Mailbag: Presidents Cup Reactions and Burgerdog Musings

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

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

00:00:05
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball in a bride egg, Frida Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Friday, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg.

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Speaker 2: Bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frida Egg Podcast. My name is Garrett Morrison, and we have a very special episode today with two very special guests or I don't know. You guys aren't really guests. You're kind of co hosts, I suppose. But one of them is a familiar voice to you, Andy Johnson, Andy, how are you?

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Speaker 2: I'm swell. I don't think I should be described as special, but you know I'm doing well. I'm excited to discuss many topics. I like mailbags. I like to talk about lots of things, so this is exciting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I should have set up front that this is a mailbag episode. We put out a request for questions on social media on Twitter and Instagram, and we definitely won't get to all of the questions, and frankly, not all of the questions were very good, but many of them were very good, and we're not even going to get to all of those and something the questions right off the bat, so thank you for sending in your questions.

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Speaker 3: Hello.

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Speaker 1: Also here is Will Knights, who is the community manager.

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Speaker 2: Super into titles yet you know, I don't know if that's really a real title.

00:01:40
Speaker 1: Well Will, Will, how are you doing anyway? Oh?

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Speaker 3: I'm doing good.

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Speaker 4: I'm glad this is an audio medium because we can't really see each other very well. But we're doing good here.

00:01:48
Speaker 1: It's a little dark in this room.

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Speaker 2: We're in an a frame in Boston, and the owner of this a frame's not really into lights, so I imagine in the winter it's one of the darkest places in the world. And yeah, so it's it's dark here. It's hard to light it up at night.

00:02:06
Speaker 1: It's a very nice place. It's a nice place. It does have some quirks to it though it is It might it might be a little haunted. They're big spiders around.

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Speaker 4: So it might just be Massachusetts in general.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well, in any case, that's where we are. We're all together, which is very exciting. And the questions that we got a lot of them had to do with the President's cup, but we don't want to talk only about the President's Cup because the President's Cup isn't the Ryder Cup. It's not one of the majors, it's not one of the biggest tournaments in golf. Really, I don't think it's maybe on that second tier. But this was a pretty good President's Cup, so we'll give it a little bit of time. So why don't I just start off with the first question? Should I just go ahead and do that?

00:02:51
Speaker 3: Please?

00:02:52
Speaker 1: All right? This is from Cam Gordon on Twitter. Cambo Gordon, Who was your biggest surprise and your biggest disappointment of the President's Cup? And I think I'll start with will biggest surprise or disappointment and or.

00:03:06
Speaker 4: I think they're one and the same. Actually, for me, I really mine is Scotty Shuffler. I really didn't expect him to just kind of fall flat. Some of that was the matches he had to play, but playing alongside Sam Burns, it was kind of like, despite being the world number one, he was the one being carried and uh yeah, no. I think for me I expected a lot out of Scotty because he played so well at Whistling Straits. Obviously there were more fun surprises throughout the weekend that I'm sure you guys will get to. But for the encores play, I think Scotty is kind of my answer for both of those.

00:03:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good call. It was kind of weird that that he didn't perform well, he was just sort of a non entity. He made that one putt, right, but that was that was pretty.

00:03:54
Speaker 4: Much Answering an eagle with another eagle is kind of fun.

00:03:56
Speaker 3: So that was good.

00:03:57
Speaker 1: That was great, but it was kind of weird that nothing else really of note happened in that match. That was pretty much the only kind of high moment of it as far as I recall.

00:04:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, Scotty is at times he's not the most excitable guy on the golf course, but normally his play is so strong that it carries his matches and you still want to pay attention. But he was kind of an afterthought this week.

00:04:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well, so biggest surprise, I would say most people would probably go straight to Tom Kim, who sort of became a social media darling this week, and he was electric, you know, especially in the first three days. He was part of a lot of winning matches. He had that great celebration on Saturday, which involved the rest of the international team. That was like a big moment. And he's a guy with big personality. He's twenty years old. There's a lot of hope for him. But I think in all the hype about Tom Kim, what we lost track of a bit was Seawu Kim and his performance throughout the week. I believe he was the leading international points scorer. He earned three points, right, he was huge, and he of course beat JT in that leadoff match on Sunday. That was a big time performance. He really got under JT's skin and he just beat him. Was It was fantastic to see. And so I think, you know, when we talk about Tom Kim, that's all great, but let's not forget about Sea Wu Kim. He had a really big Week two and I didn't necessarily expect it from him. I wasn't like looking at the international team and saying to myself, oh, see Wu is going to be a major part of this, but he really sort of emerged as the international team's leader in a way.

00:05:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love Seaw Kim. I think see w Kim is he's had like a very underrated career. I mean, obviously like, you know, he's not the greatest player in the world, but he was the youngest player ever to get Web Tour status. He qualified for the Web Tour at age seventeen. He won the Players. Was he the youngest players winner ever when he won the Players?

