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Go Low - Scottie is the best, Where is Jordan's game, Weekend's best bets

Published May 7, 2025, 10:01 AM

John Middlekauff dives into Scottie Scheffler's domination from this past weekend and talks about how he is so much better than everyone else right now. Next, John talks about Jordan Speith and if we'll ever see the Jordan we saw years ago. Later, John gives you his best picks for this weekend's tournament.

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #Herd

The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing? Hopefully you are enjoying this day wherever you may be and living well in the real world. Today, we're gonna take a day off from football, take a deep breath, and do a little go Lo podcast. React to Scottie Scheffler's dominant win. If that was a football game, it'd be like winning fifty to ten. He wins by eight strokes. At one point in time he was up double digits. Just an absolute butt whooping. And we'll dive into some other stuff. There were some comments made by a few players in regards to the signature events. There's one this week at the Philly Cricket Club. Some thoughts on LIV their ratings feel like they're getting worse. But Bryson d. Chambeau won in Korea. We had a pretty injury to you know, a pretty big name player. And we will also answer some of your questions from at Golo Pod, which is the Instagram account which I answer golf questions from. Obviously we do a big one for football and life and just everyday stuff on my on my Instagram account, I made a separate one at Golo Pod, which I do golf stuff, and it's the easiest way to get involved on this show, which is you know, obviously golf centric operation when we do a little go lo. So we got we got the PGA Championship right around the corner, which, as Jordan called it, Rory McElroy Country Club, which is next week. So prepare to get ready because I'm really excited Quail Hollow, Rory, Scotty Bryson. It feels like a three horse race right now. So we will dive deep into that next week. Because I love gambling on the majors. Nothing is better and nothing I look forward to non football when it comes to gambling than the four Majors. So before we dive in to Scottie Scheffler, I do need to tell you about my friends, my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast. Last night, I was at the DraftKings Bet gala put on by Dave Portnoy, and I was hanging out with Mike Commodore. You know, he actually was a guest on this podcast last summer, the hockey player, incredible storyteller, and we were watching some playoff hockey and he was just telling me about the best arenas to see a game there is nothing like playoff hockey. I mean the intensity of it. I kept telling them I'm not even a hockey guy, and I am glued to the playoffs obviously, the NBA playoffs. I mean, if you live in New York area and you want to see her knicks, at minimum, there're gonna be one coming home. So any game you want to go, do playoff game. We got baseball in full swing right now. We have Obviously, you know concert season is going, So if you want to go see some live music, get out of the house. Go do something fun like go enjoy yourself, have a bruski, have a cocktail, sing some songs, dance a little bit with a loved one, with a child, with your cousin, with your mother or father. Go have a good time and do it on us. So take the guest work out of buying tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app, create an account, use the go John for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem the code Joegen for twenty dollars off down in the game Time app. Today last minute ticket's lowest price is guaranteed. Okay, last week, I was looking at the field, it was not good relative to signature events and majors. When Jordan Speith at essentially twenty to one is the second betting favorite to win a golf tournament in twenty twenty five, that that tells you everything you need to know. And my logic was pretty simple. One if you're an elite competitor, if you're an elite player and things don't go your way, whether you're playing poorly or whether you're like Scotty, you're trying to make some raviolis and you cut your hand and it kind of derails the early part of your season. Now relative to basically every other player in the world besides like Rory McElroy, he has had a very successful start to the season. He just had won and he's coming off a year where it felt like he won twenty five times. So it's like I looked at it and went, well, he's playing a home game. He grew up going to this tournament. Now it's changed courses, but it means a lot to him, it means a lot to his family and as a competitor when it does feel because while he's the number one player in the world and I think as of this week, it's now gone on to the third longest streak in the history of number one's. Obviously Tiger holds it basically for like a decade. Greg Norman a second, and now Scotty is third for the longest running time as the number one player in the world. But in twenty twenty five, Rory has played better than Scotty and going into the second major of the year, where Rory is now on DraftKings has the same odds as Scotty Scheffler. I mean, think about the Masters, Scotty was three to one and Rory was like six or seven to one, and now I look yesterday they're both five to one, and that feels right. Now. This is a course like Augusta with Scotty that is very advantageous for Rory McElroy's game. He has had a lot of success there. But like based on the way they've played this year beside last week, Like if you want to make Rory mclroy the favorite, I don't blame you, but I went you know what I do. Believe what it's all said and done, Scotty will be considered one of the greatest American players to ever play golf. I think he will have I don't know if he will win the career Grand Slam, but he is going to win more majors than just win the Masters, and he's probably not one a done winning the Masters. If I had to guess right now over under Scotty majors, I'd say around six, Like he is clearly one of the greatest talents we've ever seen. And last week was like, I think Scotty gets it done. Now. Did I believe that he would annihilate the field? At one point in time it was I remember texting someone he was on like hole twelve. It was Thursday. He had played fourteen holes in a golf tournament. You have to play seventy two. He was like minus two fifty to win the golf tournament. By the end of Friday, he was minus twelve hundred to win the golf tournament. That's