Olympic Golf Preview & Major Season Takeaways with Dan Rapaport
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Bringing on an old friend, haven't had on for quite a while, Dan Rappaport, Barstool Sports, to put a bow on major season, do some final takeaways from the 2024 major season, and then, of course, talk some Olympic golf, some Olympic men's golf preview. So without further ado, let's bring on Dan Rappaport.

All right, Dan Rappaport is here. Barstool Sports. You just got back from Scotland. How we doing, my friend? How is Scotland?

It was great. It was great. You ever seen the show Outlander? I've not. No. Okay. It's a great, fantastic show. My wife and I are big fans of it. And it takes place in the Scottish Highlands, which is like the northwestern part of Scotland. So classic golf guy. My impression of Scotland was like dead flat links in the southern part of the country right next to the water. I wasn't even super aware that that part of the world even existed. Because as a golfer, anytime you hear about Scotland, you just think of

St. Andrews and Carnoustie or whatever it is. And so we became aware of this incredibly beautiful, magical, kind of mystical place in the northwest of Scotland. And we decided we wanted to go. So open in Scotland. She came on Saturday of the open, kind of got adjusted to the time difference. Then on Monday, we drove about six hours from Glasgow or in the Glasgow area, which is where Troon is.

on the southwest part of the country, kind of through the middle, through Inverness, which is kind of the last... I won't even call it a city, but probably 50,000, 60,000 people. That's way up in the north. We had lunch there. And then we took a left turn and drove to this town called Torridon, which is really close to the Isle of Skye. It's probably the place that people might recognize. That's kind of the more famous tourist area. And we spent three days just

just existing in this incredible part of the world. It looked a lot more like... It looked like what I would expect Norway or Greenland to look like. Just these crazy lakes and locks, I should say, and these dramatic peaks. So that was awesome. We spent three days there. And then...

We went to Copenhagen, which is where I studied abroad in college. A lot of Duke people actually were in Copenhagen. A lot of Duke friends from Copenhagen. And yeah, it was great. It was really nice to take a little vacation after the major season. I knew 3M was going to be a little bit of a, you know, kind of a dud. So it was good. And yeah, back in LA now and resting, getting over the jet lag and getting fired up for the Olympics and kind of the last push here of the year with the playoffs and the President's Cup.

You know, I had a similar experience in Ireland. Yeah. September 2022, me and two of my best friends went to Southern Ireland on a golf trip, you know, to play Ballybunion and LaHinch and Tralee and Waterville and all those great golf courses in Southern Ireland. And

On one of the days, my buddy, who is kind of more in charge of the itinerary, said, let's actually just not play golf this afternoon and go to some of the cliffs, like the Cliffs of Moher in Southern Ireland. I've never been to Ireland, but I've seen the pictures. It was...

I was so skeptical at first because I couldn't imagine traveling all the way there and not playing golf. I didn't even have my golf clubs, my golf clubs. I was, I tried to bring my golf clubs and they never even got on the fucking plane from, from LA. And the most annoying part of it is I fucking upgraded because I was like, you know what?

it's been a good couple of years. Like I don't do this very often, but I was like, you know, I've, it's been a good couple of years. This is an 11 hour flight. I'm going to fucking upgrade. And it was like, the woman was like, do you want to do it? It's like, you know, it was like a thousand dollars. And so I was like, you know what? I do want to do it. So, so, so when I'm first checking in,

I have my golf bag and I bring it to her and she's like, oh, you're going to have to, you're going to have to bring that like over to the oversized bag where you drop off the golf bags. It was like, no problem. And then after I, and then she's like, oh, do you want to upgrade? And I was like, yeah. And then she's like, oh, I'll take a golf bag for you. No problem. Like I'll tell, I'll take it for you. You know, you upgraded. So I'll bring it for you. Never got on the flight, just never got on the flight. And then, so I land in Scotland and then my bag was in Paris and they were like, oh, it got on the wrong flight. Like we could try to reroute it to Scotland, but I was going to be at the open every day.

And so I didn't, you know, you have to be there to receive, especially golf clubs. You don't want them just leave the golf clubs like on, you know, I was staying in some random apartment in air. I was like, those are gonna get stolen as fuck. And so I told him to just bring them back to us. I didn't have my golf clubs the whole time, which I think probably getting back to your point made it easier, but it did feel a little sacrilegious. I spent, I spent nine days in Scotland and didn't hit a golf ball.

So you didn't even play any of the, the golf courses. And cause I know I had a couple of friends that went to the open this year and I've never been to the open, but I would imagine most people that do the open, whether even if you're covering it on the media side, or if you're just going out as a fan, you're

Play Turnberry in the area. Yeah, I like to do something that a lot of other media people... I like to do something that a lot of other media people don't like to do, which is actually work. So I try to go and like... I was also doing... I worked for the BBC last week. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, so that was like added sort of another kind of thing to my plate. And so I just...

I feel like when I go to cover these golf, if I'm in Charlotte and it's Wednesday afternoon and things are quiet, I'll go play golf. But I feel like if I'm there at the Open, it's the last major of the year, I'm going to kick myself if something happens or there's some interaction that I could have had with a player that I didn't have. It's like,

You're there to do a job. And I've, I've kind of stopped chasing rounds of golf because I get enough rounds of golf. And I've played a lot of golf in my life. I'm going to play a lot more, but you know, there's a whole contingent of media people who like, we'll call a friend of their uncle's friends, dad's head pros, former best friend, roommate to try to get on a tee time. And I'm, I'm just like, I've kind of, I've kind of,

I try to work those weeks. I don't know. There's only four of them every year that people are really, really, really paying attention. And so I try to make the most of my access. Well, the other piece of that too is I think practice rounds are...

a phenomenally engaging experience. Dude, I go to so many tournaments now. I haven't, I don't stay at PJ Torvitz. I go Tuesday, Wednesday, and then I go home because that's when you can actually talk to people. Yep. Like once a tournament starts, you are a nuisance. Like think about the way I describe this is think about if you had, if you did interviews with players, uh,

uh, basketball players after the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, like they just, they just want to go into the locker room and fucking rest. Right. Like they, they're not going to give you anything, you know? And so once, once the tournament starts, they really go into autopilot. And so you're a hundred percent right. Tuesday, Wednesday, I try to be there all day long because the only, the only way,

to build relationships is in person. It just is. If you're texting somebody and you're annoying, they don't want to respond, you got to be there and you got to talk to people, whether it's... And it's not just golfers. It's caddies or super gossipy, coaches, agents, people who work for different brands, people who work for different media companies. It's just...

you know, four times a year, the entire golf world congregates. And it just blows my mind when, when half the media tent on Wednesday afternoon is just playing golf. I guess it's just, it just, you know, it's, it's different priorities. I suppose. I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. They might say, you know, you're, you're lost and working so much and you should live a little, I don't know. I, you know, I feel like I play plenty of golf when I'm home.

