Digesting the Ryder Cup and Sanderson Farms Picks with Patrick McDonald
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All right, we are back. Long weekend for me. I just got back into L.A. last night. Obviously, it's a pretty special weekend at the Ryder Cup, and I have a lot of things to share from my experience there. So who better to bring on than my good buddy, Patrick McDonald, golf writer for NBC Sports Bet and Odd Shark. He actually wrote some of the Ryder Cup recaps for the Ryder Cup website. So I thought that he would be the perfect person to digest that.

some of what we saw because frankly, it was a lot. There's a lot that we can talk about. So hopefully we do our best to put a bow on what was a weekend that I will not soon forget. We do talk a little Sanderson Farms at the end. So if that's what you are here for, I do give some of my insight and my picks for that tournament. So a little bit of a different format, but after what happened this weekend,

It only felt right to share a little bit of that experience. Okay, before we get to my conversation with Pat, let's talk about Roto Ballers NFL Premium Pass. Win big in 2021 with Roto Ballers NFL Premium Pass. Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league? Well, Roto Ballers NFL Premium Pass includes exclusive draft kits, rankings, projections, cheat sheets for all formats, draft articles,

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Alright, Pat. How's it going, my friend? I am bringing you on this week to talk a little bit of everything. We're going to do some Ryder Cup at the top, obviously, and then we'll get into the Sanderson Farmers, man. What are you more excited to talk about? I mean, how can it not be the Ryder Cup? Tough week to really...

Throw your back into the Sanderson Farms, especially after, I mean, from an American perspective, an exciting Ryder Cup, kind of a downer for the lads across the pond, could be on the downturn there. But how can it not be a whistling straights on the American team, right?

Absolutely. And I have a ton of Ryder Cup thoughts. As you know, I was there. It's a really singular experience. It's kind of an experience like any other that I've ever had. And I've been to a lot of golf tournaments. I want you to start us off though, because I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff at you. There's a ton of stuff I want to get you. But the first question I want to ask you, man, was,

Were you one of the people that really overthought this one and picked the Euros? Because I kind of was getting there as the week progressed. I did officially go on record and pick the U.S. team and bet the U.S. team. But just to take full accountability, I also said it was going to be an absolute dogfight.

And I would be shocked if the US won in a route. Within five minutes of getting there, I realized like, what are we doing right now? This is such a mismatch when you stack these two teams up on this specific course. What was it like watching from a bird's eye view? Did it feel as dominating to you as it felt to me? And were you surprised at all from the result or did you kind of see that coming?

Yeah, I was probably in the same boat as you. I kind of saw, you know, almost a pickle almost. I didn't bet either way, the US or Europe, just because I thought the line stunk. But at the end of the day, what, like minus 190 was pretty freaking a bargain when you really look at it. So there are so many markets for the Ryder Cup. You could have gotten exposure to a US win with like they're offering like over unders on points. You could have just picked some US players for that to get some lines you liked. But

Yeah. There's one session really where it felt like Europeans had a slight chance and that was what Saturday afternoon when they tied two, two, like on paper, those were the only matchups all week where if you're an American, you're like, okay, this could get interesting. And you heard stricter talk about it. He was like, that session was massive just because if they swept us, it's a two point ball game going into singles and God knows what could happen then. But being up by six, I want to say, I

I mean, this thing was over relatively quickly. And I think that session they sat JT, Berger, Cantlay, Zander. So didn't have all the heavy hitters out there. But when a team is that stacked, that's kind of the luxury you have being an American. But from a bird's eye view, yeah. I mean, a 3-1 route, back-to-back sessions, yeah.

It was fun to watch, but it wasn't just because you knew exactly what was going to go on. You know, what was really interesting to me was hands down the best event to be at from an atmosphere perspective, hands down the worst event ever to be at from an actual watching golf shots perspective.

I think it was a no laying up guys that were like literally best event in the world. If you're inside the ropes and worst event in the world, if you're outside the ropes in terms of hitting golf shots. So like, I didn't feel like I got a sense. I watched everything that I watched. I saw every shot that Xander hit, but I didn't, I didn't feel like I got a sense of kind of the bigger picture. I heard the coverage sucked too. So maybe you didn't either. Yeah.

I mean, so what was your plan of attack out there outside of just following Xander's group? Because were you there Saturday afternoon as well? Yes. Okay. So you have to be... I've kind of learned with golf tournaments, you have to be very strategic with it. The strategy that I've always employed is, first of all, I like...

watching a full round from start to finish. I like seeing how a full round unfolds. I'm not one of those guys that likes to post up at like the 15th green all day. I really like to

key in on a player that I really want to see and really try and digest their round from start to finish. I feel like I, I find that so much more compelling for me. Of course, the downside of that is you kind of are oblivious to a lot of the other things that are going on on the course, but that's kind of how, how I like to do it. And what was so difficult about the Ryder cup is this specific venue, half of the holes border Lake Wisconsin or Lake Michigan. So,

All of the people, you don't have two sides for most holes for people to be on. Does that make sense? Like they, they, they, everyone has to kind of be in one specific place, which makes it worse.

really hard to get kind of good positioning and see golf shots. Like I went to the Northern trust a couple of weeks ago and I felt like, like I could hear what Xander was saying to Austin. I really felt like I was able to get a good sense of,

everything, like how exactly he was playing and everything. The Ryder Cup, it's so much more difficult to do that because there's times where you just have to be like, all right, I'm going to sacrifice watching this dude putt because if I don't move to the next fairway, like I'm going to be two holes behind and never catch up to this massive crowd.

Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, was the walk tough? I heard there are spectators kind of eating shit left and right. I ate shit a couple times. Yeah, I was very, again, like I'm very aggressive with trying to get in my spots. And, you know, the families are so smart about it. Like they get out ahead and they figured out kind of the way of the land and how to

maximize the amount of golf viewing that you can. So I was out there just following Stefan sliding down hills and everything. And it was great, man. Like I said, it was a good walk. I probably walked like 20,000 plus per day for sure. But it was also just really cool to kind of be...

around all that many people in a golf tournament. And kind of, I guess we could start talking about one of the other, other takeaways that I had was like the chemistry thing, dude. And, and I think that, I think most people that I talked to before the Ryder cup did believe that the chemistry concerns were a little overblown, but man, like just being there in that atmosphere, like,

You want to know how I could tell, Patrick? The wives and the girlfriends. Like, I was a little bit worried for Maya that Jenna and Paulina, you know, wouldn't fully accept her into the fold. Maya's Miss Shoffley, by the way. I figured. You figured? Okay. Yeah. Dude, it was so evident.

to me, how much this team actually did genuinely like being around each other. And you could just tell there was a real sense of camaraderie there. And listen, I think it's really, really easy to say that when you're winning. Winning really does cure all. Who knows what the vibe would have been with that team if they weren't playing well. But I was still shocked with how much this team seemed to like each other.

like genuinely, it was pretty awesome to be around and just a really cool experience for the fans. Did you kind of, were you able to get that sense on TV too? Yeah, there are definitely some player quotes out there. I think speed was saying how pretty much everyone knew each other except for maybe like DJ just because he's, you know, 10 years older than the average guy on the team or whatever, but they've known each other since grade school and junior golf pretty much. Um,

Uh, and then Kepka may have thrown a slight at God knows who, and he was like, this team was just more fun than years past. So that's up for interpretation for whichever golfer you don't like. You can say it was because of him or whatnot, but yeah, I mean, it seemed like they had fun and how, yeah. How could you not when you're winning 19 to nine or whatever it was, uh,

And they're playing some of the best golf in the world on one of the best golf courses in America. So, yeah, I mean, the team thing was for sure. I think they definitely chose to have

Scottie on that was like part of the reasons but I think it was a pretty big reason as well too compared to Patrick Reed you look at the guys that were set in stone on the team I mean Scottie shares the same agent as DJ and Brooks has that Texas connection with Spieth he's buddy buddy with Bryson which was kind of on full display this week but when I was at the BMW they were

you know, cracking each other up on the putting green while Bryson had four or five laptops out. So it was definitely, it's definitely been a thing for a while, but yeah, I mean, us is in a good spot, you know, relationship wise and more importantly, team wise for the next decade or so to keep bringing these home.

Yeah, I try not to engage too much in massive Twitter victory laps. I find they can be incredibly obnoxious, especially since it feels like 75% of them happen before the tournament even ends.

Get ready for the Thursday ones this week. Oh, I can't wait. I know Mito already won this tournament before a golf shot has even been hit. So I don't even know what we're going to talk about. But there's no conceivable way, Patrick, that I'm not going to acknowledge how much time I fucking spent beating the drum on this Scotty Scheffler thing and how much he should be on the Ryder Cup team and someone like Kevin Na and Kisner shouldn't have. I tweeted this like...

50% joking and 50% serious. But if you're curious about how Kevin Nahr, Kevin Kisner would have performed at whistling straights, just see column a row 15 Poulter Ian. Like I said, I was half joking, but I think Stricker nailed it, man. I think he picked the perfect guys for the course. I think he picked the perfect guys for the team. I thought some of the pairings were interesting.

But obviously they worked out. And I think Stricker deserves a ton of credit for nailing the analytic side of this, which historically the Euros have kind of lapped them in and selecting the best possible players for this specific course. If you want to talk Na or Kisner for Rome, because that course is probably going to be set up a lot more like what we saw in France and

2018. I'm totally open to having that conversation. But on this course, that would have been a pretty obvious mistake. And I'm sure they still would have won the Ryder Cup if you subbed in Kevin Na for Scotty Scheffler because the talent advantage overall is still skewed so heavily in the U.S.'s favor. But I think it...

I think if it wasn't obvious to you why Kevin Na or Kevin Kisner were never going to be on this team, it should be now. And I think one of the bigger stats that stuck out to me is like the U.S. won something close to like 70% of the par fives.

That is why you have guys like Scotty Scheffler, who's like number one on the PGA tour and total driving. Like there were just a couple, there were a couple shots that you were required to hit at whistling straights that the euros just, I don't know if they had in their bag, you know, like 17 is a par three playing 240 yards. And it's just like a pure straight up question. Like, can you hit a high draw with a four iron? And like the U S had,

11 or 12 guys that could and the euros had like six guys that could yeah i mean hat tip to you sir uh they should get you they should get an earpiece for you uh for rome

But I mean, I would, I would always poke the bear a little bit with some tweets here and there just to, you know, spice it up with Kevin Nash and make the team or something like that. Obviously anyone with half a brain knows Kevin Nash and not have made that team. And I mean, I don't even think he got a call from stricker same with Billy Horschel. Yeah. Yeah. They're both a little butthurt about that.

But yeah, I don't, I don't know. I mean, I can't really take anyone seriously. Obviously Riggs had that whole shtick that he kind of took from what's his face from no laying up with the whole Benedict Arnold thing, Benedict Ronald. Yeah. So, you know, they're just content machines trying to appease the masses and sell some t-shirts, but yeah, I mean,

Scotty Shelford was a clear choice for, I guess, number 12, maybe even number 11, you know, if you want to give yourself a little bit of that too. But yeah, hat tip to you, Andy. You know, I think that Patrick Reed kind of, as you said, uh,

I think they, I think Stricker could have screwed this up in 15 different ways and they still would have won, but there really was something so tangible. And listen, I'm sure that a lot of these guys, like they're going to, they're going to go back to doing their own thing. And who knows if this is going to translate to years to come. We may have just kind of caught lightning in a bottle here with a group of 12 guys that were kind of all peaking at the right time on the perfect course. But yeah,

There was something about being there, man, where it just felt like I got the buy-in from them that we hadn't seen in the past, especially when you look at guys like DJ and stuff like that. Did you watch that press conference? I literally got back to my hotel room, and I was psyched to watch the Rams-Bucks game because I had all my fantasy guys in that. I turned it off in five minutes to watch that press conference. It's the best press conference I've ever seen. It's crazy. They were blackout.

