Players Championship Picks & Masters Confidence Meter with Joseph LaMagna
01:22:33 Share

We're driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast.

Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, so the more you use Indeed, the

better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash blue wire.

Just go to Indeed.com slash BlueWire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's Indeed.com slash BlueWire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. ♪♪♪

This episode of Inside Golf Podcast is brought to you by Rumpure Sports. This is the place to find all of my content. It's all at Rumpure Sports. It's a community. It's Discord. It's where we hang out and talk golf. We do premium shows where I can get the takes off that I don't think I can get away with on this podcast. It's where all of my friends and I talk golf and create content together. The mission has always been to get the takes off.

We're going to try and create a community where the information is from people that really know golf, really know architecture, have boots on the ground, caddy information, really understand the market, give you the best daily fantasy information, give you the best betting information, give you complete and total access to those people at all hours of the day. We take this very seriously. We're really proud of it.

plays for ball knowers so head on over to runpuresports.com you can choose the golf only option even though we provide info for all sports but you can use that promo code andy to get you 15% off try for a week let us prove it to you this is certainly a good week to do it because i love the players but amazing week to join the community all right coming up on this podcast

Bringing on recurring guests. He's probably been on this podcast maybe more so than any other guest, Joseph Omania. He was at Bay Hill all week. We do a little Bay Hill recap.

We talk about Scottie, of course. We talk about how Scottie's ball striking is just as much a representation of decision-making as it is a representation of talent, especially juxtaposed with a player like Rory. Kind of inside baseball, but one of the more interesting, fun conversations I've had this year on the podcast, and we talk about why

TPC Sawgrass is such a unique and great test of golf. What sort of skill profile works here, our predictions, who we think is going to play well, and then a larger discussion on 10 of the most interesting golfers in the world. Right now, I'm not going to say 10 of the best golfers in the world, but 10 of the most interesting golfers in the world in terms of guys that are big names, well-known, but certainly have a

some questions surrounding their game. We rate their chances at Sawgrass. We rate our panic meter on them ahead of the masters. And then we talk more about the masters because sorry, we're in the master zone. So there's not a podcast I'm going to do over the next couple of weeks where I don't at least devote a segment to talking about the masters. So a lot of ROM Rory, uh,

brooks stuff in there um my favorite stuff to talk about with one of my favorite people to talk about it with so jam-packed episode one of my favorites i've done this year we hope you enjoy it as much as we did without further ado let's bring on joseph

All right. Joseph O'Manya is here. Fried egg, optimal approach golf. We are back. The last time we talked, we were talking about the golf ball being rolled back. And that feels like a different lifetime, like in the world of golf. Like I have not had one meaningful conversation about golf.

A rolled back golf ball in the last three months, John Rom signs to live and we're just in a completely new news cycle. So it's great to have you back. I think we've got a lot, a lot different set of problems and things to discuss in the golf world on our plate this week.

Thanks for having me, Andy. I'm super excited to do this. I love being on site. I was just at Bay Hill, so I think recapping some of that, it's going to be fun. I always love talking golf with you, so I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, so you went to Bay Hill this year, and I imagine, I know we've talked about Bay Hill in the past, so I know that you've shared a similar belief with me when it comes to Bay Hill in terms of

It's test for pro golfers. It's like incredibly low on the list of golf courses that I would personally want to play, but I can recognize that it does serve a purpose on the PGA tour. Did seeing the golf course in person change your opinion on Bay Hill at all?

I will say I came away from the weekend with a more positive view of Bay Hill as a professional golf venue for a few different reasons. Some of the ways it tests professional golfers, I think, can get a little overblown with how good of a test it is, but it's still pretty good. It's not my favorite style, but I think it's pretty good. And some of the leaderboards reflect that. Also, the history and the...

How much it matters to the people there was a big takeaway for me. Like Orlando is a golf obsessed city and seeing people walking around the

surrounding towns with a bunch of golf stuff on. I saw some guy with a Justin Rose Morgan Stanley hat on nowhere near the golf course. Man, these people are just obsessed with golf. So I do think there's something to be said for that. The legacy of Arnold Palmer and how much people there seem to cherish him. I came away with some positive takeaways as a professional golf venue. The golf course itself, putting the architecture to actually step into that world for a second.

It's bad. It's worse in person than I thought it was going to be. And I already had a low opinion going in. Very flat, very repetitive. There's like two or three different types of holes out there. And then it's just that on a loop over and over again. I think you'd be hard pressed to name one good hole out there, but it's still produces pretty good tournament. And honestly, after this weekend, I think it

I more believe it should be a venue on the PGA Tour than I did before. So some positives and some negatives in there. Did you catch a look at sex? Did you spend some time on the sixth hole at all? I saw every hole. I walked every hole during the practice rounds, so I was...

Nothing shocked me. Six is a little shocking in person. To me, it's an eyesore. I don't know if everyone feels that way. A lot of people think it presents super well on television. It's crazy to see the sixth hole in person and see how thin the fairway looks from back there. You're looking at the green. It's probably so bad it's good. That's kind of where I land on six. It's a pretty fun golf hole to watch. I spent a lot of time on that hole.

Crazy design, but I'm kind of into it in a weird twisted way.

I think if you're making a case for why Bay Hill should continue to exist on the PGA tour, one of the things that I was bemoaning earlier in the season was this concept that it felt like to me, there's statistical evidence for this. There's also a lot of anecdotal evidence that the gap between the typical test on the PGA tour and the typical major championship test is

feels like it's growing to me. Now, maybe that was influenced by a lot of the golf that we saw earlier this year in Hawaii, golf courses like the American Express. Although I think as we get into the heart of the PGA Tour season, you're not going to see anything too different once we start to get into the backgrass birdie fest of the summer, like your Detroit golf clubs and your TPC Twin Cities. I think

On one hand, while Bay Hill, I would never want to watch a major championship at Bay Hill, and I don't think it's a worthy golf course to host a major championship. In a weird way, it effectively...

in just a seemingly less interesting way than a golf course, maybe like Augusta or even your typical us open venue. It does separate T to green skill in the way that major championship venues do. It just does it in a more repetitive way, in my opinion. So I think it was at least encouraging to see a golf course, uh,

Where a player like Scotty Scheffler, and I don't think that's the only reason why Scotty Scheffler was finally able to separate himself in the way that we knew he was always able, knew that he was always capable of separating himself. But I do think in terms of like, this is a golf course that we can at least reliably count on from an execution standpoint to, you

separate, allow the best players through their total driving, power off the tee and long iron play to separate themselves on this golf course and likely produce a better leaderboard than we're used to seeing maybe at a golf course like Vedanta Vallarta or any of the golf courses at the American Express. I think it does a good job of doing that, at least if I'm putting my optimist hat on.

I'll agree, but I think the part that I'd push back on people is if they think the reason that it happens and the reason that it elevates talent is because it's narrow fairways and thick rough. That is not the answer. The reason Bay Hill elevates talent among some other courses in professional golf, but there's a lot of long irons into big, firm greens. And that, to me, is the difference between

sort of a major championship setup and allowing some of the best, often long hitting professional golfers to get to the top of the leaderboard versus a lot of shorter courses, more wedge and putter putting variants can often dictate the outcomes of some of those tournaments. So I, I agree that it elevates talent in a particular way, whether it's repetitive or not. I don't think too many people care about, right. You and I care about that, but yeah, a lot of people don't care about that.

