Reminiscing About Phil’s Win at the 2021 PGA Championship

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

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

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Speaker 3: And when I find my.

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Speaker 1: Ball in a Frida Egg, Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Friday, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg, Bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Hello, and welcome to the Frida Egg Podcast. Today, with the twenty twenty two PGA Championship at Southern Hills approaching, we are looking back on Phil Mickelson's win at the twenty twenty one PGA Championship and trying to put it in the context of all the crazy stuff that has happened since then. And with me today are two people who just so happened to be at the ocean course at Kiawa Island that week in May twenty twenty one. First of all, Brendan poor Ath. Brendan, when people ask you what you do with the Friday Egg, what do you say? Like? What have you started to say?

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Speaker 2: I don't have a good answer to that. I help around the shop. I'm glad to be here and honored to be here. I don't know help around the shop, you know, I do a podcast with the Andy as people are aware the shotguns start, but just try to not get in the way.

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Speaker 1: I think that's what we all do. And Andy, how are you doing today?

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Speaker 3: I'm doing great. We got we're bringing Flashback Friday over to the Fried Egg. Here, we got We're doing a flashback from a year ago on Friday.

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Speaker 1: Egg.

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Speaker 3: You know, I feel like we should be doing a precision pro ad read right now.

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Speaker 1: Well, well we just we just did it right there. So that is of course. Andy Johnson, founder of the Fried Egg, and Brendan and Andy are on the Shotgun Start podcast. They do Flashback Friday. There. This has sort of that vibe. It is a is a flashback to a year ago, a a moment that already feels historical. I think one reason for that is that it feels like it was a long time ago in terms of the amount of stuff that has happened regarding Phil Mickelson since then. Of course he has imploded, but I'm sure he's going to make a comeback soon. But all the Saudi Golf League stuff has happened, et cetera, et cetera. I think listeners are perfectly aware of all of that, and so we're just going to kind of look back to a more innocent time a year ago, but kind of see some of the seeds of what has happened since then. In that week, so it was a really interesting week and that's basically what we're going to dig into here. So first of all, just to kind of set the scene here, Brendon, when you and Andy got to Kiawa Island, what were your accommodations. Tell me about the island itself, whether it passes the vibe check, all that kind of stuff. Just set the scene for me.

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Speaker 2: The thing that this major for me, I will always really think of fondly. And this was before the golf, This was before the historic winner that we kind of got come Sunday night. For me, I think it was the first major post pandemic, really, the first major I don't know since what twenty nineteen US Open. I'm trying to think of what I had done prior to this, and it was so unique. I've done it a good amount of majors over the last decade. In that it was also a vacation spot, right, we weren't on vacation. We were working, you know, constantly, but you weren't in suburban Pittsburgh or suburban New Jersey at a Balta stroller, Oakbound or things like that. It was so unique for me that I couldn't help but be in just a great mood. We'd ride our bikes on the beach and you could see where they were going to play the golf that evening or that afternoon, so I was really excited. And then of course the course matched up, the course delivered, it played beautifully, it played great championship, the players, the characters, it all came together so well that I mean, among the decade doing this, this is the twenty nineteen Masters, and I think I'd put it maybe even ahead of that, and maybe it's recency bias, but for me, it was a really really special week. It was the first one I really did sort of solely and exclusively with shotgun Start and the fried Egg. It was like a different kind of era for me, and I will remember it really fondly even a year out. But I think you know, ten years out as being a really special week.

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Speaker 1: So you were staying on the island, You and Andy had bikes, You were riding the bikes up and down the beach much as a couple would on a romantic getaway to Ta Kiowa Island, and so that was your that was your transportation for the week. Andy, once you tell me about your your first impressions of the course and the conditions when you got there that week.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was I remember heading end of the week, it was it was exciting because you saw that there was going to be wind and obviously a calm day at Kiwa Island is kind of not calm in a way like you could play it in very benign conditions and there's still significant wind. The wind you feel and have to think about. And I think that was one of the big things is I remember you looked at the forecast and you saw the wind was going to blow from a couple different directions, which is a big deal because it would play significantly different. Obviously it kind of goes out and back no rain, and the forecast was a big deal. So it was firm and the course could get into kind of that place that you wanted. And I mean to echo Brendan's sentiments, heading into the week, it was just really exciting. It was exciting to be back on the road. It was exciting not to be covering a major Championship from your couch because there's so much that you Spending a week on site for a major is such a unique experience when you're covering the tournament because you see the days kind of blend together, but you really are tuned in with the feel of the tournament more so than you are when you're watching on your couch. You understand what's going on. There's you know, you just in it, and it kind of just builds this identity through the week. And this one was, I think from the start like it definitely had a different feel and it felt like one that we were going to get a really good winner out of now Phil coming out of nowhere. Was that was it was just crazy?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think a lot of people felt the way that you and Brennan are describing about this major that it was kind of the first you know, COVID era major, not post COVID because it wasn't post yet. You know, the vaccine was starting to circulate and things were starting to calm down a little bit. I think what was different is that suddenly there was something like a full crowd there. I don't think it was full full capacity, but compared to the November Masters, and then the twenty twenty one Masters, it felt like more of a normal major because both of those playings of the Masters had limited crowds, and so now all of a sudden, you know, we were sort of back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, allegedly it wasn't full capacity. Allegedly the numbers were, you know, forty percent, because I don't know what they said they were allowing in. And it's kind of hard to discern that at a place like the Ocean course, right, you don't have giant grandstand buildouts, but look could look one hundred percent full or fifty percent full. Right, You're sort of in the dunes, moving through the dunes, and it can seem crowded at all times, and certainly, obviously the lasting imagery of Sunday Night made it feel like it was a full, full bloor crowd.

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Speaker 1: Brendan, What was it like walking the course with Andy and looking at things? What is that experience? Like?

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's the best I feel. I'm very fortunate from an educational yeah, I don't want to tuote his horn here, educational, but also amusement amusement standpoint, it's it's the best thing. I mean, you know, this would run a file of a bunch of I'm sure rights fees and things like that. But Andy could set up a business where he asks, you know, that whole crowd to show up. Then he could you know, march him around, because I've done it at so many great like Riviera and Ocean Court. Like it's just it's just hilarious, right. You hear about the catch basins, like what the hell is going on with this mowing line, like why is the why is this rough? Like so uh, it's really it's great, you know, it's it's educational, and certainly at a place like the Ocean Course, it was such a it had such an impact, right, I mean the course always has an impact, but that was such a different kind of stage, right than we're used to in US Major Championship golf for the most part, And so it was a great kind of table setter early in the week.

