beat him at the British Open, and
Tiger had a share of the lead. He went and
took a share of the lead, hit that amazing shot
out of the bunker over the over the berm. Yeah,
he did not make the birdie putt, but he made
par there. But then he gets to the next hole,
(21:47):
hits it in the fescue, then hits a shank hazzle
rocket out of there and makes double on the next hole.
Was never the same Um, And yes, I do understand
that playing the Open Championship, that was probably a greater
amount of people for Francesco in the crowd than there
was at Augusta National. That was that was a Tiger
(22:09):
crowd on Sunday at Augusta National. Understandably, But I do
think the intimidation factor that Tiger Woods has. You know,
all these people have said, oh no, we want him
to come back. We we want to play against them,
we want to beat him, we wanted this. I'm I'm
not so sure they understand what it's like when he
gets going to see what he did. Um, Like I
(22:34):
just said, when he had the lead at at the
British Open, he faltered slightly. And that's that's happened a
couple of times when he's really had a chance. And
you had brought this up a bunch of times, Whacker
that he had a chance at on Sunday at at
Tampa and he just didn't get it done. Yeah, Paul
Casey had a great round with it with what like
twenty some putts, very low number twenty puts um at
(22:56):
Bay Hill last year. He gets on the sixteenth or fifteen,
whichever hole it was he was on, I think it
was sixteen, and he pulls it left out of bounds.
He had had opportunities to close and did not get
it done. On Sunday, the opportunities there. Frankie hits it
in the water, makes a makes a big number on twelve,
(23:18):
Tiger gets the lead. He then pulls ahead. There's six
guys tied for the lead. It's all right there for
the taking. And in the past we had seen him
kind of back up in those moments, and here he
goes he Birdie's fifteen, He gets the sixteen and almost
jars it and makes another Birdie gets his two shot
(23:38):
lead and then hits a monstrous drive, a blister drive
on seventeen. I just feel like we finally saw something
that we've been waiting to see for a long time
this past weekend. Would you agree? Yeah? Absolutely, Um, the
parts of me that's interesting again, it is now what like,
(23:58):
where does this lead to? Beau is so much went
into obviously to a championship in that when so much
went into this, But again, it doesn't seem inconceivable to
think he could he could win a couple of more majors.
You know, I don't know if I'll get there. Well,
let's do the math. How many more years do you
(24:18):
think he plays? Like? Can he play this year and
then five more years? I understand, we don't know. We've
never seen anything like this with his back, so we
don't know how long. But let's say the backstays healthy
and we don't have any more knee and that there
are no more health issues and there's no more personal
in any of that stuff. We're just talking healthy golf
(24:39):
for the rest of this year and five more years.
So you're talking twenty three more opportunities to win a major.
Twenty three opportunities he has contended, held the lead or
one in the last three. Can he not win three
more out of twenty three? That's you know, it sounds
(25:03):
it's like looking at just the math of it, it
sounds it sounds like you should right, Well, there's twenty
three and there's three. But but just think about it
from the standpoint of how often guys have one majors
in a span like that, and how often guys then
(25:25):
you look at guys who have won majors, you know,
post three years old, it's a short list. I realized Tiger,
but he's not everybody else, right, I get that. But
but the point is it's still hard to win one
at this point, never mind three. So you know, I
(25:46):
don't know. I I think he could. I don't think
any of us. I think it would be stunning from
the standpoint of we never thought this would even be possible. Again,
is this is greatest victory? Number one major number? Is
it his greatest victory? I a good friend of mine,
(26:07):
um Robert lu Setta, former Fox Sports golf writer in
Australian and and he's been around a long time in
the game. He ranked um and he's covered all of
tigers big moments, and he sort of on Twitter the
other day ranked Tigers major victories. And when you take
the big picture view of it, he put ninety seven
(26:29):
at the Master's number one, and that that speaks to
the cultural importance, the transcendent nature of it. All of
the and I agree with him that that's me. Um
tops the list. Now, was it the most difficult though?
What you know, he won by a whole by a
record margin. Um was it? Um? You know, but it
(26:53):
wasn't the most significant. Yes, to me, that was the
most significant. Then I would go to you know, I
used to go to thousand eight US opening Tory Pines
winning out a broken leg, but that was just physical
pain that he had to overcome. And let's face it,
the pain on that was really just after impact. I'm
(27:17):
not diminishing it, but it was just the one thing.
It was a matter of just dealing with pain and
pain and that's obviously a hard thing to deal with
and play golf at that level. But this, to me
is actually now the second greatest victory. And this is
where Robert put it um as well. Sort of, this
(27:38):
goes down as number two and all time for Tiger
because Um, of everything that he's been through that we've
we've just alluded to from the you know, I mean
you can go back to the scandal that divorce, the
tabloids releasing the naked pictures, the d u A, I mean,
all of it, the pain, the pills, um, all sorts
(28:00):
of stuff. Look when I when I wrote some stories
on Tiger a few years ago, you know, one of
them was sort of figuring out how he was spending
his time, um while he was injured and not playing,
and this is back in and really he was he
was ghost. And we saw all of this stuff come
(28:20):
to fruition sort of little by little in the years
that followed that. Yeah, he had some issues with pain
and sleep medication. He had major health issues where he
couldn't get out of bed. He had become this sort
of reclusive, um you know figure he was like like
Bruce you know, Um, he was like Bruce Wayne where
(28:44):
you just never saw the guy and he would just
he just disappeared. Almost like I was walking through the
airport in Atlanta yesterday. This is great, right, people were
talking about Tiger Woods. I heard these two sort of
teenage you know, maybe early whanty something girls talking about Tiger, Oh,
Tiger one yesterday one of them said. One of them said, yeah,
(29:07):
didn't he like retire for for a little while. They
had no idea like this guy, So that that that's
how how much he vanished, Like people thought, he just
retired basically and he just and he might as well ask,
because he was completely gone. But to me, all he'd
overcome physically mentally all of the scandal, all of the
(29:31):
tabloid stuff, the TMZ nature of things, all of that
to get to this point. Um. That to me makes
this um probably his second greatest are most significant victory
of his career, only because that masters is what started
it all, and that was so so culturally significant and
(29:54):
um just so transcended that this one, from a comeback
standpoint is by far. Like I said, this to me
is the greatest comeback of all time, you know, if
you're going to rank those things, I mean, certainly Hogan
and other comebacks have been unbelievable, but but this is
at least on the same line, if not, if not higher,
(30:16):
Right real quick, I'm not even sure if you know
what's with the gum, Like I noticed, the gum chewing
was really prevalent. I know some other guys that Phil
has said that it has to do with some frontal cortex.
I don't. I don't think the tiger said it's just yeah,
look he says it's it prevents him from eating what like,
(30:36):
what really do we know what brand of gum he's chewing.
Does he have a gum endorsement? I'm sure there is one.
I'm sure Mark Steinberg's phone has been ringing off the
hook with um offers from Orbit or Trident or or
Bubbaicious or um. You know. Yeah, I'm sure there's all
(30:57):
sorts of gum offers coming tigers away, but preventing it
from eating, Like, why can't that work for the rest
of us? Right? I know, right, So I need spinal
fusion and a pack of gum and I'm going to
be able to win the Masters. I mean that's it.
That's all it takes, now, Yeah, to actually play better
golf and and that's all you need and to maybe
you know, people who want to go to die. I
just got Chew Gump. Right, we'll prevent you for meeting
(31:19):
rights it. So, uh, we move on this week to
the RBC Heritage Open. A pretty good field and Dustin
Johnson's playing. Uh quite a few guys that we saw
Augustin n Ashell be there next week, your favorite player?
How that how that Masters turned out? That's right? Um?
You know to well, look, Jordans clearly is still not
(31:42):
he didn't play horribly there. Um, but the guy I
really want to talk about um with Rory McIlory even
in the tournament. I mean I saw him earlier in
the week, but it was funny. Roy would make some
runs and then he would kind of cool off and
make a couple of buggies, and he'd make some runs
and then he I mean, he worked his way into
the top five a couple of times. It's hell, you
(32:03):
what's shocking. He he did play his best best golf
on Sunday when he was nowhere near contention. But but honestly, look,
and Rory's terrific, and and I do think at some
point he probably will win a Green jacket because there's
so much talent there. Look, I used to think Phil
Nicholson there, you know, it was maybe going to go
his entire career without winning a Green jacket, and we
(32:26):
saw that turned out. He's won three of them. So um,
but Rory, you know, look at I mean, there are
guys you look at the history of that tournament who
people would have pegged for sure for a green jacket.
