U.S. Ryder Cup Roster Reactions & PGA Tour Season Recap

00:00:00
Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a fried Egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Friday Friday, Frida fridagg Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the up course. Welcome back to the Frida Egg Golf Podcast. I'm your host, Andy Johnson. I am. I'm excited. We delayed the release of this just to chat about the Ryder Cup. The US team made their captain's picks today, so we wanted to chat after that. I'm excited to have Gabby Herzigg on. She is a great writer at The Athletic and New York Times. You can read all of her stuff there. She she reports and has been on the road a ton this year and reports thoroughly and wonderfully on professional golf, among many other things. So Gabby's going to join to talk about the Ryder Cup selections and also recap the PGA Tour season. She was one of one of the few national reporters on the ground at East Lake UH and can give some perspective on the Tommy Fleetwood win. So we'll talk Ryder Cup picks and Ryder Cup the US team. Uh, and then we will we'll talk about the PGA Tour season as a whole. Uh. The the Keegan Bradley made the picks this morning.

00:01:41
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:01:42
Speaker 1: You know, the big news is he did not pick himself. I think that was the big story going into it. His captain picks are six captains picks are Justin Thomas, Colin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Sam Burns, Cameron Young and what's the last one here? And Patrick Cantley. How could I get Patrick Kanlan? No hat pat? So he is the that is the picks, and we will break down that whole whole kind of situation. It is fascinating situation for the American team. Probably not exactly what they envisioned when they selected Keegan, but something they probably should have envisioned when they selected Keegan. So we'll get to Gabby in a second, but first let's talk about our partner. Groove It brush groove It brush Listen. One of the things you want to make a Ryder Cup team, you got to have clean groups, you got to play, you play your best golf. You know. One of the things I always I always am amazed by if if I play around of golf with a caddy, I look at my clubs after, I'm like, God, why aren't my clubs always as clean? Well, there is a way to keep your clubs that clean is to use the groovet Brush. They are the top rated golf brushes on the market. You see this up and down the range on tour. A lot of guys loop to their belt and use it, you know, after every shot, just to get that predictability. It's the best way to get predictability on your on your golf shots. So check it out. Use the promo code fried Egg no Spaces for fifteen percent off any purchase in July at groovetbrush dot com. That's groove it brush dot com. Use the promo code fried egg for fifteen percent off. And now let's get to Gabby Herzig on the PGA Tour season and Ryder Cup Picks the American team Ryder Cup Picks. All right, we held we held off this podcast because of the Ryder Cup Picks. Gabby, I'm excited to have you on. We'll get into the Ryder Cup and kind of the end of the PGA Tour season here. But you're a new Yorker, Are you ready for the Ryder Cup to come in a couple of weeks to New York City, to your city.

00:03:57
Speaker 2: Andy, thank you very much for having me. I honestly don't know if anyone is ready, but I'm slowly but surely preparing myself for potential disaster but also probably the coolest in person scene that I will ever lay eyes on in golf. So we've got a mixture of the two boiling at the moment.

00:04:19
Speaker 1: I know everybody wants to hear about my travel planning. I'm trying to lay out the week we haven't we have. I haven't nailed down exactly what I'm doing, but I think I think what I'm I'm going to center on. And I'm curious if you think this is the right logistical move? Is that early week spend it in the city and do the trek back and forth because that early week of a Ryder Cup kind of could drag, and then later in the week move out onto the island and closer to Beth Page. Do you think that's the play?

00:04:49
Speaker 2: I mean, that definitely sounds like the play, but like maybe you just want to be on line in the entire time that La r R like Penn Station or Grand Central, whichever one you want to ch Like, that commute is going to be interesting. I'm really curious how efficient it's going to be for these fans coming from Manhattan. But like from my apartment, for example, it's at least one subway, a long train ride, and a shuttle and that that can add up. Mandy, So I don't know, I don't know where you'll be staying in Manhattan, but you might be signing yourself up for a lot of time on public transportation.

00:05:27
Speaker 1: We were thinking about just setting PJ up the Long Island boy, you know, at a L I R stop and just having them sign autographs or something there.

00:05:37
Speaker 2: I think that's a perfect idea actually.

00:05:40
Speaker 1: All right, so let's get to the big news here. Keith and Bradley. Obviously, this was a story I think like once the open end, this was the story of the golf season, once we got through the majors. Was will keik and Bradley put himself on the team. It became evident that he was not going to play himself into an automatic spot. Obviously was the biggest snub from the last Ryder Cup and and kind of had the snub replayed through full swing where you know, they showed the call. He won the Travelers. It seemed like after the Travelers he was a lock. Keigan Bradley does not pick himself for the team. Are you surprised by this?

00:06:23
Speaker 2: I was shocked, Andy. I really thought that he was going to do it, not only because of that Travelers Championship win, where he you know, he shifted that narrative and that was all his decision. Like, immediately after winning the tournament, gets asked about the Ryder Cup and basically, quote unquote says, this changes things and that's what made this frenzy what it was these past you know, however many weeks, like he definitely did that to himself. But I really thought the way that he was speaking to us and the way that he performed at the Tour Championship, there were so many signs he was going to do it. He told like in a scrum with the media on Saturday at the Tour Championship, he said, you know, I consider myself one of the best players in the world. You know, he went out there and shot sixty three. He was this pumping walking in puts, Like I just felt the playing captain energy. And on top of that, I didn't even realize this before getting to Eastlake, but Arnold Palmer was playing captain in the nineteen sixty three Ryder Cup at Eastlake, and Keegan was talking about being in the Captain's room and seeing Arnie's old bag and his clubs from that week, and it was it felt like the stars were aligning for this to actually happen. That being said, I never thought it was going to be a good idea, So I'm pleasantly surprised with him deciding to take a step back. But I really thought that that's what we were going to get, is that electric maybe potentially first tea appearance in the afternoon from Captain Keegs, like storming out there and just making the crowd go and nuts. It would have been incredible to see. But I'm not super I'm surprised that it happened this way, but I'm glad that he decided to make the decision for us.