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Speaker 1: So Andy, going into the week, do you remember who you were thinking would do well? I feel like it was a pretty wide open moment in men's golf.

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Speaker 3: I think this is kind of the theme of men's golf, men's major golf right now, and I think we had the same similar even though Scottie Scheffler was the hottest player in the world going to the most recent major, the Masters, it was kind of a similar feel. It's like, I who knows who could win? There could be twenty guys that could win, And I think this is kind of a new era of pro golf where the idea of a favorite so most laughable. Especially this is coming after Tiger, and you know, Tiger was the You wouldn't you know, the odds were just crazy with Tiger. You know, it was a Tiger versus the field effectively, and now we get into this space where you feel like it's wide open. I do think you look at wind and you always think like the ball, the purest ball strikers are the ones that you always focus in on. And you know, you look at the leaderboard from last year and you see a guy like Paul Casey. He obviously is not ever really a winner, but he factors in almost like every I feel like every Major on on Saturday or Friday night they're discussing thirty six hole players, it's always like, well, Paul case It gets catches lightning in a bottle this week, and he's in it. But like, the reason he's there is because he hits the ball really well, and you start to you know, and that's kind of what I thought heading into the week. You know, John Rahm at this point is the very clear best player in the world. So if there was a favorite, it was John Rahm, so you expected him to play well. I feel like it felt wide open. I feel like almost every major, we'll see what Scheffler does, but almost every major feels wide open in this era, and it felt wide open for this one.

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Speaker 2: I would say to Andy's point there, like Scottie Scheffler, we were somehow surprised, not surprised, but like a little surprise he won the Masters, right, and when everything in the prior era, like he was dominant in the month's leading up and he wasn't the favorite of the Masters, and then he won the Masters and we were like a little well, of course he won the Masters. He's been the best player in the earth. But that's just the nature of men's major championships. I remember last year the PGA, there was like the default Rory buzz because he'd won the Wells Fargo. He'd won here, like, you know, two weeks before or whatever, and he'd won here before, and I think there was a lot of hype around speed, but like that was the thing. We just didn't know what was going to happen. To Andy's point about the course and the.

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Speaker 1: Draw, Yeah, at one point on the shotgun start, Andy mentioned that this could be a week when a guy from very deep in the world rankings could make a run and take it. And indeed, that's that's sort of what happened. At this point, Phil was one hundred and sixteenth in the OWGR, which was his lowest rank since nineteen ninety three.

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Speaker 3: And you think about the recipe for this win, and you look back and it makes a little bit more sense. It still doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But if you were gonna draw up a recipe, it'd be on a golf course. That was like the most Like if you put everybody on a driving range at this at this point, like Phil is not going to be the person that people watch and are like, oh wow, Phil, Like that's the guy if you put if they're all anonymous, nobody would walk over and watch Phil hit golf balls. Even the Sunday before his round, it was the driving range session was a disaster.

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Speaker 2: To that exact point.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, Tim was running back to like make equipment changes last minute. It was an utter disaster. But anyways, when you think about like the recipe for that, one of the things that does that is weather, because then it becomes not about technique, It becomes more about feel, and it comes about hitting certain shots and zeroing it and not necessarily like can you hit this perfectly like a perfect launched three wood in ideal optimum settings. There was rarely a stock shot. There was not really a stock shot that never was asked of people this week. I think that's the thing. When you get that wind, it takes a lot of guys out of it that are kind of quintessential, like great players, but maybe not great players in non optimal conditions.

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Speaker 2: I would just quickly add to that there was a certain little level of Bryson befuttlement this week that I forgot about until just now, certainly with the wind and just a different kind of setup and that, of course, I don't know that amused some people affirmed some biases, but it obviously led to the video, right, the viral video with Brooks because he's marching off he thought he hit a perfect drive on sixteen I think it was sixteen and ended up in the hazard or some sort and that's why he was so angrily marching behind brooks Kepka and the viral. There was like a certain level of Bryson befuttlement this week. That was a part of the championship story.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and the video you're referring to is the brooks Kepka being interviewed by Todd Lewis of Golf Channel. This interview was not officially released, It was leaked after the championship and Bryson was walking by with somebody I think maybe with his caddie with Tim Tucker and complaining about something and brook stops in the middle of the interview, rolls his eyes and is just like, oh, I forgot my train of thought there. So that happened this week as well, which is kind of incredible to remember. It's not really what we're discussing, but yeah, there were stories of you know, Bryson flying greens by fifteen yards and turning to Tim Tucker and being like, what happened there? Come Tim? You know that kind of stuff, and those stories are very satisfying to hear, though he did play pretty well. This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast is brought to you by the us G and it's Handicap index. A handicap index provides every golfer, regardless of age, gender, or skill level, with a universal measure of playing ability under the World Handicaps system. A handicap index is not just for elite golfers or golfers who belong to private clubs, for recreational and casual golfers. It has a number of benefits. It allows you to track your play and your improvement. It allows you to play with your friends and family on an equal playing field, regardless of your skill level. It allows you to have a target score to aim for based on your skill level and the golf course's difficulty, not necessarily just the courses par and A handicap index allows you to enhance the fun and social aspects of your golf experience. No other sport allows you to play with other people equally, regardless of who you are or how good your game is. It's one of the things that makes golf great. So to get a USGA handicap, go to USGA dot org slash get a handicap TFE. Again, that's USGA dot org slash, get a handicap TFE and start enjoying all the benefits that an official USGA Handicap Index can bring. All right, back to the episode. All right, so let's get back to the tournament. I'm going to fast forward us to the weekend. After thirty six holes, the leader board was pretty much what it would be for the rest of the week. You had Phil Mickelson and Louis Eustazan tied at five under after thirty six holes, Brooks was one behind at four under, and then there was a gaggle of players kind of a couple of shots back, including Brandon Grace and Hideki Matsuyama. But I think that at this point, truly, Phil Brooks and ust Hazen were basically the only serious championship contenders. For much of the weekend, we pretty much knew that it was going to be one of those guys, and I think we were saying Kideki was there too. Yeah, Hideki was definitely in the mix, and he was underrated going into this tournament, partly because he kind of took a break after the Masters.