Yeah, just rivaled the 2017 President's Cup for sure. DJ, you give him, you know, a little bit of liquor and that guy talks for the first time in five years about God knows what. Yeah, I mean, it was hilarious. The Xander quote I loved when he was like, what the hell are we doing here, guys? I didn't know we had to do media. Like, I'm

I'm trying to get more drunk. I'm losing my buzz. And then everyone starts asking questions. You can see it on his face. And then his cigar went out. He was having the worst time up there out of all the guys. I get it. Just to give you a window into what my DMs look like, there was a guy that DMed me and was like, hey, is Xander a regular cigar smoker? And I was like, I don't fucking know. Yeah.

Dude, come on, Andy. You got to be better than that. You got to know that info. Yeah, it was quite a sight to see. I guess we kind of have to talk about this too, but what did you think about the infamous Bryson and Brooks hug at the end and the potential implications for a match, as we'll call it?

Only in golf will a video of two grown men hugging go viral. I'll just say that. I think, I think like bet online has like a line or something that for a charity boxing match between the two, which I would much rather see instead of one of those matches again. But if it's a match, I don't know if it will be as fun just because Phil is a complete lunatic and says some crazy things. And yeah,

I don't know if Brooks can really bring that type of heat. But yeah, I mean, hey, they're going to be selling T-shirts too. Everyone saw the stepbrother team shirts that they had, which were freaking hilarious. But yeah, I don't know if... Do you think Stricker ever seriously considered playing them together? That's a great question because that...

That stood out to me as another one of the things that he said is like, you really know how bought in this team was given the fact that Bryson and Brooks wanted to play together. I could see it. I think that he for the first time this week and kind of the players did allude to this a little bit in the prep.

presser. I think he came in with a very specific plan. And I think that he really did kind of weigh the numbers this week. And like I said, there were some pairings that I was a little surprised about. I was a little surprised to see guys like Brooks and Spieth together. There were a couple times where I was a little surprised, but I think what that kind of speaks to is that

Stricker had a game plan. I don't think that because since they got an early lead, they didn't really need to make too many adjustments. So I think they kind of came in with their plan and stuck to it. And I think if Stricker felt like the numbers were pointing in the direction of Brooks and Bryson playing together, he would have done that. Obviously, it would have been kind of a crazy way to get the crowd even more into it than it was. But yeah, I mean, I think that...

Sure. Yeah, I could have seen them playing together. I think that watching them on the course together, it seemed genuine. I was there when Bryson won his match and Brooks wasn't there, but I kind of waited until all of them finished the match and gathered together. There's a picture of this too, but it really seemed like Bryce

Brooks gave Bryson a big dap before the presser and everything. And it really seems like a real genuine like, hey, look, like we're never going to be best friends. But hey, we we fucking put this shit behind us for this week. And you played great, man. Like, good going.

Yeah. I think one of the, like the funnier parts about like after the Ryder cup was the cameras were just like on the guys doing whatever on the 18th, whether it was Tony Finau spring with everyone with champagne or whatnot. And like everyone kind of had their significant other. And then there was just like,

bryce in there kind of no man's land like not with his with his tick tockers yeah like not really knowing like who to approach he was kind of on like the outside of like each bubble and i was like gosh man if i could just like get in his mind right now because everyone's been there in their life one point or another you're at like a bar or something you're like

fuck i have like no one to talk to right now like i'm holding like three beers i can't really get another one like what am i doing here and just watching that he was in like four different shots in a row and it was just like the funniest thing ever that some people may not have noticed but me being the weirdo i am i did one uh there's two more quick points i want to get to and then and then we'll do a little sanderson farm stuff too but do you think that um

Do you think that Bryson, because I mean, obviously his on-course performance was awesome and he's a showman. I mean, he really played to the fans really well. The fans were really behind him there. Do you feel like Bryson is going to parlay kind of some of the good juice and vibes that he had this week into kind of,

you know, the PGA tour, or do you think it's kind of a situation like Patrick Reed where they have this kind of singular awesome week where they're captain America and everyone loves them. And then, you know, we're going to get to Bay Hill and Bryson's going to start complaining about fire ants and everyone's going to hate turn on him again.

I think he will because, I mean, you just have to look to the last time where the fans were really united behind him. And it was the Arnold Palmer, you'd have to think. And he was an ultimate showman there, too, on what is it, the par five, fifth or sixth or whatever it is at Bay Hill. So if he can keep playing well and keep being the weird guy that he is, that people are becoming more and more inclined to like because he's becoming more and more popular.

normal or relatable almost. It's hard not to like his chances to have a good year. I don't know when or what his schedule looks like. I know he played the Shriners last year because he shot like 10 under in the first round or something. But I don't know when he's going to get going. But I imagine that first tournament out, the fans are going to be really behind him. And I wouldn't put it past him to

Patrick, is that your way of telling me that you don't have the World Long Drive competition live stream on in the background of this podcast? You know, I did for a little bit just because I used to absolute dummy Kyle Berkshire in junior golf. And I think that's what I did for a little bit.

goes to show you who's the more successful of the two right now. What time's Bryson coming up? I think it's, I just, for my day job, kind of writing articles for Golf WRX, I just had to write kind of a viewer's guide. And I think it's like 3:00 PM Eastern when, I think the competition already started, but I think Bryson goes off at 3:00 Eastern. So