00:05:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was twenty or twenty.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: A tournament on the PGA Tour at age nineteen. Like, he's had a lot of highs. Like he hasn't been the most consistent player, but you know, anybody that's plays golf understands that, like golf is one of the most maddeningly madden games to play consistently, And I think consistency is a very very important mark of like a truly great player. But see Wu Kim has delivered a lot of very high like big highs, Like he won the Players by three shots. It wasn't even close, you know, And he's won some other tournaments. He's fumbled away tournaments, he's had bad stretches, but like it was a great example, Like he's got personality, like that is something that so many players lack. And I think you know, when you're a foreign player and you you know, English's second language for you, a lot of times people say, oh, you know, like one of the complaints of American fan would be that they aren't that interesting. See Woo Kim is a really fun player to watch, Like I think Joseph Lamania wrote an article for US that was kind of like a spin off of Zaklow's Zachlo the great NBA writer does League Pass teams, and he brought like analytics like Sea Wo Kim is one of the most aggressive players on the PGA tour. He goes for everything like he should be somebody that fans really love. And I hope this performance puts him vaults him into a little bit more of a Hey, se w Kim's playing. That's exciting because Sea Kim is a really fun player to watch. I mean, the guy was in the hunt at Augusta a few years ago and broke his butter. I mean like that he was putting with a three wood and he was in the top ten at Augusta. Like he's a really interesting guy. Like he did the like the shushing at at Liberty National. Yeah, exactly, bringing the shushing back. So like I'm I'm I'm a longtime fan to see who is Kim? He deserves to be more well thought of for me, the the most like the most delightful performance. You know, he didn't get a lot of airtime, but like Sebastian Munios, like zero expectations of him playing well. And I think, like the President's Cup, one of the neat things about the President's Cup is it gives us an opportunity to look at, you know, at like some of the places that golf has world class players from, Like you know, a guy Sebastian Munos is from Colombia, Like there haven't been a lot of great Colombian golfers, and here he came on the world stage. He took down the number one rank player in the world. Like Sky Scheffer wasn't having a great week, as Will alluded to, but he came out and beat the number one player in the world in a match like that, that's he closed him out, Like that's a big deal. He's ranked i think sixty first in the world golf rankings, like you know, you wouldn't expect that he went to to zero and oh oh, one really great week for Sebastian Munios in terms of disappointment, obviously, like Scotty, I'm not going to read into Sky shuffler's week, but like disappointing performance. I would say Cam Young, like I thought, like just his disposition the week, like you just like it's a team event. He just and I like really like Cam Young in interviews, like the fact that he's just kind of like himself. But he just kind of seemed like kind of like gruffy all week, and it's like, should be a fun week, right, you know. I don't know, but that may be he's just playing the way he plays, but it seemed like he was agitated with Sung Jay making him putt some short putts, and just like in general, I you know, I would have liked to see a little bit more from Cam Young.

00:09:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is like somebody that people picked as like a breakout star at the President's Cup, so it wasn't great to see him sort of fall flat in terms of disappointments. Also, Cory Kahn, I I picked him like at the beginning of the week to be the international team's leading points scorer, and I feel like such a huge idiot now because like obviously he I mean he went oh to four, I think, oh my god, And and so there was just nothing going on. It didn't seem like he was ever in any of his matches, like he even when he was close with Xander in the singles. I think Andy you were saying, uh, you know, towards the end of it, I believe Connors was one up and Andy you said, oh, he's he's definitely gonna lose this now, like this is this is kind of over and you just had that feeling about him, like he wasn't going to make the putts and I don't know, like he's the stats say that he's one of the best players in the world, but that's not what got shown this week.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: I think there's this is the This is a great example of an eye test thing, right, is like Corey Connors is a world class ball striker, and you think of the player like he regularly ranks in the top ten of strokes, game driving, and approach and to do that. There are very few players in the world that could even even like sniff that, and he does that, but he's never on leader boards, like he's a top twenty machine, but he's rarely are you, like Corey Connors might win this event. And when you're so great at something but you rarely you're so great, it's such a vital the two most important aspects of the game. But you rarely can tend to win tournaments. That tells you something. And in a match play situation, that's effectively like you have to go out and win a tournament and you know, just kind of scooting by and making you know, finishing eighteenth and stroke play events is a lot different than going out and closing out a world class player like Xanderschoffley in an event. That's like closing out a tournament. Obviously, Corey Connors has has won a tournament. He can ball strike his way to wins if he gets a hot putter, but the putter is very, very rarely hot. And like I think Corey Conners great floor pick any major championship because when it's hard, he's gonna be he's gonna make the cut. He's gonna because he hits it so well. But like if you're looking at team events like clear deficiency, like cannot chip, cannot put at the same level as the other guys out there, and they get exposed in matches.

00:12:23
Speaker 4: He's kind of like diet will z Alaturus, right, and he's not as good a ball striker off the team, but he's really close, and it kind of makes me think because Will wasn't at this event. It he still hasn't played a team event, which is crazy to think about. And not that I'm saying he's going to be as bad as Corey Connors is and at a President's Cupper or Ryder Cup, but it makes you wonder, like, how will will z Ala Torres be portrayed and play under this kind of pressure. It'll be it'll be fun to watch when he does finally get that chance.

00:12:54
Speaker 1: All right, Next question, this is from Ricka spelled R C C C. I guess I did too many.

00:13:03
Speaker 2: Apologies.

00:13:04
Speaker 3: Deric, I'm sorry if that was offensive.

00:13:07
Speaker 1: I think it's Eric. That's what his screen name is. That's he's on Twitter. Great question. He asks, ignoring obvious infrastructure limitations, what US and international course would you most want to see host the event?

00:13:23
Speaker 3: Now?

00:13:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to ignore the infrastructure question, because then we're just talking about like sort of fantasy choices like I'd like to see it at Tara Edie or I'd like to see it at Cyprus Point. But does anything come to mind for you guys? I guess I'm just I'm sort of changing the question, but like a real chance for this course to host the event? What course would you like to see chosen? On both sides? Do you have ideas here?

00:13:50
Speaker 2: I think the common misconception of these presidents of these courses and just pro golf with this event. When it's batch play, it doesn't matter how hard a course is, right, it doesn't have to go like you need logistically to answer the question. Given you need space, So immediately I would think of places with space, but like that aren't major champion up to major championship snuff, but might offer a really really fun and interesting situation. So immediately wrote I think I wrote about this years ago, but I would go with like the stream Song in America. I think you could build a composite course between the red and the Blue and it would offer you ample space. There's two courses and you could in that. I think stream Song would love to do it. You're close. You're an hour fifteen from Tampa and Orlando, so you have like you know, Aaron Hills was an hour from Milwaukee. Right, that's not a too tall of a task, right, people make day trips all the time. But then you would have like just a dynamic match play course and doing a composite between the red and the blue, you could create eighteen extraordinary holes and it would be immediately become a truly great match play course. The other thing is like you could host I think one of the things that was great about Roal Melbourne is you hosted it in December in this like kind of dead time. You know, not a lot was going on. You could do the same thing with this, right, you could host in Florida in December. You don't have to host it in September, right, you can push it back and you could get into that kind of dead time where like Roal Melbourne. One of the big advantages of that was like it sucked up this vacuum, like you hadn't seen great golf in a while, and the like it. It gave golf a little bit more of like a big golf, a little bit more of an offseason. It also got past like the opening weeks of college football and NFL football, like, which I think is a big thing. So like if I were picking, you know, I'm I'm really excited about Madina with the redesign. I think that that having seen the matt like that looks like it's going to be a much different course than the Madina Bold. That should be a really cool venue. But when I looked at it, like I would look at stream Song as like an immediate American course that would fit the bill.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: Any idea as well. Point you're pointing to me.

