Grit and Glory: J.J. Spaun's Triumph

Matt Cook, Buttsy, and Brent Grant delve into the grit required in golf, highlighting Matt's comeback with Stark Health and J.J. Spaun's journey from obstacles to PGA Tour success. Buttsy shares insights on playing alongside Spaun, emphasizing his health struggles and victory mindset. The episode recaps the U.S. Open, discussing player performances, course conditions, and Scottie Scheffler's challenges. They reflect on Tiger Woods' advice and memorable moments, before previewing the Travelers Championship, analyzing odds, and critiquing player strategies. The discussion touches on the PGA Tour CEO transition and future strategies, wrapping up with sponsor shoutouts and a teaser for the next episode.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I mean, think about how important that momentwas for the entire golf world.

(00:05):
At that moment, we saw what true grit and justabsolute will look like.
He didn't have
that prestige or pedigree or how a lot of thoseguys carry themselves from what I've found
playing with a lot of them.
He's just a cool dude, very impressive.
He didn't have a great day the day that weplayed, but obviously, you could see his iron

(00:28):
game is unbelievable.
So, yeah, I just became a fan and since playingjunior golf, and, like, you could always tell
who had a temper even if you never played withthem just by looking at the stand on their golf
bag.
A
How they put that all
back in?
Bend in that leg.
You're like,
oh.
Yeah.
Some guys had broken them completely off and,like, were still setting it down on the little

(00:49):
micro legs.
Yep.
A hundred percent.
I know exactly what you're talking about onthat one.
That's go-to, man.
You miss a shot.
Just play it.
I would absolutely do a locker bashing tutorialin slow-mo that I would put out on my social
media, like, showing the angles and how youhave to approach it not to injure yourself.
And

(01:10):
that would be so great.
Welcome back, everybody, to Pull Hook Golf, thepodcast.
I'm your host, Matt Cook.
Tonight, we've got our co-host, Buttsy, withus.
We've also got our tour insider and Mr.
Brent Grant, and we got a great show for all ofyou.
We've got the episode all about J.J.
Spaun, the U.S.

(01:31):
Open recap.
Good old LIV Golf, how did they do within thewhole U.S.
Open?
Did they meet expectations?
And then we've got the upcoming TravelersChampionship that is coming up this weekend, as
well as a new PGA Tour CEO that has taken overfor Jay Monahan.

(01:51):
So we're gonna talk about all of this goodstuff as we go along here tonight.
But before we dive in, we do want to give ashoutout to our sponsors.
First off, Devereux golf folks.
Utilize the promo code PULLHOOKGOLF20 for 20%off your entire order at devereuxgolf.com.
I've got the shirt on right now.

(02:11):
This is the retro shirt.
Buttsy's got the hat on.
And, man, I
got this shirt on.
Hang
on.
Yeah.
Look at this.
Buttsy's got it.
Look at that.
Valley Golf Club.
That's fantastic stuff there.
Beautiful.
Love that for you and Brent.
So here we go, folks.

(02:32):
We've also got on the docket Vice Golf as asponsor of the Pull Hook Golf podcast.
Utilize the promo code PULLHOOK at checkout.
You will get 15% off your golf ball orders.
That's what's right here next to me.
And next to me over here, vicegolf.com.

(02:53):
15% off utilizing promo code PULLHOOK.
Lastly, we have Rokform, a brand new sponsor,and Brent Grant knows these guys well.
He's got the case on his phone right there.
But, utilize the promo code PULLHOOK2025 for20% off your entire order at Rokform.

(03:15):
That's rokform.com.
We're going to be doing quite a bit of stuffwith them here in the near future.
So make sure to grab yourself some speakers,get yourself some cases for your phone.
They've got a great golf stand that I know I'mgoing to be utilizing.
And a golfer just said that, you know, he saysthey're the best speaker in the game.

(03:42):
They are.
They are.
Love that.
Absolutely are.
Also want to mention as well that my 5 a.m.
comeback is starting on June 30.
Gonna be starting to put out a bunch ofcontent.
I'm going this weekend to L.A.
We're gonna start the entire protocol andprogram with Stark Health, which really we've

(04:07):
got doctors, we've got chiropractors, physicalor personal trainers.
We've got doctors, nutritionists, the wholenine yards.
So I am going to do this as a 5 a.m.
comeback.
More details to come around all of that, butI'm really excited about the journey and the
process and just showing people what can bedone because, I mean, I think in a lot of ways,

(04:30):
it's gonna be proving to myself what canactually be done.
So, yeah, without further ado, let's get rightinto our segments tonight.
And guys, J.J.
Spaun wins the U.S.
Open, and this guy is the epitome of golf.
As I'm talking a little bit about my story,J.J.
Spaun has an incredible background and story tohis game and everything that he's been through.

(04:59):
I mean, let's go over some of the stories realquick in regards to J.J.
Spaun.
So this guy is a guy who almost quit multipletimes.
So in 2020, he lost his PGA Tour card, droppeddown to the Official World Golf Ranking number
of 584, clawed his way back through the KornFerry Tour and got into Korn Ferry Tour finals.

(05:24):
He was second in Boise, and he said that wasthe reset he needed.
Eight months later, he had a tour victory,which we'll get into in a second, but he almost
quit the game again last year as he was aboutto lose his PGA Tour card yet again, and he was

(05:44):
just like, I'm done with this thing.
But he said his motivation was watching thismovie Wimbledon about a journeyman tennis
player, and that sparked something inside ofhim that kept him going, ended up playing great
towards the end of the year, keeping his card.
And, obviously, we see what he's been able todo this year.
Buttsy, I know you're a big fan of this guy.

(06:05):
I mean, you've picked him on numerous occasionsthis year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got the chance to get out and play a funround of golf with him a couple years back.
And, you just don't get the feeling or thesensation that he's not a classic tour player.
He's like a, I don't know.
He was like playing golf with a professionalskateboarder if I had to say anything about the

(06:27):
guy.
He didn't have that prestige or pedigree or howa lot of those guys carry themselves from what
I've found playing with a lot of them.
He was just a cool dude.
Very impressive.
He didn't have a great day the day that weplayed, but obviously you could see, his iron
game is unbelievable.
So yeah, I just became a fan and the rest ishistory.

(06:51):
That is awesome.
I mean, it's funny too because as you talkedabout him as a skateboarder, he actually is a
skateboarder.
That was one of the things I
Is he really?
Find out.
Yeah.
So that was pretty cool to see that.
What?
Yeah.
I mean, you hit the nail on the head with thatone.
I knew you didn't really necessarily know thatbefore saying it, but

(07:14):
That makes sense.
Yeah.
That's pretty cool that, you know, you had thatexperience with him.
Now he also, by the way, this is kinda crazy.
Talk about an everyday kinda human being, letalone golfer.
He was misdiagnosed with diabetes and had a50-pound weight swing from 2018 to 2021.

(07:39):
He kept losing weight, and he kept losing formas he was told that he had Type 2 diabetes.
Come to find out, a specialist later ondiscovered that he was late-onset Type 1, which
required a completely different insulinregimen, and he finally got that under control.
They even talked about it a little bit duringthe broadcast about how he was able to finally

(08:03):
get his diabetes under control.
And that's ultimately what led to his win backin 2022 at the Valero Texas Open.
But, I mean, yeah, it's like, some of the stuffthat you read about with J.J.
Spaun and did he not just seem like the coolestdude ever in the interviews afterwards?

(08:24):
Like, so chill.
Like, he had almost like he had not won theU.S.
Open.
Just thankful, man.
I think that's a person who's thankful.
Like, just really, really thankful to be inthat spot.
I mean, my God, dude.
Like, you're gonna hang him up, and next thingyou know, a 65-footer goes in after you shoot
what?
Shoot 40 on the front?

(08:45):
He shot four over on the front.
Just crazy.
It's awesome.
That is nuts.
And we'll get into his round at the PGA or atthe U.S.
Open in a little bit.
But I do want to talk about a couple otherthings about him.
So he's a proud Filipino Mexican that comesfrom San Dimas, California.

(09:06):
He flies both the Mexican and Philippine flagson his yardage book and credits his mom's side
for early golfing inspiration.
His Oakmont win sparked huge buzz in theFilipino, American, and Latino communities.
So pretty crazy with everything that we'redealing with throughout the country right now
for him to go on and win is pretty nuts.