Kind of right when we, yeah, we'll get, we'll, we'll be done in time. We'll, uh, we'll get into it a little bit. Um, last thing I want to talk about, um, Rory, just give like thoughts. Uh, I didn't, you know, hindsight, obviously it was like a good decision to sit on. You would think if you're Harrington, cause he was horrible outside of Sunday, but I would not have sat him still. Uh, what was that Saturday morning? I think, I mean, he's, he's the heartbeat of the team. He's the guy everyone looks to, uh,

in the locker room, even though they still have all those veterans and Westwood and Poulter. But, I mean, talent-wise, leadership-wise, it's still Rory at the end of the day. The interview at the end with Sky Sports and then Steve Sands, I don't – I'm not like a huge –

emotional guy when it comes to that kind of stuff. Like he just got his ass handed to him and everyone was just like, wow, look at, look at Rory. Isn't he the best? And sure, sure. We can be romantic about golf and the Ryder cup more specifically. But at that point in time, I was like, yeah, I mean, he, he just got his ass kicked and he's crying now. I don't know if it was like my dad who brought me up and used to,

like, I don't know, yell at me for losing or anything, but, uh, the interview, I was kind of on the opposite side of it as opposed to the majority who are like, I love Rory McIlroy for this. Like he's giving us such insight into who he is. I was more like, I'd be more pissed off than sad. Uh,

but that's me personally. And from afar, he's the guy actually flying. You know, it was, what was really interesting to me about that whole thing is, um, that Xander match really had like no juice. Like, that's why I was a little surprised how emotional he got after. Um, but it was, I mean, there's leaderboards everywhere, Pat. So like by, by,

the, I don't know, 12th or 13th hole of the Xander Rory match. It was crystal clear by like 1 p.m., like after an hour or so after everyone teed off that the U.S. was going to win in a route. And it kind of felt like

a lot of the matches that were kind of finishing up, they were, they felt a little bit meaningless. It wasn't like neither of them were really playing that great. Like it was the worst Sanders played all week. It was the best that Rory has played all week, but it wasn't that obviously wasn't a high bar to clear. Um, but that, that's what kind of surprised me is it's like a, it,

it felt to me like it was actually like the quietest the course had been. Really, it was the most golf I got to see was that match. A lot of people really weren't following it compared to the others. And I was surprised to see how much that meant to him and obviously surprised by his reaction. But

I love Rory. I do like Rory in the sense that I think he's a great interview. I think he's incredibly transparent. And I think that he, I think he knows he's incredibly introspective and he's really, he's really good at kind of explaining things.

you know, to the casual golf fan about how the broader context of these things. And I think golf is a really lonely and individualized sport for a lot of these guys all the time. And they haven't got, most of them haven't gotten to be a part of the team since they were, you know, like ever, or maybe if they were on the Walker cup and I, I found it to be,

Very cool that it just showed some credence to how much this means to the players. But at the same time, I was a little surprised at the reaction because it really felt on Sunday just being there kind of like it was over within five minutes. You were kind of playing out a string the rest of that afternoon, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah, I mean, Rory is arguably the best interview outside of a drunk Dustin Johnson. But yeah, it's, I don't know, like, I don't really have an opinion on Rory.

Just like he does give great interviews, but sometimes I'm with him and sometimes I'm like, eh, I don't really know about that. But I mean, you can't knock him for giving honest answers all the time and well thought out answers, which he always does. Did you read the Porter piece?

Uh, I did. Yeah. Yeah. I think not like I didn't like dive into it. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. No, me neither. Me neither. I think the, like the cycle analyzing Rory thing, I mean, there's been podcasts that have made a career out of it. Um, so, you know, it's going to be a topic that, um, always continues. And I think the biggest reason why is he continues to give and, you know,

we shouldn't be talking about Rory at all. He sucked. Like he went, he went one in four, he was a massive disappointment, but then he gives this interview and it's like, man, like maybe it's another time to reflect on Rory again. Maybe he'll win a major this year. Yeah, I know. Right. Um, but anyway, is there anything else you want to get to man before we, uh, hop into a little Sanderson? Uh, I don't think so. Uh,

Now, let's just talk about Sanderson. Let's do it. Let's talk about Sanderson. As you can tell, we're very excited for this. All right. Sanderson Farms.

Country Cup of Jackson, Patrick. It's a par 72 measuring 7,461 yards. Bermuda Rough, Fairways and Greens. The Greens are champion Bermuda, which is the same surface we see at Quail Hollow and Southwind and Sedgefield. In my opinion, I don't really think that there is a set way to succeed at this course. We've seen bombers play well here. We've seen

really short fairway finders play well here. We've seen short and inaccurate guys off the tee be able to make up for it with irons here. And we've also seen simply the guy that rolls in the most 20-footers succeed here as well. So for that reason, I'm not like entirely caught up in finding specialists at a specific skill set. I'm kind of more so just looking for players that can make a ton of birdies, are in good form, and have experienced at least some success on Bermuda. I just...

I don't think there's like a perfect course fit here because I don't, I don't think it's like a very good or compelling golf course not to get to like architecture, bro, but it's just, it's a lot of straight holes. The course is kind of all right in front of you. And what you see is kind of what you get, go make some putts. Um, I'm just kind of looking for guys that are trending in a positive direction with their ball striking and can kind of fill it up on an easier test. You have any, you have any hot takes on a country club of Jackson? Yeah.

I can't say I do. I'm not losing sleep over country club Jackson. I mean, I agree pretty much with your sentiment. It's,

I mean, the putting that has happened here, though, is unbelievable. Like Cameron Champ gained nine. Yeah. Nunez was there. Monati gained like almost 12 when he won. So it's definitely a crapshoot. It's a guy who's striking a well and just happens to go nuclear on the greens, which we say every week. But this week, it seems a little more more so.