00:16:26
Speaker 3: I was pointing, yeah, I figured you could go next, go ahead.

00:16:30
Speaker 1: You know, nothing comes immediately to mind. I mean, whenever this question comes up, I feel like people always say Chambers Bay, Chambers Bay, like that's the first answer that everybody has. But that would be a really good choice. That would be a great venue for the President's Cup, for sure. It has the views, it has the course, It would really be a great place for this event to go to consistently. I think the President's Cup for international venues should start looking at places in Japan. I don't think a President's Cup has ever been held in Japan.

00:17:03
Speaker 3: I think South Korea is yeah.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, there are great golf courses in Japan. Now I'm not sure which ones would be able to accommodate a President's Cup and its infrastructure, but there are definitely wonderful courses there that could hold golf tournaments, and I'm not sure why the President's Cup hasn't gone there yet, So I think that that would be a really good just you know, choosing a new country to go to for the President's Cup. That's golf rich. Japan seems like an obvious.

00:17:31
Speaker 3: Choice to me.

00:17:32
Speaker 2: What about the Olympics course real That would be great.

00:17:35
Speaker 4: That's a great idea, that would be cool on the Japan point, Like, they would probably want to do it sooner rather than later because Hideki is still around and maybe with the real course they don't have I mean, you don't need a home player to center your team around, but that would be cool to have your fans out and maybe they'd all follow him. But that was just something to keep in mind for the international stuff too.

00:17:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, now the real course would be would be great and I'm sure they'd be thrilled to host it. I'm not exactly sure what's happening with that course right now, right it was built for the Olympics question, Yeah.

00:18:08
Speaker 2: You get it, like evergreen post an article, this is what's going on at Rio and it would be popular. Like you know, I think like the idea, and I think that's one of the things that goes a little bit you know, obviously the the I'm actually kind of surprised that more events, don't, you know, when you open a course to like, it'll be interesting to see with the PGA courses in Frisco, how the popularity and demand from uh, from consumers are because this is, like, you know, I think it's a fascinating thing, like these PGA Frisco the Gills designing a course that's been given five majors without ever nobody's seen it, right, you know, it opens like I think in the next couple of weeks, right, and uh, and it's wild. But like, you know, I'm kind of surprised, like if you were going to develop a golf course and you wanted to be public access, and I think that's like one of the things is there aren't a lot of public access golf courses being developed anymore. But like, you know, the idea of opening one that is for President's Cup, marketing it as match play would be pretty appealing from a marketing standpoint, right, Like, I think it would be a quick way to earn back. Like there's a reason we've talked about this on this podcast. There's a reason that resorts in public courses love hosting events like PGA Tour and USGA and PGA events. Is because it's a week long commercial, you know. It is like the ability to get in front of millions of eyeballs is for free or not for free, but for a week of your inventory is an unbelievable situation. So I'm actually kind of surprised like that they haven't There hasn't ever been an idea of like, hey, let's get a President's Cup and build a course for match play and have the greatest commercial ever for it, you know, right off the bat with within matchplay event.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's uh, that would that would give it some juice. And I wonder if you could just hold the President's Cup at the same venue and whether the international team would really object to that? Do you think they would? Is there such a thing as a home game for this international team?

00:20:20
Speaker 2: I don't think there is a home game because of the.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: All the cultural differences, the geographic differences, well and the two Melbourne a home game for a South American player, I mean, I don't get that.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: I think one of the things too, is the dynamic of the tour runs it no matter what, and with the Ryder Cup, it flip flops between the PGA and the euro Tour who administer the and set up like right, you know, like there's a different like the Tour runs the President's Cup no matter.

00:20:48
Speaker 1: What, right, whereas the Ryder Cup is you know, kind of switches over. But I guess you know, if you held it in America every time, then that would make certain people pretty mad. Oh yeah, probably for good reason.

00:21:01
Speaker 2: So it would be the opposite of like the globe like it would just be playing more to what the people, you know, international golf fans say about.

00:21:09
Speaker 1: Going to other places is a good thing probably for the game at large.

00:21:13
Speaker 2: But I can't believe you uttered that and not going after the Royal Alverne, so quickly forgiven, melvern All.

00:21:22
Speaker 1: Right on to the next question quickly. This is from Car for the Course, who always has great questions friend of the program, and somebody asked, actually, what makes a friend of the program? What you know, how do you become a friend of the program.

00:21:35
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:21:36
Speaker 4: I think you friendly is the simplest answer.

00:21:39
Speaker 1: I think it's just people we've met in real life, real life helps. Yeah, yeah, like not just on the internet. Uh A Car for the Course, Nathan Carr is a person we've met in real life, and he's a tremendous guy. He's also friendly. He's very friendly, and he asked good questions. Here's one of them. Would this international team beat the twelve best live players?

00:22:00
Speaker 4: So to answer this, I think we we obviously need to establish the twelve best love players. And part of that is do we still consider like Peak Brooks, Kopka, Peak Bryson, and who that twelve consists of.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: So I got a question real quick for you. Do you think you could take players off of their teams and they could mix, you know, like once they're a fireball, you know, can fireballs and iron had kept get along?

00:22:29
Speaker 1: How would the captains feel about that? You know?

00:22:32
Speaker 3: Is my question?

00:22:33
Speaker 1: How would be an all star game playing alongside? Abraham answered, I mean that's that's like the monogue and the capulates.

00:22:42
Speaker 2: A lot of them are captains too. That's the other thing. How can they be team leaders and just do.

00:22:47
Speaker 4: Just take the twelve captains?