00:08:07
Speaker 1: In the content game, him not playing is definitely like a loss. Yeah, while you were talking, I agree completely. If you watch that Saturday telcast from east Lake, you were on the ground, it felt like, oh God, this guy's playing on the team and he's in. He played himself into the second to last group, and then he had a bad day. He shot even par on a soft golf course. And what's you know, while you were talking, something pops in my mind is like, if he shoots sixty eight, so he finished seventh T seven at thirteen under, if he shoot sixty eight two under, you know, and he I think he hit one in the water on was it on fifteen?

00:08:53
Speaker 2: I think? So? I think you're right.

00:08:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, you know, something that boils down to something that small. But if he doesn't, if he doesn't, if he shoots sixty eight, he finishes te two.

00:09:08
Speaker 2: Could I don't do things.

00:09:10
Speaker 1: I don't think he's off the team.

00:09:12
Speaker 2: No, well, imagine if he won. It was very much in the cards. That's why he kept saying, you know, I know that he has the pr answers ready to go, but he kept saying, I don't know. This is going to be the hardest decision of my life. And then today he was telling he was answering questions, basically alluding to the fact that he did not he never wanted to be more than just the captain this whole time, and it was always that he was going to stay in that captain's role and not entertain the thought. But I don't buy it, to be honest with you, like I if I had to guess, there were moments during the Tour Championship where he was right on the.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: Edge absolutely because the discourse had changed so much from I have to qualify on points is what he effectively said at the beginning of his captaincy. What do you make about the PGA PGA's And I think, like, what's And I'm not sure if you agree or disagree with this, but to me, if you were laying out who would be among the best twelve players to be on the Ryder Cup team, I think Kegan Bradley's consistency makes him one of the best twelve players. He has been like for really the last four years, a really solid top flight PGA Tour player and one that you kind of know what you're getting week in week out. That's like, I think a very important aspect of a Ryder Cup player is dependability, consistency. I think he would be one of the twelve best players on the team, but he was you know, do you think this was a flawed decision? From the PGA of making Bradley the captain and putting this the situation where you might not have your best twelve players.

00:11:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's definitely something we have to start thinking about now. I mean also just thinking if Keagan was not the captain. One of the major storylines around Keagan as a captain's pick would one hundred percent be his history with the event and the passion around it, the suitcase that he hasn't opened in however many years. There would be so many reasons to include a guy like.

00:11:30
Speaker 1: That on the just Saint John's connection, with.

00:11:33
Speaker 2: John's connection, you know, people were milking that even with god her up and the Rutgers connection. But yeah, this all kind of goes back to that day which I reported on a little bit last year, when the decision was announced to make Keagan the captain, which it appears as though how this happened is, you know, there's this kind of like Ryder Cup committee formed to find the next captain. Speeth was on it, and JT was on it. John Wood was on it like some PGA of America leadership, and Seth Waw who was the outgoing PGA of America CEO, and According to the people I spoke to about that meeting, seth Waw basically came in there with a list of like pretty out there names of who could be the next Rider Cup captain. On that list included Ricky Fowler, Kevin Kisner, and Keegan was one of them. And apparently, you know, when he read off Keegan's name, the whole room kind of just stopped in its tracks and they were like, oh wow, Like, why didn't we think of this sooner? And the whole point of that meeting in the first place was to kind of move on from the task force generation getting these captaincies, But it looks like the decision to go with someone younger backfired a little bit because it made it seem like it was more of a move to generate buzz and create excitement around the event of this potential playing captain situation, rather than what might be best for the US team's success in the actual event. So that's where my head goes immediately.

00:13:05
Speaker 1: And part of this is that it felt like they were really really trying to get Tiger. Tiger was the first choice, and it almost was like they had centered on that, and then you know, the fallout of that was like yes, yeah. The fallout also was like after it was like looking at you know, the stricter Furick who this like kind of cabal of of who's been the captain for the last X number. Davis Love would be in there too, of this generation, like do we do? We go down the list and then it ends up with this. I guess like when I look at when I think about this situation, Keegan, to me, not playing was the route of like removing blame from yourself. It seems like the safest pr route. Do you think there is a scenario where you could say he's not if the if the Ryder Cup doesn't go well for the US team, he's not blameless if they fail.

00:14:17
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I mean, yeah, what if Ben Griffin goes out there and can't hit the ball?

00:14:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, he might overdose on creating.

00:14:25
Speaker 2: I want to do that too, Can you overdose on creating?

00:14:28
Speaker 1: I believe all the.