For the record, also, as you mentioned with the putting, there's never been a winner here under 60-1 since the event moved to Country Club of Jackson. Even Sergio was in terrible form last year, and he actually won at 70-1. Cody Gribble and Ryan Armour were both 125. Malnati was 250. Nick Taylor was 400-1. When you get to a course like this,

Pretty much every single type of player has the ability to compete. There aren't really any cross offs and you tend to see some of the most elite players maybe lose a little bit of their advantage, which is kind of the case I made against ROM at at the Fortinet. It's like you want to bet ROM at Torrey Pines when half the field doesn't have a chance. These are the weeks that you kind of want to take some shots if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I'm with you there. All right. Well, let's talk about some of the favorites. I'm going to give you the 25 and below guys at DraftKings. Sam Burns is 14 to 1. Corey Connors is 16 to 1. Sung J.M., 16. Zalator is 16. Charlie Hoffman, 20. Sergio, 20. Tringali, 25. Any of those guys pique your interest at the top?

Those are disgusting. I might play Hoffman and DFS a little bit, but I like the way he was trending. I hate the number on him.

But I'm not touching anyone under 25 this week. Sam Burns, 14. Oof, that's crazy, even though he could. He has the MO and kind of the profile to go nuts on Bermuda Green. So maybe him if you're one of those guys who bets favorites in the top of the board. But ew, that's kind of all I got to say about it. It kind of stinks up there. What about you? What about Willie Zee? I don't know.

So, no? Okay. Can I sell you? Can I try and sell you? Yeah, please. Please put your case out there. So, you know, clearly I'm not going to follow my advice that I just laid out of not taking the favorites. But I like Zalatoris at 18-1. Not a lot of chatter I've heard so far about Zalatoris this week. I don't know if it's because the odds aren't that great or the Mito thing just kind of suffocates the whole conversation. But I think this is a really good spot for him.

And I actually do tend to prefer him on more difficult courses where you have to hit a bunch of long irons. And if he misses a bunch of birdie putts, that's fine because he's hitting so many greens when others aren't. And par is kind of a good score. But I look at this course and it's a lot longer than some of the other easy courses we get like

Almost 22% of the approach shots here come from 200 yards plus all the par fives and a couple of par threes and long par fours. It adds up. And Zalatoris is number one in this field in proximity from 200 yards plus he's plenty long off the tee. You know who the perfect, I was thinking about this on the plane yesterday. You know who the perfect Zalatoris comp is? It's Sergio.

I could see it. Yeah. They're the same guy. They do exactly the same. They struggle with the same things. Their statistical profile is like identical. And I think this is a course where you can just bomb it off the tee, dominate the par fives and, and,

I think sure. It looks like the greens are a little undulating. The designer did try and do like a Donald Ross thing here, but I'm also not sure that he totally succeeded at that because you see so many terrible putters play well here. So, so give me, give me Sal Torres who's coming off a real, a real quiet T11 at the, uh, at

the Fortithant gained 6.8 strokes, ball striking best ball striking week since may found the putter again, gained over 2.5 strokes and two of his last three starts. Both of those came on Bermuda. I love it. I think he wins. There's a couple of guys that I think probably watched the Ryder cup, like Zalatorris and Burns are really the two that come to mind. And we're like,

Damn, you know, I gotta, I gotta make a move. Um, I gotta make a move. Um, and it's like, okay, Zalatoris, like, yeah, he's, he's kind of an obvious Ryder cup guy in the future, but like, who's spot is he taking? The U S is so damn deep. You got to start winning tournaments. And I think the, I think he's ready.

I think the reason I was turned off him because I remembered last year, Scotty Scheffler came into this tournament as the favorite around like 15 to one. I want to say, I remember that clearly. Yeah. Yeah. And I was just like, God, is this like deja vu again? Like the recent rookie of the year coming in who didn't win the year before granted Xyla Torres, you know, not even a member of the PGA tour last year wins PGA tour rookie of the year. That's a whole different conversation. Um,

And it kind of just brought back like bad memories. I think Scottie missed the cut. I want to say probably he tends, he tends to play way worse in, in the lesser field events and then really show out for the, for the majors and stuff. Yeah. So I just inherently glanced over Zalator's, but the case you made sound,

All right. So let's talk about some of the, uh, kind of this 25 to 50 range. I, uh, five minutes before we went on, I read your odds checker article. So let's have the meato conversation, dude. Let's do it. I'm not missing out. Okay.

I know he was 80 to one a couple of weeks ago in Napa. It was his like best tee to green performance on the PGA tour yet. So sure. Let's see if he can put on Bermuda. Let's give it a go at 33 to one. I'm okay with that. Okay. So that's the essence of it. Okay. So yeah. Um,

I was prepared to bet Taylor Gooch in this kind of range. I was looking for someone in that 30 to 60 range, and Gooch was going to be my guy. Obviously, Gooch withdrew. So I was sitting on the plane yesterday, and I was kind of trying to find someone in that range that could kind of replace my Gooch bet. And

I was looking at Keegan a little bit. I was looking at Cameron Davis and I was looking at Wolf a little bit and Siwoo and kind of those guys, Varner, Strelman, you know, all those guys. And it was hard because I...

Mito was the guy that on paper, based on all of my research and what I was kind of looking for, Mito would be kind of the clear play for me in that spot. He was very popular last week or two weeks ago at the Fortnite. And my thing with Mito at the Fortnite was the guy's ball striking totally fell off a cliff at the Wyndham. And

And I have no data to see how he responds after a poor ball striking week because he's played on the PGA Tour like six times. And obviously he responds great. It was a total blip in the radar. And the number one thing that I'm looking at for this week is like, how is your ball striking trending? And Mito is obviously coming off a performance where he was, I think he gained like 11 strokes from T to green at the Fortinet and was just absolutely awesome.

So there's like this, but yeah, here I'm, I'm getting to that. I don't, there's like this cult thing with, with Mito right now. That is like, it's just, I want to participate in, in, in Mito week without being an obnoxious Mito person. So I don't know what to do. I haven't made a move yet. I feel like you're a contrarian at heart. I know that you hate the Twitter love when it comes to whoever it is for the week. So, I mean, you're in a pickle this week for sure.

