2026 PGA Championship Preview with Kevin Van Valkenburg & Joseph LaMagna

00:00:00
Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.

00:00:05
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball in a brid.

00:00:06
Speaker 3: Egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, fridagg Frida egg, bride egg Lie.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off the golf course.

00:00:37
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Friday Golf Podcast. I'm your host, Andy Johnson. Today we are going to preview this year's second major championship, the PGA Championship.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: At aronom ink Uh. It will be it will be an awesome event.

00:00:52
Speaker 4: I think it will be the first time in a while that we've seen all the PGA Tour players playing at the same time since the Masters. It'll be an interesting week with with Bryson and Bram entering back into the mix with corrupt golf media as some would call it. But today I have joined We're going to do a little adaptation. We usually do five things with one guest, so we get ten things.

00:01:19
Speaker 2: This time, I'm.

00:01:20
Speaker 4: Joined by our friend at Friday Golf, Kevin van Valkenberg and Joseph Lamania. We're each going to do three things, so we'll get nine. But I have a feeling we're going to find the bonus tenth storyline in the easter eggs there, so we will get to ten. I promise you we will get to ten. I don't know who will bring the fourth storyline though, that's a it's a storyline to watch within the podcast. Before we get to our preview for the PGA Championship at ARONOMYK, let's talk about our friends over at Golf Galaxy.

00:01:58
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00:02:00
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00:03:37
Speaker 2: Or do both. You could do both.

00:03:46
Speaker 4: Kevin Joseph, welcome on back back to back weeks. I feel like, are you guys gonna ask for a you know, a day off just for for rest, Like like the NBA.

00:04:01
Speaker 1: I'm gonna skip the next signature event podcast, Andy, I just I don't doesn't help me prepare for the majors. I'm here, you know, out of obligation. No, we're I love coming and talking to golf with you guys, so I'll always be here as long as we continue to get the invitation.

00:04:16
Speaker 3: I'm with Kevin. I think next signature event gonna skip probably gonna skip Memphis maybe as well, and just start going into major preparation schedule. So this is fine. But yeah, if we do this back to back during the regular season, especially non signature, then we're gonna start to have a problem.

00:04:31
Speaker 4: So you're saying that we can't do a weekly one during the during the playoffs.

00:04:38
Speaker 1: No, some are saying you have an unfair advantage, Andy, because you have another podcast that you'd let you prepare for this podcast all the time. Just and I have to come in cold. We're like the you know, the rookies who just get a gut all right to do Augusta for the first time. It's disgusting behavior by you to just practice a lot.

00:04:53
Speaker 4: I would say that with my recent life schedule, some of the stuff that's been thrown at me lately, I think you guys have a big advantage right now on me. Uh So, anyways, I think that'll all clear up this week and uh and I'm looking forward to a lot of hours on the open road.

00:05:13
Speaker 1: I'll be boots on the ground at the PGA, so we'll see, we'll see if we can test out some of these theories I'm about to throw out in person, you know, bounce them off people there and there, hopefully be popping on regularly to discuss what I see and what I don't.

00:05:28
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take the reins. I'm gonna lead off here.

00:05:31
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna kind of drop a grenade in the hole here and see what see how we come out of it. But anyways, my first thing to watch is, uh, it feels it feels like the PGA over the last five years has.

00:05:49
Speaker 2: Significantly damaged its own brand. This was a organization that, you know, while while they were are always.

00:06:00
Speaker 4: Like, you know, grasping for branding Glory's last shot, you know, they they had always had this major status in this elevated you know, status above you know, any PGA tour event. I feel like the PGA of America with issues with its leadership, notably in the last two years. You'll notice that the the sitting PGA president is not going to be there venue selection. Everybody's already dunking on Frisco. I just have to say, Frisco is so much better than Quail Hollow and Valhalla and Belle Reeve, Like, I would rather watch a major personally at at Frisco than Okill. But anyways, they have done irreparable damage to themselves. Maybe maybe not irreparable, that's maybe a bridge to but they have done significant damage to themselves in the recent years. And I think they need a really good tournament, a really good showing this week between you know, some Ryder Cup drama, you know, mishaps. Obviously Bethpage was a disaster on many fronts. They need to have a good, good PGA Championship. I am a big believer in the new leadership that they brought in. I think this is going to be kind of a foot in the ground moment, and I think that if they can, they what they need to do is they just have to stop the negative pr right now for the PGA Championship. I think the deal with with the PGA Tour that moved this tournament to May has been a disaster for them. It's like it's basically an afterthought in this schedule, and it's a major championship.

00:07:58
Speaker 2: So I would just say.

00:08:00
Speaker 4: I think from this is a really important tournament for the PGA of America's brand, and I am I think this new leadership, new regime has a lot of good ideas and I hope to see some of them start to bear out as as we move forward from this event.

00:08:22
Speaker 2: How do you guys feel about the PGA right now?

00:08:26
Speaker 1: I would echo all that Andy, I would say, maybe starting with don't arrest one of the top five players in the game because you can't get the traffic pattern right in the sort of way into the tournament. Maybe, like that's a pretty basic thing, like letting players like have a specific lane that they can drive into.

00:08:44
Speaker 2: I feel like we're kind of gillus, you know.

00:08:47
Speaker 4: I feel like we could blame the Louisville PD more so than Gillis or.

00:08:53
Speaker 1: As someone who was there, though, I would say that the traffic pattern leading in was a mess. So I don't know that it was entirely Gillis's fault. Certainly Gillis played a huge role in that. I think just generally like kind of uninspired overall, branding. I'm always as someone who likes history and likes to think about like past championships and venues. They have the worst archival stuff when it comes to looking up old championships. So if you don't value your own history, how is someone going to value your present. I always feel like that's a good example of like just a simple thing, like you know, Joseph and I went back at the Masters and watched like dozens and dozens of old masters to come up with the greatest shots of all time. There's no way we could do that with the PGA because they just don't make those things available. And you know, I'm not one of those people who think like it really should go back to match play. I think that's probably a little bit of an unrealistic pie in the sky sort of wish, but it does need something that that helps it sort of stand out. I mean, Andy, what I'm hearing from you is that the last great PGA was Kiwa, where Phil you know, walked walked out of the water and into history. So you know, if that's the way we have to sort of say it, then so be it.

00:10:17
Speaker 4: I I was hoping to actually dive in and rewatch the Balta strawl. Jimmy Walker when this week, but it wasn't available on YouTube, so I couldn't couldn't go back into the memories for that one I was there.

00:10:33
Speaker 1: I feel like I was the only person of like young ish golf media. I think I was still in my mid thirties at the time, and man, it was probably the worst major I've ever covered my entire career. It rained the entire time. You know, they had to play like thirty six on Sunday. It was really, really, really bad.