unheard of. It's absurd. He annihilated everyone. And sometimes I think, and this is I've taken the tactic and the the I guess the outlook when gambling, like don't don't not think the room here, don't try to hit some eighty to one guy bet Rory Bete Bryce and bet Scottie and that is what I plan on doing at the PGA Championship. And listen, no, I would say group that covers of sport can try to be more hipster, like watch out for the Thunder. They're gonna roll to the championship. Like are we sure their second best player weighs like one hundred and ten pounds? They're playing Nikole Jokicic. I don't know one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the sport. Honestly, I've been a die hard sports fan for thirty plus years. He's easily one of the greatest players I've ever seen. Should it be that shocking that in Game one he had forty two points, twenty rebounds, and six assists and they won. They have the best player on their team, not on the Thunder. It's like, well, Shay's gonna win the MVP. Michael Jordan didn't always win the MVP. Lebron had a stretch in his prime where he didn't always win the MVP. It was obvious to anyone with a working brain who the best player was. And listen, betting on golf tournaments is a lot different than betting on a basketball game. Or a football game when there are only two teams right, one has to win, one to lose. You were betting against an entire field and all it takes is some random dude in that field to have a career day. Some guys did and they didn't even get close. Scotti Scheffler essentially averaged eight under par for four straight rounds. That is absurd. Jordan Speith, who I had a little parlay. I took Scotty to win, and I took Jordan to top ten. It was not looking good, it was not gonna hit. And then the guy went nuclear on Sunday and shot nine under par. Scottie Scheffler averaged eight under part so it's like he went nuts and he shot nine under par for one day, lowest round of the day and got in the top five, which was a really impressive day for Jordan. What Scotty just did last weekend is what Nikola Jokic does, is what Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson do. They are better than everybody else, and it's what is I think a big reason right now the PGA ratings are are like a rocket ship. This last week with Scotty was up sixty six percent based on last year. The previous week with Justin Thomas winning at the RBC was up I think like twenty five to thirty percent. Obviously, the Masters was one of the most watched Masters in like a long time since Tiger Woods. This isn't a complicated formula get the best star players to win and in a hard part in golf, like you're not guaranteed that. And the cool part about golf is like you don't necessarily need it to be Scotty versus Rory. It can be Rory versus me and you. It can be Justin Thomas versus Andrew Novak no shade. It can be Scotty Scheffler versus Taylor Pendriz. It can be some of these random matchups. As long as you have the star the tour. It wasn't always Tiger Woods against Ernie Els or Tiger Woods against Podrick Harrington. Sometimes it would be Tiger Woods against some guy that you would never really hear about again. And you know what, as long as it was Tiger Woods versus fill in the blank, it works. This is a star driven sport and right now I think we have three needle movers. Scotty clearly Rory, Scottie and Bryson and these guys are playing it. Bryson just won last weekend. I think Rory is a lot of momentum coming into the Philly Cricket Club. I don't know how much he's, you know, gonna care this week in terms of just getting his game dialed in for the following week. Much shorter course than Quail Hollow. But regardless, this sport is dependent on its stars, always has been, always will be. It's an individual sport from Arnold Palmer to Jack to Greg Norman, to guys like John Daly and Phil Mickelson through Tiger Woods to this crew now. And I think the tour is pretty lucky that their most famous and best players are dominating. And I was talking to someone about this the other day, my buddy Scottie Raver, really good golfer. I was like, listen, this lift thing is failing. It is dying on the vine. No one is watching. People have reported that the uh that you know, the fun mechanism as essentially said like, you guys gotta start making money. We're gonna stop cutting checks. And some of these contracts are coming up and it's like, are they gonna renew some of these guys for like one hundred million dollars, one hundred and fifty million dollars, fifty million dollars. No chance that this thing is going to die, right if they are truly like watching the expenses and the profits and trying to go is this gonna work? It's not. Listen, I love golf as much as most diehard golf people. It is an unwatchable product. But Bryson is really important and for the PGA Tour, if they can get him back, I think that would be a game changer because right now you've got Scottie Scheffler in the prime of his career, you got Rory McElroy in the middle of his second prime, and clearly Bryson is just an elite player that you know it is just a needle moving, interesting guy to watch play. But I think last week just wasn't that complicated, just like sometimes basketball isn't that complicated. Who is the best player? Like that's like they go ten deep, they got these great out of bounds plays. It's like, yeah, I got nicolea Jokic, I got Steph Curry, I got Anthony Edwards, and you don't you know Scotti Scheffler's in this field and Rory McElroy, Xander Schaffle, Colin Moricowa, Bryson D. Chambeau or not. So yeah, his odds are a little lowering three to one that they should be like minus one ten and they were really quick after about nine holes. So congrats to Scottie Scheffler. Very cool moment watching him get choked up. His family's all there, obviously, his kids there, his sister. He made his debut eleven years ago as a high school kid in the tournament and he finished t. Twenty five. So he's just an awesome player. Jordan Speith, it's always fun. Like as someone I think I said last week that you know, I don't know if he's a Ryder Cup guy. He definitely still has the opportunity to earn that in more weeks. I'm not putting that much stock again into a field that's really shitty to finish fourth, But you know, he is just a very very entertaining player to watch and he's probably the easiest guy on PGA Tour to root for. But he had a comment that it kind of made me laugh. He's like, it wasn't that long ago that I was definitely better than him, speaking