Right. Well, the I mean, also, when you're there, like you mentioned, make the most of it. Right. So the so the masters I went to the I would I actually saw you in CP briefly at the masters, but I was there with my dad. I was going for this. It was my first time at Augusta. And I was you know, my audience is far more concerned about that.

predictive how players are going to play so they can use that information to make bets. Right. And I go to some tournaments. I go to Riviera every year. I go to Torrey Pines every year. There's a major like I'll go to LACC or O'Kell if it's a New York or L.A. major, I'll go. But I'm not there. I'm usually at four to five P.

PGA Tour events slash majors per year. And so I don't get the opportunity too often to really go to a practice round, get there at 8 a.m., lock in, and stay till the last players are leaving on the range at 6 p.m. And I'm not even being hyperbolic when I say this. I spend hours looking at the data side, building spreadsheets, building models. Yeah, you're fucking really good at it. Thank you. I picked up

So much more in those eight hours spent walking around Augusta than I think I could have ever understood and learned from looking at a screen. I'll give you an example. Victor Hovland, you know, I spent some time just watching Victor Hovland. And again, like, I don't think that you need to be a body language expert or a body language doctor. You just have to be around the game and go to enough tournaments for a long enough time to really figure out the types of players that are.

that are working and the types of players that are, that are out there playing golf and just getting to sit on the range and watch guys play a couple of holes and watching the difference between the guys that were out there grinding and, and hooked up to watch man monitors. And after every shot, it's another 15 minute conversation with their coach between another shot versus the guys that are out there. I always say like, it's insane. Like I always say the guy is,

Wednesday afternoon at a major is panic time. If you see a guy out there who's grinding and really trying to figure something out on Wednesday afternoon of a major, it's probably not a good thing. It's true also when they're playing. Even in the tournaments, the eye test is important. It matters. I was on to my horn a little bit here. I said on the BBC last week, I said I think it was after three holes, Xander had just missed

You know, Saturday he played a lot of the attention went to Billy who shot 69 on Saturday. It was, by the way, Saturday was the most unpleasant day I've ever been on a golf course, probably because I had to be out there because I was working. Yeah, but because I was doing on course commentary for the BBC, if I was not, I would have been just like inside because it was that bad.

And I wasn't dressed for it. I was wearing, I was wearing basically like a golf polo under, cause it was warm in the beginning of the day. And so you're like, Oh, I don't want to overheat. I'm gonna be moving around. So those afternoon groups got completely dusted out there. Yeah. Dusted, dusted. So it was, it was freezing. And I actually on the, have you been to Troon? I never, no, I've never, I've never been to Scotland. You gotta go and you should probably play golf. But anyways, the, the 11th hole, um,

The 11th hole is just like a brutally difficult hole. And the 10th green, that was the one with the railroad tracks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the 10th green is like, the 10th green is elevated. And so I was standing next to the 10th green, just getting pounded with rain, like pounded and I'm freezing cold. And I was very close to firing up the radio and being like, you guys don't have to pay me for today. I'm done. Like I'm going to catch pneumonia. Yeah.

And then obviously I didn't do it, but you know, it was that day and Xander, uh, had just missed, he shot 69 himself, but he missed a bunch of putts. He had a lot of chances and he had just missed like three, three putts on the front nine kind of inside 12 feet. And I was, after he missed one, I went to the next and just striped his T shot. I was like, he's going to win the tournament.

He's going to win the tournament. He's playing the best. I saw him. I saw he was playing with Cantlay. And Cantlay looked miserable. Just kind of turning away. He's in all his different reindeers trying to shuffle. And Xander actually just wore a cashmere sweater the whole day. Austin Kaiser deserves a Nobel Prize for keeping that thing. It got wet toward the end of the day, but it was not nearly as wet as you would expect it to be. And I remember seeing him walk up and he was just...

He was just so unfazed and unbothered. He was just like, yeah, the weather's shitty. I'm playing good. And I just knew in that moment, like this guy is not going to fold. And so, you know, to put a bow on this, this, this kind of tangent, the eye test matters. Yeah. And that, well, it kind of leads in nicely to the next thing that I was going to ask you was we'll talk a little web picks towards the end, but, uh,

I kind of just wanted to think about at large, and I'm sure we'll get to Xander a bunch because I have a point that I want to make about Xander too. But did you go to all four majors this year? Yeah. So when you think of 2024, and I'm sure that we'll talk a lot about Troon because that will be top of mind.

But what are some of the big takeaways when you look back at this year, when you look back at this major season, what do you think is going to stand out to you? The first thing that pops into my mind is, is Scotty getting arrested? And no, it is, it really is. I mean, it's, it's, it's so, it's so insane that that happened to any golfer. And then for it to happen to the number one player in the world on, on, you know, if we think back to that time,

He had won the mass. He had won a Bay Hill players masters championship.

Yeah. Yeah. Second in Houston. Yeah. He was. Yeah. Right. He had won the he had won the first major of the year. He had won the players. So he had won the first two massive tournaments. He had just taken a couple of weeks off to have to have his first child. Yeah. Right. So it's just this, you know, he was already occupying such a unique space where he was all eyes were on him. Like it was he was the guy how Scottie played was going to dictate the whole tournament.