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Speaker 3: But I don't think he played right. He hadn't played since the Masters.

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Speaker 1: He might not have played at all. Yeah, he went back to Japan for a bit. In any case, we don't need to talk much about the first couple of days of the tournament. But when you were looking at those three players, Andy, Usti Brooks and Phil, what was your honest assessment of Phil's chances at that point?

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Speaker 3: At that point, you were just waiting for the moment that it all fell apart. He was there. Everybody was just shocked. I think the players. I think there were players in contention that were shocked that Phil.

00:17:46
Speaker 1: Rom was saying something about this, right, What wasn't John Rahm saying, like in the media center, like what's happening here? I don't understand this?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think there are players that were just shocked that he was there, were kind of waiting for the other shoot to drop. And I think that's just the general feel was like this is so cool. You felt like this is a real historic run. You know, it had a little it wasn't Watson at the Open, but it had that type of feel as to this may be the last time we ever see him in the mix at a at a major, and here he is unexpected out here and at a course that you wouldn't necessarily think is ideal for Phil, especially Philip, this era of Phil where you know, he's always been wild, but he had this pursuit of distance and he was hitting the ball all over the place in general, like his driving accuracy. Keeping the ball in the ballpark had become one of the things that Phil couldn't do really on a week to week basis on the PGA tour. And so you were just waiting for that eight that was just going to unravel him. That's really what you're You're waiting for that one hole, the one moment everything just fell apart, and you thought you might have gotten it a little bit on Saturday afternoon when he couldn't get it really back into the house like he had opened up a little bit of a lead, and then he faltered, and then you got Brooks kept kind of like stare him down. And at that point it felt inevitable, and especially after that first hole on Sunday where I think it went bogie birdie.

00:19:25
Speaker 1: Right, bogie birdie bogeie.

00:19:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, at that point you felt like, Okay, Brooks is gonna win. But it just did. He held out like I think in Louis obviously, I mean, I don't know what there is to say about Louis and majors, but what gets them to the top of the leader board on the weekdays usually doesn't work on the weekend. And what's been interesting, He's always been known as this flusher and everything, and it's kind of been in twenty twenty one, it was the it was the long clubs that really backfired. He just was I remember, he was just getting out driven by like thirty yards. It just it was wild. Like he's a longer player too, but it was it was very clear he wasn't hitting the sweet spot on the club face. He was his distance control wasn't good and is in off the tee he was giving up a ton of yardage.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: Well, let's take a step back here, take a wider view of Phil Mickelson at this point. You know, so much has happened to Phil since then that it's hard to remember. I think what Phil was when he came into the twenty twenty one PGA, so Brendan like, in general, what had Phil become in the couple of years leading up to this tournament.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he was I don't want to say he's a ceremonial golfer, but he was sort of a circus act right, Like he's better known for the matches, right, the match series more or less, Like that's kind of what he had become, this TV star, this personality and golf and less a competitor.

00:20:59
Speaker 3: Right.

00:21:00
Speaker 2: It felt like that, And obviously everything that's happened since then is I would say, has amplified that in a way, and we have this major championship mixed in between. It's really bizarre when you think about it on the timeline, but yeah, at this point, he was just a personality, right, He's a larger than life personality, an additive personality, someone who was part of the tapestry of the tour in a major way, but not a competitor, right, and he was I feel like the matches were like kind of his thing at this point and not toward golf. I will add one thing I want to remember about this week was it was the undercurrent was the Saudis were on the island or representatives of the Saudi and there was like this sort of tension and I don't want to say a cloud, but it was just this unease about like there's a limited place you can go. There's only so many places on this island, and there's like all these meetings happening, and all these whispers about the Saudi League at whatever it was at that point, that was just an element of the weekend, and I figured I would add that when we were talking about Phil, because clearly he was pretty far out align with them as well.

00:22:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, we need to dig into that a little bit, but just to flesh out the kind of Phil caricature at this point. You know, he joins Twitter in late August twenty eighteen and starts doing this whole stick with the fireside chats, you know, pH fireside chats, the hit bombs and hollacious seeds and all that stuff. You know, it's so familiar now that we just think this is Phil. But before that, that wasn't really the character that Phil was playing. You know, he was a little bit larger than life in some ways, and he was known to be kind of goofy and out there. But until he joined Twitter, I feel like a lot of people hadn't necessarily seen that yet. And he really started to play that up in starting in late twenty eighteen, okay, early twenty nineteen, he actually wins at Pebble Beach and I was there for this tournament, and remember he throws a bit of a tantrum about the playoff moving to Monday. He had this playoff against Paul Casey, and so that that was a Phil moment. April twenty nineteen posts this ridiculous video of himself driving down Magnolia Lane talking about hitting bombs and playing with Matt Kucher. He makes a couture joke because the story about Coucher stiffing his caddy in Mexico is still very relevant. Mid kind of early to mid twenty nineteen, he starts doing his fasting routine and the coffee blends stuff. He loses a lot of weight, but he's still not playing very good golf. Meanwhile, you know, going into twenty twenty, this is when the Premier Golf League stuff is happening. Twenty twenty, early twenty twenty, so January to February of that year is actually the first time Phil plays in the Saudi International. He did not play in the first edition of that tournament in twenty nineteen. He plays in it in twenty.

00:23:53
Speaker 2: Twenty of the Phoenix Open to do it like his home.

00:23:56
Speaker 1: So there you go. Yeah, Phoenix Open is a huge tournament for Phil. He starts to go to Saudi Arabia that week instead. All Right, mid twenty twenty, he turns fifty, right, he starts wearing the Aviator sunglasses. He starts promoting his Coffee for Wellness brand. He does guerrilla marketing on PGA Tour Live for his Coffee for Wellness.

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Speaker 3: He's putting his cup down in specific ways, so the camera sees the sees the logo.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: And so you know, again, like we're so familiar with these antics from Phil that it has become part of what we perceive him to be. But I can't emphasize enough that like this was fairly new from Phil. All this stuff was kind of like it was it was a departure from his normal persona in my opinion. At least you mentioned the Saudis Brendan at Kiawa Island. All Right, So just before the PGA Championship, a couple of weeks before, Alan Chipnook reports for the Firepit Collective this may have been one of the first logs actually thrown into.

00:24:59
Speaker 3: The fire pin fire starting.