00:10:53
Speaker 2: Joseph, how are you feeling them about the PGA.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: I'm worried because you said we need an extra storyline to get us to ten. One of mine was the new era of the PGA of America, so we may need two more. Andy, you're taking one of my three things. I think to your point, Andy, we've gotten to a place where everyone kind of acknowledges that the PGA Championship is the least prestigious of the four majors. I don't think a single golfer would argue otherwise, maybe outside of Justin Thomas, who has won two of them, and his father's a PGA pro, so maybe he would put up a little bit of a defense. I think between Monday and Saturday, the most important moment of this tournament is going to be the PGA of America press conference. Didn't go amazingly last year. I think a storyline to watch there is do they change their tune on an equipment rollback. I think that's an interesting game within the game. Andy. On Friday, we had an Adam shuepack article come out, which is always a delight, and some PGA Tour players are kind of doubling down on their opposition to an equipment rollback. Maybe they feel emboldened a little bit by Live kind of going in the wrong direction, and some PGA Tour players are getting chesty again this time about the rollback. But historically, or at least over the past few years, the PGA of America has maintained a sort of an anti rollback position. Now we have new leadership, as you have mentioned, and I think it could be an opportunity. Not that if they come out as pro rollback, it elevates the status of their major championship, as much as I would love to argue that as somebody who believes in a rollback, but I do think they could align themselves a little more strategically with the other major governing bodies and if they were to have a little bit of a stronger relationship probably there And as you've mentioned, Andy, I think swapping their championship back to August at some point would be both tremendously beneficial for the PGA and also for the PGA Tour. I think that'd be a win for both products. I don't know that we're going to get any kind of announcement of that sort this week. Feels like that would be a long off type of INITIATI, but they do need to brainstorm ways to elevate the championship. And I don't think venue selection. Venues are pretty limited in May, like we could get dicey weather we went to Oak Hill, that was going to be a concern. I think this upcoming week it'll be a little bit of a concern.

00:13:16
Speaker 2: In Philly.

00:13:17
Speaker 3: You're pushing the limits a little bit of when you can host a championship. I'm not overly concerned about the weather in Philly, but it could be a it could be a bad weather week for I mean, anyway, August could be two. But it does feel like August makes a lot more sense. So I'm still I'm really excited for this tournament, but I agree with you that the prestige of this championship has been damaged over the past few years, and they've got to be in brainstorming mode under this new regime of how you restore that prestige.

00:13:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just from a venue standpoint, I think like if you're if you're picking, you know, the inevitably the PGA is picking up scraps from the us GA. The USCA gets the best venues in America. And if this tournament stays in a mayor before our international audience screams that it should not be in America, I don't disagree. But it is conducted by the Professional Golfers Association of America, so that is one barrier to it going. But as it currently stands, if you are trying to pick off venues, there are significantly more really good venues that the USGA does not go to in the Pacific, Northwest, the Upper Midwest and Northeast and all of those areas, and then also yeah, like the whole Ross Belt also, but all those areas our benefit better to host in August than May not. To mention the other aspect of this is we're barely coming off the Masters, and you don't get a lot of buzz because you're on the backside of the biggest tournament of the year and sandwich between the biggest tournament of the year and the National Open of the US. So if you're talking about just specifically US buzz, it is just a very difficult spot to be in.

00:15:17
Speaker 2: So who's up next? Who wants to go? Who wants to throw one in here?

00:15:23
Speaker 3: Goo ahead, Kevin?

00:15:25
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm gonna say I want to throw out a question. What are we to make of what Justin Rose is doing? You know, number five player in the world kind of really in an important moment in his career in terms of like solidifying his legacy. Two majors would do a lot for Justin Rose. I think as the way that we view him through history, one major doesn't really feel like enough for how good he's been. Obviously he's been in multiple you know, playoffs with the Masters, but I really feel like why now, Like, obviously you need to maximize your value, and so you feel like switching clubs at this moment, might you know, do that you have an equity piece in McLaren sort of moving forward. You're you're hoping to kind of this will be part of your next stage in life and golf with you know, these will be kind of a luxury brand of irons that people will look at and want to play and want to be a part of. But man, like you sure are potentially like sacrificing your last great chances to win a major. I mean, at the twenty eighteen BMW, the last time we went to ronom Ink, Justin Rose ended up in a playoff with Kegan Bradley. So this course obviously suits him pretty darn well in terms of suiting his eye and just being able to make shots. You know, that's eight years is a long time ago, but Justin Rose is still a really good player. We've already been through this once. The Hawma experiment didn't work. I don't really like to get deep into the gearhead stuff because I feel like some of it is kind of overblown. So I don't know that I'll necessarily put a ton of stock into him playing poorly right away with these irons. But man, it just seems like in the middle of the season, when you've already played pretty darn well at the first major of the year that you are risking so much in terms of what you could potentially do by just switching up irons and saying, oh, well, I see, I see, the numbers look a lot better on the range.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: Man.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: The range is not the course. The range is not hitting shots under the gun, and I just it baffles me why he would do this after already having done this once. I mean, when he was the number two player in the world when he switched in twenty eighteen to the HaUma clubs and he ended up falling all the way outside the top fifteen, and then he fell further like after that, and it's taken him a while to sort of come back and become the player that he is again. But it just I'm really baffled by it.

00:18:05
Speaker 3: I think at this point his career, Justin Rose needs every edge possible and so it does feel like throwing some new variable in at this stage of his career. It just feels like somebody who's trying to cash out. And that doesn't seem to be the way that Justin Rose has positioned a lot of his career, at least recently. Yes, there was the Hanma experiment, but I mean he talked about not going to live, and there was some smoke around him going to live, and at least his spin on it was that he was prioritizing the major championships. And to your point, Kevin, this doesn't feel like a decision that aligns with those priorities. Since he's gone to the McLaren Irons, finished almost dead last, it's a rale and he's not playing well again this week at Quail Hollow. So I am with you. I guess from the main question would be how different are these irons than what he was already playing with, how much experimentation was he doing? But but to your point, you don't know until you're on the golf course. I think we could look back on this as Justin Rose squandering the last remaining major chances that he had. And if we're being realistic, he's almost forty six years old. I know Phil one late, but that's such an outlier for one of the best players of all time. I think Justin Rose has about seven more cracks at a major championship, probably has one more crack at playing in a Ryder Cup. I think it's pretty it would be pretty absurd that he'd be playing anywhere beyond a dar manor so it feels I don't want to say reckless, but it feels like somebody who's capitalizing on some good play, exchanging that good play for a big paycheck and not prioritizing major championships above everything. So I think three weeks ago you would have thought Justin Rose has a realistic chance at winning this PGA. Now I don't think too many people are considering him a strong threat. And the only variable that's really changed there are the McLaren Irons.

00:19:58
Speaker 2: I would like to say I think it.

00:20:01
Speaker 4: There hasn't been enough time for me to say that it's the Irons. From what I gather, it's pretty much the identical iron with just a different different brand on it. Say take what you want with that, but and and why you should buy the McLaren Irons.