And I remember that morning I stayed up really, I think it was right. It was Friday, right? He had shot like four or five under the first day or maybe three under, and it was Friday when it all happened. And I remember I just,

I stayed up really late on Thursday night for no fucking reason. Like I wasn't like out drinking. I was just like on Tik TOK for like way too long. Just been, I was like, you know, like I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna sleep till eight. You know, the, the, the, I think it was like the first groups, the first few, I wasn't doing commentary or anything. So the first feature group I think was like eight Oh six. So I was like, I'll just, you know, wake up, watch the first, you know, watch it on my phone. I do that a lot. Watch it on my phone while I'm getting to the golf course. And then, you know, I'll catch them on either the fourth hole, the fifth hole, whatever it is.

And I just remember waking up and it was, it was that same feeling I had when like the tiger car accident happened and you first get that news. And, and obviously like the June sex. Yeah. One of those surreal more. Yeah, exactly. June six, another really good example where like, you know, it's first your, your, your chemicals start going. And then, and then in my position, I start to realize like, oh man, like this is going to be a long day. I'm going to be on this show and that show. And, and so I just remember, I just remember that.

That is what the first thing that pops to mind. You know, I, I, I do wonder how that tournament goes. If that doesn't happen, you know, Scotty is Scotty is way too sort of polite and nice to ever, to ever blame anyone or anything. But, you know, I just, I just wonder how that tournament goes if that doesn't happen. So that's the first thing that pops into my mind is just the, the, the insanity of that. The second one is, you know, it's a really, really interesting year. Like, you know, I'm going to ask you this. Do you think Scotty would trade his year for Xander's year?

Yes, I do. But I don't think that it's as easy as a question if you're asking me if it's Rory versus Scottie. I don't think that Scottie is at the point in his career yet where he feels this immense amount of pressure to win major championships. Does that make sense? Yeah, he's 27. Right. So I still think that Scottie, even at 27, is better.

probably now at the point of his career where he realizes that he's chasing history, right? And every time he tees it up, he has the opportunity to elevate into like the conversation as one of this generation's greatest players. So I still would say yes, but I don't think it's as easy of a one-to-one comparison of like Rory would trade 30 PGA Tour wins for one major. Right, which he would at this point. Yeah, another couple takeaways I have is

I'm just sort of bummed by JT and Jordan Spieth. It really felt like, especially at the Open, I mean, I know JT kind of made some noise and had some good rounds, but it just never really felt like they were a serious, like they were even worth paying attention to. Can we throw Brooks into that mix, too? I've got, you know...

what I want to know is, you know, does he have to do punishment workouts after all four majors or was it only, only after the masters? If you're going to, if you're going to use that line of like, Oh, it's high at T 45. It's so embarrassing for me. Like he, he kind of have to perform the next four. No, I think Brooks will win again. I just think it's, that's just sort of his career. Um, you know, it's, it doesn't feel, I don't have the same sort of concern that I have about, about speed. I mean, speed was just kind of not a factor this year. Like he was

He was never even really worth paying attention to, which is, which was, which was kind of upsetting to me, you know, and it's, it's, it, this was a year where I think we're now in year three of live golf and, and we're in year three of this sort of bifurcated era and this sort of Scotty versus Xander conversation, uh,

is really kind of a portal into a conversation of like, are the majors the only thing that matter right now? Because, you know, by any measure, Scotty's had the better year, you know, better strokes, gain numbers, but I don't need to tell you and your audience this, like it's, it's, it's clear who's been the best player this year, but are there only four tournaments that really matter anymore? And I, you know, have we, have we, has this, the more and more players who go over there, you know, Bryson winning, you know, has it,

Has it so cheapened the week-to-week grind that all of Scottie's stuff will fade? I don't think so because he's been that great. But it is an interesting thought experiment of like, you know, even talking to Bryson. I mean, we had Bryson's coach on right after he won. And he was saying, you know, he really, he wants to peak for the majors. Like he, you know, I think he's like 11th in the point standings in live golf. I don't think he gives a fuck. You know, it's like,

Are we in a position where we have four tournaments that matter and everything else is just kind of fun to bet on and fun to watch, but for sort of the narrative importance just kind of fades to the abyss? I think we are entering that era. And to be honest with you, that bumps me out just a little bit, not just because...

You know, if there's four weeks of the year that fans care about, that's just really bad for, I think, both of our careers. I don't think that as golf lovers, we should have to settle for that. That's why I'm voting for Scotty. I think I think I still get to vote. That's why that's one of the reasons why I'm voting for Scotty is like, I just don't want to live in a world where that doesn't matter.

Right, right. And I do think it does matter, but I also think that there are some concerning warning signs that would point to the point that you're making about how it does all feel a little bit cheaper. You take two examples, both on the PGA Tour side and the website. First, you look at the website and it's like, okay...

Bryson has the 99 percentile optimal outcome in terms of like a reversal of narrative of what you're thinking of how you think about a player after he goes to live right Bryson goes from this very much maligned pretty polarizing character to I don't know if I'm ready to call him universally beloved but.

But I think for the popular player, this side of Tiger woods, I'll tell you that for sure. Right. And not only is the most popular player, this side of Tiger woods, but it actually feels like he has a self-awareness to understand the importance of being popular with not just the 60 year old dads that watch CBS on the couch every Sunday. Like he's the only guy that,

took the money from live and is like genuinely reinvesting that for selfish or unselfish reasons. He built into golf. Yeah. He's built like a fun house. He hasn't opened it yet, but his house, he's like a hundred thousand square foot house with like, um, he's got like a go-kart track that goes around. He's got, it's not, it's not done yet, but we're, he's got a, um,

He built a situation where he can hit shots off the top, basically of like a hill. I think it's the highest point in Fort Worth or wherever he is. He hits down to a green and he is installing a zip line to take him down to the green. Which is going to be incredible content. Incredible content. And that's the thing is like he's going to show everybody that.

And everyone's going to live where it's like Tiger back in the day built this mega mansion in Jupiter, but you'd only ever see it on a satellite Google image. Right. And I think that, I mean, to the broader point of Bryson raises his image and becomes so much more of a overwhelmingly popular visible figure in the game of golf.

And I still don't think that that is moving the needle one bit in terms of people that are lining up to watch him hit his first tee shot at live Nashville. And I think that that is the curious predicament that we're in right now is that.

