Valero Picks & The Masters Draft with Twitterless Steve
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If you want, let us prove it to you. And obviously this is a, uh, a great week to sign up and join in because obviously the master's machine is starting to starting to rev up already. Uh, so a lot of masters talk in there, a lot of Valero Texas open talk as well, which we'll get to in this podcast. I think, uh,

With the Masters pricing being out already, I think maybe a lot of people will look ahead past Valero Texas Open. I still think there's a tremendous amount of money to be made, which, as I mentioned, we'll talk about on this podcast. So I'm bringing on my good friend, one of my favorite people to talk golf with, Twitterless Steve from the Golf Gambling Podcast. We do an early majors preview every single December.

which is one of my favorite episodes of the year. And then he'll come on, come back on from time to time throughout the year. And I thought this was a great week to check in on some of our December Masters takes now that we are just a short, you know, 10, 11 days away. So we talk some Valero, some of the stuff we saw and learned at Houston,

And then a fun little gimmick towards the end where we do a little bit of a master's draft and select players from different ranges of who we think is going to play well. Because we know that the master's content cycle is starting to rev up. I'm actually doing my first big, the annual Steve Bamford preview that I do before every major. That will be out later this week. I'm recording that one tomorrow.

So without further ado, let's bring on Twitterless Steve. All right, Twitterless Steve is here, my good friend, Golf Gambling Podcast. Did you just get back from a vacation? I did. I was down in Florida and I got to know what my co-host suffers through not having access to any other legal books. So I actually did not put together a betting card for the Houston Open, partially just because

I came back on Wednesday. I was dealing with the kids coming back from a couple-hour flight. That was not good. I was too tired to look at the odds. So you left the kids at home for this one? No, the kids came with us. Okay. So kids were on the plane coming there and back, and I have a four-year-old and an eight-month-old, and that was quite the experience. But partially, I just was exhausted. So you're the first time traveling on a plane, I would presume, with the eight-month-old?

It was actually the second time, but she's older now and has more opinions about stuff. Let's just say that. But I did put together a betting card. Is she a Delta girl or what? When you say opinions. She's just coming into her own.

As far as, you know, where she wants to sit, who she wants to be held by, what she wants to eat. Whereas, you know, a couple of months ago, she was just happy to just, you know, see a smiling face next to me. So, yeah. Yeah. But I didn't put together a betting card, but I did put one for my dad.

on that was Steven Yeager. So that was good. And yep, congratulations with that. And then I ended up getting FOMO on about Friday or Saturday because I knew it would have been on my betting card. Got Yeager like 10 to one, obviously still just terrified of Scotty the whole time. And it played out about exactly how I thought it was. I mean, I said on my previous show that

I understand that there was pushback on his outright number, but if I was going to set up a golf course for Scotty Scheffler, I probably would have set it up in the manner that Memorial Park was set up as.

And basically the books are just telling you at that point that Scottie was going to be the mix. And you got one in four shot of cash in it. So, um, you know, yeah, you're came through Scottie probably should have won the tournament. I mean, it really came down to him missing a 20 inch putt on Friday, uh, that would have forced a playoff or if he hit a wedge, you know, three feet farther, maybe it doesn't spin off the green on 15, but you know, that's golf, uh,

And I don't know what exactly that means for the masters. I don't know if I would have preferred Scotty winning just to feel, keep feeling good about himself or the fact that he knows he got another one, you know, let, you know, slip through his fingers. Maybe he's going to really come out just and want to stop everybody in a couple of weeks. Well, well, actually let me push back on one piece there, because are you talking about the golf course, the Memorial park that we have seen in previous editions of

You know, the one with the more thicker Bermuda gnarly Bermuda rough that plays a little firm and faster or this overseeded version of Bermuda rough that felt very Augusta codified. I mean, I know you are not in.

I know you had a, you were on vacation, so I don't know how much you got to actually watch of the tournament over the weekend. But this was like a very different Memorial park than we have seen in years past. And I think there's an argument. I could provide an argument on both sides in terms of the, how that would benefit Scotty Scheffler. Well, so I saw that they overseen the golf course and I saw there was an inch and a quarter rough, uh,

And I just was completely negligible. I mean, in years past, this is a golf course with a fairly high Miss fairway penalty. Yeah. Yeah. And there was, there was no Miss fairway penalty this year. Right. And I guess like, you know, if this was a Bermuda golf course where Scotty has a putt very well on, or if this was while I, or AMX or just ones where his skills just are devalued a little bit. Yeah. I definitely can understand. But like when I looked at this golf course on Sunday, when I saw the GCSA report saying, okay, it's overseeded.

You know, the rough is down to an inch and a quarter, essentially trying to create a very good, you know, as close to a simulation of Augusta as you probably could get between the two. Which I think they did a pretty good job of for what it is. Oh, they absolutely did. And just considering that, you know, there was no indication that Scottie was going to slow down with the ball striking. So even if he wasn't going to miss a fairway, as you just pointed out, you're going to get the best iron player in the world right now at clean lie. Yeah.

With a lot of long approach shots and he's great from shipping from tight lies. And I just felt like, you know, if that's what we're going to give Scotty at this point at the peak of his powers on a putting surface that he's put very well on it too in his career, it just felt like.

I did not foresee a path where Scotty is just not in the mix. Yeah. So that was some trepidation I had just coming into the week and it kind of bore out that way. Just, you know, golf just kind of happened and he ends up losing by a shot. Yeah. I think it goes both ways with the overseeded. When, when I first saw the overseed, uh,

The argument for this is better for Scotty is that he puts significantly better on overseeded Bermuda greens and you take some of the grain out of the Bermuda and you're going to, you know, if that Bermuda is a little bit more dormant, you're going to have a little bit of an easier time on those shorter pots. It's easier to hole, you know, ironically, the short pots was, was what doomed him, but just overall, whether it's a short putt or a short putt, it's easier to hole.

When you have more overseeded grainless grass, that makes it a little bit easier on the trickiness and the break of the short ones. On the other hand of it, I actually think that a golf course with a high missed fairway penalty allows Scotty Sheffler to separate himself even further from the pack. You think about what's the characteristics of sawgrass grass.

And Bay Hill, those are two golf courses with a high missed fairway penalty and a low greens and regulation percentage.

Think about how easy it was for Scotty to separate himself on those golf courses. But I think he's probably at the point where he's course proof, right? Like as soon as I saw it, it looked like this exact replica of Augusta. I said, well, okay, you know, there's a lot more bombers in this field and that was a Jaeger route, right? Like one of the things I talked about on my Wednesday show was, okay, with this overseeded negligible Bermuda rough, this is going to play a lot like,

A Bermuda Torrey Pines or closer to a Vedanta Viarta with tougher greens, right? Where it's like your D trees and your Jaegers and your Nate Lashley's and your toasties and all of these guys that can hit a mile at hit the ball mile and will no longer be penalized by that nasty, gnarly Bermuda rough.

Maybe that makes Scottie's path just a little bit harder because you have more guys in play that can just mash the ball off the tee. And maybe we get a little bit of a higher greens and regulation percentage. And what was fascinating to me was, you know, they took away all of the rough from the golf course and it's still pretty, pretty damn hard, which I think is just kind of like a testament to, uh,

You know, we should get Tom Doak designing more of these golf courses instead of instead of our guy Greg Norman this week.