00:20:20
Speaker 2: But I think what's being.

00:20:24
Speaker 4: The the irons are like the easy thing to look at. I don't like the poor play could come down to like he just went through a second consecutive gut wrenching loss at the Masters, and maybe this is just like really him struggling to come out of that. And I don't think that's like an insane other theory here where like he put so much into that that masters got himself right in the mix of where it was like he's gonna win and this is just continuation of that back nine on Sunday.

00:21:10
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. I think, you know, the number that we have to sort of judge whether it's they's irons or not as very small. It could just be sort of some noise in it. But I also think of like golf clubs for at this level, like I couldn't tell the difference between tailor made irons, McLaren irons, whatever, tylist irons. But it's sort of like a musician, like if you have a guitar that you love and you know exactly how the pitch is and exactly how it feels in your hands, and someone's like, oh, I built you the exact same guitar, I don't think I think every single musician would be like, yeah, it's not quite the same. There's just something that is a little different to me. So I don't always buy the argument at this top level that the irons are just the same. You just print, you know, print a Nike stamp on the mirias, or you just print a you know the same irons from Colbra that you would have had with titleists, Like I just am skeptical of that, and maybe I'm wrong. I hope Justin Rose proves me wrong. I hope he does have one last push in him because I think he's been a historically important player, and I think him winning a second major would feel right in terms of his talent and his contributions to this era.

00:22:28
Speaker 3: I think again to your point in yeah, I'm sure that they're very similar. But yeah, like Kevin saying, if there's anything that's even a little bit different, I just don't think Justin Rose has any margin that he can afford at this point. Like at that age, what we saw from Rose last year in twenty twenty five was inconsistency with really high peaks. He was able to summon these monster performances at the times that he needed them the most. And I just wonder if this change disrupts any of that flow to Kevin's whether it's a guitar or seven iron. Is Justin Roe standing over a ball in the fairway right now with total confidence because he's been a little bit more demonstrative on the golf course in the last two tournaments, there have been a couple social media clips of him like not exactly sure how the ball is reacting, whether you want to attribute that to the Irons or not. I just feel like changing gear in the middle of a major season is more of a marketing effort than it is an optimization play.

00:23:26
Speaker 4: Hey, I'm just trying to add another layer to the to the to the to the debate here that's.

00:23:32
Speaker 2: Not being talked about and is very real.

00:23:36
Speaker 4: Like would be really, I think it would be extremely hard to get over what happened.

00:23:43
Speaker 2: I think it's almost hard. I think it actually is.

00:23:46
Speaker 4: Harder to get over this year than it was to get over last year because he had the tournament this year.

00:23:54
Speaker 1: I mean, almost coming up short in the Masters might have changed the trajectory of Maxhoma's career. Key was a really good player in that moment. Hits a bad shot on twelve. Has never really been the same player since, and I think that that heartache is probably more to do than with things than switching clubs, which he did as well.

00:24:17
Speaker 3: That was apparently Tommy Fleetwood had taken the Travelers lost pretty hard last year, and some people had thought that that was influencing his next few weeks.

00:24:25
Speaker 2: So I don't.

00:24:26
Speaker 3: I don't think a little bit of a heartbreak hangover is an unfair narrative to throw out. Can I go with my second one?

00:24:33
Speaker 2: Andy? Oh yeah, you're up, You're surf all right.

00:24:36
Speaker 3: I think there's a big three in golf right now, and that you could make the case that Scotty Scheffler, Rory McElroy or Cam Young is the best golfer in the world.

00:24:48
Speaker 2: I was Cam Young propaganda was coming.

00:24:51
Speaker 1: I think this is clearheaded, this is not got a warranted Yeah, it's.

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Scotty Scheffler, no matter what happens next week, should be considered the best play in the world. I think willing to say that even if he finishes T forty and Cam or Rory wins by eight. But you could make a good faith case that, especially with what Cam has done on the golf course in twenty twenty six, or even going back to the Ryder Cup, there's a case to be made that he's playing better than anybody else. It's not a particularly hard case to make. Rory wins the Masters with what I would describe as his B or B plus game. I think there's a level headed take that Rory McElroy, you know, all these other golfers come and go year and in year out. The only thing you can count on is Rordy McElroy being a top five player in the world, which might be true of Scotty we'll see five years from now. But I think there's a reasonable take that if Rory wins next week, there will at least be some smoke that he's the best player in the world. So I think it should be just take a long view. Scotty Scheffler's the best player in the world regardless of what happens next week, and there's a good chance he's coming off three runners up. Scotty could win at Irana make it's a good setup for him. I don't have a lot of skeptic say around Scotty other than that he hasn't been quite as good as he was the past few years at this point, at least at this point in the season, we've seen a few more cracks in the foundation that we're accustomed to. But I could see I mean, if Cam Young walks off Aroun him inc on Sunday with a multi shot win as he wanted to row by six recording during Quail Hollow, he might win this tournament again, is it crazy to say that he's the best player in the world if he wins the PGA.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: I have come around to your camp, Joseph. I used to think maybe during the Ryder Cup that some of this talk from you and PJ was Cam Young propaganda, and now I am among the converted. I think that you have a really good case if, particularly if he wins this week, that he has truly become a different player and probably is going to sustain that level and be someone who contends all the time in majors like it's He's proven it over the last six months, and he just has skills that was particularly with the driver, that other players do not have, and that is such an enormous weapon. I don't think he can discount any bit of like what has happened. He's been doing it on big ballparks, on different types of courses, and you know, I would love to see him stare down Rory and Scotty and basically say be like, you know what, I am one of you now, and I am going to be here for as long as you are and maybe longer.

00:27:33
Speaker 2: I had on my list.

00:27:35
Speaker 4: You know, I felt like the last year and a half or so since Xander won, we didn't have a great like best golfer without a major, Like people would be like, oh, it's Tommy Fleetwood and it's like, ah, like that doesn't hit like Phil Ncholson. That doesn't hit like a lot of like people in the past that we've had that moniker for. And my question was gonna be is has Cameron Young gotten to that level of the best player without a major, like de facto best player without a major? And I think like people are gonna be like whoa, whoa recncy bias, like, oh, he's only done this for nine months, but the major record, He's been doing it in majors his whole career. Where he's been, he's had really good chances to win majors, And obviously the best chance to win a major probably is the Masters. Maybe it's the Open that Brian Harmon waggled his way to. You could you could point to that as well, where he literally I think he let was like way out first in strokes, gained off the tee and approach and just was so bad putting that you know, if he had had just a mediocre week, he would have been right in the mix. So Anyways, I listen, it's it's always gonna be cam Young propaganda from you, Joseph. It's you know, it's just I will always call it that. But it feels less like propaganda than ever before.

