Scottie or Rory's Year? Answering the Biggest Questions from 2025

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 3: And when I find my ball in a bright egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egridagg brid egg, Lie.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off of the Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg Golf Podcast. I'm your host and Andy Johnson. We're near a your end, which gave me a great reason to bring on Friday Golf's Kevin van Valkenberg and Joseph Lamannia, two of our you know people that cover the pro golf beat. Uh and what to talk some big picture things about the twenty twenty five season and then do a little bit of look ahead to twenty twenty six. This was really fun conversation. Really enjoyed it. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. And let's talk about before we get to our pod, let's talk about our friends at Maui Nui. Holiday gift sets are ready to gift at Mauianui Venison dot com. They are beautifully packaged and made from the cleanest, most nutrient dense, ready to eat venison on the planet. So what is in these holiday gift sets. There's a stick starter pack a six pack which is great these sticks. Throw them in your golf bag. Don't get low on energy. Have these in your golf bag. Make it really easy to eat their shelf stable, high protein, low calorie and wildly clean sticks. Their sticks are kind of all the rage right now. These are as good as a guests. There's also the Always Summer Sausage, which is a small batch fermented and smoked summer sausage. It's season with Hawaiian red sea salt and pink peppercorn. There's twenty grams of protein at only one hundred and ten calories per two out serving. That's pretty good this year. If you buy any four gifts, you get a fifth free and you can mix a match however you want. So check all of this out at Maui Nui Venison dot com slash egg. That's m a u I n u I V E N s O n dot com slash egg. They ship nationwide in their direct to your door so no wrapping needed. Uh. This is a great gift. This is a great product. Check out Maui Nui Venison. All right, let's get to Kevin and Joseph all right, I'm welcoming in Kevin van Valkenberg and Joseph Lemania, both of Friday Golf, both regular contributors on the written side, and other mediums too, you know, Breakout Star, twenty twenty five, Design Disasters. But Joseph Lemania, Well, we are going to just batter around some topics and pro golf today as we end the year here in twenty five and we round the corner into twenty twenty six, and I think you know a lot of stuff happened this year, frankly, and take it, take a zoom out and kind of where's that land for us going forward and look ahead to twenty twenty six. So I prepared a couple of questions for you guys. I'll chime in also, but let's start. Who's your player of the.

00:03:54
Speaker 1: Year, josephich I'd go first or second in this? We can a second, okay, off, I am going to go with Rory McElroy. I wrote a little bit about this. We are currently having the Week of Rory discussion on the Frida Egg. We're sort of reliving some of his biggest moments. I will concede that Scotti Scheffler had a better year than Rory McElroy. Scotti. Scheffler is the best golfer in the world. I don't think that there is a dispute to that. But so many of the moments that I think about, and I will think about looking back on twenty twenty five involve Rory. The totality of the kind of career achievements, winning the Masters, obviously winning a second Players, winning the Irish Open, winning a road Ryder Cup, all of those things, to me, just just the weight of them was so big that I think I'm going to go with Rory. I will always remember him falling to his knees on the eighteenth green, where I could barely see. I was craning up over trying basically standing on someone's shoulders, you know, pushing little kids out of the way to try to get a better look of the eighteenth green. Just hearing the roar ripple backwards from the crowd. That's just as big of a moment as we've had in golf, you know, in certainly insince Tiger won in nineteen there. But I would argue like, in some ways almost an equal of that, just because we'd waited even longer for Rory's quest to be completed in there. So I don't know just if you have a different answer, but to me, like it's it just gonna feel like the year of Rory. The players win is huge Irish open win as was emotional, and the road Rider Cup thing he called his shot like that is such an important kind of thing. We were, you know, thinking he could look really dumb if that didn't work out, but he said, he slapped the table in Italy and said we're gonna win a road Ryder Cup, and for that he's my player of the year.

00:05:48
Speaker 3: I think it's also Rory, and sure if you stacked the winds up right next to one another, Scotty's year is slightly better and stripped down all the context, some of which you already provided, Kevin. But all right, Scotty wins, I said, basically three wins depending on how you wait it, like the two majors which are massive, and then the BMW and the Memorial like whatever, call it half a win each three wins. I'm not even counting the pro Corps or that win at TPC Craig Ranch.

00:06:14
Speaker 4: I don't think we really need to in the.

00:06:18
Speaker 2: Branch wins arguably the best win.

00:06:21
Speaker 3: I don't think we see eyed eye on that one, but ferror two massive wins the Masters and the players. Pebble's a huge win. Irish Opens a big win, especially for Rory. For me, it's the Ryder Cup, not even the career Grand Slam thing, even though I think that matters obviously, but you could argue that that's not really this year, specifically the road winning a road Ryder Cup, and Kevin, this is a point you made. I believe during the Ryder Cup that we should evaluate players based on more than just their seventy two hole stroke play record. And I think Rory's ability to play around the globe as he's done this year, win in different formats, go three to one in one and the only loss in the Ryder Cup coming on Sunday and Singles when he was completely gassed and Europe kind of had it in the bag. Anyway, I think it's a more well rounded year. And sure the win total is slightly lower, it's not quite as prestigious, but it's really hard for me to look past winning a road, Ryder Cup, the Masters and the players, So I think it's his year.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: Joseph. People got so mad when I tried to argue that match play should be part of how we view you as a golfer overall. I was all kinds of like, you're trying to just throw out hot takes to generate some juice for your new job. What an embarrassment you are. But my point in some ways was what is the majority of golf that most people play around the world, Like play with your friends, Like it's match play. We can't just look at stroke play as the one sort of test of like your abilities as a golfer. Obviously, like match play freakin' matters, And no matter how much the game tries to sort of weed out some of it because of television, it still truly matters. You go play a game on Sunday with your friends, you're playing match play, You're you're having a partner, you're picking up your partner, or someone's picking you up. I just feel like that should have more weight into it. Obviously, Like as a data guide, Joseph, you could you would be able to say, look that there's a lot of variance in like how we've used like the small sample size of the Ryder Cup. We can't definitively say that Scotty Scheveler is not a good match play player. That seems sort of silly, especially he made it to the finals of the you know, the Dell match play years ago at Austin Country Club. So I don't won't go that far to say that Scotty is not a great match play player yet, but Rory clearly is, and I think that that should matter in the way we evaluate things.

00:08:39
Speaker 2: Real quick here, Rory did go did not win a TGL match, and that's match play.

00:08:47
Speaker 1: Thank you, Andy. That's an important context. It's really essential. The ball frauds basically, like I don't know, like, how could you put your name on this and being like a big time investor in it and not to ever won win for your fans.

00:09:02
Speaker 4: To be clear, Scottie Scheffler also was zero.

00:09:04
Speaker 2: The cheer ones.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: That's true.

00:09:06
Speaker 2: The one thing I wonder about with this situation that we're in and this is this happens I feel like with NBA MVP all the time, is people like, in the moment, yes, Rory is the player of the year, We're all in agreement. We're swept up in the emotions of the Masters win and the emotions of winning the Irish Open, the kind of start of the year with the players and winning the way Ryder Cup. But if in fifteen years, when those emotions are kind of ripped away, the storylines of these wins are ripped away, people will look at it as they do with MVPs and be like, well, that was a ceremonial Derrick Rose MVP. He shouldn't have been an MVP. Lebron should have been the MVP. And you know, the people are already looking at the Joel and b the MVP and be like, Nikola Joki should have just won another one that year, and is that what's going to happen Because we look at Scotty and the end of the year, the two majors, six wins, just you know, he's just a kind of tour of force once he got kind of unrusty from the hand injury.

00:10:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you could give Lebron the MVP like a million of those years. I think there is an element of voter fatigue, But I don't think there's years were that Scotty's was slightly better. And I think to Kevin's point, the gravity of Rory's wins got that Ryder Cup. That is a huge, huge part of what happened this year, and again, I don't know that Scotty's a bad match play golfer, but for him to almost go oh and five that week in a massive moment, I think it's fair to penalize that and use that as sort of a tiebreaker. So I don't think it's being overreactive to say I don't think it's a purely emotional response to say that Rory mckail roy's year in totality outweighed Scotti's.