Yeah. I mean, I think that is an argument against the folks that want to say a golf course like PJ national was great because it's really only difficult because there's a lot of water hazards and what Memorial park shows is that you can take away a lot of fairway bunkers and, you know, only a couple hills had water hazards, but if you have very interesting and difficult green side surrounds and greens, and even, you know, I remember when I was first breaking down the golf course and

even though it kind of looks a little flat off the fairway, there are some subtle undulations that Tom Doak wanted to put in there that are imperceptible to an amateur, but a pro can feel it. So like there's, you know, you know, maybe, you know, the ball is slightly below their feet and like a pro can only know that. So,

Yeah. I mean, I think that was, I was surprised with that. The winning score is still only 12 under me. Um, it was very bunched up. I heard female before the rep, the tournament saying it was going to play a lot easier. So I was, I was like, okay, probably 15, 16 under. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it held up without like a crazy amount of wind either for what it's worth.

Yeah, I mean, like 20 miles per hour wind for Texas isn't a whole lot. And I think only on Friday afternoon, it really started to blow. It was like a sneaky wind too. Like you could tell that it was a type of wind that wasn't crazy. Like you didn't see flag sticks blowing like crazy out there, but you could tell it was a type of wind that would switch pretty quickly. And you had a number of guys come up short and misjudge it all the time.

Oh, sure. And when you have, you know, very undulated greens like Memorial Park, too, if you just miss it just by a couple feet, you know, you saw a lot of balls and rolling off the green and since, you know, collection areas and that makes it pretty difficult to try and get up and down from that stuff is, you know, we'll see it at Guston National about a week and a half. So, you know, I love the golf course setup. You know, I was...

I mean, I guess I'm not surprised because there wasn't a big sponsor behind this tournament. They've always struggled with it. But if I was a top player trying to prep for Augusta, I would have much rather probably gone to Houston and tried to simulate those conditions versus Valero, which honestly, I can't think of anything that's really ever come out of Valero before.

That hasn't really changed anything as far as what happens at Augusta. So, you know, we got an okay field, I would say, for Valero. You know, some good names at the top, but I'm surprised some top players...

didn't go to Houston, just given what types of shots you had to hit there, especially around the green to get a little bit of a good prep for Augusta next week. We're going to get to Valero at the end. I want to stick with the master's temperature meter meter right now. And we're going to, we're going to do a little fun gimmick that I didn't really prepare you for whatsoever, but what's the temperature on Scotty right now? Like, I think that for the first time and, and,

I think people forget how dominant DJ was heading into the fall masters. And, you know, even he was seven to one, eight to one in some spots, I think were, uh,

Now at a consensus of like four to one for Sheffler at the masters, did anything that you saw last week change your opinion on Scotty heading into Augusta and how afraid are you, you know, of, I presume you're not going to bet him at four to one, but there's probably an argument for it. How did you feel coming out of Houston after watching another fairly dominant Sheffler performance, by the way, that I might add, uh,

One thing that I noticed watching him on Sunday, I know this is kind of like a silly thing to say, because of course they want to win, but Scotty like really has nothing to prove. And a lot of people view these weeks, a lot of great players view these weeks is like, I'm actually going to try some stuff and fine tune some things and practice more of the shots that I'm going to hit at Augusta. And I'm going to stay out of the results. Like it's more of a process week than a results week.

God, it was really striking to me how evident it was that Scotty really freaking wanted this one. I don't know if that was an Easter Sunday religious thing, a Meredith pregnant thing, three starts in a row, first time since in almost a decade thing. But God, it struck me how just from a body language and visual standpoint, how much Shuffler wanted this thing.

Yeah, I mean, there definitely is a difference between, you know, you look at some guys just kind of go through the motions on Sunday and Scottie. I mean, he can be a little of a hothead, but yeah, I mean, there was a lot of emotion, especially on Sunday with a lot of missed putts or, you know, I think he was chirping at Ted Scott a little bit when he missed the green on 15 where he was complaining about the

The wind come off the left and maybe Ted Scott talked him off it. But I mean, as far as my temperature on Scotty, I mean, I had high expectations for him coming into Memorial Park. So nothing really changed for me is that I guess with Augusta, you know, obviously a lot stronger field. What we saw Houston Ross going to be throwing a lot of the live guys in there. And I've been trying to keep a closer eye on live this year versus other years, because I know that, you know, based on what happened last year, I can't dismiss as much as I probably should not have done last

I mean, four and a half to one with a lot of guys. I probably wouldn't say on the PGA Tour playing all that great, but nothing's really changed for me as far as how I feel about him coming to the Masters. I'm not going to bet Scotty personally. I mean, I don't think he's going to win. You're not going to bet the without Scotty markets either? No. No, I just have a feeling that he's just not going to win. I think just the aura or just...

I feel like it just seems like it's going to be too easy for him to just walk in there and win. And looking at some of the weather reports, it doesn't seem like the weather is going to be a little more conducive to scoring as far as a little bit warmer temperatures, less wind. Now, obviously, that can change. And I feel like in that type of master, just thinking about that type of weather, the last couple of years.

Yeah, so like in 2019, like a bunch up leaderboard, you had, you know, Tiger and like DJ. It seemed like everybody had a shirt lead, but you also had like Poulter and Webb and, you know, years like 2020 where it was kind of easy to conditions. Obviously, DJ ran away with it, but you have like Cam Smith and like Answer. It does seem like more guys would be in play. And I just feel like there's going to be

I just, it may be just a feeling I have. You don't have to explain yourself any more than it's golf. You know, I think everybody just penciling in here.

is underestimating the fact that it's golf, right? And that was a lot of my argument last week in the Scheffler thing where there are a lot more of a range of outcomes that could happen in a golf tournament than I think people want to acknowledge, even when you have somebody that feels as much of a sure thing as Scotty does right now. And I did walk away from this tournament saying,

I had a great week from a DFS standpoint playing 0% Scottie. And part of the reason I had such a great DFS week playing 0% Scottie is because I was able to build such incredible lineups without playing a 13,000 golfer. The lineup that won me the most money had Akshay Bhatia as your fifth man in. And you're not able to do that if you play...

a $13,000 golfer. I also had Finau and Jaeger and Taylor Moore everywhere, which helped a lot. And so I walked away from that week, despite it being very successful for me, not necessarily being like, oh, this is a guy that I want to just because it worked out for me.

This time, I didn't necessarily walk away from this week thinking like, okay, I want to specifically on certain golf courses. I think the brain advantage that Scheffler has at Augusta cannot be understated. I think it's very golf course dependent in terms of how we handle Scheffler going forward, but not one part of that week was easy whatsoever. I mean, I felt that if

If Sheffler got himself into that playoff, I'm not a hedger, and I would have hedged my balls off in that situation. I agree with that. I don't know. I guess...

I mean, you mentioned not building around Scottie. And I get that argument for last week as far as roster construction or betting card construction. It seemed like, and maybe this is just because I'm listening to my co-host just kind of scream about this. It seemed like to me- Papper's pretty anti-Scottie, right? He is anti-Scottie. It seemed like, and maybe I'm wrong on this, the discord was not revolving around necessarily roster construction or betting card construction, but more along the lines of, I don't like this number, therefore Scottie won't win.