00:25:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, the fire starter, the starter log. Alan Schipnook's report that the Saudis have broken from the Premier Golf League and plan to form the SGL, which is alternately called the Saudi Golf League and the Super Golf League. Nobody's exactly sure ever, what the SGL stands for, whether it's Super Saudi. But Alan Shipnook's report is really one of the first indications that I got that there was a split between the Saudis and the Premier Golf League, because before that it was known that the Saudis were investors in the Premier Golf League, But until this report, there wasn't any necessarily any indication that there had been this schism and that the Saudis were going out on their own. But things are still kind of unclear. It's not totally completely known publicly that this is what's happening, and so it's still a little bit vague. But that brings us to the PGA Championship and all these rumblings going on about the league. I think it's well known that Phil is involved, but beyond that there's not much clarity. So Andy, do you remember specifically when you and Brendan were on the island, like what you saw and heard in relation to the Saudis and the breakaway golf leagues.

00:26:16
Speaker 3: I remember there was a lot of unease. Like when you go to these tournaments, there's there's agents all over the place, and there was a lot of buzz with with golf agents because because of the absurd amounts of money. That's the thing is that when money gets involved, you get you get the agents evolved, and you know that at that point, you know, when you're talking about twenty thirty million dollars, it becomes a big talking point with agents like up up front.

00:26:47
Speaker 1: You know.

00:26:47
Speaker 3: So that was the big big talk was was kind of it dissipated as the tournament started. It was a pre pre weak buzz and it was I want to say, we were thinking we might even hear some commitments if I was right, right Brendan.

00:27:05
Speaker 2: It's yeah, I remember there's like a ton of drummer on DJ, right, Bryce and Phil is presumed to be one, And yes there were like there are meetings happening on Tuesday and Wednesday and even during the championship, and like there's gonna be announcements coming out of those meetings because they're here and there. And of course you had Seth Wah make his comments about like where does money come from? I think you might even use the term blood money maybe, I'm not sure. I don't want to put words in his mouth and talk about how they would be banned from Ryder Cup.

00:27:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, banned from the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup, which is the strongest statement, yeah, that any leader of the you know whatever five families had made outside of the PGA Tour about the prospect of breakaway.

00:27:42
Speaker 3: And I feel like that state, that statement kind of got walked back and it isn't isn't really the case anymore. I know that's that's something that got said and I don't think is really I think most of the other organizations, masters USGA, PGA has tried to stay out of this, this little kerfuffle with the with the Saudias and the PGA Tour if you want to, if you want to call it that.

00:28:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I think it's so interesting that there were all of these things happening behind the scenes at the PGA Championship. Do you think like Phil was recruiting players while he was making this run in the tournament? Do you think he was like going around doing this.

00:28:21
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't speak to that, but it wouldn't be surprising, right. You just laid out the timeline of how he became this caricature, right, and we have this concurrent timeline of this upstart league, and it's not hard to see how we ended up where we are right now, with Phil sort of spinning off, spinning himself off into exile, sort of the self destruction or self kind of the caricature but going too far right, and then of course the Saudi thing continuing to gain steam, and it feels like, I don't know how it's evolved and changed in the intervening year, but you know it's certainly grown and is more substantial.

00:28:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, And just to make it really clear, basically Phil become this cartoon character and the emergence of the breakaway leagues was happening at the same time it was. I'm not sure how much those two are related, but I have to think that it's somewhat related.

00:29:13
Speaker 2: If I had a guess, I would say it was initiated by the match stuff like the personality and yeah.

00:29:18
Speaker 1: With the money, like doing the whole pose at the money.

00:29:21
Speaker 2: Right, and then the Saudi stuff sort of came with it, like he started join Twitter right more or less to well pump up the first match.

00:29:27
Speaker 3: And you talk about where he had a huge when you think back to what he talked about where when he was airing his grievances to Huggin there was significant emphasis and that was a Golf digest piece. There was significant emphasis on the tour and having to pay the tour off for that first match, and I think that is really probably where you could look at and say that ignited the most animosity from Phil Mickelson towards the tour was this idea that I'm doing something completely separate. It was for charity, you know a lot of it, and I'm having to pay the tour a million dollars just to do this, and I think that's where his initial feeling of disdain. But with the match and with the Saudist, I think it's really important if you're going to start an upstart league, if you're going to start and upstart anything, you really start to think about distribution channels and the need to have a significant distribution network. And I think what Phil saw really quickly with what he started up the match was that I myself can be a broader and more impactful distribution channel, which is through his social media. His social media channel was more powerful than the tour. Social media channel more powerful than the tour itself. And I think one of the things that can easily happen with social media is that philled it all these absurd things, and he began to believe that that was real life, that doing these absurd things that widely were popular. You know, this is the greatest. When he did the driveway thing and just annihilated Koucher, he was widely acclaimed, like you know, and when he did the you know, the coffee stuff, all the fireside chests, they were just super popular, and that becomes part you know it almost you think that's real life. And when you think about what happened, is that there are all these ridiculous things they kept doing. He kept pushing it further and further, and to call up Alan Shipknock and say all those things is absolutely bonkers.

00:31:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, even if you think for some reason that you're off the record. Obviously there was no reason for him to think that he was off the record. But even so, you're calling up a reporter and you're doing that, it's very much a you know, flying too close to the sun kind of thing. And he is acting out this character that he created on social media, and the incentives of social media gave him a reason to keep going more and more extreme with it. But again going back to the hilarious thing about all this is in the middle of it, he won the PGA Championship.

00:32:25
Speaker 2: Right, I guess that's the thing to think about. What might must have been on his mind in terms of recruitment efforts, money stressors. Maybe he had some money stressors and or money enticements, both going both ways, you know, sort of the personality that he felt like he had to keep up for the match sake or the match's sake. Just a lot going on, and then the usual like filled thought golf thoughts painting around up there in his head. And and Andy talked about that range session, like so there's all this off the core stuff, and then he's like a few fifty whatever year old golfer and he's on the range with alignment sticks and an iPad and a coach in a broken club, and he's doing like the half swing and reverse swing, you know, like these these sort of half movements. And he's got the lead at the PGA and he's got to go to the first t in two minutes, and so like he's hitting all these golf shots and playing a championship with all this other like the usual Phil like golf. I don't want to say theories, but you know, contradictions everything that's bouncing around up there, and then all the off course stuff that's bouncing around up there. It's kind of a remarkable sort of seventy two holes of golf given everything that was happening.