We are getting these stars from the majors, right? Like Bryson has undeniably become a star. Not, I mean, not just to the majors, but for what he's doing, you know, on YouTube and not through the tours, right? It's, it's not through the tours. And I think that's where the,

the inherent problem wise is that there isn't, we aren't seeing that crossover effect where it feels like the people that are waiting in line to watch Bryson's YouTube videos or

or are you know standing behind the 18th green at pinehurst trying to touch that trophy it doesn't feel like those people are getting converted necessarily to live golf fans and i think you could say something similar about the tour i don't know how the tour would grade its first year in the signature model um

maybe they would do some spend zone that it, well, I think Scotty really helped. I think Scotty's greatness really helped because he's won. What are you in like five or six of the eight or whatever it is? Yeah, he won five. And I mean, it was, it was pretty outside of, I think Chris Kirk won the first one. The signature model was, you know, it got pretty good. Yeah. Like even the players was good. Like, you know, they, you know, the, the,

He didn't win Riviera, but that was great. You know, they've had good tournaments. You're right. But I think, I think if Scotty didn't go on that run and like, instead of Scotty winning five of them, it was like, you know, Colin got one and, you know, Victor got one. And I just don't know that. I don't know that it would,

It's definitely not. It's definitely not. And what does it mean? Right? Like, because, because if you have like a year like this, where Bryson kind of announces himself as what, you know, at worst a top five player in the game, probably, I think you still got to put Scotty and Xander a hundred percent ahead of him, but then your mileage may vary on three, four, five, six. Yeah. Bryson's definitely at the top five. Right. In that conversation.

And then you start to, I'm not big on like the whole, we need to view everything with an asterisk, but I definitely think that the more that Bryson separates himself as one of the biggest names in golf, uh,

I think that that, and he's playing on a different tour, I think that undeniably, whether we like it or not, I think that is going to happen. And Rom, you know, Rom won last week, and he finished top 10 in the Open, and he's had not the best 18 months, but he's not going anywhere. He's not going to fade into the abyss. I mean, he's second in the point standings. Not that that really means anything, but he's... And they're going to get...

They're going to get more players. If this deal doesn't happen and there's no moratorium, they're going to get more players. I mean, you look at Anirban Lahiri.

He played 166 events on the PGA Tour, made $9 million in his career. He's made $27 million on live in 28 events. And that's not even a guy that got the headlines because he got $40 million guaranteed. He just kind of went over there for his $10 million or whatever it was and realized that, okay, I'm going to be playing against 48 guys or 50 guys, 10 of which are doo-doo. And there's going to be a $20 million.

$5 million, you know, a bigger person, the open championship every single time that I tee it up. I have an, and the team competition, I'm on Bryson's team. I have a couple of good weeks and I'm going to, he's made three times the money in one fit the events. If you're a guy on the PGA tour, that is such a fucking no brainer. Like if you're not a guy, you're not a guy who's going to, who's not chasing history. Right. And honor one was probably 35,000.

When he made that move, it's like, you know, I'm not saying that on Obama here, he's another guy that's going to, that's going to move the needle. But like, there is definitely guys who, if that offer came, uh,

would take it in a heartbeat, you know, and if you're super tired of seeing Webb Simpson get all the sponsors exemptions, right? Yeah. So, you know, and if, yeah, if you're not, if you don't feel like you're, you know, kind of one of the in guys on the PGA tour. And so, yeah, it's going to, it's going to continue to happen. It's going to continue to happen. And, um, yeah, just, you know, hoping, hoping we get one of those other mornings where we, I start to freak out because there's some big news that happened. I just, we, we need that. One of the other, uh,

takeaways that I wanted to, that, that I was thinking about this morning for major season. Um, and this'll bring us back a little bit into Xander. Um, but I was thinking this morning about like the concept of patience as it pertains to a player's development. And, um,

I think about what happened with Xander a lot and the concept that, you know, is Xander a late bloomer because he won his first major at 30? It feels like the answer is yes, because it feels like we were waiting so long for Xander to finally win a major. You know, he was at the top of the list of those best active players without a major, but,

But the reality of the situation was, you know, Xander was right on schedule. Phil Mickelson won his first major at 33. Phil had won 22 times on the PGA Tour before he ever won a major. DJ won his first major at 32. He won nine times on the PGA Tour, 10 major top tens before he won his first major. And

I think that actually might be the comp for Xander, right? As DJ, maybe. Where you look at DJ career and Xander's career...

They're actually Xander's now a little bit ahead of schedule on him, but this concept of like how quickly a narrative can change on a guy. And I really think we need to slow down on this guy's a loser. This guy can't close. We need to slow down on those convert. I know our buddy CP has been CP throwing dirt on everybody, you know, right. But, but I think we really need to slow down on those conversations about

a guy that a guy like that before his 30th birthday, because, you know, I wasn't on Twitter. Twitter wasn't really around when Phil and DJ were in their late twenties, but those guys would have absolutely gotten ripped to shreds with all the same stuff that Xander was. And both of them turned out to be top 35 guys of all time in the case of Phil, a top 10 guy of all time. So I think we need to slow down with some of that stuff. And I think Xander's a really good example of that.

Yeah. Golf is very unique in that way. It's the only real sport that, I mean, there's, there's a couple of guys who pop up in basketball who, who bloom late, but you know, the superstars in football tend to be the superstars kind of right out, right out of college and tennis, you know, another individual sport. It's like, there are some late bloomers, but typically, you know, the best, best guys in the world, Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev, like since these guys were 20, they were in the top five in the world.

Golf is super different in that way. You've got the DJs, you've got the fills, and you've got a guy like Jake Knapp who doesn't even get on tour until he's 30. But then you have guys like Jordan Spieth and Morikawa who get a couple early and then sort of reset the clock for everybody. Yeah, Rory, of course. Yeah, Rory, four by the age of 25. And so everyone matures at a different age in the sport. And I think it's one of the cool things is like there are guys who...

And then you ask them, you're like, what changed? And they're like, they can't really give you a good answer. You know, it's just, you just keep knocking down the rock and eventually, eventually it breaks. I do definitely think Xander probably doesn't win that tournament if he didn't win in Valhalla. You know, I think there was a certain calmness that he had and he said this afterwards, you

you know just sort of it's gravy now once you get that first one done you know you you can play with it with a certain freedom but you know if you ask xander what changed between uh you know augusta this year in valhalla he would say nothing nothing really i you know i just i finally got it done it finally went my way and and yeah you're right it's it's a sport that moves really slowly but

then you have just really four chances a year. You have four. And if you get one of those, the whole narrative of your entire career shifts basically overnight. I think golf's in such an interesting spot too with that because I guess the counter argument to that would be all signs indicate that golf is getting younger, right? Like you even just look at the junior level and you play junior golf too. You play junior competitive golf too. Yeah. So interesting. Like I was playing with...