Where I'd caution people is thinking that the recipe is thick, rough and narrow fairways because you can build plenty of golf courses that will not elevate talent that have those bones. So I don't like Bay Hill. I think it should be a professional golf venue. And I'm also not vehemently opposed to thick rough. Like I think Muirfield Village is a very good test of professional golf. It has a little more width.

There's more variety. There are more interesting holes. That's also going to allow talent to separate. So is Augusta, which looks nothing like Bay Hill or Muirfield village. Like there are, there are multiple ways you can accomplish getting the best players in the world to the top of the leaderboard. But I agree with most, I guess basically all you're saying, everything you've said so far, I just would caution people against thinking that Bay Hill is the model because I

It's one way to do it. And I think the hill could even be improved, but yeah, I'm not a fan of the thick, rough, narrow fairways as test of professional golf generally. Well, you hit on the key point too, is that it, it is about long arm play into firm greens. Like that's actually what we should be striving for. Like you look at a golf and I think that's something that we see at Augusta. And ideally we're going to see at Pinehurst too. Like Augusta and Pinehurst are both golf courses that,

that have a lot of with and make for more interesting driving golf courses and actually test driving scale both from a distance and an accuracy standpoint but then you also get long irons into firmer greens as a test of skill and what do you know i mean if you look at the best players in the world

The best players in the world are able to separate themselves through their long iron play, right? Like Scheffler, Rory, Ron. It's easier for those guys to separate themselves on a golf course where they have four iron into every hole, not just because some of the shorter players are going to be hitting even longer clubs from them, but also that

That continues to be a skill that unfortunately is getting diminished and diminished on the PGA tour. Like if you look at the changing proximity buckets on some of these golf courses, Riviera was actually a decent example of this.

If you look at like the amount of long irons into Riviera, 18 is a good example of a hole at Riviera that, you know, went from like guys having 175, 180 in as a typical approach shot to now having like 140, 150 in.

The proximity buckets are just getting lower and lower on the PGA tour. And I think what you can get in Bay Hill is a golf course where you're still going to get upwards of 30% long irons in. And what do you know? Like that skill of long iron play is how the best players in the world are going to be able to separate themselves from the middle of the pack weekend and week out.

Absolutely. You are hitting on why I don't have Riviera as the top, top tier when I do these golf course rankings every year. I have it below just Augusta, which I know is not a PGA Tour course, but I have it below Augusta and Sawgrass. That's the reason. I think technology has compromised Riviera too much. I still love it. It's a great test. But yeah, you're hitting on it. Long iron plays often what allows some of these guys to separate themselves, not just because...

It is a skill that to hit a long iron, but it's not because they're just sticking shots to five feet. There's also more your dispersion patterns wider with a long iron than a wedge, like thinking of your way around a golf course. Where should I place this second shot? And am I capable of doing that with a long iron? And then if you miss your target, being able to get up and down from there, like there's just so much more going on. The longer shots guys have into the green. So just overall, I know we've done a rollback pod, but

I think people need to appreciate the longer you make a golf course, how much more engaging the tournament is. Well, I think that could somewhat transition us into talking about why we find TPC Sawgrass to be such an interesting and unique and singular test. We did a podcast last year. One other thing I want to add on that, that maybe a lot of your listeners already know, but

Wind is also kind of a natural rollback, right? When you hit a shot downwind and then you hit a shot into the wind, if the wind is identical, let's say it's 15 miles an hour downwind, 15 miles an hour into the wind, that overall that nets out to losing yardage versus if both directions were zero miles an hour of wind. So wind is something that lengthens the golf course. And I think that's another reason why Bay Hill is

Can play a little bit longer at times because there's often wind is a reliable defense. So that's just another thing to call out about why Bay Hill kind of is a reliable venue for testing the best golfers in the world. Want to throw that in there. And I think sawgrass. I mean, we can talk a lot about.

I think it's a much different golf course in March than it has been in May. But I think one of the reasons why we both think Sawgrass is good, and like I said, we did this podcast almost a year ago. I think we did it like Zerk Classic Week or something along those lines where we ranked every single course on the PGA Tour. And if memory serves, we both had Sawgrass in our top three, I want to say at least. Yeah, definitely.

Okay. So talk to me a little bit, especially as a contrast coming off Bay Hill, talk to me a little bit about why you're so fond of sawgrass in terms of how that golf course test pro golfers, what are there some of the things that gets right as opposed to other PGA tour courses and why you think it works so well? I think generally a point that I always hammer home on like 90% of the podcasts that I'm on is when you're thinking about

driving accuracy and what actually tests professional golfers you cannot just look at the width of a fairway and the length of the rough you have to consider how what happens when i hit a shot online versus a little bit offline versus way offline and in particular at tpc sawgrass when you spray a shot way offline there is a stiff penalty associated with that it's not number one on tour but it's

high on the list of golf courses where if you spray it, you have a problem. You can recover sometimes and that's another thing I like about it that it allows you some recovery. And if you're Cam Smith and you're not the most accurate off the tee, you can still, if you're crafty enough, get away with some clever recovery shots. It's kind of like Augusta that way. But on the whole, you got to step up and hit a lot of accurate tee shots or you're going to be in trouble all day. I think the combination of wind and

the the some of the design and i'm not always in favor of tiny greens these greens aren't tiny but they are small yeah that can lead to some interesting short game shots especially on holes like 16 the par 5 16th so i think a hole like 16 kind of embodies what i love about sawgrass it's not even my favorite hole in the course but gotta hit it straight off that tee

especially when it's firm, have to think about where you're going to leave it around that green kind of have to favor the left side because you don't want to flirt with the water at all. And then you're probably going to have a delicate short game shot. It is pretty good spot for somebody like Scotty Scheffler who dominated last year. And I think those are a couple of the reasons why. So I don't know if that fully answers your question of the things I like about sawgrass, but in particular,

It reigning people in and not letting them swing away with impunity off the tee, especially in a world of the most forgiving possible equipment and athleticism. Like it's a refreshing departure from a lot of what we see somewhere like Bay Hill or Torrey Pines.

Do you think that, I think one of the reasons why, because I've been getting this question a lot this week in terms of like the work that I do in the betting and DFS community in terms of people asking like, what is the specific type of player profile that works the best at TPC Sawgrass? And I think there's like a couple ways to answer that question. I think it's in my opinion, like,

one of the more fun golf courses to break down on the PGA tour. And one of, uh, a golf course that you could argue a lot about in terms of what actual types of players could find the pathway to success there. But when you think about TPC sawgrass, like what,

Who are the types of player? What is the type of skill profile that you actually think rolls into a week like this and is advantaged by this type of design? Yeah, it's one of my favorite courses to predict similarly to you. I really enjoy this one. I do think there's a pretty clear profile that's successful here, but some of that gets obfuscated a little bit by the overall variance on this golf course. When you have a massive field of

in different waves, weather's a big factor, a lot of water and a lot of wind, you're going to get a lot of variance. So with that caveat, so I don't want to mention particular player and then they don't play well and then whatever. I think Siwoo Kim, I'm not saying he's going to do great this week, but he is...

