April 15, 2024 • 40 mins
John reacts to Scottie Scheffler winning The Masters for the second time and proving to the golf world that he is hands down the best player in the world. John talks about how Scottie is playing so well right now that even when he is playing his "B" game he is still better than everyone else, but will the pressure ultimately get to him the way that he has with other guys like, Rory and Jordan Spieth. Later, John dives into the emergence of Ludvig Aberg and how this kid is going to be a star in the sport. Finally, John discusses the importance of Tiger finishing the weekend and playing all 72 holes with his son next to him all weekend.
6:14 - Scottie wins The Masters
20:17 - Ludvig Aberg is a rising star
30:02 - Tiger finishes the weekend
32:31 - Other weekend notables
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Speaker 1 (01:28):
What is going on? Everybody? John middlecalff go Low podcast.
The Masters a tradition like any other, has a champion,
and he's not a new champion because he wanted a
couple of years ago. Scottie Scheffler wins a second green
jacket in three years and has established himself as the
(01:49):
best player on the planet by a wide, wide margin.
So Scottie Scheffler. The tournament got interesting there on the
end of the front nine on Sunday, and then Scotty
just put the pedal of the metal and some other
guys hitting the water and had some bad shots, made
some doubles, and he said, made the peace be with
(02:09):
you because I'm going to dominate. And that's what he did.
And he's the Master's Champion, so we'll dive into him.
Ludwig is everything you want. I mean, the drafts right
around the corner. You talk about a first round number
one overall pick who immediately pops. What a rocket ship.
Some thoughts on tiger Woods because I saw a lot
of people kind of talking shit like why is he
(02:31):
doing this? He sucks, he shoots forty two on Saturday,
just go home. I actually think the opposite, especially with
Charlie being front and center. What a great life lesson
for his son. And then we will just hit on
some other things golf wise that stood out to me
over the weekend. Bryson he has been missed, fern Lundquist
heads off into retirement, a legend, and what just great week.
(02:57):
Other than that, the plan will be we will have
some football podcast this week, so we'll be doing some
draft talk. If you want to get in the uh,
We're gonna start doing golf mail bags. I have an
instagram called at golo pod. If you just go at
gol pod, fire in those dms. You can ask anything
and I'll start integrating those in on the golf podcast.
(03:19):
Obviously we do it on the football That is just
my main instagram. We do the Middlecoff mail bag, but
we're gonna do a golf mail bag is well moving forward.
So at golo pod is the instagram, and I'll post
as the summer comes golf content of me playing screening
around and just other crap here and there. If you
listen on Collins Feed. Make sure you subscribe to three
(03:40):
and Out. That's what Go Low podcast is on there
as well. The drafts right around the corner. So first
majors in the bag and we've got three more. So
fun sports time. But first I gotta tell you about
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(04:00):
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(04:44):
think the thing And I remember Colin used to say
this forever, and it used to bother me because I
remember listening to him when I was at Fresno State,
and I like, root it for the little guy. Not
that we had a chance, but Boise states like, no
one really wants that. They want the best of the
best playing each other. And as I've done this and
as I worked in pro sports, I kind of understand
(05:06):
it now from a rating standpoint, from a needle moving standpoint,
it's always more important in terms of more people interested.
Beside the Super Bowl, where two pee wee football teams
could play each other and everyone would watch, that's just
not true for other sports. It's why Tiger in the
sport of golf changed everything for everyone, and golf has
(05:29):
struggled post you know, the dominance of Tiger definitely to
get the same amount of people paying attention, even though
more people than ever actually play the game of golf.
And the reason so many people historically have watched football, basketball, baseball,
because even if you don't play in high school, at
one point time you played little league or peewee football
or eighth grade basketball. And the more people that play
(05:50):
something the more inclined you are to just pay attention.
This is the thing about the Patriots forever, is like
everyone paid attention to them because like, can you beat
Tom Brady and most people could not seeing it now
with Patrick Mahomes and even they were underdogs in the
AFC and Super Bowl. AFC Championship against the Ravens and
(06:10):
the Super Bowl against the forty nine ers. But anytime
you are just a heavy favorite and you show up,
whether it's a team event, whether it's a tennis tournament,
all those years with Federer, Nadal and all those type guys,
Pete Sampras back in the day, it's like, bring it
fucking on. Everyone's gunning for you. Everyone is looking at you.
And Tiger personified this more than anyone, and he won
(06:32):
more than anyone, you know. And when he showed up
in a major, he was always the favorite, and he
won fifteen of them, and in his prime was winning
them all the time. So Scotti Scheffer coming in to
the Masters, granted he won this tournament two years ago,
it's like, listen, I know he's the best player in
(06:53):
the world. He's an incredible talent. He's an easy guy
to root for. Nice guy, everyone gets along with him,
very positive individual. It's like, is it really just gonna
be this easy? Is it really just he's just going
to show up. Wins Thursday and Friday were outrageous. I
can't even imagine how difficult that course was, and it
(07:14):
annihilated everybody. And you looked up and there he was.
You're like, how is this guy not going to win
the tournament? And even on Saturday he doubles ten and
you're like, is he really about to just fall apart?
Two holes later he eagles thirteen, and let's face it,
the rest is kind of history. Today he had a moment.
(07:35):
You know, Max was hanging in there, Ludwig was right there.
Morikawa had the lead for a split second, and then
starting on whole nine, he birdies six of the next
eight holes. He is uncomfortable with and I completely understand it.
Just like a lot of people in Gulf are comparing
him to Tiger Woods. We are never going to see
(07:56):
another Tiger Woods. No matter how great Scotti Scheffler is,
He's not winning eighty plus times and fifteen majors. Could
he win six or seven? You know, how many can
he win? Now? The Grand Slam? I think is going
to be a little difficult for those of you that
come to this podcast for football and just enjoy me,
so you don't know that much about golf. That'd be
(08:17):
winning every major. It's why we keep talking about the
career Grand Slam. It's what Rory's been trying to do
with the Masters, and it's clear he's not ever close.
And I apologize forgiving out that pick. I lost money
never betting on that individual to win this tournament ever again,
learn my lesson. Too many times I'm out, I'm out.
(08:39):
But can this guy win? Can he have like a
Phil Mickelson level career when it's like Scotti Scheffer won
seven eight majors. Now, one stupid talking point this week
because I think a couple of weeks ago, within the
last month, his wife is pregnant and currently she's I
think around eight months. I've never had a baby, pretty
sure it takes give or take nine months.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Obviously things can change, people come premature. Sometimes it lasts
a little bit longer. But as he kept saying, like guys,
I said, I would leave if she is going to
have the baby. I've never had one. See the birth
of my first child, but she's not even close. She
hasn't shown any signs, so let's stop talking about this,
and it's all been all over social media. He did
(09:21):
not have to leave because again she's not close to
having a baby yet relative to the next couple weeks. Though,
for the Grand Slam this year, I'd go, let's just
say he has a baby in the next two weeks,
probably not a lot of sleep, probably not a lot
of practice. So I'm not often for the PGA, but
you could see how that could derail that event, and
(09:44):
then you get back on for the US Open and
the Open Championship. I'm not even sure where that is.
The US Open this year is at Pinehurst, but I
would say it feels like a disappointment right now. I'm
giving him a just a mulligan on the next here
in a month, just because if we assume the baby's
gonna come, it's gonna derail his life. Who knows, Maybe
(10:06):
he shows up that week limited sleep, not much practice,
doesn't win it. It would be stunning the way the
guy is playing. If he then doesn't win one of
the next two. I mean, the Player of the Year
is a rap. Like it's over. We don't even need
to talk about it anymore. He just won the Players
Championship and the Masters. I don't see how any other
(10:29):
individual on the PGA Tour could overcome his credentials so
far this year we're not even to summer yet. Think
about that, the amount of money he's making right now.
Start him now. He's never gonna be as famous as
Tiger Woods or even Phil Mickelson. But I always push
back when people say they used to play against plumbers
(10:52):
and shitty players, maybe in like the fifties and the sixties.
But I'm of the belief that Arnold Palmer or Jack
Nicholas or Lee Trevino would have been good in any era.