00:29:14
Speaker 1: I like Andy that we've we've been in golf media long enough now where like the Rory propaganda that we used to put out has evolved, and now the Camp the next generation has their propaganda to put forth about, Like we used to think that Rory should win every major, and now the younger kids think that Camp should win every major, and I'm proud of them for finding their own Rory.

00:29:33
Speaker 3: This is Look, at one point it may have been propaganda. It is no longer propaganda. I think to your point, Andy, about his major record, you're talking about some of the best chances he's had and didn't even mention that he was one off at Saint Andrews and one off at Southern Hills. He was one out of that playoff. And I think something you see when guys prove early on in their major championship careers that they belong generally down the line, they get it across the finish. You could point to some who haven't, but you could point to somebody like Xander Schoffley, who may not have won a bunch on tour right away, but he proved in major championships right away with top tens that he was among the best players in the world. I think even like Chris got her up, he's not one of my people. He's not one of my three storylines. But his performance last year at the Open and taking Scotty, you know, not all the way to the finish line, but pretty far into that tournament is probably a signal of what's to come in Chris Goddrup's career, that he belongs in major championships, and Cam has done that from the beginning. I don't have this in front of me, but Cam wanted to row by six and at the window at six. How many golfers in the world have won by four or more shots in the last three years, I'd have to imagine it's only Cam and Scotty. So I think that kind of upside that I can blow a field out, I can prove to all the best golfers in the world that there was nobody else that was going to win this week is unique to Cam and probably Scotty and Rory is the only guys that can do that right now.

00:31:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's that's a huge talent.

00:31:03
Speaker 4: I would I'd like to see a little bit thicker file before I put him into the top top three with a bullet in the world. The file, the file needs to get just a little thicker for me, and I had this as one of my storylines. You mentioned Chris got her Up. It feels like to me that there's three players that can go up a notch of how the world perceives them with a win at the PGA Championship, maybe more so than anybody than every other player in the field. It's Cameron Young, Chris got Her Up, and Matt Fitzpatrick. To me, those three are sitting there and if if in the case of Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick, if they win, the discourse between it becomes are they as a you know, on the same level right now in their career not saying, you know, there's such a difference between a year in time, eighteen months in time and five years in time.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: And like right now, for me, I can't put.

00:32:14
Speaker 4: Anybody in the Rory Scottie, you know, echelon until they do it for a sustained period of time. As soon as we put Xanderschoffley into that bucket, there was a you know, this is the way golf works.

00:32:30
Speaker 2: It's so hard.

00:32:31
Speaker 4: To sustain an ultra elite level, but you can say in this moment in time, this player is of the same ILK as these players. And I think for me, Cameron Young and Matt Fitzpatrick enter that class of players in this short term period like this season. They enter that because they are on a heater and always the question is how long does the heater last? And Rory and Scottie's case, it's just kind of normal to operate at that level. And for me, Chris Gottrup, just if he wins the BA, if he wins a major championship, he wins it, ARONIMNK, he just jumps into the Cameron Young echelon of of of talents where listen, like he would have he'd have so many wins over the las AB his fourth win in less than a year. He'd have a major championship, he'd have numerous majors where he played well, and and you know it just would It feels like to me, those are the three players that have, you know the most to gain at stake with.

00:33:43
Speaker 2: This major championship.

00:33:45
Speaker 3: I would add one, which would be Ludvig. I think Ludvig there's a lot of smoke around him being the most overrated prospect that I can't believe golf media has hyped this guy up to us for years and he hasn't delivered at all. I think there's a legitimate argument to be made for that that outside of Augusta, his major championship track record isn't that strong, and this is the promised golfer that was gonna be one of the best players in the world. If Ludwig wins next week, that noise gets completely quieted, and it's a realistic one. I don't know exactly where he is on the odds board, probably like sixth or seventh, very close to Fitzpatrick. I've seen some people questioning that, like how on earth can you consider Matt Fitzpatrick and Ludwig to be side by side coming into Ironomink. But I think he also has the opportunity to completely change the conversation, and I would argue that at twenty six years old, he deserves a little bit of grace still that at twenty six with somebody like Cam Young had done on the golf course. There were a lot of people who were skeptical of his game. At that point. He was still very fresh into his career. And I think it's way too early to close the book on ludeg Give him another year, give him another two years, but he may not need it, Like he could completely change the conversation next week.

00:35:07
Speaker 4: I mean, perfect case for Ludwig is look at Alex Fitzpatrick, who all of a sudden, you know, always was talented, not as talented as Ludwig coming in, you know, to golf, but always consider talented, and all of a sudden, at age twenty seven, everything's coming together and he looks like he's a top forty.

00:35:28
Speaker 2: Player, top thirty player in the world. The fact, you know.

00:35:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would just say to those people, like, statistically, this is Ludwig's best year so far. He's really cleaned up the around the green stuff that was a clear weakness. He's putting better than he's been. It's just, you know, he's like a third of a stroke better than he was a year ago in strokes gained. I just feel like that that he's still to me, trending to be like the next great European player in the Rory Rahm sort of equation. Now does that happen?

00:36:03
Speaker 2: No?

00:36:04
Speaker 1: No, But it's nothing's guaranteed. But I still think like there's a real good chance that this is a multi major winner.

00:36:11
Speaker 3: I don't know what. For me, Ludwig is probably top three or four totally imprecise. This is not any there's no data to support this, but I test who can overwhelm the golf course and just on repeat for a major, just perfect drive after perfect drive after perfect drive, where you trust him. I think it's like Rory, cam Young and Ludwig are probably my three, and some of that is because his swing is so pretty that maybe I'm a little biased there, but I think there's a couple other golfers you could throw in that bucket, Bryce and Scottie, but I just could see him overwhelming this tournament and going wire to wire.

00:36:52
Speaker 1: All Right, I got one, and I feel like this helps us cross off a couple things. I like to think of rivalries in terms of tennis, and right now, like Scotty and Rory are in sort of like a who is holding serve sort of situation. Rory just won the Masters, which you could look at as like either holding serve or like, hey, I broke you because the Masters was your spot where you were always great, Scotty, and now it's time for Shuffler to sort of answer and basically be like, yo, I'm still the top dog, man, like you are not any closer to me than you were previously. Now it's been ten years since a person won two consecutive majors to open the year. That was Jordan Speith. So I think it would be really fascinating for the game if Rory won that and all of a sudden we went into the US Open, Scotty needing the US Open to win the Career Ground Slam, Rory needing the US Open to keep the Grand Slam in one season alive. Man, that would be incredibly fun. Now Rory has to go out and get the PJ, as we said, the least prestigious of these majors in the first place. But I think it's an interesting I also kind of wonder if he doesn't say something like about PGA tour tournaments, if Rory is gonna kind of treat the PGA as sort of an afterthought and just focus on majors, you know, skipping three events leading up into the Masters, winning the Masters, kind of working on aut autopilot in the lead up to the PGA, not playing particularly well as of this recording at Quail, which is usually a place where he dominates. If he comes out and looks great at the PGA and Scotty continues to kind of like clean up on these PGA Tour tournaments, I don't know what exactly it says about the PGA Tour, but it might say that, like, maybe you don't have to like care that much about regular season stuff if your legacy is already kind of secure. Man, I just think a duel between them. Rory's played decent, enteronomic last time we were there, Scotty was still too young to be there, so it'll be kind of a first, you know, for him. All of this is setting up to make for a really interesting argument. I still agree with Joseph, Scotty has proven it for longer. He is the best player in the world. But the argument gets a lot more interesting if Rory has won two straight Majors.