Greg Norman, a terrific driver of the golf wall, much
the way Rory is. Um Davis Love, Um, you know,
(32:48):
there are Ernie Els another fantastic player, a great iron player.
These are guys who many people before me in this
business thought absolutely would win a Green jacket, and they
never did. And I'm starting to wonder, you know, listening
(33:08):
to Rory early in the week, um talking about um,
you know, if he never wins there, it's you know,
sort of it won't define him. It might define him
to keep from a golf standpoint, but it won't define
him as a from a life standpoint. And I get it,
like he's he's golf, He's not all golf all the time.
(33:30):
But um, you know, clearly this has to be in
his head at this point because and I'm starting to
wonder if if two thousand and eleven really was the
one opportunity like Dan Marino with the Super Bowl, right,
you're you're South Florida guy. I'm sure you you remember
that we thought he'd be back there every year here
in the league. He thought he'd be it. Never even
(33:50):
got there, never even got there. So like this, Rory
never win a Green jacket. I'd tell you another shocking
performance was justin Rose. He's really uh, I know, he
came out of the gate decent, but he struggled since
changing equipment. Not sure that the move to Hamna was
the best move. Uh for Justin Rose, He's won some
(34:13):
tournaments and things that you know, I I was left
concerned about Justin Rose. If you will, then you know that.
But you're right, it wasn't surprise. I think it was
very surprising. The two big surprises to me Um to
not play well there early in the week. Well, really
three surprises work or Justin Rose Um just because he's
(34:33):
had such a good track record there. And Paul Casey,
this guy won this year again in Tampa. And this
guy has been playing well and has played well apt Augusta.
He loves the golf course and actually saw him on
Tuesday night. Travelers Championship puts on an annual dinner every
year and and they invite some members of the media
and it's and it's wonderful, wonderful. Then it's it's August.
(34:56):
That's the other thing about the Masters, It's it is
by far and away, gall biggest social event of the year.
There's all sorts of business being conducted, meetings, events, parties,
all sorts of things. The golf is almost almost secondary,
like that's that's how much of an event. Um. It
is um become and and Paul talked about just how
(35:17):
much he really loves Augusta Nashville and just you know,
it suits his eye really well. It's it's his game.
He felt very good going in there, and that goes
out one in the first round one that was brutal.
And then and then you mentioned Justin Rose. But to me,
Rory was never a factor, And that was just stunning
to me that he was never a factor in this
(35:38):
golf tournament. Um, which is which is mind bockling. And
I'm starting to wonder how much in his head and
how much every year passes that he doesn't win there
just only adds to that scar tissue. I mean, what's
your take on and Rory? And do you think he
ever wins there? You know, I did think this was
(35:58):
gonna be his year. He had played welcoming in, he
had that great, he played well at the match play
until he played Tiger. I think he had two or
three bogeies through his first three rounds. Um. You know,
I don't know. You wonder how much scar tissues there
from that that one year, the the you know, the
the year where he shot Yeah, I mean, you wonder
how much is there, and then how much is just
(36:21):
pressure you just want to get it done. It's like,
you know, Tiger said earlier in the week, I don't
need to win, but I want to. And I think
maybe Rory's still feeling like he needs to win. And
maybe that's where until you can convince yourself that you
don't need it, you just want it and when you
want it was a little less pressure in the week.
(36:42):
But see early in the week he talked about sort
of not needing to win there, and now to say
that it's easy to say that, like is he psyching
himself out trying to you know, like the reverse psychology
of like, well if I don't win there, it's big deal. Well,
hang on a second. I don't know. Maybe you should
feel like I don't know what he knows certainly knows
(37:04):
better works for him, but it does. It does beg
the questions like and I wrote a piece of early
in the week last week about where he's sort of
evolution of both how he's played the golf course, his
feelings about it and his motions all of this, how
it's sort of evolved and changed and developed. And it's
(37:25):
fascinating to see because your point two thousand eleven. I mean,
he was he had that it was right there for
his taking it a four shot lead going in the
last day and just collapsed and shot eighty and then
even and then you take that up to last year
when he has um he goes in in the last
round trailing by a couple of shots that yeah, a
(37:48):
three foot eagle put on the second hole and it
doesn't even touch the hole. And he he talked about
he said he went to the third team feeling like
he was pressing. He needed to press it that point because, um,
you know, he just missed an opportunity and it was deflating,
and he he felt like he needed to press and then,
(38:09):
of course and see what happened and it didn't work out.
So look, I do think his skill set is such
that he would win there one day, But now I
don't know, is it mentally is it just too much,
or you know, maybe they'll Really the best opportunity would
be if he comes from four or five back on
the final day and throws up the number and it
(38:30):
ends up being good enough, or you know, sort of
stumbled into it a little bit the way sort of
Sergio Garcia, did you know not saying anything away from
Surgerio as victory. But you know, Justin Rose missed a
couple of key shops there, um down the stretch and
missed a putt that would have ultimately won the tourmament
regulation for him on the A teen poles. So you
(38:52):
wont and and Sergio took advantage of those opportunities. Um,
you know, you wonder if that's what it will be
for Rory, if that's what don't take, or if he'll
just be uh and Ernie Els or a Davis Love
or a guy who you know, a Greg Norman, a
tremendous drive. I see a lot of perils with Rory
(39:14):
and Grant and Greg because there are two guys who
terrific drivers of the golf ball off the tea. But
then once you get up tour, you know that as
you get closer to the whole, with those little pitches
and nuances and things, that's where Rice tends to struggle.
And um, you know, as good as he has played
(39:34):
this year, um, and look, maybe we're just putting too
much into this. Maybe maybe you know, look, it's just
one year, it's just one Masters. But I don't know,
it's it's fascinating to me to watch and see how
this plays out, because I do think he'll win that.
But you know, boy, it's you wonder how much it's
gonna be in his head and if it only continues
(39:56):
to do it a little bit worse right, you know too.
He's something we did bring up is that for the
very first time, it's hard to believe it's never happened before,
but in four teen Majors, Uh, Tiger never come from behind.
He had alreadys either held a share of the lead
or was the outright leader going into the final round.
This is the first time he's ever been behind and
(40:19):
come back to win. That's another thing that he's kind
of another notch we had. People have said, well, if
he's not winning, he's not he doesn't come from behind
like he really kind of went out and and kind
of showed that he's capable of doing it. However it
needs to get done. Tiger got it done, and so
it was good to see it done again. I know
people are wondering when will we see Tiger again, and
(40:43):
looking at the schedule, he's not in this week's RBC Heritage,
then next week is a team event, the Zurich Classic
of New Orleans. That's a team event defended by a
good friend of the podcast, Billy Horshel and Scott Pearcy.
The week after that and May second through the fifth
turn him and he normally plays the Wells Fargo Championship
(41:03):
at Quel Hollow and Charlotte. I think we'll see Tiger there,
then the Buyer and Nelson in Texas. I don't think
we'll see Tiger there, and then the week after that
as the PGA Championship. We know he likes to take
a week off, so I think we see Tiger May two,
a week off, and then he will go at Bethpage
Black in the PGA Championship. Uh for Major number sixteen. Yeah,
(41:28):
that would seem to be the likely um schedule fir him.
He did talk about playing left this year, but I
can't imagine going in in the next major that he
won't want to play a competitive round between now and then,
and Wells Fargo would seemed like the natural fit At
Quail Hollow, Um, you know, a place that suits him
(41:50):
well and you know makes sense for a lot of reasons. Um,
He's tell you with Johnny Harris who runs things down there,
So that would seem like the Lodge Cole uh, next
Tiger sighting uh. And then of course best Page Black
for the p G A whould be fascinating to see because, um,
you know, Long Island in the spring can be an interesting,
(42:13):
interesting place. Um. But he'll have the fans on his side,
and so was so will Phil as well. Well. He's
already the favorite. He's already the favorite for that tournament.
He's already the favorite for Pebble Beach in the US
Open in June. Um probably will be end up being
the favorite uh at Royal Port Rush for the Open
Championship in July. So, um, he's pretty much going to
(42:34):
be the favorite now for every golf tournament he entered, right.
You know guys that are much smarter than you and me,
Johnny Miller once said, and I'll never forget he said this.
He believed fifteen would be the hardest one to win
after everything he had gone through, and he believed after
winning fifteen, it would blow the lid off and that
he would then be able to win more and more
again because like somebody asked him in the press conference
(42:55):
you were there, They said, what does this prove? He said,
it proves one thing I can in majors again, and
now in his mind he knows he's capable of winning absolutely.