Baby Ruth's one of those takes. I go, yeah, I
don't know, fat guy, I don't know if he'd be
as good. I'd argue with Chris Russo on that, But
once you get to like the fifties and the sixties,
(11:13):
I do defend like Nickey Mandle would have been good.
Now Bill Russell could have played. Now, I might have
learned a three pointer, but I bet Bill Russell have
been pretty good. But right around that Tiger start in
the late nineties early two thousands, Phil Ernie it is
way deeper now, and still there are high end guys.
It is very, very difficult to win on a weekly basis,
(11:35):
and this guy as the betting favorite, and clear everyone's
like he's the best player. I don't even know what
world golf rankings mean. They don't mean much anymore, right
because of live and it's impossible to quantify live. But
clearly they have elite players, right, Bryson is an elite player.
He's won a major, he won the USAM, He's won
(11:55):
a ton of times on the PGA Tour. Cam Smith
won the Open. Elite player DJ no longer cares when
we'll get into him in a minute, but one like
twenty plus times multiple maybe, like they have elite talent Koepka.
We saw him win a major last year. It's hard
to quantify it. So it's all out of whack. The
world golf rankings where you rank, mean nothing to me.
(12:16):
And the best part about this, we don't have that
in football. It doesn't exist. What we've been saying for
five years, Patrick Mahons' best quarterback and everyone just universally agrees.
And I think that's where we're at with Scotti. Schefler. Yeah,
he's number one in these stupid rankings that don't even
mean anything anymore. But he is the best player, and
the gap now is starting to widen. Right Rory technically
(12:38):
is viewed as one of the best players. They aren't
even in the same universe. John Rahm, who this week,
every time they showed him looked like me or you
about to helicopter one of our clubs. He was pissed
off all week And one thing he mentioned over the
last couple weeks is he wants live to go to
(12:59):
seventy two olds. Why because I think clearly he doesn't
feel ready. Iron sharpens iron. Bryce's kind of one of
these unique guys, kind of a loner, weirdo, no one
likes him. Can just practice on his own and be fine.
I wonder if it's really impacting John rom Now. I
don't blame any of those guys for taking the money.
I truly don't. Capitalists would have taken the money as well,
(13:22):
but there's no way for a guy like that who
like the grind to be a sharp We're on the
flip side, Scottie. Just like John Rahm a year ago,
both two of the best players, two elite guys, just
keeps sharpening that iron. And you see a guy now
who keeps getting better because he keeps getting to practice
his craft even though the fields aren't as good on
(13:45):
a weekly basis, because all those guys play for Greg
Norman who was roaming around the Masters. But he gets
to really hone his skills and he gets to stay
dialed in. Then when he gets to Augusta and the
conditions get outrageous, I mean, sure, where were all in
text change? Could we two man scramble break one hundred?
How difficult that course is? All we ever want for
(14:07):
majors to be really hard, And Scotty now shows up
when the majors are really hard and dominates boat races
the field when it's all said and done, because that's
what he did. Colin Morikawa, multiple Majors, Ludwig shooting Star Holma,
look like a guy like God, is he going to
win the Masters? You look up? It ain't even close.
(14:27):
And this is what Brady did. Forever, everyone's coming for you,
every single person. Everyone is thinking about you. How do
I beat this guy? And the answer is you can't.
You need him to screw up, cause your best and
his best he's beating you. Honestly, what we're starting to
see his like B plus game is still beating the
(14:51):
overwhelming majority of guys, and they would have to be
perfect to beat him with his B plus game. That's
what greatness is, and that's what we're starting to see
in Scotty Scheffler. He's gonna I mean, he's got a
long way to go. He's only twenty seven years old,
but I think it's pretty clear he's got a chance
to be one of the great American players of all
time because anytime you get the ball rolling early, you
(15:13):
can rack them up. Now, one thing in golf, things change,
right you get to a point in your career, something
just gets weird and you start playing poorly. See with
Justin Thomas right now, Jordan Speith fell off a cliff.
So you got to take advantage when you are playing well.
It's why a lot of like multiple time Majors major
winners win them in the same like two year span
(15:36):
right now. Great players can rack up like three or
four Majors over like a three or four year st span.
And to me, that's what Scotti Scheffler feels poised to
do already. Giving him a little bit of I'm not
even gonna count the PGA if he's not as Sharper
doesn't win because of the baby that's coming and how
(15:57):
that's going to just derail his just golfing life. But
the US Open and the Open, I think it would
be stunning, I mean stunning for him not to win
one of those two tournaments. So congrats to Scotti Scheffler
already I don't have the stat in front of me,
but joins a special group of individuals that have won
that tournament multiple times. We have a lot of one
(16:19):
off guys, right, Hell, we've seen a lot in my
adult life, the Sergio's, the Patrick Reid's, Trevor Illmoman now
takes over for fall though, Right, We've seen a lot
of Danny Willett. We've seen a lot of those guys.
How many guys can rattle off multiple like the guys
obviously in my era, Tiger Phil, I mean, that's Scottie.
(16:40):
It's not a long list. So even Jordan that came
really close to winning US that couldn't get it done,
and now it feels like he never will. So he
enters a special class of American players. Man, that was dominance.
I don't know what else to say, beside man, what
a special player? Speaking about like the drafts right around
(17:10):
the corner. I'm a sucker for the draft. I love
elite young talents coming out of college and forever. On
the PGA Tour, it was a lot like Major League Baseball.
Just because you were a great player, national champion, highest
ranked amateur, it didn't matter. You still had to go
to the quote unquote minor leagues. When I was a kid,
(17:33):
it was like the Nike Tour. It's now the corn
Ferry Tour. It's been named a million things. And Max
Homo went there, Scottie Scheffler went there, they all go there. Well,
because of live, the PGA Tour developed this thing called
PGA Tour you that basically gave exemptions into their top
college players. And if you are the number one college player,
(17:56):
which would be the equivalent of being like the number
one pick in the draft, you don't have to go
to the corn Ferry Tour. You go right to the
big leagues. You go right to the PGA Tour. Remember
when Kyler Murray, it was like what should he do?
Billy Bean took up ninth overall, It's like, well, he
might be the number one pick in the NFL draft.
(18:19):
He could have been the eighteenth pick in the NFL draft.
And you go to the NFL. You know why, you
go right to the show. I never have to ride
a bus and play in nobody's watching. Nobody knows where
this is because minor league baseball is not Triple A baseball.
You start in rookie ball in Single A, playing in
front of nobody in games that no one cares about,
(18:41):
and clearly it's really hard. Just like Golf's minor leagues
corn Ferry Tour is very, very competitive. Ludvig didn't have
to do that. But I'd also argue that Ludvig has
been a pro for ten months. I know some people
you know with Adidas who I've been on Ludwig for
a while there, and they are as big of a
(19:03):
believers in him as anybody, and they're like, Jesus, this
was incredible. I was high on him this week, had
a Top twenty battle. I thought he would be good.
What he did these last couple of days was absurd.
He's not as good as Scottish Scheffer right does not
have just hasn't gone through the wars. But to be
(19:24):
that good not in your first Masters. This was his
first major, and like I said, I'll never forget. In
twenty nineteen, I went to the US Open when it
was a pebble beech, just as a fan, drinking beers,
hanging out, and I stood next to DJ and I
was like, this guy looks like Ben Roethlisberger. He's not
as big as Ben Roethlisberger in terms of way, but
he's six ' five two thirty five just thick. I
(19:48):
was like, this guy looks like an athlete. Most of
these guys even as much more athletic, you know, in
professional golf than it was thirty forty years ago. He
didn't look like anyone else. Now. Blood is not as
thick as him. He's also fifteen plus years younger, but
he looks much more just standing there and walking down
the fairway like an NFL player. I remember going to
(20:11):
the pro am and seeing like Matt Ryan and guys
like that, like kind of what he looks like. And listen,
I'm a decent player, you know, can break eighty, but
I'm five nine, five ten. You know, when you are
six three sixty four a little easier to play, you know,
Tiger six to one phills six three and a half, Like,
it's just you can hit a little farther swing looks
(20:32):
a little smoother. So I don't know what else to
say beside this guy's a rocket ship. I looked immediately
at DraftKings as like, what are his odds for the
next major? Because the PGA Championships at Valhalla, I looked
at like the eleventh hole and it was twenty to one,
And when I just looked before I hopped on here
was eighteen to one. I would imagine some sharp money
came in on that guy because he feels it's hard
(20:54):
in golf. It would be studying if he doesn't win
a major relatively quickly. Now, I'd say this tournament, the Masters,
does set up for a skill set. Hits the ball, high,
hits a draw. Putting has always been somewhat of a
question mark. But I thought he puttied pretty damn well.