00:14:30
Speaker 2: Rows and the comments being like this is impossible. So I don't know, but yeah, there's easily a scenario. I mean I can only really see it being possible. It like, no one will blink an eye if they go on to win. You know, this is only in an extreme scenario, which is already an extreme scenario for the US to go and lose a home Rider Cup, especially at a place like Bethpage Black. So do I think that's ever going to be part of the convers station. Not necessarily, but it is an interesting thought experiment to, you know, think about like picking him as the captain in the first place and it potentially being detrimental to what happens to the US team in this Brider.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: Cup if they win. He has set himself up in a Luke Donald type situation where he the the commentary. The discourse will be around like look at the selflessness of this, like you've you could already write the story. You write the story and file it for the second the winning putt is made. If if it's like all centered around look at this guy. He took the captaincy serious, and like I think, like, what's you know? The Ryder Cups probably the most overanalyzed sporting event in golf, and and really it comes down to like do the do to a certain extent, do the guys hit the shots, which like part of me is I think like the captaincy. I know there's a lot of like logistical work that goes into this, But I think this whole thing is like, at the end of the day, it's about players hitting shots and playing good golf, and you know, you have to outplay the other team. And I think this year, this year is probably about a level of playing field as we've seen in a Ryder Cup where you could look at either side and make the case of who has the better team, you know, And I think, like, what what this comes down to is the is putting yourself in a position to have the players heating, you know, the best players you know playing their best. And I don't think like Keithan Bradley, whether he played or not played, is going to influence if JJ spawn plays well in his first Ryder Cup.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good, it's a good And it's a dangerous way to think about things because then it's like, why does any of this Ryder Cup discourse even matter? Like when you know they just need to go out and play well, And then you hear a guy like just and Thomas speaking about how you know, the only reason why they lost the Cup in Rome is because no one played well, and it just kind of like erases all the drama involved in these picks. But I also wanted to go back to what you said about the captain and I I don't think we'll ever really be able to tell how important the captaincy is, because, like you said, the winning team is usually just the one that plays the best golf. But I do think there's there. There might not be as many responsibilities for the captain as people make it out to be, but there is that pressure and I feel like that definitely has an impact on the team as a whole. And if the captain is feeling the pressure in a negative way, it can easily translate to the vibe of the team room and how these players are feeling. Like I would guess one thousand percent that that's a little bit of what happened in Rome, with people questioning Zach Johnson's decision making and you know, by the boys Club and all the things that he all the missteps that he made that week in comparison to a Luke Donald who stepped into a captaincy, you know, with five months to go after the Henrik Stenson drama and seemingly became like this hero on the European side. Everyone didn't doubt for a second, So I think there's there's more to the captaincy than we think, just from like a psychological perspective, and it just becoming like a trickle down effect in the team room. I think.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the things that just came to mind is you could you know, you can make arguments all different ways with this, and it's such a subjective thing. It's you know, you're making picks. It's just by nature subjective. If Keegan picked himself, there's a whole kind of premise of that's the only thing people would talk about. Yeah, yes, and in a way that you know, he could play twice, like responsible for two points of a competition, a big competition, very insignificant, but also take all of the attention away from everybody else to where they they feel free because in a way, by Keegan not put picking himself now there will be discourse, attention and scrutiny on you know, in particular, I think it might extend all the way to Morikawa. Yeah, I don't know if it will. I don't think there's any world where you could leave him at home, you know, I know he's played poorly. It's just it just was not going to happen. But it extends to Ben Griffin, Patrick Cantley, Cameron Young and and Sam Burns. Now are the people that there there those players. If any of them play bad, it's gonna be like, well, Keegan Bradley should have been in this spot. Yeah.

00:20:03
Speaker 2: I think the you know, the overriding theme here is that like it really could have gone one way or another. And if he if he had picked himself the like in my opinion, and I've been saying this for all the risk like heavily outweighs the reward. And imagine if he sent himself out that at first afternoon because he was never going to play four sums in the morning, and imagine the first session goes less than ideal for the Americans, and then in the afternoon he loses his four ball match. Do you play yourself again tomorrow afternoon? Like they're the question. I think it would free up the other players, but it also might make them carry this additional weight that they don't need to have, and and they might have to answer less questions. They might not be getting the attention that they would otherwise be getting, but there would be that subconscious element of, oh, there is a ton of pressure on our captain, we need to step up for him, and then the mind starts spiraling there. It's just way too much to think about when you're trying to perform in front of a crowd like that in a tournament that everyone who you talk to says is the most high pressure environment they'll ever plan.

00:21:20
Speaker 1: Keegan's obviously the one that people will focus on as the person that should be on this team that isn't. Is there anybody else that you think had a really good case for a spot that didn't get one? Obviously? You know, in terms of the points list, the selections went to fourteen, fifteen, sixteen on the points list as well as you know, Justin Thomas and Calum Markower were high up. Ben Griffin was high up on the points list. I think they were seven, eight, nine, but then you know ten through twelve, just we're ten through thirteen were ignored.

00:21:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting because I think it kind of points out that the points system is a little bit skewed right now, especially because it's based on money, so performing in certain tournaments over others, you know, helps you rise in the rankings when maybe they shouldn't be that heavily weighted. But I mean to me, I would have loved to see Chris god her Up go on a little bit of an earlier run this season or maybe even last, and be someone who was more in the conversation than he was, because he really snuck in there at the last second, winning the Scottish Open and then performing well at the British And you know, every vibe that I get from him is that he would be great in an event like this, just because he kind of has that you know, like he doesn't look like he cares that much, kind of like a Brooks Koepka, or he has that smug kind of grin on his face at all times. And also just a Bomber has the Bethpage Black experience playing there in college. It would be a perfect fit. But but then again, you can't make like a late run guy like that is not going to make a Ryder Cup team now with you know, the two year cycle, the kind of veterans being welcome back to the team no matter what, like a Morikawa. So I just think potentially the points system might need some revamping because a guy like Maverick mcneelily like Brian Harmon, you know, they haven't done enough to be firmly in that conversation. That's why it was so easy for Keegan to skip over that section of the standings and go straight to it can't landa Burns. So it just it just begs the question like, is there does there need to be a little bit of a different approach to this?