(09:29):
And then we've got, you know, the fact that hisfirst pro paycheck came on the PGA Tour Canada,
where he lived out of a rental car and wontwice before getting onto the Korn Ferry Tour.
Pretty nuts.
Fucking wild.
Yeah.
Brent, I mean, you can somewhat relate herewith the grind that it takes out there going

(09:54):
from the PGA Tour, having to go back to theKorn Ferry Tour, and just the stress and
emotions that go along with it.
I mean, talk to the audience about just howdifficult of a process that is to be at the
highest level and then all of a sudden have togo back and grind.
Yeah.
I mean, look at the guy's history.
I mean, he turns pro, I think, in, like, '16 or'17 or something like that.

(10:18):
2016 or '17.
You know, has that year or two on the CanadianTour, and, obviously, that entails any number
of financial hardships.
You know, it sounds like he's kinda had to doit pretty much on his own his whole career,
which which gives me you know, which gives himeven more respectability and credibility.

(10:39):
And then, you know, he makes it onto the KornFerry tour, kind of goes back and forth for a
little while, and then, you know, gets gets onto the PGA tour and kinda does the same thing
before he kinda finds what, you know, a healthyplace to be both physically, mentally.
Obviously, I'm sure his family are a hugeportion of that.
He talks about them all the time.

(11:00):
And, you know, it it's it's it's clear thathe's got a solid foundation.
You know, his game has gotten steadily betterover the years.
And one thing that people need to realize isthat just winning a PGA Tour event ever in your
lifetime as a golfer is something that how do I

(11:24):
say Yeah.
I mean, the numbers are just astronomical.
It's crazy how hard it is.
But to do it and then feel like, oh, well,maybe this isn't for me.
And then to come back, you know, late in theyear in '23, '20 you know, into '24 and then

(11:47):
catch fire.
And he's done what he's done this year, and thefact that he won the U.S.
Open the way he won it at Oakmont playing, it'sprobably the most difficult it will ever play.
And he did it just with pure tenacity and morepower to him.

(12:10):
You know, it just proves that you definitelydon't have to be a long hitter to win a U.S.
Open.
He was probably one of the shortest hitters inthe field statistically.
And the way he did it, I told as soon as ithappened, Buttsy shot me a text.
I was on the road.
He said, did you see it?
I said, no.
And I was just scrolling through the U.S.

(12:31):
Open app, and I was able to watch it.
I probably watched it a dozen times.
I think it's the greatest putt to ever cap offa major that there has ever been.
I mean, there's 64 and a half feet at Oakmontin the rain.
I mean, what are we talking about here?
I mean, unbelievable stuff.

(12:54):
But yeah.
I mean, couldn't happen to I mean, true.
We say this all the time, but he really is agood dude, and I'm super happy for him.
Laser is super happy for him, obviously.
But yeah.
I mean, it's awesome.
Laser is happy for him as well?
Laser is super happy for him.
Yeah.
Seems like you're coming in a little low rightnow, Brent.

(13:15):
Little low?
Yeah.
Your mic is a little
under.
Little under?
It's right on that J.J.
Spaun closely mirrors Michael Peña?
He sure does.
He sure does.
One second.
Yeah.
It just seems like your audio is a little low,Brent.
Normally, it's loud.
You know?
His mic might be melted because he's outside.

(13:39):
Yeah.
I don't know.
He might have turned down the gain somehow.
Let's see.
Let's see if this will fix it.
He's clipping it onto his shirt, everybody.
Can you turn it up on your end, Maggie?
I can't.
So I was checking that.
How's that?
Better?
About the same.
I really don't know what's going on here.
Not terrible.

(13:59):
It's just a little light.
Yeah.
It's a little low.
If you just wanna yell.
Yeah.
I mean, I've got it.
The output volume.
Yeah.
It's as high as it can be.
So that's really awesome.
Think it's gain on your mic.
I'll show you.
Next time we're at Grass Clippings, I'll showyou how to get that

(14:21):
up to but it wasn't that way before.
So I
guess no.
I know.
But you've been messing around with it with theapp and everything.
So you might have changed some settings there.
Don't know.
Don't know.
It's a brand new platform.
Right?
So we shall see.
We're still learning on this new platform.
So, again, we're excited about the changes andeverything going on.

(14:41):
Back to J.J.
Spaun.
So this is a guy who was not unused to screwingup in the beginning of a round, trying to win,
and coming back and winning because that washis only win on the PGA Tour was the 2022
Valero Texas Open in which he started thatround, that final round with a double bogey and

(15:05):
then played the next 17 holes five under par toedge Matt Kuchar and Matt Jones.
And so, obviously, this year, survived a plusfour through six holes and then played the back
nine in three under after that 90-minute raindelay reset.
Guys, we gotta talk about this, man, becausethat reset did you guys get a sense that it was

(15:30):
a bit unfair coming back out?
Like, you know, Sam Burns didn't get casualwater, and that looked pretty bad.
I mean, Max—or not Max—Adam Scott ended uphitting some really wayward iron shots, which
was kinda unlike him.
So I'll start with you, Buttsy.

(15:52):
I mean, was it fair for them to be playing inthose conditions?
Obviously, everybody's gotta play in them.
Yeah.
I mean, that's, you just said it.
Like, that'd be my reply to that is everybody'sgotta play in the conditions.
You know what you're getting yourself into.
Some people are gonna have better luck thanothers.
The Burns one was a little sus.
I mean, I saw the guy, what he was standingthere, slushing his feet around, and he

(16:14):
definitely got standing water.
But was that next to where his ball or stancewas?
Because, I mean, I know the rule.
And you have to bring up, like, visible waterwhere you're standing or where the ball is.
Right?
Is that the rule?
Yeah.
That's the rule.
Go ahead, Brent.
What what were you gonna say?
So it has to be visible.
You can't so so even if you step there, andwater comes up, if it goes back down, right.

(16:38):
And it's not visible, like you said, there isno relief.
Now, I'll be honest with you.
I mean, we've seen, you know, we've seenridiculous things on camera with rules and all
that other stuff and where they've been able tosee the golf ball in slow motion.
And you're telling me that the rules officialright there couldn't see the water.

(17:04):
Any other time, any other place, I think theyprobably get relief there.
It's like the guy the benefit of the doubt?
I mean, let me see.
I don't know.
I'm gonna pull it up on
Again, the video that you see, I can't tell ifthat's where his ball is or if that's just in
the general area of the ball.

(17:25):
And like Brent said, you can't press down andtry to get water to come up.
You have to just take a stance, and it has tobe standing there.
Yeah.
So it's kind of a tough call.
It's like a baseball umpire.
There's a gray area for a lot of the rules ofgolf, and you kinda gotta deal with whoever

(17:47):
you're calling in to do that.
I mean, I guess you could play two balls andask for another. I
for another. I don't know.
Can you ask for another official to come in?
Can you get a second opinion?
You can, and I think he did.
But the major issue here, I think, from whatI'm seeing is that it was not going back down.

(18:10):
And so the big problem with that is any timeyou're in that mode, especially if it's even
close.
Right?
And these guys are used to getting their way.
Right?
So the majority of these rules are, well, ifyou think that it's in your way, then it's in
your way.
The problem is this is the USGA.

(18:32):
This is the U.S.
Open.
This is the final round.
These guys were not about to get into any grayarea.
These guys are as, you know, black and white asit gets.
But, boy, it's tough.
It's really tough.
I mean, I don't think there's a moment whereany of us would have looked at that in any

(18:56):
other golf round and been like, no, man.
Play
And here's the other thing too.
Like, if he hits the shot and it goes in thehole or it goes to a foot, are we having this
conversation?
That's the other thing.
I mean, was it a pitch wedge?
No.
It was a full swing iron.
I mean, you could hit—we've seen guys play offcart paths or out of mud, out of all kinds of

(19:19):
different things.
But, again, right, the moment that you think,oh, I got screwed is the moment that you're—I
mean, you're screwed.
I mean, your mind is already gone.
And, I mean, we've seen that in every sportthere is.
Oh, you know, I can't believe that happened,and then they blow up.
I mean, it's—
I think John McEnroe was the only one whosometimes didn't get— by that.