A couple if he chips, but that'll happen. It's the Masters.
(21:14):
It's not easy. But if you could play that well
playing in those groups today, I mean was the second
last group and he was fucking awesome. So I don't
know what else say besides like, that's what a blue
chip talent looks like the way in the golf circles
they talk about Ludwig is the way that everyone in
Chicago hopes. They're talking about kleb in like November, like
(21:34):
we told everybody he was a star, and then all
of a sudden, it's like he's a Locke Rookie of
the year. That's all you hope with. And the thing
in golf is you never knew. Max Homo won the
national championship as an individual and as a team at
Cal was a PAC twelve champion as well, Like he
won the Pac twelve championship, and then he wasn't that
(21:55):
good on the PGA Tour for a long time and
didn't really hit his stride till thirty. And he's not alone.
A lot of guys are like that. So not everyone's
Scottie or Colin Moore Cowa. They get on the PGA
Tour and they immediately have success. It's very difficult. It's
to me, it always much closely parallels baseball than it
does football or basketball. Usually, if you're the top pick
(22:17):
Zion Williamson, unless you're lazy or can't put down, you know,
a cheeseburger like you're good. I watched Zion the other
night playing the Kings or playing the Warriors. He looked
pretty good. Pretty good to me. Looks like he's taking
a little more seriously elite talent Anthony Davis. Guys that
get drafted really high in baseball all the time, you
never see the top five pick ever flame out, never
even get to the big leagues. Ludwig showed up, immediately dominates,
(22:41):
He's already won on the tour. He I mean, honestly,
he was right there with Scott until he hit in
the water. And today, like all those guys kind of
screwed up all of them more. Cowa blew it on
nine doubles tournament over, Ludwig hits in the water on
a tournament over, Max Homa hits it in the bush
(23:04):
twelve tournament over. And after those three things happened, the
Masters was kind of a rap. And back to Scott,
he kind of because the guy with elite, if it
had been more of a random player guy, we didn't believe.
You're like, this guy's got a hold on for his ass.
There wasn't a soul that pays attention to sports, let
alone golf. That was like, oh, Scotty's gonna win. And
(23:27):
that's how fast it happens. Because the margin ferrer in
these major tournaments, especially at Augusta, you can't make a mistake.
I give Ludwig more of a pass than the other
two guys, given that they've been through the ringer. He
got aggressive and it ultimately didn't cost him the tournament.
But it would have been a lot more interesting if
(23:47):
he just pars instead of doubles. But what a remarkable
showing for a guy that has literally been a professional
for ten months. At this time last year, he was
playing in college. I live right down the street from
where they held the college national Championships grey Hawk. They
played it in May. He was in it, so less
(24:10):
than a year ago he was playing right down the
street for me in his Texas Tech uniform. That's crazy.
That does not happen in golf. That's like Tiger Phil
level just quickly transition. We don't see that ever, so
awesome to watch. The other thing I wrote down is
it is just fun and golf sikos we root for
(24:32):
really hard and the players always push back. You know,
when things get outrageous at a US Open, it's too
hard or they've lost the course or this isn't fair,
Like I honestly, we've seen enough birdies and eagles in
our life for one time or two times a year
in a major championship. To just see carnage NonStop is
(24:56):
very entertaining. Like I love an eagle as much as anybody.
They're really fun to watch, especially if you have money
on a player. But there's nothing quite like watching a
guy have to struggle for parr the best players in
the lead. That leads to the ebb and flow of
a leaderboard. And I thought Augusta, obviously it played. I
(25:19):
haven't seen the status yet, but it has to be
one of the hardest, you know, in terms of the
scores in a long long time. There weren't even that
many guys under par. Part of it was the first
couple of days were you know, felt like eighty mile
an hour wins on television. But the greens were rock hard,
these guys who if you look at the leader board,
(25:41):
it was just the best iron players, Marikawa, Homa, Ludwig Fleetwood,
I mean, and these guys were struggling, and I mean
struggling to rattle off like six seven straight pars. That's fun.
To watch, like, I never feel bad when these guys
and one of the most famous videos of all time
(26:03):
I think it was the US Open. I forget the course,
but Phil putted it by and it was running downhill
and he just took his putter and hit it while
I was moving because he was so mad, like, I'm sorry.
We kind of liked that. We kind of enjoy that.
I think it's fun viewing when it is chaos in
terms of the difficulty, where it almost feels unfair. I'm
cool with unfair. And listen, anyone that's listening to this
(26:26):
that plays golf, it's really hard. So I understand that
the highest levels go. It's hard enough as it is,
but I'd argue, these guys are so good now the
equipment is so unfair that.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Sometimes if it's like, yeah, this is a pin that
you literally can't get it within twenty feet, I'm cool
with it. It's a putt that if it's downhill, it's going
to be thirty feet by, well, then don't hit it
above the hole. Right, this is a fair way that
I can't hold the fairway, well, tough shit. And that's
what I thought all weekend long. That's at least from
(26:57):
a viewer, from what I can remember, one of the
more difficult masters we've ever seen. I got a hit
on Eldrick Tiger Woods because I saw a lot of
people and again these are just you know, internet trolls
and not necessarily people that cover golf. But I think
universally people are like, why is Tiger even doing this?
What is the point of barely being able to break
(27:19):
eighty and yesterday did not. He shot eighty two. Today
he shot seventy seven. It was a struggle for him.
On the weekend, he finished dead last of every single
person that made the cut. I actually think it's an
inspiring performance when you think about a guy like Dustin Johnson,
who is easily one of the best players of his generation,
had won over twenty times, won a tournament every year
(27:42):
for like ten straight years, multiple majors. Probably should have
had four or five. He said on full swing. Yeah,
I'm kind of over it. I don't even practice that hard.
Not verbatim, but he essentially said that he shot seventy
nine to seventy eight this year. Freddy Couples, who was
sixty five with a bad back beat Dustin Johnson, I
have no problem Dustin Johnson taking one hundred and fifty
(28:04):
million and not working that hard. We have the discussion
on Fugazi Friday about work life balance. Work life balance
is an individual you know, mantra, thing that you care about.
It's something that every single person is different, right, how
you approach your life, what your priorities are. Like, I
worry about myself my family. You should too. I have
(28:26):
no problem with anyone's like, I'm not that into this anymore.
Totally understand. But Tiger Woods, let's use this as an example.
Dustin got one hundred and fifty million from Saudi Arabia.
Tiger Woods was probably worth five six x that fifteen
years ago. He is insanely wealthy. Coward told a story
(28:48):
the other day when we were doing our football show.
I think it might have been last Saturday or two
Saturdays ago, that he had a financial guy tell him
that he was putting like fifteen twenty million dollars in
a year in the market twenty plus years ago. I mean,
there's a chance Tiger has just a portfolio that's worth
seven eight hundred million separate from other money. Tiger has
(29:13):
been insanely wealthy for twenty plus years and you have
a guy with a fuse back, a fused ankle, body
parts that probably barely work, trying his ass off. And
as someone whose dad taught me, my dad's long gone. Now,
two things that really stick out to me, and I
think about a lot, like two life lessons that he
(29:35):
hammered home be orly and if he starts something, don't
quit it. Tiger Wood's son, I think has been there
the whole time, but he was all over TV these
last couple of days. Can you imagine the life lesson
that he just taught him? Remember Tom Brady saying this
a while back, like one thing that he worries about
is how do I teach my kids humility and to
be kind of normal people with the life they lead.