00:23:49
Speaker 1: I think yeah, I think you make great points all the the Maverick McNeely, Brian Harmon, Andrew Novak that got skipped over. Obviously Keegan's in there is well, but those that group of players did their damage a long time ago. Yes, and it's kind of been they've they've kind of slid down and kind of just been there. And meanwhile, Cameron Young obviously had a great finish. I don't think anybody is will Will and Sam Burns had a really good finish, plus strong relationships, and Patrick Cantley has been one of your best players. I agree with you like one of the things that I'd love to see layered in a little bit, especially you know Beth Page. They've talked so much about course fit with Beth Page, and I think that's the other thing about got her up is that we saw the last time the PGA was there that this golf course is is effectively built for people that hit the ball very far and high. That was like the resounding, you know, quintessential perfect example is Jordan Speith had a historically great putting week at beth Page, one of the greatest weeks we've ever seen in a major chance pion ship on the greens, and he was like dying her ten shots back in the place, you know, right, like no chance of contending. One of the things I'd like to see, you know, especially in this analytics era, and I think, like you know, analytics have been such a big part of of Ryder Cups, especially on the European side, but I'd like to see a little bit of a lens of like how does this look with like course fit analysis, and because I think if you did that, there's all of a sudden, you know, the the Ryder Cup points, the Ryder Cup lists would look a lot different. Recent play and course fit, to me, are probably the two biggest things that you want. You want players that are playing well, and then you want players that fit the golf course absolutely.

00:25:46
Speaker 2: And the players that are playing well, you want you want their the course to suit their eye well. And there definitely is some kind of formula that the US team has used to figure this out, especially with figuring out the pairings and looking at you know, which skills suit, which holds the best, who's teeing off where you know, who's hitting the putts on which greens. But it's interesting because yes, they have this whole you know team behind the scenes that's doing all this stuff. They probably don't want to give it away, but it would make it would make the lead up to Ryder Cup picks a lot, probably a lot clearer for people and understanding why a guy like Maverick McNeil or a Brian Harmon is pretty obvious that he just doesn't hit it far enough to succeed at a place like Bethpaid Black. But it would it would be a lot more of a dynamic discussion that way, rather than just who's won the most money and what tournaments? You know, what, what place are you coming in? You know, you could you could have come in second place and been eight strokes behind Scotty Shuffler. There's a lot of you know, there are so many factors that aren't necessarily accounted for by the current point system, and.

00:26:51
Speaker 1: The point system just I just at this point don't really have a use for it. I guess it gives us like a nice thing to talk about all year. But the the I think, I think the utility, particularly this year, has has been kind of thrown out the window. Gotta row. You know. It's funny, he's twenty, you know, it's a perfect at least twentieth on the points list, but when you factor in recent play and I think, like what you said, not all points are equal. His points for playing in the final group with Rory McElroy and completely out playing Europe's best.

00:27:33
Speaker 2: Player on on their soil.

00:27:36
Speaker 1: On their soil, Yeah, and on their soil.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: You know, there are a lot of external factors that play there. He was talking about being heckled all day, you know, people trying to distract him, you know, rooting for Rory the whole time. Obviously, that's the kind of guy that I eventually want to see in a Ryder Cup team.

00:27:53
Speaker 1: And what you said about the Hepka, he has immense, immense confidence and that's the only way you you beat Rory in a final round is with like a tremendous self belief. Obviously, local and and course fit is just off the charts. It's but this points to the points less What really is it if if we're saying, like outside of Keegan, the twentieth guy on the points list is probably has the best case, we.

00:28:20
Speaker 2: Need to blow this thing up.

00:28:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, you brought up pairings analytics. What are a couple of pairings that you look at and say, like these these would be some interesting pairings or pairings you would expect to see.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: Good question. I mean a lot of the historical pairings have been you know, wiped out of the realm possibility now because guy like Speed, this isn't there. You know, Scotti and Burns has proven to not be exactly efficient. So you know we saw it at the President's Cup, Scotty and Russell Henley. I expect to see that again for sure. I love that pairing personally. I just I just love that Henley can be kind of like Scottie's rock and like baseline to work off of, and he'll just put him in the fair way, He'll put him in the center of the green and just make it easy for the number one player in the world to do what he is meant to do. I was also just thinking about who Bryson is gonna play with and This is a tricky one because you know, obviously, like you he his asset for the team is his driving distance, and you know a lot of the guys on the team can hit it far. But I'm trying to think of who would mesh with him personality wise, and it's kind of like come down to potentially like Ben Griffin and Bryson. I don't know why this like kind of makes sense to me, but the way that Ben Griffin played some of his final rounds where he made some of those like late charges and he was walking in putts and you know, doing the whole like showmanship Ben Griffin thing that came out out of him like kind of reminded me of of mini Bryson vibes, and I can see them. I can see them meshing also because Ben Griffin also feels like kind of the new new kid around the block in the team room, and Bryson is clearly like a little bit of an outsider with the live situation. So I can see that being a potential experiment. But I other than that.

00:30:23
Speaker 1: I think he nailed that. I think that's the from from what I've gathered, the the general belief with Ben Griffin is that he you know, he I don't. I think this came down to Keegan versus Ben Griffin.

00:30:38
Speaker 2: I think so too.