(19:41):
For our care.
No.
It turned him on.
Yeah.
He's the only one that—
made him better.
Focus and lock in.
I feel like some of the guys that get reallyangry out there, like a Tyrrell Hatton, just
get more locked in.
Like, they've learned to kinda hone that in anduse that as their motivation or, you know, to,

(20:02):
like I said, get locked in.
I don't know how else to phrase that.
A hundred percent.
And he said as much.
I remember I asked him at the Byron Nelson in'23, and I said, hey.
Like, basically, I just was like, are you,like, okay out there?
He's like, yeah, man.
I just honestly have to get it out.

(20:23):
I have to—you know, it's just who I am.
I've accepted.
You know, I don't point it at anybodygenerally.
It's all in here.
And it's why I believe, honestly, that when theconditions are such that, you know, are as
difficult as they are, you know, in a BritishOpen or a U.S.

(20:46):
Open, guys like that who are real and can kindof battle with the waves, if you will, are the
guys that play the best.
And I mean, you got J.J.
Spaun, who is cool, calm, and collected, andyou got Tyrrell Hatton out there, who's as, you
know, crazy as it gets.

(21:06):
And yet they were both there at the end.
So pretty incredible.
I mean, Tyrrell's reaction when J.J.
won, when he made that putt, he was elated.
He was like, wow.
That's unbelievable.
So happy for him.
He said, fair enough.
Fair makes a pretty good point that Burns wasalready leaking some major oil by that point.

(21:28):
I mean, he and Adam Scott were not playing thegreatest.
I mean, those guys were struggling out there.
I feel like Adam Scott actually got a littlebit more screwed by the water than anybody, in
my opinion, where you just started seeing shotsthat he normally wouldn't spray.
And you know that that was the water and justnot making the adjustments that you have to in

(21:51):
those conditions.
It down?
Yeah.
Okay.
See.
So this is something that this is somethingthat prior to the day, you know, they're gonna
sit there and go, well, we know this storm iscoming at 4:00, so we're gonna play the ball
up.
The big problem with that is, and we discussedthis, I think we said it actually at Grass
Clippings last week.

(22:12):
We were like, you know, what are they gonna do?
And so on and so forth.
And honestly, the USGA showed their truecolors.
They were like, nope.
We believe in, you know, as pure of a form ofgolf as possible, no matter the conditions.
And you're not wiping the golf ball.
Sorry.
Yeah.
You might get screwed.
And there are guys, I mean, you get one drop ofwater between the face of a driver or a wood or

(22:37):
an iron or anything like that at any sort ofspeed.
It's game over.
It's game over.
You're not wrong.
And I think certain guys, like, actually knowhow to play in those conditions.
And that was something that we kind of saw withBobby McIntyre.
Buttsy, you're the one that during the previewshow brought up Bobby Mac as a potential

(22:57):
contender.
And so that was pretty cool to see him almostslide in the back door.
I mean, he was playing so well on that backnine.
Oh,
yeah.
And that final stretch of holes.
It was just it was an exciting U.S.
Open at the end of the day with everythinggoing down.
I was just like, holy shit.

(23:19):
Like, we've got ourselves an open, and itstarted creeping into where, like, the plus
fours had a chance.
You know?
Where all of a sudden, we're talking about Rahmbeing in the clubhouse at plus four, then
Scheffler gets in at plus four.
And all of a sudden but we do have to talkabout Scottie Scheffler a little bit.
I mean, we've been on his, you know what, for acouple of weeks now.

(23:41):
And I was I I mentioned this during the show,and I don't know if this resonated with either
of you in regards to that.
I wanted to see him struggle a little bit onThursday and then make a run, right, to get
back into it.
And what I feared in saying that is the factthat once he started struggling, he never

(24:04):
really got back.
And I feel like, did you guys see the rangesession with him and his coach?
Yep.
No.
Paul Oh,
shoot for a while.
Screaming at him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was tough to it was tough to
Screaming at him?
Oh, yeah.
He was tough.
Screaming at him.
So you got to see the competitive side ofScottie Scheffler there with his coach on the

(24:26):
range, screaming at him, disgusted with hiscontrol and accuracy and so forth.
So like I said, guys, if you're not practicingthat mental side, which by the way, guess who
was practicing the mental side and actuallybrought it up in his interview was Bobby Mac.

(24:46):
Bobby Mac was talking about how he after ThursI believe it was Thursday's round, he got on
the phone with the sports psychologist that heworks with, and he said that he absolutely just
needed a reset mentally so that he could lockin and just realize that this is gonna be

(25:06):
tough.
This is going to be a difficult time and to bevery patient with everything out there.
And that's the thing that I don't know ifScottie Scheffler has necessarily like, as
we've seen so much success out of ScottieScheffler, we've we've not seen him play well
in a U.S.
Open yet.
Like, I would not say that this was ScottieScheffler playing well in the U.S.

(25:27):
Open.
What do you guys think?
mean, decent?
I mean, played well, I mean, as much as you canin this sort of situation, but I don't think
that this is exactly right.
And, I mean, you look at the list of U.S.
Open winners that kinda win, and then theydisappear, or they kinda come out of nowhere

(25:48):
and then disappear.
The U.S.
Open, along with the British Open, are not thesame type of golf that we're used to week in
and week out on the PGA Tour.
That's not to say that tough conditions, thatScottie can't play well in tough conditions,
but we haven't really seen that.
We've seen him play well when the golf courseis playing difficult, but not when he's not

(26:12):
playing well and the golf course is playingdifficult.
So, I mean, you think about how many timesTiger said I beat the living crap out of all
these guys with my C game.
Scottie Scheffler, I don't think his C game isgood enough necessarily to do what he's been
doing with his A game.

(26:32):
To me, it was like the precision that he bringsto the table or that shines on, like, a lot of
golf courses and setups just wasn't what was—Idon't know.
It, like, wasn't there.
It wasn't required there, if that even makessense.
It's just a different type of golf, like yousaid, like, especially when it got wet.
know.
Like, there's no premium for, you know, getting9-iron into the wind right, to a back right

(26:57):
flag.
It was more like grit, all grit.
And it's those, and it's those small, it's asbig as the greens were.
Right?
It's not as if—I mean, that's why JJ's putt wasjust absolutely outrageous.
I mean, to basically come from another ZIPcode, you know, and, I mean, a completely

(27:17):
different terrain.
But most of the places that we've seen Scottieplay really well at are the ones where the golf
hole, you know, generally has some sort ofmovement to it, but it's all towards, you know,
the pin locations.
And, I mean, he's won the same type oftournaments, you know, throughout the last two,
three years, and I don't think—I mean, hedidn't play well last year at Pinehurst, and he

(27:44):
didn't play well this week either.
So, yeah, I think it's gonna be interesting tosee what happens in his career.
Obviously, he's still world number one, andnobody's gonna take him down anytime soon.
So we'll see what happens.
We're, like, we're finding chinks in the armorbecause the guy fucking just didn't keep
winning every time.
Exactly.
Well, it wasn't impressive.

(28:05):
Right?
I mean, it wasn't like—it wasn't.
He grinded.
I mean, he ended up finishing plus four in thetop 10, but he was basically there all weekend
long.
Like, he just didn't really have something forthat golf course, but it also goes to his
greatness.
Right?
That he's at a point now where the expectationsare very high, and we expect him to play really

(28:32):
well heading into a tournament like this,especially after winning a couple events coming
into it, including the PGA Championship, theMemorial.
So it's not like he can't play a difficult golfcourse.
I just feel like, man, I saw that on Thursday.
I saw him kinda lose his cool, and then itcarried over to the driving range.
And to me, that's not when Scottie Scheffler ishis best, right?

(28:56):
When he is frustrated, impatient.
Scottie Scheffler is known as being one of themost patient players out there.
And I think he lost his cool a little bit.
I would just love to see him work on that sideof it because I want Scottie Scheffler to be
the greatest ever, right?
I mean, I wanna see somebody right now bebetter than anybody that's ever existed.

(29:20):
That would be fantastic.
But, obviously, there's a little bit of workthere.
We found a chink in the armor, so to speak,that he needs to put forward.
But I do wanna go back to J.J.
Spaun really quick because Max Homa actuallypassed something along to him that Tiger Woods
shared with him that he said he relayed in hishead all Sunday at Oakmont.