00:22:48
Speaker 1: There? You go? Well, what you know, Like right now I'm trying to look up what the top live players are, like what the standings are, and I literally can't find it on their website. But just to you know, so who are the best lift players. You've got Dustin Johnson, Pat Reid, Cam Smith, Taylor Gooch probably yeah, obviously, Cam Smith you've got.

00:23:09
Speaker 2: I think you have to put Bryson and Kopka in there, right, so you have Bryson and Koepka, not Chase for the record, I know Chase beat Brooks last week and the live so joking. Neeman would be in there, Louisu Sason probably in there, although like I I mean Lee West, maybe Matt Wolfe in there. That's the thing that's the problem with this league is I don't know who the best players are because they're they We see him playing against forty eight players every week.

00:23:39
Speaker 1: Don't really know if they're in form or not. We know that Dustin Johnson is in form right now, and we know that Cameron Smith is in form right now. That's about all that we know. I think Taylor Gooch would be playing really well if you were on the Bancer ye. An A answer would be.

00:23:52
Speaker 2: I don't think what is Abe done there? He hasn't done anything there though.

00:23:55
Speaker 4: I low no, yeah, but I think if you put him in a match play.

00:23:58
Speaker 1: Answer, I think, yeah, that's true. Because he joined at the Portland event, and he's been a just kind of a non entity since exactly. Joaquin Neeman at least has the excuse that he just joined the league.

00:24:09
Speaker 2: But in any case, do you think James Byatt would be in?

00:24:15
Speaker 1: Maybe? Uh, maybe Turk Pettitt.

00:24:18
Speaker 4: In any case, I think that the live team would be in. It would be stronger at the top, and then similar to the international team the bottom. You'd have to really figure out who's going to be playing in that, and the international has struggled with that this week.

00:24:35
Speaker 3: But I don't know.

00:24:36
Speaker 4: I think it would be kind of interesting at this point, and in terms of level of play on both of them, it would be kind of fun.

00:24:43
Speaker 1: I think that would be a more even matchup. But I think the Live team would definitely have a lot more strength. And if you think about what happened this week, the international players who were supposedly the best international players didn't really show up, Like Hideki Matsuyama wasn't necessarily a leader of that team. It was really the Korean contingent who we knew were good players, but we didn't know they were the best players on the international team. They were the ones who were earning all the points and Bassie Munoz.

00:25:16
Speaker 2: I mean, to be fair, the Koreans players were like three of the top six world ranking players.

00:25:24
Speaker 1: On the team. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so.

00:25:27
Speaker 2: Like three they were, you know, they were pretty like Sebu Kim's top fifty player, right, Tom Kim is top thirty now, and they weren't.

00:25:37
Speaker 1: They weren't like Taylor Pendrith.

00:25:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Like I mean, it's not saying a ton, but I agree, like the top's better. I think the I think name brand wise, you'd immediately think Live, but like what is Brooks Koepka done in the last year that makes you think that he's a world class player.

00:26:00
Speaker 1: He's done nothing.

00:26:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean what has Bryson done?

00:26:06
Speaker 1: He's been injured but slightly less whiny.

00:26:10
Speaker 2: So like you take those two like what I think the You know, obviously DJ cam Smith and Joaque Neeman are clearly better than the top three. But then I think the middle and almost the middle of the lineup. I think the middle is stronger probably for the internationals, and then the bottom is stronger for Live.

00:26:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're rounding out the team probably with Lee Westwood ards Sergio, the guys who could play really well in match play.

00:26:38
Speaker 2: It's the tricky thing with live, right, And I think that's why I think like owgr has such a difficult decision. Right is like, yeah, it is like significant that those guys are playing together, But how do you possibly measure that what's going on when nobody, no new players are in there and the fields are so small and they're only playing against each other?

00:27:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really going to be the majors, and not all of those, not all of the live guys are going to be able to play in the majors. It's really going to be the majors where we kind of can take the temperature of how the live players are doing and whether there's going to be a kind of decline in the skill level for players who go to a tour that kind of asks so much less of players than the PGA Tour does in a lot of ways. Right, would you agree with that?

00:27:28
Speaker 4: I think Dustin was asked was it at the last event or which sometime recently, like how his preparation has changed, and he said it basically hasn't because even when he was on the PGA Tour, he wasn't one of the guys who practiced a ton.

00:27:41
Speaker 3: He's fished and he hung out with his family.

00:27:42
Speaker 4: But this offseason will be the longest break he's had between serious competition, and then he's going to show up at the Masters and we'll kind of get his temperature compared to the rest of the live guys. But week to week right now, yeah, they're Bryson. The rumors are he's not in the best of shape as where he was, and yeah, I don't know, it's just it's.

00:28:04
Speaker 3: Definitely not the.

00:28:07
Speaker 4: Week to week grind that the PGA Tour is, which is what one of the talking points was, right, and that's what all these guys wanted.

00:28:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, the pressure, the moments where you show what you're made of, like all that stuff that we're talking about as being kind of present in this President's Cup is not really as much of a factor on live right now. Now. That's not to say that it won't develop it over time, but I think pretty clearly watching those events, those are not super serious golf tournaments right now, and it just doesn't seem like that would be the best environment to, you know, keep up to date with your golfing ability.

00:28:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean brooks Keep guy saw a video post, so he looks like a different player than he was a year ago. Just physically looks different, you know, And obviously he's had a lot of stuff going on in his life. But he also got a big payday. And we've seen in other sports leagues and golf is has never had this. We've seen we're like guaranteed paychecks, Like you know, when you get that big guaranteed money money contract, like all of a sudden, you know, you have to worry about some some players. And it's, uh, it could be just a phase of his life. But you know, if you compare Brook Skopka and and just you know, and obviously he's had injuries and he's had a lot of things happen, but like he's just not the same player he used to be right now and that could change, but like he's just he does not like he used to impose his physical will and like he was a dominant player and he is a nobody. He's been a nobody on a forty eight person tour.

00:29:47
Speaker 4: Getting back to Nate's question, We're not entirely sure, but it is a very fun thought exercise.