And and Ricky Foller, Um, I talked in after the
round on Sunday and he said the same thing. He
said fifteen. I felt like that that was going to
be the most difficult one. And and once he got
(43:17):
to that, you know, now that brings eighteen into the
equation again, because, um, Tiger, you know, at this level
of golf, he's still got three, four or five years
left to try to chase down more majors, and certainly
some of those venues are going to suit him. And
you know, now now the chase is back on. And
(43:39):
and look, even if he never gets there, it just
getting to this point is is incredible, Like this is
something again that we never thought would happen, um, and
and even Tiger, I'm sure at some point never thought
this would happen. But um, now it just opens up
the possibilities and and it's fun to see again because
(43:59):
it's some think we never thought we'd get to see again. Yeah,
I mean, when's the last time you opened up and
saw the front page of all the major newspapers Yesterday?
York Times, New York Timesificance USA Today, The Wall Street Journal,
The New York Post, the Daily News, every single one
(44:20):
of them Tiger with his hands in the air as
a victor. When's the last time golf dominated the front
of every newspaper. It was great. As I'm sitting there
watching the tournament, watching it, every single push notification on
my phone from all these major news sources, CNN, uh MSNBC,
Fox News, a p all these pushes coming out USA today.
(44:42):
Tiger Woods is the champion once again. I was at
a music festival, Tortuga Music Festival on Sunday afternoon in
Fort Lauderdoue Beach. They stopped the festival down to announce
Tiger Woods had won the twenty nineteen Masters. That's how
much Tiger means to not just golf, but to the
sports world, is that he transcends golf. If anybody else
(45:03):
had won that golf tournament, it's not on the front
page of every newspaper because it's Tiger Woods. It makes
it more newsworthy. No, and they're not stopping the Tortuga
Music Festival uh down in Fort Lauderdale for that. What
was the reaction, by the way the crowd way nuts.
It was great. I mean, granted I was one of them,
(45:24):
but man, the crowding crazy. And my wife even said,
and my wife is not a massive golf fanatic, she's
had to endure Tiger loving for many years and have
it shoved down her throat. But she looked at me
and said, Wow, he really is bigger than golf. I said,
he is. He transcends the sport. He he makes the
(45:45):
sport mainstream. And that's what's fabulous about Tiger Woods. And
that's why when we do this podcast, will we rarely
do one that I don't talk about him or mentioned
him in some way, shape or form, because he is
the needle. He moves it more than anybody Elton, So
to be on the forefront again is good for our sport.
It's good for him, and it's exciting moving forward. Golf
(46:08):
is in a really, really good place right now. When
on Monday morning, driving around Augusta, I was trying to
find some of those newspapers you mentioned, you couldn't find them,
and I mean they were scarce. People were snatching those
things up, um to get a piece of history. And Um,
(46:29):
I asked you about the reaction at Tortuga because I'm curious.
I'm actually doing a story that people can read about
on golf. Does dot com coming up here? Um? After
this you can. I we're gathering people's reactions where they were,
what they were doing, um, what their reaction was all
of that to see um, because I mean, I mean,
(46:51):
it's almost reminded me a bit of in two thousand
and sixteen, Froggy. You know, there's I'm a big Chicago
Cubs fan, and when they won the World Series three,
actions around the around the country and around the world
and stuff, it was just off the charts. Now this
is this is not that this similar. I mean, people, um,
(47:12):
you know, this is again something people never thought they'd seen.
For some people, they've never seen this period because they've
been that long since Tiger had won a major, so
they've never they heard about it. As Steven Tiger said,
he was a YouTube golfer to his kids, they never
experienced that their memories of him in golf were pained,
were him suffering the embraced with his children at the
(47:34):
same spot he hugged his father, brought tears to every
single person. If you if that didn't bring if you're
a parent, and that didn't bring tears to your eyes.
You're not human. I mean, just to see a guy
who stood there and his father instilled all he did
in him and and helped Tiger be the golfer that
he was and the man that he was, and you
(47:55):
could see the emotion in his face in ninety seven
after his dad had had triple bypass heart surgury and
a heart attack, and like Tigers said, probably shouldn't have
even been there to see the emotion in Tiger's face
and how happy he was to hug his father. And
then that many years later, talking twenty two years later,
to walk off the green and there's Charlie and and
(48:17):
and Samantha and his girlfriend, and to see them and
his mother standing there and him hugged those children the
way he did it. It completely humanizes him and shows
that he feels emotion just like the rest of us,
and the things that mean the most to him and
the same things that mean the most of us. Yeah,
and it was it was a wild scene, man, it really,
(48:38):
it really was. Just to see um, it was chaotic.
It's it's the most chaotic I've ever seen. Um. How
to ghost, I'm sure it's been more chaotic there in
the past. But um, as far as me, you know,
I was I wasn't there in ninety seven when he one,
Um I wasn't there obviously with Jack and eighty six
and some of these other sort of historic moments there.
(49:01):
But it was chaotic. I mean, the griller was packed.
You know, everyone was watching. People are sticking around. Um,
it was quite a quite a scene. I mean just
just the fact that you had all these green jacket Um,
you know, you have the former champions putting on their
green jackets, just the pay homage to the tiger and
(49:23):
stick around. You know, guys when they finish a golf turnament. Man,
this isn't like team sports, they're out. You know, you finished.
You you basically like pack up your stuff maybe and
you're and you're out. You might not even grab a vie.
You might even go straight to the airport, depends. So
these guys, some of these guys stuck around. They wanted
(49:45):
to see they you know, they wanted to be a
part of it and soak it all in. And it
was cool to say it really will well before we go,
we have a tailor made season. This Yes, this is
this is a glade. A little pride that we're gonna
give away Master's Edition bag, the same bag you saw
(50:05):
Rory carrying, the same bag you saw Dustin Johnson, John Roum.
Many of the tailor made guys. Tiger does have his
own bag deal separative tailor made, but the tailor made
bag from the Masters twenty nineteen that Tiger Woods won
his fifteenth major one that will be talked about for years.
This bag is a Collector's edition, UH is awarded to
(50:28):
We have thousands of entries on Facebook and Instagram both
and the winner is His name is Matt. I'm not
sure if it's streaming or streaming. His user name is
m S t r E A m A N. Matt
stream In contacted him last night and this man was
over the roof, I mean you could. He was unbelievably happy.
(50:52):
He's a Tiger guy, loves golf, just had a child. Actually,
the very first thing he bought his kid, he was
messaging me on social medi you last night. The first
thing he bought when he knew his wife was pregnant
was a onesie for his baby, and he put his
baby in the onesie yesterday, excuse me on Sunday and
Tiger one and he was just as happy to be
(51:12):
a father and extremely happy to have this. So congratulations
to Matt from Brookfield, Connecticut. He is the winner of
the season opener Master's Major Edition staff bag from Taylor Made.
And we'll have more Tailor Made stuff to give away,
so big thanks to the guys that Taylor Made for
providing that for us, and that's awesome. Congratulations to Matt
and what are you here? How about that? What are
(51:34):
you here too? To win that bag? And he you
know forever is going to know that that's connected to
Tiger Woods in his victory, uh number fifteen at the Masters,
the first major in over a decade. Congratulations, thanks again,
of course to our good friends and Tailor Made. Uh
they do a terrific job. And how about by the way,
(51:57):
very cool. I don't know if people have seen on
social media. I'm of they have the mural that was
um put up at Taylor Made headquarters. Victory. I would
I would definitely suggest people searching that out. It's cool,
you are good friends at Taylor Made, jumping for joining
over the moon for that victory for Tiger it's another
(52:20):
huge week for them, and uh yeah, it's another huge
week for Gun sales, I'm sure. And another huge week
for golf with Tiger Woods getting it done at the
Master's Major champion again. Really another win for the ages.
Just incredible. We'll see Tiger in two more weeks. Have
(52:41):
this week's the RBC Heritage and Harvard Town. You'll you'll
notice the red and white lighthouse that's very famous there.
And then we get the Zurich Classic in New Orleans,
a team event which is you know, a nice little
change up and switch up next week, and then we
will get Tiger after that at the Wells Fargo, and
we're not far away. We'll be back at another major
championship in one month at the p G A at
(53:04):
Bethpage Black in New York. So, Whacker, thank you so much.
Like I said, I'm getting a little jealous. I'm gonna
need you to start going to more tournaments because you
seem to be uh the good luck charm that's working
for Tiger. Uh. You have now been to both of
his comeback victories on the PGA Tour. So congratulations to
Tiger Whacker. Thanks for your time. I know you really
(53:26):
truly enjoyed taking it all in. I know you love
the Masters like nothing else We will talk to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the podcast. Congratulations Tiger Woods a
major champion once again on the p g A tour.
I think you've had enough. Now you've had enough, I bitch,
Don't mind us where playing Through Here's Froggy and Whacker.