I despise it. I feel like you're one of the most tame Mito people I've met. I feel like you're one of the most like respectful Mito people that I've met. You laid out the case and it wasn't, it didn't feature. This is the best player in the world. He is the greatest thing. I mean, he is absolutely the greatest thing. He's going to win 15 times this season. So,

I like the way that you are participating in METO Week as opposed to the way others are participating in METO Week. I'll say this. He's only burned me once and he got a top five out of it. So if he burns me again, my tune will sound a little different whenever he tees it up next. I might be a little more pissed off at him. But I'm tame for now.

And it could go either way, good or bad. But yeah, I'm not in the Mito is God corner. Absolutely not. Well, the thing about Mito, and then we can move on. I think he makes a lot of sense. He's on my short list. I haven't made a move yet. But if his name was Player A, I probably would have slammed him already. I'm just being stubborn. I think he's probably the guy that I want to bet. But the thing with Mito is like,

People are acting like this is this like young, like golf prodigy hotshot, like Mito's older than John wrong. Like I heard somebody say that Mito's like better than walking Neiman. Like, what are you talking about? Neiman's like four years younger than him and has been on the PGA tour for like three years and contending in like FedEx cup playoff events and WGCs. Mito had an awesome season on the corn fairy tour and like came out of nowhere to get his quarterbacks.

because he won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour. He's older than Scheffler. He's older than Zalatoris. He's older than Sung Jae. He's older than all these guys that Wolf, all these guys that are kind of Hovland, Morikawa that are thought of the next wave. And people are kind of just lumping him into that category. Like, no, he's a guy who had a really fucking good Korn Ferry Tour season. I don't, I just, I want to see it.

a little bit. Yeah. If that makes sense. That's fair. And I think the love also comes from those people who do bet the corn fairy tour and like may have hit on him once or twice. And they're like, yeah, this guy has made me so much money. He's going to continue to make me so much money, but it's funny how we look at age. Yeah. Like Morikawa was younger than him. Yeah.

Scotty and like all these other guys and you don't really realize it. And like, yeah, Neiman too. What is he like 19, 20? Yeah. Neiman's like, Neiman's like 21 or 22. Wolf I think is 21 or 22. Mito's 26. Yeah. I mean, Mito was buying Joaquin beers last year. Let's be honest. Yeah. And I mean, listen, he, uh, the ball striking thing is, uh,

it's nasty. It was nasty. Like I was me and, uh, powers who, who I know you, you've talked to a couple of times before and you know, cause you, you've been on be right as well. We were, we were talking about, he had, he had Steve texting him about Mito, like on every single shot on Thursday and me and him were sweating so hard. The, uh,

not winning just because of how obnoxious the Mito people were going to be if he did one. And we kept like texting each other, like, fuck, he's good, man. Like he's actually like really good. It's like that motherfucker. Yeah.

But, okay. So, all right. I think you've talked me into participating in METO Week at kind of a tamer and more respectful level. I'll probably get there if I can find like a 32 or 33. Moving up, is there anybody else as we kind of spread things out into that range all the way up through 100? I'm on CT Pan.

Trendy pick, Pat. I've seen a little CT love. Yeah, I added him for a three ball at the Fortinet because his irons were on fire. He just didn't really putt that well. And he kind of carried the irons through the weekend, found the putter a little bit. 80 to one. People forget this guy's an Olympic bronze medalist.

Come on. You're, I mean, you're the Xander whisper. These Olympic medals mean a lot. And I mean, if, if you're going to talk pan, you got to talk about the silver medalist to Rory Sabatini also on the card at a hundred to one. So I got them too. And McKenzie Hughes, who is,

If you want to talk about a guy who could just find lightning in a bottle on the greens, he's got to be top five on that list. And he had a bad FedEx cup playoffs, but the courses weren't really great for him on paper. I was talking to him at cage Valley and he's like,

Essentially, I'm going to have to scramble my ass off and get up and down from everywhere to even sniff the likes of Rory and the people at the top. And clearly he did not do that. But I think this course could suit him a bit better. Obviously had some good major appearances there at the Open, U.S. Open. Played well at Detroit Golf Club, Donald Ross Design. I know you said there's not...

He tried to make it Donald Ross-esque. It probably isn't, but there could be some correlation there, I think. Enough to put me over the edge at least. So I'm on Mackenzie Hughes as well at 80 to 1. Those are the three guys I'm targeting in that range. It's funny. I kind of went the... I just... When Sergio and Cameron Champ went in back-to-back years, that's like literally all that I need to bet on

all of my favorite shitty putters. So I bet Bramlett at 80 to one. I think this is one of those instances where I'm actually going to bet a player at lower odds than I think I should have, because I think the odds are telling you something with Joey Brams. When I did my projections,

I had him in the 125 range, certainly above 100. He's always above 100 regardless of field. Now Bramlett's like 60 to 1 at some places that week. I bet him at 80, but

great course for him. Number one in this field and driving distance. Um, he's coming off a week where he gained three and a half strokes off the tee and 4.9 on approach, um, which is insane by the way. And, and prior to that, he just won corn fairy tour championship, which had to be a big confidence booster. Um, it was his first professional win and clearly it was because he followed it up with one of the best ball striking performances of his career. So, um,

The more I think about it, I do understand why he's fallen down the odds board a little bit. I'm going to bite on this one. I think there might be something going on with this guy right now. Yeah, I liked him on paper. I couldn't get behind. I could have the bronze medalist and the silver medalist.

or Joseph Bramlett. So I went with the Olympians, but he, I did look into him and I liked what I saw. So I, I can get behind that pick for you. The, the, the one of the better tweets I saw from the weekend is the,

of course I've become close friends with the Xander shot tracker. And he, he, he tweets out something along the lines of somebody, somebody comments about like Patrick Reed being captain America. And he quote tweets it. And it's like, what are you guys talking about? Like Xander's captain America. He's the only guy in the world in the history of golf. Who's won a Ryder cup, a president's cup and an Olympic gold medal. Are people forgetting about the Olympic gold medal? Yeah.