00:11:07
Speaker 1: The one disappointment I feel like is that they didn't really have a major where the both of them were playing great, Like we didn't really ever get like a clash, you know, where they were both really in contention. I mean they were like they were you could, I think where they both finished top twenty at Oakmont, but neither one was was in it at all. You know, Rory was completely checked out at the PGA, you know, arguing about whether the media should be leaking his driver stuff. And I think was Rory finished top ten in port Rush, but was never truly in contention. You know. It's it's it was. That was the one thing I feel like we missed out on that where they could have you know, and and ultimately they play a Ryder Cup match and they both are kind of completely gassed, and we just so we don't even get like a true you know, Scotty beats him, right if I'm correct in that, But it didn't really feel like it was a definitive sort of you know, they both Scotti outplayed him. It was both like kind of both limped home to finish. So if you're a shoveler person, you're like, well, come on, Like the one time they truly went head to head, you know, Scotty won. I maybe that's a point in Scotty's favorite but I wish, I'm hopeful for twenty six that we'll get you know, both of them, like chasing something in the back nine at Augusta. I mean, Rory's one of the few people who could push Scotty at a place where he's the most comfortable in the world.

00:12:20
Speaker 2: So what we got, what we got with Rory was the Bryson kind of head to heads, right, we got the Masters. I think that became like almost a footnote on the Masters because of what happened on the back nine. But the front nine, it means he double Boggi's the first hole and it's like, oh, Bryson, Bryson's gonna do it again, especially after Bertie Bryson Birdie too, And that was the you know, the story of that Masters really carrying through from Friday, was Oh, this is setting up for a historic rematch between Bryceon and Rory. That's been the real rivalry that we've had in golf the last couple of years, which, you know, it's hard to get golf rivalries. It's really hard to get showdowns because there's just so many players and they have to play great, both play great in the same week, and that just doesn't happen very often.

00:13:25
Speaker 3: And probably won't, right, Like, the chances we ever see Rory go ahead to head with Scotti final round of a major is probably like under five percent.

00:13:33
Speaker 2: It happened at LA they were both in the second to last group. Yeah, yes, sure, that was like the that's I think the closest we've we've had if my memory serves.

00:13:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were both in it at Brookline a little bit. Brookline is like one of the few majors that feels like Scotty was like really there for the taking and just didn't didn't do it. He was almost became like an afterthought in that, but he was like one put away from being in that, you know, with potential playoff if if that putt doesn't get made on eighteen.

00:14:07
Speaker 2: So that was an incredible major, but it was a great major. Like it gets kind of like lost because you have Pinehurst and you have the Masters and l A was was a really good finish, but that Brookline finish was amazing. And one of the reasons it will get buried is because Matt Fitzpatrick just isn't a sexy name, you know, you know, the thing was Scotty and this is where you know, that voter fatigue thing kind of comes in. He's setting a absurd standard. And one of my questions with him and this, you know the player there, is him just winning six or seven times going to be the new norm.

00:14:54
Speaker 1: I think, yes, you know, one of your questions when we can just jump ahead to that, is like, what's a reasonable expectation for Scotti twenty twenty six? I wrote down five wins and one major like that is anything other than that I think would be kind of a disappointing year. If Scotty won three times and no majors, we'd be like, man, what a huge letdown, and yet like that's a career for a lot of guys. So I would say, like, if you want to get crazy and be like, what's a like an incredible year for Scotty, it's like eight wins and two majors at least maybe in contending for a third, like maybe you know, stringing together, you know, okay, Win's the Masters and then you know Win's Win's the PGA, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, wait, is he gonna win freaking four in a row?

00:15:38
Speaker 2: Here?

00:15:38
Speaker 1: Like can he win the US Open to complete this thing? Like I think that's like not outlandish, sort of high end expectation for him. And I feel somebody's like even when we praise Rory, we're kind of disrespecting, like how freaking good that Scotty is. It's just that Rory's so interesting, And I'm one of those people who thinks that's gott He's actually a lot more interesting than he gets credit for. But Rory is still like the straw that stirs the drink, like he is just a person who your eyeballs go to. But I feel like we're trending into like, look, Scotty's going to set a standard over the next five years that's, you know, is going to be impossible for anyone else to match. The person who's going to truly challenge Scotty Shuffer is probably like fourteen fifteen years old right now, and when they're twenty three and Scotty's thirty six, all of a sudden, it's like, WHOA, there's a new kid in town. But that person I don't feel like is playing on the PGA Tour or live.

00:16:33
Speaker 2: Right now, Scotty's won twenty one times worldwide over the last four years, so he's averaging over five wins a year. Just to put this in context, Dustin Johnson generational player, do you know how many years he had over over five wins worldwide?

00:16:56
Speaker 1: Once?

00:16:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, once zero.

00:17:00
Speaker 2: Most wins he ever had in a year is four. Just to you know, from like a context standpoint, Scotti's worst year in terms of win total, winning is just such a challenging thing. His worst win total is four. That was the year where he just finished runner up like every week because he couldn't make putts. And that year was effectively, you know what, Dustin Johnson's best year from a win perspective looked like of his career.

00:17:33
Speaker 3: Also to the both of your points, I think when we look back at Scotty Scheffler's career twenty five thirty years from now, the part that we probably will not represent appropriately is how many of those wins were blowouts. I don't think you always look at the differential in retrospect, and Scotty took has taken so many tournaments and blown them out. Port Rush this year was not a competitive back nine, Quail was competitive, but there have been so many of these moments, and that Scotty has just completely separated himself and Kevin. You're kind of getting at this, but I do think Scotty has kind of readjusted expectations as to how consistent a golfer can be. We've always assumed that, oh, okay, they're one of the best players in the world, but it's probably going to drop off this next year. You know, eighteen months from now, there's going to be a new world number one. Scotty's been the only example in the modern era, really outside of Tiger, where you can say, I think twelve months from now, twenty four months from now, Scotty Scheffler will still be the best player in the world. I feel that way right now, but at least a year from now, I think he's almost no chance that there's going to be a different world number one twelve months from now.

00:18:38
Speaker 1: He would have to have a legitimately down week. I feel like to not win the PGA next year, like ironic, which should set up like that should be just like a Scotty course. It's just it just seems to me like, yeah, of course he's going to win there now. I can't speak to like Saint George's or you know, Hittacoka has a much more like tougher test and more variables there. But like Kirkdale, Birkdale, Birkdale Dale's yeah, same deal, like I feel, but like how many PGAs could Scotti rack up? Just like the courses are always going to be sort of favoring his sort of style of golf.

00:19:13
Speaker 3: I give it's almost the same answer you did, Kevin, for what should the expectation be. I think mine's framed a little differently, so'd be curious for both of your reactions. But I think there are basically ten tournaments right now on the PGA Tour schedule that matter the majors. I know there aren't PJ Tour events, but they're on the schedule. The Majors, the Players, Memorial, Genesis that I could see to seven, and then Pebble Bayhill and Quail. I don't necessarily love all those golf courses, but I think those are all legit ten events. The honorable mention with throwing is the Scottish Open, which I think has kind of become a.

00:19:48
Speaker 2: Little bit of doesn't play Quail historically that week.

00:19:52
Speaker 3: True, true, so he might not even apply. But let's just say you take that ten eleven events. I think those are the ones that will look back on that matter with somebody's legacy. I think Scotty wins a major and two more legit wins of that other subset could be another Major, could be the Players, could be memorial, but I think that should be the expectation. Could he pick off Colonial or Craig Ranch or one of these other ones that he might elect to play insure, but not even counting those, I think it's one major and two other bonafide, tough, tough wins.

00:20:21
Speaker 1: I was just thinking in my mind, like, oh, he hasn't played that well at Quail or excuse me. At Pebble. I looked it up and he'd finished top ten there twice in the two times he's played the Prohm, So like, that's the kind of like the standard that he is where I think like he hasn't played that great there and he's got two top tens.