of Scotty, because they played together in the first two rounds and Scotty obliterated him, and now I'm definitely not. And it got me thinking, like, now, Jordan has actually been a little while since you were definitely better than him. It's been like four plus years. That's it's we're going on. We're headed toward like sixty months. This wasn't like, you know, two years I was better than the guy, like you know, seven months ago, I was better than the guy. This guy has been dramatically better than you for a while now. And I don't blame Jordan for, you know, trying to justify like you know, once upon a time, yea, once upon a time, like like last dec But it's always fun to see Jordan get rolling. And I think clearly Keegan Bradley, who actually is hosting a Ryder Cup dinner in Philadelphia, which I would imagine Jordan is invited to, would love to see him play well because we know the pairing of him and Justin, and now Justin is essentially a lock for the team. I think he would love to bring him on the team, but he's gonna have to earn it, and more showings like that, Like I like Jordan's speed this week, so more showings like that it would be really important. Another thing in regards to this dinner, he has invited Bryce and d Chambeau and Brooks Koepka to the dinner in Philadelphia. So one thing's clear. A couple of years ago, none of the live guys played in the Ryder Cup. Remember John Rahm right after the Ryder Cup. It wasn't right after, but within a month or two had signed with LIFF. But he had waited till he played in that Ryder Cup to make that decision because clearly it means a lot to him. That's out the window all these John Rahm is playing in the Ryder Cup, Bryson d Chambeau is playing in the Ryder Cup. Kepka I would say, is up in the air. But he has a couple good majors. Based on the way our team looks, he's probably going to be in the Ryder Cup, and Sergio Garcia if he continues to have it or like has a good major season, would definitely be a Ryder Cup option. Now the European team is pretty deep, but that's the right move. Like no one cares what tour you're on. Bryson d Chambeau should be on all the American teams. And if Koepka or Dustin Johnson or whoever, whichever one of these guys is playing well, they should be on the team as well. And I would say next year when the President's Cup happens, I don't give a shit what the rules are. Cam Smith, if he's playing well enough, should be on the President's Cup. This Mark Leishman, if he's playing well enough, should be on the President's Cup. Obviously Bryson should be on the American team. But yeah, so I do think the the Ryder Cup situation is going to be more enjoyable because the live guys are going to be invited to the party where they were not a couple of years ago. I also got me thinking because Eric van Royan, who finished second in and had i mean, probably one of the better weeks of his career, he just happened to be playing with Scotti Scheffler, who was unconscious. I mean it was honestly watching Scotty Scheffler last week look like anyone who's ever played with a really, really good golfer like a scratch or a veteran scratch or a college golfer who plays a course a lot, so it's very used to it. And if you just play with them, it's like are they even trying? And it's just like par Parr Bertie, Bertie Eagle Parr Bertie like it just they never even come close to screwing up. It didn't even look like Scotty Scheffler broke a sweat. Eric van Royan, who played unreal, never had a chance but basically earned his way into the signature event this week, and it was asked about whether he liked the way this setup was and he's like, honestly, I don't. Not that I'm not proud of playing well and getting involved, but the best tournaments do not have small fields. The best tournaments have one hundred and fifty plus guys. And I understand Golf's in this weird spot where they want a funnel. They basically want legal money laundry, right, they want to launder money legally to their it's probably an oxymoron, but to their best players. And if you have one hundred and fifty man tournament and half the field gets caught, and six of your top twenty players don't play well, they don't make any money. And Van roy And essentially said, like the best part about golf is it's the ultimate meritocracy. And if you don't play well, you don't make any money, and if you play great, you earn whatever spot that you get on the leaderboard. And I'm in complete agreement. The smaller field no cut events stink. They are just not that interesting. One problem with LIV well, they got lot of problems. I mean their biggest problem is like none of it matters. Part of winning a tournament is like, well, these are the last fifty guys that won this tournament. This tournament has been around for seventy five years. There's a lot of history, right Anyone who's ever been to a club or a country club. I remember I went to I played, was a Phoenix country Club. It actually used to hold the Phoenix Open before I forget what year they came to the TPC might have been like late eighties, so basically from the forties, the fifties, the sixties. You walk in to the locker room, there's pictures of Arnold Palmer, of Jack Nicholas, of Lee Trevino, of Johnny Miller and all these guys that had played in this tournament. There was a legitimate history, but behind the tournament, behind the course. And now I played at TPC for thirty plus years. Whether it's Brooks Koepka, whether it's Ricky Fowler, whether it's Tiger Woods hole in one, whether it's you know, just all Scottie Scheffler winning his first big tournament. There, there's a lot of history there and that really matters. And Live doesn't have that, but they don't have a cut, so like, if you're in the tournament, you're guaranteed to finish. And part of golf, it's what makes majors, especially you know, the US Open, the Bridge, Like it's hard to make the cut and if you have like a shitty three hole stretch on Thursday or Friday, you're gone and then you make no money. Like you make no money right in basketball in the NBA, I was. I was at this barstool party last night at the DraftKings sports book down the street from my house, and I was talking to Mike Commodore. I mentioned this earlier, but he played in the NHL for a long time. He's he's the best. He invited me to play golf with him here soon. He's a golf junkie and we were just talking how much hockey players make, and he's like, I was like, I saw some salaries. It doesn't feel like your highest paid players make that much relative to