00:30:39
Speaker 1: I think I think that was the decision. And I think one of the things that came out with the with the Ben Griffin case was the the idea of and that could be completely wrong with this, but the idea of like, well, who's going to play with Bryson and it being like all science point to Ben Griffin. Yes, And I think I think that they're both you know, Ben Griffin active, TikToker. I think, yeah, they've got some shared interest here. I think this is a this is a pairing. I think, like I'm interested to see how much Bryson plays. Do they play him an alternate shot or is he just going to be a best ball player.

00:31:23
Speaker 2: The only problem with Ben Griffin is he plays a maxfly golf ball, So like, is Bryson going to be able to work with that? Probably not. I'd put them in four ball together for sure.

00:31:35
Speaker 1: The ball that Bryson's using is the same ball that Cam Young, just so that if you were going to play them an alternate shot. Obviously, you know, we hear every every major championship whether we want to or not. We hear about Bryson's equipment setup, so I imagine that it's probably like a hurdle to him playing alternate shot is just the ball.

00:31:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I would also love to see just just for pure entertainment purposes. I don't even know if their games necessarily match up or I think they do. Is more Kawa and Cam Young just from like two flushers together. You know, Cam Young stripes it off the tee. Marikawa can carry him from an approach perspective, and they both are well. Marcaw is not not putting the best right now, but Cam Young can can pick him up where he needs to, and I think that would be an entertaining pairing.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about that one. I like that because you know, like where we've seen Mari Kawa thrive is that DJ Morikawa pairing was particularly a really strong pairing, and could is Cam Young somewhat like a poor poor man's version of DJ in a way, like you look at the game, the tea to stream game, the the the immense length off the tee. I think that's like the thing for Marikaw is is pairing him and you know, you hit the nail on the head with the Henley Scheffler thing. When you have the greatest iron player in the world, yeah, it is just about putting him in the fairway, just giving him because he hits his five irons as close as as the best players in the world hit their seven irons, you know, and it I think that's the thing. And then for Mori Kwa, giving Mori Kawa a chance to hit approach shots from somebody that hits it three hundred and twenty plus yards is such. It's a way to amplify his iron acumen, you know.

00:33:37
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Another random one I can see is maybe a JJ spawn in Harris English.

00:33:43
Speaker 1: I was just looking at that.

00:33:46
Speaker 2: Well I realized that, you know, JJ, they both are pretty steady all around. But JJ is is actually a really really solid iron player as well. And Harris English is very straight off the d He kind of has that little like you know, squeezy cut that he can you know, just rely on off the tee. And I can see that working because Harris English has played in a Ryder Cup before Jjspond's a total rookie. But they both seem to have that same like even keeled energy where they can probably balance each other out pretty well instead of it instead of sending a jjspond out with someone who is like a veteran type of guy like a JT, I would rather him be with someone who kind of just matches the same energy level instead of trying to have him be carried by like an energetic force, like like someone else on.

00:34:33
Speaker 1: The Harris English subject, I think this is it's it's wild to consider this two years ago, like if we were talking Ryder Cup two years ago. It's like, who do you feel best about on the American team? I think Harris English is the number two for me, behind Scotti Scheffler. I think this is an honest question. How would you rank today the US team in terms of how how confident you are with the game going into Beth Page.

00:35:05
Speaker 2: That's a good question. Actually, I guess there are a few people we can rule out. I'm not confident in Colin MORICOA I'm not confident and.

00:35:17
Speaker 1: Has played well one week.

00:35:19
Speaker 2: Has one good showing, I oh.

00:35:23
Speaker 1: Man, Justin Thomas has him been good? In Russell Henley, so be Russell Henley and who else?

00:35:32
Speaker 2: And you know what I I will I will put my confidence vote with Cameon. I think he's going to ball out at that page, and I think he's going to come out of his shell too, which I'm really excited about.

00:35:46
Speaker 1: You know, he wouldn't have to come very far out of the shell for us to feel like we got a lot.

00:35:52
Speaker 2: Exactly, which is why it's gonna be a nice It's gonna be a nice surprise for everyone to see, you know, this guy who barely even cracks a smile isle to becoming, you know, potentially a Ryder Cup legend. I've at Page Black, a place where he won as an amateur at the New York State Open.

00:36:09
Speaker 1: Mind you, so I would I would go Scottie Scheffler one, okay, Harris English two, Cam Young three okay. I don't like Russell Henley's course fit, but he's playing with Scotty Scheffler, so I guess I'll put him four because, like I know, he's going to play a lot with the best, the best player on the planet. And then I think I would go Bryson as my next guy. But it's I think it's a fascinating aspect it.

00:36:46
Speaker 2: I would put Bryson higher up just because I think, you know, you know what he said at the Open he goes, I'm going to bring a tsunami of people to bet Page Black, and I don't think we can underestimate the crowd forces that will be around his pairings there, especially with the Trump factor as well. You know, there's going to be so many layers to this Bryce and Energy on site that it will genuinely be a massive disadvantage to whoever that pairing plays against Friday. Yes, you can just stay in the city on Friday.

00:37:21
Speaker 1: Honestly, I was thinking about like when we might have to leave to get there just like and get through everything. Friday is going to be a madhouse.

00:37:31
Speaker 2: That might be like three am wake up.

00:37:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about that after that got announced. Is just how you know it's going to be a crazy day, you know, the Yeah, I would. You know, We've talked a little bit about pairings, Like I think a dream situation for this event is Bryce and Rory if we got Part three Bryson Rory. I think the I think the two are not huge fans of each other, and I think the you know, the idea of them squaring off in a in a in a high leverage Sunday singles match would be you know, on a golf course that fits both their kind of games very well, like would be one of the dream scenarios of this event.