00:20:36
Speaker 2: I think a fascinating aspect of Scotty, along with other players that I put in this realm rom Rory and Bryson, is if you go home without a major, no matter almost what you do elsewhere. I think Scotty could win ten PGA Tour events. If he doesn't win a major, it's probably a disappointment at this point career.

00:21:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure, a prime. It's like the Tiger standard. A prime of a piece of your prime goes by and you don't add to that historical total. I think absolutely like and you know, Rory's probably going to be the same way I would. I would be interesting. I mean I don't know that Bryson would would quite view it that way. If you told Bryson he could get ten million U Super subscribers and win no majors yes year, he might take that deal because he might be like, oh, I'm growing the game it's much more you know, important to do that then, And you know what, I'm not going to sit here and say he's flat out wrong, like if you don't want to judge yourself by the standards of history, if you're more interested in the now than great. But I would think for Rom, for Scotty, for Rory, that's the only uh, that's another tier of guys who has to win majors for next year, no matter.

00:21:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I you know, my expectations in terms of Scotty for next year are probably along the lines like if I was thinking about setting it over under for majors and it kind of leaned that the over under would be one and a half not zero point five, which you know, I I can't remember. I don't think there's ever been a time where I felt that way with the player. Maybe maybe Brooks while he was in the in his heyday, it was like, okay, he's but I don't think he ever had the consistency together there. And I think my win total honestly would probably skew six and a half for Scottie for his career for this no saying for for a win total in twenty six six and a half, one point five. You know you think about this year as the big what if is is the hand injury? And how did you know? How did that? How did that change the whole trajectory of the year.

00:22:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he was thinking about his like Open championship record. Deal is just a place that like is for big dogs, right, Admaker Finch is the only guy to ever win at Birkdale who didn't win other majors. So that sort of says to me, like, okay, like this is a place that separates like good from great, and it just feels like, all right, who's going to go there and handle like the the conditions, the wind and like the contours and the you know, there's a new few like new Hoole setups, whatever they're it's it's gonna be Scotty, of course it is.

00:23:28
Speaker 2: You you know what. Birkedale's kind of known for stinky drops, being the fairest links course, and we know Scotty likes Asphaeric golf fairness, so it's a good fit for all Right, let's let's move on to non Scotty rory topics. Actually let's stay there. Well, we'll we'll jump bounce back to this one, but this is Scotty Rory. I feel like they've opened up kind of their own tier and it's like Scottie Gap, Rory Gap. If you were going to make a bet on a player most likely to jump into one of those tiers in twenty six, who would it be?

00:24:15
Speaker 4: I can go first?

00:24:16
Speaker 1: Go please? I think I have a guess you might pick. I think Cam Young, right, isn't that would be the player of the potential to get into that higher tier.

00:24:27
Speaker 3: We might get to him later, but I'm not. I'm realistic about Cam Young. I think he's very good. We'll get to get to him. I think the right answer is to stay the course with Ludwig, and I don't see any reason why you would jump ship. If you talk to people who followed college golf very closely, they will always tell you that he's one of the best college golfers, most polished golfers of the twenty first century, machine off the tee with his ball striking. I was looking through his stats today in preparation for this pod, and I don't know that I realized how big of a difference his iron play was from the first half of this year, where he kind of struggled to the back half of this year, where he's now rattled off eight straight top twenty fives, four top ten, four of those were top tens. I mean, this is a very well built golfer who's already contended multiple Masters now he's twenty six. We talked about it on a pod recently, Andy, how we're seeing all the best golfers in the world play their best golf between ages twenty seven and thirty five. So I think Ludwig's maybe underwhelmed a little bit so far in his professional career, despite still winning, despite still being in contention in multiple majors. He's played well in Ryder Cups, like I think it's crazy to have to be disappointed with what the future may hold for Ludwig. If anything, might need to tighten up the short game a little bit, but one of the best drivers of the golf in the world, clearly top five, good putter, and his iron plays really started to turn around recently. I think if he's the number two, number three golfer in the world this time next year, it really should sneak up on anybody.

00:26:02
Speaker 1: I don't mind that take it all. I think I feel like I want to see it. I want to improve it. I feel like maybe the hype for Ludwig got a little bit in my head where I expected more than what I saw, and maybe that was on me. That's sort of unrealistic to expect him to just follow up on that master performance and come out and win a major the next year. But I'm on board with that. I'm gonna for my pick. I'm gonna stick in the Scandinavian area and take Victor Hobland. I feel like been there, done that, had a you know, a moment when he was the best golfer briefly in the world for a three four month stretch and has gotten back to where the short game is like replacement level decent. You know, he's not losing strokes around the greens anymore, he's not gaining them. It's like very close to and I think it's like almost even. I looked over as like his last twenty five starts and it's sort of like break even. I think it just Andy. We always say over and over that like iron game travels, you're if you're good at hitting approaches, if you can hit the ball high and you can stop it on firm greens, you can play kind of anywhere. There was a time when he was like an unbelievably consistent driver, just hitting that you know, hard cut that you know would would fade five yards at the most, and he knew that he could just take the left side of the golf course out of play all the time. And I think we're kind of trending back towards that. And he's obviously like he was in contention at Oakmont, you know, could have won there. I think he would definitely be like, has shown he has the talent to do it. The mental stuff is always always a little bit of a work in progress, but I kind of think he's learned a little bit about who he is over the last couple of years and what he kind of needs to do, as long as he doesn't like discover a video on Instagram all of a sudden that's like, oh, you should chip cross handed, and then that he all of a sudden dives down that weird rabbit hole. I would if I were his coach or his family or whatever, I would just basically like take his phone away from him for a year and be like, let's just go basically work on field, no no videos, no swing training aids, whatever, and I think he wasn't he using like the the G box or the some shallower At the US Open. I saw like people were always tagging me in that stuff, given my weird obsession with training aids. So let's keep that kind of stuff what pro cenders whatever out of his out of his wheelhouse. Don't let him touching you that shit. And very good chance like he could challenge that next tier.

00:28:32
Speaker 2: So you're prescribing the Rory go hit balls. He did that in New York last year while he was filming Happy Gilmour. I believe it went and hit balls and with no view of flight. Yeah, just strictly hitting balls into a.

00:28:52
Speaker 1: Put a put a sheet up in your hotel, you know, and with a mattress behind the sheet, and just thump some balls into it, like the first three feet flight. That's all you need to think about.

00:29:02
Speaker 2: That's all you want out of Victor. I think those are both interesting propositions for Ludwig. I think it's it's cleaning up the approach in the in the short game obviously. But one of the things that that gives me a lot of hope about the Ludwig is based off of earlier returns. You could just pencil him in to contending at Augusta National. And I think that that championship kind of tests a lot of skills of talent, the ability to battle against history being one of them, just like having it it is a moment. I think not enough is paid to this that the Masters is the biggest tournament of the year by far. It's the one they want to win the most. And one of the things about golf and golf tournaments is that there is just like this essence of did you meet the moment? And there are so many guys that feel great going into that Masters and just frankly don't get off the bus. And that happens in competitive golf, where you do not get off the bus, and that is the tournament that is most likely to create that dynamic in these players. And I think the thing that my biggest beyond just the measurables, the pure you know you're watching him hit a golf ball, the pure thing about Ludwig is that in two attempts at the Masters, he has more than gotten off the bus. He has been just a figure, a figurative player in the entire tournament late into Sunday, and that is that is something that not everybody can do. And for me, though, I'm going with John Rohm, I think that golfers are just creatures of habit consistency and your routine and the way you prepare to play golf is you have to be boring. They are the most boring people in the world. Like I think one of the worst things is to be creative, Like you have to have so much talent if you are creative in an out of the box thinker on the PGA tour, because life is mundane. You go to the same places, you stay in the same hotels, you eat the same player dining every week. And really what golf rewards is just habitual consistency. And for John Rahm going to live, I think he like kind of overrated what that did. Now. I think he's got a few extra homes than he had before and a lot more money in his bank account, and he was compensated for that, But what he lost was a year of his of his prime where he just was trying to learn the new reality of how he plays pro golf. Last year we saw him take some number of strides, and I think this is the year that he comes back and re enters the discussion of could this be the best player in the world, maybe not all the way to Scotty's level, but up up at Rory's level, so that that would be my guy to jump up back up into that tier that he once was in.