And that was kind of where I had some pushback. Yeah. Maybe that's because of how I thought viewed Scotty coming in and my views of the golf course. But I mean, I, I feel more that way about I'm more averse about his price for the masters than I was last week at Houston open, just because it's a dog shit field on a golf course. I felt like it was very well tailor made for Scotty versus four and a half to one at the masters with the pressures that come with that, with a much stronger field and,

Where, listen, I mean, we saw, I guess on Sunday, and I guess this is just, you know, armchair quarterbacking right now, that putter is not invincible. It wasn't a magic fix. We saw him miss a lot of short putts. No, the pendulum definitely swung too far on that one in terms of like, Scottie's just going to gain strokes putting every week or putt great. I actually think he did overall gain strokes putting, I think, in Houston, but obviously the putter was

the short the short putts i mean the stroke on 18 was like a bad stroke like that was a decel um he didn't really get the ball to the hole uh so i don't think that's totally just gone away because of the mallet i feel a lot better about his putting overall uh now with the mouth than i did a couple of weeks ago um but i still think it's in the range of outcomes every week that like scotty

misses enough putts to, you know, not win the tournament. Right. Especially when you throw in, you know, the guys like when I'm Clark or, you know, if maybe Rory starts getting going or just a lot of really talented guys playing good right now that if you miss a couple of putts here or there, those guys are going to capitalize and, and,

No, I mean, we'll see. So yeah, the four and a half to one on Scotty. I mean, the books are obviously pricing in a certain way. I understand, you know, as far as at least the PGA tour goes, a lot of top players are struggling right now, but like you say, it's golf and there's added pressures with the masters. And I guess like nothing has changed for me with Scotty. Like he's hitting the ball. Awesome. And it's really going to come down if he putts or not. I just feel like with,

The master's coming up with a better field. I'm not as scared as I was, I guess, last week with Scotty. I don't think it's just an auto bet at this point. I'm more scared watching the golf last week of him. I was more of a Scotty denier. And then I watched a ton of him this week. And I was like, this, this dude has such a freaking high floor because of his brain and brain, like where to mess at Augusta is,

It gets accentuated higher than any other golf course on the PGA tour. And I just think his brain advantage with a caddy that's won three masters. Now, I think that's the type of stuff that gets accentuated at like TPC sawgrass and Augusta. And I think I've talked about this on pots before where, um,

you know to me the difference between rory mcelroy and scotty scheffler isn't as much intrinsic talent than people believe i don't think that in a vacuum scotty scheffler is necessarily more talented at finding the center of the clubface than rory

But why does Scottie beat Rory every time seemingly? I think it's because of the way that he plays golf and gets the ball in the hole. And I think the way to play golf at Augusta, that decision-making gets accentuated at that golf course than any other golf course, more so than any other golf course on tour. I mean, that's why you see –

like Tiger when in 2019 and Fred couples make the cut well into well into his fifties. So, I mean, would you say if he made that putt, does that change anything for you? Cause I'd almost look at it as like,

You know, the going for four in a row, if he was going for four in a row at the Masters, that's that hasn't been done since Tiger in 08, I believe. So maybe you get the bad putt out of your system and you get less media attention if you don't win Houston. I don't know. It's probably the same.

I mean, I guess we came from different perspectives. I mean, you were anti-Scotty. I was more the side of, listen, I see no reason why he's not going to be within a stroke or two of the lead coming into Sunday. Like there was nothing about the golf course setup and where he was at with his game that was going to trip him up. So yeah, I wasn't even like anti-Scott. I was just like, I know that I could build better lineups.

And that's fair. So he basically met my expectations for Houston. So there was no real going, no real changes for me. It just, you know, we're coming now into the Augusta and the masters. I just feel like I, I'm just, I guess I'm just going to go on record. I don't think Scott, he's going to win the masters. Okay. Well, okay. That brings us to this little gimmick that we're going to do. So they dropped, um, they dropped masters pricing, uh,

on, uh, draft Kings this morning. So we're going to do a quick little master's draft. So what we are going to do is if you can pull up the pricing, I did not prepare you for this one bit other than two hours ago, texted you. We are going to do a master's draft, uh, because, uh,

I don't prep my guests anymore whatsoever, but I also don't have people on my podcast that I don't think will be ready for anything. And you certainly fall into that category. So here's what we're going to do. We're, we're, it's just only going to be a 15, 20 minute thing. Cause I want to get to some Valero talk at the end, but we're just going to pick five players. We're going to do one from each price range.

Each of us can draft one 10 K one nine K one eight K one seven K and one six K. So we each have a team of five. We could see which who has a better team in terms of money earned or point score at the end of it. But there's some strategy involved because we each got one pack for, for each range. If that makes sense.

Okay, let me pull up the pricing because I was not prepared for this. No, I thought I'd prepare you. No, I thought it was going to be betting odds wise, but it's completely the opposite. Well, the reason why I did DraftKings pricing instead of betting odds is because I think it's easier to make tiers. Like the betting odds are kind of all over the place depending on where you look. So this is more of a static set.

Okay. All right. Let's... I do not have DraftKings pull up already. This is... I can... Why don't you go first, then, while I try and figure this out? Well, I think the first pick is... There's a lot of... I mean, I think the first pick is kind of a layup. I was going to give you the first pick. So just...

I guess just Scottie then at that point? Well, maybe that's not your pick. You seem a lot lower on Scottie than consensus. All right. What's Brooks? So this is $10,000 and above? Yeah. Well, but you can pick any player in the entire field in any price range. But the guys that are $10,000 and above are... You're basically, if you're going that tier first, you're basically picking between Scottie, Rom, Rory, Brooks, Wyndham. Okay. All right. Well, then...

Why don't I just go ahead and pick Brooks at this point? Because you think Brooks in a vacuum is going to win the Masters. That was my pick when we did the preview show. Well, it wasn't my pick when we did your preview show, but on our preview show when I was a little more prepared for it, I ended up going with Brooks. And maybe it's just because I've been paying a little more attention to live a little closer than I have in past years, but...

Um, the results are not really reflective on paper right now. It's, you know, some 12 place finishes didn't play all that great in Hong Kong, but I've been tracking a little more how he's been doing with the ball striking relative to everybody else. Everything looks pretty solid at this point with him. And we see with Brooks before a major coming in, I think at Doral this week,

Um, that's a pretty good golf course for him. I expect probably a top five finish and roll into the masters. And I believe this is his ninth masters as well. And that I think is like your peak expected strokes gained at Augusta. So, you know, came close last year. I think he has a sole focus of winning Augusta and getting a green jacket. So I'll go with Brooks.

As my pick above 10 K, I just texted you the pricing by the way. Thank you. So, okay. So, I mean, Scott is mine now. Okay. I really, I really expect, well, I'm not, I'm not taking him because I'm obviously going to go to a different range and get my first pick in the other range because your peck from the 10 K is done. So I can just have Scotty as my last peck. I was expecting to have Rory on my team, but,

But if you're giving me Rory or Scotty, I'm going with Scotty. Okay, so you have Brooks. So my next pick, I am going to, in the 9K range, I'm going to take Xander. Okay. All right. See, I misunderstood the rules of this game, so I thought we had to go with 10. But okay. Xander, make your case for Xander then. I think that he is outside of Scotty Scheffler and this...