00:38:23
Speaker 2: That would be that would be must see TV. I could also what about Scotty and Bryson playing together. That would be an electric first t send off pairing.

00:38:35
Speaker 1: It have to be best ball, I think ball.

00:38:39
Speaker 2: You're right, You're right, you can't do that. It just slistically doesn't make sense.

00:38:43
Speaker 1: We did the We did the Scotty Scotty Brooks pairing just like kind of you.

00:38:50
Speaker 2: Know, how was an epic failure.

00:38:54
Speaker 1: We've seen this though. We did that. They did the remember at Hazel team, they did the Brooks DJ the like the super pairing. I think in the history of Ryder Cup, you know, the Tiger Phil was a flop. I think the idea of using your best players, and I don't know what the analytics say about this, but pairing them together is kind of you know, they're there almost is like so much expectation. One of the things I think that's like it's freeing when you take someone like you know today you put JJ spawn with with Scottie in his first match, right and say it's the best ball out first JJ Spawn has to feel great with the idea of like I don't have to do a lot. I'm playing with the best player on the planet. Like if I contribute a couple of times, you know this is gravy.

00:39:49
Speaker 2: Really just so much confidence in Jjspond.

00:39:52
Speaker 1: I actually sneaking. I think Jjspaond might be six on my confidence. Mean, like he's been I thought him backing up the the US Open win with a really good performance and at Saint Jude at FedEx in Memphis was like a huge, huge vote of like confidence of Hey, this guy, you know, he's he's it's got to be hard with his situation coming off of that win, where like it's like a career achievement type situation and and you could see like just struggle with being that high, you know, high profile of a player, but him getting into that. The thing about him is that he's steady, right.

00:40:37
Speaker 2: Very steady.

00:40:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:40:39
Speaker 2: I mean that he's ranked seventh in strokes, gained approach on the PGA Tour right now, you know he Beth Page. Also, the greens are sneakily small, but they're not incredibly slopey greens if I remember correctly, Like it's it's pretty straightforward once you're once you're on the green, and a guy like JJ spawn can make putts. We've seen it, you know at the US Open. He's come down the stretch and been very clutch in other recent finishes. And I think you're right that he has absolutely nothing to lose in this Ryder Cup. Like if he goes out there and produces some highlights and and contributes a little bit here and there, like he will be considered, you know, someone who unexpectedly might really help the US team succeed there at that page, I also I could see him him and Rory like have a little bit of a dynamic too because of the players and the and the playoff. And there was that comment that Rory made to him at the Masters. Did you hear about that after the par three contest and JJ was like in a playoff or something and and Rory made some off pan comment to him about how we better choose the right club this time, and it was just at his brutal and I can see JJ coming in with a little fire under his belly, you know.

00:41:58
Speaker 1: I think the two biggest questions I have are who does Dustin Thomas play with m? And uh, what are we going to get out of can't lea shoffle the pairing that's been the most effective Ryder Cup pairing for the US or team competition pairing for the US for the last you know, four or five editions of these things.

00:42:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a huge question. I mean JT. JT's you know, his weakness right now is driving. So I want to see him paired with someone who can who can you know, especially an alternate shot, who can get him in the fair way.

00:42:35
Speaker 1: I don't know with the driver, I don't know if he's playable an alternate shot.

00:42:39
Speaker 2: Yeah potentially not Yeah, yeah, he but he is. He just wakes up during these things like it's a different JT than pj to or JT in the Ryder Cup. So I'm I'm like, how for the I'm curious. I would love to ask one of these statistics guys, like how do you factor in like an element to a player like that where they just are a different person when it comes to Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups and match play.

00:43:06
Speaker 1: I mean it would be like the how do you how do you apply do you only look at Brooks Cupca's major major record like for years, like do we even consider what even in the CJ Cup. I don't know if the CJ and the c J Cup was in Korea at the time Brooks Cup. It was last on the PJ Tour. So you know, does he does he play well at the Byron Nelson?

00:43:26
Speaker 2: It should not be he warm up today?

00:43:28
Speaker 1: Like I don't even know that's that's true. Those are one of the great Brooks things. Was shown up like thirty minutes before a final carrying on Saturday at a at a major. All right, let's take a quick break to uh mention our partner mob Jack. That's mob J a K. Mob Jack makes the belts that I've been wearing all summer. This has been truly a delight of a discovery this year for me is the mobjact belts. I wear them in all different occasions, whether I'm casually going out to dinner with my wife or I am playing golf. Uh. You know, these belts are fashionable. They are well made belts. They are They're made by you know, listen, they're made by half a dozen crafts people. Uh they are. There are expert leather cutters, edge painters, and sewers. Yeah, every little detail like including putting the colored stitch that holds the buckle in place is done by a person, not a machine, who specializes in that aspect of belt construction. Uh. These belts are really great looking belts. I can't say that enough. They are. They are Every little detail is thought of and and these these uh people that started mobjack have been experts in the belt industry for years. So check out their stuff. I have the Southampton that I really like in particular the pattern. That's one that my wife picked up out. If you're looking for a specific one. If you get I like the Navy one. It goes with like everything. You can wear it with jeans, you can wear it with so much and so much stuff. Go to mobjackmob jak dot com. Use the promo code frieda Egg for fifteen percent off. That's Frida Egg all one word for fifteen percent at mobjack dot com. Big thanks to mobjack for, you know, really being a great partner and providing a great golf product. While we're on the subject of great golf products, we are having a Labor Day Pro Shop sale, So if you are interested in the in what we have going on there, check out the pro Shop. We have a sale that will start today and it goes through Labor Day. In the shop, you can, you know, get all kinds of stuff. We have a fresh new set of hats, we have polos, we have all kinds of good stuff. If you're a Frida Egg Golf Club member, this the sale extends to that. The only thing you can't get with the promo code Labor Day fifteen is coffee and golf bags, so use fifteen. Use Labor Day fifteen to get fifteen percent off. And the pro Shop that's Proshop dot the Fridagg dot com. And if you're looking for some new stuff, you might need some layers with fall around the corner. We got a lot of good stuff there. I was at our merch center the other day where we store all this stuff, and I had a hard time leaving without grabbing everything. So check it out at Proshop dot Theffridegg dot com. And thank you for all the support. Let's get back to Gabby Perzi. We talked talked about the Ryder Cup's obviously gonna be a huge discourse item the next four weeks. We get the Walker Cup next week, which I'm really excited about. But you were on site at Eastlake obviously you cover the PGA Tour pretty tirelessly. You wrote a great piece about Tommy Fleetwood and his win there. Uh what were what were your takeaways from you know, Fleetwood and kind of his journey to becoming a PGA Tour player.