00:32:32
Speaker 1: Is there anything that's holding rom back other than just the routine right now? Would you? I would be curious to get your guys thoughts, like, is that there any area of John's game where you feel like it's just not as sharp as it needs to be, or something about the approach to things, or you know, I mean, he I think it's probably unfair a little bit to say that he kind of melted at the PGA. I think he was going for it. He sort of knew that he had to do something extraordinary late there, and he obviously did not play great. I think he you know, played the last four holes in like four or five over, but he was you know, pedaled down, like trying to do anything he could to put some pressure on Scotty. But he was there in contention and sort of you know, didn't get it done. I just I don't know. I think like the genre that I remember and saw up really close when he won that Masters when he won the US Open. That guy was a freaking closer. I mean, that guy just felt like he was an intimidating presence. He was a guy who could make putts, He was a guy who could make clutch up and downs. Was gonna put pressure on everybody else. And I just don't see that right now. And I wonder if that's just unfair the standard that I thought I was holding him to, or if he's kind of regressed a little bit in in certain parts of his game.

00:33:50
Speaker 3: I'll build the case. I'll build the case against Ron a little bit. And not that I think at least isn't good or anything, but I think in general, and this I know something we've kind of talked about privately, or you know, when we're traveling at an event. The standard of golf gets raised every single year, and we talk about golfers who are good in twenty fifteen, twenty eighteen, speek JT another player that I'm going to get to with one of the prompts later, like, oh, if they just get back to where they were, If they just get back to where they.

00:34:21
Speaker 4: Were, that's not good enough.

00:34:23
Speaker 3: And you hear so many golfers talking about how much better. Professional golf is the top level of professional golf right now compared to even three years ago. So I think with John Rahm, he doesn't just need to get back to where he was before he left Live Like, he needs to set a much higher standard than he's been playing to. Specifically to your point, Kevin, think the iron play like needs to come up a little bit if there's something that's been holding him back. But just in general, I think this idea of like, oh, he'll just get back to where he was, we see so many careers that look like Parabola is right that they start to peak and they start to go down. John still young, He's thirty one, so he could easily again get back to a level that we're used.

00:35:05
Speaker 4: To seeing him at.

00:35:06
Speaker 3: I just think the case against him is that Scotty has raised that to a totally different level. Rory's gotten a lot better, like these guys have kind of passed him. So I think John rom has to get a lot better to be on that level. Andy simply like finding it again or getting comfortable again isn't good enough. So I think I would take sort of take the other side of how likely is it that he'll be the world number two this time next year.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: I think that is not gonna be the world number two if they don't have the world ranking points.

00:35:36
Speaker 4: Well sure sure for let not the.

00:35:39
Speaker 1: Data golf number two whatever I guess would be.

00:35:41
Speaker 3: But I honestly I think that's that is the case against him, and it is one I believe in where where I would be a little more pessimistic on on Ram's chances of ascending into that tier than somebody like Ludwig who's on the up and up.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: I yeah, I think that that PGA was an example of a guy that hadn't been in the mix for a little while.

00:36:02
Speaker 4: You know.

00:36:03
Speaker 2: I think this is the the underrated aspect of Joseph laid out the ten events that batter, you know, in a year, none of those are live events. So if you're if you're playing on the on live, you really play four events the batter every year, and those are the majors. And it just that makes it challenging to be ready to play in the majors. And I think that that will forever be the the the thing that you kind of hang over John Ram's head when you start to look at his career is what what you guys said about uh, you you lose losing a year, a year goes by what we said about Scotty, a year goes by without a major in your prime is a is kind of disastrous, and now he's at two years. You know.

00:36:56
Speaker 3: Also, to be fair, those were the ten PGA Tour events. I said that matter if I known livery, it was an option that I might have thrown that in there.

00:37:04
Speaker 1: Listen, who I would have gotten couldn't benefit from putting on like you know, bumpy top dressed greens in the dark. This was part of you know, your major prep.

00:37:16
Speaker 2: What was your guy's favorite story? Non Rory, non Scottie. In twenty twenty five, go ahead, Kevin.

00:37:22
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with JJ spawn made it to the playoffs in the in the players with Rory obviously, you know, seemed like, oh, well, he's not on the same level as Rory clearly in this like you know, Ry hits an unbelievable like easy mixing, He's super easy Birdie on sixteen, and then you know, closes it out on seventeen essentially with but not going on the water there. But I feel like it was almost like when JJ when JJ spawn started contending in the US Open. It was like, holy shit, like this is not a fluke, Like this dude actually is like one of the best iron players in the world and it doesn't drive it like that, you know, short compared to you know, some of the other guys. I just feel like it, as a guy who grew up like playing public golf really was never thought of as like a superstar. To make that putt on the eighteenth hole of the US Open, I felt exactly like Bob McIntyre, like, well played, lad, like that you just put your hands together. That was one of my favorite moments of the year, just seeing like the acknowledgment of the other players, like damn, this was hard. And he completely came apart on the front nine of that US Open to where he looked like he's gonna get dropped from coverage and everybody's like, oh, this is going to be between Madam Scott, Sam Burns, Victor Hovland, and then all of a sudden, it's just like JJ is like nope, like I'm actually just gonna close out this US Open round and take it. And then he played great at the Ryder Cup and that when they would let him play. You know, he doesn't get to play in all the matches, because you know, apparently having a strix on ball was a sort of scarlet letter against getting to play more matches, and we had to get some of those other bums out there to around. I think JJ was awesome and he's he's truly like a top ten player in the world, which who would have imagined you could say that without laughing two three years ago when he was one hundred and eightieth or something in the world. Like he I just love I like talking to him, interviewing him. He's honest, he's humble, he's self deprecating. He's interesting, obviously, like you know, family guy, Like he's a California guy. I just I'm all in on the Spawn con. It was a super fun experience to see throughout the year, and I'd love to see him, you know, contend again in twenty six.

00:39:36
Speaker 2: I think, what the thing with Spawn and he was gonna be mine. I'll come up with another one after Joseph talks. But the is all the close calls too. He was leading Sony at the beginning of the year down the stretch. He obviously had the player's playoff loss, where you know, the most impressive thing about that was he went no, he gave him a shot, and he went thirty six holes in the ring with Rory and just you know, duked it out. I'll never forget was it the chipen he had on sixteen on Saturday that that it's just like this guy like he's just not going away. He's not going away. And then and then he kind of validated the US Open win with that really strong playoff performance. He lost to Justin Rose in a playoff. Also, this could have easily been a year where you said Spawn won three times, maybe four times. This year, you know you're going you're doing a lot if you're lifting him to a couple. But Jada Spawn, given the way he played, you know, the most unlikely of the wins was the US Open one, I would say, and you know, you walk away, you probably feel like he should have had two. And in the US Open one was like the one that kind of just you know, he played great at the end of the round and everybody else kind of played bad, and that one kind of almost fell in his lap. I'll never forget Josh Gregory talking after that US Open about how so many guys that he coaches get complacent after they have a lot of success, and he's like Jjet called me after the players and was like, I want to work, I want I know I can be elite, you know. And he had gotten to the point where he had had a couple million in the bank and that's where, you know, in what Gregory was kind of saying was is where a lot of people turn it off once they have that job security set. He's going to keep his card. He is ascended to a different level. But he was not complacent. He wants to get out and work and get better. And I think that's the thing that I appreciate the most about JJ Spahn is kind of there is like a relentlessness to his work ethic, and it's evident in the Journey. It was not the journey is not a journey of you know of you know, this was always meant to be. It is a it was something that required a lot of you know, energy and a lot of failure. In his case.