Ladies and gentlemen. Here we are a podcast that I'm
not sure we thought we would ever do, but when
I'm extremely excited to do with Froggy. From the Elvis
Urrand Morning Show at Froggy Radio on Twitter and Instagram.
At playing Through a Podcast on Instagram at play through
(00:24):
Golf on Twitter. You can't hear my voice still has
not recovered. From Sunday Afternoon. UM joined by Brian Whacker,
who I'm starting to get slightly jealous of because now
he has attended both victories on the comeback Trail at
Brian Whacker One on Instagram and Twitter. Brian, you were
there to Gusta National Golf Club Sunday afternoon and watch
(00:45):
what arguably is one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.
Tell us what it was like. Well, I'm gonna take
this stuff furnace, intree, comeback and sportswristy, but we'll get
into that later on. UM. Yeah, the office here was incredible.
One of the coolest things he was that I was
roaming around, uh the eighteenth Green and into the clubhouses
(01:09):
Tiger was finishing up. UM. We've seen all of the
past infinance, all of the green Jackets, UM, a number
of them, six seven, eight of them had gathered in
the champions locker room said hey, let's put on our
green jackets, have a drink, sort of come down to
congratulate Tiger. There was Bernard Longer, there was Zack Johnson.
(01:29):
Adam Scott was there, Uh there as they said, they're about.
Bubba Watson was there. There were about half a dozen,
maybe eight guys past winners, and I've never seen that.
I've I've covered now eleven Masters and I've never seen
that take place before where you had all these past
winners and then a bunch of tour players as well.
(01:53):
Justin Thomas stuck around, uh and came back at Ricky
Faller was there. Of course, Justin and Ricky or our
eyes that hang around the Tiger down in South Florida
and they play a lot of home games UM with
each other. So this was this was really cool from
that standpoint to see not just the fan reaction and
(02:13):
I've got another story on that by the way that
that we can get into in a few minutes, but um,
just to see all of the past winners and everybody
gathering around there and it's really just chaos unfolding on
the on the back Fawn of Augusta, Nashville was really
cool and just an awesome atmosphere. How's you imagine? Yeah,
(02:33):
I mean, let's get back, you know, I want to
go back to I remember we were doing the podcast
twenty December of twenty seventeen. I believe it was there
was seen I get my dates mixed up. But he
did the press conference and said, you know, I've had
a great career. I've had a great run and I'll
never ever forget these words. Anything I do from here
(02:54):
on out is just gravy. And that was when you
said to me, we're done. Like we've seen it, We've
witnessed greatness, we've watched it. We're lucky that it's happened
in our lifetime. But listen, man, his body has just
broken down. He's not going to be able to do
it again. And that that wasn't something that we were
just saying. That came out of his own mouth. It
(03:15):
was we were done. And then we've said, you know,
we saw the simulator video where he showed us swinging
the golf club, and then we saw he came back
at the Hero the first time, and and the Tiger
crazy maniacs like me got excited and thought, well, here
we go. And you were very honest and said, listen,
it's a golf course that's very wide. It plays in
(03:37):
his strengths. You know, he still drove it all over
the place, and it's not the same. And and and
you know, I always wanted to make more out of
it than it was. And and I was always guilty
of making every little morsel a meal because I wanted
it to I wanted him to come back so badly.
And not that you didn't. Being a golf fan, I
(03:57):
know that you also wanted Tiger Woods to come back, Brian.
But I thought he was done. Look, I'll admit it.
I and I was way wrong. And you know, I
mean it's easy now to look at I mean, certainly
you look at when the comeback started. You said, okay,
well look clearly, it's not that he's not done. He's
gonna put some golf and we'll see what happens. But um, look,
(04:20):
I I wrote a story a couple of years ago
when he missed the Masters, reporting that he was he
was going to be able to um or he wasn't
gonna be able to play the Masters, according to several sources,
and and one of those sources was actually in Tiger's
presence at at an event or at a at an occurrence.
(04:42):
Um five days before I had written a story and
this source it said, look, Tiger really was. He was
in bad shape, could barely walk. Um, you know, all
he could do at the time was taught, and he
really I thought he was finished. The particular person thought, man,
I don't know if he's going to play golf again.
(05:04):
It's because it didn't look like I mean, at least
given the present state like it. This was not a
guy who could play golf, so of course. And then
then he has spinal fusion surgery, which really was like
the last and that was the number of weeks later. Um,
he has spinal fusion surgery in the spring, and that
(05:26):
was the last step. If that didn't sort of work
and he wasn't able to heal the way he did,
that was it. There was there was That was the
hail Mary. Yeah. And I don't think the spinal fusion
surgery was done with the thought of playing golf. I
think the spinal fusion surgery excuse me was done. I
hope to have his life back, to be able to
be a parent, to be able to spend time with
(05:47):
his kids. I don't think that. I think he had
put in playing golf out of his mind. He just
wanted to be able to be a human being and
enjoy his life and get around. Golf was second. It
was was distant thought. Even after he comes back, he
has the maid for tabloid to rest on the suspicion
of d u I Um. Of course, charges would later reduced.
Where he found passed out behind the wheel of his
(06:10):
car on the side of the road at two o'clock
in the morning in Jupiter. Um. Then he goes to rehab.
Then there's some other things. I mean, this guy, you know,
has undergone, you know, take the physical stuff. And then
and this goes back to my point of the greatest comeback,
because look, Hogan was was nearly killed and head on
(06:32):
car accident, um and came back and won and won
a lot. But I had on collision with the bus.
But look that that was an incredible, incredible comeback. And
I'm not even sure like you want to compare one
against the other. Both are both are incredible obviously, but
the fact is you look at the world that Hired
exists in the fish bowl that he exists in. Now,
(06:55):
that only makes things that much more difficult. Uh from
an emotion will standpoint, a mental standpoint, and it overcomes
all of that, all of that ship to come back
and to be at this point where we are now,
from go back two years from today, I mean, it's remarkable.
(07:16):
And when you really think about it, if you want
to put it all in perspective. Since he's come back,
he's played in five majors. Last year at Augusta National
there was a lot of pressure. We all thought coming
out of the second place finish in Tampa, and he
had contended at bay Hill. We really thought last year's
Masters was gonna just that was gonna be it, and
then it was too soon. Then he gets to the
(07:38):
US Open and he misses the cut, and so that
you know, the expectations are slightly tempered. But you take
the last two majors of last season, he was there
on Sunday afternoon, holding the lead in one of them
and contending at the other, and then he shows up
at Augusta Nationals and he wins. You're talking the guys
played five major turn them and he's contended or held
(08:02):
the lead or one in three of them. And the
last three. It really is remarkable how far we've come
in two years, that we went from a guy was
never gonna play the game again to now the last
three majors in a row he's either held the lead, contended,
or one. That's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, and now, and
(08:28):
I wrote this Sunday night for golf I just dot com.
You can you can read the story. You know, eighteen
is still in play nowt now eighteen the conversation can
be had again. The record Jack Nicholas record of eighteen
major championships. You know that people were like, look, let's
let's just enjoy that he's able to play golf again, right,
(08:49):
and then it's okay, he's able to win again, and
and it's like, well, okay, maybe he can win the
fifteenth major and that would be remarkable. Well now he's
done that, and so now he only three only, but
he's three back of Jack Hying his record. And you
look at the venues coming up, uh best page for
(09:09):
the PGA Championship where yep and Pebble Beach for the
US Open where he's won, and look Royal Port Rush
for the Open Championship he's never played, Um, but it's
a links golf course he's got He's won three British
Opens or three Open Championships. It's certainly not out of
the realm of possibility to think, um, under the right
(09:32):
circumstances and conditions and and his game being informed, that
he could win there. So um, you know, certainly, I don't. Look,
it would be a lot to ask to say, oh,
you know, he's gonna win to two more majors this year,
but he could certainly win another. And I don't think
any of us would be stunned. I mean, it would
just add to the comeback into the legend, into this
(09:54):
the story. But um, and then you you know, obviously
goes back to augustin National. Every you remember, uh, you know,
Jack one there at forty six for his last major,
so the Tiger. While the fascinating thing to me about
this victory was that, um, you know, the last time
(10:16):
he had wanted Augusta was two thousand and five, and
there's been a lot of golf, a lot of changes
to the golf course since then. It's been lengthened and
some of the uh, you know, he was no longer
a guy who could sort of dominate with his length
there and it was quote unquote tiger proof. Now, he
certainly had success playing playing well there since two thousand
(10:38):
and five, but never really um how to chance relate
to win on Sunday until this year. And the fact
that he was able to win this year proves he
can win on this new, newly lengthened Augusta Nationals. Look
look at the fourth pole or the fifth pole, Rabbic,
I don't think he's a fan of the fifth hole.