(29:43):
These were Tiger's words.
As long as you're still there, you don't haveto do anything crazy, especially at a U.S.
Open.
Even if you're four back, just stay there.
Let the others make mistakes.
Pretty good advice from Tiger even though J.J.
Spaun shot three under on the back nine at theU.S.
Open with that 64-footer on 18.

(30:04):
It just looked like it was meant to be afterdriving 17.
I think the shot on 17, to me,
That sealed it.
Yeah.
was the biggest shot of the tournament.
I mean,
Oh, 100%.
To 12 feet, 15 feet from 300 yards?
Yeah.
It was absolutely crazy.
Only he could have hit that shot at that time.
If it were a longer hitter, I mean, you'retalking about it's right in between a driver

(30:29):
and a three-wood for a lot of guys.
I mean, I see that all the time and we saw itall the time between the Korn Ferry Tour and
the PGA Tour.
I mean, there are certain times when hitting itshorter just happens to pay off, and that was
one of those times.
You know, it's funny too.
So during that rain delay, they obviouslyplayed Tiger Woods from the Torrey Pines U.S.

(30:50):
Open where he won it on the broken leg, one ofthe most epic kind of finishing moments to
where he needed to make the putt in order totie Rocco Mediate.
Everybody's tweeting about it as if it washappening right then.
So funny enough.
And Buttsy knows this because and actually,Brent, you've met my wife as well.

(31:11):
She's up here in the pictures, but she has justgotten into golf.
Right?
And she's probably played less than a handfulof times on a golf course.
Buttsy and I went out there with her andButtsy's girlfriend Rachel.
And sure enough, we were out there and whenthat rain delay happened, she's been really

(31:33):
getting into golf.
She's like, she didn't know that there was arain delay.
She missed that little portion on the TV thatsaid you are now watching the 2018 or the 2008
U.S.
Open.
And so it's coming down to the end, and I cansee that she's like, oh my God.
I can't believe you didn't tell me Tiger wasplaying in the U.S.

(31:56):
Open and that he's about to, oh my gosh, like,what, he's one shot back?
And I'm like, yeah, he's gotta make this puttin order to tie Rocco Mediate.
So sure enough, he makes that putt, and shelost it.
She went berserk like it was the first timeever experiencing a Tiger Woods U.S.

(32:22):
Open moment.
And I just laughed my absolute ass off.
But then I thought about it, like, alright,could that have been a little bit cruel?
Maybe.
But realistically, she got to experience thatmoment later on in life, like as if it just
happened.
And then I'm like, honey, didn't you realize,like, he looks a little young?

(32:45):
She goes, man, I was thinking that.
She's like, he must have had some work done andso forth.
So it was a pretty funny moment, prettysurreal, around that.
So I just had to share that with you guys.
It was pretty good.
I just saw the opportunity and took it and washoping to God she didn't see in the bottom
corner, you were now watching the 2008 U.S.

(33:08):
Open.
How incredible is that, right?
I mean, think about how important that momentwas for the entire golf world.
Barring, obviously, what happened, you know, ayear or two later or whatever.
But at that moment, we saw what true grit andjust absolute will look like.

(33:33):
There is anytime they zoom in to what happens,and I'm sure, I mean, I don't know.
I'm assuming you guys have played Torrey South.
I've played it.
I have.
Couple times.
And I played it in the tournament twice.
That putt on those greens in the middle of thesummer, by the way, you might as well be
putting on gravel.

(33:53):
And so for it to happen the way that ithappened, I mean, I was 12.
I'm gonna go back to Austin's comment too herebecause he could yeah.
Will the ball into the hole.
That's
the funny do.
She before he hit that putt, my wife's going,oh, he's gonna make it.
Like, that's not that far for Tiger.

(34:15):
She's like, he'll make it.
And then all of a sudden when he did, she losther mind.
Way too many times.
Yeah.
We all watched that live, I'm sure.
And I remember, like, that was when I had juststarted playing golf.
And I was like, oh, I'm gonna I'm we're doingthat.
Like, that is awesome.

(34:36):
He definitely brought a lot of people to thesport.
That is
for sure.
Without a doubt.
Let's see what else here for the U.S.
Open that we can cover.
Let's go down the leaderboard real quick.
So J.J.
Spaun wins it at one under.
I believe, Brent, you were the one that calledthe finishing total.
So one under par.
I said it was gonna be one over.

(34:56):
And, Buttsy, I don't remember what you said.
No.
Three under.
We all I I said I said six.
You said six under?
Yeah.
I said six.
So I guess
looks good after the first day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Robby MacIntyre finishes second at plus one.
Viktor Hovland plus two.
Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, and Carlos Ortizplus three.

(35:19):
Sam Burns, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler plusfour, Ben Griffin, Russell Henley plus five.
And then you got Christiaan Bezuidenhout, ChrisKirk, Brooks Koepka, Thriston Lawrence, Rasmus
Neergaard Petersen, Xander Schauffele, AdamScott all at plus six.

(35:39):
Shut up.
And that pretty much wraps it up around theU.S.
Open this year, but let's get to LIV Golf andthe performance by LIV Golf this year.
To you guys, did LIV Golf live up toexpectations this year?
They played good in the Open.
They had some good turnout.
I thought, what do you mean?

(36:00):
Like, in totality?
Just in totality.
So, I mean, as the, you know, premier circuitas they would like to be known as and having
all the big names and so forth.
I mean, we kinda saw so Tyrell Hatton, whichTruck Golfer was the one on last week's episode

(36:21):
that said Tyrell Hatton had the chance to winthe U.S.
Open out of all the LIV Golf guys.
Carlos Ortiz was a huge surprise.
I mean, that was a gamer, man.
I didn't see that coming.
He's a gamer.
I don't know, Buttsy.
What do you think?
Hang on.

(36:41):
I mean,
and then Jon Rahm finished up there.
Brooks Koepka finished up there.
After the first day, I'm going, Brooks Koepkais gonna be tough to beat.
But there is something to be said when you'remaking a couple changes that it might work the
first round, but carrying that over for fourstraight days is gonna be tough.
They played like how do I put this?
Like, there's still a few guys over there thatare definitely world-class players that have a

(37:05):
chance to win still.
That's what I would say.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the thing.
Right?
Every single one of these conversations kindaalways ends up that way.
Right?
It's like, how do we really discount, you know,the four or five guys that are still competing
at a high level?
I mean, Tyrell, I mean, he he he won theEuropean Tour event.
I think it was late last year, or early thisyear.

(37:27):
Obviously, most of those guys are playing inthe U.S.
Open either because they qualified or becausethey played well enough in the European
Tour Open.
To qualify for it.
So almost all of the guys, aside from, Ibelieve, Jon and Brooks, all got there because

(37:50):
they played well.
And so, I mean, you can't take that away fromthem.
Obviously, 85 to 90% of the players in the LIVTour are nonexistent now.
But, yeah, I mean, I obviously wouldn't callthem top players by any means, but that's a
select few.

(38:11):
Matt, real quick.
Can I, if I scroll, I'm on my phone, if Iscroll up, can I, like, cut my feed for a
second?
Will that work?
I have to reply to this little, kind of anemergency work text here.
Go ahead.
Give it a shot.
All right.
Let me try it.
Yeah.
Perfect.
Yeah.
There he is.
That's totally fine.
He's gone.
For me.

(38:31):
Yeah.
But you're good.
But yeah.
I don't, Matt, I mean, what are you seeingfrom, is there any sort of trend that you're
seeing from these guys that are playing inthese European Tour events that are kinda like,
because I'm not paying attention.
And so I assume.
Are you talking about the LIV guys?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, these guys that are still trying to,you know, speed as well.

(38:54):
As Koepka is the enigma.
Right?
I mean, this is the guy that's won four timesout there.
And yet he gets to the U.S.
Open after winning the last tournament, missesthe cut.
He's just, you know, that's the one that LIVGolf fans love to tie themselves to and be
like, oh, he's the greatest golfer because he'syoung and he's playing well on LIV Golf.