(29:57):
And it's difficult, right, easy to teach someone how hard
work matters and to keep grinding when you don't have much,
like we work for everything we have. When you have
everything and you've never seen a commercial airline, you've never
flown commercial your entire life, right, everything in your life
is free. You live in a palace, you have several homes.
(30:20):
I don't even I can't relate to that. I bet
most people listening cannot relate to that. It's very, very
difficult to raise a child in that environment, to grow
up with the same head on your shoulders. Obviously Tiger
made some mistakes, but just in terms of work ethic
and drive and desire, think of what Charlie watching his
dad who can barely fucking walk. Because a lot of
(30:40):
people thought like, is Tiger even gonna play Sunday? I
thought that, like, just go home. I'm not going home.
I'm not tapping out because that's not what we do
in this family. That's not what I do. That's not
what I stand for. Yeah, some of those live guys
tapped out, they're over it. I never did. I didn't
show up. He's never gonna win again. He's clearly never
(31:03):
winning a major. He can't play four rounds of good golf.
He could barely play two. But if you can't watch
that and go god, I hope I have that drive.
I say it all the time. I have a lot
of admiration for super super rich people that still are
very driven and work very hard. So I think about myself, like,
(31:23):
if I had one hundred million dollars in the bank,
when I podcast as much when I work, what would
I do I hope I would never know until you
put in that situation. Tiger Woods had one hundred million
dollars when he was twenty three, and every story about
the guy was like he'd win a major next day.
He was at the golf course at seven am, working
after he'd already worked out at five am. And I
(31:44):
think that's the type of things that you instill in
the things that I admire about athletes, the work ethic
and listen, we can make fun of Tiger's results all
we want, like he's not any good anymore, he's old,
he never plays, he can barely walk. But you can't
diminish a guy at this point in time in his
(32:05):
career that just refuses to tap out because he's too proud.
He's got too much. I would say competitive pride. Like
I don't want to say I was inspired by his weekend,
but I really appreciated it as someone whose dad's not around.
What that would mean just if you're Charlie watching your dad, Like, yeah,
(32:25):
I might suck now relative to these top guys, but
we ain't fucking flying home early if I can still play.
Some other things that I saw from the weekend, it
just stood out one thing Live really did to the
PGA Tour, and we've talked about this over and over.
It kind of gets exhausting. Was take away the villains
and guys that just people had like emotional reactions too,
(32:47):
like gotta hate Patrick Reed. Bryson's a weirdo, right Kepka.
He's an asshole. And the PGA Tours is full of
nice guys and anytime you get these majors, they all
get back together. And I was thinking about this. I
think if you had a draft, if you were the
PGA Tour of guys you could bring back. I think
Rom would be number one because he's their best player.
(33:09):
I think Bryson might be number two. He's a content machine.
He's always doing insane things. The other day he picked
up one of those stands that like tell you where
to walk because it was in his way and held
it and walked it down the fairway because he was
trying to hit around it. He is just fun to
watch because crazy things happen and nobody swings like him.
(33:35):
All his clubs are the same length he hits it.
When he hits a good three hundred and forty fifty yards,
he's swinging out of his shoes. He's missed. Maybe he's
a weirdo. Maybe not a lot of guys like him.
And I get why he left. They offered him nine figures,
but he's missed. And here's the thing about Bryson, Like
he's really good and unlike rom who I do think
(33:56):
likes the competitive hamster wheel of professional goalf just keeps
in the loop, you keep playing. Bryce's kind of unique,
like I do believe clearly he doesn't have that many
friends on the PGA tour. Many would say he doesn't
have any. He can just kind of grind on his own.
And here's what I'll say about Bryson. I know he
takes golf really seriously, and I know he tries really hard.
(34:18):
So some of these live guys, Like I respect DJ's talent,
but I have a hard time just respecting a guy.
It's like I don't even care anymore. Even if he
doesn't care, it's his progative, it's his life. Like I
know Bryson cares like I know he cares, and as
you watched him do all sorts of crazy things these
last three or four days, he just missed as someone
(34:43):
that we get to watch. If you like watching professional
golf because, like I said, and it's well documented, nobody's
watching live. Greg Norman was walking around some just incredible
pictures of the shark. Who say what you ever want,
say whatever you want about the shark. It's closer sweet.
I used to rock a lot of Greg Norman shirts.
(35:05):
The hat always looks sharp. He's always in such great shape.
He's in his late sixties. One story that went viral
was like he had to pay for his own tickets.
Now he's never won Augusta. Obviously if he had, he'd
be playing in it. But you'd think, you know, they
take care of him. They don't like him there. But
he had thirteen guys that live. Freddy Couples tweeted this out.
It's like, Bro, you're making this big public statement how
(35:29):
you had to pay your way into Augusta. You have
thirteen guys playing in the tournament of the league that
you run. None of them can get you tickets. Like
it was kind of a performance art for you making
that a big deal. Like if you needed to get
tickets through somebody, you easily could have. You paid people
(35:49):
you didn't, but you facilitated it. Made a ton of guys,
hundreds of millions of dollars. So I just the Greg
Norman things kind of exhausting. Vern Lunquist last masters he'll
ever call, he's going into retirement. Obviously, Vern was part
of the Jack Nicholas in eighty six was a little
(36:10):
before my time. But the Tiger Woods call of the
chip in against christ Marco was. I mean, it's an
al Teimer. It's probably a top two or three Tiger
Moment individual shot of his career. But when I think
of Vern Lundquist, I think of a guy calling SEC football.
When the SEC went from being a local popular sport
(36:33):
it always thrived in the South, from being a national sport,
from being something that if you liked football, like most
of US NFL fans did, but we're probably more regional.
Like I followed the PAC twelve, you're a big ten guy,
You're an SEC guy. I had to watch the SEC
and it really started kind of with Urban Meyer at
Florida and then through Nick Saban. I think he retired
(36:53):
in twenty sixteen, but I think of the guy on
the mic for the big SEC games that became NFL
light became must watch, became beside Ohio State and Michigan,
the highest rate of games on television, and I would
say the call and just the moment that I'll never
forget for Vern is the kick six Iron Bowl Auburn, Alabama.
(37:18):
Chris Davis takes it to the house and obviously calling
hole sixteen for a long time. I think he used to.
He got relegated to that in his older years. I'm
pretty sure he called more of the masters, like he
was more of on more holes when I was much younger,
but he's been on sixteen forever. And uh, just I
(37:39):
do wonder, you know, al Michaels, Vern Lundquist, some of
these you know, even Nance, Marv Albert, some of these
legendary guys, Brent Lusberger, if they're going to exist, Like,
is there any of those guys that are my age?
And I just don't know if there are now. Maybe
it's just nostalgic. Maybe it's just me being growing up
(38:02):
and hearing those voices. So maybe I'm wrong, but I
don't know. I feel like my gut says I bet
against it. They are going to be few and far
between of just a group of six seven guys that
we all knew their names, we all knew their moments,
and I just don't know if they exist anymore, and
(38:22):
so hat tip to Vern Lunquist's incredible career to do
the masters in SEC football. Obviously he did NFL and
other stuff, but when I think of Vern Lunquist, that's
what I think. And very cool picture today on the
Internet of Tiger, who obviously played in the first group
(38:43):
off today you couldn't see him because he was behind
a tree, went over and shook his hand. I mean
it felt like a solid like six ' seven second handshake,
Tiger paying his respects. So I actually liked this version
of Tiger who even when he sucks for his standard,
can just kind of enjoy the moment. I don't know
there are another He played with the low am who asked
(39:05):
his high school buddy to caddy for him. I mean,
what a moment for those two guys to get to
be able to play with Tiger in Terrell Hatton. Last
but not least, every time you showed him he was
swearing he was really mad. He's another guy that went
to live like I just miss golf. Purists hate him
because he's always complaining. He's always pissed off at a shot,
(39:27):
Like that's what the game needs. You can't have everybody
just smiling in everyone's friend You need some wild cards.
In Terrell Hatton, really good player and a major, major
wild card on the course. So I loved the Terrell
Hatton coverage because he was just doing crazy things constantly,
(39:47):
so awesome Masters. I was glued. I felt like I
watched eighty five percent of it. And congrats to Scottie
Scheffler who wins a second Green jacket in three years.