00:42:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're doing feel good stories and who could be on the tier with Rory and Scottie and we this is not who I'm gonna talk about there Probably some people are like, how can you guys have not mentioned Tommy Fleetwood and winning for the first time and like what he's done recently, But that is not the direction I'm going with.

00:42:29
Speaker 4: Best story in twenty twenty.

00:42:30
Speaker 2: Five is it Michael Brennan.

00:42:32
Speaker 4: It's not Michael Brennan.

00:42:33
Speaker 3: I know people think this is a bit with the player I'm about to mention, but a sincere I think the COO. The coolest thing I saw in twenty twenty five was Cameron Young's breakout at the Ryder Cup. Truly and winning in front of a crowd that is close to home that the hometown narrative can be overdone. But the US team falling apart at the Ryder Cup this year in Cameron Young meaning the one really the lone bright spot and putting the team on his back, going out and dominating against good teams on the other side, going out first for the US on Sunday, to go from being left off the team in twenty twenty three when he had a pretty strong case for being on that team, so then being sent out first and taking down Justin Rose. I would highly encourage people to go on YouTube and watch the highlights of that match. It's like a fifteen minute video. How strong he played on Sunday, and then for it to come down to a putting contest the last couple holes with Justin Rose stand toe to toe hold that putt on the seventy second well the eighteenth pole to keep the match alive and keep Team USA alive. Get that point in front of his parents are inside the ropes. It was one of the coolest scenes I've ever seen in golf, and it just felt poetic that the putter has been what's kept him back for so long. He improved it this year. That got him onto the Ryder Cup team. It got him his first win at the Windom. It was also then what got him across the finish line against just Rose, one of the great Ryder Cup players in European history. Now Cam's not even sneaking up on anybody as one of the players to watch in twenty twenty six, one of the best players without a major, so that springboard this year, especially in front of the home crowd, I will never forget it. It was an unbelievable experience watching him up close. Watched almost all of his matches up close, and I just think now we have seen the birth of a potential American star.

00:44:25
Speaker 1: It's so rare in history, in golf history, for someone to become a good putter, like to raise their level of putting. It's pretty common in golf for someone's putting to decline over time or guys to lose it, whether it's Jordan Spieth or Tom Watson or Johnny Miller. But it's fascinating to me that whatever it is he figured out even just to make him, like as I said with Hoven, like just above average putting, Like you know, there's gaining a little bit a half a stroke half a stroken be huge, but just gaining not losing strokes on the putting green is an enough to make Cameron Young be good because it's driving and ball striking is that good? And I would love to I would love to hear like a deep dive him really dig into like you know, it's all I just practiced it more. Well, there's got to be something more than that, Like there's got to be some kind of insight into what happened here, because just to to struggle with it to a point where it like drives you mad previously and then all of a sudden be like wait, something clicked is a great golf story. I just would to know about it.

00:45:29
Speaker 3: He didn't get to just an average level. Now he was a top ten putter on tour this year. He is now like it is a strength, which is an unbelievable turnaround.

00:45:37
Speaker 1: So I didn't want to overspeak, but I did think he got decent. But yeah, that's I mean, you know, the difference between Cam Young previously and Kem Young now is that he putted like he's a top ten putter, and the difference between Scotty Scheffler being one of a great player and being an all time great player, you know who wins two majors years like he became a top ten putter. Like that's it's too exact of like holy shit, like two guys figured it out. Uh, you know you could bottle that secret and sell it to.

00:46:05
Speaker 3: Just Actually, I'd be interest looking at JJ Spawn's putting numbers too, because that was always something that held him back. So I don't know what his putting numbers looked like.

00:46:12
Speaker 2: The short game putting both got a lot better. First Spawn. I'm gonna go with Ben Griffin. Hell yeah, I just I appreciate stories of perseverance. You know, obviously everybody it's almost overplayed now but like the idea of like giving up and then taking it, taking a job as a mortgage uh you know, broker effectively, and then you know, firing it back up and making it shortly after the idea of you know, Ben Griffin didn't just come out of nowhere. You know, I think that when you hear that story, it's like, oh, I mean, this guy was a first team All American, you know, a j G A player, He won two high school individual state titles. He went to North Carolina and you know what, what's the interesting part of jj R of Ben Griffin's career is that he then maybe maybe the most disappointing part of his golf life was from age twenty to age twenty five is when he had like his dip, you know, when most people are coming of age and when you expect to be hitting all time highs. And it's not to say he had a bad college career. He was a good He was a good college player, but I think he just never you know, he wasn't what he was when he was a junior, you know, one of the best juniors in the country. And and sure enough then it just like everything clicks at a certain point and you know, you're looking at the you know, we always do this thing with the shotgun start where it's like, okay, let's look at into the new year. Let's look at the top ten players in the world, and who's going to drop out? Because you know, four or five of the players in the top ten in the world drop out every year, and it felt impossible to consider some of these guys falling out of the rank that top ten, you know, like klum Morkaua for example, falling outside the top ten. But here we are, it's near the end of the year. Ben Griffin is gonna be one of the players that played his way into the top ten in the world along with JJ Spawn. I just never had that on the Bingo card. And I think that is just what makes golf so cool, is the idea that there are so many players that are just a fraction away from putting it together and you know, and also a fraction away from hanging it up out of frustration. And Ben Griffin persevering becoming an elite player on the PGA tour. To me is it's just cool. It is a fun story.

00:48:54
Speaker 1: You know what fascinates me any about that whole thing is like the idea of how emotion exhausting it is to reach that point where you're like I'm gonna give up, like I can't. I don't think I'm gonna do this. Like I know from my own college football career, which lasted two years and like consisted of me making two tackles, and I was like, I was really heartbroken when I kind of came to that moment of like, I don't think I'm good enough to do this anymore, so I'm gonna walk away from it. And like you know, you briefly had a dream of like could I play a little bit of you know, golf somewhere on like the lower level circuits and see what happens. It's like it's hard to get to that moment where you're like, I guess this isn't gonna work out and then to basically like flip it and be like all right, well, you know what, I fuck it. I'll give it one more chance. Like I mean, that's that's quite an emotional swing and for all of a sudden for that to click for him. I just I am really interested in those kind of like aha moments of like all right off, fine, I'll give this one more chance, because when I was ready to give up on my dream, like there was, I was like, all right, I got to figure this out. I'm not gonna like tiptoe back into this and then go play small college football, you know, someplace smaller than Montana that might let me on the field. I was just done, and it took a long time to get there. And I imagine Ben Griffith took a long time to come to that point where he thought maybe he was done, and then all of a sudden he wasn't.

00:50:12
Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, your football career is not done.

00:50:15
Speaker 1: Maybe not.