(39:19):
But you get him into a deep field, you get himinto a U.S.
Open, you get him into other majors, like, hejust hasn't played well.
They were talking about that on the broadcast abit as well.
But then, I mean, like I said, the bigsurprises, Tyrrell Hatton actually wasn't a
huge surprise.
Trot was dead on with him.
I feel like, yeah, in hindsight, you look backand you're like, Tyrrell Hatton's gonna play

(39:41):
okay in the majors because he's always mad, andthat levels the playing field.
And the U.S.
Open's a great one for that.
The Open Championship, watch out for TyrrellHatton as well.
But seeing Jon Rahm, you know, kind ofreinvigorated, I think he's gonna be a problem

(40:01):
moving forward because I think he's kindagotten to the point to where he can get his
game in shape, knows how to do it while he's onLIV, and the mental side is there for him, and
he's feeling more and more comfortable.
So
He's still Jon Rahm.
Yeah.
He's still Jon Rahm at the end of the day.
Right?
So he's and and at a U.S.

(40:21):
Open golf course, he's a big guy that can hackit out of the rough and just, you know, Jon
Rahm to me is gonna be there moving forward inthese championships.
Brooks Koepka, obviously, started finding sometype of form.
I mean, I didn't realize you were telling methat the Srixon guys were telling you that he's

(40:42):
looking really good and everything, and Ididn't realize that they were still tweaking on
Monday, like tweaking his golf swing.
Yeah.
I mean, he does a lot of that.
I mean, part of what happens when he's able tokind of get seen by the Srixon tour guys and

(41:02):
then obviously have his coach there.
But the greatest thing about playing in theU.S.
Open, honestly, is the fact that everything istaken care of for you.
There's nothing about it, no place that you'restaying.
There's nothing that's happening during theweek that's abnormal or inconvenient in the
least, excuse me.

(41:23):
And so for him to show up and play well, youknow, wasn't a huge surprise.
He also was getting, I mean, to be honest,anytime he shows up at a golf tournament,
everybody's all over him, which he loves.
And so that only boosts his confidence evenmore.
Yeah.
And Rahm did call out LIV last week.
Also, Whittington mentions that to where he wastalking about how many top tens that he has and

(41:49):
the fact that if he was still on the PGA Tour,those would be top thirties.
That the deeper the field, there's no way hewould be in the top 10.
So I love that out of Rahm.
I think we were talking about that a little bitlast week as well.
And then, you know, truck golfer's mentioningwe'll get to the new CEO of the PGA Tour.
We'll talk about that a little bit at the endof this episode.

(42:11):
But overall, I would say LIV Golf from aperformance standpoint, I was surprised.
Yeah.
I would say that it was actually a good outingfor them.
I don't think that the critics of LIV Golf willsay the same because they probably will say
that it was a failure and so forth, which so beit.
Because, obviously, they didn't have anybodywin, and they haven't had anybody win yet.

(42:35):
So I guess the next question that is going tocome up heading into the Open Championship,
what happens if LIV Golf does not win a major?
They've won a major their first two years.
So Brooks Koepka with the Masters, I believe,if I'm not wrong wait a second.
I feel like that was wrong.
Who was the one?
Bryson won the U.S.

(42:55):
Open.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bryson won the U.S.
Open last year, but who won the year prior?
Brooks won the PGA.
That's right.
Yep.
So see?
I knew what you
mean?
What
what though.
Well well all of
a sudden if all of a sudden, LIV Golf goes 0for 4, do they lose some of that you know,

(43:18):
we've got all the big names, got the bestgolfers in the world.
You really can't say that when you don't win asingle major in a year.
Right?
I don't know.
I guess the real question is what's gonnahappen after this year.
I don't think anybody knows that.
No.
No.
Because everything is back in play now.
So we do have a little comment here.

(43:39):
After Buttsy beating Pup, I hear LIV made aphone call.
So big time stuff happening out there, Papago,I've heard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The human match, the death match, sanctionmatches, that's what we've been doing.
Yeah, I got it done.
It was very tough.
And I did get a call from the LIV tour.
They are working with the PGA Tour to work onan exemption under the table for me to play in

(44:05):
the Hero World Challenge.
And then based on how I played in that, I mighthave a contract.
So we'll see.
I've heard that it doesn't even matter.
I heard they want you so bad that they'rewilling to put eight figures up there for you.
No.
What we saw out there wasn't a match won byhitting good golf shots.
It was a match of making birdies and pars,almost specifically with a lob wedge around the

(44:29):
greens.
If they only film that, does it matter?
Let's let's move on.
Yeah.
Let's keep it moving.
So we've got the upcoming TravelersChampionship preview this week.
Oh god.
And, my gosh, folks, do we have a greattournament happening in Cromwell, Connecticut?
Another signature series event trying to getall the top players to show up, and it looks

(44:54):
like this one, they're actually gonna get thatdone.
So Scottie Scheffler's gonna be there.
Rory's gonna be there.
Xander's gonna be there.
Morikawa, Cantlay, Aberg, JT.
What guy?
Jordan Spieth.
I mean, over and over and over again.
And we didn't really talk about Rory this weekbecause whatever.
Yeah.
Whatever.

(45:14):
I don't really have a whole lot of opinions.
I think it's tough.
Johnny Miller actually made Johnny Miller madea comeback this week.
Johnny Miller.
Some people really want to see Johnny Millerback, myself included, because when he was
talking about Bryson DeChambeau and all thesebombers of the golf ball, it was like, yeah.
And Bryson was living in the rough this week.

(45:37):
So he dropped some pretty funny comments outthere, but he also mentioned with Rory McIlroy
that after winning the Masters, if you takeyour eye off the ball, all of a sudden, it's
tough to get back that focus and lock back in.
So he made that point, and that kind of goesback to what I was saying about senioritis

(45:59):
where he's just checked out a little bit, andit's tough to turn it back on.
But Brent made a good point that at the OpenChampionship, going back to Ireland, could
spark him once again, and he did have a goodfinal round.
He's the most talented candy ass in golf.

(46:21):
Like, let's just call it what it is.
He didn't get good PR this week.
He's the best.
He's a huge bitch.
He's an idiot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean,
you're in privilege like that from a young ageand you have expectations like that and you
don't learn how to treat them with, like Idon't know.
I mean, I'm not him, but and I'm sorry to justinterject here, but it really pissed me off to

(46:42):
see some of the mannerisms and stuff.
Like, dude, you could do this with so much moreclass, even if you're not having a good time.
You could be a better role model and act likeless of a 15-year-old that didn't get his way.
Yeah.
You're spot on there.
Anybody that has a core group around him ofreal people would absolutely get their head

(47:05):
taken off.
I mean, just just speaking from experience,anytime I've ever done something like that,
that has that has been seen or said somethingin in a in a in the right company, I hear about
it.
And so, you know, the the simple fact of thematter is is that 19 year old Rory would be
would be disgusted with with the way he is now.

(47:27):
I mean, that guy, the kid growing up inNorthern Ireland, yeah.
I mean, he wasn't privileged because he got togo play golf in many different places, but it
wasn't like he grew up with a silver spoon.
I mean, he had to grind.
His parents had to grind.
And it's disrespectful.
And I mean, I can't imagine what Jim Nantz isfeeling considering throughout the entire day

(47:48):
on Sunday, all he did was talk about his humblebeginnings, and then he wins the Masters, has
this emotional thing, and then now he's being alittle bitch about it.
I'm sorry.
But Matt might have called it, like, weeks agoor, like, a week ago.
Like, he might just be fed up with the show.
Like, the whole minutiae of the whole thing andbeing on TV and being in the media and blah.

(48:10):
It just, it's not cool to him anymore.
I think he's just done with it.
Like, kinda like, yeah, just don't really.
Then don't get interviewed.
Paul McGinley too did bring up that he thinksthat there's something else that is going on
with Rory.
That it, it, it's—he thinks it's golf-related,but doesn't know exactly what, potentially,

(48:32):
because him and Jay Monahan were buddies for along time.
Jay moving out, this new guy moving in, youthink anything has to do with that?
Yeah.
I mean, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say theywere buddies.
I mean, when I was playing the Canadian Open in'23 and they announced that week on Tuesday

(48:53):
that they were gonna form a, you know, aboilerplate agreement or an agreement to have
an agreement, and everybody knew that they werethrowing Rory under the bus because that entire
year, prior to that and in 2022, he did nothingbut trash LIV, say, we're never gonna do
anything.
We're never gonna do this.
We're never gonna do that.