It's just the that's just an outstanding accomplishment. I mean,
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Speaker 1 (01:28):
What is going on? Everybody? John middlecalff go Low podcast.
The Masters a tradition like any other, has a champion,
and he's not a new champion because he wanted a
couple of years ago. Scottie Scheffler wins a second green
jacket in three years and has established himself as the
(01:49):
best player on the planet by a wide, wide margin.
So Scottie Scheffler. The tournament got interesting there on the
end of the front nine on Sunday, and then Scotty
just put the pedal of the metal and some other
guys hitting the water and had some bad shots, made
some doubles, and he said, made the peace be with
(02:09):
you because I'm going to dominate. And that's what he did.
And he's the Master's Champion, so we'll dive into him.
Ludwig is everything you want. I mean, the drafts right
around the corner. You talk about a first round number
one overall pick who immediately pops. What a rocket ship.
Some thoughts on tiger Woods because I saw a lot
of people kind of talking shit like why is he
(02:31):
doing this? He sucks, he shoots forty two on Saturday,
just go home. I actually think the opposite, especially with
Charlie being front and center. What a great life lesson
for his son. And then we will just hit on
some other things golf wise that stood out to me
over the weekend. Bryson he has been missed, fern Lundquist
heads off into retirement, a legend, and what just great week.
(02:57):
Other than that, the plan will be we will have
some football podcast this week, so we'll be doing some
draft talk. If you want to get in the uh,
We're gonna start doing golf mail bags. I have an
instagram called at golo pod. If you just go at
gol pod, fire in those dms. You can ask anything
and I'll start integrating those in on the golf podcast.
(03:19):
Obviously we do it on the football That is just
my main instagram. We do the Middlecoff mail bag, but
we're gonna do a golf mail bag is well moving forward.
So at golo pod is the instagram, and I'll post
as the summer comes golf content of me playing screening
around and just other crap here and there. If you
listen on Collins Feed. Make sure you subscribe to three
(03:40):
and Out. That's what Go Low podcast is on there
as well. The drafts right around the corner. So first
majors in the bag and we've got three more. So
fun sports time. But first I gotta tell you about
my close friends at game Time. Grab your smartphone, grab
your ipat, grab wherever you download your apps, and download
(04:00):
my Friends, my Partners and the official ticketing app of
this podcast, little app called game Time. And when you
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You want to go to an NBA playoff game. You
want to go to an NHL playoff game. You want
(04:21):
to get out, you know, catch a little hardball, catch
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Download the game Time app promo code go low. I
(04:44):
think the thing And I remember Colin used to say
this forever, and it used to bother me because I
remember listening to him when I was at Fresno State,
and I like, root it for the little guy. Not
that we had a chance, but Boise states like, no
one really wants that. They want the best of the
best playing each other. And as I've done this and
as I worked in pro sports, I kind of understand
(05:06):
it now from a rating standpoint, from a needle moving standpoint,
it's always more important in terms of more people interested.
Beside the Super Bowl, where two pee wee football teams
could play each other and everyone would watch, that's just
not true for other sports. It's why Tiger in the
sport of golf changed everything for everyone, and golf has
(05:29):
struggled post you know, the dominance of Tiger definitely to
get the same amount of people paying attention, even though
more people than ever actually play the game of golf.
And the reason so many people historically have watched football, basketball, baseball,
because even if you don't play in high school, at
one point time you played little league or peewee football
or eighth grade basketball. And the more people that play
(05:50):
something the more inclined you are to just pay attention.
This is the thing about the Patriots forever, is like
everyone paid attention to them because like, can you beat
Tom Brady and most people could not seeing it now
with Patrick Mahomes and even they were underdogs in the
AFC and Super Bowl. AFC Championship against the Ravens and
(06:10):
the Super Bowl against the forty nine ers. But anytime
you are just a heavy favorite and you show up,
whether it's a team event, whether it's a tennis tournament,
all those years with Federer, Nadal and all those type guys,
Pete Sampras back in the day, it's like, bring it
fucking on. Everyone's gunning for you. Everyone is looking at you.
And Tiger personified this more than anyone, and he won
(06:32):
more than anyone, you know. And when he showed up
in a major, he was always the favorite, and he
won fifteen of them, and in his prime was winning
them all the time. So Scotti Scheffer coming in to
the Masters, granted he won this tournament two years ago,
it's like, listen, I know he's the best player in
(06:53):
the world. He's an incredible talent. He's an easy guy
to root for. Nice guy, everyone gets along with him,
very positive individual. It's like, is it really just gonna
be this easy? Is it really just he's just going
to show up. Wins Thursday and Friday were outrageous. I
can't even imagine how difficult that course was, and it
(07:14):
annihilated everybody. And you looked up and there he was.
You're like, how is this guy not going to win
the tournament? And even on Saturday he doubles ten and
you're like, is he really about to just fall apart?
Two holes later he eagles thirteen, and let's face it,
the rest is kind of history. Today he had a moment.
(07:35):
You know, Max was hanging in there, Ludwig was right there.
Morikawa had the lead for a split second, and then
starting on whole nine, he birdies six of the next
eight holes. He is uncomfortable with and I completely understand it.
Just like a lot of people in Gulf are comparing
him to Tiger Woods. We are never going to see
(07:56):
another Tiger Woods. No matter how great Scotti Scheffler is,
He's not winning eighty plus times and fifteen majors. Could
he win six or seven? You know, how many can
he win? Now? The Grand Slam? I think is going
to be a little difficult for those of you that
come to this podcast for football and just enjoy me,
so you don't know that much about golf. That'd be
(08:17):
winning every major. It's why we keep talking about the
career Grand Slam. It's what Rory's been trying to do
with the Masters, and it's clear he's not ever close.
And I apologize forgiving out that pick. I lost money
never betting on that individual to win this tournament ever again,
learn my lesson. Too many times I'm out, I'm out.
(08:39):
But can this guy win? Can he have like a
Phil Mickelson level career when it's like Scotti Scheffer won
seven eight majors. Now, one stupid talking point this week
because I think a couple of weeks ago, within the
last month, his wife is pregnant and currently she's I
think around eight months. I've never had a baby, pretty
sure it takes give or take nine months.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Obviously things can change, people come premature. Sometimes it lasts
a little bit longer. But as he kept saying, like guys,
I said, I would leave if she is going to
have the baby. I've never had one. See the birth
of my first child, but she's not even close. She
hasn't shown any signs, so let's stop talking about this,
and it's all been all over social media. He did
(09:21):
not have to leave because again she's not close to
having a baby yet relative to the next couple weeks. Though,
for the Grand Slam this year, I'd go, let's just
say he has a baby in the next two weeks,
probably not a lot of sleep, probably not a lot
of practice. So I'm not often for the PGA, but
you could see how that could derail that event, and
(09:44):
then you get back on for the US Open and
the Open Championship. I'm not even sure where that is.
The US Open this year is at Pinehurst, but I
would say it feels like a disappointment right now. I'm
giving him a just a mulligan on the next here
in a month, just because if we assume the baby's
gonna come, it's gonna derail his life. Who knows, Maybe
(10:06):
he shows up that week limited sleep, not much practice,
doesn't win it. It would be stunning the way the
guy is playing. If he then doesn't win one of
the next two. I mean, the Player of the Year
is a rap. Like it's over. We don't even need
to talk about it anymore. He just won the Players
Championship and the Masters. I don't see how any other
(10:29):
individual on the PGA Tour could overcome his credentials so
far this year we're not even to summer yet. Think
about that, the amount of money he's making right now.
Start him now. He's never gonna be as famous as
Tiger Woods or even Phil Mickelson. But I always push
back when people say they used to play against plumbers
(10:52):
and shitty players, maybe in like the fifties and the sixties.
But I'm of the belief that Arnold Palmer or Jack
Nicholas or Lee Trevino would have been good in any era.
Baby Ruth's one of those takes. I go, yeah, I
don't know, fat guy, I don't know if he'd be
as good. I'd argue with Chris Russo on that, But
once you get to like the fifties and the sixties,
(11:13):
I do defend like Nickey Mandle would have been good.