00:29:52
Speaker 1: Thank you for bringing it back home. Well that was a pro move right there. This episode is brought to you by good or Gooder makes twenty five dollars active sunglasses for anyone. A big portion of the Frida Egg team is on the East Coast this week, spending a lot of time outside, so we've definitely been relying on our Gooders. Just yesterday, I got a lot of compliments on a pair of mine called Black nine Blackout, which I was wearing at Caperundle in Maine. Andy and Well both agreed that I looked like a rockstar, which I took as a compliment, so I guess that's something. My sunglasses also have a golf specific lens that makes everything look very vivid and sharp, so that's a plus. Two. Gooders are comfortable, stylish, and lightweight, and they are one hundred percent UV protective and one hundred percent polarized in all styles, So treat yourself to a pair or two. They are affordable. And here's the deal for Frida Egg listeners. Gooder is going to give you fifteen percent off your entire order. Go to Gooder dot com, that's good r dot com, slash TFE and get fifteen percent off when you use code tf E at checkout. All orders over fifty dollars get free shipping in the US. Again, that's code tf E at g O O d R dot com slash TF look good golf gooder. All right, Next question from Instagram Connor Wine. What's JT's deal. It's as simple as that.

00:31:25
Speaker 4: I think I'm on the other side of this, so I wanted you guys.

00:31:27
Speaker 3: To go first.

00:31:28
Speaker 1: You're you're on the other side of us. I'm on the non JT.

00:31:31
Speaker 4: I think I'm on the Devil's advocate side.

00:31:33
Speaker 2: But well, we'll go for it then, because all right.

00:31:37
Speaker 4: There are two of the two of you included are very anti JTS stick whatever you want to call it. I know Andy probably talked about on the Shotgun start that his his demeanor both on the golf course and in press conferences is.

00:31:59
Speaker 3: It's unique.

00:32:00
Speaker 4: To put it nicely, I have kind of come around on JT in the same way have come around on Billy Horsechel. I didn't quite get it at first, and I don't necessarily think they're my favorite players, but I don't. I don't mind them anymore, and I'm okay with JT trying to be the alpha quote unquote and in a team event.

00:32:24
Speaker 1: No, I mean that's fine. I think it's I think it's more that it's just kind of fun to hate JT a little bit forest and you know, to give people a context for what we're talking about. During his match against Seawoo Kim on Sunday at the President's Cup, he complained about not being given a putt that was about two and a half feet long, I guess, and he was, you know, kind of giving these expressions that he wasn't very happy with various things that were going on in the match. There was a little bit of chippiness, and it just seemed like he was sort of playing a role that he thought he should play. That he was like trying to be the badass, and he wasn't quite pulling it off. And I guess that's why I, you know, JT has rubbed me the wrong way, because it seems like he's always trying to do things that he thinks that other people think will be cool, like chugging beers at the Ryder Cup, or doing these things during the match with Si Wu that he knows will get a reaction on Twitter, or even the way that he tweets, even the way that he like interacts with his audience on social media. It always seems like he's trying to do something that will gain the approval of other people instead of just being himself right, which is what Billy Horschell does honestly, like Billy Horschell is unfailingly himself at all times, and that's in a way admirable because that guy is kind of a psycho. I don't think JT is being who he is. I think Justin Thomas is actually a pretty nice, pleasant guy basically. I think in real life he's a good dude. But on the golf course and especially in these team events, he always seems to be playing this role like I'm the badass. I'm the cool guy who's doing the cool things that people on the internet are going to like, and it bothers me. It just annoys me.

00:34:18
Speaker 4: To use your term, He's not a badass, and for sure he's trying to be one. My point would maybe be if so say him and Ricky the spring Break Boys are out on a two on two match. I think he probably acts the same way. He might just be kind of an awkward guy when he's trying to be that way.

00:34:40
Speaker 2: I love watching Justin Thomas play golf. He's extraordinary. One of my favorite things is watching him hit shots around the greens, and I think like, in a way, the shame of it is like he doesn't need to do anything because his game is so good. There's so few players that have the level of game and the level of shot making that he has that if he did nothing, he would be effortlessly cool because of how freaking cool of a golfer he is, and because he tries so hard to be cool, it makes him not cool. And it's a shame because like the golf game is just like God, I like, I can watch him hit shots all the time, but then like it's it's really interesting. I think he's a divisive player because of the antics. I understand why, like I've I get conflicted about it, because I love watching him play golf.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: Right, He's especially not well liked outside of the US.

00:35:48
Speaker 2: Would you say that, Oh yeah, I like no firsthand that they're the European team was quite irritated at the at the Ryder Cup. And I think that's like Ian Poulter was kind of the same thing, like, right, like is he just Ian Poulter of the Americans, And like, you know, like I generally I was rooting for the Internationals this week, Like, is that does that make me an American? No, it's just like you know, listen, like there was like such an underdog story. I really wanted the Internationals to win, and like, I think that's part of it. Like, Garrett, were you rooting for the Internationals?

00:36:25
Speaker 1: Absolutely? I was reading for the Internationals this week because they were the underdog and I wanted to see a close team match play event. I always root for the close event over any other affiliation I might have, But this international team like really won me over this week. And I'm not sure if it was just because they were such underdogs this time or because this collection of players was really really likable and fun and seemed to band together. So yeah, I kind of got behind that.

00:36:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think I think that's the thing with JT is like it seems like the one of the things that happens is these team events it gets turned up right.

00:37:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it gives everybody a platform to kind of show off their personalities, and that's not always something that makes all of them look good. Like in this case, Tom Kim came off looking good, but Justin Thomas may not have as much in my opinion.

00:37:17
Speaker 4: So there is for Andy talking about his skill level and his antics. So Cameron Young has the skill level not this week necessarily, and it's not to JT's level, but he is largely a dial tone in press conferences. And so do you think there's space between Cameron Young and what JT's.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: Doing or like maybe Patrick Cantley would be a better example or Xanderschoffle like well.