(49:13):
Screw those guys.
And then, you know, he's gotta stand up therewith Jay and just be like, what are you guys
doing?
And then he had to kind of fall in line andwhich he did.
But for a guy like Rory that takes everythingpersonal, there's absolutely no way that his

(49:34):
relationship is repairable with somebody likeJay after that.
I mean, he took Charlie Hoffman's letter as anattack.
I mean, really?
Seriously?
This is ridiculous.
Defensive.
A little defensive
over it.
Like
So the other one that we did not mention aboutwas Wyndham Clark destroying some lockers.

(49:59):
No.
I was gonna ask you, you do his trainer.
Does he have any pictures of his shins oranything?
Are his shins okay?
Are they cut up?
Like, do we
I mean, fuck.
I saw it in 2018 when he was smashing tee boxesand trash cans at the Sony Open.

(50:19):
The guy's always been that way.
And that's not to say anything bad aboutWyndham.
I get it.
He's an emotional guy.
I like him as a person, but, again, a poor rolemodel in a place where you are about as
privileged as you can possibly be, and it'sjust ridiculous.
It was too far, obviously, but I also didn'tlike the fact that that leaked out, that

(50:45):
somebody decided, oh, I'm gonna take a pictureof this and then leak it.
I think that's a little bit of a rap move.
That's what I don't like.
Because personal.
Yeah.
That locker room situation, like, guys explodeall the time.
And, Brent, I mean, you could probably sharestories of guys going absolutely berserk in

(51:06):
there, causing damage and so forth.
I mean, we saw it with Tom Kim last year whenhe was over in Korea, and the emotions get to
guys.
I mean, this is a very difficult sport thatdoes not always reward you.
And sometimes you lose your cool out there andsometimes you need to.

(51:27):
But that's why this podcast exists.
Right?
To give everybody kind of that unfiltered lookat this sport because this stuff does happen.
And it is more common than you think.
And this getting out is a little bit, I think,Brent, you said it was a little bit personal
with whoever took the photo.
Yeah.

(51:47):
Well, because we all have the same
thought about it.
You look at a guy like Graeme McDowell who alsoon Twitter brought up the fact that, hey, this
is our...
Like, this is whatever happens in the lockerroom, you leave it in the locker room.
You do not let this stuff get out.
And with that, it also happens a lot.

(52:10):
And he was talking about he alluded to a verypopular player that has done a lot of damage in
locker rooms throughout the years.
So, of course, he kinda backtracked oneverything saying, I don't condone this.
I'm not saying this is okay.
I'm just saying that, you know, it's not rightthat this leaked out.
This is, like, Vegas, basically.

(52:31):
Yeah.
I mean, anytime, I mean, we've all playedevents and where, you know, either it's the
locker room or our car, we get back to thehotel room, or there's a moment in which, okay,
we gotta get something out.
And for it to be at the U.S.

(52:53):
I mean, there is not another place on thegrounds at a U.S.
Open that has more security than the lockerroom.
So here's what I can tell you beyond the shadowof a doubt.
It was either a player, a coach, or a caddie.
I doubt it was a player.
It was It
It regardless.
Bitch hole.

(53:13):
Oh, for sure.
Regardless.
I mean, Wyndham, to my knowledge, has about asgood of a reputation amongst the players and
caddies as anybody I've seen.
I haven't heard a single negative story aboutthat guy, and I've heard negative stories about
almost everybody.

(53:34):
So, you know, the fact that they did that, it'sBush League as we all have said, and to whoever
did that, you might wanna look in the mirrorbecause you definitely don't hold some sort of
high ground.
That's absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah.
You kinda flip-flopped there, Brent.

(53:56):
You started out the conversation really hatingon the act, and and I
think you're—well, it's not right.
It's not right.
But neither is the act of
giving a big picture.
I get it.
But like I said, it's just one of those things,man.
It's near and dear to me because I've hadmoments where I've got to sit there and hold
something in, and I let something out and it'sat the wrong time with the wrong people.

(54:20):
And I get my head taken off for it.
So I—there are too many instances where playershave to be these perfect people, and it serves
no purpose.
You guys remember things worse.
Junior golf, and, like, you could always tellwho had a temper even if you never played with
them just by looking at the stand on their golfbag.
A hundred

(54:40):
How they put the golf bag?
In that leg.
You're like,
Oh.
Yeah.
Some guys had broken them completely off and,like, were still setting it down on the little
micro legs.
Yep.
A hundred percent.
I know exactly what you're talking about onthat one.
Go to, man.
You miss a shot.
Just play it.
I did it—I did it this year, and I did it thisyear at the Sony Open.

(55:01):
Shit.
I carried it back like that for three monthsbefore I got a new one.
Fucking you know?
And so I get it.
And, I mean, we all—we all have some sort ofrelationship with Wyndham, whether it be
personal or surface level, and none of us wishthat guy anything but the best.
There you have it.

(55:22):
So the Wyndham thing, while we do not condoneor say that doing damage to anything is a good
thing, obviously, it is not.
Don't be no snitch.
Yeah.
Don't—don't be a rat.
Don't be a rat when it comes to that.
Oh, he's
pretty fine.
Told on him too.

(55:42):
Right?
Like but he already knows.
Yeah.
He knows.
Like I said, I mean, for me, not even beingthere, like I said, having played, you only
have to play one U.S.
Open to know who's allowed in that locker.
I'll say
this.
I saw Trevor has he had no stands on his bag,and I was definitely a hothead.
When I was playing on the mini tours, man, Icould be a New Yorker too, playing on the Butch

(56:08):
Harmon Vegas tour and the Pepsi tour and soforth.
There were a couple warnings that were givenout.
Hey.
Keep down the f-words.
And so
I saw you toss a lob wedge the other day.
I saw it.
Yeah.
That good frustration out there.
You gotta get it out sometimes.
But if it's your property, I'm okay with that.
Sometimes it was one of those where you holdthe butt of the club and you toss it up.

(56:32):
Yeah.
He didn't try to break it.
A violent it was in the moment, though, butthat, to me, tells me that it's like, okay.
My soul is done being bad.
It wants to be good again.
It's past.
Yeah.
Because right afterwards, like, there's noemotions to it whatsoever, like, after it's
done, which I feel like that's the way that ithas to be.
If you're gonna be somebody like that, like aJon Rahm or a Tyrrell Hatton to where you're

(56:56):
known for that, then you gotta let it out andjust move on immediately thereafter.
They should I've been saying this for years.
They need to come out with a bag that has,like, an option for a little sandbag on the
side that you just that you're not gonna breakanything, and you can just punch the holy fuck
out of this thing if you want to.
Like
Don't know.
Be like Tyrrell and give your putter a talkingto.

(57:18):
Give it a little smack and tuck it and talk toit.
How much?
He also—How much did—go ahead.
Sorry.
He also had a tense or a very tense exchangewith a media member, Tyrrell Hatton that is,
when asked about because he goes that he had abad break.
And the reporter kind of followed up and waslike, well, what do you mean you got a bad

(57:40):
break?
He's like, what kind of question is that?
What are you asking me?
I got a bad break.
He's like, yeah.
What are you talk—like, he's like, no.
I'm asking you, like, what was the bad, like,the bad luck, the bad break?
He's like, well, I got into the downslope.
He's like, of the grass.
He's like, not into the bunker.
And so he was bitching about on 17 that hemissed it just to the right.

(58:04):
Most of those end up going into the bunker, andhis got caught up in the downslope of the
rough.
So that he believes that that's what lost himthe U.S.
Open.
I found that to be interesting.
For you.
Yeah.
Is there a chance that the owner of L.A.B.
Golf still has a hard-on today?
Yes.
Sam, absolutely.
After he saw the slow-mo putter throw with theL.A.B.

(58:28):
perfectly floating through the air after makinga 65-footer to win the Open.
And that was—he didn't pay a dollar for that.
Yeah.
Is that guy just—he's happy.
I'm gonna try to get him back on the podcastbecause I wanna talk to him about, you know,
the competitors that are copying and all thisstuff.