I'm gonna go out on a limits that he's not
(10:59):
a and of the fifth hole, right, bog is it
every day, but still manages to win the golf term. Yeah,
I mean there's a good a whole those length and
fifty yards, right and and and he still manages to somehow. Yeah,
he made bogie there every day, but he's still figured
out other places where he could make birdies and do
what he needed to do, right. And that's the thing
(11:20):
is that you know, and I know everybody misses putts,
I know what happens, But do you know that he
led the field in missed putts in side, he led
the field. So if he makes half of those, the
guy runs away with the golf tournament. He runs away
with it. It's not even a one shot lead. He
runs away. This could have been so much more, right,
(11:43):
And that's the difference now, Like, that's the difference with
Tiger at forty three versus Tiger or even thirty. To
me is that, Um, you know, putting is one of
the real arts of the game. In the touch and
field that goes into it tends to sort of a
road as guys get older. We we don't see guys
(12:05):
typically get better at putting as they get older. It
just doesn't happen. Um, it's just not the way that
came in. So um to your point, like, I'm not
surprised that he missed a bunch of short pots because
that's what we've seen this year, but he figured out
other ways other things do and and look, let's be honest,
he got he got plenty of help. Four guys in
the last two groups of six or threesomes, you know,
(12:28):
so four the last six guys to tee off hit
in the water on twelve, Um, Molinard hitting it in
the water inexplicably on fifteen. Um he had some help,
so things went his way from that standpoint, Now, was
Molinari feeling the pressure of Tiger breathing down his neck?
(12:49):
You know? I mean, this is a guy who made
a bunch of putts throughout the course of that round,
a bunch of six, seven, eight ten foot par putts
um that were clutch. But did did he eventually crack
under that under that pressure? You know? I don't know.
It's it's easy to sit here and say sure, but um,
it's hard. These guys are trying to win a major
(13:11):
championship in Tiger with that experience at Augusta, and and
really looking calm and comfortable, and you know, like I
asked him in his press conference afterwards, if there was
a moment um either when he gotten there earlier in
the week or even during the tournament early on, where
he felt like, you know, this really could be my week.
(13:32):
And the response is interesting in that he said he'd
been two things. One he'd been preparing for this week
for six months. He'd been putting his focus for the
last six months on this golf tournament with the types
of shots he needed to hit. And one of those shots.
Was hitting a draw August is the place you have
(13:53):
to be able to hit the ball right to left
on occasion. Um, you don't see a lot of faders
often win there. So Um, so he finally felt comfortable
with the driver hitting uh, right to left shots where
he could just kind of let it go in the
same thing with some of the other irons and in
plays like that. So to me, there were shops throughout
(14:16):
the course of the week that he really just finally
felt comfortable with that he'd been working on and he
was able to execute those. Um. You know, so that's
the golf course. Now clearly he could win on again. Right.
You gotta think for six months he just did it.
He basically for six months. Yeah, the other tournament's Eve
been playing this year where we have talked about he's
(14:36):
had some struggles. Um, he really wasn't And it's not
that he didn't want to win, of course, he teed
it up. He wanted to win, but he has had
much like he used to do earlier in his career.
He wants to peak for the majors. So he spent
six months getting ready for this golf tournament and he
won it. You have to think that moving forward, as
(14:58):
we're going to get into the p g A Championship,
which has been moved and that's now the next major. Uh.
As we get into the PGA Championship, that he is
going to be trying to hit shots and mimic shots
that he will need to hit on that golf course
in order to be comfortable. And that's where his focus
will now turn to. Do you agree? Yeah? Now, the
interesting thing about that is Augusta is a place where
(15:22):
you can you know, you can hit it a little
bit crooked off the tee uh, and it's not going
to kill you. You know. I've thought about this, like
if you look at the Tour Championship in East Lake
where he won um, that was a golf course where
once he he played well enough those first couple of
days to put himself in position he could play, he
(15:43):
could continue to play well. And it was also a
place where he wasn't really going to get himself in
a lot of trouble. There weren't hold um like you
go back earlier last last year, go back to the
early last year the Honda Classic, where he had he
had played well, but there are holes coming down the stretch.
(16:04):
There um fifteen six seventeen with a lot of water
and difficult holes in places where you can make a
big number. East Lake is the opposite that. There there's
really no water um and play there for the most part. Um,
so there's really nowhere for him to make a big number.
So once he got into position and he's playing against
the small field and in half the fields already out
(16:26):
of it by the weekend anyway, essentially, and and and
just there to collect, you know, a paycheck and maybe
work on the game. Um. You know, the field really
narrows and in the competition sort of slides away and
then it's Tiger really only have to beat a handful
of guys. And it was was so everything really was
(16:46):
like stars aligning. And the same thing with augustin National
when you get to Sunday, Um, you know, yeah, there's
places where you can make big numbers. We saw that
on twelve. We've seen it once. We've seen guys you
that in the past. But given his experience and his
comfort level and and having one again already so there
(17:09):
he he wasn't going to put himself in trouble. He
knows where to miss. As he said on Sunday afterward
he he knows not to go out the flag on
twelve and seeing everything unfolding him around around him, Yeah,
I'm just gonna play it safe. That's the play. Hit
it on the green, take your two pot, and get
out of here. You know you're putting. He's actually putting okay,
(17:31):
especially on longer puts. So you know, the strategy and
the experience around that place really makes a difference in
given his knowledge and his golf. Like Q, he he
wasn't going to make a big number coming in. But
I wonder if his strategy on twelve real quick, I
wonder if his strategy changed because Mullinery did tea off
(17:52):
first and he dunks it in the water, and I
know he now went third in his roll back down
the hill into the water too. And twelve and there's
the only one that hit it the middle of the green.
But I wonder if that strategy changes if let's say
Francesco knocks one in their ten feet, Tigers still aimed
middle of the green, just over the bunker and play
(18:14):
for three. Yeah. I think Tiger still plays conservatively because
he knows the risk it just isn't worth it. Because
the point is he knows where to miss. Okay, so
this is a little left. He's okay. Uh. If you
if you go out the flag and you miss anything
to the right or short, you're you're making a big number.
(18:34):
You're you're really taking yourself out of the golf turrent.
So from that perspective, yeah, play it a little. You know,
maybe he would have gotten slightly more aggressive, but he
still would have given himself probably no closer than a
T for a put. And then take your shops because
he knows he can take a shot of thirteen. He
(18:56):
knows he can take a shot of fifteen, which he
did um on both of those holes. And by the way, again,
you hit it offline at best page to the p
g A, you could end up in some trouble. You
hit it offline in public beach the US Open, where
you don't need a lot of drivers there. But that's
a little bit dependent upon how the course is playing too.
(19:16):
If it, for whatever reason, plays a little softer that
time of year than it normally would, then yeah, you
might take a little more driver in. Um, that's gonna
bring some other guys into the fold. But you can't
really hit it offline. And some of these other events
off the tea, whereas Augusta you can kind of get
away and luck he was very fortunate on the level,
(19:37):
and I realized for nitpicking here, he's very fortunate. On
eleven on Saturday and Sunday, he blew it right both times.
I was actually down there when he when he um
hit it there on Saturday and got a terrific break
because it was a wide open shoot to the green. Um.
If he's five or ten feed farther to the right,
(19:57):
he's blocked out. And it's been two Sunday number two.
You said there's a hazard just to the left of
where he pulled it left, and the ball just came
straight down. He was able to chop it out and
get out of there with a bar exactly. So I
mean you can't hit them, you know, And we thought,
oh boy, here we go. He you know, mL and
I makes that huge part on one stave par and
then Tiger share enough, you know, he gets the old
(20:20):
snap going on too, and and the luckily the ball
gets knocked out to your point because there's a creek
down there and it all runs down toward that creek.
I've seen Rory mclory and plenty of other guys hit
it into the hazard there. You know, we saw we
saw Brooks Kepcot on Saturday. I think it was hit
it down, you know, into that area and then struggle
(20:40):
to get out and make double bogie that. You know,
he's very fortunate in that regard Um. So again it
goes back to original point, Like the conversation now is
how many more majors can he win? Because it's clear
he can win. He's already won a major. There's no
there's no reason to think he can't win another or
maybe even three more. But we have said this, you know,
(21:02):
we've had this conversation and it's something you kind of
brushed over. And I do want to believe that in
some way, shape or form, that little bit of intimidation
factor that he had that was so big back during
what I'll call Tiger one point oh or whatever you
want to call it. Um, I think there was a
(21:26):
little bit of that intimidation factor that is going to
creep back in I do you know, listen, Francesco stared
him down and beat him at the British Open, and
Tiger had a share of the lead. He went and
took a share of the lead, hit that amazing shot
out of the bunker over the over the berm. Yeah,
he did not make the birdie putt, but he made
par there. But then he gets to the next hole,
(21:47):
hits it in the fescue, then hits a shank hazzle
rocket out of there and makes double on the next hole.