Now Bill Russell could have played. Now, I might have
learned a three pointer, but I bet Bill Russell have
been pretty good. But right around that Tiger start in
the late nineties early two thousands, Phil Ernie it is
way deeper now, and still there are high end guys.
It is very, very difficult to win on a weekly basis,
(11:35):
and this guy as the betting favorite, and clear everyone's
like he's the best player. I don't even know what
world golf rankings mean. They don't mean much anymore, right
because of live and it's impossible to quantify live. But
clearly they have elite players, right, Bryson is an elite player.
He's won a major, he won the USAM, He's won
(11:55):
a ton of times on the PGA Tour. Cam Smith
won the Open. Elite player DJ no longer cares when
we'll get into him in a minute, but one like
twenty plus times multiple maybe, like they have elite talent Koepka.
We saw him win a major last year. It's hard
to quantify it. So it's all out of whack. The
world golf rankings where you rank, mean nothing to me.
(12:16):
And the best part about this, we don't have that
in football. It doesn't exist. What we've been saying for
five years, Patrick Mahons' best quarterback and everyone just universally agrees.
And I think that's where we're at with Scotti. Schefler. Yeah,
he's number one in these stupid rankings that don't even
mean anything anymore. But he is the best player, and
the gap now is starting to widen. Right Rory technically
(12:38):
is viewed as one of the best players. They aren't
even in the same universe. John Rahm, who this week,
every time they showed him looked like me or you
about to helicopter one of our clubs. He was pissed
off all week And one thing he mentioned over the
last couple weeks is he wants live to go to
(12:59):
seventy two olds. Why because I think clearly he doesn't
feel ready. Iron sharpens iron. Bryce's kind of one of
these unique guys, kind of a loner, weirdo, no one
likes him. Can just practice on his own and be fine.
I wonder if it's really impacting John rom Now. I
don't blame any of those guys for taking the money.
I truly don't. Capitalists would have taken the money as well,
(13:22):
but there's no way for a guy like that who
like the grind to be a sharp We're on the
flip side, Scottie. Just like John Rahm a year ago,
both two of the best players, two elite guys, just
keeps sharpening that iron. And you see a guy now
who keeps getting better because he keeps getting to practice
his craft even though the fields aren't as good on
(13:45):
a weekly basis, because all those guys play for Greg
Norman who was roaming around the Masters. But he gets
to really hone his skills and he gets to stay
dialed in. Then when he gets to Augusta and the
conditions get outrageous, I mean, sure, where were all in
text change? Could we two man scramble break one hundred?
How difficult that course is? All we ever want for
(14:07):
majors to be really hard, And Scotty now shows up
when the majors are really hard and dominates boat races
the field when it's all said and done, because that's
what he did. Colin Morikawa, multiple Majors, Ludwig shooting Star Holma,
look like a guy like God, is he going to
win the Masters? You look up? It ain't even close.
(14:27):
And this is what Brady did. Forever, everyone's coming for you,
every single person. Everyone is thinking about you. How do
I beat this guy? And the answer is you can't.
You need him to screw up, cause your best and
his best he's beating you. Honestly, what we're starting to
see his like B plus game is still beating the
(14:51):
overwhelming majority of guys, and they would have to be
perfect to beat him with his B plus game. That's
what greatness is, and that's what we're starting to see
in Scotty Scheffler. He's gonna I mean, he's got a
long way to go. He's only twenty seven years old,
but I think it's pretty clear he's got a chance
to be one of the great American players of all
time because anytime you get the ball rolling early, you
(15:13):
can rack them up. Now, one thing in golf, things change,
right you get to a point in your career, something
just gets weird and you start playing poorly. See with
Justin Thomas right now, Jordan Speith fell off a cliff.
So you got to take advantage when you are playing well.
It's why a lot of like multiple time Majors major
winners win them in the same like two year span
(15:36):
right now. Great players can rack up like three or
four Majors over like a three or four year st span.
And to me, that's what Scotti Scheffler feels poised to
do already. Giving him a little bit of I'm not
even gonna count the PGA if he's not as Sharper
doesn't win because of the baby that's coming and how
(15:57):
that's going to just derail his just golfing life. But
the US Open and the Open, I think it would
be stunning, I mean stunning for him not to win
one of those two tournaments. So congrats to Scotti Scheffler
already I don't have the stat in front of me,
but joins a special group of individuals that have won
that tournament multiple times. We have a lot of one
(16:19):
off guys, right, Hell, we've seen a lot in my
adult life, the Sergio's, the Patrick Reid's, Trevor Illmoman now
takes over for fall though, Right, We've seen a lot
of Danny Willett. We've seen a lot of those guys.
How many guys can rattle off multiple like the guys
obviously in my era, Tiger Phil, I mean, that's Scottie.
(16:40):
It's not a long list. So even Jordan that came
really close to winning US that couldn't get it done,
and now it feels like he never will. So he
enters a special class of American players. Man, that was dominance.
I don't know what else to say, beside man, what
a special player? Speaking about like the drafts right around
(17:10):
the corner. I'm a sucker for the draft. I love
elite young talents coming out of college and forever. On
the PGA Tour, it was a lot like Major League Baseball.
Just because you were a great player, national champion, highest
ranked amateur, it didn't matter. You still had to go
to the quote unquote minor leagues. When I was a kid,
(17:33):
it was like the Nike Tour. It's now the corn
Ferry Tour. It's been named a million things. And Max
Homo went there, Scottie Scheffler went there, they all go there. Well,
because of live, the PGA Tour developed this thing called
PGA Tour you that basically gave exemptions into their top
college players. And if you are the number one college player,
(17:56):
which would be the equivalent of being like the number
one pick in the draft, you don't have to go
to the corn Ferry Tour. You go right to the
big leagues. You go right to the PGA Tour. Remember
when Kyler Murray, it was like what should he do?
Billy Bean took up ninth overall, It's like, well, he
might be the number one pick in the NFL draft.
(18:19):
He could have been the eighteenth pick in the NFL draft.
And you go to the NFL. You know why, you
go right to the show. I never have to ride
a bus and play in nobody's watching. Nobody knows where
this is because minor league baseball is not Triple A baseball.
You start in rookie ball in Single A, playing in
front of nobody in games that no one cares about,
(18:41):
and clearly it's really hard. Just like Golf's minor leagues
corn Ferry Tour is very, very competitive. Ludvig didn't have
to do that. But I'd also argue that Ludvig has
been a pro for ten months. I know some people
you know with Adidas who I've been on Ludwig for
a while there, and they are as big of a
(19:03):
believers in him as anybody, and they're like, Jesus, this
was incredible. I was high on him this week, had
a Top twenty battle. I thought he would be good.
What he did these last couple of days was absurd.
He's not as good as Scottish Scheffer right does not
have just hasn't gone through the wars. But to be
(19:24):
that good not in your first Masters. This was his
first major, and like I said, I'll never forget. In
twenty nineteen, I went to the US Open when it
was a pebble beech, just as a fan, drinking beers,
hanging out, and I stood next to DJ and I
was like, this guy looks like Ben Roethlisberger. He's not
as big as Ben Roethlisberger in terms of way, but
he's six ' five two thirty five just thick. I
(19:48):
was like, this guy looks like an athlete. Most of
these guys even as much more athletic, you know, in
professional golf than it was thirty forty years ago. He
didn't look like anyone else. Now. Blood is not as
thick as him. He's also fifteen plus years younger, but
he looks much more just standing there and walking down
the fairway like an NFL player. I remember going to
(20:11):
the pro am and seeing like Matt Ryan and guys
like that, like kind of what he looks like. And listen,
I'm a decent player, you know, can break eighty, but
I'm five nine, five ten. You know, when you are
six three sixty four a little easier to play, you know,
Tiger six to one phills six three and a half, Like,
it's just you can hit a little farther swing looks
(20:32):
a little smoother. So I don't know what else to
say beside this guy's a rocket ship. I looked immediately
at DraftKings as like, what are his odds for the
next major? Because the PGA Championships at Valhalla, I looked
at like the eleventh hole and it was twenty to one,
And when I just looked before I hopped on here
was eighteen to one. I would imagine some sharp money
came in on that guy because he feels it's hard
(20:54):
in golf. It would be studying if he doesn't win
a major relatively quickly. Now, I'd say this tournament, the Masters,
does set up for a skill set. Hits the ball, high,
hits a draw. Putting has always been somewhat of a
question mark. But I thought he puttied pretty damn well.