(58:49):
Yeah.
That's going on right now.
It'd be nice.
And especially since Brent has converted to bepulling a LAB golf guy along with me after all
the shit that he gave me about it.
Correct.
I definitely would like to have Sam on and forus to chat with him a little bit about all
that.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That'd be great.
I mean, I would love to talk to him.

(59:10):
I've had kind of like a third-personconversation with him through the tour rep, but
very good.
We almost got into the Travelers preview, butthen Rory's name came up, and we went down a
rabbit hole with Rory and then Wyndham andobviously leading back all the way to the U.S.

(59:32):
Open.
Let's just go over the odds for this one forthe Travelers Championship.
We got a Scottie Scheffler plus 280.
That seems like that's been 28 on for ScottieScheffler.
Rory McIlroy plus 1,200.
Xander Schauffele plus 1,600.
Collin Morikawa plus 1,800.
Patrick Cantlay plus 2,200.
Ludvig Aberg plus 2,500.

(59:54):
Plus 3,000, we got Justin Thomas and ViktorHovland.
At plus 3,500, we got Keegan Bradley, SamBurns, Tommy Fleetwood, and Sepp Straka.
Plus 4,000, Russell Henley and RobertMacIntyre.
Plus 4,500, Shane Lowry.
Plus 5,000, Daniel Berger, Ben Griffin, AaronRai, J.J.
Spaun, Jordan Spieth, Cam Young.
Then we got plus 5,500, Si Woo Kim, MaverickMcNealy, plus 6,000, Hideki Matsuyama.

(01:00:20):
Let's see.
I love that.
That's my favorite thing right there.
Adam Scott is also there at plus 6,000.
Plus 6,500, we got Sungjae Im, Taylor Pendrith,plus 7,000 Akshay Bhatia, the brown praying
mantis.
Jason Day, Tony Finau, Harris English, plus7,500 for J.T.
Poston, plus 8,000 for Mackenzie Hughes, plus9,000 for Wyndham

(01:00:45):
Matt, don't call him Matthew Fitzpatrick,Rickie Fowler, Brian Harman, Max Homa, Rory
McIlroy, Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee.
Let the man cook.
Plus 10,000, we got Luke List, Bud Cauley,Harry Hall, Denny McCarthy, Nick Taylor, Davis
Thompson, Ryan

(01:01:05):
Ryan Fox at Really?
You know what I would do real quick if I wasWyndham this week?
Wyndham would know.
I would set up a fake locker in the lockerroom, and I would absolutely do a locker
bashing tutorial in slow mo that I would putout on my social media, like, showing the
angles and how you have to approach it not toinjure yourself.

(01:01:28):
And
That would be so great because you just own itat that point.
Right?
You're just like, yeah, dude.
I'm gonna make the best of this.
Rather than you said it last week.
Like, like J-Mac.
Like, alright.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm the locker guy now.
Alright.
Watch out.
No lockers.
I could totally see, like, an Instagram reelwhere he's like, and this is how you strike.

(01:01:51):
Just mocking the entire situation.
Just slow, like, side sweep kick, like, with awearing a gi.
That would be hilarious.
Be amazing.
Love that.
Buttsy, let's start with you.
Who you got this week?
I'm just gonna be a good betting man here andsay that Scottie Scheffler is probably gonna

(01:02:12):
show back up and win again.
Put him back on an easy golf course, and all ofa sudden, Scottie shows back up?
He is right.
Holy shit.
That golf
course.
Highly addicted to winning.
Doesn't like what happened this week and how itwent
down.
Many?
Four?
Three.
Three?
K.

(01:02:32):
Brent, what about you, buddy?
I think Ryan Fox gets it done.
Ryan Fox.
Okay.
I'm not really sure why his odds are the waythey are.
He's won twice this year.
Interesting.
I am going to go with none other than DennyMcCarthy.
First win ever.

(01:02:54):
Travelers.
That would be cool.
Denny's been I I don't know, man.
Denny, I've he's overdue.
He is well overdue.
Four years overdue.
I wanna see him finally on a Sunday near thelead and actually plays well and doesn't fade
at the end.
It doesn't doesn't chunk wedges into the water.
Yeah.
That'd be great.
Yeah.

(01:03:15):
Yeah.
Pretty much.
So it's it the the it's such an easy golfcourse.
Everybody's yeah.
I mean, I'm not really sure why.
I'm not really sure why it's an elevated event,but whatever.
Well, it's in the New York metro area.
Right?
So they want all the big names to be therebecause they're gonna make a shit ton of money
off of this golf tournament.
Yes.

(01:03:35):
So that's that's the main reason.
Alright.
So we got our picks.
Let's talk about this new PGA Tour CEO, Mr.
Rolapp.
So this guy comes from the NFL and the mediaand business of it.
So he's been talking a lot about today,especially that, you know, as Monahan stays on
through the end of next year.

(01:03:57):
So Monahan's contract is up in December of2026.
And that being said, they're gonna worktogether on this stuff, but everything is being
directed to Rolapp.
So good old Rolapp, Mr.
Rolapp.
We've got Rolapp.

(01:04:17):
He is looking to really maximize, you know, themedia side to the business, which I think is
long overdue.
You know
what I said?
I do think that as Brent has complained a lotabout the PGA Tour and their media rights and
so forth and the fact that they haven't reallyutilized them as well as they probably should

(01:04:42):
have knowing they have so much control over allof it.
Brent, is this a positive thing that we'removing out of the Monahan era and into the
Rolapp era?
Yes.
Gotta be.
Gotta be.
Yes.
So here's the thing.
So Jay came from the same sort of background inthat.

(01:05:03):
So, like, the what's the what's the company?
The the Boston anyway, what doesn't matter.
Some Boston group?
Yeah.
The Boston sport group sports group.
Came from the came from
Fenway group.
Yeah.
There you go.
Fenway.
So kinda same sort of background.
The the thing that I would love to see, likeyou said, actually use their control to its

(01:05:26):
fullest extent.
Do I believe that he's capable of doing it allby himself?
No.
Because I think that there are enough moneypeople involved that are still of the old
guard, still trying to find the next TigerWoods, and to change the entire outlook is
going to take a lot of money.

(01:05:47):
And the big problem with that is they'vealready allocated most of it to the top
players, and that's gonna have to change inorder for anything to actually affect the tour
as a whole.
And as our illustrious Rory McIlroy said, theplayer's responsibility is to look out for

(01:06:10):
numero uno and maybe help out the tour in theend.
So until they change the makeup of the board,which I believe is still six to four in favor
of the players, the CEO is nothing but afigurehead.
I would love to be wrong, but, as we have seenin the last year, it does absolutely nothing

(01:06:33):
for me and any other player to worry aboutwhat's going on.
So
Interesting.
Play good.
Not feeling super positive about it.
But, yeah, I mean, what's your take on thiswhole entire ordeal?
Just digging into a little bit about the guy.
I think he brings what the PGA Tour has beenlacking for, like, 10 years, and that's that

(01:06:56):
media side.
They've called him a visionary for what he'sbeen able to do at the NFL, especially when it
comes to marketing and marketing players andhyping the league and working with the right
entities to make it better than it's ever been.
And, yeah, I think there's something excitingthat he brings to the table that Monahan just

(01:07:16):
wasn't able to squeeze out of the product.
It'll be interesting.
You know, Austin Whittington says lessdraconian with the meteorites, and he's asking
that as a question.
I don't know.
I mean, time will tell.
Right?
I don't know if it's going to be lessdraconian.
I think it's gonna be more utilizing thosemedia rights in order to promote and to bring

(01:07:37):
up the whole rather than just a couple bignames.
Now granted, you're still gonna have the facesof the PGA Tour.
They're still gonna be promoted the most, but Ithink with how the NFL has so many guys that
they have to promote, that I think that willplay into what he's capable of doing for the

(01:07:57):
PGA Tour, which we all know.
We've been bitching about it for years at thispoint on this podcast about the fact that
there's not a lot of promotion that goes inaround players.
And Brent can attest to exactly that to whereeven when he made it on, they're like, oh,
yeah.
We're gonna do all this stuff for you, and thennothing happened.
So

(01:08:18):
If you're in the top, like, 75 or whatever,there should be something written into your
contract, even if they own your media rightsthat you know, like, three times a month,
you're gonna go out with a camera person andthey're going to help build out your YouTube
channel that the PGA Tour has rights to.
I mean, at least build individual players upand use all the channels that everybody else
has used it.
It's crazy.
So this guy might see that, and I don't know.