I was playing with a buddy who has a young son who's kind of getting into junior golf and, you know, the AJGA stuff. And he was talking about how

I mean, because this is wildly different when I was, you know, playing junior golf. When I was playing junior golf, the concept of speed like was not in any coaches vocabulary. No, it's just hit fairways and you'll eventually develop and, you know, find distance later. 100%. And now you have a lot of coaches teaching speed training as like a prerequisite for

honestly above mechanics in some cases like i don't know if you caught any of the u.s junior am at oakland hills i was watching some of the highlights of that they hit it so far right they just swing so hard they're they have like that oakland hill like they're 260 yard par threes the guys are hitting irons they're 13 years old and that's why i'm like having a difficult time trying to marry the

If we're ever going to see another Phil Mickelson again, where, you know, he wins, you know,

uh, 30 times after the age of 35 years old and six majors VJ, or if, because of what junior golfers are being taught in terms of this, like speed optimization, that happens to be like the optimal skillset for PGA tour courses, right? Like there's the open championship, right? Where you have all these weird, crazy elements, right? Once a year.

It's the one major year where you could maybe say that like long and high, like high launch angles are not the optimal skill set that you want. And I think that's kind of the interesting thing that I'm trying to marry going forward.

Yeah, I mean, Bryson's a good example. Like he, you know, he he hits. He's probably the best example of just hit it nine miles way up in the air. And he said, like, I, you know, I haven't figured out the open championship yet. He missed the cut. He's had, I think, one top ten and like nine starts. And it came at St. Andrews, which is like the only open championship venue that allowed driver putter. Right. But is he incentivized to change his game? No.

No, no. One tournament a year. Yeah. One tournament a year. I'll hope he gets a calm week. You know, he'll, you know, he can hope that, you know, he times it up and, and, you know, back foots it and, and it just works out. But you're right. There's, there's not an incentive to, to develop, you know, a game, even, even like tigers, but, you know, back in the day, a guy who was, was very, and I, you know, I have this, I have this watching tiger, uh,

a lot. He's so conservative. Yeah. You know, he's so conservative off the tee. He's so conservative going into, going into greens. And, and that's the way he was brought up playing. Yeah.

You know, where people out, where people out, you're going to win that. There's somebody who's going to be hitting it three 30 and going to, you know, you're going to be given up 50 yards or six, whatever it is, or there's going to be a guy who's hitting driver on this drivable par four. And, and, you know, might he make a six? Yeah. But he's, he's just going to take his chances on, on getting the sort of better side of the variance. Yeah. It is interesting because I think we're going to see more injuries. I think we're going to see probably shorter peaks, uh,

But there's so much money in the game now that, you know, if you can have three or four hot years, you're really set for life. And so there is that incentive to build a game that, you know, is really good from a really young age that can contend with

right away, you know, Thor Bjornsson, Luke Clanton, you know, these guys who've had success this summer, same thing. They hit it super fucking far. They hit it really, really high. And, and that's just sort of the template because that's what's, that's what's successful every week except for one. Yeah. And a lot, a lot of the time too, like you actually start to see some of these guys, it goes back to the old, uh,

Patrick Harrington quote, I'm going to paraphrase here, but it's kind of the idea of scar tissue, right? And the concept of some of these guys that haven't been through the ringer by the sport. And I agree with this too, just from my own personal experience. Like I remember, um,

playing as a junior golfer in tournaments, I was so freaking fearless, man. Like I did not have that scar tissue in my head built up of missing a short putt in a competition and embarrassing myself or, you know, hitting a shank off the first tee in a competitive round of golf that, you know, whether that's consciously or subconsciously in your head, it happened and you're never going to be able to completely erase that from your memory. And I think,

maybe this is completely unquantifiable, but I think somebody like Rory, who has had all of that scar tissue at this point versus some of these players that you watch Ludwig play golf and it doesn't even look like his brain is on. It actually just looks like he's on autopilot. And I think some of these guys...

that are coming up very early are going to be super, super dangerous, right? Some of these guys that I also just think like,

Like you just have to acknowledge it. Like it seems like a lot of these guys after they have kids, they settle down, they get into the 30s. Some of their priorities change. Like it's just it's it's a little bit different. And I think it's going to be fascinating to see going forward whether we get some of those guys that have a mid to late 30s resurgence or if the move is just to bet on.

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Yeah. I mean, I think back to what Rory said after the, I just got to take, um, after Pinehurst, he said, you know, I started to get really uncomfortable on the 16th green. Um, I remember waiting for that, for that par putt on 16, which no one else was waiting for it. I was standing right there with everyone and moved on to 17 T cause it was two feet. And, you know, I don't think he has those feelings when he's 24. Now you just, you just don't, you just don't.

And, and, you know, because, because you're, you're just all gas, no brakes all the time. You're going to rack up wins, rack up wins. Once, once, like you said, once you've, your priorities shift a little bit and once you're right. And you don't feel the gravity of the moment either. Like if you're a 24 year old playing in a major, you're,

you've got a decade longer of your prime and somebody like Rory is getting to the wrong side of 30. Every putt feels that much more meaningful and that much more fleeting. A hundred percent. I mean, you just look at the world rankings. It's, it's younger than it's ever been. Not, you know, the world rankings aren't a great measure, but even the data golf rankings, like it's, it's, it's younger. It's, it's, it's guys in their twenties and Rory is, is really, and, and like Xander, who's like 30, you know, it's,

And 30 used to be, you know, there used to be a learning curve. You used to have to learn how to win on the PGA tour and, and, you know, winning in your, in your early twenties was not expected. It was, that was kind of the prime was, you know, kind of that 30 to 35 range where it's, it's, it's gone now to 23 to 30. Yeah. Anything, any final takeaways from the major season that you want to touch on any lingering major season thoughts before we finish up with some Olympics?