This is a good course fit for somebody of his skill set where he keeps the ball in play and he has a world-class short game. I'd say the other piece that's a little bit harder to quantify is players who are intelligent and who think about where they should be leaving their shots. And they have smart shots they can go to that are going to take some of the big misses out of place, specifically around water hazards. So if you're hitting a long iron into 16, you're

Do you have that type of shot that you can kind of take those big right misses out of play and you know not to aim dead at the flag and bring some of those right misses into play? Like, that's a big...

I'd say that's the other piece that's a little bit harder to profile statistically, but overall keeping the ball and play off the tee and having world-class short game. I see what Kim's a pretty good example of a player who fits that bill. And he won in 2017 youngest player to win the event. So I'm not, that's not me suggesting you go throw money on see what we can this week, but I would think about him as a template for the type of player that can have success. Well,

Well, no worries there. It was one of the first bets I made this morning. I'm glad to see that we are aligned on this because I'm a huge fan of Siwoo Kim at this golf course as well. So I'm feeling a little bit more justified in the things that I was looking at as well. You bring up the course management piece, which I was thinking a little bit about too. And I know this is flying into territory that is a lot more difficult for people like you and I that

are heavily involved in the data community to actually quantify. But I've kind of been workshopping this take in my head, and I can't remember the exact context of it, whether it was said on the broadcast, whether it was something Scotty said in a post round interview. But I remember this week at Bay Hill,

either him specifically or one of the commentators making this point after talking to him recently about what doesn't get talked about the most in terms of how Scotty Scheffler is able to separate himself is actually, you know, everybody talks about how his ball striking is what separates himself.

A lot of that is course management and a lot of great ball striking stuff gets displayed because of great decisions. Right. So I think about like, I was, I can't remember who said this, but

It made me think about this, and I'm curious to get your take on this if you agree as well, because this has been more of an eye test thing than a thing I've been able to quantify in the data. But like the gap between Rory McIlroy and Scotty Sheffer, for example, right now, there's this clear gap in terms of ball striking between the two of them.

But I think that gets exacerbated by course management. And is it really more that the difference between Scotty Scheffler and Rory Mackle right now is less so a product of talent and more so a product of decision making? I'm workshopping that take right now, but I feel like you're the person perfect person to kind of roll it out for.

Oh, you're coming right into the wheelhouse here. I've been banging the drum on the decisions that Rory McIlroy makes. That's something that going back to previous summers and major championships, I've actively been highlighting those decisions and key moments where what it tends to boil down to is that Rory, I think he tends to think about the shots he's hitting more

he pictures the perfect shot because he knows that he can execute it and goes for it versus Scotty tends to hit shots and

where he's considering the full range of outcomes. Right. And so much of golf is minimizing those big misses. Sorry to interrupt real quick, but look at both of their performances on the sixth hole at Bay Hill this week. Just compare the way that they've played six this week. That's exactly that. That's the hole that I was going to bring up. I spent a lot of time there. I watched both of them play it. I was standing right behind Rory when he hit this...

I looked at the person standing next to me before he hit his approach shot into six. And I was like, look where his feet are pointed, pointed way, right. He's going for this big sweeping hook with a long iron into that hole and just doesn't pull it off. And it's in the water. And it's the same thing I've seen so many times with Rory McIlroy. It, he's got to stop doing that, but I think it's so intrinsic to who he is as a golfer that he wants to play with that creativity. He's probably, uh,

not as inclined to do what Scottie would do, which is to hit a shot that's favoring the right side of the green, go with his stock cut, something high that kind of minimizes his dispersion,

And if he ends up in the rough on the right or in a bunker on the right, he's accepting of that because that's within the range of outcomes. If he pulls it a little, maybe it goes close to the hole. If he executes it perfectly, maybe it's on the right side of the green, but that's the way you optimize your scoring. It's very far from how Rory approaches it. And he hit it. How many times did he hit it in the water? I think I have this in my notes. He hit it at least two of the four days.

He hit water. He was one in the water on six, three times in the four days I have, and then he made bogey or worse on the par fives five times this past week, which is just, I agree with the point you're making of sometimes the ball striking stats are a function of the decisions you're making, not just the swings you're making. And the, the analogy I would make that I wrote in my notes specifically for this was if you're looking at like, I know you, you do a lot of NFL betting. If you're looking at,

Fourth down, fourth and short efficiency. And you saw that a team goes for it a bunch on fourth down, but doesn't get it right. Fourth and two or less. And they're converting at a rate that's much lower than NFL average. One takeaway would be, well, we need to work on our efficiency.

our halfback pitch or whatever. And we're not doing as well on that play as we'd like. The other takeaway is like, why aren't you QB sneaking it more on fourth and one? Like the play call could be the issue, not the execution of that play call. And I think with Rory, the play call is generally the issue versus Scotty swallows his pride a little bit and does the QB sneak on fourth and inches. And that's what scores. So I completely agree with you. And, uh,

This sort of dovetails into the next game that I wanted to play with you because Rory was the first guy on my list that I wanted to talk about. And we've already started to go down that path. But I think at this point, we're starting to get in a zone where everything that we see in the golf world for the next five, six weeks will be placed in the context of the Masters. So I wanted to give you...

10 guys that have questions surrounding their game, right? Whether that means stuff on live their performance on the PGA tour, whatever it may have you just questions surrounding their games. And I, and I wanted to play panic meter, low, medium, or high, essentially, uh,

Where this guy is at heading into the Masters, and you could maybe use the Players' Championship of a good barometer of what you need to see out of them this week to change your opinion. But a month and a half out from the Masters...

Are you feeling good about them? Are you kind of neutral about them? Or would you say you're pretty panicked about them? And Rory was the first guy I want to talk about. So I'll kind of, I have my opinion on this one, but I'll kind of let you go first on the Rory conversation since we already kind of opened that book. We're specifically talking about the Masters, right? Correct. Panic.

I would say that I don't think he's going to play particularly well at the Masters. I think the general I've seen some people, even former players, like, wow, there's no better fit, no better golf course fit for Rory McIlroy than Augusta. Like, I just don't agree with that. I think that he gets himself into trouble off tees out there when he kind of sprays his driver and some of the long iron shots he goes for also gets him into trouble. So, yeah,

In terms of panic, I would say medium, I guess. He certainly could play well there, but I think generally my expectations for Rory are fairly low at Augusta. I know he's had some good finishes there, but fairly low and much higher somewhere like Valhalla for the PGA. So a long-winded way of saying medium, I guess. One of the things that I was looking at with Rory earlier today was

He is driving the ball incredibly well right now, right? This is some of the better driving that we've seen out of Rory in quite some time, which is certainly saying something because, you know, he's historically one of the best drivers of the ball to ever do it. It's also some of the shakiest his irons have looked in a while. And one of the things that is what really that's what is very special about what Rory is doing off the tee right now is

is that Rory always hits it incredibly long, right? And because there are so many golf courses on the PGA tour that emphasize distance over accuracy,

It's so easy for Rory to gain strokes off the tee without being all that accurate and accuracy with his driver has never been this tremendous strength for Rory. He's still always able to maintain himself as one of the best, if not the best driver of the ball in the world without being the most actually accurate guy with his driver. But he is actually like he's hitting the ball really straight right now.

with his driver too. At least the last, like particularly at Cognizant and Bay Hill, he was hitting his driver really straight. And I think that's actually what makes it more frustrating with him right now, because he's still going to experience such diminishing returns if he can't pay off those drives with his second shot. And, you know, while Rory has always been a better driver of the ball than he has been an iron player historically, um,