(01:08:40):
That could be huge.
I think you guys are spot on.
I think what is kind of looming that nobodyseems to be touching on just yet is how much
the PGA Tour University is gonna have a huge,huge boom, and how much of the marketing budget
is gonna be focused on that.

(01:09:02):
They have already made it pretty clear thatthey're trying to put the PGA Tour University
between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour.
And good trust.
Even though Korn Ferry Tour graduates continueto win, and actually that number continues to

(01:09:22):
go up over the last five years, they seem tonot really care about that because the NIL, the
sponsors, the OEMs, the manufacturers, theagencies for that matter, all have a massive
vested interest in college players.
They don't have a massive vested interest inthe 101st player on the PGA Tour or even the

(01:09:49):
50th player on the PGA Tour.
So, I mean, you see that with the fact thatnobody's getting paid in clothes.
You know, even YouTube pages are being, youknow, looked at and scrutinized to the point
that guys are getting suspended for trying togrow the audience even more.
But, I mean, it's gotten to a point whereyou're really not gonna see, yeah.

(01:10:17):
Well, here's so, so, Shrotty, what's incredibleabout that is that if it were up to them, they
would not allow a guy like J.J.
Spaun to be on the PGA Tour.
And unfortunately, they're gonna look at hiscareer and go, yeah.
It's great.
We're gonna use him for what he's got.
But the moment that he stops playing well, J.J.
Spaun doesn't exist.

(01:10:38):
It'll be interesting to see.
I mean, I'm looking forward to and I'm gonnakeep a positive outlook on this one because you
gotta give somebody their due diligence interms of taking over a new gig and hopefully
makes an impact and does it in short order.
Right?
Because he also has stated that he's cominginto the negotiations with LIV with a clean

(01:10:59):
slate.
He's gonna listen first.
He's going to, you know, hopefully makesomething happen there.
You never know.
But he also mentioned that he's not gonnachange anything without listening first to the
framework and the structure that they had andwere looking to get done.

(01:11:21):
So that being said, there is that as anoutlier.
He's also, as we talked about media rights,he's also looking to finalize the 2026 through
2034 global rights package.
So he wants to grow the international swing inAsia and the Middle East.

(01:11:42):
He wants to do that with nonconflicting dates,and he wants to expand the signature events
model to the women's game via an LPGApartnership, whatever the hell that means.
So I'm not even quite sure.
That sounds dumb.
I mean, what more proof do we need that hedoesn't really care about more than half of the

(01:12:02):
tour, and he certainly doesn't care about wherethe tour gets its players from?
I mean, it's just the fact that these guys comefrom an elitist mindset, and they're not going
to allow anything to change that.
I mean, we've seen it, but at the end of theday, is it really gonna make the difference

(01:12:25):
between, you know, a guy that is 60th?
No.
But it does make a difference between a guythat's 105, which
I don't know.
We're gonna see.
I mean, this is okay.
Again, it's gonna be interesting to see if he'sa guy that brings up the little guys and

(01:12:46):
promotes them and makes them bigger names andtakes a guy like J.J.
Spaun, who just had his shining moment, andputs some resources behind him to really build
him up.
I mean, I remember with the UFC, Nate Diaz wasthe name that comes to mind.
And before he beat Conor McGregor, the casualfan didn't really know Nate Diaz, but the MMA

(01:13:07):
crowd knew who he was, loved him, and wanted tosee him get promotion.
And he complained about it for the longesttime, and then he finally beats Conor McGregor
in an event that basically they weren'tsupposed to fight in the first place.
And sure enough, he ends up becoming thismassive name.
So let's see if some of these things can bedone because realistically, with the right

(01:13:31):
resources and the right promotion, you couldtake somebody like J.J.
Spaun.
Like, why wasn't J.J.
Spaun
all of a sudden America's darling with the U.S.
Open win?
Why wasn't he better promoted, and why aren'tthese stories front and center?
It doesn't seem like it should be that hard todo, man.

(01:13:52):
Like, hire somebody that's in reality TV,interview everybody on tour, make a list of the
ones that are the most promising from apersonality perspective, and then promote the
living shit out of them, whether they play goodor not, because people that consume golf now
obviously don't care how well you hit the golfball.
So it's a premium if you happen to be on tourand you're, like, really fun to watch.

(01:14:17):
Now I'm talking off, like, outside of PGA Tourcoverage.
The YouTube and every other channel that theycould get this guy in a chair to say something
funny in, right, on film.
So I don't know.
Doesn't seem like it should be that hard.
It's not.
It's not.
And I just sort of alluded to it in the chattalking to these guys.
But
You didn't allude to it.

(01:14:37):
I did.
But it is, I don't think so.
It just assumes that we have an unlimitedbudget on the PGA Tour, and we don't.
You look at the fact that they've decreased theamount of cards, decreased the size of field,
eventually they're going to decrease the amountof tournaments.
They're limiting opportunities because theyhave somebody that's paying the bills that is

(01:15:00):
saying, listen.
This thing doesn't work anymore, and you're notgonna get sponsors that just want to continue
to put out more and more and more money becausethey don't have it.
And I'm sorry, you're not making $20,000,000running a golf tournament.
It's not happening.

(01:15:20):
So you have it.
You are making the money by having enough timewhere you can get all your clients out there
and hopefully build business forward.
Doesn't have to be you're talking about themoney side to it, Brent.
It's interesting because one of the topics thatcame up is where's the $1,500,000,000 from the

(01:15:44):
strategic sports group and that investment,which is largely unspent?
And Rowlett promised that he's gonna have acapital deployment roadmap by the time we get
to the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which means all theplayers that got equity in the PGA Tour are
gonna start to get some payouts.
Brent doesn't like it.
Sorry.
The sound of freedom is going up above my head.

(01:16:04):
But here's the deal.
The people who got the so-called equity
Qatar Airways.
No.
That's F-35s.
But the people that got the equity, people likeRobert Streb, for example, over a guy like or

(01:16:27):
here's my favorite, David Lipsky got equityover Russell Knox.
Does that make any sense?
David Lipsky has never won on the PGA Tour.
I'm sure there was some formula
that they absolutely.
It actually all had to do with who kept theircard after 2023.

(01:16:47):
But at the end of the day, they made it soundas though it was about the players who were
building the tour.
And the simple fact of the matter is that itcould not be about that because then you would
be looking at players all the way back to the1970s.
And so, you know, it's just regardless, I mean,this conversation is so, about what this guy is

(01:17:12):
gonna do is hopefully, he turns it all around,but the simple fact of the matter is that the
players still have control.
We know you're mad.
We know.
Yeah.
He
he's not happy.
He could go on for hours.
I'm not
enthused.
I'm not in.
Stay consistent.
Yeah.
The last thing I will mention about this isthat he was on a short list of guys that were

(01:17:37):
going to potentially replace Roger Goodell.
So for him jumping ship and coming over to thePGA Tour, that goes to show you that there's
some unique equity upside here that he decidedwas worth it to move from the NFL over to the
PGA Tour.
So, again, that's gonna be an interesting onethat we're gonna see in time to come.

(01:18:01):
It is not something we're gonna know today, andit will happen over a period of time.
So we'll be on the lookout for all of that, butwe do want to thank our sponsors once again.
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(01:18:50):
Get yourself a case.
And I just realized too that in doing this dealwith them, my dad had been talking a lot about
them, and I never put two and two together.
But he's got the case.
He absolutely loves it.
He's got it in the car, he's got the magnetcase and everything in there as well that it
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(01:19:10):
So he's all Rokform down.
But utilize the promo code PULLHOOK2025, allone word, for 20% off over at rokform.com.
Trot, I know you need a new speaker or anotherone to get that surround sound.
So go ahead and get that done with the promocode.
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So we're excited about that, and I can't waitto get my gear in studio as well.

(01:19:37):
But without further ado, folks, we doappreciate all of you for listening in.
Buttsy, Brent, thank you guys so much, anduntil next week, folks.
And next week should be pretty special.
I'll leak some details about that as we moveinto next week, but sayonara everybody.

(01:19:57):
Peace out, A-Town down.