Outside of Scottie Scheffler and I suppose John Rahm, I think Xander has the highest likelihood to finish top five in this event. Now, you want to know what's fascinating about Xander, Steve? I put out a poll on Twitter like 30 minutes before we did this podcast. I can check in on it now. Who's more likely to win the Masters? Rory McIlroy or...

or Xander Shoffley? Who do you think people said? Did they say Rory? It's like 50-50. Okay. I mean, I feel like the public perception on both is probably rock bottom right now, considering Rory just- That's why I wanted to compare the two. Yeah. Right. So, I mean, Xander, if I understood the rules, this came correctly. Yeah.

I like the fact that it seems like people are just out on him, that he can't close in tournaments. We've seen him blow two big-time tournaments this year, obviously in good position to win in Genesis, and just made a couple of boneheaded holes on the front nine there, and obviously come down the stretch of the players between missing a short putt on 17, two straight bogeys come down. But...

I mean, if you were looking at just trending ball striking and everything he's been doing coming in, like it fits exactly what you're looking for with a guy who would want to, you know, win the masters. This is a seventh masters as well. I'm big on these level jumper guys. So that's key for him. And I like the fact that people probably are just out on Xander and based on what he's been doing, just teed green and hitting the ball. It seems like his issues with the driver last year seems like they might be a little bit rectified.

So that's a that's a solid pick. 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.

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Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. For

$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Well, don't you think it's more of an indictment on Rory than Xander? I actually tried to stack. Xander is, and I talked about this a lot on a podcast that I recently did after the players, after he broke my heart at the players, but

Xander is like the token lovable loser, right? Like Xander has been the guy that people have this, despite it being statistically untrue. People have this perception of Xander reducing his baseline in round fours, struggling to close out tournaments, the type of guy that, you know, a lot of people think is never going to win, win the big one. Right. And Rory, on the other hand is, uh,

you know, a four-time major winner, give or take the 17th most accomplished golfer to ever play the game. And I actually think the sentiment is so low on Rory right now, heading into this masters that the fact that 50% of people think Xander Shoffley is more likely to win a major at this point than Rory says more about Rory than it does about Xander, in my opinion, personally. Yeah. I mean, I think there's just, I mean, what's your, what's your answer?

I don't like we're right. Yeah, it's Xander. I mean, my little cheat sheet that I have here, Xander is above Rory as far as if we were picking a true draft here. I just don't really like where Rory's game is right now. It seems like it's like you can tell with his body language and how he reacts after shots that things are just not clicking, which is surprising because I felt like once he removed himself from

From a lot of this nonsense at PGA Tour HQ that he would just be, you know, just refocus on his game, be sharp. And unless we see something really this week at Valera, which we could, he's had, I think, a top 10 here before Valera.

I don't know. I mean, I don't really see a ton positive other than the driver for Rory, which has been great, but the iron game has been really sloppy. And that's something that you just really can't show up to Augusta with a sloppy iron game. So, yeah, it's, it's interesting too. I got a text from somebody that I trust with golf information, nearly more than anyone that said, I don't know how this is close at all. Xander is like,

a hundred times more likely to win the masters than Rory, which I found interesting. So you're the second person to say to me that it's, it's Xander. It's Xander by a lot. I think the, to be honest, I am less concerned about Xander or about Rory's, the state of Rory's game in terms of like his ability to hit the shots. But I think if you talk about the decision-making advantage that will get accentuated by Scheffler, you know,

Uh, at Augusta, I think the inverse of that is like, do you trust Rory to hit the right shots at Augusta and win that type of tournament? Like, I think, I think he's kind of way more likely almost to win at Valhalla where he could kind of shut his brain off and just drive the ball 350 yards.

Does that make sense? Like, I think, I think Augusta is such a cerebral golf course. And I have always been in the camp that this is less about Rory's talent and execution and ability to hit the shots as it is about him. Just like consistently biting off way too much that he can chew, not having a caddy in his ear to be like, dude, why are you aiming that way on six at Bay Hill? Like, why are you doing that? Like,

Scotty's going right 10 times out of 10 there. Why are you doing that? And like I said, I think those small mistakes, that little bit of a pull that ends up long left as opposed to center of the green if he's aiming on the right side of the pin, that's the type of stuff that gets accentuated at Augusta.

That's my biggest anti-Rory argument. I mean, you just wonder at this point just how much scar tissue was built up with Rory that is just... I mean, we always say it's in his head, but at this point, it's been what? When he came on, when he blew it in 2011, that was 13 years ago. And every year, it seems like, okay, this is the one that Rory's going to win. This is the one that Rory's going to win. I don't think this year. I think people are over it.

Yeah, which probably means that this probably would be the year once, you know, I hope so. I have my pessimisms as well. That's right. I just look at looking at the totality of his game. I mean, the iron plate was better at the players, but I think a lot of that was round one.

Because after that, I think he gained four shots at the players at the irons. He looked like he was going to run away with the players after round one. He still made the most birdies in the field at the players, which that's kind of what you want to see because birdies, you can't really teach. Bogeys are mistakes or mistakes.

hypothetically easier to clean up. I mean, is there, let me close on this. I mean, is there anything that you would want to see at Valero that would change your opinion on Rory's ability to win the masters? Like what would he need to do for you to feel differently at this point at TPC San Antonio? I need to see like,

i need to see more consistent iron play okay and less sloppy mistakes especially with a short iron at hand like i know there's a lot of long irons at the at augusta but like i just

Just clean up the sloppy mistakes. You kind of know it when you see it. And that's really all I'm looking for. I'm going to watch him like a hawk this week. Yep. And I'm going to watch more the decisions that he makes on what I think is kind of an underrated strategic golf course. Okay, you have to pick. Okay. All right. So I can go to any price range, right? You can go to any price range and it would not be wise to pick in the 9K range. No, I'm not. Yeah. You get the game now, even though I kind of cheated. Well, because I...

because i was like all right you completely sprung this on me i can't find the trappings pricing right now like i'm not logged in like all right now i'm good okay all right let's go to the seven thousand dollar range because he's been playing awesome golf all spring the ball strike has been really good he's really solid at augusta how about seventy one hundred dollars see who kim

And the iron play has been really good going back all the way to the beginning of the year. You know, T six of the players, T 17, Houston open 14th, the pebble 12, the Phoenix open. He hasn't missed a cut since 2017 at Augusta T 12 there in 2021 T 21 there in 2019. I just feel like with how C woo's been kidding the ball this year at 7,100 bucks. I'll take that for my $7,000 guy.

Wasn't who I thought you were going with there. Not on my board, but I like it. I mean, you went a little more bold than I would have gone, but I'll circle back there. I'll go eights. I'm going to take the value that I can get on Justin Thomas in the AK range. I think that...