00:39:14
Speaker 3: Or cam Where my head goes, Kevin, I've never just had I've never had a deeper appreciation for the difference between major golf and regular season golf, and the NBA playoffs are on right now. You see what the difference is in Lebron James at that age, what he puts into a playoff game versus what he puts into a regular season game. Or I don't know how many of our listeners watch tennis, but the way that Novak Djokovic has to pour everything into a Grand Slam versus the regular season, and now he's been taking more time off to get ready for the Grand Slams, and if he has to go four sets or five sets, like he is completely gassed.

00:39:58
Speaker 2: At the end of it.

00:39:59
Speaker 3: The total from a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint, the energy that's required to play in the tournaments that matter. It's given me a different level of perspective of the difference, and I think Rory clearly treats things that way. I don't think he cares that he's not playing particularly well at Quail Hollow this week. I don't think it matters to him. He's shown up for big events consistently over the past few years, and regular season like, if you look at his record in regular tour events, he's not bringing his best golf to a lot of the tour events, so I would think that Rory's in that rare camp where he can just summon it, and other guys need to grind in PGA Tour events to get that form together so that they can bring it to a major I don't even think Rory needs it so him. He could have finished second at quail Hollow this week or sixty fifth, and I don't think it would change how much I think he can win next week.

00:40:55
Speaker 4: I agree about, you know, not being necessarily indicator for for Rory. I to go to your beginning, uh kind of Stanza Kevin on the on the topic if one of them, if either of them win this week, it is very fascinating for you know, it feels like Rory getting that win put a little distance back in. But if Scotty wins, it feels then almost inevitable.

00:41:27
Speaker 2: That Scotty passes Rory.

00:41:29
Speaker 4: If Rory wins another it becomes this like, I don't we don't know if Scotty's gonna catch him. And at the end of last year, after Scotty won at Port Rush, it was like, oh, this guy is going to get to nine or ten, you know, But this is the thing about majors.

00:41:46
Speaker 2: They're very hard to win. There's only four of.

00:41:49
Speaker 4: Them available, and you know there are there are a number of really great challengers. I mean, it's only a matter of time if you listen to Joseph until cam is in the discussion for most majors of any active doll.

00:42:02
Speaker 2: That's a little strong.

00:42:03
Speaker 3: That's a little strong.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: I just had to go there.

00:42:06
Speaker 4: But I mean, every one of these major championship venues sets up great, Like there's no golf course in the world that you're like, you know what, that's not a fit for Scotty or that's not a fit for Rory, because.

00:42:19
Speaker 2: They have such a wide range of skills.

00:42:23
Speaker 4: If you look at ironom Innk, it feels like Rory is probably going to be able to bypass some bunkers that Scotty cannot just because of sheer carry numbers. That obviously is a big advantage. That being said, if you look at Scotty, one of ironom Innks like big challenges we'll call it, are going to be the greens the slope and there are these like ridges that are are are in a lot of greens, and these ridges make it really difficult to to put or to chip across if you miss targets, but if you're able to find really small pockets on greens, they become like a bowl. So ultra precise iron play is heavily, heavily rewarded at aronomy. So like you can look at Rory and be like, okay, and I thought, I thought it was interesting. Like they Scotty got asked about Rory and he was like, obviously the driver, the driver, Like how far he hits it, how accurate it is.

00:43:30
Speaker 2: Is such a weapon.

00:43:31
Speaker 4: And I always appreciate when you get really great players talking about other really great players. And I'm not talking about like getting Matt or you know, Xanderschoffley talking about you know, Matt Fitzpatrick. I'm talking about two of the greatest players of all time talking about each other as contemporaries.

00:43:55
Speaker 2: You know.

00:43:55
Speaker 4: So Rory has one advantage, and it's kind of like tennis, right, Rory's got the big serve, but Scotty's got the is maybe the best returner in the.

00:44:04
Speaker 2: Game, and it's it's going to be fascinating.

00:44:08
Speaker 4: Obviously you go from there to Shinnecock and there's going to be so much on the line. But these two, I think they have just basically obviously, with Rory's longevity and Scotty's dominance, these two have basically locked in. You know, I do this pod every major have locked in that them together are going to be like a storyline for the next three years of Major championships.

00:44:38
Speaker 3: I think to your I love this type of setup for Rory McIlroy. I have it's not identical to oak Kill that this golf, especially the greens are very very different from Oakill, but I think, especially the kind of tree line Northeastern, you're not going to get killed for getting a little bit loose off of the tee. I love the way that that sets up for Rorty, and I would say that he played like a C minus maybe at Oakill a C and finished tied for seventh. This is one of those types of setups that I think if Rory, as long as he's fine off of the tea and just not terrible, he's remotely straight, I think he can bring his B game and be in the final group on Sunday. So there's a world andy in which we get a Scotty Rory duel, and we haven't had that major yet, So maybe this maybe we're setting the stage for our first true Rory Scotti duel.

00:45:32
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's interesting. I was thinking about this in terms of setup. Is this week is it? We used to say, like through twenty fifteen through you know, twenty twenty one, I would say, oh, man, if it's soft, Rory's going to tear it up. Rory's got a great chance to win a championship here. And I think that's flipped now. I think that if it's soft, a lot more people are come into play. If it's firm, there's really only about five guys who are have the skill set to play with Scotty and Rory. And so if I were those two, I would be hoping for no rain and for you know, low humidity and just you know it's godn't get a lot of humidity in the spring anyway. Are on the East Coast. But man like, if it's firm, they might separate from the pack.

00:46:16
Speaker 4: The forecast looks pretty good. All I've seen is like light rain. I don't know what that constitutes, you know, for Wednesday, but the forecast looks good and ideal is Sunday. It's sunny Thursday through Sunday. This is like a mini storyline. This could be one of our ten. But the weather this golf course has such a bad reputation because of what happened at the BMW, which was.

00:46:49
Speaker 2: I was there that week.

00:46:50
Speaker 4: That was maybe the worst weather I've ever like, worst summer weather I've ever been a part of.

00:46:59
Speaker 2: It was awful.

00:47:00
Speaker 4: I wrote it. I wrote, there's a very popular website post. I went out that week. I went to the tournament, but I also went to like as many public golf courses in the Philadelphia area as I could, and I think I titled the blog posts that's about those golf courses.