00:37:45
Speaker 2: Like think about this discourse. Patrick Cantley went four and one. He walks away this week as a stone cold killer. JT goes four and one, and are the question we get is what's wrong JT? Okay? Can't they like he's he's he just let he lets what he does do the talking, right. I just think about like there's you know, there's been like brash wide receivers that are demonstrative, right, but like the true icons like Jerry Rice, like Marvin Harrison, like there were like you think about like a lot of NBA plays, like the best play, like they just know that they're like subtle the when they when they do things, they're subtle. It's not like JT doing the nuts grab thing, like the big nuts thing, Like it's like, dude, somebody already did that you're parroting stuff, like a lot of the best stuff just happens authentically. Like it's like, oh I thought, like you know, I mean there are there are examples on both sides, and that's the beautiful thing about sports. And like I think the thing that you know, athletes that make us care one way or the other are awesome in a way because they give you something to talk about and they make you feel something. And I think that's one of the things to take away from it is while you may like or dislike JT's antics, I am not the biggest fan. It is nice to have something to talk about.

00:39:16
Speaker 1: So in conclusion, thank you, JT. And also, to go back to a point you made before, you've got to watch JT play golf in person, Like that's just something that every golf fan has to do. If he's at a tournament where you're in attendance, make it a priority to go and watch him for a few holes and just see how he applies his trade. You know, he is just really really great at all the little things that we love to see golfers be great at and that are sort of more forgotten skills these days, and so that's a wonderful aspect of him, and it does become frustrating because I'd love to be a full fan of Justin Thomas because I'm such a fan of his game. But all right, last President's Cup question. This is from FedEx Cup Tracker. Are we really happy about how this weekend turned out? Or do we blow this whole thing up? All right? So, I think we've heard Andy's opinion about this pretty pretty frequently, right on Shotguns Start and on the Frida Egg Will what do you think?

00:40:25
Speaker 2: Like?

00:40:26
Speaker 1: Does this you know this was a successful event? Right? I think we're all in agreement that this was a pretty exciting President's Cup in spite of not being that close. But do you think the fact that it was exciting says that we should just leave it alone and not change anything about it?

00:40:44
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:40:44
Speaker 4: I think we're all on the same page here separating the question too. Yes, it was. It was a very exciting event, and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I wasn't sure the golf course was going to give us much. I wasn't sure the Internationals were going to be as competitive as they were. There were a lot of matches that did come down to those final couple holes. But going back to the podcast you guys did last week, there are more formats that I think would be more entertaining, both for me the casual viewer, even maybe the players. Davis Love even said in his press conference that he was asked a question about all the talk about the format changes, and he said, well, there was no talk about that from our team or Trevor's team, and we know that they're not thinking about that. They're just going out and getting points. But from the entertainment side of things, for what we want to see on TV, there are other options that I think would be more would provide a better experience for the fan and keep the players engaged.

00:41:46
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, so this week was great, and I'm all in on continuing to follow the President's Cup and watch it every time every two years and see the international team really try to pull off a miracle. You know, I'm into that, Like, that's fine, that's great. I'd love to see them keep trying, and I hope that the same players that we saw this year continue to make it back and you know, create a kind of through line that we can follow. That's great. I'm fine with the President's Cup being as it is. But just because it's good doesn't mean it can't be better or that there can't be a better version of this team match play event that the PGA Tour puts on puts on on off Ryder Cup years. I think that there are many different options Anny and I discussed them on the last Friday podcast. The one that has really stuck with me is the Continent's Cup, you know, having a team of five or six players from each continent going at it. I think that would provide similar excitement and similar opportunities for players to break out and become well known and have have moments in front of a big audience. And so I think that that brings a lot of what the President's Cup rings, but also brings close competition, which is what the President's Cup is currently lacking. The US has won twelve of fourteen President's Cups. I can't really imagine a scenario within the next five years when the teams aren't going to be really far apart in terms of skill level. So that's the problem that the President's Cup is confronting right now.

00:43:22
Speaker 2: So let's just I mean twelve of fourteen.

00:43:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one of them one of the two was a tie and the international team won the other one. So the international team.

00:43:35
Speaker 2: Is won once one win in fourteen tries. Like, would you watch college football every single week if you knew you had you know, eight or seven percent chance of winning, Like, as a Bears fan, this is how I legitimately feel about the Packers right now, Like my entire life, we have just been get like our teeth kicked in by the Packers. And it's considered this unbelievable rivalry because of all these things that happened before I lived, you know, before I was a cognizant Bear fan, Like all these the games the Bears have won happened, you know, and like, to me, it's not really a rivalry because like we haven't like outside of a few years, we haven't been any good. And this is even more lopsided than the Bears Packers rivalry.

00:44:30
Speaker 3: To that point.

00:44:31
Speaker 4: The last time the Internationals won, I'm twenty eight years old. The last time the Internationals won, I was four. Like that's crazy.

00:44:39
Speaker 5: So like it's great that they could pull off this miracle, but they don't do it enough for it to be a real competition. And that's why at the at the very baseline has to change.

00:44:53
Speaker 1: It's like the Harlem Globetrotters versus the Washington Generals. At this point basically have the Washington Generals one. I think they've won like a couple of games, but I'll have to look this up because I'm I'm interested now. But it's just like you go to the see the Harlem Globetrotters to see all the fun tricks and everything, and I'm not sure that the President's Cup wants to be the event where you go to see the fun tricks. You go to see the shushing, you go to see the complaints about the non given putts and all that stuff that team matchplay always brings. That's the point of the President's Cup. Right now, we're waiting to see that fun stuff. But is that Is that enough? Because this is such a great format, the floor is going to be so high, and it could be so good. We know it could be so good because we have the Ryder Cup right well.

00:45:41
Speaker 2: The Ryder Cup wasn't Dune until the Europeans one started winning. And that happened when they got like when they had you know, players that were better. And now it's like a rivalry and who knows what the next twenty years entail. I don't know. I don't feel great about it.

00:45:58
Speaker 1: And to be fair, Cup hasn't been awesome.

00:46:02
Speaker 2: But there's a threat of Europe winning. Like Duke has rival rivalry with North Carolina because they're both great. Duke doesn't have a rivalry with Clemson even though they played twice a year because Clemson stinks at basketball, right, Like, so, like there has to be competition for a real rivalry to in that. That's what they want. They want a rivalry, but like everything's a manufacturer rivalry when one team doesn't ever win.