00:47:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I was. I was definitely skeptical of the of the Tommy pursuit, and I'll explain my reasoning. I also, I felt very aware of it because the two Sundays that he you know, dramatically lost those tournaments in Hartford and in Memphis. I was the one assigned to like write the story live, and I was, you know, living and dying with every shot because I had to write a story like as it was all happening. And I definitely, definitely in Hartford wrote an entire Sammy Fleeman story that never got published. So in terms of my involvement in the subject, like it's it's deep. I also, you know, watching watching the way that Tommy Fleetwood play those like final stretches very much reminded me of some of the times that Rory McElroy has gone out and lost tournaments or failed to go out and grab the tournament. And there were like definitely instances where you know, you could see there were like there were true lapses in his mental game, playing more defensively, switching clubs at the last second. So in my mind, I was just curious, is he you know, he's playing so well and he's getting himself to contention the clear you know, missing piece here is just the ability to win and to go stick to your plan and do it. That being said on Sunday at east Lake, you know, he did exhibit more confidence that those those past four those last four or five holes. He also was, you know, gifted with Patrick Cantlay opening the tournament really poorly and Scottie Scheffler having zero control over his golf ball for once and still shooting like sixty six on Saturday route ridiculous.

00:49:08
Speaker 1: How I drove all, hit a ball in the water, hit the ball, ob.

00:49:13
Speaker 2: What did you shoot in the final round? I don't I don't remember.

00:49:15
Speaker 1: His score, but I went sixty eight.

00:49:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, sixty eight, And he shot sixty six on Saturday and was very grumpy in his post round for his conference. But I will say like there there were there were factors that allowed Tommy Fleewood to win his first PJ for thirty man Field, no cut event preferred lies like, yes, we have to mention all these things. But I do think I was proven wrong and that he was picking up information and learning from those from those past experiences. And I've had a really enlightening conversation on the eighteenth Green actually with Finno or Ian Phinis, his caddie, who told us that at the Travelers on the eighteenth hole, if you remember, he hit this really poor short iron shot that came up like forty feet short of the pin and he went onto three putt and if he had two putted, it would have never been in the conversation. But Finno told us that they had a really bad conversation over that shot, and they were switching back and forth, and you could see it happening on TV, and Finno has Catty said that he was kicking himself for weeks over it because he could have stepped in in that moment and made Tommy just commit to what they were thinking in the first place and not switching at the last second doubting themselves. And he made this mental note to and he referenced the podcast. I'm not sure what podcast it was, but the message was process before prize, So it was really, you know, sticking to the game plan, not changing things the last second. And he wrote that in his yard book for east Lake and he kept reminding Tommy of it and it paid off. That's what happens when you commit committing to shots. All these players say it all the time and we're like, what does that even mean? But this is what it means.

00:50:58
Speaker 1: It is like golf. You know, I think I said this on a pot, but it prays on insecurities and your discomfort and and indecision and these types of thoughts are the things that kill or kill you. And the idea of commitment and feeling like it's everybody's probably felt this in their lives that's played golf is like you're standing over a five foot putt and you have like a little bit of doubt over what the line is, like you've read it and you get over the putt and you feel like, I don't know about my read, Like your chances of making that pot are so much smaller than when you're like, this is a left edge putt. I'm certain of it, and I'm hitting it on the left edge, whether you're right on your read or not, Like the fact that you have the decision leads to a less committed stroke. And it's the same thing through the bag especially, you know, like I think people he sometimes on pins. It's like you look at some of these pins when you're on site and you're like, god, that's just like impossible to get to and it's you know, I think that's probably one of the things this year that I'm just most most amazed about with Scottie is people talk about is his iron play and how good it is and how good his targets are. But to me, the thing that stands out is his commitment to the target. And because he's so committed to the target that he hits these irons that are just like to these ridiculous pins pin high eight feet left, like right where everybody says they're going to hit it. But he never goes like the bail of that, like where the uncommitted myths is here, you.