basketball or baseball. He's like, I think the highest paid player in the league makes eighteen million dollars. And the Knicks Celtics series was on right next to it. I'm like, you know what's crazy is there's a chance that every dude on the floor right now makes more than eighteen million dollars. And there's a chance, I mean, there's not a chance five six guys on that court make thirty five to forty plus. And during the season, whether you're playing or whether you're not playing, whether you shatter your leg, whether you're doing load management, whether you're averaging forty or whether you're averaging five points. Hell, I saw Bradley Beal play basketball this year. I have never seen a guy in a professional event, in a live event, try less hard. He's making fifty million dollars. So whether he tries really hard, scores a lot of points, whether he doesn't try at all, he's getting paid. In golf, if you even if you try your hardest, and you do not play well, you do not make any money. Now, technically you still make money from your sponsors. But like Billy Horschel, he is injured. And unlike a baseball player, a basketball player, if I get injured, even in football, if you're making twenty million dollars and I go on IR for eight games, I still get a percentage of my salary. Now that might be fifty percent, but I still get paid for being injured. As a golfer, Billy Hoe Philly Cricket Club, this tournament doesn't pay him any money. The PGA Championship next week doesn't pay him any money. He doesn't make any money from playing golf. Now he's signed me. I'm sure he has lucrative sponsors, so he still has money coming in. But that would be the case for any professional athlete for their like. If whether Patrick Mahomes plays well or not, Let's say he has the worst year of his career, that all State money, that Oakley money, all that money still rolls in on top of the Kansas City chief salary. And I think the thing in golf, like you see Billy Horschell, he gets hip surgery, knock on Wood, But like, what if that derails his career? What if he's never the same after this hip injury. Now, you would think with modern medicine and the ability to rehab and improve, and Billy Hoe is clearly a pretty big workout guy, should be fine. But you never know. It's not like Billy Horschell's twenty two years old, and it's just a risk in this sport, like there are a lot of variables that can go really bad, really fast. I mean we're seeing with Max Holmei's just his game all of a sudden, just what the hell happened? And in fairness to him, it's like golf, I don't know. It's just you make a little tweak here, tweaked there, and things just get off the rails. I think it's one of the most relatable things about the sport. Any human that plays, whether you're a plus five or whether you're a twenty handicap, you can on one individual's shot, you can hit the best shot of the day. You can hit the best shot of the day that looks exactly like Tiger Woods shot from one hundred and fifty yards. You can knock at five feet. You also can hit a ball three holes over out of bounds at any given moment, and so can these guys. And I just think the cool part about pro golf, especially I mean specifically the PGA Tour, but I would say the European Tour as well at the corn Ferry Tour is you have to play well on Thursday and Friday to continue playing to make money on Saturday and Sunday, and then like the competition of Saturday and Sunday, typically you are going to have high level, famous guys playing well, maybe not all of them, but the PGA Championship in a week I would be stunned, I mean floored if two of the three guys, Rory, Bryson and Scottie aren't heavily in the mix. And when I say heavily in the mix, I expect one of those three guys to win, and I'd be stunned if the other guy isn't top three or four in the tournament. It wouldn't shock me if all three of them are in the top ten, but there's no guarantee. One of them could just have the worst week of his life and shoot seventy six on a Thursday and miss the cut. It's possible and while they're all rich, and whether they get a check or don't, it's not going to change their life at all. They don't get paid that week. Neither does it Caddy. That's why this Philly Cricket Club this week. I mean it's interesting, but to me, I'm interested to see the golf course. I don't necessarily care about the results, you know. I mean, this is the problem with these signature events. It's like I don't even feel like they matter. I mean, they matter for the distribution for these guys to get paid, but just in terms of smaller field, it has been like this for the last couple of years since they created these. They just don't do that much. For me, I was more interested to watch can Scottie Scheffler beat one hundred and fifty guys than like, is Roy McElroy gonna make two and a half million dollars finishing second at the signature event. I just it does not matter to me. So I listen, I'm gonna gamble on this because that's what we do. The PGA Tour hast never played here. I think the stat is that this is the oldest country club in America. I think it was like eighteen forty eight or something, so this course has been around for a long long time. I did some flyovers on YouTube. I read a couple articles about they have done some redesigns and the course in which they play isn't the sequence. If me or you got the obviously you'd have to know a member, but we played this course. They kind of change the sequencing of the course. It's not that long relative to tour standards, it's seventy one hundred yards. I read a couple articles that did some models on what is going to work at this course. Obviously Rory's near the top, but you know Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley, Jordan Speith. I do like Brian Harmon. I do think a guy like him he has to capitalize. He did two weeks ago at RBC on courses that aren't that long. He's at a disadvantage playing Quail Hollow. He's not gonna be able to compete there. Like Kevin Kisner was asked a couple of years ago, why do you play in some of these courses where you clearly have no chance? He's like, well, finishing eighteenth pays a lot, And I think the key is when you're a guy like that, you get four or five chants is to take advantage of your skill set in this modern day world, and this is one of them, you know. And I think Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley, Jordan Speith. I'm gonna do probably Brian Harmon instead of Keegan, but I'm gonna do Jordan' speed the top ten, Lowry and Brian