Yeah. I mean, I'm just, I'm just sort of bummed on the, on the tiger situation. You know, this, this was the year where it really felt like. I'm glad you brought this up. Cause I had one question to ask you on this. If, if, if he was going to show progress, I feel like this was going to be the year. And I, and I actually, I actually liked what I saw at Valhalla was the first, you know, the masters was tough to watch. He made the cut just on grit, but you could tell he was in a ton of pain and he shot like, I think 77, 80 or whatever it was over the weekend. And

It was like, can this guy make it through 72 holes? And then, and then he showed up to Valhalla and he actually looked better physically. Like he had more speed. He looked better in the practice rounds. And I started to think like, man, if anyone can do this, it's, it's this guy. But I think this was the year where we, it just became clear that he will never be able to just show up and parachute in, in the, in the hardest events on the hardest golf courses against the best fields ever.

and be able to compete. And, and also we saw a consistent story this year, which is he, he can hit the ball off the tee pretty solidly. You know, he, he drives it pretty straight. He's not that short. I was watching him play. He was hitting it past Xander past can't lay a good amount of times. And it's not, it's not a length issue. It's not a, it's not a, you know, he's on a dead flat tee box with a, with a driver head. That's this big. He can, he can, you know, look like a tour pro. It's just, he can't putt at all. He can't putt. He can't putt. And, and he, and,

And it's hard for a 48 year old to putt who's perfectly healthy. It's, it's just your, your nerve spray, kind of everything we talked about before you start to, you start to fear the comebackers in a way that, you know, remember how, remember how authoritatively tiger used to putt. I mean, he used to Ram like anything four feet and in, he would like Ram it in the back. Now he hits these like little like bleeders that kind of like miss on the low side, a lot of like low right misses. And yeah, it was just, it's just disappointing. And I made it, I made an effort to,

it was clear he was going to miss the cut at, uh, at Pinehurst. And I guess it wasn't clear, but I, I made an effort to watch him all 18 holes on Friday afternoon, just because I don't know how much longer we're going to, we're going to have this. I really don't, I don't know. He's going to try to play a little bit more, but I, you know, I think one more year of, of realizing that, okay, I want to play a little bit more, but I can't. And, and, you know, we're, we're one more year of that or one other injury where, you know, he, he, he tries to, he enters, uh,

I don't know. He plays Bay Hill or something. And, you know, he tweaks his back or his leg or one of the other million things that could possibly go wrong with a body that is... I mean, you saw that picture that surfaced last week of his leg. I mean, that thing doesn't even look like a leg. It looks like a tree stump. There's no shape to it. I think we're one more year or one more kind of tweak of maybe not getting to watch him anymore. And that was really...

It's sad to me. I, you know, we're the same age. And so I, I didn't, I wasn't in this job, even let alone 2000, 2000 or 2006, seven, eight. I wasn't even in this job in 2012, 13. And so I got to see a very, very, uh,

short glimpse of it in 2019 2018 into 2019 where it was like holy shit this guy is fucking incredible um and then it was over and i i don't know that i'll ever get that sort of front row seat again and it was i was really bummed watching him at trune i'm glad you brought up the tiger thing because i was talking to a friend the other day about this and i think

There's now like a contingent of people that kind of just over it, like kind of over watching him shoot, you know, 76, 78 to miss the cut in majors and be super, super non-competitive after he, you know, goes into every major and gives the same tiger lines and the same quotes. I'm here to win. I'm here because I believe I can win.

I don't really have a problem with him saying that and then shooting 78, 76. I don't really know what you want the guy to say. The guy is like the most competitive player of all time. Like that's obviously in his, I think he would honestly, I think you would probably get more shit from fans in the media. If he, why are you showing up then? Why are you showing up then? Right. Yeah. I think you'd get more shit. If he like said that he was there to be a ceremonial golfer. I don't really have him.

a problem with him saying that he still believes he can win even if he can't. And I don't really have a problem with him showing up to these majors and finishing DFL and being non-competitive if he wants to do it. Like I really am completely okay with that. I think where I start to

get a little bit like, okay, I'm good on this is I don't think we need to see all of it on TV all the time. And I think I remember watching Friday afternoon at Pioneers. You were probably watching them there in person. I was watching on television, the amount of tiger that we saw when he was five, six, seven, eight strokes outside of the cut line, where there was a real, and you saw this at true in a

At this point with Tiger, I think that there should just be like a dedicated Tiger feed, right? And if you want to watch Tiger shoot 78, 76... Go online and watch it, yeah. Go online and watch every single shot of Tiger Woods doing that. I don't think that showing him five, six strokes outside the cut line on a Friday afternoon when you have really great players battling...

to make the cut is really advancing the game in many ways, because as you said, there's maybe one, two more years of this. So every hour that the golf channel and CBS spends on shooting, watching tiger shoot 78 at a major, you're wasting that hour and potentially introducing a new fan to, you know, the Jake nap 67 that's going on on the other side of the golf course.

So I kind of am in this place with Tiger where I don't really have a problem with him doing this for however long that he wants to do this. But I also think that it's okay to say this isn't the story anymore and we don't really need to spend as much time on it as we used to.

I think you, I think you fall in for the first nine holes, right? Like that's, there's, there's a ton of intrigue. That is a story, but you're right. Once it was, by the way, first nine holes on Thursday at Pinehurst, like he didn't, he start out like one. Yeah. I mean, he actually had pretty decent starts at the masters. He started off well at the, and, and even at true. And he was, I mean, one hundred through three has been only three holes, but it was a good start. You show that if he's playing well, but once it turns, it's interesting what you said of like, as long as he wants to do it, because he's,

I still think that like, you know, if we look at when his life has gone off the rails, it's when he's not playing golf. Yeah. And and such a good point. And like, I still think that for him, even with all the pain and all of the, you know, shooting a zillion, I still think that like his life and he is in a way better place when he's working towards something.