00:50:18
Speaker 2: The I think the these stories are. I think the thing that's also appreciated that makes you appreciate him a little bit is that you know that JJ Spawn and Ben Griffin aren't going to take where they are for granted. And I think that with the the kind of youth invasion that happened in golf or you know, more so, I would say ten years ago, where we had just a run, you know, the preceding ten years to where we are right now, where we just had a run of you know, young twenty somethings immediately entered into the top ten of the world, immediately flying private, you know, tournament tournament, and maybe that's still the case now. I think when you don't go through it, you take for granted being great and that you know, there's there's almost like a an attitude that comes with that, which you know some players have. But I think when you're a Ben Griffin or a JJ Spahn, you know Ben Griffin particularly, you know Jjspond's talked about how he was thinking about quitting two years ago, but Ben Griffin literally quitting and working another job. You will never take for granted the life that he's living now. And I think that is something that I really respect, because he's someone that has put in tireless work and there are moments where he had to question his belief. You know, there's been some talk about getting better putting. I at one point, if you ask any of my friends, discernibly awful putter. But I got a lot better one year. And you know what I did is I locked myself on putting greens with a chalk line, and I just putted down chalk line religiously. Three four footers just practice hitting my line over and over and over again. And you're probably one. You're probably saying, oh God, I'd love to do that, but it is is after Thanksgiving as November where there's a foot of snow on the ground in Chicago, I know it's cold. Practice greens are closed. I got perfect thing for you, the Perfect practice putting Matt. What I love about this putting matt is that they have a built in chalk line, effectively a line that you can just rip putts down all winter long. I promise your putting will get better. It has the auto return with the all too. This is a nice thing for anybody that's a little lazy. You just sit there and just pot over and over and over again and not have to go get the balls. So unlike when I lock myself on a putty green, I would have to always break to get the balls ont of the hole. You don't have to do that. The ball comes right back. They also have a new product, the chip Shot. This is the first chipping net in market with that autoball return. It's a large multicolor target that helps improve aim and accuracy, and it can be used on grass outdoors, but also includes a little grassmatt for indoor practice. It's exclusive to Perfect Practice, dot Com and Amazon. For all these things, use the code fried egg for twenty percent off at perfect practice dot Com. Unfortunately we don't have an Amazon promo code, so if you're gonna get this, go to perfect practice dot com. A note on the chipping thing. One of the things I like about this, I feel like when I visually lies the shot and where I'm landing it, I chip my best And I think when these like chipping nets, what works really well is you're practicing on where you're landing it, and it gets that visual in your head. So go to perfect practice dot com. Use the promo code fried egg for twenty percent off. All right, let's get back to Joseph and Kevin. All right, let's get let's get to the next thing here. We're looking ahead now, what will be the major of the year in twenty twenty six if you will prediction hat.

00:54:45
Speaker 1: Just for you go first on this one. I've gotten to go first a couple of times.

00:54:47
Speaker 3: So all right, I want a sort of a little bit of a different direction with this, not a like I it's hard to predict which one's going to come down to the wire, Like what's going to be the one that has an exciting finish? That's just always difficult to guess. I guess the PGI recently has had a lot of those. But I thought going into this year, Oakmont was going to be a litmus test for where we are, especially with equipment that we have this intersection of the identity of the event, the identity of the golf course is for it to be as hard as possible, and you almost you really can't do that now without pushing things over the edge, and so I think we didn't quite get that because it rained on the weekend. I think Shinnacock is going to present a very interesting litmus test of last time we were there, the phil incident and the greens getting a little bit close to the line they applied water on Friday. I'm fascinated to see what we get this year at Shinnecock, because if they decide to push it, then we could see players getting worked up, potentially some ping ponging around those greens that we haven't seen in a long time in a major championship, since we were kind of deprived of it at Oakmont. And if they don't do that, I think it's gonna be kind of shocking for people what golfers can do now with modern equipment and how low they can go. It's an impossible dance that the USGA is gonna have to do. So that I mean, it's one of the best golf course, one of the best major champvenues in the world. So even if it's presented properly like, it'll be an awesome Major championship. And I think there's also the additional layer of opportunity for some controversy because they could push it over the edge, or if they don't, they could go way too low. So I think every us open basically moving forward, this is his storyline that I'm going to be looking for, but I think we could see things come to a head at Shinnacock.

00:56:40
Speaker 1: I love that that answer, Joseph. I actually had picked Shinncock. But I'll go ahead and make a case for the Masters this year. You are gonna.

00:56:48
Speaker 2: Bold the bold plank you're walking out on, I know.

00:56:52
Speaker 1: But here's the reason why it's gonna be good. You're gonna have a freed up rory in theory like the loosest happy Masters he will ever play in his entire life, because who cares? You have Scotty basically being like all right, like come on, guys like this is my place, Like I'm gonna win five jackets before I'm all of a sudden done. You have Ludwig who you can know, you can tend. Bryce now has a year under his belt in contention at the Masters. You got to think that he's going to be sort of you know, have learned a little bit from that. I would imagine he's spending all off season kind of working on his iron play because that was sort of a little bit what held him back in some of those moments.

00:57:29
Speaker 2: Do you think he's working on his iron play or is irons more.

00:57:35
Speaker 1: We could have like you know, balloon shaped irons that come out, you know, broomstick length, all of them. Who knows. You just can't rule out the innovation angle there, Andy, so something president could show up and be completely amazing, you know, rom we just talked about it's gonna be I mean, I think it has the potential to be one of the great kind of like building up of hype towards like what I was like, We're gonna it's gonna be all this talk about what's Rory's gonna serve? There's gonna be all this talk about does does Scotti feel like he's got to answer. You know, Rory was where he got all the attention last year, even though you won two majors, Like it'll be like a fascinating showdown. Who knows if that's the first time Tiger will play, you know, and ever play again. Maybe Tiger will be like, this is my last Masters, by the way, Like I don't have it anymore, so I'm gonna take one more ceremonial walk. Like there's so many interesting storylines they're gonna be humming come April. And that is even without like the build up of what happens earlier in the golf season. I'm I would. I love Shinnacock as a venue. Andy once kind of talked and pointed out, which I've always remembered, that every hole face is in a different direction at Shinnacock, And so the wind is really such a kind of a thing that you have to understand how to play. Sometimes you have to hit a three quarters four iron into greens instead of like trying to seven iron all the way there because of how the wind and how the firmness is going to make you play true golf shots. And so I love Shnnacock. I love Burkedale like, it'll be fun to revisit the speed stuff when we go back there, but I'll pick Masters.

00:59:15
Speaker 2: I'm taking Shennacock. This is a tried and true major venue that delivers awesome drama, whether it be you know, drama about the golf course or drama about the tournament. The the golf course is exceptional. As you mentioned, you know there's there. It goes in so many different directions. You get firm conditions, obviously it's built on sand. You get wind because it's literally on an island out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, so you get wind. And I think one of the best parts of it is that the golf course is repelling by nature. The the the the design of the golf course consistently sheds balls with short grass, and I think that there are very very very few things that strike fear in players eyes as much there. You know, water hazards, out of bounds and the idea of a ball rolling away without them being able to stop it are the things. And Shinnacock has that last one in spades. Agree with Joseph. It will be a very interesting litmus test. And you know, whether they screwed up in the last time around there or not. I think, you know, it got to the edge, and you know you could you could have some some you know, at the end of the day, the guy that that persevered through it at the time was the best major championship player in the world, right, And I think that's the the thing that Shinnacock will do is weeds people out. I don't think there's anywhere in the world that you have such a on your edge of the seat for Thursday and Friday starts as you do with the tenth to start at Shinnecock. That can just literally ruin somebody's tournament the first hole of the day without any any penalty strokes. And we saw that a ton the last time it was around there, So I'm super excited about Shinnacock.

01:01:28
Speaker 1: I love one more thing. I was followed on that. I love the idea of brooks Keopka being like just trash, like, you know, not contending any to live events, being kind of indifferent, and then just sauntering into Shinnacock like an old cowboy comes back into town. You haven't seen this gun slinger in years, throwing up a first round like sixty nine and just getting into contention and be like, yeah, why the fuck would I not come back here and compete, Like this is a Brooks Kopka golf course. I'd love to see him just show up and be the old Brooks.

01:01:57
Speaker 4: Also very big.

01:01:58
Speaker 3: It's also a candidate for the from way behind, like we saw the last one when it's soft in the morning. You talk about some disparity in how golf course can play. When Fena and Fleetwood went flying up that leaderboard on Saturday, it could happen again.

01:02:12
Speaker 2: The level of difficulty for so many shots out there is so high, particularly when you miss the green. The chip shots are just I mean, they're diabolical. I think that's like maybe what gets lost a little is you have space off the tee. The approach hats are very hard. You know, you have to be really I think disciplined with your targets, Joseph, I would you know, just because of the shapes of the greens and the repelling nature of it. It is so much of a pick your target. Commit to your target. Do not allow yourself to play too conservative because that can get you in trouble. You have to play like semi aggressive, but your target selection has to be so good, because when you miss the greens, it is just you get yourself into positions where it's just you know, you're looking at these up and downs and you know, on a regular day out there, you're like, how in the world am I am? I just gonna ship this to fifteen feet and hope I make a putt Like and I think that's the the nature of that golf course. I think it's cool when a course is challenging without thick rough, without out of bounds, without you know, this is a golf course that really defends based off of natural elements firm turf, short grass, and repelling greens. It is a It is an awesome, awesome test.