Harmon the top twenty. I think it pays like fourteen to one, but it's listen. I think a lot of people like Patrick Cantley this week. I can't bet on Patrick Cantley like I if you telled me like he's got a fifty to fifty chance, I'm more likely to not gamble on a golf tournament than put any money on Patrick Cantley. I've gambled a lot on golf over the last three or four years. I don't think I've ever put one penny on that individual. And I will have no problem never betting him. You can tell me he wins ten times over the next five years, he ain't getting any of my money. I couldn't even imagine watching him play professional golf on a Saturday and Sunday beside a Ryder Cup and rooting for him to win. So I also have seen so many times when people have picked him and he just like finishes seventeenth. So I'm not touching him hard to make like, does Rory bring it this week? He's been you know, he was gone in Europe and he did the media tour. I would imagine he kind of uses this as a tune up. But if he were to win this week, which would be crazy, it'd be his third win of the year. I do think that his odds would go from five to one, probably like three to one next week. So if you do like Rory the risk of him potentially playing really well this week, you probably want to bet him now for the PGA Championship. The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now the real fun begins. 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Let's do a couple mail bag questions at golopod. At golopod is the Instagram, Fire in those dms and get your question answered here on the show again at go lopod. This is from Davis. I'm twenty six and I like to think I'm pretty good. I'm about a six handicap. However, I think the golfers in the five to eight handicap range are in golf purgatory, good enough to shoot close to par, but bad enough to shoot eighty eight and hate yourself. I feel like it's gonna be hard to break out of this range while working a job that demands a lot and only being able to play hit the range once or twice a week. Any tips how to work to scratch going forward, Well, you're asking advice from someone that falls. I mean, I'm a four handicap right now. In that category, I could go out tomorrow and shoot seventy four. I could also go out tomorrow and easily shoot ninety. And you know what I've learned, Like, I'm never going to be a scratch golfer. I don't practice enough, I don't play enough, and I just don't have the mental stamina to focus enough even when I'm playing a lot on the golf course. And I'm cool with that. I'm going to enjoy myself and if I was to be a scratch, when I gamble with my friends or with other people, or this week, my guy Mark invited me to play the member guest at Arizona Country Club. I'm fired up. I am such a better asset and last I've only played in one other member guest. I was the biggest disaster in the history of disas. I was so bad. I was topping ball. I was an embarrassment. I really was. And my handicap at the time was like a three. It probably looked like I was a twenty. I don't know if I was nervous. I don't know what was going on, but it was. It was really really ugly. So I need to bounce back. But there's not as much pressure. I mean, he's like a scratch, but he's really good and he can play to that number and he can break par If I was a scratch, like I would still have ninety maybe not ninety, but like eighty two in my back pocket. So when you're a six handicap and you can shoot seventy eight and maybe get a few birdies, like, you can make some money if you're not going to the PGA tour. Here's the other thing. If you're working in a successful guy and you're like a five or six handicap that travels, like you could go play with like Justin Thomas and have a good time. I'm not even saying gambling with him, like you wouldn't embarrass yourself. I think the key to golf, if you like actually just want to do it socially for business have a good time, is do it minimum. Just get to that number and then if you can stay, you're fine. You can play with anybody. Like I'm good enough where I can play with scratch golfers and it'd be fun. Last week I played with a bunch of dudes that were probably like fifteen twenty twenty five handicaps, had a good time. But I think if if you do work really hard at it and get good, you do have to maintain that once you're handicaps at a certain number, if you're gonna play money games to anybody, because all of a sudden you're a scratch, Like hard to make money if you're not playing all the time. So I'm going glass half full here. I think if you're like a five or six handicap, that's prime. That's primary real estate. Curious what your go to wedges around the green. I remember being a kid when I started playing golf, my dad used to scream at me because right, you know this, my dad honestly wasn't a very good golfer at all, but he liked you know, Jack Nicholas and Nick Faldo and Greg Norman and old school golfers. Bump and run was huge, right what you watch now. I mean, Phil really revolutionized the game. But all these guys that use sixty degrees around the you know, the green tiger, the old old school guys would bump and run everything. And I always wanted to have a sixty degree wedge around the green. And like most people, I'm not a great wedge player. So if you don't practice wedges a lot, and you have a sixty degree a fifty six degree, your margin ferererror can be really slim on a lot of shots where I do try to bump and run anything I can, so I have no problem pulling out either a fifty degree wedge, which is my gap wedge, or a pitching wedge. If you know, the gap wedge is easier to use if I'm in the rough around the green. If I have like an opening where there's no rough and I'm basically on the fairway but I can see the pin, I will hit a pitching wedge, even a nine iron right and just keep the ball on the ground essentially like you know, and use you know, a putter stroke and kind of use my front hand my left hand on the grip and I grip it really hard so I don't break my wrists at all. But that's something that I've done a lot lately, is try to keep it on the ground more because you're just not good enough if you're not playing a lot to use a lob wedge, which good players can no problem all around the green. Let me throw another fun idea your way. Really appreciate how you take DMS. The Majors as love interest. The Masters your honeymoon always looked at fondly, more dialed up than any other time. If it happened all the time, it wouldn't be the same, but still beyond incredible. The PGA your