00:33:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well, Andy, take me to that range session on Sunday. We've talked a little bit about it already, but could you contrast what Phil was doing with what Brooks Kopka was doing. Phil and Brooks are in the final group together. What did you see of the contrast between the two players at the range at Kiwa?

00:33:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean talking about Brooks, who's been this major championship player with a record that we have not seen in major championship since Tiger, like the closest too. He isn't quite Tiger, but you look at his record in major championships, it's just unbelievable. And here you see him, you know, he gets into that final group and you see Phil on the range. You know, Kepka's just all business right, and it's just he's got this air of he doesn't care that much, you know, and he just kind of like works from one spot to the other spot, right.

00:34:35
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:34:35
Speaker 2: I remember he walked down the steps and he just went right to the first open spot, like didn't even go down the range, whereas Phil had to say good luck today to Shrilman and all these others.

00:34:44
Speaker 3: I remember, like honestly like threw down.

00:34:46
Speaker 2: Like five balls, hit him into the wind, off the wind, hold them off again, like no apparatus of any kind, and then like got up and left like kind of just ultimate feel session just to like honestly maybe loosen out the shoulders and and that was it.

00:35:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. So and then Phil meanwhile is just it was horrendous. I mean I remember we were talking with some people, and we were talking with a former player maybe who was like, this is like the worst range session I've ever seen. I mean he's hitting it forty yards offline. I mean it was insane. He was trying to hit cuts and drawing them and it was just it was an awful range session, one that like you you couldn't it. And I think this was the general current was that it's just Phil's good to unravel.

00:35:39
Speaker 2: But any bogie's the first and Kapka Birdi's the first he goes from one up to one down. You're like, all right, well that's that corroborates what I just watched on the range. It's over.

00:35:49
Speaker 3: It was also one of those nice major championships. One of the things when you're in person is that you don't not necessarily know what the right story is. But you knew that that was the group to watch, and you knew that the story was very very very likely coming out of that group. It wasn't coming from Kevin Streelman or you know, from others in the mix.

00:36:16
Speaker 1: Wasn't coming from Paul Casey. Yeah, okay, So those first couple of holes seem to represent that the story is going to be you know, Brooks's dominant major player. Phil may have had a great run the first three days, but he's not going to be able to hold it together. He opens it up, Bogie, Birdie, bogie. He holds out from a bunker on number five. Were you guys with the group at that point or did you join later? You joined later? Okay, got it all right. So it's kind of a crazy front nine, but Phil more or less holds it together. They go to the back nine and this is the point at which you guys joined the group. Brendan, can you give me a sense for what the crowd was like and how they played a role in the dynamic between Phil and Brooks.

00:37:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was a significant They played a significant role. I think like when you just this background, when you get a lot of writers on the ground, they got to find an angle to differentiate maybe what you can't see on TV. And so the crowd always gets overplayed in articles you'll read because that's like an observation you can, you know, provide from the ground that maybe the TV watcher can't get because oh, the crowd reacted this way. The crowd carried him here, there, and everywhere, because writers tend to emphasize what they can see and feel on the ground that maybe you don't on TV. This was significant in a way that they were rowdy. They were rowdy for Phil, fairly anti Brooks, who was the best Major championship golfer of the moment and also like not a villain of any kind have had any, if anything, had sort of parlayed the internet golf brow into his corner. By this point, more or less the full on Bryson fude hadn't occurred, but you know, kind of galleries that would be more benevolent to Brooksy, but they were kind of like hostile almost. They were fairly hostile. And it's cool that you have sort of a natural stadium with the dunes right with people and you're not like on top of the greens, but you're in between holes. You had different this sort of natural, sort of terraced, right, terrorist group of fans outside of those immediately around the green people just running up and down these dunes trying to get a high point. And of course you know it's not terra firma, right, it's people like sliding down the dunes, falling off the dunes, trying to like get their footing. But I just remember like people shouting at Brooks on Phil's behalf like you're in the big leagues now, you're sort of this guy just he's like the best Major championship player ever. And Phil's a honestly not competitive golfer at the moment, or hadn't been.

00:39:08
Speaker 3: One of the things that was illuminated incredibly was the magnitude of Phil Mickelson's superstar in golf. Here's Brooks Koepka who is a superstar.

00:39:21
Speaker 1: Four time major winner. Keep in mind at this point Phil had won five majors.

00:39:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this is Brooks, who's like this new age superstar who has been is very popular with younger fans, and in Phil, Phil's presence, the fan support just dwarfed him. It was It was really unbelievable. It was one of the first moments like I kind of have this feel that we don't actually have a superstar in golf, that we just have a bunch of stars and nobody's really a super superstar. And one of the reasons is because of watching this tournament and seeing what Phil was, Phil is, what really Phil is? He has this just it was unbelievable how lopsided the support was. It was more, it.

00:40:16
Speaker 2: Was more substantial than Tiger in twenty nineteen. And of course some of that as the Masters has a spectator guide and code of conduct or more or less. Although they did cheer when Mullinari's bawling in the water at twelve, I will say that I was down there for that. But you know, PGA is a little more understrained, right, you can run, you're sprinting from hole to hole, and it was much more sort of and this speaks to Andy's point about the superstardom of Tiger and Phil. This was generations of people, right, This was a larger than life character that they wanted to witness history in the way that people wanted to witness history in twenty nineteen pushing Phil and if that brought sort of Brooks into the crossfire and being openly hostile to him, then so be it.

00:40:57
Speaker 1: Brendan, tell me about the dynamic between Phil and Brooks at this point and what Phil is doing beyond the play on the course to give himself an advantage.

00:41:11
Speaker 2: I don't think they enjoyed each other's company. Brooks, of course, is his own man. I think he probably wouldn't say like Phil's stick, or he wasn't going to be a lapdog to Phil. Maybe in some of the way the younger players would do it, the younger very good players, right, that may be involved in the match broadcast and other things go ahead.

00:41:31
Speaker 3: At this point, Phil is not what he is today. He has not been run through the mud by every big younger player. But I would say that there are undertones from Kopka's camp that Kopka knows that Phil is somewhat of a fool.