You got to put some respect on the real. It's a real, it's a real captain America. Yeah. Justin Rose, Xander Shoffley. Come on. But I think you, I mean, it's like, we're obviously half joking about this, but like, that's that,

Olympics was also another reason why that was kind of Mito's hello party to everyone. That was, that was where everyone kind of learned about him a little bit more as well. So yeah, there's something going on with pan this week. Undoubtedly. I think my buddy, my buddy Bamford, who I had on last week was, uh, was banging the pan drum a little bit. You're not, you're not the first I've, I've heard on pan. So there's definitely something there with that. Uh, the other guy that I

that I really liked and I bet was, I bet, I bet Shank, uh, son of a sod farmer Shank at a one 60 to one. I thought that was just a silly number. I thought like he really popped out to me and you know, I would have endorsed him at like a hundred, uh,

which is what I was kind of expecting. And he's actually in the seventies and eighties at most places. And FanDuel just hung this one 60 and I kind of bet it immediately, but he's played here four times, 43rd, seven, 36, 32nd. Clearly likes it here. He's long off the tee. Awesome on, on par fives, hits a ton of greens, makes birdies. So,

So I just go back to the biggest thing that I was looking for this week above even course fit was, was like, how's your ball striking trending? And Shank is really hitting the ball well right now. He does not know how to chip at all, but I don't think that's going to matter a whole lot this week. And when a guy is 80 points off from market rate, I think you kind of just roll the dice. So yeah, those would be my guys like Shank, Bramlett,

Back to Hoffman too. I was staring at a Hoffman 36 to one as well. That 20 is disgusting. But if you can get Hoffman in the mid 30s, I'm on board with that.

Yeah, I like him a lot this week. I think he has like decent history too. I don't have any notes in front of me, of course, but I know the shank I was looking at as well. I don't know the 160 was out there. Shame on me for that. Hey, yeah, maybe I'll throw, you know, 10 bucks on him or whatever it may be. He's on my first round leader radar as well.

including Peter Malnati, which he actually struck the ball pretty well in Napa. I saw that. He could be someone of interest this week. He could be a suspect.

Yeah, Malnati, he's one of those guys. He's won here and he finished second last year. He's like kind of the prototypical, like doesn't really falls into that category of what I was talking about, where if you can just make a ton of 20-footers on this course, like this is a fine course for a guy like JT Poston or Malnati, which in some ways, like...

like everyone's live here, which makes this event a little bit of a crapshoot, but it's kind of fun this week because it could be kind of a breakthrough spot for one of these guys. And if you kind of pick right at the bottom of the board, you probably have a better chance of hitting on someone huge than you do on a regular week or out like a US Open or something like that. So yeah, I love that. Anyone else that we haven't talked about? I gave a

I'm thinking about giving Doc another chance in like a, in like a real buy low spot. I think, I think I'll probably use him in draft Kings and, and I don't think he'll make my outright card, but I think I'm going to test him back out. There's really nothing about this course that kind of stands out to me. He's fine here. He's made the cut twice, but yeah,

you know, he's missed five cuts in a row and his number is just kind of plummeted. But if you dig a little deeper, like first of all, last fall was when he really turned things on and everything is kind of trending for him in the right direction. Like he gained 2.7 off the tee at the Fortinet, which that's like monumental for him because he usually sucks off the tee and the irons have been bad, but those are getting a little bit better as well. So I just think it's kind of a good buy low opportunity on a guy like,

where, yeah, on the surface, you see that he's missed a bunch of cuts. But if you dig a little bit deeper, everything is kind of slightly improving with his game with each week. So it's like 6,500 on DraftKings. That would be the only... Him and Sam Ryder, I was looking at a little bit, but it starts getting gross quickly. I'm on... I was looking at Ryder as well, unfortunately.

But there's a ton of love out there for Johnny Augustine. And I just want to put it out there. I was the first guy on him at the Fortinet top 20, 12 to 1. Thanks for coming. And all of a sudden...

People are realizing this guy can hit the crap out of his irons. It's like, yeah, he's like best friends with Justin Thomas somehow. He was on the first page of the leaderboard at the Masters when he was an amateur for a little bit there. So I just want to put it out there. I found this guy. It was me. There's...

Yeah, he's a guy. Yeah, there's definitely like there's a Augustine buzz. There's like a there's a weird Hayden Buckley buzz. There's like a weird Davis Riley, Davis Thompson buzz. I've seen I've seen like some Chad Ramey buzz.

I think you're just making up names at this point. Well, I think a lot of these guys, like they do a lot of people. I don't. I don't have the bandwidth for it. I don't have the time to follow the Korn Ferry Tour, but I think a lot of people do bet the Korn Ferry Tour and you kind of fall in love with some of these guys. And, you know, who knows? I don't know. But I mean, that's...

Anyone else? Oh, I had one more question that I wanted to ask you. You reminded me when you started talking about Mackenzie Hughes at Caves. What was that like, man, being inside the ropes? Was that your first time? Oh, yeah. It was unbelievable to see the behind the scenes of everything that goes on in the media center, how all those writers operate and whatnot, and being able to walk along.