00:47:15
Speaker 2: It's never sunny in.

00:47:16
Speaker 4: Philadelphia because it literally rained rain and it didn't just rain, it rained like three inches every day.

00:47:24
Speaker 2: I mean, it was awful.

00:47:26
Speaker 4: So I will just say, like that is coloring so many people's opinions on aronomy. And if these greens can be firm, they will be really fun to watch, really really fun to watch. And then you get the closing stretch and you're playing basically against off side slopes and there are a lot of long holes, so you're getting like long irons off side slopes into contour greens.

00:47:53
Speaker 2: Does that sound familiar to anybody?

00:47:58
Speaker 3: A little bit of it.

00:47:58
Speaker 2: Now there might be just like lot of green rough around the greens, but.

00:48:03
Speaker 4: So the ball can't get very far away from him.

00:48:07
Speaker 1: Which I mean that benefits the two of them again, because Rory has elevated his short game in recent years to be one of the you know, twenty best on tour, I would say, and Scotty is obviously the short game is great. So even if they miss greens, they have a good chance of scrambling around and competing.

00:48:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:48:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, maybe it's Victor Hoblin who's kind of like become a PGA version, get the thick ruff, and then all of a sudden he can contend because he.

00:48:32
Speaker 2: Only has to hit one shot.

00:48:35
Speaker 3: Andy, would you say that this type of setup is the most sensitive to weather because it feels to me like, oh, yeah, the it's not sandy soil, so it can't it's not going to dry out as well, Like these forecast should be monitored going into the Northeast, going into the Philly tournaments, much more than anywhere else in the world.

00:48:50
Speaker 4: I also, I don't think they have sub air, but I could be wrong. I don't think they Yeah, I'm fairly certain they don't have subair, so they don't have like the the technology to sap out, but I did. Yeah, I think that this setup is you know, we saw it at Oakmont.

00:49:10
Speaker 2: Last year a little bit too. It's just the thick rough the green.

00:49:14
Speaker 4: Any setup though, you know we saw Saint Andrews in twenty fifteen was susceptible to a lot of rain, right changes the golf course. I mean, it's just like the thing that that just kills a golf tournament, right. I imagine what Wimbledon would would dramatically change if it rained all week?

00:49:37
Speaker 1: Oh it does?

00:49:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, So I think that's like, you know, just like the nature of outdoors on grass, right.

00:49:45
Speaker 3: Fair, I'll get with my I guess this is my third since the new era of the PJA of America was one of mine. Jordan Spief and Justin Thomas. Can either of them do anything in a major championship. The Jordan's Spief potential to complete the career Grand Slam will be a storyline has not been in the mix in any major championships going back to Royal St. George's. There are a couple top tens in there, but they were completely non competitive. Justin Thomas, this is a stat I've thrown out before but has now been updated after the Masters. One top thirty finish in a major in his last fifteen starts. It was a T eight at Valhalla. So going back to his win at Southern Hills, one top thirty over that stretch, what even the Southern Hills when he came back from seven back on Sunday, Like Justin Thomas, just has not been a factor in the tournaments that matter. You want to have a little bit of silver lining. I don't know how much you buy into this, but JT did change drivers a couple of weeks ago, and that's been his big weakness. He can't keep the ball on the planet, off the tee and at least if there's some short honeymoon period. He drove the ball very well at Durral's fourth in the field off of the tee. Not driving it particularly well this week at Quail Hollow, but kind of up in the mix. You could sell me on Justin Thomas getting back into contention, the Jordan speed cell is a little tougher for me. Just has not been a factor in any big golf tournaments recently. But if those two guys are going to continue to be marketed as the faces of American golf. We're pretty far past their competitive primes. You have new American faces in Scottie Scheffler, Cam Young, even Xander to an extent, Bryson to an extent. That these guys have to prove at some point that they can do something in a big tournament, and this does feel like an opportunity for these guys. We're still in their primes. If it doesn't happen this week, the noise just continues to grow. I kind of feel like people already there. I think there's already starting to be a little bit of public backlash. Like the PGA tour, you keep marketing these guys like they're the face of the tour and they haven't been that for a while. It is time to change that narrative, and one of those guys, if they were to do that this week, I think be a huge tour.

00:52:00
Speaker 1: The only part I would push back on that, Joseph, is that the idea that it will be a storyline that Speth could win the career grund Slam. I don't even really think it is anymore. I don't think anybody thinks it's a possibility at this moment. We've now gone actually eight years with that potentially being a storyline, and it's been so non existent compared to like Rory completing the Career Gun Slam or what Phil went through when he was trying to complete the career Gun Slam. I think Jordan would have to legitimately come back and be a top five player for it to sort of build any buzz. And it's just never going to build any buzz anyway, because it's the PGA. Like even when Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer we're trying to complete the career ground Slam, those are obviously much better players historically than Jordan Spith. It did not have the same kind of juice that it did when Tiger and Jack and you know, and Rory certainly were doing it. I you know, if Jordan was ever going to contend again, it would probably be at a place like this where it would reward good iron play and you could get a little bit loose with the driver. I just I wrote something in the beginning of the Ears like it's the hope that kills you, and I think I thought it was going to be better this year, were a you're removed from the risk surgery, and now we're four months into the season and it's just isn't there. Part of the reason I think he remains such an important part of the ecosystem is he's such a good quote and he's so interesting to talk to, and that is part of like how the Beat functions day to day, week to week. Like he gave some of the best quotes about Scotti Scheffler when I was writing the big Scheffler piece. And he's very eloquent in talking about you know, much more than so than justin about like rollback or about live or things like that. And so he's always going to be someone that people go to to say like, hey, could you speak with some gravitas on these big issues of the game. But in terms of like the week to week highlights of stuff, I can get why some people feel like this is not really a meritocracy when it comes to showing highlights, because it's usually like, oh my god, you'll never believe this sick up and down that Jordan made, and he's like twenty off the lead, you know.

00:54:14
Speaker 4: Not to mention if you look through the tape, like everybody, like a lot of players probably made similarly awesome up and down, so they just didn't get shown. Sure, yeah, it feels a little bit right now, like I feel like that we had this with Ricky Fowler for a while and then he had the kind of like has resurrected in the second stage of his career. But at the end of the day, like you're talking about someone with two majors and three majors, and you know, yeah, there could be some some maybe they get shown too much, but they also have accomplished things that are draw interest. So you know, it's one of the things with the with golf. Golf thrives on your twenty year careers, and these are two players that are probably going to be relevant, whether they're relevant because of their their play or just them being around for twenty years. You're gonna you know, they aren't just gonna go away. I'm realistic enough to believe they are, you know. But that being said, I do think like it's it's kind of like a they were a part of this really interesting era in the sport where where youth dominated for a generation, and I think that they have been just frankly, like, I just don't think that they have gotten better.