00:41:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, a caricature like this guy's in. This guy's an over the hill clown. More or less, I wouldn't. I'm not saying that was his line, but I think sort of in attitude, like I win majors. Now, this guy's just he's he's he's you know, he's trying to stay relevant with these antics, and you know, Brooks has won the major championships. Phil though, I mean, as we said with the crowd, that the one thing I'll like, he put Brooksy in sort of the spin cycle, right with someone not only like just his golf, but that the pace of play was ridiculous. I don't want to like. We wrote about it and talked about it on the podcast extensively, and I was just thinking back to it now and this was Phil's, you know, his latest whatever mental you know, theory on how to approach golf something. I forget what his quotes were in the week before in the lead up, but it's like, I don't want to play until I'm mentally ready, and I visualize this, that and the other. And there was a moment on Saturday with Louis Us Tays and where honest to God thought he'd frozen, like Phil was like frozen, like the button had turned off. Somebody had pushed the off button. Because he's just staring forever. I was like, what is happening? And so this wasn't just a Brooksy slow I'm just gonna slow play Brooksy, who we know gets agitated by that. It was kind of Phil's mo o for the entire week, and Brooks just happened to be there. Now, I'd say he probably dialed it up a little bit more for Kopka. He's looking for an edge. He probably feels like he's the underdog. Right He's won five majors. He's got to figure out where where he how he can annoy somebody he thinks can be irritated.

00:43:30
Speaker 3: As an aside, I went out to watch Phil's group, or I went out to watch something on the fourth hole earlier in the week. It was Friday, and it was in the middle of the day and I went out and I just missed a group that was playing right where I wanted to see the fairway line. And I was looking back and I'm like, where's the next group? And the guy they were two and a half holes back. It was I sat on a hole for thirty minutes until Phil's group came through. And that was on Friday. He was a walking rain delay that week. He was so slow. He walked slow, he stood and just stared at things. He complained about it. It I not to mention he complained about a drone and a a drone getting in his way of his shot. I don't know if it was Saturday or Sunday.

00:44:23
Speaker 1: That was Sunday. I remember that that was the fourth hole.

00:44:26
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, and the drone is there's no way it's going to get hit. He's complaining about it. You know, this was he was just he wasn't hitting shots till he's committed. It was a week where this is you know, a fundamental like if there was a shot clock in golf, I don't think Phil wins this week. If slow play was ever enforced, I don't know if Phil wins this week. But he was not hitting shots until he was one thousand percent comfortable.

00:44:52
Speaker 2: But this is like the Phil is crazy, like a fox kind of thing, right, Like he's always looking for these margins, maybe to his own detriment sometimes, but sometimes they like kind of cross him up. But like remember when he had that outburst about like marking balls, Like there's a real issue with guys miss marking how the players mark their balls, Like this guy, you know, he left himself a three footer and ended up putting the two footer to get in like that kind of thing. Like Phil, if you're gonna he knows every sort of area to push, what's regulated, what's not. And of course that for this particular week, pace of play was a thing that he was just gonna do his thing and not care about. You're not gonna tell me when and where I have to go, and it I think it had to be dialed up a bit on Sunday. I think the fact that Kepka was his playing partner, and Kepka is known to get agitated with slow play, especially when their partners, probably was even further carrot for Phil. The slow things down and they were like the rest of the week, Andy said, they were a whole and a half behind, really.

00:45:52
Speaker 1: And this is kind of a gap in Keopka's armor. He is irritable. You can get to him, and Phil sort of to him, whether it was sort of intentionally or not, or whether it was like you know, twenty percent intentional, eighty percent unintentional. It's pretty clear that Kopka got annoyed by him and that that had an effect on the outcome of the tournament.

00:46:17
Speaker 3: He's been on the record since too, saying that he kind of feels like he got gamed.

00:46:22
Speaker 2: I mean when you think you combine that with the crowd all of a sudden, this crowd being anti Brooks and Phil. Yeah, as he said Phil, Phil was pulling antics. I think he said that several times now, and he said it at the match with Bryson, Like, you combine those two things and that maybe puts a favorite like Kopka and the injury, you know, he wasn't one hundred percent yet sort of at a disadvantage. It all kind of came together for Phil.

00:46:46
Speaker 1: All Right, let's talk about the golf. Andy, you had some observations about the different ways that Phil and Brooks were playing golf on this day. What did you see in the contrast between their styles of play and how successful those styles were in those conditions?

00:47:05
Speaker 3: A Kiwa, Yeah, he saw a guy. I mean, Phil for this week had every shot in the bag. He had the two wood in the bag which he could turn over, he could draw, He had his driver that he could fade. He when it was when it was advantageous to put the ball up in the air with a fade. He was hitting that driver and it was going forever as I mean the look at the sixteenth hole on Sunday when he out drove Kopka, but when it was into the wind or coming off the you know what would be off his off his right, you know where it was disadvantaged. Was a really hard shot for a lefty. He was hitting these little bullet draws and he was keeping the ball in play, but he was also shaping shots the right way and especially clear on approach shots. I mean he was hitting I remember we got out there on the tenth hole and I thought it was just kind of symbol simple of the back nine the whole day really where Phil was always pin high. And on ten he hit this beautiful penetrating shot, just a bullet It was dead into the wind. And obviously that stretch of golf from really six or seven, there's six through thirteen out there was dead endo the wind on Sunday, and this is where really Phil strengthened his hold on the championship. This is where it went from anybody's game to Phil's to lose, and this was symbolic of the week. It was just the guy that had the shots. He was pinned high all the time. And on ten he hits it. He makes a birdie, and Brooks is in a better spot and his ball kind of just flutters up in the air, balloons, ends up in the bunker. He makes a bogie and this is where it kind of starts. It then leads in at that par five where I thought that's where the tournament was won and lost. Was on the par five was it eleven? The part five? The next hole, And I thought, this to what Brendan was talking about, this is this was the ultimate game right here. This was the pinnacle of the mental game that was played between Phil and Brooks. We were there, we're right, you know. Phil had hit his t shot way left over in like a dunes area, and Brooks was right in the middle of the fairway. And at this point after the t shots, you're like, all right, well, here's here's advantage Brooks, like you're going to see and I think the deficit was two at this point, maybe three, and you thought, Okay, Brooks is going to get one back. Here he's in the perfect spot. Phil's over here in the dune. Phil needs like a drop. And you know, at this time, I think he went to the bathroom after the tenth.

00:49:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was one where he hit. He hit like first and didn't go to the bathroom, but then like waited for Brooks to hit, and then he went to the bathroom and took forever to get to his ball up and the fan had picked it up. Remember, And so he waits for the fish. It's just like this whole thing that's slowing, the whole that the Brooks down.