Was never the same Um, And yes, I do understand
that playing the Open Championship, that was probably a greater
amount of people for Francesco in the crowd than there
was at Augusta National. That was that was a Tiger
(22:09):
crowd on Sunday at Augusta National. Understandably, But I do
think the intimidation factor that Tiger Woods has. You know,
all these people have said, oh no, we want him
to come back. We we want to play against them,
we want to beat him, we wanted this. I'm I'm
not so sure they understand what it's like when he
gets going to see what he did. Um, Like I
(22:34):
just said, when he had the lead at at the
British Open, he faltered slightly. And that's that's happened a
couple of times when he's really had a chance. And
you had brought this up a bunch of times, Whacker
that he had a chance at on Sunday at at
Tampa and he just didn't get it done. Yeah, Paul
Casey had a great round with it with what like
twenty some putts, very low number twenty puts um at
(22:56):
Bay Hill last year. He gets on the sixteenth or fifteen,
whichever hole it was he was on, I think it
was sixteen, and he pulls it left out of bounds.
He had had opportunities to close and did not get
it done. On Sunday, the opportunities there. Frankie hits it
in the water, makes a makes a big number on twelve,
(23:18):
Tiger gets the lead. He then pulls ahead. There's six
guys tied for the lead. It's all right there for
the taking. And in the past we had seen him
kind of back up in those moments, and here he
goes he Birdie's fifteen, He gets the sixteen and almost
jars it and makes another Birdie gets his two shot
(23:38):
lead and then hits a monstrous drive, a blister drive
on seventeen. I just feel like we finally saw something
that we've been waiting to see for a long time
this past weekend. Would you agree? Yeah? Absolutely, Um, the
parts of me that's interesting again, it is now what like,
(23:58):
where does this lead to? Beau is so much went
into obviously to a championship in that when so much
went into this, But again, it doesn't seem inconceivable to
think he could he could win a couple of more majors.
You know, I don't know if I'll get there. Well,
let's do the math. How many more years do you
(24:18):
think he plays? Like? Can he play this year and
then five more years? I understand, we don't know. We've
never seen anything like this with his back, so we
don't know how long. But let's say the backstays healthy
and we don't have any more knee and that there
are no more health issues and there's no more personal
in any of that stuff. We're just talking healthy golf
(24:39):
for the rest of this year and five more years.
So you're talking twenty three more opportunities to win a major.
Twenty three opportunities he has contended, held the lead or
one in the last three. Can he not win three
more out of twenty three? That's you know, it sounds
(25:03):
it's like looking at just the math of it, it
sounds it sounds like you should right, Well, there's twenty
three and there's three. But but just think about it
from the standpoint of how often guys have one majors
in a span like that, and how often guys then
(25:25):
you look at guys who have won majors, you know,
post three years old, it's a short list. I realized Tiger,
but he's not everybody else, right, I get that. But
but the point is it's still hard to win one
at this point, never mind three. So you know, I
(25:46):
don't know. I I think he could. I don't think
any of us. I think it would be stunning from
the standpoint of we never thought this would even be possible. Again,
is this is greatest victory? Number one major number? Is
it his greatest victory? I a good friend of mine,
(26:07):
um Robert lu Setta, former Fox Sports golf writer in
Australian and and he's been around a long time in
the game. He ranked um and he's covered all of
tigers big moments, and he sort of on Twitter the
other day ranked Tigers major victories. And when you take
the big picture view of it, he put ninety seven
(26:29):
at the Master's number one, and that that speaks to
the cultural importance, the transcendent nature of it. All of
the and I agree with him that that's me. Um
tops the list. Now, was it the most difficult though?
What you know, he won by a whole by a
record margin. Um was it? Um? You know, but it
(26:53):
wasn't the most significant. Yes, to me, that was the
most significant. Then I would go to you know, I
used to go to thousand eight US opening Tory Pines
winning out a broken leg, but that was just physical
pain that he had to overcome. And let's face it,
the pain on that was really just after impact. I'm
(27:17):
not diminishing it, but it was just the one thing.
It was a matter of just dealing with pain and
pain and that's obviously a hard thing to deal with
and play golf at that level. But this, to me
is actually now the second greatest victory. And this is
where Robert put it um as well. Sort of, this
(27:38):
goes down as number two and all time for Tiger
because Um, of everything that he's been through that we've
we've just alluded to from the you know, I mean
you can go back to the scandal that divorce, the
tabloids releasing the naked pictures, the d u A, I mean,
all of it, the pain, the pills, um, all sorts
(28:00):
of stuff. Look when I when I wrote some stories
on Tiger a few years ago, you know, one of
them was sort of figuring out how he was spending
his time, um while he was injured and not playing,
and this is back in and really he was he
was ghost. And we saw all of this stuff come
(28:20):
to fruition sort of little by little in the years
that followed that. Yeah, he had some issues with pain
and sleep medication. He had major health issues where he
couldn't get out of bed. He had become this sort
of reclusive, um you know figure he was like like
Bruce you know, Um, he was like Bruce Wayne where
(28:44):
you just never saw the guy and he would just
he just disappeared. Almost like I was walking through the
airport in Atlanta yesterday. This is great, right, people were
talking about Tiger Woods. I heard these two sort of
teenage you know, maybe early whanty something girls talking about Tiger, Oh,
Tiger one yesterday one of them said. One of them said, yeah,
(29:07):
didn't he like retire for for a little while. They
had no idea like this guy, So that that that's
how how much he vanished, Like people thought, he just
retired basically and he just and he might as well ask,
because he was completely gone. But to me, all he'd
overcome physically mentally all of the scandal, all of the
(29:31):
tabloid stuff, the TMZ nature of things, all of that
to get to this point. Um. That to me makes
this um probably his second greatest are most significant victory
of his career, only because that masters is what started
it all, and that was so so culturally significant and
(29:54):
um just so transcended that this one, from a comeback
standpoint is by far. Like I said, this to me
is the greatest comeback of all time, you know, if
you're going to rank those things, I mean, certainly Hogan
and other comebacks have been unbelievable, but but this is
at least on the same line, if not, if not higher,
(30:16):
Right real quick, I'm not even sure if you know
what's with the gum, Like I noticed, the gum chewing
was really prevalent. I know some other guys that Phil
has said that it has to do with some frontal cortex.
I don't. I don't think the tiger said it's just yeah,
look he says it's it prevents him from eating what like,
(30:36):
what really do we know what brand of gum he's chewing.
Does he have a gum endorsement? I'm sure there is one.
I'm sure Mark Steinberg's phone has been ringing off the
hook with um offers from Orbit or Trident or or
Bubbaicious or um. You know. Yeah, I'm sure there's all
(30:57):
sorts of gum offers coming tigers away, but preventing it
from eating, Like, why can't that work for the rest
of us? Right? I know, right, So I need spinal
fusion and a pack of gum and I'm going to
be able to win the Masters. I mean that's it.
That's all it takes, now, Yeah, to actually play better
golf and and that's all you need and to maybe
you know, people who want to go to die. I
just got Chew Gump. Right, we'll prevent you for meeting
(31:19):
rights it. So, uh, we move on this week to
the RBC Heritage Open. A pretty good field and Dustin
Johnson's playing. Uh quite a few guys that we saw
Augustin n Ashell be there next week, your favorite player?
How that how that Masters turned out? That's right? Um?
You know to well, look, Jordans clearly is still not
(31:42):
he didn't play horribly there. Um, but the guy I
really want to talk about um with Rory McIlory even
in the tournament. I mean I saw him earlier in
the week, but it was funny. Roy would make some
runs and then he would kind of cool off and
make a couple of buggies, and he'd make some runs
and then he I mean, he worked his way into
the top five a couple of times. It's hell, you
(32:03):
what's shocking. He he did play his best best golf
on Sunday when he was nowhere near contention. But but honestly, look,
and Rory's terrific, and and I do think at some
point he probably will win a Green jacket because there's
so much talent there. Look, I used to think Phil
Nicholson there, you know, it was maybe going to go
his entire career without winning a Green jacket, and we
(32:26):
saw that turned out. He's won three of them. So um,
but Rory, you know, look at I mean, there are
guys you look at the history of that tournament who
people would have pegged for sure for a green jacket.