Let me ask you this question. Who do you think is more likely, because I've been staring at these three, more likely to win the Masters? Finau, JT, or Morikawa? Well, if we get, I would probably say Morikawa. Yeah. I don't know how much I can argue with you there. I mean, the iron play is concerning, but it just seems like Morikawa, he'll start out really good and then it just kind of peters out.

What I'm hopeful with Morikawa in a couple of weeks is it does seem like there's not going to be a whole lot of wind and it's going to be pretty warm. And I typically like to play Morikawa when I don't have to be really worried about the weather. Yeah. So maybe that'll be enough to get them going. But, you know, with Fino, I'm encouraged coming out of Houston Open because, you know, he wasn't driving the ball all that good. He changed the driver's shaft and now he drove it really good. So the putter went back to just being garbage, but yeah.

You know, I mean, he hit the ball unbelievably though. Like for you now, why are you a ton of money last week?

Um, and DraftKings. So I was, I was watching him pretty closely. I mean, he was out there missing like two footers and finished T2. Yeah. And the iron play has been like, so I think at the beginning of last year, we're talking about Fina was one of the top five iron players in the world that kind of petered off a little bit during last year, but that seems like that's back now as far as what he's been doing and you're fixing the driver at this point. Yeah. I actually really like Fina probably not to win, but like definitely a positional market for Augusta GT though. Yeah.

I'm just out on, I understand the value with him. I understand that we are, you know, only basically a month removed from good ball striking and good performance with him. But like I'm looking at, I would probably rather play EJ. I read play female. I read play cam young in that range. I guess, I mean, look, if you're looking for a low on Justin Thomas, I can see it, but I'd rather probably play those guys in the mid eights than him. Okay. Your peck.

Well, why don't we go? You want to go sexes. What's that? You want to go sexes. Yeah. Let's scroll down here.

How about Taylor Moore at 60? Where is he? Great pick. 6,400 bucks. Taylor Moore was on my big board. I had it. I have a soft spot for him though, because he was also very profitable for me last week. I really, I really like his game for Augusta. Yeah. I mean, like he's pretty, I think he's pretty good around the green, good driver as well. Just hitting the ball really good. So getting a guy, you know, in the mid sixes that I feel like, uh,

With the ball striking he's been showing lately, I feel like that would translate pretty well. And he won Valspar. That's a lot of really long approach shots. Obviously, a lot of long approach shots at Augusta Nationals. So I'll take him on my DFS lineup here. Okay, I'm taking Scheffler. Okay. It doesn't even have to fit in a DFS lineup. It's just your favorite guy from each range. Okay, all right.

So then my pick, so $8,000 range then for me? So I haven't picked eights or nines. Correct. Okay, let's go to your, I picked the nines and eights. So I guess it doesn't matter at this point. Freewheeling. How about Shane Lowry, 8,000 bucks? So last three masters...

He's got a third place finish in 2022, 16th last year, 21st and 2021, 25th and 2020. Hitting the ball really good this spring, you know, gaining over a shot and a half per round with his pro shots at Cognizant and API, the players. I think for 8,000 bucks in the price point and given how well he's been playing and he's been showing good form at Augusta, I like adding him in this range.

I like that a lot. I'm a big, I'm a huge Shane Lowry fan. Yeah, it was, it was him or like there's three guys around the Bryson who has not been good at Augusta, but he's been playing really good so far this spring. Yeah. And Burns where he,

In the good weather conditions last year, he was T6 heading into the weekend, and he ended up getting blown out to sea. But that's a guy who, listen, close call at Amex, played well at Phoenix, played well at Riviera. So maybe it was between those three and the low eights that I like, but I have to go with Lowry just because I like his consistent ball striking. A little better than the other three. Okay. I'm going to take Saheth in the sevens, who I think will be a very popular pick.

I would imagine. I've seen a lot of Sahith 50, 60 to one tickets. A lot of people high on Sahith. I mean, it's a good golf course for him. I get it. I don't really have a lot to add. Your pick in the nines. The nines? I'll go with Hideki.

I just love where his game's at right now. It seems like he's shaking a lot of the injury concerns with the neck. The iron player has been great. Obviously winning it. Riviera is a good sign. I just, I like his form coming into Augusta. I feel like he's got a really high floor coming in here. I would prefer if the weather conditions or the scoring edition rule tougher, but I just like where his game is at. And you know, Xander is my favorite pick in the nines, but otherwise though, I,

I'll settle with Hideki there. Is there... What did Houston tell you about Will Zalatouris? Right off or...

No, I don't think he's always really been that good putting on the overseed. And that seems like that was the big problem for him. I mean, it seems like the driver is not what it used to be with him. He doesn't have the length anymore. He lost a little bit of distance coming. Yeah, he's using a shorter shaft. So that's reduced the club head speed because he just can't swing as hard. But the iron play is still pretty good. And I've seen enough, I feel like.

between a 13th atory and a close call at Riviera and going to Bay Hill and doing pretty well there too. I'm not really all that concerned with a miscut with the players because there was a lot of high expectations coming for him in that event. And like you said, he seemed like he hit the ball okay. So I'm not really too concerned about the state of his game right now.

Okay, for my final pick in the sixes, I really wanted to go my guy Stewie Hagestan here, who's just lighting up the LA golf scene by the day. I still think the biggest travesty, this is a real read the room moment for the USGA.

How Stewie Hagestand, potentially the best mid-am player of all time, didn't get a special exemption into the US Open last year on his freaking home course where he holds the course record? Well, not anymore because I think Xander and Ricky broke it.

But the best mid-amateur player of all time who's a member at LACC, you don't give him an exemption. He's played in multiple major championships. He's one of the greatest Walker Cup players of all time. You can't give him a spot at LACC where he plays every week. I was going to slam him in DraftKings, and they didn't give it to us.

Look, I mean, you know, the qualified, I get it. He, he had it. He played bad in qualifying. Yeah. I mean, you know, the, the USGA isn't getting special exemptions to stud players like Taylor Gooch and Jason Kocrak and Hudson Swofford, you know, on live there. I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's a high bar for Stuart Hagestad, uh,

to, uh, to me, but listen, you know, you can always go to the USGA on demand and pull up the, uh, the 2017 Walker cup to see Stewie hat, old man, Stewie Hagestad, uh, showing, you know, his teammates like brain Thornberry, Norman John, Kyle Moore, Kyle and camp champ, uh, how to get around LACC. He was the, uh, the veteran, uh,

steady hand. It's a guy that he was. Yeah. He, he was unbelievable at the Walker cup at LACC and he, he would have been unbelievable at like six K to make a cut at, at the U S open at LACC. And he's going to light up Cypress point too, at the 2025 Walker cup, which I cannot wait to watch as well. I'm going to go SEP Straka 6.7. I think SEP, I think SEP, I think is a good golf course for SEP Georgia guy. Yeah.

Yeah, you're kind of mad on that one. No, I just think it's just kind of funny with the Austrian flag there. It's funny, right? I know. Yeah, I know. But no, I get it. I mean, good driver, good iron player. He's been pretty up and down this year. But yeah, I don't hate that pick at all. It was more the Georgia thing.