A couple if he chips, but that'll happen. It's the Masters.
(21:14):
It's not easy. But if you could play that well
playing in those groups today, I mean was the second
last group and he was fucking awesome. So I don't
know what else say besides like, that's what a blue
chip talent looks like the way in the golf circles
they talk about Ludwig is the way that everyone in
Chicago hopes. They're talking about kleb in like November, like
(21:34):
we told everybody he was a star, and then all
of a sudden, it's like he's a Locke Rookie of
the year. That's all you hope with. And the thing
in golf is you never knew. Max Homo won the
national championship as an individual and as a team at
Cal was a PAC twelve champion as well, Like he
won the Pac twelve championship, and then he wasn't that
(21:55):
good on the PGA Tour for a long time and
didn't really hit his stride till thirty. And he's not alone.
A lot of guys are like that. So not everyone's
Scottie or Colin Moore Cowa. They get on the PGA
Tour and they immediately have success. It's very difficult. It's
to me, it always much closely parallels baseball than it
does football or basketball. Usually, if you're the top pick
(22:17):
Zion Williamson, unless you're lazy or can't put down, you know,
a cheeseburger like you're good. I watched Zion the other
night playing the Kings or playing the Warriors. He looked
pretty good. Pretty good to me. Looks like he's taking
a little more seriously elite talent Anthony Davis. Guys that
get drafted really high in baseball all the time, you
never see the top five pick ever flame out, never
even get to the big leagues. Ludwig showed up, immediately dominates,
(22:41):
He's already won on the tour. He I mean, honestly,
he was right there with Scott until he hit in
the water. And today, like all those guys kind of
screwed up all of them more. Cowa blew it on
nine doubles tournament over, Ludwig hits in the water on
a tournament over, Max Homa hits it in the bush
(23:04):
twelve tournament over. And after those three things happened, the
Masters was kind of a rap. And back to Scott,
he kind of because the guy with elite, if it
had been more of a random player guy, we didn't believe.
You're like, this guy's got a hold on for his ass.
There wasn't a soul that pays attention to sports, let
alone golf. That was like, oh, Scotty's gonna win. And
(23:27):
that's how fast it happens. Because the margin ferrer in
these major tournaments, especially at Augusta, you can't make a mistake.
I give Ludwig more of a pass than the other
two guys, given that they've been through the ringer. He
got aggressive and it ultimately didn't cost him the tournament.
But it would have been a lot more interesting if
(23:47):
he just pars instead of doubles. But what a remarkable
showing for a guy that has literally been a professional
for ten months. At this time last year, he was
playing in college. I live right down the street from
where they held the college national Championships grey Hawk. They
played it in May. He was in it, so less
(24:10):
than a year ago he was playing right down the
street for me in his Texas Tech uniform. That's crazy.
That does not happen in golf. That's like Tiger Phil
level just quickly transition. We don't see that ever, so
awesome to watch. The other thing I wrote down is
it is just fun and golf sikos we root for
(24:32):
really hard and the players always push back. You know,
when things get outrageous at a US Open, it's too
hard or they've lost the course or this isn't fair,
Like I honestly, we've seen enough birdies and eagles in
our life for one time or two times a year
in a major championship. To just see carnage NonStop is
(24:56):
very entertaining. Like I love an eagle as much as anybody.
They're really fun to watch, especially if you have money
on a player. But there's nothing quite like watching a
guy have to struggle for parr the best players in
the lead. That leads to the ebb and flow of
a leaderboard. And I thought Augusta, obviously it played. I
(25:19):
haven't seen the status yet, but it has to be
one of the hardest, you know, in terms of the
scores in a long long time. There weren't even that
many guys under par. Part of it was the first
couple of days were you know, felt like eighty mile
an hour wins on television. But the greens were rock hard,
these guys who if you look at the leader board,
(25:41):
it was just the best iron players, Marikawa, Homa, Ludwig Fleetwood,
I mean, and these guys were struggling, and I mean
struggling to rattle off like six seven straight pars. That's fun.
To watch, like, I never feel bad when these guys
and one of the most famous videos of all time
(26:03):
I think it was the US Open. I forget the course,
but Phil putted it by and it was running downhill
and he just took his putter and hit it while
I was moving because he was so mad, like, I'm sorry.
We kind of liked that. We kind of enjoy that.
I think it's fun viewing when it is chaos in
terms of the difficulty, where it almost feels unfair. I'm
cool with unfair. And listen, anyone that's listening to this
(26:26):
that plays golf, it's really hard. So I understand that
the highest levels go. It's hard enough as it is,
but I'd argue, these guys are so good now the
equipment is so unfair that.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Sometimes if it's like, yeah, this is a pin that
you literally can't get it within twenty feet, I'm cool
with it. It's a putt that if it's downhill, it's going
to be thirty feet by, well, then don't hit it
above the hole. Right, this is a fair way that
I can't hold the fairway, well, tough shit. And that's
what I thought all weekend long. That's at least from
(26:57):
a viewer, from what I can remember, one of the
more difficult masters we've ever seen. I got a hit
on Eldrick Tiger Woods because I saw a lot of
people and again these are just you know, internet trolls
and not necessarily people that cover golf. But I think
universally people are like, why is Tiger even doing this?
What is the point of barely being able to break
(27:19):
eighty and yesterday did not. He shot eighty two. Today
he shot seventy seven. It was a struggle for him.
On the weekend, he finished dead last of every single
person that made the cut. I actually think it's an
inspiring performance when you think about a guy like Dustin Johnson,
who is easily one of the best players of his generation,
had won over twenty times, won a tournament every year
(27:42):
for like ten straight years, multiple majors. Probably should have
had four or five. He said on full swing. Yeah,
I'm kind of over it. I don't even practice that hard.
Not verbatim, but he essentially said that he shot seventy
nine to seventy eight this year. Freddy Couples, who was
sixty five with a bad back beat Dustin Johnson, I
have no problem Dustin Johnson taking one hundred and fifty
(28:04):
million and not working that hard. We have the discussion
on Fugazi Friday about work life balance. Work life balance
is an individual you know, mantra, thing that you care about.
It's something that every single person is different, right, how
you approach your life, what your priorities are. Like, I
worry about myself my family. You should too. I have
(28:26):
no problem with anyone's like, I'm not that into this anymore.
Totally understand. But Tiger Woods, let's use this as an example.
Dustin got one hundred and fifty million from Saudi Arabia.
Tiger Woods was probably worth five six x that fifteen
years ago. He is insanely wealthy. Coward told a story
(28:48):
the other day when we were doing our football show.
I think it might have been last Saturday or two
Saturdays ago, that he had a financial guy tell him
that he was putting like fifteen twenty million dollars in
a year in the market twenty plus years ago. I mean,
there's a chance Tiger has just a portfolio that's worth
seven eight hundred million separate from other money. Tiger has
(29:13):
been insanely wealthy for twenty plus years and you have
a guy with a fuse back, a fused ankle, body
parts that probably barely work, trying his ass off. And
as someone whose dad taught me, my dad's long gone. Now,
two things that really stick out to me, and I
think about a lot, like two life lessons that he
(29:35):
hammered home be orly and if he starts something, don't
quit it. Tiger Wood's son, I think has been there
the whole time, but he was all over TV these
last couple of days. Can you imagine the life lesson
that he just taught him? Remember Tom Brady saying this
a while back, like one thing that he worries about
is how do I teach my kids humility and to
be kind of normal people with the life they lead.
(29:57):
And it's difficult, right, easy to teach someone how hard
work matters and to keep grinding when you don't have much,
like we work for everything we have. When you have
everything and you've never seen a commercial airline, you've never
flown commercial your entire life, right, everything in your life
is free. You live in a palace, you have several homes.