Um, just this year, I know it's kind of a small sample size. The gap between his driving and iron play seems to have grown to what I would call like

Decently concerning levels, and I know the driver swing is different than an iron swing, but I can't quite rectify why there's this seemingly growing discrepancy between his confidence off the tee and on approach. And just watching him last week closely can't tell you the amount of times where he's

He put himself in perfect, perfect position off the tee and walked away with a suboptimal score. And that's the type of thing that has to be incredibly frustrating right now. If you're Rory is that it seems like he's incredibly walked in with this aspect of his game, but there seems to be a growing gap with.

the second shot where something is just a little bit off in that department. And as we know at both Sawgrass and Augusta, that's going to be a major problem. Yeah, I mostly agree with you. I think the numbers aren't always a reflection of just technique, right? Like the going back to the analogy of the play calling. I do think a lot of it

Is shot selection for Rory. And that's, that's what I wanted to talk to you about too, is because the numbers that I'm seeing is that he's hitting a lot more fairways. Like he's driving the ball a lot straighter right now. Um, do you think maybe those numbers might be lying to us a little bit? Like, do you, do you, is that tracking on the eye test for you as well, that he's driving the ball straighter right now as well?

I think Rory's accuracy is always a little bit overblown because people always talk about how unbelievable his accuracy is for his distance. And I think it's often he's not as accurate as he's described sometimes. I've gained an appreciation, especially watching him a lot in person recently, for his ability to hit different shots with the driver when he needs to get a little bit more accurate. So like the 11th at Genesis, par 5,

he kind of tees it down and has a particular swing that he takes where he knows he can control it a little bit more. So maybe he's doing a better job with some of that. I will give him credit on the course management side for how he approaches T shots. I think he's learned a lot over the last 10 years and at Oak Hill, he knew to just rip driver everywhere. So I think some of that could be influencing the accuracy numbers a little bit. I,

Yeah, he's probably hitting driver a little bit straighter than he is historically. I still have concerns about it at Augusta, and I think there are opportunities where he could take less than driver off of some tees, even though sometimes that sounds like the anti-analytical approach because generally most people advocate for aggression everywhere, but I don't. Augusta with Rory's statistical profile is somewhere that I think he could dial it back a little bit on certain holes, like the first hole.

To me, that's a three-wood for Rory. The 10-pole. That's a three-wood where you can draw it more reliably. So I agree with you to an extent. I think he's hitting it a little bit straighter. My concerns with Rory are generally not technique or execution, but the strategy. And it's still going to be a concern for me at Augusta to the point that I would give some of these other golfers like Scheffler and Rahm the advantage.

Like execution wise, like we're talking about, he's like losing, he's kind of hemorrhaging strokes off on approach. Like I still feel like a little bit, he need it. Like we need to,

accurately penalize him for his lack of being able to pay off these drives with substandard iron play like i i do think his irons have been have been fairly below below his average right now at least this season on the pga tour let's drill into that a little bit though right so we're talking about what four events pebble riv the cognizant and the arnold palmer yeah he

Hebel is a wedge fest, right? That got shortened. So that's, that's two rounds. Not a lot of data there. The, uh,

At Bay Hill, he hit a bunch of shots in the water. And that, to me, is execution, right? Like, the sixth hole alone, he probably lost a bunch on the approach because he hit it in the water three times. And Genesis, yeah, I mean, wasn't his best. I'd like to go through those shots, shot by shot. Like, my main thing is we're not talking about a ton of data. I doubt it's that different than last year from exactly where his swing is.

Sometimes these decisions cost you a lot more strokes than if you just hit a smarter shot. So I wouldn't be overly panicked about the state of his iron play, but I would be concerned about the strategy. Yeah, that's a good point. I actually, just as you were saying that, I pulled it up. He lost just specifically on the six hole and

He lost 5.5 strokes on approach through four rounds on the sixth hole. And I want to say that he lost about 3.5 strokes on approach for the entire week. Right. So if you just take a little bit of a smarter shot at the right side of the green, like we're talking, we're not even...

being critical of his approach play this week probably right like other golfers step up and hit their stock cuts at the right side of the green watch victor hovland do it hideki scheffler like that's the smart way to play that hole so i think the number if he committed to that you could see a red number flip to a green number pretty quickly pretty quickly okay i like that a lot that makes me feel better um i don't think it should make you feel much better though to be honest at augusta at augusta

Well, I mean, Augusta, you're not going to have as many holes where there's a giant penalty for being off on your approach. There will be penalties for sure, but not in the form of water hazards. I mean, how many times- It's not going to be water. It's not going to be water. It's not going to be water. Right. But he'll have to, I mean, it will be, his short game will have to congruently be working because if he makes those mistakes at Augusta, he's going to put himself in really difficult positions to make par. He's not going to get as many penalty strokes though. Yeah.

That's fair. I'm just talking about in terms of winning when I think about him stacked up with Scottie and Rom in particular. If you told me he's going to lose some strokes gained on strategy, you're putting yourself behind the eight ball a little bit. And I think we see that with Rory specifically at Augusta.

We're driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast.

Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, so the more you use Indeed, the

That's Indeed.com slash BlueWire.

Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.

When it comes to towing, seeing is believing. That's why Chevy Trucks Advanced Camera Technology offers up to eight available cameras for 14 unique views, so you can focus on the view that really matters. Chevrolet, together let's drive. Learn more about Chevy Trucks at chevy.com. Safety or driver assistance features are no substitute for the driver's responsibility to operate the vehicle in a safe manner. Read the vehicle owner's manual for important feature limitations and information. Okay, you mentioned his name very briefly.

Hovland. Okay. There's been a lot. There's been some interesting discourse on Hovland in terms of, I think he's on his seventh coach as a professional golfer.

It seemed like the short game was massively improving for him. His chipping at golf courses like LACC and Oak Hill was very strong. I don't know if that's more of a product of a different technique that you can deploy around the greens out of thicker rough. Whereas Augusta, you're going to have to, it's going to require a bit more hand-eye coordination, a bit more touch chipping off these firmer surfaces. So,

Some questions about his ball striking as well. That hasn't seemed as sharp this year under a limited sample size in 2024. This is a guy that we were talking about is like a bona fide top three player in the world. Just arguably the best player in the world last year. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, especially when he had that run of Memorial Olympia Fields Eastlake. So where are you at on Hovland?

high, medium or low panic meter. I think it's a big week for him as a big, big week for him because he's he's been great from a TD Green standpoint at Sawgrass in the past. Yeah. The other thing I believe he's committed to playing the Valero Texas Open and I know like I'm a huge I'll always that is one of the best. I

I remember. Especially off the tee on the PGH tour. Shout out Greg Norman. Yeah. Yeah. One of the few Greg Norman designs that I think is really good. But so when you say this is a big week for him, I believe he's committed to playing Valero and I would watch his off the tee performance there too, because that's a lot of driver and you have to hit it straight. So I'd monitor that one as well. I believe he's playing. I would say concern is very high short term. Like I don't worry about Hovland playing.

long run like I think he'll get a lot of this figured out but short term probably somebody I'd stay away from but we'll see you're right like the short game concerns kind of come back a little bit hasn't been great this year I think Victor's even admitted that his swing isn't where he wants it right now yeah so when you have concerns over multiple areas of the game

That's probably something that I would stray away from as a top tier player, right? If you're talking about betting him at 101, it'd be a different conversation, but that's not where he is. So yeah, I'd say high concern short term. Okay, next one for you. Can't lie.