With that in there, they got me going. So your team is Brooks, Hideki, Lowry, Siwoo Kim, Taylor Moore. My team is Scotty, Xander, JT, Sahith, Septic Tig. Yeah. And maybe if I was listening to you instead of panicking over here, maybe I wouldn't have just gifted Scotty. My favorite. To you.

My favorite thing is seeing you in full-on panic mode because you're like the most prepared, analytical, well-read person that I know. So I just like keeping you on your toes. That's the only way I'm able to beat you in games is if I cheat. I am literally going to screenshot what I had prepared to you after this, and you'll understand why that just completely just flustered me and threw me a curveball.

Okay. Let's do a little bit while I text my other podcasts and ask them if I could be a touch late. Let's do a little bit on the Valero. Who do you have circled? Have you made any bets? So I've only made bets over 101 so far. It seems like we might be getting a little bit of a wave split, possibly on Friday. It seems like maybe PM, AM might be the way to go. So I'm waiting for tee times at this point. There's also the fact that

You know, look, it's the week before the Masters. You know, we talked about a little bit of motivational, you know, stuff earlier with Scotty, you know, and I think there's a lot of guys in this field, at least towards the top of the board that are really just kind of improve it mode. Like, you know, Rory's not playing all that great. Max Holman's not playing all that great. Speed's not playing all that great. So, I mean, I don't really have a ton of appetite.

30 to one or less to really to go there of those guys up top. I mean, I missed the Ludwig number. I think there was a 16 out there earlier. What a terrible number. Like, honestly, I thought he was going to, cause I really liked Ludwig. I swallowed a 14 and I don't love that just because like I was already pot committed to the guy, but I was surprised that he opened so low. I mean, who else would be above him though? I mean, he got really. Hideki maybe. Yeah.

Yeah, I could see that because he's playing good, but 18-1 with that. I saw it's winning on Hideki. That's probably fair. People just love Ludwig. Obviously, the market's going to move in terms of the sentiment of what people are betting. Ludwig got down to 12-11 and Morikawa was 28.

Right. Yeah, Morikawa has been floating up there. And I mean, the thing is, Morikawa, he's another guy that definitely is in prove-it mode for me right now. I mean, the iron game has not been sharp overall for the last few tournaments with him. So all the guys under 31 I'm kind of looking at, I kind of like how...

How things have maybe changed with Fitzpatrick, considering he removed the weights from his driver. He suddenly is just driving like a god now, coming off a decent finish with the players. I think you can find him as high as 28-1. I don't know if I'm actually going to bet it, but I got it highlighted. I feel like, though, just...

given just how golf has kind of been, it's been either Scotty or Bums for the most part winning this year on the PG tour. So it seems like maybe, you know, some of these guys that we always better kind of losers, like, you know, your Keith Mitchell's your Bo Hostler's or air rise, like, like in the 30 to 90 to one range, that's probably where I'm going to fill out the rest of my card and just see where things go. But at the top of the board,

it would be probably Ludwig Hideki and Fitzpatrick for me. Otherwise, though, I'm kind of just...

You know, with everybody else up there just kind of seeing what they're doing with maybe my opinion on them will change ahead of the Masters because my opinion on a lot of these guys are pretty low for next week. It's a better bet. Jordan Spieth to win the Valero at 20-1 or Jordan Spieth to win the Masters at like 25-1? Spieth to win the Masters 25-1. I think you're crazy. Really? You think I'm crazy. I feel like the quote that sticks out to me

with Augusta from Phil last year. I mean, he was in dog poo form coming in, but he said that he feels comfortable at Augusta because he knows where he can miss it. And I feel like with Spieth, you know, with the loose ball striking he's demonstrating, I

You know, maybe go into Augusta where he knows the golf course in the back of his hands. He knows where he can miss it. If it is maybe a little easier conditions as far as the weather goes, maybe that'll give him a little bit of a break and kind of open up the field. Maybe allow him to maybe card some more birdies and, you know, put up a really low round. But at Valero, though, this just seems like

I mean, just, it's a hard ball striking golf course. I've kind of appreciated, I mean, not necessarily the design of the golf course, but I've appreciated more just it's difficulty, especially when there's wind. Yeah. This place. It's a good, it's a good test for pro golf. Yeah. And I just feel like, you know, even though there's not a whole, there's not a big missed or penalty for a missed fairway in the rough here.

If you go way outside of that, like in that native area where there's just like weeds and just a bunch of high grasses, that's where the penalty shorts kind of really pile up. And, you know, if you're missing these greens here, the bunkers are really challenging, um,

I just feel like this isn't really a good place where if you have loose ball striking, you're going to succeed. Like, you know, a couple of years ago with Spieth, when he won this thing, he was actually playing very well with the ball striking. He was back and this was kind of the crescendo of it. Or you think about Corey Connors, obviously great ball striker and finally capitalized her JJ spawn, which you hit that year. You did. I had food poisoning. You hit, you had JJ spawn that week. So who had the better week between us that week?

But yeah, I mean, he was Christianity with the ball straight. Just like, I don't feel like speed, like this is where he's just going to like find it. But I feel like if he can get a little bit of momentum, maybe like a good, you know, maybe makes the cut, maybe a good Saturday, Sunday, right. A little bit of momentum to Augusta. I feel like, I mean, I hate the number 25, but I feel like he could probably win that as opposed to this week. I just, I just, I'm completely out of speed this week.

More confidence in Morikawa Spieth or Fitz this week. You probably put Spieth last. I put him first in that group. I just think that something happens in Texas. Okay. I think this is a pretty visually intimidating golf course off the tee that has some underrated strategy. And Spieth drives the ball well here. And I think this golf course suits his eye. And I think it doesn't.

I think it doesn't suit other players' eyes. And I think that I have this as like a pretty high course history correlation course to me personally, because I think it's the type of golf course where, again, there's some underrated strategy here, particularly on the par fives. Like none of the par fives are gimme birdies. A lot of those par fives, you have a real decision matrix here.

You know, a lot of them are longer and there's some value in laying up to certain wedge yards. It is. There is also some value in, in going forward. If you're really good from 250 yards plus. And I, I just, this may be, I Joseph O'Mahony has infiltrated my brain, but I think it's like a pretty good strategy course. And I think guys who've played well here, guys who've driven the ball well here, just kind of like it. That's why I'm a little more confident in speed versus somebody who hasn't played it before.

That's a fair argument. I guess I just, I don't really like what I'm seeing out of Spieth. Oh, I test wise, like just in terms of like watching Spieth at the Valspar and players, like he looks pretty freaking lost out there. Yeah. Like I can give him a pass for not playing good at APR players, but Valspar, even in the years where he just did not have it, that seemed like a golf course that he could just show up to and finish like top 15. And it just did not go great. So I feel like,

This is more with speed this week. I mean, obviously he's there to win, but I feel like this is more like, all right, can I find something, find a little bit of consistency and then get to Augusta Nash next week? I don't know. I just, I'm just kind of out on the state of his game right now. Okay. Give me some, give me some longer shot guys that you're, that you're feeling.