high school girlfriend. You say you love her, but more than likely you don't. Once you go to a steakhouse, you realize the movies isn't that good of a date night. The US Open your ex wife some absolutely incredible moments, but drives you crazy and plays jump rope with being too hard and awesome. The Open your wife top tier as the game should be played. You have to wake up early and durre some crappy weather sometimes, but ultimately it's the purest form of the game. I'm riding Robbie Mack this week, Lefty with great iron play, strokes gain. Putting at Augusta is overrated as long as is above average. This was before the Masters. I do like that there is there's definitely something nostalgic about the Masters, and I think there's something pure about the Open. I'm with you on the PGA. It's by far the shittiest major. I'd even not even go high school girlfriend. I would just go, you know, your first true I think the kids call it like situationship. You know someone you're dating, but you don't call your girlfriend, and ultimately it's gonna end really bad, but it's really fun. Like That's kind of what the PGA is now. It's essentially a tournament that it's much closer to a normal event than it is, in my opinion, to a major. Let's talk Ryder Cup. You're the captain. Who are your twelve picks from the US. Let's say all twelve can be captain to pick. Okay, I will go Scotty Scheffler. I will go Bryson d Chambeau. I will go Xander Shaffle, I will go Colin more Coawa, I will go Justin Thomas, and I will go one, two, three, four, five, and I will go Patrick Cantley. So that's six. Then I think it gets really really challenging. You know, let's go USA Golf rankings. It's hard to do this off the cuff without So I got Scottie, I got Xander, I got more Cowa, I got Justin Thomas. Appreciate Russell Henley. You know, is he a lock? I know he won earlier this week or this year. Probably decent chance. Bryson's on it. Wyndam Clark would not be a lock for me. Kegan Bradley said that he will not pick himself, and I do think it's kind of impossible at the Ryder Cup. You know, Tiger was a President's playing captain. That would have been like twenty eighteen and that was badass. Maybe it was it nineteen, whenever it was, it was sweet. I don't really think it's possible at the Ryder Cup. I just don't think our teams that good. Billy Horschell not available, Brian Harmon, he's not getting picked. Auc Shay, probably not, Daniel Berger. I think we're gonna lose Sam Burns. The Gala has not been good. Nick Taylor's Canadian finales played like crap. Lucas Glover probably not HOGI I think we're in trouble. I mean, you get through like six seven names, no wonder. I don't even think. When's the last time Brooks Koepka played well? No wonder, Kegan Bradley's bringing him to this dinner. We don't have that many options. Maybe Kopka just has to be on the team. I think it's gonna be hard to get twelve guys, I really do. Now, we got another three or four months of majors and guys to let the cream rise. But we got a long way to go. Let's say Tiger was born in seven instead of nineteen seventy five, and he's turning eighteen this year. Crazy How two thousand and seven was eighteen years ago already? Jesus, that's insane. How many majors do you think he wins in his career against the current generation of players. Do you think the prevalence of social media, smartphones and cameras would enable his vices and have accelerated his downfall. I mean, Tiger, it would be more difficult if his vices. There are a lot of famous people that run around a lot in twenty twenty five, and we don't have pictures of their situations. There are a lot of professional athletes that have families, and I've heard some stories from people in some leagues that have like full on side girlfriends that they pay for their life and sometimes even the wife knows. But the picture has never gone viral of this individual. And let's be honest, if this picture went viral, at least the name that I've been told, it would be a massive story, even if like the family's cool with it. And I would imagine a lot of these people they're in relationships that are that do not parallel our lives. Things they're allowed to do and things that they just do are not things that normal people do. It's why I always say, like when these people try to give me advice for politicians or just like get on their high horse, like, bro, I don't give a fuck what you think. You live in a completely different world than me, and as we've seen, less and less people view what famous people say as very important just because you're an actor or an athlete, no one not that what they're saying, depending on who you are, doesn't hit home or have some validity, but especially politicians like we saw a lot of famous people speak out the last presidential election head zero to little to no impact. That you could argue that a negative impact. But my point is is that I still think you could sleep around if you're Tiger Woods in twenty twenty five and not get caught. It would be different. I do think he would probably get exposed sliding in some DMS. I think he would be a heavy DM or. But I think the one thing to one Tiger's work ethic is you could argue is one of the greatest in the history of athletics. To his design to win was second to none in three technology. He played in an era where the technology like his prime technology really changed when late two thousands. By the twenty tens, the technology that was coming out, specifically with the Woods was dramatically different than anyone that started playing golf like Tiger Woods in the eighties and the nineties. Tiger was never that accurate off the tee. It's why that he always instituted things like the stinger with a two iron because he knew that he could hit the fairway, and back then you weren't hitting it as far as a hole on the PG Tour. The courses weren't as long, and you'd get away with doing that. Now I think I saw a stat Scotty Scheffler HiT's like sixty five seventy percent of the fairways, and he's hitting at three hundred and twenty two hundred and thirty yards when Rory's on, like, he doesn't miss that many fairways. Phil and Tiger were all over the map. But with technology in twenty twenty five. You watched Tiger theseast couple of years, even post hurting his ankle, He's hitting that baby cut right down the pipe. So I think technology off the tee would be a get. He would be at twenty twenty five, thirty years old, right there with Rory. I mean this version of Bryson. He did it three hundred and twenty three