(30:20):
I don't even I can't relate to that. I bet
most people listening cannot relate to that. It's very, very
difficult to raise a child in that environment, to grow
up with the same head on your shoulders. Obviously Tiger
made some mistakes, but just in terms of work ethic
and drive and desire, think of what Charlie watching his
dad who can barely fucking walk. Because a lot of
(30:40):
people thought like, is Tiger even gonna play Sunday? I
thought that, like, just go home. I'm not going home.
I'm not tapping out because that's not what we do
in this family. That's not what I do. That's not
what I stand for. Yeah, some of those live guys
tapped out, they're over it. I never did. I didn't
show up. He's never gonna win again. He's clearly never
(31:03):
winning a major. He can't play four rounds of good golf.
He could barely play two. But if you can't watch
that and go god, I hope I have that drive.
I say it all the time. I have a lot
of admiration for super super rich people that still are
very driven and work very hard. So I think about myself, like,
(31:23):
if I had one hundred million dollars in the bank,
when I podcast as much when I work, what would
I do I hope I would never know until you
put in that situation. Tiger Woods had one hundred million
dollars when he was twenty three, and every story about
the guy was like he'd win a major next day.
He was at the golf course at seven am, working
after he'd already worked out at five am. And I
(31:44):
think that's the type of things that you instill in
the things that I admire about athletes, the work ethic
and listen, we can make fun of Tiger's results all
we want, like he's not any good anymore, he's old,
he never plays, he can barely walk. But you can't
diminish a guy at this point in time in his
(32:05):
career that just refuses to tap out because he's too proud.
He's got too much. I would say competitive pride. Like
I don't want to say I was inspired by his weekend,
but I really appreciated it as someone whose dad's not around.
What that would mean just if you're Charlie watching your dad, Like, yeah,
(32:25):
I might suck now relative to these top guys, but
we ain't fucking flying home early if I can still play.
Some other things that I saw from the weekend, it
just stood out one thing Live really did to the
PGA Tour, and we've talked about this over and over.
It kind of gets exhausting. Was take away the villains
and guys that just people had like emotional reactions too,
(32:47):
like gotta hate Patrick Reed. Bryson's a weirdo, right Kepka.
He's an asshole. And the PGA Tours is full of
nice guys and anytime you get these majors, they all
get back together. And I was thinking about this. I
think if you had a draft, if you were the
PGA Tour of guys you could bring back. I think
Rom would be number one because he's their best player.
(33:09):
I think Bryson might be number two. He's a content machine.
He's always doing insane things. The other day he picked
up one of those stands that like tell you where
to walk because it was in his way and held
it and walked it down the fairway because he was
trying to hit around it. He is just fun to
watch because crazy things happen and nobody swings like him.
(33:35):
All his clubs are the same length he hits it.
When he hits a good three hundred and forty fifty yards,
he's swinging out of his shoes. He's missed. Maybe he's
a weirdo. Maybe not a lot of guys like him.
And I get why he left. They offered him nine figures,
but he's missed. And here's the thing about Bryson, Like
he's really good and unlike rom who I do think
(33:56):
likes the competitive hamster wheel of professional goalf just keeps
in the loop, you keep playing. Bryce's kind of unique,
like I do believe clearly he doesn't have that many
friends on the PGA tour. Many would say he doesn't
have any. He can just kind of grind on his own.
And here's what I'll say about Bryson. I know he
takes golf really seriously, and I know he tries really hard.
(34:18):
So some of these live guys, Like I respect DJ's talent,
but I have a hard time just respecting a guy.
It's like I don't even care anymore. Even if he
doesn't care, it's his progative, it's his life. Like I
know Bryson cares like I know he cares, and as
you watched him do all sorts of crazy things these
last three or four days, he just missed as someone
(34:43):
that we get to watch. If you like watching professional
golf because, like I said, and it's well documented, nobody's
watching live. Greg Norman was walking around some just incredible
pictures of the shark. Who say what you ever want,
say whatever you want about the shark. It's closer sweet.
I used to rock a lot of Greg Norman shirts.
(35:05):
The hat always looks sharp. He's always in such great shape.
He's in his late sixties. One story that went viral
was like he had to pay for his own tickets.
Now he's never won Augusta. Obviously if he had, he'd
be playing in it. But you'd think, you know, they
take care of him. They don't like him there. But
he had thirteen guys that live. Freddy Couples tweeted this out.
It's like, Bro, you're making this big public statement how
(35:29):
you had to pay your way into Augusta. You have
thirteen guys playing in the tournament of the league that
you run. None of them can get you tickets. Like
it was kind of a performance art for you making
that a big deal. Like if you needed to get
tickets through somebody, you easily could have. You paid people
(35:49):
you didn't, but you facilitated it. Made a ton of guys,
hundreds of millions of dollars. So I just the Greg
Norman things kind of exhausting. Vern Lunquist last masters he'll
ever call, he's going into retirement. Obviously, Vern was part
of the Jack Nicholas in eighty six was a little
(36:10):
before my time. But the Tiger Woods call of the
chip in against christ Marco was. I mean, it's an
al Teimer. It's probably a top two or three Tiger
Moment individual shot of his career. But when I think
of Vern Lundquist, I think of a guy calling SEC football.
When the SEC went from being a local popular sport
(36:33):
it always thrived in the South, from being a national sport,
from being something that if you liked football, like most
of US NFL fans did, but we're probably more regional.
Like I followed the PAC twelve, you're a big ten guy,
You're an SEC guy. I had to watch the SEC
and it really started kind of with Urban Meyer at
Florida and then through Nick Saban. I think he retired
(36:53):
in twenty sixteen, but I think of the guy on
the mic for the big SEC games that became NFL
light became must watch, became beside Ohio State and Michigan,
the highest rate of games on television, and I would
say the call and just the moment that I'll never
forget for Vern is the kick six Iron Bowl Auburn, Alabama.
(37:18):
Chris Davis takes it to the house and obviously calling
hole sixteen for a long time. I think he used to.
He got relegated to that in his older years. I'm
pretty sure he called more of the masters, like he
was more of on more holes when I was much younger,
but he's been on sixteen forever. And uh, just I
(37:39):
do wonder, you know, al Michaels, Vern Lundquist, some of
these you know, even Nance, Marv Albert, some of these
legendary guys, Brent Lusberger, if they're going to exist, Like,
is there any of those guys that are my age?
And I just don't know if there are now. Maybe
it's just nostalgic. Maybe it's just me being growing up
(38:02):
and hearing those voices. So maybe I'm wrong, but I
don't know. I feel like my gut says I bet
against it. They are going to be few and far
between of just a group of six seven guys that
we all knew their names, we all knew their moments,
and I just don't know if they exist anymore, and
(38:22):
so hat tip to Vern Lunquist's incredible career to do
the masters in SEC football. Obviously he did NFL and
other stuff, but when I think of Vern Lunquist, that's
what I think. And very cool picture today on the
Internet of Tiger, who obviously played in the first group
(38:43):
off today you couldn't see him because he was behind
a tree, went over and shook his hand. I mean
it felt like a solid like six ' seven second handshake,
Tiger paying his respects. So I actually liked this version
of Tiger who even when he sucks for his standard,
can just kind of enjoy the moment. I don't know
there are another He played with the low am who asked
(39:05):
his high school buddy to caddy for him. I mean,
what a moment for those two guys to get to
be able to play with Tiger in Terrell Hatton. Last
but not least, every time you showed him he was
swearing he was really mad. He's another guy that went
to live like I just miss golf. Purists hate him
because he's always complaining. He's always pissed off at a shot,
(39:27):
Like that's what the game needs. You can't have everybody
just smiling in everyone's friend You need some wild cards.
In Terrell Hatton, really good player and a major, major
wild card on the course. So I loved the Terrell
Hatton coverage because he was just doing crazy things constantly,
(39:47):
so awesome Masters. I was glued. I felt like I
watched eighty five percent of it. And congrats to Scottie
Scheffler who wins a second Green jacket in three years.
It's just the that's just an outstanding accomplishment. I mean,
no matter what sport you follow or like, the volume
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