All right. Well, I mean, so I bet everything over 101 so far. You know, I'll start with Sam Ryder, 101 here. I mean, you know, third place finish last year. I just like what his iron games been the last couple of tournaments. So I felt like 101 where he's been kind of in the mix, you know, relevant at the top of leaderboards a couple of times this year. I thought that was a good price cage. Lee 120 to one couple top 30 finishes here. Other than the players where he lost, you know, seven strokes, T to green, um,

You know, gaining six at Honda or at the Cognizant, gained 14 degree in a Valspar, gained 4.8. It was good last week too. At Houston Open, right. So I like getting 121 occasionally, you know, won twice in Texas. Didn't mind that. Nate Lashley's playing the ball pretty good. Last couple tournaments. Love Nate Lashley. Always a Nate Lashley guy. Yeah, I've wasted a lot of money on Nate Lashley over the years too. But listen, he's hitting the ball great.

You know, gained four strokes, TD green last week at Houston, his tracker going to say, Antonio is not all that good, but he's got a T 18 finish there. So that was enough to kind of hook me to at least, you know, I found, what was I finding? I found him at two, two 20 to one for the price kind of cratered. I thought that was, that was a good price. Andrew Novak, one 50 to one. I bet he's probably going to be popular this week.

But other than the players, he's just been playing pretty good all the way going back to like Phoenix there. And I just like the, the Taterine numbers on him. Uh, he's got a nine place finish last year here. So I figured just the way he's, you know, hitting the ball at one 50 to one. That's not bad. Uh, Ryan Moore's hitting the shit out of the ball right now. You bet all these guys. Yeah. Over a hundred to one.

So you're going bombs away this week. Listen, I'm really uninspired by the top of the board here. Yeah, the other angle of it is you do have a pretty strong historical precedent. I think it's like eight of the last 11 were non-qualified players for the Masters that ended up winning this event. Connors was qualified last year in Spieth.

in 2021, but obviously spawn was it. And then you start going back to the week before the masters. And it's a lot of guys that weren't qualified for the masters. Well, I just also feel like the, the attitude this year is at the non signature events, just like,

The air is just kind of taken out of the balloon for the most part with a lot of these top players. And it wasn't like what it was like two years ago or a year ago where even top of the board was hitting into some of these weaker fields. It just seems like a lot of these guys are just going through the motions, and I think that's kind of allowed –

Just a lot of random long shots and of winning. So I don't really feel like that's going to be anything different this week. So I felt like I probably should go a little bit more longer shots here, at least the start of the week. And then once I know where the tee times are going to shake out, you know, probably go maybe a couple of guys between 30 and 90 to one and call it a day. But right now,

Ryan Moore is another guy. Just, I like how he's hitting the ball. Really good track record of Valero as well. Bunch of top tens and Chandler Phillips. I got him at two 70 to one before the price came down, just hitting the ball really good. He made a huge cut for me last week too. He might, he is, he can play Texas guy.

Yeah, I mean, he withdrew from Cognizant, but he played really good in round one. Otherwise, he gained five strokes at Mexico, gained four at Valspar, gained 2.3 at Houston, Texas, guys. So I figure those are just some long-shot bets. And then as far as guys I'm looking at,

In the mid-tier here, I missed a good number on Harris English. You know, he was at 50. He's down to like 35. Maybe I can see that floating maybe towards 40. But, you know, hitting the ball pretty good lately. You know, I mean, I think everybody's going to be

I think Billy Horschel is going to be popular just because, hey, he's been hitting the ball great, but he's not qualified for the Masters. He's probably the best player in this field not qualified for the Masters. Yeah, he's not qualified for the Masters. So I feel like that's going to be a big narrative play. Bazain, who's been hitting the ball pretty good lately. Maybe the second best player in this field not qualified for the Masters. Yeah, and it looks like we're going to get winning conditions Friday and Saturday. And he's pretty good around the green. That might help him there too.

Keith Mitchell, by the way, would probably be the third, in my opinion, in terms of like the best players in this field not qualified. God, he's such a knucklehead though. Yeah. I mean, when, when he blows up, when things go sideways for Keith, it goes really sideways for him. Yeah. Um, I, I bet him, I think top 40 at players at like two to one and he was what second on Friday at one point.

And he finished like, I think DFL after the cut. So I remember I bet about the players too. Yeah. Not, not great. And then obviously we saw what happened on Sunday, the Valspar pretty disastrous, but yeah, like I'm really just kind of looking for guys that, you know, maybe have a little bit something to play for this week, hitting the ball relatively well. I'm probably just going to avoid the top of the board as far as the betting card and just we'll see what happens.

I will add before we get out of here, I bought us an extra 10 minutes before my next podcast. Okay. So we still got about seven or eight Maverick McNeely 65 to one. He's probably in that zone of like maybe the fifth or sixth best player in this field that hasn't qualified for the masters. Both of his top tens this year were on overseeded Bermuda players and he

players and Phoenix. I actually think Phoenix is there's some similarities to this golf course in Phoenix. Um, I think there's a little bit of a harder golf course than Phoenix, but like Martin Laird's one at both Chuck Hoffman speed. There's a lot of, there's a lot of Phoenix in this golf course in terms of like overall approach play, same agronomy. The main objective is to keep the ball out of the big trouble, right? Yeah.

And the other guy that I bet was Lucas Glover, who my numbers just continue to suggest is Tiger Woods. I don't know why. I do. I mean, I do. I mean, Lucas Glover is...

First of all, you should always have consideration for Lucas Glover on any golf course that Corey Connors plays well at, um, because they do a lot of the same things. Well, and I would actually, I think what separates Glover and Connors is Glover actually can get really like hot around the greens. Glover at times, uh, has proven to have a really good short game. Uh, and you both kind of have to take your medicine with the putting and hope for the best, but, uh,

He keeps the ball in play off the tee. I trust him off the tee more so than nearly any other player in this field. Great overall approach player. Great par five score. He scores very well on par fives and a great long iron player as well. So Corey, sorry, Lucas Glover, 80 to one Maverick McNeely, 65 to one and Ludwig 14 to one are

are my only what do you think last thing we'll get you out on this what do you think about my ignorance is less take with Ludwig like the look ahead spot doesn't exist because he doesn't know what's coming do you think I'm overthinking that one like I think with some of the guys Rory's probably the opposite end of the spectrum of this but it's like you've been to Augusta before I I'm going for the first time this year I can't imagine how much it you know what it's like for players but every player that talks about Augusta is like

like this is such a different and singular experience. Like everything is different. Everything feels larger. It's so much harder to get in the zone and get your preparation for this week. Like you do for any other week, because it's just so much different than every other week in every single way. And I think like, that's one of the unquantifiable reasons why course history becomes so important at Augusta, because like,

It takes a while for players to find their routine, right? Like, you know, how many times have we seen guys talk about like, yeah, I just know what to do now. Like in the past, I've gone to Augusta and I've tried to play 18 holes a day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And then it took me a while to figure out like, okay,

It's better for me to play nine holes today, nine holes the next day. And just knowing for a lot of these guys, like, oh my God, I have a gust of Nax versus Ludwig. Who's just like, I got no fricking idea what's going on next week. So maybe it's easier for him to focus on the present.

I don't mind that take. I feel like Ludwig's pretty aloof in general, just as far as his attitude. I mean, I've always liked his mentality. It seems like there was a couple bad moments at the Ryder Cup, but he came out on day one and played pretty well in a very pressure-packed environment. I mean, he came out right in the morning there. So I don't hate that take. I feel like you're probably on to something that it's probably going to hit him...