hundred thirty yards, but like he did when he was young, he did hit it that far, but he was swinging out of his shoes. He was like Bryson a couple of years ago. Now he could just swing under control and hit three twenty five right down the middle with that baby cut. I mean, hell, over the last couple of years when he was healthy and he'd playing some of these tournaments, he's out driving Justin Thomas, he's out driving some of these guys he's playing with. And that's at forty seven years old. So imagine at twenty six what he would do. He would dominate. He would have no problem dominating this era. Now would he win at the clip in which he won, I don't know. The other major difference is he was making so much off the course that after like five years, he could really pick and choose where he played. Now the purses, you know, with the signature events he'd have to play, obviously the majors. It'd be interesting what a schedule was. It probably just look a lot like worries he would be. I do believe this unlessen we've lived. If you're my age had some unique athletes, right from Michael Jordan to Steph and Lebron to Brady, there's never been His name is Tiger. I mean his name is Tiger. Like just that alone, It's like it doesn't get any better than that Tiger. It's to me, it's the most iconic first name ever. I mean it just it doesn't get any better than that. I mean that alone, and he dominates his field by as much as he did. It's like, yeah, there's this guy that dominates his his sport and the gap between him and the next person is the widest in the history of the sport. And his first name is Tiger. I mean, it's just he's gonna be marketable immediately. And he's chiseled. He was good looking when he was young. Now he's holding onto the hair doesn't not quite as good, but he's never gonna shave and look like me. Coming to Arizona at the end of the summer, what courses do you recommend playing? My dad and I want to get out three times. I hear the stadium course a TBC. There's a Draft Kings course across the street. I mean it's TBC across the street, Draft Kings in the middle. What are some good bang for your bucks as well as quality? If you're coming late summer, so I'd assume August is so hot that the that the prices are it's the cheapest time of the year. I think you can never go wrong playing at minimum two of the three TBC Scottsdale, Greyhawk and Troon and if depending on where you're staying, I mean, Quintaro is a fantastic track. I would say Raven and Whirlwind are going to be much cheaper than those courses and honestly pretty enjoyable. When I first moved here, I played Raven a lot. Now that's one of them's in Chandler, the other ones in Phoenix. But I don't think you go wrong TBC, Greyhawk and Truon. What's your take on wearing the quote proper golfing attire. I've recently taken up golfing as a hobby, and every time I go to the course or a range, everyone else is wearing similar collared shirt and pants. I feel out of place showing up in a T shirt and shorts. But all the golf clothes I see at stores are absurdly expensive, and I'm not sure if it's worth it since I'm just a beginner. Thanks. I mean, if you're just going to the especially a public range, who cares one One thing that is changing dramatically, and it's actually starting at the top. Historically, golf is by far the stuffies sport. It's the country club. Historically, we're only rich people were allowed to play. That has dramatically changed over the last ten years with the explosion of public golf courses. Then it shifted back because public golf is so expensive now, and even country club golf is obviously expensive as well because you got monthly dues. But a lot of these clubs are now like the members are my age forty to fifty thirty years old, and go, wait, you're charging me all this and I have to tuck in my shirt. And that is something at the nicest country clubs right now that have a new younger feel. There are no dress codes. And listen, you go into Olympic Club in the Bay Area, you gotta take off your hat. No different cow clubs. Some of these courses Monterey Peninsula Country Club, LA Country Club, like they have old school rules, which I appreciate. Whatever you want to have in your club. If you want to have those rules, that's fine. I do think if you want to generate more interest and get more youth involved in the sport, listen, can you just wear nothing? Of course not can you go shirtless and play around at golf, But if you want to wear a T shirt and a pair of just shorts. Who cares. I mean, look what the PGA Tour did in the last couple of years. They allowed shorts in the practice round. Like, what are we doing, guys, It's one hundred and ten degrees. We're playing in Memphis and there's one hundred percent humidity. I gotta wear pants on a Tuesday. So if you're at a public driving range where whatever you want one thousand percent, and I think if you get more and more into it, I think golf over the next twenty years, one strong prediction is there are gonna be some courses that will never change. Augusta, La Country Club, Olympic Club. I just use those two exits amples because those are the two nicest ones I've ever played. Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Those are going to have a stiffer vibe. But like Silver Leaf, which is about ten minutes away from me, which costs half a million dollars to join. Their members are guys like Michael Phelps and John Rahm. There is no dress code. It does not exist. You can go into the grill and wear whatever you want and on any given day like there is absolutely it does not exist. And that is a trend that the more and more people I talk to is growing amongst these clubs, because if you want to attract younger people, I'm coming here to relax. I'm not coming here to be uncomfortable. And you know, forever I grew up going to this club in Davis. It's it's right between where UC Davis is in Sacramento, and the base of the membership are literally farmers and people that work in construction. It costs like five thousand dollars to join the club. This is not some exclusive elitist country club. And they used to have this rule, which I think has changed. You could not wear jeans in the dining room. It's like, guys, this is not Augusta National here Phyllis. Can we my jeans are more expensive than some of my slacks? Can I just wear my jeans even if I wear a button up shirt? And I'm all for having just generic rules. Hey, we're having a prime rib dinner. I know I'm getting on a tangent here, but this is something that is something