00:50:03
Speaker 3: So meanwhile while he's in the dune, you know, waiting for an official the fan. You know, he had said to his credit before Brooks, if you want to go, go ahead, and Brooks was like, you know, turn to him. And it was like kind of Brendan and I were like right in between them, the two of them, and and Brooks had was like, no, no, you go. And the crowd is He's just playing to the crowd.

00:50:26
Speaker 1: He's holding court there up in the dunes. He's making jokes. He's being Phil, Yes, he just is.

00:50:32
Speaker 3: He's being Phil. And Brooks you could see he's just standing in the fairway, leaning on his club, keeps looking over his shoulder. You know he's hearing the last from the fans. He's getting irritated, and he's got to he's laying up because of the wind. He's laying up. He keeps turning around. He's just you could tell he was mad. And at one point he yells. He starts yelling at Phil because he decides he wants to hit his shot. So he's yelling at Phil. I could hear him broad his day. I'm twenty feet from Phil. I'm not saying Phil could hear him, but I'm not saying he couldn't. And Phil just doesn't turn around. I mean, at this point you could just the body language shows like a general frustration on Kopka. So Phil eventually hits his shot, lays up into a good spot. Brooks hits his shot no more than twelve seconds after Phil shot lath and he hits a shitty layup, a terrible or her like. Given the circumstance, the level of golf that he is playing at this point, it might have been the worst shot that he hit the entire week. And he hits it and it causes a bogie. He makes a bogie on this par five, that he was off the tee in a position to be thinking about a birdie, and Phil, who's in the dune, makes a par and so away with Parr picks up another shot, and I thought it was just the the end at that point was just where everything festered for Kopka. And you know, you walked away from that hole and you're like, oh, this is this might be over.

00:52:15
Speaker 2: I'll never forget the shot into ten is Andy reference like one of those where you remember where you were, you remember watching it. Phil hitting for him a draw right for him, a draw to a left pin like out over the trouble and then dropping it on top of the pin. And I was like, all right, maybe he won't make an eight today and maybe he won't like give it away.

00:52:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's something that Andy said earlier kind of struck me that the holes six through thirteen are into the wind and that's where this tournament really turned. Right. So between seven and thirteen, Brooks makes four bogies. He plays those holes four over in the same stretch. Phil is a little bit inconsistent, but he plays those holes one under. And so in any case, that is clearly where the tournament turns and Brooks makes a couple of late birdies, you know, he birdies fifteen, he Birdi's sixteen, and Phil even stumbles a bit down the stretch. But basically the tournament is kind of a rap. At this point they get to the eighteenth tee. Brooks is two behind Phil, so technically he still has a chance. But the eighteenth hole was a very memorable scene. Andy actually played a starring role in it on TV.

00:53:27
Speaker 3: Thirsty and the thirst Bucket of the week up there.

00:53:34
Speaker 1: So I think maybe Andy, could you could tell this story best. What happens the player's tee off on the eighteenth hole, take the story from there.

00:53:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was rowdy, you know, it felt like your first It felt everybody was there. Everybody hadn't been out at a public event in a long time, US included.

00:53:57
Speaker 1: This was a letting loose moment. That's what it looked like watching it on TV, like this was a release of pent up energy that had gathered during during COVID.

00:54:08
Speaker 3: As that back nine progressed, you felt it, you know, it got it got crazier and crazier. It was wild. It was raucus. You know, the police officer trudges off, you know, he has the unthankful job of being security whatever. So anyways, on eighteen, fast forward to eighteen, I am walking up and I was, I want to say, I was about you know, sixty yards up and I was looking back and there was a rope line in the back that of off the tee that kind of held because you had the stadium seeing all down the left and where people could gather up was off.

00:54:44
Speaker 2: Of the t Corporate ll as not stadium, but corporate shell a is all down the left.

00:54:48
Speaker 3: So so you have this this bur this crowd, this huge like surge of a crowd.

00:54:55
Speaker 1: You know.

00:54:55
Speaker 3: You look back and it reminded me of like of like Camige evil war crowd, you know, just like a big army of people.

00:55:06
Speaker 1: Like you said, Game of Thrones. Yeah, on chotuns start like like John Snow, you know, standing up and a huge army is rushing at him.

00:55:15
Speaker 3: Anyways, the rope line, meanwhile, is this little you know, anybody that spent in a tournament, you know, it's just it's a rope. It's a thin rope. The rope line is being banned by four volunteers and the rope line falls and I'm just like, oh my God, just seeing the crowd of people running and meanwhile I look back and there's like three cops. There's three cops with the group. You know, this is the security. I look back and that that same police officer had laughter by the shoulders, dragging him off off the golf course.

00:55:53
Speaker 1: And he's whearing.

00:55:54
Speaker 3: He's the one that was supposed to be inside the ropes. A sea of a mob of people really was coming through the ropes, and the police officer, one of the three police officers that needed to keep the peace in the group, is dragging off a journalist to the side who he clearly had a bone to pick with earlier in the week. I was just I was just thankful I wasn't anywhere near that. But anyways, you look back and it's like you felt like you just saw it coming, and you're like, uh oh, Like you know, this is the thing about these tervice Like everybody there was it was a very well served crowd. They were you know, it was a party atmosphere, and here you are, like you're like in this. You know, it's this major week. You're in this, like you know, your mind's so focused and you're in this intense work environment effectively, like you know, analyzing, writing notes down, thinking about stuff. Yeah, and here comes the sea of people just just running right at you, and you're like, oh my god. And you know, it was wild and everybody was fixated on what was happening with Phil. And this is where I sympathize a lot with Brooks Kopka. Brooks is in if Bertie bogey, he's in a playoff. We see, this is a hard golf hole. Phil drove it over into the end of the stands like there's a Bogey's a feasible thing. And this every every volunteer, every police officer, was fixated on keeping making sure fans weren't around Phil. And meanwhile, on the other side of the fair away, Brooks is fully engulfed and nobody has paid any attention to a guy that had a chance to win a major championship. But it was just this wild atmosphere. It was a I'll never forget the moment of like being one hundred yards ahead, turning around and seeing the rope line fall and just being like, oh god, you know.

00:57:52
Speaker 2: Do you remember what? Will you never forget what it felt like when you realize you'd walked into the camera walked ahead of Phil and into the camera shot. All of a sudden, you we march down the eighteenth fairway, remove your cap and thank the fan. No I'm kidding, but like what was that moment?