Once he gets there, probably on Monday, where maybe it's going to be like, okay, oh man, this is not only my first championship, it's my first major championship ever. And what do I do? Do I play? Do I...

How many holes do I play on Monday? How many holes do I play on Tuesday? You know, you've been to the practice rounds. I'm hot take. I'm more excited to go to the practice rounds than the tournament. So I have, I've actually not, not been to the practice rounds. I've only been, I'm doing the same thing I did last time. I went Friday, Saturday. So, yep. So I am psyched to go to the practice rounds. I think you get to watch more golf. I mean, I think you get to,

You get to see more golf. And once the tournament gets started, I actually like, you know, watching that on my television, having the leaderboard pulled up and all that. Yeah. Tracking my bats and stuff like that in my life. Well, I think you're allowed to bring, I think you're allowed to bring cameras to the practice rounds too. So I just said on Thursday, everything shut down, no fouls. And that's the worst part. I mean, there is a bad part about it. We'll go to Augusta and you'll see it. Not having a phone and...

And only having the turnstile leaderboards where it updates every 15 minutes. And the only place to really see where everybody's doing is to go towards the main entrance where they're literally putting up post-it notes of what everybody's doing on each hole. And you got DeGeneres Gambler screaming, hey, what did Louis do on 12? Because he's in a head-to-head match against Jason Day. I had a conversation with the guy about that. I called him out for that. He laughed.

Um, it's definitely going to be a little triggering if you hear a roar on the other side of the golf course and you're like, what was that? And you're just left speculating and guessing until they update that leaderboard there. So, uh, I know that, you know, you probably have a little more rational head on your shoulders. Uh, my co-host, uh, definitely is going to go insane at this to the point where, um,

He might pick up smoking again. He's quit smoking. Uh, he might pick it up again. Uh, just try a lot of capper. You, you only had a heart attack. So exactly. Exactly. Um, all right. So what's your, what's your plan masters week? What do you got to plug? What do you guys got going on in the golf gambling podcast? My favorite, uh, golf, my you and tapping birdie.

Or some of my real favorites. Everyone go check it out. What do you got going on? I appreciate that. Well, we'll do our Sunday preview. I've been incorporating Google Earth into the previews now because we're trying to lean more into the YouTube on our page. So I'll probably show a tap. I've been told that's what you're supposed to do, and yet I...

I haven't. Yeah. So I'll show him the changes. Probably last, you know, because there haven't been many changes this year. The only one I know about is...

They pushed back the tee box on two. Yeah. And I think they did. They're doing some more short grass expansion, which you can't really tell from the overheads. But, you know, I'll probably just show them how 11s change, 13s change, you know, especially because he's going there. And then we will have our Tuesday betting show. We'll probably go on the Sports Gummy podcast, the mothership, as we call it.

And yeah, we'll be jam-packed with Masters content all week. Am I coming on? Because I had to miss the players. I mean, it's a wild week. You never confirmed, but yes, the invite is open for you to come on on Tuesday for our show. I did want to mention in case you were not going to come on, but yes, you are coming on our show on Tuesday.

Um, okay. Works for me. I mean, we got to navigate everything because I think, uh, Capra wanted to have, maybe we could do it in person or you had Augusta Tuesday night. Capra was like, let's have dinner on Tuesday. I also got to do Brian's podcast on Tuesday night. Yeah. So, so I, yeah, so I'm not getting until Thursday, so we'll have to figure out. And then you're going what Thursday, maybe me and Capra can do it. I, I,

I'm going to be at Augusta Monday through Friday. And then I'm actually going to Hilton head on Friday and I'm going to watch Hilton. I'm going to watch the masters in Hilton head masters weekend at my buddy Kyle's house. And then me and Kyle are going to play some golf in Hilton head and go to the practice rounds at Hilton head, uh, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Then I go back to LA. What boring life that you lead, Andy Lack. No, we'll have to figure out probably something maybe on Thursday to meet up at Augusta between the three of us. Absolutely. I can't wait. Yeah. I mean, I'll just be there with my dad. I mean, we'd know a million, a million, million people going at this point, but I'm pretty psyched, man. I've talked a lot about how

As a sports fan, I just haven't had the best life. The best moment in my sports career is probably the giant Super Bowls in 2008 and 2012, to be honest with you. In the year since, it's been a lot of bad Knicks seasons. It's been a lot of bad...

Giant seasons. It's been a lot of Rory heartbreak at LACC and St. Andrews.

And, you know, I thought about the fact that like me and my dad have been talking about this for our whole lives and we were supposed to go last year and he got COVID and there's probably the lap. My dad's getting older is probably the last time. Definitely the last, I hope to return to the masters many times, but this, this time with my dad, this is it for us. I'm not, he's, he's never been to Augusta. Um, and he's never going to go again after this, you know, he's almost 80.

And I, I, I, I get emotional thinking about what that would feel like for just one good thing to happen. And that good thing being Rory does it. Um, and yet I, you know, I, I, I just watched Sheffler last week and it, it, it seems like it's a very low in the range of outcomes, but you know, crazier things have happened.

It has, but listen, at least you'll be with your dad. I went with my dad in 2022 when Scheffler ended it on Friday. Still special, I would imagine. It was. Just, I mean, like watching the Masters when I was a kid in the living room with my dad and being able to go with him to Augusta National, just, you know, we've been to a lot of really big sporting events. Just the two of us, we've been to Final Fours, you know, we've been to the World Series, but the Masters definitely was the peak.

week uh sporting event i've been with him and i'm glad that you are able to uh check that off your uh your bucket list going with your dad to augusta national it's definitely special yeah i feel like we're gonna check that off our bucket list and rory's not rory's not gonna check that master's office bucket list unfortunately um all right steve i gotta do another gotta hop into another pop but this was a blast as always and i will see you in about a week

All right. That is it for the podcast. Special thanks to Rump Your Sports. Special thanks to Betts Burts Golf. Special thanks to Twitterless Steve. We will be back for a bonus episode edition on this podcast, the Mega Masters Preview with Steve Bamford.

Historically, my biggest episode of the year. So if you want to share it around, tell a friend that would mean a lot to me. I put in a tremendous amount of work into my golf content and this podcast all year. But on weeks like this are where

where I'm really hopefully able to grow and get more eyes on the stuff that I'm doing. So I will be grinding my butt off over the next couple of days in the lab on my master stuff. And you can look out for that podcast with Steve should be out Thursday or Friday at the latest. And then a tremendous amount more of content coming up for the masters. I do pretty much double the stuff.

Um, so there'll be, I'll have something out pretty much almost every day, uh, leading into master's week and I'll be down there as well. So, you know, I'm going to be at the course for the practice rounds all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, uh,

posting everything that I see and hear for better or worse in that Rumpier Sports Discord. So again, great time to join the community over at Rumpier Sports. You can head over to rumpiersports.com right now and type in promo code Andy to get that 15% off discount. And best of luck with your bets this week at the Valero. And we will see you back on this podcast later next week.

for the Masters. Until then, cheers.

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