00:55:41
Speaker 2: They've actually declined.

00:55:43
Speaker 4: I think like when you look at that era, like Rory has got continue to improve and he's that's been the thing. But in the case of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, better players came into the game and they did not meet me. The match of the increase in standard is like the short tail. Everybody's wondering what's wrong.

00:56:05
Speaker 2: What's wrong.

00:56:06
Speaker 4: There's been some decline, a little bit of decline, but the sheer fact is there's more players with more talent than when Jordan Speith and Justin Thomas went on their runt.

00:56:20
Speaker 1: Yeady. You hinted at something there that was one of my throwaway one So I'm just gonna segue into it. I think if you are looking this is not gambling advice, please do not take it. But if you are looking for a storyline that is realistic but unlikely, I think Ricky Fowler has his best chance to win a major in a long time. Has actually been a pretty good player this year. Has been a significantly better putter than he was in recent years. He's almost putting back to the level that he was when he was one of the best putters in the world. Just driving it well, hitting him off irons, The one thing that's kind of holding back his overall statistical profile is is his short game, which statistically in the past he's been one of the best short game people on tour. It's just I don't know whether it's technique or whether he's just not seeing it the same way whatever, but I feel like that is something where you could get it cleaned up, or you could just have a great week where you didn't have to rely on it that much. If Ricky Valer is ever going to win a Major, this could be the moment that sort of rewrites his entire legacy. He has a better chance to win this Major than Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas, which I don't think would have would have would I think would have surprised people to say something like that four or five years ago. I just think I don't think it's likely to happen. But like we're recording this Sunday morning of the Truest, he's currently like on track to finish three straight top tens, So yeah, there's some form going in there. It's possible. I just want to sort of plow it out there. I feel a little bit silly bringing up Ricky Fowler before Bryson or John Rahm, which we haven't talked at all about. I think we probably ought to owe them a little bit of this preview time. But when I was thinking about story lines that are off the radar a little bit, I think that there is a sliver of possibility that rick could could surprise people.

00:58:08
Speaker 2: That'd be a little better story of a story.

00:58:13
Speaker 3: I think the big issue with Ricky is that he has a lot of these ths, t nines, and we haven't really heard from Ricky deep into a tournament, like there's a little bit of the back door topy top ten going on. I would push back on him having a better chance to win this golf tournament than Justin Thomas. I think if you want to put him in the same ballpark as Speef, that's reasonable. I think JT has a little more upside than Ricky. But I mean to your point, it's also just remarkable that we're nearly an hour into this recording and Bryson and Ron's next thing, all right, go then go for it.

00:58:54
Speaker 4: Golf's hard to play it well when you've got a lot of stuff going on in your life. It's true, there are a lot of a lot of things that you should. You could look at and Live and say, hey, this isn't the best way to prep for a major. Is like not to be able to control your schedule to play, you know, substandard golf courses versus the other tour, which, hey, I don't think the PGA Tour plays plays the best golf courses, you know, but there are a lot better than the courses that Live place.

00:59:28
Speaker 2: You know.

00:59:28
Speaker 4: What I didn't have on my Benga board was being asked about the financial feasibility of the league that you're the headline athletes of and how that might factor into your prep for major. Rom talked about how his contracts really locked it locked in.

00:59:48
Speaker 2: It's a really good contract.

00:59:50
Speaker 1: What an endorsement of his own tour. Well, I don't see any way out of it. So I'm here.

00:59:57
Speaker 4: Brighton's now being talked about maybe he'll be an owner of Live, you know, But then you have Rory kind of takeing, you know, shots as if you don't want, you know, like the PGA Tour is the best place in the world to play if you want to be a competitive golfer, you know. I think, like I have real questions about John Rahm, and I just think This is gets harder and harder for him the longer it goes, because he is not a human being where it's just like well whatever, Like he doesn't have that like forgettable like of the like oh like throw my hands up, like whatever happens happened, right, He doesn't have that. So every time this doesn't happen for him, every time he doesn't win a major, because since he's gone to live, this is getting more difficult. It's going to get mentally more challenging when you're in the mix or just getting ready for the mix. We've seen this with Rory.

01:01:06
Speaker 2: But like.

01:01:08
Speaker 4: I am, I'm fascinated by John Rahm and the majors the rest of the year. I think Bryson has real questions about like iron play, can can he hit the ball well enough? He's from what I've gathered, he is going to come out with retailed Bryson irons to sell the people. So like, you know, you want to talk about the Justin Rose iron discourse, like what should we talk about the guy that's like literally three D printing irons and trying to put him in play on by himself as like, but with John Rahm, this is a player squarely in his prime, someone we thought in twenty twenty three would have would be in the discussion of like does he get to five or six majors? Like that was not an unrealistic discourse, and now like I find myself more than that asking will.

01:02:07
Speaker 2: He get another one?

01:02:10
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think the mental thing is is larger than anybody could really put into context. Like Jon Ram is a emotional player and emotional person. He played his best golf in a sort of defiant like fu, I'm going to prove to you that I am just as important as you know at the time Rory to this game, and you know him and Scotti clashing with each other in Italy was pretty good golf. Unlike when Rory and Scotty kind of are dragging each other to the finish line, it's Beth Page and I just I missed that version of rom Like I don't care how many people cite well it does well and Live like those just aren't golf courses that test someone, or at least test the skill set of those around him. He should win every week on Live like, he should never finish outside the top three on there, because he's that much better than those people around him other than Bryson. And you know, Bryson I think is allowed to is able to compete on some of those courses because he doesn't have to test certain things, like it's a lot of Z setups, yeah, and driver wedge a lot of times there. So I don't know. I mean, I feel it's silly to feel sad for John because he made this choice and he put himself in this scenario. But I'm sad for the game, if that makes sense, Like I'm sad for what we lost. It's like when a band breaks up right, you kind of lament, like, man, they could have made so many great albums and they broke up right during their peak, and maybe they'll get back together and maybe it's like an Oasis situation and everybody's like, oh my gosh, so exciting to get the real John ronback, But there's also a chance that you've squandered like the best creative part of your your prime.

01:04:05
Speaker 3: I think rom every major that comes by. Now there's the two oh he's you know, we've lost him, as you're saying, and then there's that deep down feeling of like I kind of still think John Ram's one of the favorites, and I personally am more on the side of I would not overlook John Rahm. It gets harder with each of these majors that goes by, But I do think like when Rom's stunk at the Masters this year, played a terrible first round shot seventy eight, still made the cut, kind of got it together. When Bryson stunk, like he kind of flames out. He doesn't have those other tools that he can lean on. If you told me that you know, something bad would happen to me if Bryson wins, like I wouldn't be that scared. Rom is sort of terrifying to me, And I think the right side of the Rom discourse is the side the tire on him. So I'm kind of going into next week and you're talking about those guys who can ascend into another echelon with the kind of Fitzpatrick cam Young Ludwig Tier, which is fair. ROMs shouldn't be considered but those guys, because He's just accomplished way more. But I mean, would either of you two be surprised if John Ram's leading going into Sunde Beu. I wouldn't be surprised at all.