And so are we. No major is no major is worse because Tiger was there and shot 78. Right. And and I just think he loves being he loves chasing something. He loves being inside the ropes. He loves, you know, seeing JT and giving him shit. And he loves, you know, going and congratulating the guy who just won the tournament, who's like in awe of meeting Tiger and

Yeah. I just, I, I, and he's done it his whole career and he's done it his whole life. His whole life has been a pursuit of this, of this goal. And I,

I think when that's not there, I don't think he really knows what to do with his energy.

and has a deep relationship to the game, both as a player or a fan or just, you know, can relate to that experience. Right. Yeah. But it does. It gets to a point where does he care about, you know, his major top 10 percentage? Does he care about his and the answers? Maybe no, because, you know, Jack Nicklaus played a long there was a long tail there where he played and he

you know, it, it cheapened his, his top 10, right? But golf has never been a sport where, especially if you're an all-time great who can get into all of these tournaments, it's never been a sport really besides, you know, the very few examples like a Byron Nelson, right? In the fifties who walked away at 34, but anybody else, any of the all-time greats,

Tom Watson, Arnold. I mean, there's clips of Arnold Palmer hitting fucking driver into 18 at Bay Hill, you know, and he can barely get the club back past his waist. And it's just that's just been the way that it's gone. If you're an all time great in this game, there's a certain nostalgia that is

that is baked into golf tournaments and you've, you know, they want you there. It makes it better. It's, it's never been a sport where, you know, like football, where you realize, okay, I can't do this anymore. You're not going to, you're not going to get seriously injured. I mean, Tiger's probably a bad example, but you know what I'm saying? It's like, it's, it's not a risk. You can extend that passport. It's like, nobody leaves too early. Like whether it's the president or whether it's like the CEO of any company that's, you know, 78, like it's,

You, everybody leaves too late. Everybody leaves too late. It's just hard. It's hard to leave too early. It's hard, especially when you've been, you know, on national television. I watched, I watched the, uh, I watched the tiger documentary on the flight back for probably like the eighth time. I've seen it. Yeah. Which was, which was released by the way, like two weeks before the car accident. So there's sort of a chapter missing, but I watched it for like the eighth time. And you know, the amount of footage that there is of this guy at like six years old, uh,

and seven years old. I mean, these little news stories that they would do, essays, there's so many of them. Like, his entire life has been golf and being this...

single-minded you know terminator on the golf course and i and i just think it's it's a very relatable human story of like when that's no longer the case what now and i i think it's probably why he's taken on so much responsibility with the pga tour because he wants to feel like he's still building something in the game of golf i also do think he sort of regrets it now that he's trying to play a little bit more he was saying at the open he's like i

The amount of work and the amount of mental stamina that these guys have to have these conversations all day and these negotiations. And so, yeah, you're never going to get the full answer from him. He's just a very private guy. He's not going to go on YouTube and make a video like, here's how I'm feeling. But I do wonder what kind of mixture cocktail of emotions he's dealing with.

Do you think he ever finishes top 10 in a major again? And if so, which one would it be? No, I don't. I'm looking at next year, like Quail Hollow. It's a distance test. At least it's hot and semi-flat, but like Oakmont, super thick rough. East. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it would be the Masters. It would be the Masters. You know, maybe he gets hot. I just, you know, you're so hesitant to say to bury him because a lot of people buried him.

in 2017 2016 and it seemed like a safe bet at the time but this is this is this is that's still there that back injury is still there and i i remember seeing him on uh thursday uh at troon and he was doing the little like curtsy things like pick up his ball like that's a back issue that's not he was he was bending on his right leg which is still amazes me that he bends down on that right leg but he was bending down his right leg and doing this little like curtsy thing and that's that's

That's clear as day. Like my back hurts. And, and even, you know, if it was just the leg, it would be that much, it would be so difficult, but it's not just the leg.

Let's finish up with some Olympics. I'm excited. This feels like the first Olympics where everyone who can be there is there. That's what I was going to ask you. So like, what is the, what place does Olympics have in, in, in the game of golf? Right. Like what, how would you, how would you assess your excitement level? I'm pretty excited for this year because everyone's there.

Right. Because I don't, is there a single person? Well, Bryson, I mean, you can say, is there a single person who qualified, who opted not to play? I know not that comes to mind. I mean, the first year, all those guys pulled out and they blamed Zika, which is hilarious in hindsight, but people didn't really know what to make of it. And then Tokyo was a disaster as far as like logistically, uh,

with like where you had to stay and, and with all the COVID stuff and there were no fans. And, and so I remember a lot of guys didn't play that one who were, who were eligible, but now everyone's there. And so I think, I think it's going to be really good. I think it's, everyone is there. I think it's, it's a cool change of pace and that they're not wearing, you know, all their logos. They're just, you know, Rory's playing for Ireland with Shane Lowry, which is pretty cool. I think they really should make it not just a 72 hole stroke play event. Um,

I think that would add a lot to it. If it looked a little bit more like the Ryder cup, I think that would be sick. If you had, you know, these guys playing, uh, it's difficult because, you know, not every country has two guys in, but you have some sort of team component, some sort of, you know, tap into the national pride, you know, and, and having two guys who, who maybe never play or only play together in the Ryder cup. And there's a, but having, you know, if you had, uh,

Scotty and Xander as a team or Scotty and Colin. One alternate shot round would be fun. Something like that. I think like there's, there's, there's room to do it cooler than they're doing it, but I do think it's going to continue to, you know, they, they have, this is the venue this year, like off national, which golf fans are familiar with. I think it's, you know, knowing how the U S yeah,

The difference between the U S Ryder cup team and the U S individuals. I'm sure that like, despite everyone going over there and looking like they simply could not play that golf course, an American will probably win and finish third, just because it's kind of how it goes when they're on their own ball. But you know, the next one's really era. Yeah. Our backyard. We can both walk to Riviera from our house. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably like a 25 minute walk. You know, I think everyone's going to play that it's in LA. I think it's going to start to take a little bit more of a, of a, of a bigger role because it's,

If everyone's playing, and if everyone who's... It's basically, all these things only matter as much as we all agree that they matter. And if it doesn't matter to the players, then it doesn't matter to the fans. But I think it matters to the players this year because everyone's there.