Greg Norman, a terrific driver of the golf wall, much
the way Rory is. Um Davis Love, Um, you know,
(32:48):
there are Ernie Els another fantastic player, a great iron player.
These are guys who many people before me in this
business thought absolutely would win a Green jacket, and they
never did. And I'm starting to wonder, you know, listening
(33:08):
to Rory early in the week, um talking about um,
you know, if he never wins there, it's you know,
sort of it won't define him. It might define him
to keep from a golf standpoint, but it won't define
him as a from a life standpoint. And I get it,
like he's he's golf, He's not all golf all the time.
(33:30):
But um, you know, clearly this has to be in
his head at this point because and I'm starting to
wonder if if two thousand and eleven really was the
one opportunity like Dan Marino with the Super Bowl, right,
you're you're South Florida guy. I'm sure you you remember
that we thought he'd be back there every year here
in the league. He thought he'd be it. Never even
(33:50):
got there, never even got there. So like this, Rory
never win a Green jacket. I'd tell you another shocking
performance was justin Rose. He's really uh, I know, he
came out of the gate decent, but he struggled since
changing equipment. Not sure that the move to Hamna was
the best move. Uh for Justin Rose, He's won some
(34:13):
tournaments and things that you know, I I was left
concerned about Justin Rose. If you will, then you know that.
But you're right, it wasn't surprise. I think it was
very surprising. The two big surprises to me Um to
not play well there early in the week. Well, really
three surprises work or Justin Rose Um just because he's
(34:33):
had such a good track record there. And Paul Casey,
this guy won this year again in Tampa. And this
guy has been playing well and has played well apt Augusta.
He loves the golf course and actually saw him on
Tuesday night. Travelers Championship puts on an annual dinner every
year and and they invite some members of the media
and it's and it's wonderful, wonderful. Then it's it's August.
(34:56):
That's the other thing about the Masters, It's it is
by far and away, gall biggest social event of the year.
There's all sorts of business being conducted, meetings, events, parties,
all sorts of things. The golf is almost almost secondary,
like that's that's how much of an event. Um. It
is um become and and Paul talked about just how
(35:17):
much he really loves Augusta Nashville and just you know,
it suits his eye really well. It's it's his game.
He felt very good going in there, and that goes
out one in the first round one that was brutal.
And then and then you mentioned Justin Rose. But to me,
Rory was never a factor, And that was just stunning
to me that he was never a factor in this
(35:38):
golf tournament. Um, which is which is mind bockling. And
I'm starting to wonder how much in his head and
how much every year passes that he doesn't win there
just only adds to that scar tissue. I mean, what's
your take on and Rory? And do you think he
ever wins there? You know, I did think this was
(35:58):
gonna be his year. He had played welcoming in, he
had that great, he played well at the match play
until he played Tiger. I think he had two or
three bogeies through his first three rounds. Um. You know,
I don't know. You wonder how much scar tissues there
from that that one year, the the you know, the
the year where he shot Yeah, I mean, you wonder
how much is there, and then how much is just
(36:21):
pressure you just want to get it done. It's like,
you know, Tiger said earlier in the week, I don't
need to win, but I want to. And I think
maybe Rory's still feeling like he needs to win. And
maybe that's where until you can convince yourself that you
don't need it, you just want it and when you
want it was a little less pressure in the week.
(36:42):
But see early in the week he talked about sort
of not needing to win there, and now to say
that it's easy to say that, like is he psyching
himself out trying to you know, like the reverse psychology
of like, well if I don't win there, it's big deal. Well,
hang on a second. I don't know. Maybe you should
feel like I don't know what he knows certainly knows
(37:04):
better works for him, but it does. It does beg
the questions like and I wrote a piece of early
in the week last week about where he's sort of
evolution of both how he's played the golf course, his
feelings about it and his motions all of this, how
it's sort of evolved and changed and developed. And it's
(37:25):
fascinating to see because your point two thousand eleven. I mean,
he was he had that it was right there for
his taking it a four shot lead going in the
last day and just collapsed and shot eighty and then
even and then you take that up to last year
when he has um he goes in in the last
round trailing by a couple of shots that yeah, a
(37:48):
three foot eagle put on the second hole and it
doesn't even touch the hole. And he he talked about
he said he went to the third team feeling like
he was pressing. He needed to press it that point because, um,
you know, he just missed an opportunity and it was deflating,
and he he felt like he needed to press and then,
(38:09):
of course and see what happened and it didn't work out.
So look, I do think his skill set is such
that he would win there one day, But now I
don't know, is it mentally is it just too much,
or you know, maybe they'll Really the best opportunity would
be if he comes from four or five back on
the final day and throws up the number and it
(38:30):
ends up being good enough, or you know, sort of
stumbled into it a little bit the way sort of
Sergio Garcia, did you know not saying anything away from
Surgerio as victory. But you know, Justin Rose missed a
couple of key shops there, um down the stretch and
missed a putt that would have ultimately won the tourmament
regulation for him on the A teen poles. So you
(38:52):
wont and and Sergio took advantage of those opportunities. Um,
you know, you wonder if that's what it will be
for Rory, if that's what don't take, or if he'll
just be uh and Ernie Els or a Davis Love
or a guy who you know, a Greg Norman, a
tremendous drive. I see a lot of perils with Rory
(39:14):
and Grant and Greg because there are two guys who
terrific drivers of the golf ball off the tea. But
then once you get up tour, you know that as
you get closer to the whole, with those little pitches
and nuances and things, that's where Rice tends to struggle.
And um, you know, as good as he has played
(39:34):
this year, um, and look, maybe we're just putting too
much into this. Maybe maybe you know, look, it's just
one year, it's just one Masters. But I don't know,
it's it's fascinating to me to watch and see how
this plays out, because I do think he'll win that.
But you know, boy, it's you wonder how much it's
gonna be in his head and if it only continues
(39:56):
to do it a little bit worse right, you know too.
He's something we did bring up is that for the
very first time, it's hard to believe it's never happened before,
but in four teen Majors, Uh, Tiger never come from behind.
He had alreadys either held a share of the lead
or was the outright leader going into the final round.
This is the first time he's ever been behind and
(40:19):
come back to win. That's another thing that he's kind
of another notch we had. People have said, well, if
he's not winning, he's not he doesn't come from behind
like he really kind of went out and and kind
of showed that he's capable of doing it. However it
needs to get done. Tiger got it done, and so
it was good to see it done again. I know
people are wondering when will we see Tiger again, and
(40:43):
looking at the schedule, he's not in this week's RBC Heritage,
then next week is a team event, the Zurich Classic
of New Orleans. That's a team event defended by a
good friend of the podcast, Billy Horshel and Scott Pearcy.
The week after that and May second through the fifth
turn him and he normally plays the Wells Fargo Championship
(41:03):
at Quel Hollow and Charlotte. I think we'll see Tiger there,
then the Buyer and Nelson in Texas. I don't think
we'll see Tiger there, and then the week after that
as the PGA Championship. We know he likes to take
a week off, so I think we see Tiger May two,
a week off, and then he will go at Bethpage
Black in the PGA Championship. Uh for Major number sixteen. Yeah,
(41:28):
that would seem to be the likely um schedule fir him.
He did talk about playing left this year, but I
can't imagine going in in the next major that he
won't want to play a competitive round between now and then,
and Wells Fargo would seemed like the natural fit At
Quail Hollow, Um, you know, a place that suits him
(41:50):
well and you know makes sense for a lot of reasons. Um,
He's tell you with Johnny Harris who runs things down there,
So that would seem like the Lodge Cole uh, next
Tiger sighting uh. And then of course best Page Black
for the p G A whould be fascinating to see because, um,
you know, Long Island in the spring can be an interesting,
(42:13):
interesting place. Um. But he'll have the fans on his side,
and so was so will Phil as well. Well. He's
already the favorite. He's already the favorite for that tournament.
He's already the favorite for Pebble Beach in the US
Open in June. Um probably will be end up being
the favorite uh at Royal Port Rush for the Open
Championship in July. So, um, he's pretty much going to
(42:34):
be the favorite now for every golf tournament he entered, right.
You know guys that are much smarter than you and me,
Johnny Miller once said, and I'll never forget he said this.
He believed fifteen would be the hardest one to win
after everything he had gone through, and he believed after
winning fifteen, it would blow the lid off and that
he would then be able to win more and more
again because like somebody asked him in the press conference
(42:55):
you were there, They said, what does this prove? He said,
it proves one thing I can in majors again, and
now in his mind he knows he's capable of winning absolutely.