that I'm passionate about. Is like, I am a big believer in the dress code should not exist now if you are having certain events, I understand it, and I'm not saying the PGA tour should allow anything. But as you've seen, like overtime, things change, and if you want to just wear an untucked shirt, you can wear an untucked shirt, So do not worry about what other people are wearing at the driving range. You're also right. I mean, listen, I'm in business with Travis Matthews. They just sent me a couple of collared shirts. I've been paid for a polo here in a little while. Trust me, I know you go into these golf shops, like you walk into the pro shop at TPC, you'd be hard pressed to find a polo. Now, granted they mark them up because they got the TPC Scottsdale logo on it or the waste management logo. I just don't know if you could walk in that in that clubhouse and find anything for under one hundred dollars, and I get inflation the dollar. We can talk to about that shit till we're blue in the face. The point is I can't find a collar chure from one hundred bucks. And that's that's just a fact. And they're not alone. I mean that's you go into a lot of these places. You go to the PGA superstore, you better hope they have a sale going on. Uh. And loving question for the back, do you think that Rory and Bryson will be a rivalry for years to come and the separation of players will make rivalries better? Or do you think the separation of the players will minimize the rivalry. I would throw Scotty in there as well. I do think the separation which is gonna end, whether that ends in two years, five years, a year, I don't know. No one seems to have a great grasp or understanding or even inside knowledge of what is actually gonna happen. I saw Rory had some comments today, or maybe it was like last week with Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon or wherever I mean CNBC O Squawk on the street. He's like, yeah, I don't think we're in a huge rush to do a deal because they think that they're bleeding dry, not because the Saudi's are going to try to run out of money. But like you know, sometimes when you're a little kid and you're like, go back to your parents for a little bit more money, and they say, no, I already gave you twenty bucks. I remember one time when I was a really little kid, probably like twelve or thirteen. I was gonna go to the movies with some of my friends. And this is probably, you know, ninety mid ninety ninety five, ninety six, ninety four, and back then you couldn't just like you didn't pay with things with a debit and credit card, right, so when you went somewhere, you needed cash. And I think I'd hey, dad, can I get ten or twenty bucks? And going to the movies at the time the movie take it was probably like five six bucks for a little kid and popcorn, probably three or four. And he didn't have any money. And it's like anyone my age knows if you need some money from your parents, which if you're a kid you don't have any money of your own, that if they just didn't have any cash, like there's just no cash coming from it, You're just not gonna have any money. So maybe you ask your friend if you can borrow some maybe his parents pay for you, but if they won't, like you're kind of screwed. And it was it was I don't know if it was thanks around Thanksgiving holiday or Christmas holiday, and my grandma, God rest her soul, she had some money and I was like, Oh, I'm gonna go to the movies, and my dad was like, oh, can you give give him? Give him some money, and she handed me like two dollars, And it just shows you like in her mind. I mean she I don't even know when the last time she had been in the movies. Who knows. It might maybe have been like the seventies or sixties, the little kid be able to get in the movies or two bucks and my dad like kind of laughing in the background. But I don't even know what that story had to do with anything. Question for the pod did you ever play pass the Timbo Golf Club when you lived in the bear It? If so, how was it? If not, are you familiar with the name. It's the last question. I've played it. One time I remember would have been like twenty eighteen or nineteen. I would just go on golf now every once in a while, and they would have these hot deals. I think they still have it, but this is way before golf got crazy. And I looked and I had heard about this course for a long time. I had never played it, and I saw a passa tempo because you could just do like a sixty mile radius from where you live, and it would give you the best courses by rating the cheapest the most expensive. And it had like a deal of the month and it was past the tempo for like ninety dollars and I was like, I did it. And I think it was like a Wednesday at seven am. And I played with his dad and his son. Super nice guy. I think the guy had played at like Stanford back in like the sixties. Enjoyable guy to play with. And yeah, courses course is sweet. I mean it's for those of you that don't know it's it's a really really nice it's a public course. I think it's like half public half private, kind of down in the Santa Cruz area, probably I don't know, forty five minutes hour north of Monterey. It's sweet track. So yeah, yeah, I've played it. I remember I probably shot like fifty on the front I got there. I didn't even hit balls, just went out and played. It was hard, it was cold, and then I settled down and started dominating in the back. Maybe shot forty, but it was just an enjoyable, just an enjoyable round of golf. I remember being pretty empty. I think the either the I think the eighteenth hole is a Part three, which in my life is the only time I've ever experienced that. And I remember the ninth hole. It kind of is like an uphill. I think Part five headed toward the clubhouse and I had sprayed it into the first hole because it parallels the ninth hole in the first hole parallel each other, going opposite directions, and I remember hitting the sand wedge toward the green and I took the biggest divot in the history of divits, and I mean it was massive. It must have been like three feet and like two feet depth, and I remember I didn't pick it up. I just walked toward the ball because I was kind of mad. The ball didn't go very far, definitely did not go on the green, and the people that were playing the hole started screaming at me. People playing one because the people I was playing with couldn't see me. They were like the opposite side of the green. And yeah, it's pretty embrassing moment. So make sure you fill your divts if you can. The volume