I agree. And I think that context is everything, particularly historical context. And the fact that we don't have there was a hundred year absence, right? Like the last time golf was in the Olympics before 2016 was like in 1904. Right. So and you see, this is part of the reason why Lev has had a hard time sticking with some.

crazy golf fans, right? It's because we just have no historical context or precedent for what any of this means, right? If you win live Nashville, what does that mean? Right? Because we haven't had live Nashville for the last 50 years, the way that we have at least some sort of memory in our brains of Bay Hill and Muirfield and obviously to a far more extent, the majors. And I think the Olympics

gets hurt a little bit that way in the sense of like, okay, what does a gold medal mean? Because we don't have this long list of champions where we could say, oh, Xander joins Jack Nicklaus. And then if he gets the two medals, we'll see. And that's why, just to cut in here, I think it's important that there is a good big name winner this week. I agree. I agree. And I think there will be, by the way. Yeah. If Scotty wins or Xander wins or Rom wins or, you know, it's like, okay, that adds some gravitas to it.

Yeah. And I do think, by the way, by the time that we get to Riviera in 28, like I think this year will be a building block. I think that La Golf National is a far more recognizable golf course than the Tokyo one, than the Rio one. Like I even see... The Rio one, I think, is like a ghost town. Yeah, it's brand new. It's actually like a really cool Gilhans golf course. Is it still open? Yeah.

I have no idea. That's what I'm saying. I think it's not even a thing anymore. Yeah, see? I mean, so even further to that point, I think that...

This is the year where it probably has the most momentum. I mean, I remember covering it in 2020, and I do think that there's a bit more of a groundswell this year just because, you know, we have the DP World Tour French Open here every year. So you have narratives of like, OK, Tommy Fleetwood's won at this golf course. Alex Noren's won at this golf course. This was where we saw the Ryder Cup.

And it's fun. You can kind of say what you want about LaGolf National's architecture. I'm not sure it's the type of golf course that I would have interest in playing every day or building a golf trip around it. It reminds me a lot of like PGA National in Florida, where the defining ethos of the golf course is water, right? But it's really good natural amphitheaters. Like the whole, the golf course was built to host people.

high level same thing as marco simone yeah you know i think about that course i was there that last year and like is it gonna win architecture awards no but did it was the last three holes pretty electric viewing yes yeah yeah so who's your peck who's your peck who's winning goals give me give me your podium give me give me gold silver bronze yeah okay i think scotty wins silver

Okay. I like that. Bronze Colin. I think it's going to be an American. I think it's going to be infuriating. Like, why couldn't we have done that six years ago? Yeah, I actually have a similar. So I have Colin winning gold. I think that this would be a good finish to a year. He's been so close. Right. I think that, I mean, Colin hasn't finished outside the top 20 since prior to the Masters in a golf tournament. Yeah.

So, and it's a good course for him. You got to hit it straight. You got to be in the fairway driving accuracy, middle iron play these golf courses with a high miss fairway penalty. They all play into Colin's hands, really underrated storyline with Colin. Like,

best short game year of his career he's really great too he's really improved that aspect of his game which i think is the reason why he's raised his floor right shout out to steven sweeney one of my favorite people to get a beer with at a golf tournament has he been working with he's the putting coach yeah good for him man because i saw him yeah i saw him at the masters on the putting green and this was kind of like

just as Colin was getting into his groove. He had a little bit of a sleepy start to the season, you know, disappointing at the players, disappointing at Torrey Pines. And then the masters, he really hit his groove and he was on the putting green hooked up to like eight different computers, which is normally a red flag for me, but man, it paid off like that. Masters was when he really started to get kick into gear. Yeah.

Yeah, Stephen's great. Stephen works with him, Akshay, Shane Lowry, and Bob McIntyre. So it's been a good year for him. Really good year. Yeah, so I'll go Colin Gold-

A big sleeper to keep an eye on this week is Sepp Straka. Okay. Sepp Straka hits the ball incredibly straight. Straight. He drives it really straight. Really, really straight. And you look at his performance on some of these golf courses with like higher Miss Fairway penalties, right? St. Jude's lost in a playoff game. Didn't he win at Honda or did he finish second? He won, yeah.

He won Honda top 10 at the players, top 10 at Memorial this year, second at Royal Liverpool, top 25 at Royal Troon, all these golf courses with a high miss fairway penalty. Sub-Striker drives it really straight. And then I'll go third. I'll go bronze, Scotty. I just think that some of these golf courses, like,

some of the American golf courses that I've compared this to in terms of courses that have a high miss fairway penalty, thicker, rough, a lot of water hazards. It's like TPC Sawgrass, Mirafield Village. I think Scotty's been pretty good at those tracks. He won both those tournaments. I think something pretty disastrous would have to happen for Scotty to not be in the next. I think it's... I got to go here, but I think it's...

I think it's a feather in Pioneer's cap. I think it will be like a thing as time grows. It's like in this incredible year, this course stumped him. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No, he likes the predictability. He does. He said that he's like, I don't like the fact that like, I just didn't have the same freedom knowing I didn't know where I could miss. You don't know, you know, a little bit of a little bit of chaos, I think kind of messes with his brain. Yeah. All right, Dan, this is a blast. I can't wait to play golf in LA. We'll do it up in a couple of weeks when I'm back there. Anything you got to plug for the listeners to check out any Barstool videos you got going up? Any, any coverage you got coming up? I'm excited for this creator classic we're doing.

Yeah, me too. I saw that. Yeah, I'm going to be on the course that day doing some commentary, so that'll be fun. It's been, yeah, it's just, you know, stay tuned. There's always new stuff coming. I think that's a good example of the PGA Tour leaning in in a way that... They're like, they have to. They're trying to, you know, Liv's done it. Liv's had these guys out to film with guys at tournament and the PGA Tour is like, there's this huge audience. We have the infrastructure. We have the golf course. We have the broadcast capabilities. Let's just put...

Grant Horvat on this channel instead of Sepp Straka. And let's see what happens. Yeah. New East like to I think they did a big restoration, big restoration. It looks totally different. So it'll be exciting. All right, Dan. Talk soon, my friend. Thanks for doing this. Cool. Sounds good. All right. That's it for the podcast. Special thanks to Dan. Special thanks to Rumpier Sports. Special thanks to the rabbit hole. And we will be back on this podcast next week, breaking down the Wyndham championship. Until then,

Best of luck with your bets this weekend. Enjoy the Olympics, and we will see you next time. Cheers.