01:05:19
Speaker 1: I picked him to win the Masters, So I still obviously believe in the skill set. I just continue to be disappointed that there is some sort of mental block there. I mean, he should have contended a Valhalla and he's stunk in that first round too, like he did contend a Quail Hollow. It's he's been okay in Open championships a couple but there is something there that is not quite as sharp as it once was.

01:05:43
Speaker 4: Can I just read since post live, so twenty twenty four on TI cut, then he had the foot thing at Piner, so he missed the because where he showed up to do the press conference and tell everybody, you know, it wasn't impacting live, wasn't impacting his play, and he was just a negative boy, and then went through the next day because he had he had one shoe on and a.

01:06:12
Speaker 2: Flip flop on. I think if I remember correctly T seven at the Open in twenty four, T fourteen, uh, T eight, T seven, T thirty four TA or T thirty eight, that's that's his list of finishes.

01:06:31
Speaker 1: I would say Quail is the only real contention on that list, Like he wasn't contending when Harmon won, although he finished fifth or whatever that year like.

01:06:40
Speaker 3: Seventh, Yeah, yeah, that's the that's the Xander year, not the Harmon year. Yeah, twenty twenty four, Well, I will say I think he came from the wrong side. I think he had a really bad wave split and still finished T seven. It was not that bad a wrong performance.

01:06:52
Speaker 2: But can I just propose a question.

01:06:55
Speaker 4: We always put Ram in the tier of Rory and Scotti.

01:07:03
Speaker 2: Is he just not that is good?

01:07:07
Speaker 1: I don't think he deserves to be in that tier based on, you know, current performance in majors. I think we talent wise, we do it, and I also honestly like wonder if we insist on doing it over and over again as part of like, well, we're trying to basically be objective and really fair about live players. It's so much of working the refs and complaining about you guys are so dismissive towards the live players. Are we saying like all right, all right, yeah Ram is still that guy? I don't know?

01:07:40
Speaker 3: Show me then, Also, and I know I brought this up to you before, like a year or two ago. You lay John Ram's resume next to Xanders and there is a case that Xander has done as much as John Rahm in the world at golf, It's not a crazy position to take. Xander has eighteen top tens in thirty five major starts. Ram has fifteen and thirty seven like a worst top ten rate. They have the same number of wins. I still think John Rahm, like over the long turn over the over the body of their career, is a slightly better player. But we're talking about rom much closer to Xander than we are to Scotty and Ror. There's no doubt about it.

01:08:15
Speaker 1: Has anyone ever fallen out of the conversation for like great player faster than Xander, Like I know this is an injury, but we we have not. We didn't talk about him really in the lead up to the Masters. We're an hour into this podcast. We're just bring him up now in relation to well, maybe he deserves to be in the same breath, Like I I was wrong about Xander for a long time and then one summer kind of made me look like a fool, And now like it would be nice if like we get over this injury stretch that derailed him and start to get back to playing some top five golf in the world, because it sure doesn't feel like it.

01:08:53
Speaker 3: Think he's fine. I think Xander's a like well behind Fitzpatrick, well behind unfortunately. I mean Xander I thought a few weeks ago was trending back towards being one of the best players in the world. But yeah, I think he's in that next bucket after the you gotta go Cam, you gotta go down to Fitzpatrick. And I think Rom and Xander are sitting there as the If Scotty and Rorty struggle, then they've got a chance to win type.

01:09:15
Speaker 1: Would you be more bullish on mat Fitzpatrick or Xander over the next three years? Xander, I probably would too, but that's just based on talent, not recent results.

01:09:29
Speaker 3: Next four months, Fitzpatrick, next three years, I'd say Xander.

01:09:32
Speaker 4: I think I fallen the Joseph packet. So anybody else have a spare thought.

01:09:40
Speaker 1: I think we're I have one spare thought. I think Brooks is trending in a good direction, and not for the PGA, but I think that there is a chance that he could be in the mix at Chinnacock, where he will play a brand of golf that is just bred for US Open. Now, can he make five footers? I don't know right now, the answer would be no. Shooting sixty three, you know at the Myrtle Beach is not exactly like a huge doorsement, but it's not a bad thing. I just think that Brooks plays such a smart level of US Open golf. I'm seeing some encouraging signs that he could get back to not not at certainly not the level that he was, but if he was going to contend again, Shinnecock is a great place for him to do it. Just keep an eye on that.

01:10:38
Speaker 3: I'm not buying any books, kept gas stock known whatsoever.

01:10:42
Speaker 1: You know, you're not buying at all.

01:10:43
Speaker 3: I'm not buying keka stock.

01:10:45
Speaker 4: Ah, I'll buy some. I think he's got a couple of good runs in them. What's who are you guys picked to win? Cameon, Scotty, I'll take I'll take Camyo.

01:11:06
Speaker 1: Wow.

01:11:07
Speaker 3: I think it's the time.

01:11:08
Speaker 2: Okay, PJ. PJ is waving me off. What do you want to say? PJ? You never talk. You're saying you don't want me here? No, no, I don't. You've been too critical. I'm waving you off. We werebuked. Critical talk. Just that's it. That's all I got.

01:11:28
Speaker 3: Find a new guy and you find a new island to buy stock on cam Young were already over subscribed.

01:11:35
Speaker 4: The nice thing is I've I've been able to retire off by Jordan Speed, by Jordan Speed earnings on Justic Island.

01:11:45
Speaker 1: Did you shorted justice as Jordan's Speed. That's what you did. That's where you've won your.

01:11:51
Speaker 4: I set up a new real estate development and and over over the last you know, eight or six I don't know when that Justic guy start, maybe six seven years ago. I have I've accumulated. There's just there's a lot of demand. We're we're looking at buying more island space to develop more on Justic Island. With how popular it is. I mean this podcast, you're you know, you yourself seem to be angling for a spot the.

01:12:21
Speaker 3: Cam Young shareholders are not selling though, just just to so you're not going to be buying any.

01:12:26
Speaker 1: People are still talking about Andy shorting the Phil Mickelson is a good guy. Uh the sort of stock all those years ago, he's he really hit big on that when what it seemed like that was penny stock. And he's doing great now.

01:12:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:12:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, Ernie, Ernie keeps looking better every every every year, all right, thanks guys.

01:12:49
Speaker 2: We'll be back to talk about.

01:12:52
Speaker 4: What happened at the PGA Championship after with Trevor Immelman. Big thanks to you guys jumping in. This has been a kind of a hectic week for me, so thanks for jumping in on Sunday morning to record. Big thanks to PJ for putting this all together. And excited for this week's PGA Championship at Aernomy