00:46:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think we're all in agreement here. We don't. Yeah, So there there's not there's not much of a debate here. But I did see some people popping up on Twitter after this President's Cup saying, hey, this was a great event. You know what's with all these people saying that we should change it? And you know, that's an understandable response. Obviously, We've just had a really good time watching golf at a time of year when we're not used to that. We're not used to a great golf product at this time of year, and we got something that was good. But it would be so much better, and I don't think this week changes that idea at all for me. All right, let's go on to other topics. I'm not sure we're going to touch on golf course architecture that much, because we got quite a few golf course architecture questions and they're very good, but I think I might save those for a little later. Are you guys okay with that?

00:47:22
Speaker 2: That's fine, We could do part two?

00:47:24
Speaker 1: All right, So just a few kind of random topics here. This one is from Will Bardwell at Will Bardwell Friend of the program.

00:47:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, friend of the Proggram. Here's my roommate once. Oh really at an event? Yeah, yeah, we shared Nerby.

00:47:37
Speaker 1: And I have not met Will Bardwell in person, but I have interviewed him over zoom and I think that counts.

00:47:42
Speaker 2: That counts COVID's that's that's a real interaction, like you've actually met when you've done in zoom together.

00:47:49
Speaker 1: All right, so we're friends. Will Bardwell, great guy and also really really fine writer. So check out his website at lyningfor dot com. That's a free plug. His question is what's the worst burger dog? Topping burger dog being the famous food item that you get at Olympic Club, right.

00:48:08
Speaker 2: I am very passionate about burger dogs. My wife thinks it's really weird. I make burger dogs myself. I believe burger dogs are truly extraordinary because here's the thing. There's no bad toppings. There are bad hamburger toppings. You know why, because of the bun is a problem. It has openings, so you can't fully encase a topping. Like the great thing about a burger dog is the hot dog bund. For those that don't know, it's a burger that's at like a hot dog. So the great thing about a burger dog is the ability to really load up toppings. So because it doesn't have an open bottom, you know, the hot dog buns there to hold everything in, you can really go wild with toppings. And that's the beauty of burger dogs and why burger dogs. You know, I believe the best way to eat a cheese burger is a burger dog.

00:49:06
Speaker 1: With a hot dog dog. Butnt how do you do the cheese?

00:49:09
Speaker 2: You you just melt it in the bottom of the bun.

00:49:12
Speaker 3: Cheese first.

00:49:13
Speaker 2: You can put the burger right on top it will melt, or you could toast. You could do tote. You could toast it with the with the cheese in there, but you could tote. You could pop the cheese on top of the burger dog, let it melt over. You could do. But the great thing about it is you can you can load up toppings on the bottom. You don't have to worry about them going everywhere.

00:49:33
Speaker 5: It is.

00:49:34
Speaker 2: I am, like, I believe there's a great burger dog business out there. If I didn't have my own business that caused me all kinds of stresses, I'd probably be deep in burger dog, you know, shipping burger dogs globally at this point. But burger dogs it's a better way to eat a hamburger. And everybody should try, you know, next time, make your burger a burger dog, and and just you'll have topping.

00:50:01
Speaker 1: You for okay, So will Will did not ask?

00:50:04
Speaker 2: All right? Pickles are the worst because pickles are fucking gross.

00:50:09
Speaker 1: So that's just the worst topping in general, not just burger dogs, but like in general, pickles. Pickles are the worst.

00:50:16
Speaker 2: Pickles. I can't eat a pickle without that.

00:50:18
Speaker 1: You ever had like a deli pickle, like a proper deli pickle, you know, I think a lot of people just eat like really crappy dill pickles from the from the grocery store and are prejudiced against pickles in general. Have you ever gone to like a great deli and had a good deli pickle?

00:50:36
Speaker 2: I the bird the bridge has been burned, I will. I guess it's an area of the of the of the food world that I will not even venture into. At this old age of mine.

00:50:48
Speaker 4: There's there's a tweet or an Instagram or something going around that says, there are two kinds of people in this world, people who eat pickles and people who don't, and they have relationships with each other, and we get along fine.

00:50:57
Speaker 2: So my wife said that she wouldn't married me if I like pickles, because she gets my pickle every time.

00:51:03
Speaker 1: It must make you feel good.

00:51:05
Speaker 2: Does it makes me feel confident in my stance on pickles.

00:51:11
Speaker 1: Well, my wife hates pickles too, and and so, and I like pickles, and so it does work that way. But the problem is my wife has worked really hard to prejudice my children against pickles, so now they hate pickles too.

00:51:25
Speaker 2: Well, that's good for you, But.

00:51:27
Speaker 1: Now I feel like I'm I'm doing the world a disservice by putting so many pickle haters out down into the world.

00:51:33
Speaker 4: But as long as they find two pickle lovers and we're fine equilibrium.

00:51:38
Speaker 1: All right, We should move on from that topic. Let's let's talk about something that's relevant to what we're doing on this trip. And this is slightly golf architecture related, so it does cross over a bit. The question is a bit of a leading question, but it's how insanely good is Cape Arundle Golf Club? Well, why don't you start? We were there yesterday. Caperarundle is in Maine. It's in kind of southern Maine. It's near Kennebunk, not ken of Bunk, different places. There are two towns that are close to each other. The one that's closer to the water is Kennebunkport. There's a golf course there is. The Point is designed by Walter Travis and it's really fantastic. It is publicly accessible. It's a it's a club where with members, but you can go play it if you want to. So that's where we were. Will what was your reaction to this golf course?

00:52:30
Speaker 4: So you guys are out We got out there at six fifteen in the morning. You guys are kind of doing some drone photography and taking photos, and meanwhile I was inside the clubhouse kind of. I was talking to the staff and looking at all their artifacts in there, and they have all these score cards on the walls of a past pros who have been by, and so I'm looking at the scorecards and the scot and Freddie Couples a shot sixty one. There, Phil shot sixty and I was like, oh, like, so the golf course is gettable. And then you look at the scorecard and it max out about fifty nine hundred yards and something doesn't quite add up there, and you get out on the golf course and you're just walking around and it Garrett, I don't know if you said this is the best set, but they're some of the best greens I've ever seen, and I think we all were kind of on the same page.