01:03:40
Speaker 1: So what you're saying is they should give Corey Pavin a special exemption to just have a farewell tour and we can revisit his amazing performance there from years ago.

01:03:49
Speaker 2: At least we won't have Tiger going out and making a seven on the first hole like the last time. All right, Like, what are what's a player or who's the player that you expect to bounce back in twenty six and who's a player you expect to continue to struggle in twenty six good, Kevin.

01:04:11
Speaker 1: I've been to pick the obvious one on the board here. I think Xander will be back. I think does he ever putt quite as well as he did, you know, two years ago, which kind of was a huge you know, I guess like difference maker in some ways. I don't know, but Asander's just like he's a world class player, like all the sort of he put to bed all the I think kind of jokes about being a housecat and whether you know, he was awesome in those majors, not that Valhalla was like anything that you could truly like historically be put up there great, but he was awesome at Truon and you know, the injury just kind of completely sort of made his season sort of a wash, right I you know, we have a rib injury, like you have to compensate for it, then all of a sudden, like you're out. You're just not ever going to feel get the same feels. And I think it's time for Xander to kind of reexert himself, like he's a top five player in the world. Is he, you know, on the same level as Rom and Scotty and Rory. You know, maybe he certainly has the potential to do it. He's shown he was there briefly, so it's an obvious selection, I think, But I really would you know, Xander's come close to you know, he's contended in two Masters, three Masters. He's finished in the top ten of much times. You could easily see Xander being right there but playing great, and all of a sudden, it's like man Scotty and Rory, they got to step on it. They want to catch Xander. He shut sixty five in the first round, and all of a sudden he's the guy who's controlling that sort of tempo this tournament. I think that's a real easy thing to envision.

01:05:50
Speaker 3: Are you I'll do the same. I'm not going to try to get creative on the fly here. I ha Xander Schoffley as well. I think it's a no brainer. He's at a top ten in a major since twenty seventeen when he made his major championship debut, except for twenty twenty two, but in twenty twenty two he had three top fifteen. It's been one of the best major championship players of the past decade. I mean, is a Bay Current Classic the biggest golf tournament in the world. No but he did win this fall, and I think that is a sign that the rust is probably starting to shake off a little bit, and that, as Kevin said, the health issues he's had, the injuries like a rib injury is a big deal. And I think I believe he made his season debut at bay Hill. It's like the worst place you could make it, and that's in March. He didn't really have a long runway to get prepped for the majors, which happened so quickly that it was essentially a lost year. So the way I think, maybe if you had to do, like what is the biggest difference between the way players talk about a golfer and fans think about a golfer. Xander Schoffley is right at the top of the list of somebody that every golfer has so much admiration for. I can remember Phil years ago, three four years ago saying, like, Xander Schoffley's kind of the guy like when we play games, like he's the one kicking people's butts. So I think the chances that, like you said, Kevin, is he on Rom Rory and Scotti's tier. I think the chance that Xander is on Rom and Rory's tier is pretty strong next year, not not a I don't think he'll be on Scotti's tire, but I think Xander's absolutely almost picked him for the player who could be on that tier. Yeah, when I went Lovevig like it could easily.

01:07:28
Speaker 2: Be Xander, I'll go with the Kyle mor Kawa. Last year was a disaster, and I'm going to be on the previous track record over the one year sample size and say it's going to be a bad year. It was just a bad year. I mean, the guy has been a machine in major championships. Obviously he picked off the two early on, but you know he's got seven top five finishes in majors in twenty one or twenty four starts. He is a world class player, world class iron player, obviously. I think the big question is always going to center around around the greens and does he have enough pop in the bat? You know? Has he you know? And but like the iron play, I think will return to form and get back to that top tier level. And I'm really interested to see what the year. I just think from a pr and distraction standpoint, the year can't be worse than last year. I would just urge him to just smile and answer questions that don't say anything of substance. That's all he has to do to avoid the iron.

01:08:44
Speaker 3: Of the media want you want you complain about these golfers being media trained, and you want him to smile and say nothing of substance.

01:08:51
Speaker 1: What is this?

01:08:53
Speaker 2: I mean, if he wants to play good golf, it's like kind of a recipe to play good golf.

01:08:58
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna argue the flip side of that because I had him down as the player I think is going to continue to struggle. I continue to struggle. I don't think he's going to continue to like fall. I think that his iron play will always sort of keep him around being a top twenty player. I think the days of Colin mark Hal being a top five player are done. I think the days of being a top ten player could could sneak in the bottom ten. But I do not think Joseph. It goes back to our conversation we brought up earlier. You have to get better now. You can't just like return to your old ways. And I think at some point there's a chance that mark how will be like man, I go, I gotta get some more speed. I got to pick up some distance, and then how does that affect the rest of your swing? Does it? You know, does it that take time away from your short game or your putting, Like you can't really compete at that top tier level other than a few courses hitting it three h five anymore, when you know guys are stepping up and hitting at three forty. And I just always remember a conversation, you know, a conversation an interview he did at the Masters after Scotty won, where Scotty he was talking about trying to catch him and he was talking about the fifth hole and he was like, yeah, like I'm coming into that hole with five iron and he's got an eight iron. Like the margin for error for me is so slim, and it's like what do I do? Like, I can't drive it past that bunker, so I have to play it kind of way out to the right, and then I'm coming in at a slightly worse angle, and I just it's really hard to give up thirty forty yards off the tee to somebody when they don't make mistakes. And so, you know, did Colin catch a heater in a time when you know, Harding Park just happened to be playing firm and fast, so distance didn't quite matter. Did did Royal Saint George's Like the flack of fans at either place, Like, did that put him in a different kind of mindset that was easier to kind of not be overwhelmed by major championship pressure. I think he's getting bad advice from people around him about not about the golf swing stuff, but you mentioned it with the media stuff that is such a dumb fight to pick and the idea that your agent is telling you you don't know them anything that is wasted energy. And to sort of take it back to like the rom conversation about golfers are one of routine and they need to have like if you're fighting with basic silly questions about yeah, I fired my caddy, like it didn't work out, No big deal, Like I'm going to get another caddy. It's that is not a difficult question to answer as a professional golfer. Are you being investigated by the FBI, that's a difficult question that you are allowed to duck on the advice of legal counsel. Are you working with a different caddy? Is about as basic as it fucking gets. So I would just like him to sort of get a little bit better perspective and be like, yeah, the part of the interest, part of the reason why I make a lot of money, part of the reason why these sponsors put up twenty five million dollars is because they want people to give insight into who they are as golfers. So if you happen to walk, you know, during a pro am, and a reporter comes up and he was like, Hey, can I ask you this quick question? It is not an affront to you personally, nor is it an affront to the people doing the proram that you can answer a couple quick questions. That is just basic how you do your job better. Players have done it for years. You know that some players. Rory makes himself available kind of all the time to people he knows and sees regularly. So like, you can do that too, Colin, and then avoid all that distraction stuff and you can do whatever you want to work on your golf game.

01:12:31
Speaker 3: I'm closer to you, Kevin than to Andy's optimism. With Colin, I would just to put in the distance is probably not as big as it is.

01:12:40
Speaker 4: He's slow.

01:12:40
Speaker 3: He's like one seventy four one seventy five ball speed, which but like Scott, he's like one seventy seven to one eighty. He is, he's behind him, He's behind him, but Colin doesn't like he's like a JJ spawn type of length off the tea. And again that's way behind Rory. That's way behind some of the top guys. But to that point, I think Colin's skill set is dominated by somebody like Scotty. Scotty hits it a little bit farther and basically just as accurate. The iron play is better, even though Colin's a great iron player, and Colin's putting has not been good. His short game started to look good at the beginning of this year, then kind of regressed back to where.