He's played some good. He's, he's played some good golf this year. Uh, he's actually, he's also looked very off on approach. He's lost strokes on approach in five of six starts this year. Um, including last week at, at Bay Hill, where are you out on? Can't lay these days. I, it feels like heading into this year. I was like, it's, it's put up or shut up time for this guy at the bigger events.

I think he might be the hardest golfer for me to handle in general in terms of knowing what to expect from him week in and week out. Because every time he's doing well and in contention, it's like, oh my gosh, like, of course he is. He's so freaking good. But in terms of expecting that to be the golfer that shows up, especially in big events, I'm kind of at a wait and see phase.

mode with can't lay i think the final round of genesis whether he was sick or not was extremely uninspiring and he had a flat day and a day that he should have been contending so talk about winning at augusta and what do i think his chances are of winning i think they're low and there are other golfers who would have longer odds than he would that i would think would have a better chance

The guy that I think is the natural pairing to him is Xander. Who? I actually think Xander is going to win the players this week. I say that. There are statistical reasons for that. It's also just a feeling that this is Xander's career arc is going to end up looking a lot like Ricky Fowler, where we look back and say,

he got his players and then just disappointed us for the next 10 years. Um, Xander feels like a one players championship, bunch of top tens and majors never win a major type of guy. Um,

How do you feel about Xander right now going forward? I know you've kind of been, because those, Cantlay and Xander always get spoken about in conversation with each other. And I feel like you've always been, Xander is a little bit better than Cantlay, but correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah, I think they're very similar. So I don't know that I have a lot to say about either golfer. Like, Xander's been ridiculously consistent. It's unbelievable. I mean, if you look at his past 12 to...

18 months he's been as consistent as just about anybody really i don't know scotty has been more consistent maybe but xander's been right there hasn't been a threat to win that often but i i do believe he could but yeah i do kind of think that xander in big events maybe has a little bit of a better chance than can't lay and i don't know if i'm what i'm basing that off of is

It's completely subjective, but I just feel like I have those memories banked of him doing big things like a Kapalua. He had that ridiculous closing round. He's been involved in some majors in an open championship. He's been involved in the Masters. For some reason, I just give him a little bit of an edge, but I don't give much. I don't give either golfer a super high chance of winning, so I don't have a ton to say about Xander. It's unique.

It goes both ways, though, too, because you think about what happened at Riviera where he holds out the bunker shot on 11 for Eagle to tie for the lead. And then it's almost like he got body snatched over the next three holes. Like it was the three worst drives. He's essentially hit the entire tournament the second that he touched the lead. It like reminds me of what happens to my body.

when I get under par at my home course, I have like a visceral reaction where my body tells me you're not comfortable here. Like you're not comfortable under par. You need to make a bogey to feel comfortable again. It feels like that phenomenon occurred with Xander the second he touched the lead at Riviera. And that would be the thing that worries me on the other hand is

I trust the way he's playing more than can't lay. And there was a stat that I was looking at today. You look at the last four winners of the players, every single one of the last four winners since the move back to March has been gaining over 1.5 strokes per

just over the first two months of the season. So the guys that have won the players, and I know this applies to the masters too, but the ones that the guys that the guys that have won the players, it's like, don't overthink this. This is a golf course with landmines everywhere. Like the guys that wins the player are typically the guys in the best form over the first two months of the season. And the only guys over 1.5 strokes total in the last two months since January 1st, it's Scheffler, Zander, and Matthew Pavone.

I mean, I have my sawgrass model pretty close to done. I don't really finalize it till Wednesday night when the forecast is a little bit more final, but I have Xander rated very highly. Yeah, I agree with most of what you're saying. I think there's probably something to that 1.5 number. It wouldn't surprise me if it's if there are fewer golfers who meet that criteria than in

in previous years. I think some of the strokes gain density stuff, especially with the fields being stratified, that's probably doing that a little bit too. So that's something just to consider with these smaller fields because you

you'll probably get fewer arnold palmer's a little bit of a different example because you have these massive numbers guys were putting up on some of the like making tens on certain holes but overall i wouldn't be surprised if especially with these smaller fields players playing more similar conditions that just strokes gain numbers aren't as spread out so it might be that might be something to consider um all right where are we at on more kala these days what's going on there

I don't Morikawa is another player that I think generally been a little bit difficult to know when he's going to come out and win a tournament by five like he did at the Zoes though like right Collins I mean unbelievably accurate driver of the golf ball one of the best iron players in the world feels like paper great fed it at Sawgrass you would think

He just shows up flat in a lot of situations. I think the wind is something interesting with him to consider how his ball flight interacts with the wind. Yeah, he's another golfer that I'm probably inclined to stay away from often, but when he wins, it doesn't surprise people either. So I'm not sure I have a ton to add about what I think about Morikawa. This should be a pretty good fit for him. I've always been high on him at players championships. His results are fine. He...

He's only played it a couple times. Finished 13th last year. Gained, what, over two, two and a half shots with his approach? Guy keeps it in play. I think the main thing will be his short game. And yeah, I don't know. I don't have a ton to say about Morikawa, but he's frustrating. I noticed the thing with the wind, too, when I was following him at Torrey Pines. It feels like his ball sort of hits a certain point in the air and then stops.

starts to fall off right a little bit versus other players ball flight is a little bit more piercing and sometimes you know when his ball when you're playing into a strong gust his ball just kind of hits a point and it almost feels like it goes backwards a little bit i noticed that on a couple of the windier ocean holes at tory pines so i agree with you i i was i watched he was on um

He was on PGHR live a lot on, on Friday morning and things like pretty shaky for him. So I'm going to be very curious to see how he responds this week at Sawgrass, because I think, as you mentioned on paper, I, I like his general skillset and fit for this golf course. Um, Justin Thomas. Pretty high on Justin Thomas. Uh, like a big thing with JT.

all through last year when this resurgence started like first of all crazy resurgence like where his game was i thought we might be seeing like a spieth bottoming out where jt might be lost for a year a year and a half his ability to get it back on track has been absurdly impressive but when he was doing a lot of that it was on soft setups so the fall swing was

like amx like even pebble is a lot of wedge which right is in jt's wheelhouse like i wanted to see the some of the long irons like and then the second we got excited about him at riviera i mean like what happened and that was kind of the first driver long iron test that he really had in a while i mean marco simone was another one and he did not play well there so right

I think it's encouraging. I watched a lot of him at the Arnold Palmer this past weekend. I think he looks pretty good. And especially at the players, he should be pretty comfortable there, right? Obviously he's won their short game stuff. I mean, he checks a lot of boxes, but I do think he's kind of Rory like in that he tries some shots. He shouldn't try.