I was with Bryson for 60, like the most disappointing six, 60 cents, like DJs at TPC Boston. And it's crazy. I mean, speed is an absolute like mental case on the course. It was everything I could have dreamed of. And yeah, just being able to experience it more inside, being able to be on the range and the practice facilities and kind of during the practice rounds, be able to walk with the guys and ask questions to them was amazing.

freaking sweet it was unbelievable hopefully i'll be able to do it again when they come uh they're coming here for the wells fargo uh since president's cup is at quill hollow they're coming to tpc potomac and then the ladies are coming to congressional for the pga next summer so hopefully i'll be able to go to those two but yeah it was it was unbelievable they uh

they did it right at k's and a course like that was it was pretty special to be a part

what do you set the over under on president's cup points for Mito? He's got to go five and out, right? There's like no conceivable way that he doesn't go five and out and carries that team on his back. Imagine the outrage on Twitter. He somehow doesn't make the team. And they were, they were kind of, I think it would have been fascinating. I'm sure for you to go to the Ryder cup to kind of juxtapose what it was like following Bryson. They were dogging him at caves, right?

it was weird it was on when he had that round friday or he had it on friday the 60. and it was i only saw like one guy really like give it to him he was like have fun on the corn fairy tour once the arm locks banned you and like was just like following him it was like out of the scene of happy gilmore it was pretty insane and then he finally got the boot

And he was like, I didn't do anything. What are you talking about? But besides that one guy on Friday, everyone was really with him just because they kind of realized this guy could shoot 59 right now. That'd be pretty cool to see. But on Sunday, I mean, Baltimore just flipped on him. It was unbelievable. I was not expecting it. And everyone was rooting for Cantlay. And it really, it really got in his head. He was talking to himself a lot.

And I think it really started on Saturday when he hit that, those two shots in the water back to back to like let Cantlay back into it. And Cantlay then made like a long birdie. And from then on, it was, it was like flip switch in Baltimore. We're like, you know what? We're rooting for Cantlay now. Like everyone just agreed somehow. And mentally it was, it was tough. And his, his agent doesn't really do him any favors. He's kind of, he needs like an actual guy who like,

put him in his place. And it feels like his agents more so like a buddy to him essentially. And like doing like, yeah, you're doing great. And I think granted the Ryder cup happened, but my point of view at that point in time was like, he needs a hard ass as an agent to kind of put them in his place a little bit, but it was kind of sad to see, you know, him storming off. And I think people read that ESPN piece. I didn't, I didn't witness it, but yeah. Yeah.

It's Baltimore too, though. And they're a different kind of city. We'll put nicely. Well, yeah, that's what's so fascinating to me is like, I'm at the Ryder cup. Everyone was behind him and it obviously didn't hurt that he was playing so great. And him and Sheffler were kind of this awesome team where they would kind of pick each other up when the other player was down and, and,

And it just worked really well together. And the crowd really got behind him. So I'm really fascinated to see how that kind of progresses onto the PGA tour. If, if it's kind of that same sentiment with Bryson or if it, if it goes back to, you know, I don't know, whatever, but can't waste a fucking dog, dude. Like he is, have you ever seen a guy kind of flip the narrative on himself?

in such a short period of time from being considered like the most boring player on tour to somebody that talks about like gin game theory and press conferences. And it's just like his most big, biggest, like, how do I put this without sounding like complete weirdo? He, him and his girlfriend are still in the honeymoon phase. We'll say that him and his girl, Nikki, Nikki, Nikki was all over that this weekend.

That's like, so like one of my like friends from college, he's, he grew up with Cantlay in California. And my friend from college is like a few years, few years older than me. And I consider him like one of the coolest guys in the world. He like commercial real estate in New York, like really has a shit together. He's used to work with space brother to the one that played basketball at Brown. Just one of those guys that knows everyone somehow. Yeah.

And like the contrast between him and Cantlay, I always thought to myself, I was like, why the heck are you hanging out with someone like Cantlay, like on paper? But to see him like kind of grow in front of like everyone's eyes is pretty cool to watch since I've always kind of been a fan from afar.

But when we were going back and forth between 18 and 17 on the playoffs, I was walking with his camp and like Kira Dixon from golf channel. Yeah. And I was like eavesdropping on the conversation. They're like, Oh, how'd you meet and everything? Like who introduced you? And it's like, yeah, like everything's going well. Like we're just like having so much fun together. And I was like, all right, this is definitely a newish relationship for these guys. And I mean, she's just along for the ride. I mean, she, she got on at the perfect time. She's like,

loving it she's loving being part of the mix there was uh he had her on his he was driving um they have these little carts for the u.s team where um like that the captains drive around like phil is driving this cart around kind of every hole um inside the ropes and and she was just plopped

squat on his lap the whole time on the cart with Phil driving around it. It was, it was funny, but we're about like five minutes away from power ranking all the wives in the Ryder cup. So I think we should, we should probably, we should probably get out of here on, on this note, Patrick,

What a pleasure, my friend. I know that we will do this again very soon. And before we get out of here, why don't you tell everybody where they can find your work this week, my friend? Yeah, if you guys like first-round leaders, really bad memes and whatnot, you can find me at AmateurStatus on Twitter. And I do previews for NBC Sports Edge as well as Odd Shark. And yeah, Andy, always fun. I appreciate you having me on in such a hectic week.

Of course, buddy. We will do it again soon, my friend, and enjoy the Sanderson Farms. Hopefully, we'll have something to celebrate. We'll hold our own separate METO party. Yeah, that's fair. Invite only. All right, buddy. Talk soon, my friend.

That's it for the show, guys. Special thanks to Roto Baller, Thrive Fantasy, and of course, Patrick McDonald for joining me. I apologize once again. I will not be able to do a Sunday preview show for the Shriners. I got invited by one of my college buddies to play Chicago Golf Club and Olympia Fields this weekend. So I'm actually going to the Midwest again, flying out to Chicago on Friday morning and flying back on Sunday night.

If you're into architecture like I am, you'll understand why I'm making the trip to Chicago for 48 hours for this opportunity. Chicago Golf Club is just...

pure elite stuff from CB McDonald, one of the greatest courses in the world. It is true bucket list stuff for someone like me. So when you get an invitation like that, you kind of just have to drop everything that you're doing and take it. So I apologize. I won't be able to do a Sunday preview, but I will absolutely do a pick show next week. Enjoy the rest of your week. I'll catch you next time.

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