And and Ricky Foller, Um, I talked in after the
round on Sunday and he said the same thing. He
said fifteen. I felt like that that was going to
be the most difficult one. And and once he got
(43:17):
to that, you know, now that brings eighteen into the
equation again, because, um, Tiger, you know, at this level
of golf, he's still got three, four or five years
left to try to chase down more majors, and certainly
some of those venues are going to suit him. And
you know, now now the chase is back on. And
(43:39):
and look, even if he never gets there, it just
getting to this point is is incredible, Like this is
something again that we never thought would happen, um, and
and even Tiger, I'm sure at some point never thought
this would happen. But um, now it just opens up
the possibilities and and it's fun to see again because
(43:59):
it's some think we never thought we'd get to see again. Yeah,
I mean, when's the last time you opened up and
saw the front page of all the major newspapers Yesterday?
York Times, New York Timesificance USA Today, The Wall Street Journal,
The New York Post, the Daily News, every single one
(44:20):
of them Tiger with his hands in the air as
a victor. When's the last time golf dominated the front
of every newspaper. It was great. As I'm sitting there
watching the tournament, watching it, every single push notification on
my phone from all these major news sources, CNN, uh MSNBC,
Fox News, a p all these pushes coming out USA today.
(44:42):
Tiger Woods is the champion once again. I was at
a music festival, Tortuga Music Festival on Sunday afternoon in
Fort Lauderdoue Beach. They stopped the festival down to announce
Tiger Woods had won the twenty nineteen Masters. That's how
much Tiger means to not just golf, but to the
sports world, is that he transcends golf. If anybody else
(45:03):
had won that golf tournament, it's not on the front
page of every newspaper because it's Tiger Woods. It makes
it more newsworthy. No, and they're not stopping the Tortuga
Music Festival uh down in Fort Lauderdale for that. What
was the reaction, by the way the crowd way nuts.
It was great. I mean, granted I was one of them,
(45:24):
but man, the crowding crazy. And my wife even said,
and my wife is not a massive golf fanatic, she's
had to endure Tiger loving for many years and have
it shoved down her throat. But she looked at me
and said, Wow, he really is bigger than golf. I said,
he is. He transcends the sport. He he makes the
(45:45):
sport mainstream. And that's what's fabulous about Tiger Woods. And
that's why when we do this podcast, will we rarely
do one that I don't talk about him or mentioned
him in some way, shape or form, because he is
the needle. He moves it more than anybody Elton, So
to be on the forefront again is good for our sport.
It's good for him, and it's exciting moving forward. Golf
(46:08):
is in a really, really good place right now. When
on Monday morning, driving around Augusta, I was trying to
find some of those newspapers you mentioned, you couldn't find them,
and I mean they were scarce. People were snatching those
things up, um to get a piece of history. And Um,
(46:29):
I asked you about the reaction at Tortuga because I'm curious.
I'm actually doing a story that people can read about
on golf. Does dot com coming up here? Um? After
this you can. I we're gathering people's reactions where they were,
what they were doing, um, what their reaction was all
of that to see um, because I mean, I mean,
(46:51):
it's almost reminded me a bit of in two thousand
and sixteen, Froggy. You know, there's I'm a big Chicago
Cubs fan, and when they won the World Series three,
actions around the around the country and around the world
and stuff, it was just off the charts. Now this
is this is not that this similar. I mean, people, um,
(47:12):
you know, this is again something people never thought they'd seen.
For some people, they've never seen this period because they've
been that long since Tiger had won a major, so
they've never they heard about it. As Steven Tiger said,
he was a YouTube golfer to his kids, they never
experienced that their memories of him in golf were pained,
were him suffering the embraced with his children at the
(47:34):
same spot he hugged his father, brought tears to every
single person. If you if that didn't bring if you're
a parent, and that didn't bring tears to your eyes.
You're not human. I mean, just to see a guy
who stood there and his father instilled all he did
in him and and helped Tiger be the golfer that
he was and the man that he was, and you
(47:55):
could see the emotion in his face in ninety seven
after his dad had had triple bypass heart surgury and
a heart attack, and like Tigers said, probably shouldn't have
even been there to see the emotion in Tiger's face
and how happy he was to hug his father. And
then that many years later, talking twenty two years later,
to walk off the green and there's Charlie and and
(48:17):
and Samantha and his girlfriend, and to see them and
his mother standing there and him hugged those children the
way he did it. It completely humanizes him and shows
that he feels emotion just like the rest of us,
and the things that mean the most to him and
the same things that mean the most of us. Yeah,
and it was it was a wild scene, man, it really,
(48:38):
it really was. Just to see um, it was chaotic.
It's it's the most chaotic I've ever seen. Um. How
to ghost, I'm sure it's been more chaotic there in
the past. But um, as far as me, you know,
I was I wasn't there in ninety seven when he one,
Um I wasn't there obviously with Jack and eighty six
and some of these other sort of historic moments there.
(49:01):
But it was chaotic. I mean, the griller was packed.
You know, everyone was watching. People are sticking around. Um,
it was quite a quite a scene. I mean just
just the fact that you had all these green jacket Um,
you know, you have the former champions putting on their
green jackets, just the pay homage to the tiger and
(49:23):
stick around. You know, guys when they finish a golf turnament. Man,
this isn't like team sports, they're out. You know, you finished.
You you basically like pack up your stuff maybe and
you're and you're out. You might not even grab a vie.
You might even go straight to the airport, depends. So
these guys, some of these guys stuck around. They wanted
(49:45):
to see they you know, they wanted to be a
part of it and soak it all in. And it
was cool to say it really will well before we go,
we have a tailor made season. This Yes, this is
this is a glade. A little pride that we're gonna
give away Master's Edition bag, the same bag you saw
(50:05):
Rory carrying, the same bag you saw Dustin Johnson, John Roum.
Many of the tailor made guys. Tiger does have his
own bag deal separative tailor made, but the tailor made
bag from the Masters twenty nineteen that Tiger Woods won
his fifteenth major one that will be talked about for years.
This bag is a Collector's edition, UH is awarded to
(50:28):
We have thousands of entries on Facebook and Instagram both
and the winner is His name is Matt. I'm not
sure if it's streaming or streaming. His user name is
m S t r E A m A N. Matt
stream In contacted him last night and this man was
over the roof, I mean you could. He was unbelievably happy.
(50:52):
He's a Tiger guy, loves golf, just had a child. Actually,
the very first thing he bought his kid, he was
messaging me on social medi you last night. The first
thing he bought when he knew his wife was pregnant
was a onesie for his baby, and he put his
baby in the onesie yesterday, excuse me on Sunday and
Tiger one and he was just as happy to be
(51:12):
a father and extremely happy to have this. So congratulations
to Matt from Brookfield, Connecticut. He is the winner of
the season opener Master's Major Edition staff bag from Taylor Made.
And we'll have more Tailor Made stuff to give away,
so big thanks to the guys that Taylor Made for
providing that for us, and that's awesome. Congratulations to Matt
and what are you here? How about that? What are
(51:34):
you here too? To win that bag? And he you
know forever is going to know that that's connected to
Tiger Woods in his victory, uh number fifteen at the Masters,
the first major in over a decade. Congratulations, thanks again,
of course to our good friends and Tailor Made. Uh
they do a terrific job. And how about by the way,
(51:57):
very cool. I don't know if people have seen on
social media. I'm of they have the mural that was
um put up at Taylor Made headquarters. Victory. I would
I would definitely suggest people searching that out. It's cool,
you are good friends at Taylor Made, jumping for joining
over the moon for that victory for Tiger it's another
(52:20):
huge week for them, and uh yeah, it's another huge
week for Gun sales, I'm sure. And another huge week
for golf with Tiger Woods getting it done at the
Master's Major champion again. Really another win for the ages.
Just incredible. We'll see Tiger in two more weeks. Have
(52:41):
this week's the RBC Heritage and Harvard Town. You'll you'll
notice the red and white lighthouse that's very famous there.
And then we get the Zurich Classic in New Orleans,
a team event which is you know, a nice little
change up and switch up next week, and then we
will get Tiger after that at the Wells Fargo, and
we're not far away. We'll be back at another major
championship in one month at the p G A at
(53:04):
Bethpage Black in New York. So, Whacker, thank you so much.
Like I said, I'm getting a little jealous. I'm gonna
need you to start going to more tournaments because you
seem to be uh the good luck charm that's working
for Tiger. Uh. You have now been to both of
his comeback victories on the PGA Tour. So congratulations to
Tiger Whacker. Thanks for your time. I know you really
(53:26):
truly enjoyed taking it all in. I know you love
the Masters like nothing else We will talk to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the podcast. Congratulations Tiger Woods a
major champion once again on the p g A tour.
I think you've had enough. Now you've had enough, I bitch,
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