I hate when he goes for the hook with his driver. I think it's one of the dumbest shots that he could attempt. It almost bit him in the ass on 18 at Sawgrass when he won. He got a miracle bounce to not go in the water. It bites him on 13 at Augusta when he tries to go for that whip draw. So those are, I think there are reasons to be concerned about him. What are his long irons? What are they going to look like? And is he going to do any damage?

dumb shots, which I'm sure he'll do some that I wouldn't necessarily advocate. But I'd say overall, I think it's an amazing course that he should be really comfortable, probably about as high on him as I am any other player entering this week. That's not named Scotty Scheffler. He's another good course management guy to watch because he's

Have you noticed anything different with Bones? It feels to me like just eye test wise, it feels like there's a lot of conversation about hitting these highly, highly specific golf shots with Justin Thomas. And as you mentioned, I wonder sometimes if it takes him out of

potentially doing something that might be maybe a little bit lower degree of difficulty, but doesn't have as much of a adverse, potentially negative range of outcomes as well. I think a lot of these highly talented guys, they are so used to executing all these shots on command on the driving range. And they can think back to specific times that they've executed a highly difficult shot that that's the one they're inclined to go for.

I think JT and Rory, that's absolutely what's happening versus Scotty. Man, he can hit those shots too, but I think he kind of humbles himself to realizing it's not the right shot. And humility is a skill. I really do believe that's a lot of golf and getting into some of the deeper aspects

elements of the philosophy of a successful golfer. I think understanding that you can't execute every shot perfectly is a skill. And I think JT's ego probably gets in the way a little bit on some of those shots. So I haven't noticed, I would say, a big difference with bones on the bag or not. But oftentimes with JT,

He goes for some shots that I wouldn't, again, I wouldn't advocate are the smartest shots. That said, wind is one of the times where it makes sense to get a little crafty with your ball flight. And this week we could get some wind. So I don't think it's a coincidence that that magical round he had at the players a couple of years back when it was crazy windy. Sure, wind introduces variance, but I also think that it

A little bit of a windier environment can be conducive to the style of play that he likes to play. So I'm pretty high on coming into this week, but I think there's a maybe a wide range of outcomes for JT. I could easily see him winning, could easily see him missing the cut. If you wanted to bet on the most consistent possible golfer this week, probably wouldn't be Justin Thomas. Speaking of going for it, what is going on with Jordan Spieth these days? Spieth looks pretty good. What do you think of Spieth?

I think where I'm at with Spieth is I think he is always, it's always in play for Spieth to play some incredible golf over the course of 18 or 36 holes. We're going on a pretty long period of time where it just feels a little bit unattainable for him to put 72 holes together. I think every single tournament that you've watched Spieth, you've

you could take away some really encouraging positives from certain stretches of golf. Like even I woke up pretty early on Sunday and was just watching how Spieth was navigating the front nine at Bay Hill. And he ended up giving a bunch back and I think posting a 69, which I think was still one of the low rounds of the day on Sunday at Bay Hill, where it feels like Spieth has not lost that.

the capabilities to produce magic it just feels like um it's it's coming in shorter periods of time now if that makes sense like it just it feel he feels so far away from getting an elite speed performance for for four days i don't disagree with you over the last couple years he's shown these bursts where you're like wait a minute maybe he is one of the top eight

five to eight golfers in the world and then he'll hit a drive that's so squirrely you're like hey what is like this cannot win but i think he i mean i have some confidence in him going into both the players and the masters like i think he do you think it's a good short game yeah do you think sawgrass is a good course for him in some ways but i worry so much about

some of the off the tee stuff that, I mean, Jordan can hit some foul balls, like some, some real foul balls. Other, the iron play has been really solid in the short games. Unbelievable. He's also, I would need to look this up, but I believe he's making those long putts again at a pretty absurd rate. He was at least early this year and his strokes game putting is like way up. Uh, when he gets, when he dips into that, everything from 15 to 25 feet feels like he's going to make it.

That's a crazy skill. Like I know that he was making 25% of those through some of his best years, like 2016, 17. And it was like 5% higher than the number two guy in the world. I think Jordan's lag, I wouldn't call it lag putting like 15 to 25 foot when that's firing. It is a nasty, nasty weapon. So if he can keep the ball in bounds this week and he's going to drain a couple of those pretty high on him, but yeah,

squirrely enough that yeah he doesn't meet he's not like one of my top three or four names obviously so right i i feel i feel a lot better about him at augusta than i do at sawgrass because i i think at least augusta conjures some sort of um creativity in him that it it engages his senses for the positive um if if that makes sense um whereas who do you think has a better chance of winning this week's beef or can't lie can't lie

I feel pretty firm on that. Who do you think has a better chance of winning, Cantlay or Hovland? I think it's Cantlay. I think Spieth probably has a better chance of winning than Hovland. I think Hovland's in a little bit of a funk right now. I kind of agree with you. I'd put Xander ahead of all of those guys. I might take Hideki over Victor Hovland. I would too. If you're power ranking top three...

We'll do this really quickly, and then I just have two more guys to talk about. If I'm power ranking most likely to win the players, I'd go Scotty, Gap, and then I'd go JT and Xander would be my next two picks. I think mine would probably be the exact same. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm glad we're aligned. That makes me feel better. Okay, quick one, and then two, we have guys I want to talk about I forgot. What's the state of the union on Cam Young Island these days? I've been having to defend off a lot of...

Why do you keep riding for this, guys? You whittle two in the weeds with the numbers. What's going on here? Did Jacob Knapp market correct Cameron Young in two weeks? As a devoted Cameron Young stand like me, owning beachfront property on Cam Young Island, where are we at these days on the Cam Young front? We might be at the point where Cam Young is just super easy to handle.

And I don't... I have to... That's not waving a white flag, but I think it is a big admission that Cam Young may not be a winner week in and week out. When you have both deficiencies in the short game and in the short putting, it's hard to win golf tournaments. You can get yourself in the mix, but to actually go toe-to-toe with somebody like Scottie when he's firing, I don't know if Cam Young is capable of that. But on...

extremely demanding setups. There's almost nobody that I would predict higher strokes gain T to green like the Masters. I don't think Cam Young. This is so old takes exposed, but like I don't think he can have a bad week this year at the Masters like he sets up so well T to green that something would have to go egregiously wrong for him to have a bad week, but I also don't know that he's going to win like I think

T5 to T18 feels pretty reasonable for Cameron Young on a lot of setups right now. When something's a wedge and putting contest, like doesn't set up super well for him.

Some of these long demanding courses, like I really like what he's going to do T to green. So I don't know. I don't think he's going to win this week by any stretch, but I have so much respect for his game that I'm still, I always would want to be higher on him than the consensus. The problem is I felt that way about API. Like I felt that there were a couple of players that just started on second base because of their driver at API and

Rory cam young chef are to a certain extent. And how does he finished he 36 at that golf course in a 69 man field? I just, that's it's, it's so frustrating to me. I almost wonder, you know, he finished third randomly at the heritage. And I almost wonder, I haven't done the digging on his type of decision-making, uh,

Stuff on his course management stuff, but that third at the heritage has me wondering if like he actually might be able to be kind of sneaky this week at sawgrass. Don't think it's crazy at all. I wouldn't I don't wouldn't expect.

If you do a deep dive on his course management for it to be particularly illuminating, like I think he kind of hits a lot of the stock shots. He's pretty smart with his course management. Yeah. It's just when a golfer has multiple holes in his game, which Cam Young tends to have with the short game and the short putting when either one of them flares up, like it kind of takes him out of golf tournaments a little bit. So yeah, I players, I think he can stay, uh,

out of trouble a lot off the tee and he'll probably hit a lot of smart shots. I don't know. I think he'll have some frustrating up and downs. He doesn't convert that you're like that you need him to convert if he's going to win. I think the Masters I he's I like him better at the Masters than I like him at the players.