01:13:15
Speaker 4: We've seen it.

01:13:17
Speaker 3: He's limited. He's not going to overpower a golf course. He's probably not gonna putt well enough to launch himself up into contention if the ball striking is a little bit off. So I think he's kind of locked into being the seventh to fifteenth best player in the world if he's playing pretty well, Yeah, you do have to get better. So I don't know the Colin. He's not gonna stink, but I think the days of him being a top five player are over, and I wouldn't be picking him to I wouldn't go out of my way to pick him to win a major unless the setup where a super accuracy heavy and not going to penalize a little bit of lack of distance off of the tee. The player I was going to say is going to struggle kind of in a similar vein of you need to keep getting better and he has is Hideki Matsuyama, who I would be kind of devastated if Hideki is not a relevant golfer again. But I think this year, when you look at players who are among the most disappointing, I think Adeki's kind of near the top of that list. He won the Century to start the year, and he had won a playoff event, not that those are the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world, but in fall of twenty twenty four, so I feel like there was a little bit of, hey, you know, this could be a good year for Adki. But you talk about a player who's putting has held him back, and like we said in twenty fifteen to twenty seventeen, I think you could get away with having a weakness in your game. Now, guys are just too good and just too optimized that Hideki inconsistent off the tee and not being able to putt despite the unbelievable short game in Iron Place, he wasn't relevant at all this year. So I think that would be a really disappointing player if we don't really hear from him again. He's about to turn thirty four, so he should have a couple more years. But I mean, talking about one of the great great golfers of the last ten years, who when he's on is the best player in the world, I think we might kind of be getting close to the end of that.

01:15:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. It's very rare for somebody's career their greatness to span more than ten years. And Hideki has done his ten years at the top of the game, you know, and he's spilled over. Maybe he's gotten a couple extra years, but you know, you think about Hideki is twenty thirteen. It's kind of where he jumped on the stage and became this world class player, and you know, the Mirrfield was where he kind of flashed early. And I think along those same lines, there's they're really great players are ten year players. Less great players are seven or five year windows. And someone who I think has gotten to the end of his window of being really a class player is Patrick Cantley. And I like what Joseph has said, you know about the game gets better, the game evolves, players are better. I was just listening before this podcast to a Zachlo podcast with stan Van Gundy where he's like, I don't think a lot of the greatest players of all time, if you took them in the in the NBA in their current form, would be able to get on NBA court today. And I think that we we romanticize golfers. And you know, I think Tiger would still probably be a really great player. I wonder if you would be have the wins that he had. But I think that that Patrick Cantley is like the perfect example of a player that was really good at every thing and that all around skill. I you know, I marvel at the talent, you know, and the ability to be really a top thirty forty guy, and every facett on the PGA Tour like more respect should go to guys that assemble their game that way. But it also comes when when that standard on the PGA Tour and every one of those skill fast. As the fastts goes up just a little bit, you could get knocked down a little bit and that all round skill Like, yeah, he's still going to be a really good player. But I think, you know, when you just start to think about it, if you're drafting who will play it well at a major? Like he has tumbled way down my list. He's not, you know, and I think the years of him being you know, a first page I can't believe this guy hasn't won. Maybe our getting to the end here.

01:18:00
Speaker 1: Can I throw out a funny wild card question to bring us to a close here that you didn't get to prepare for this, so you just said it? Who would be the funniest major winner that's within reason in twenty twenty six? Like this's an actual and I can I can sort of filibuster here for seq while you guys think about it. I think that Patrick Reid winning a second Masters would be incredibly funny. Would just be like, and it's not unrealistic because he was in contention last year. Great short game. Don't necessarily have to like drive it forever there you can.

01:18:35
Speaker 2: He's in the top fifty in the world ranking ye right now, he's forty four, so he's in other majors.

01:18:41
Speaker 1: Patrick Reed being a two time Major Masters winner would be such an incredible troll on the on the rest of golf history, like forever being like, oh, well, you know, Patrick Greed won two Masters, Like I would writing that story on Sunday night. I would don't think I could stop giggling about just Patrick Greed to have got one over on everyone else once again, we're.

01:19:02
Speaker 4: Already putting the green jacket on him. Would be pretty fun.

01:19:05
Speaker 3: Yes, if you if you're doing funniest, you went kind of within reach. I think funniest if Taylor Goo gets into majors next year and and wins a major that's not a super realistic one, and that's the funniest one.

01:19:20
Speaker 1: It's very fun.

01:19:22
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go. I I hear this guy is a lovely guy, lovely, wonderful guy.

01:19:29
Speaker 4: Here we go.

01:19:32
Speaker 2: His nickname in college was the Project. You know, members, members on the range at the club, the course at the that the team would practice on would comment about how they didn't think he had the game to play, you know, because it was you know, it was it was a rough go for a number of years. I think just you know, I would love this because the major would be immediately discredited. Like if he wins at Irano, MA, people will have the dives out for the PGA Championship. But if Kurt Kitti Yama wins a major, I will just be laughing hysterically because like there's something about the way he plays golf. He hits it far, his statistics are pretty good, but the viewing experience is like horrifying, Like it is just awful to watch him play, Like the swing, like the way his swing is, it just looks so out of control and he just blasts the ball around. It would people would just be the knives would be out because they'd be just bomb and gouge. You know, this is even if he was like just hitting every fairway, people would be if he just put on a precision like a display of excellence in precision just visually how it looks would offend so many people that Kurt Kittyama tops the list for me.

01:20:59
Speaker 1: He would have the same number of championships as a fellow Chico, California resident Aaron Rodgers if he won a championship meeting. So you know they grew up not not that far apart in age. I think like five years of part in age.

01:21:12
Speaker 2: The thing about Kitty Yama is he'd be on the list of players that I think you could take to like a random Muni and hustle people with, Yeah, Kirk Kitty Yama. If you dressed him up and just like schlubby clothes when he took a practice swing, nobody would be like, this is a PGA tour player.

01:21:34
Speaker 4: Eric Cole, I think still takes the cake in that category.

01:21:37
Speaker 2: But yes, well he's a minor league tour legend. I think you couldn't take him to South Florida because every every dumpy Muni would recognize him and be like, you won ten minor league tour events here.

01:21:50
Speaker 4: Fair enough.

01:21:51
Speaker 1: It's a fun it's a fun question because like, you know, Adam Scott claim close to winning Major last year, Justin Rose came very close to winning Major. So like, is there someone else in their forties that you know might contend in a Major this year? You know, we can't surgery. We feel like you know, Sergio, maybe it would be kind of hilarious show.

01:22:09
Speaker 2: At the Masters would be hilarious.

01:22:11
Speaker 3: Not in their forties, but Brian Harmon at Birkdale would be very funny.

01:22:14
Speaker 1: It would be very funny.

01:22:16
Speaker 3: The European press did not enjoy the last one. Let's just have him run it right back.

01:22:20
Speaker 1: I mean Phil. If Phil were to somehow like have another like out of body experience at the Masters or at Birkedale, that would be an incredibly funny outcome.

01:22:30
Speaker 2: Rory putting the green jacket on Phil would be quite humorous.

01:22:35
Speaker 1: I see now, if this shit happens, we have it covered like you heard it here first the.

01:22:42
Speaker 2: All right, that does it? Thank you guys, and we'll be back next week for another edition of the Friday Podcast. Big thanks to producer PJ. Run than the ones and twos. I don't have it handy, but I know the pro Shop ordered deadline is is relatively soton to get to get your your your shipments. So if you if you're looking for gifts, last minute gifts, great last minute gift would be the UH would be a Friday Golf club membership. That's that's an easy one. I'm a big fan of printing it out. You know, you just print something out for someone the day of that's a good one. But then there's a ton of merch lots of great stuff in there anyways, thanks to PJ that's proshop dot the Friday dot Com. Apparently you have ten days you spend ten days to make your orders, but that that might be on today, so that might be down to eight days by Wednesday when you're listening to this, So uh, thank you guys, and we'll be back next week. Six