00:53:16
Speaker 1: They're incredible. I mean, I would put them up there alongside Pasa Tiempo's greens. I mean, we've seen Oakland Hills greens. I haven't seen every set of greens in the world. I haven't seen the Old Courses greens, but these I'm not sure where i'd rank them or even if I'd be able to rank them, but they are that good that they make you start thinking about where they rank among the very best sets of greens you've ever seen. I think that says it all right. They're so unique it's hard to describe exactly how they're built. But you know, the club's logo is waves, right, It's like three little waves, and that's they almost remind me of these greens. They're wave like, they're very natural. They seem to imitate the forms that you see out on the ocean, and they're just wonderful. I mean, they're just so so fun. You can put pins all over the place, but there's really interesting tough challenges wherever you are and wherever you're playing.

00:54:17
Speaker 2: To Yeah, I think we're going to talk about this a bunch more detail in a future YouTube video a little plug there. But you know, I think what you hit on is right, Like, you know, what are the best greens in golf? Like you can't. That's like an unanswerable question, right, you know, in terms of like greens that you need to see before if you're really interested in golf architecture, greens you need to see because I think you know, I'm personally, Like the thing that gets me jazzed up to play golf a lot of times is the greens. Like I think that's like where you can defend par the best you can, you know why. You know, these all these great tour pros have gone there in the low score at a fifty eight hundred yard course is sixty. You know, like this place, the greens are can be super fun, they can be super hard. They have so much malleability, right, and they are so different than a lot of the other great greens, like you know, like like Chicago golf is drastically different than these. They have a ton of variety they you know, and I think that's the thing about them. It's like they are some of the best greens anywhere. And it's like the neat thing about the place is like it's just like super playable, right, Like you can you hit it and then like pretty much you're never gonna be in a position like unless you really hit a big foul ball where you can't hit it at the green. That's super fun.

00:55:52
Speaker 1: It's an easy walk.

00:55:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like you're you know, you're out of position, but you still are hitting at the green like you're very rarely looking for golf balls, like you find your ball and then it's like, Okay, I know I'm in a really bad spot to hit at this, but I got to get to try because like I have an unobstructed shot at the green. If you're a shorter hitter, you can get home in every green in two. Like it is a golf course that that does a really wonderful job of neutralizing power because every hole is like everybody can get to and it's a you know. I think one of the things that's stuck with me about when I talked to Bill Corr about short courses in the Sandbox is like he talked about how the shorter the course, the more together you are with your group, and Caper Rundle's at like, the the bigger the course, the more spread out you get as you walk off the tee. And at Cape Rundle you're more together at than anywhere else because there it's just smaller, right, the smaller golf is. And it makes me yeah, So I'll have a stuff the video way more thoughts on it. But it is as a I mean, it's open to the public. It's a club. It's open to the public, and like you know, between Massachusetts and I think we can probably put together, you know, an article with a trip idea, but between Massachusetts and the Boston area and Cape Rundle that there is a great grade value golf.

00:57:24
Speaker 1: I think the way that I would put it is that if you're interested in golf architecture, and especially if you're like a young person who's interested in becoming a golf architect or working in some field related to golf architecture, this is on the syllabus, right. You go see this course, you go see Pasa Tiempo, you go see courses that are public. Usually you go see places like Rustic Canyon and things like that. Cape Arundle is very very much on that list of courses that you really need to see in order to kind of learn something about how golf courses can be designed and how they can be fun and all of that. So it was just a great experience to go up there. All right, So last question here unless you guys have some other ones. But we did get a couple of questions about TFE events next year, so we haven't wrapped up our events this year. We still have a few more. But there were some people who were wondering how many events were planning to run next year. Will you do a lot of work on events? That's one of the big parts of your job. It's not easy, you do a great job. What can you tell people about events next year, what we're shooting for.

00:58:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think we've got we're probably about halfway, pretty close to halfway in terms of planning. This will be our third full year of events in twenty twenty three, and I think those who have attended an event before, some of you will have gone to a public course with us, some will have gone to a private course on a Monday. Moving forward, we'll have we'll definitely have some of the same that we've had on the past couple of years, some staples that we truly feel our great event courses that we think are worth visiting every year. And so if you look at our schedule and you look at the first year schedule, you can probably pick out a couple of those. We'll have some new ones next year as well, looking kind of like a holiday time period to have the full schedule. One that we've already kind of announced for next year is lake Mer said will be on March twentieth, So they're opening that one soon at gil Hant's Restoration, and so that'll be kind of our kickoff for twenty twenty three. But in terms of what to expect, will be in the ten to twelve range, some that we've done this year and some new ones.

00:59:49
Speaker 1: We're keeping it steady because we did about that many this year.

00:59:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, if we do grow then that could be a future thing. We're going to try to kind of get more TF and PL ployees out to different ones this year so people can meet each one of us and kind of.

01:00:04
Speaker 3: If you want to experience if you if you don't want.

01:00:07
Speaker 1: To, you can totally avoid us at the events if you'd like.

01:00:09
Speaker 4: Absolutely, there's a lot of people you can talk to somebody else. But yeah, so we're looking forward to kind of another great year. We got four more this year, so it should be a good schedule again and kind of travel the country and see some cool places with some good people.

01:00:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, the events are always really fun, so if you're interested, check it out on our website. That's enough of a plug for our events. I think. Do we have any other questions that we wanted to address before we wrap this up?

01:00:37
Speaker 3: I don't know.

01:00:38
Speaker 2: We can we can may save we can probably do part two and save a lot of questions.

01:00:42
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, we've we've got a bunch of really interesting golf architecture questions. I didn't want to like just sort of touch briefly on that subject. And so you know, if you send in questions about golf course architecture, well, we don't exactly have a plan for the next podcast, and so maybe it will be a bag pod and we'll address some of your questions about that subject. So for now, why don't we wrap up and get some sleep tonight We actually have an event tomorrow. We're recording this on the Sunday, right after the President's Cup has concluded. And so thank you Andy and Will. It was a delight as always, and let's wrap up there.