Hey, John Rom third in my Coba T eight in Vegas, fifth and Jetta T eight in Hong Kong. Legion finishes, finishes dead last at Hong Kong. Probably not the best golf course for, for Caleb Sarad and fairness, but do you take away anything from law? Rom live? Is it a pro? Do you find it concerning that he hasn't won it live? He also enforced starts at live. Uh,

Has finished between third and eighth every single time, or is it just a total nothing burger for you? Get me to Augusta.

The team, the Legion 13 finishing dead last is news to me because I don't even, I find the team stuff so uninteresting that I might see who finished the top three teams. Yeah, one piece of data I would love, not to digress, but I think Liv's most interesting data point is probably how much time people spend on the team leaderboard versus the player leaderboard. If they would, I would love

to see that data published. Like, are people actually going through the teams or not? That's cool. It's cool that they would have that. So I would love to see that get published because I just don't, the team stuff does nothing for me. I wonder if it corresponds with the 4 million reported caffeine viewers. Yeah, those are, those are totally real numbers. Where I am on Jon Rahm is I think I've learned over the years that to just never doubt Jon Rahm and to always consider him with the utmost respect.

I think I don't take a lot away from his live performances. Finishing all between the third and eighth, great. If he had a T27 and a T36 in there, it wouldn't change anything for me. I think Jon Rahm, until I saw, until Scottie showed some promise with the mallet putter, I think Jon Rahm, in my opinion, should have been at worst co-favorite with Rahm at the Masters. Sorry, Rahm should have been co-favorite with Scheffler.

Right now, I think he's just a little bit behind Scheffler because Scottie might have found something with the mallet. We'll still see. I'm skeptical that he'll be a great putter, but anything has to be better than what Scheffler was. So I think Rahm, I feel pretty good about going into Augusta. His accuracy off the tee and what he can do with the long iron. He wins back-to-back. It shouldn't surprise anybody, but he and Scheffler...

I mean, I kind of want Scottie to have a bad week at the players this week so that maybe...

People get tricked into thinking that Scottie's not all the way there. Like I think Scottie wins the masters. Well, that's kind of actually what happened last year with Ron is you remember last year, Ron was, Ron was lighting the world on fire and then he either missed a cut or he withdrew with illness at the players. Everybody, everybody talked themselves down.

into Scotty. Scotty and Rory were the favorites. Rom, I remember betting at 11 to 1, and he obviously ended up being the guy. So then final guy for you, Brooks. Isn't that... I mean, that's kind of... T28 in Hong Kong. Is there new stuff to even glean from Brooks anymore? No, probably not. I have made the mistake...

in the past both directions on Brooks, right? Yeah, me too. Thinking that he can't elevate his game for majors and kind of always downplaying that and then thinking he was cooked when he signed with Liv, thinking that we probably were never going to hear from him again and then remembering how freaking good he is when he came back and almost won the Masters and won the PGA. Like, Brooks Kafka is a world beater.

I think he should always be one of the top four names at a major top five names at a major. How many golfers do you think have a better chance of winning the masters than Brooks does? Probably two. You just mentioned. Yeah, probably two, probably, um, ROM. And I, I, I actually think that there is, I know you probably don't care about the weird trend stuff, but there is like a big,

very massive correlation of like how difficult it is to go back to back at the masters. Um, and that would be my biggest case for why ROM, why Brooks actually is a little bit more likely to win the masters this year than ROM. Um, I would put, I would, um, I would rather, uh,

personally i would rather bet brooks to win the masters this year than i would bet rom now a little bit is that because i think you'll get a bit of a better number on brooks and rom um but i would personally bet brooks before i bet rom this year but at the same time i'm not a good barometer of this because rory is my favorite golfer and i've been talking about going to the masters with my dad since we were five years old we've never done it we're supposed to go last year because he got covid

And so I'm betting my favorite golfer at Rory to win the Masters this year because I'm going in person. And as a New York sports fan, I haven't had a nice thing occur to me since the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012. Well, it's interesting you said that.

What the ROM back-to-back thing? I don't worry as much about the back-to-back stuff because I think that can often be overblown. Besides defending champions, sometimes having extra responsibilities and not being as focused. Like that's a real thing. You have to do some hosting and sponsor obligations. It's pretty draining. So yeah, even the Masters, right? Like hosting the champions dinner. But one thing I think specifically with ROM this year is

I wonder if he's going to be a little bit uncomfortable walking around Augusta after having signed with Liv, knowing that he's... I don't have a problem with him signing, really, because I do think everything changed. I kind of thought Phil was going to feel that too, though, last year, and it didn't seem to bother me. I think Phil's a little different

I think Phil's a little more vindictive. Probably fair. And cares less about what people think about him than Rom does. And I wonder how Rom will feel walking around Rory, walking around a lot of... I mean, I think it's fair to characterize the relationship between Augusta National and Liv as somewhat hostile. So I wonder how comfortable Rom will feel

teeing it up as a live golfer maybe completely fine i don't worry about the game with live guys anymore coming to play augusta i think we learned last year it wasn't really a big deal i do wonder about his psyche being defending champion and dealing dealing with wearing different logo this year at augusta i wonder if roms how focused i think it's nicer to just walk in there

As a golfer, that's not dealing with some of that. So I could see some of that. What do you think? I think that's a fair take. I do think with I do think with ROM there is like the champions dinner. It's a it's a lot of live guys like they're they're going to be a lot of live guys there. And I think that.

Rom making this giant move, making this giant career change, something I talked a lot about with Rom when he made the move to live and.

This is the type of stuff that only I was like having this conversation with Kyle Porter. There may be like three people in the world that actually care about this, but just in terms of like how Ron is going to be able to compare himself to savvy from a career accomplishment standpoint, after going to live where it's so difficult to place anything that is happening on live in any form of historical context, um,

I'm very curious to see his performance at all of the majors this year, because I think that it has become sacrilegious to suggest that.

Any player on live because the money was so big potentially regrets their decision. And I think it is also become sacrilegious on, on the other side to suggest that, you know, guys like Rory were happy staying in place when all of those guys got a giant bag. So I'm fascinated with ROM. I, like I said, I would put Brooks on,

ahead of him personally uh just give brooks the slight edge but probably in my top three guys i'm most excited to watch on thursday morning i agree and i'm sort of playing devil's advocate because i'm really high on john ron that probably came across as thinking he's going to play poorly i don't think he's going to play poorly i think he could win at augusta but if he doesn't play well i'm

or at least thinking about all the possible outcomes here. Yeah. I think there's a world where he tees it up and he's not a hundred percent comfortable and he's dealing with some of these external distractions versus some guys that are just showing up and it's like, it's any other week. I think Rory deals with a level of distraction when he shows up at Augusta that he hasn't won. I'm not, I'm not saying this is unique to ROM. Right. I was going to add that. I actually think like,

There's a big, and we can wrap up here in a second. This is just so fun to talk about, but it's really interesting if you look at performance of players after winning a green jacket versus performance of players where the scar tissue starts to build and build and build. And I think that's the difficult thing with Rory is that there are a lot of guys that, and this speaks to your Scotty point,

There are a lot of guys that won a green jacket. This happened with Bubba. This happened with Phil. This happened with Arnold Palmer like three times in a row in the 60s where you win a green jacket, you maybe struggle in your title defense, and then you come back the following year and win. Or you come back the following year and top five and content. And I think...