00:58:05
Speaker 3: Like, well, yeah, because there's all these people. It was just a sea of people and you couldn't like I was trying to like find my bearings, and I like pop popped out for air. You know, you have all these like volunteer security that are just like you know, and I'm like trying to like get out and get an angle to see something. And all of a sudden, I'm like five feet away from Phil and ahead of Phil, and I see the cameras and I was like, oh, I just like turned around and walked the other way, dove into the pile. It was like one of those oh shit moments. Where have I gotten myself too?

00:58:42
Speaker 1: Brendan, where were you during all this?

00:58:45
Speaker 2: I was in the middle of it, in the middle of the eighteenth fairway, like you said, I wasn't at the front with the andy. I then got like back around to the behind the green where he walked off like through the what would be the clubhouse and scoring and putting green. But yeah, it was. It was like you in the mid walking up the eighteenth fairway. It was a unique major Championship experience for me, you know, as it was for everybody watching.

00:59:07
Speaker 3: It was.

00:59:08
Speaker 2: It was just a letting loose, as Andy said, really really kind of memorable end of memorable day.

00:59:15
Speaker 3: One of my spinning other spinning images from that eighteenth Hole scene was that, you know, the to the right of the green was like an area for you know, elderly, you know, anybody with an injury, anybody in a wheelchair, you know, people that need special accommodations, and that area had become engulfed. And I'll never forget I was walking, i was trying to get around to the back like where I knew I could have a good vantage point. And I'll never forget I'm walking by an older lady who you know, was in a wheelchair, out walking and carrying her oxygen tank to get a better view. And that it was a really powerful image of like this is this woman that's probably for years, who's probably a huge like in this kind of like huge fan of Phil and what's happening, you know, dragging alonger oxygen oxygen tank to get a better look of the final moments of this championship.

01:00:18
Speaker 1: That's a big part of what sticks with me about this whole scene is that it's all about the adulation of Phil, you know, yeah, yeah, it's it's also partly about, you know, kind of finally being let loose after the COVID era and there's there's this pent up energy that's finally finally being released. But a lot of it has to do with people's excitement about what's happening with Phil and looking back on that now, I guess I'm just wondering whether that adulation is still there. I think it is, but things have definitely changed for Phil since then, and it might not be as easy to be excited about him being successful in the future because he you know, who knows like he could do this again. Phil is crazy. But I just don't know, like, you know, have things changed that much for Phil since this moment where he wouldn't be able to generate this kind of enthusiasm again.

01:01:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this is It's one of the craziest stories of a star in all in sports history. When you think about coming out of the depths to win this unprecedented win where you're king of the golf world. I mean, this is the most historic major championship win along with Tigers in twenty nineteen, and you know, two of the most surprising and historic wins in all of sports. You know, you're talking about arguably the story of sports last year. One of them was Phil winning and to go from that to where he is at this moment one year later, it's just it's unbelievable.

01:02:11
Speaker 2: But I guess what I'd ask both of you is, like, what's happened since doesn't change anything for me personally about this PGA. I will remember it incredibly fondly, you know, not necessarily like Phil is a separate case, But in terms of the capsule of this championship, it's winner. It's the course, the conditions, the week with you know, I thought it was lightning in a bottle. I think it's probably this in twenty nineteen. I think it'll be hard to replicate ever in terms of enjoyable, enjoyable weeks, memorable championships. And I don't know that like how Phil is debased himself in the year since, changes anything about this week at Kiwa for me?

01:02:50
Speaker 1: That's that to you guys, Yeah, I mean, it doesn't change anything. I mean, for me, watching Phil do this was colored by my previous perception of him, which was I think similar to Andy's perception of him. I've always thought that Phil was a bit of a snake, and that he had some things about him that he wouldn't reveal publicly, and that this image of the kind of thumbs up guy, you know, the people's champion, was all a bunch of bullshit. I always sort of felt that way about him, while at the same time truly admiring his ability as a golfer and also having respect for the way that he was able to generate this excitement about him. I mean, it was such an exciting moment on that back nine, and there aren't players right now under the age of fifty or under the age of forty. I should say, who can create that sort of atmosphere. Phil can do it, Tiger can do it. They are unique, and we've spent the years since the primes of both of those players searching for someone who can do something similar. And I think Rory might get close, Jordan Spieth might get close, but I think that this week in twenty twenty one showed that they're not quite on the level of even Phil Mickelson, much less Tiger Woods.

01:04:21
Speaker 3: I think one of the things too with Phil, and you talk about Phil and Tiger and really golf and the way golf was built to be as a television in person product, is that one of golf's great advantages over other sports has always been length of careers and the idea of superstars being relevant until they're fifty. And we've effectively gotten thirty years of Phil. We're going to get close to thirty years of Tiger, you know, obviously with a lot of absences in there. But I think this speaks to one of golf's you know, issues that it could confront when you know, Phil seemingly is gone from the PGA Tour, it appears, and Tiger might not play in a PGA Tour event ever. Again, maybe this is just a major championship thing for the first ofviel future, but they're gone. One of the things that the tour has to, you know, look at is superstars and draws are built over twenty plus years in golf like that. They build this in what are we at now where it seems like thirty three is old in golf now? And what does that mean when a ten year career is a long career if we're heading that direction, and what how does the sport market itself when that's the case.

01:05:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know we're going to be missing out more and more on moments like the twenty nineteen mass and the twenty twenty one PGA Championship. Potentially, you know, Phil's win at Kiowa was enabled I think, as Andy has argued, by the unique conditions of that course, and the more that we don't go to courses like that, the more that we don't give a chance to you know, kind of former superstars or guys past their prime to have this sort of incredible moment, and it's one of those things that's just great about golf and unique about golf. All Right, I think that's good. Guys. Thank you so much for being here for this podcast. This was a lot of fun and talk.

01:06:37
Speaker 3: Soon it got me in the mood for the PGA. I'm excited, I'm happy we did this, and I'm really excited for next week's tournament. Thanks Garrett.

01:06:56
Speaker 1: This episode of the Friday Podcast was edited by meg at Kits. One quick thing In case you didn't know, the Frida Egg has a YouTube channel. We have a new video that's all about Southern Hills, the site of this year's PGA Championship, and it features an interview with the architect Gil Hans. We're pretty proud of it and i'd highly recommend that you check it out. Thanks for listening.