The positive for somebody like Rahm is when you have the green jacket, I think that you approach that week maybe a little bit more lightly than somebody like Rory who has developed all of this scar tissue about this event where there's so much weight and gravity to every single Masters going forward with Rory. Whereas I would argue with Jon Rahm, the pressure is a little bit off.

I don't disagree. The scar tissue stuff, I always raise an eyebrow at a little bit. I don't always agree with it. Oh, come on. You don't think with Rory a little bit? Like, I think Rory's the unique case to it where I feel like he is. Even just that comment that he made earlier

after O'Killen, that full swing captured felt so illuminating to me. And I'm really glad they caught that on camera because I don't know if he knew Netflix cameras were there, but I think there are a lot of players that wouldn't have had the vulnerability to say something like that. But Rory basically saying, I feel like I could top 10 these things in my sleep, yet I've never felt farther away from actually breaking away from the pack and winning it.

him saying something like that, like felt so it was such an encapsulation of the Rory experience to me. It's like, it feels like he can top 10 these things with a C minus game, but yet it's never felt farther away from like him being able to actually find a way to cross the finish line. I'm not downplaying some of the mental stuff that happens with Rory specifically. I think he's a unique case, but,

I think there's also an element of every time he stands up on a tee box, if he sprays the driver, he's in a real, he's got a real problem. And some of that factoring in. So there's also, I think a mental, I'm not sure that Rory always knows what he wants to do and approaches majors different ways. Some years. And like his comment about on that soccer podcast about, you know, last year when I,

Looked up at the leaderboard. I saw I was 10 behind and I started chasing and I've learned that you can't do that. Like, come on, man. Like how many years does it take to figure some of that stuff out? Like that's where, whether it's chasing Bryson's distance and then acknowledging that that was a mistake. Like, I just think there's a little bit of a lack of mental sharpness sometimes with this kind of stuff that,

Maybe I would attribute some of the performance to that as opposed to scar tissue specifically. I don't disagree. Like when he stands over the 10th tee, I'm sure in the back of his mind, the time he snap hooked it a million yards left, maybe is in the back of his mind or when he stands on the first tee thinking about some of the errant tee shots he's hit there that he sprayed the first tee shot in the 2018 Masters with Patrick Reed, like way right into the trees. But I think some of that's also a course fit and that

he has a tendency to spray the driver a little bit and you can feel that when you're standing over a tee shot. So I don't, I'm not downplaying all of that, but I don't know. I think certain guys like Scotty maybe have a little bit of a mindset that's more, it's more tuned into winning. Yeah. Conducive, particularly to maybe Augusta. I mean, I would still put him forth. Would you, where's that? Yeah.

Oh, where's that? That was horse. What he's, he's gotta be like feather sex. I, I, I would, yeah, I would still put Rory forth. I still think the talent level, I think you, I would still put Rory forth and my Augusta power rankings. But like I said, maybe that's my blinders. Maybe that's too high. I mean, would you put Zalatorre's forth?

It's interesting because some of this is like, what do you think their ceiling is versus what's their median outcome? Right. I'm saying most likely to win the masters. If like, you know, you, I'm sure you get a million tax masters week. Like who should I, who should I bet on or who should I put in my pool?

man this is gonna this is gonna be like sacrilegious i think will zelatoris probably has a better chance winning this masters than rory mcelroy i don't think it's sacrilegious at all i don't think it's i don't think it's controversial i can just tell you like in the betting and daily fantasy community there are a bunch of people that are just sick of a shit like how many times are we going to do this guys like i do it every year yeah how many times are you going to talk yourself into this one

I think he may win the PGA. I actually like Rory's chances at a lot of majors going forward. It's more for me less the mental thing and more the shots he tries to attempt in majors with his long irons and the off the tee a little bit of wildness that you can get away with on a setup like Valhalla that you can't get away with at Augusta as much. So I'm always a little low on Rory at the Masters.

All right, Joseph, I could do this with you for another two hours. Um, but this was a blast. I think we'll be hopping on, on a, on a podcast for, uh, so hopefully Rory listens to it. Um, on the, uh, did you see, was that a fun day for the folks over at the Friday that made me happy as one of,

As a club TFE guy, as a massive fried egg consumer myself, as your friend, as Garrett's friend, I know Andy less so, but I know you and Garrett decently well at this point. I hope that was a fun day in the fried egg offices when that shone across the screen.

He's going to say you're referencing in the first episode of Full Swing on Netflix. Yes. The Pants to Rory's car. Pants to Rory's car. He's got Shotgun Starred and at Bright Ag as his most listened to pods. To be perfectly honest, I think we knew that he maybe had listened to some stuff before that came out. So it wasn't like a huge surprise. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I think he's talked with... That doesn't shock me, but...

Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's, I appreciate seeing that and him being kind of plugged into stuff, especially as the future of golf kind of gets sorted out. Um, I think he's somebody that cares a lot about that and a lot of other golfers don't. So appreciate the, the being plugged in, um, not just selfishly, but, but for the, honestly, for the future of the sport, because he seems to be the person that cares about it the most. I'm glad that he's listening to, uh,

what I would call the right and opinions on issues like rollback and stuff like that. Hopefully there's a down, hopefully there's some downstream effects there, uh, for the positive, but all right, Joseph, anything you got, anything else you got going on this week before we get out of here? Anything you want to plug? I haven't fully written it, but I'm going to hopefully by the time people listen to this, putting out a long thing on, on the future of golf and, and

Some of the key variables are like some of the relegation stuff. So I'm hoping to get that done and put out, but we'll see. Other than that, not really. We did full swing thoughts, which was a podcast. Can't wait. It's like an audio companion to watching the full swing Netflix show. I did it with Brendan Porath of Friday Golf. Thought it was really fun. Get into a lot of deep golf conversations on it that aren't just about what happens in the Netflix show. So I thought it was fun, but no, nothing other than those two things to plug.

All right, buddy. This is a blast. We'll do it again soon. Good to see you, my friend. Thanks for having me, Andy. This was fun. All right. That is it for the podcast. Special thanks to Run Pure Sports. Special thanks to Betts Burts Golf and the Rabbit Hole. Special thanks to Joseph, as always, for joining me. We will be back on this podcast feed.

Next Monday, next Sunday evening, I think we'll say I'll be in Mexico. So I can't definitively say that I'm going to do a Sunday morning podcast on the Valspar. But we shall see. Until then, best of luck with your bets this weekend. Enjoy the golf at the Players. Hopefully it's a good one. And we will see you next time. Cheers.

Between the viaducts of your dream Where mobile steel rooms crack And the Dutch and the back road stop

Drinking and driving is a decision that could change your whole world. Things will never be the same if you ever get a DUI. Because legal fees and time in court are just the beginning. Getting into a crash is another way that your world can be turned upside down. Your vehicle may not be the only thing that gets damaged in that crash. You can face a life altering injury or

or even death. But you're not the only one that can face those consequences. Your decision to drink and drive can permanently impact not just your world, but someone else's world as well. Whether you injure them or leave their loved ones grieving. The next time you're out drinking, call a ride share, a taxi, a sober friend,

or a designated sober driver. The only decision that will change your world for the better is the decision to call for a sober ride. Drive sober or get pulled over. Paid for by NHTSA.