00:52:46
Speaker 2: Know, never, never he I've had so many cool conversations with Randy Smith and with Ted Scott about Scotty's mentality when it comes to attacking pins, and it's almost like, you know, and people have talked about this before, but it's like playing the whole backwards, like he'll he'll be reading the green from the fair way, you know, how can I feed the ball in from this direction or that direction, especially at Augusta. And I think that's one of the main reasons why he's so successful there. But yeah, it's so cool. He's like an artist and and Ted Scott has described him as a handy man with a toolbox where he basically steps up to a shot, evaluates what tool needs, you know, needs to be used to basically solve the puzzle or problem in front of him. It's not about you know, where's the miss? You know, where am I bailing out? It's simply how do I execute this shot? What is required to do that, and how do I do it? And and he just does it every time. And it's it's this very simple mental strategy and mentality over a golf ball that a lot of people just can't achieve. And then when you're under the gun, that's when it goes away because it's hard for you in the first place. But with Scott, he just has that baseline that can hold up under any level of pressure.

00:53:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, he I I think like one of the one of the best. You know, he gets a lot of talk about his personality, whether it's like really fascinating to the masses. I think like that's something that I've I've stumbled across with like a lot of my friends who are just kind of casual golf fans. Is they like to talk about is he interesting or not? I think like for devoted golf fans, perhaps when he's most interesting for me is when he's like really breaking down what's in his head about a golf course. You see the mastery level of understanding how to tackle some of these places. It's it's just at it's at a different level. And I think that that understanding, plus his supreme talent, makes his ability to be committed at a level that other people just don't have. You're comparison with Tommy and Rory is an interesting one. I think something that they both share Rory's, you know, in the sense of what him and Rory's struggles obviously were the majors. Tommy's was getting across the line at a regular event. Rory wins a lot of events, you know, they just weren't majors for a long time. I think the thing that they also share is that you can see the tension and the weight on their face. Yes, right where these are two it's.

00:55:24
Speaker 2: A sunken in way or they like Tommy looked miserable out there.

00:55:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think like this is you know, you know, quantifiably, you know, two of the more normal people on the PGA tour in the sense of like who would you want to go grab a beer with? Like two people at the top of that list where you could talk you could talk to them about a myriad of subjects of life. Ye. And I think there's something too like the these are the these two people carry the weight the way that like normal human beings would carry away.

00:56:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have that relatability factor because they do let us in. You know, Tommy in all those post round interviews that he definitely did not have to do, he would fully admit like, yeah, things you know did not go how I wanted them to there, like I let it overwhelm me, you know there and he and you know, trying to keep learning from every opportunity, and it's like when will you know, when will that learning actually happen? You have to go prove it. I thought, Actually the quote that stood out to be the most from after Eastlake was how he was speaking about resilience and that you know, you can you can claim that you're resilient, but then you actually have to go prove that you are. And that's a great point. It makes it so much more difficult for these guys when you know the repeated failures, you know, it starts to build up this momentum and buzz around every time they're in contention. So Rory, every time he returned to the Masters, it was, you know, what's he going to do this time? Is he going to get close? You know, when he's in contention that it went off the charts. And then for Tommy it was every time he was close to a fifty four whole lead. The more more people start to pay attention, and that creates not only this like pressure on yourself that can come out performance wise, but it's a it's like a you know, pressure on your own self and your own ego and not you know, being crushed on a national stage. It's it's something that can affect you, like from a very human level as well. And I think that's where I see the comparisons between them especially, is because you know, we see how much this means to them, because they let us see it.

00:57:35
Speaker 1: I mean the relatability thing what Tommy went through. Can everybody at some level can relate to the idea of disappointment and not meeting the moment? And I think that's where on Sunday we saw this outpouring of you know, Lebron James Katelyn Clark like just engaged and I think like if anything like I think, like, you know, there's there's been lots of chatter about about the FedEx Cup playoffs, like this story is like obviously kind of like it these things this built over five six years. This is not a replicable thing, but what the what the playoffs being in this spot of sports dearth, you know. And now we've got the ratings this you know, most popular non major of the year in terms of how many people tuned in huge number for it. It does validate a little bit the move to getting this into August for the PGA Tour. It also kind of makes you scratch your head about the PGA just being like, yeah, sure, take our August date because now they're in May at like peak sports conflicts with the NBA, the NHL, MLB, and you see this great date and and it makes you wonder like, you know, if the PGA Tour could crack this playoff thing, it could we have just a wonderful little spot in the sports calendar.

00:59:10
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean yeah, the fact that like those names were paying attention and you know, just free promo for the PGA Tour is just amazing for them. But it wasn't you know, I think if there were starting strokes this year, that wouldn't have been the case. I think the fact that it was just a traditional stroke play shootout, you know, the added benefit of having ten million dollars on the line for the winner definitely makes the stakes a little bit higher. It just it shows also the potential that just like regular seventy two hole stroke play events have, you know, as much as we crave these like alternate formats, especially how I was even excited about, you know, the prospect of maybe match play in the playoffs and trying something new, but then you just remember that like the natural drama that can occur from just four days of golf with the best thirty players on the PGA Tour is going to produce excitement no matter what. And then you know, in the off chance you get something like Tommy Fleetwood occurring, that's a home run. But regardless, the baseline opportunities are pretty good there for the PGA Tour, especially in that time window.

01:00:22
Speaker 1: Like you said before, yeah, I think like, I mean, you could do nothing except move it out of Atlanta and move it to if you move this Denver or West. And he was simply by doing that and bumping the time slot. M like, if you you know, I know this is like the hipster thing to say, but if you did this at Chambers Bay and we're watching, it's a it's a venue that is Garrett Morris have made this point, and I think a million people have made this point. This is a venue that desperately wants a high level golf at it, right, and it's just like sitting there, it's like, okay, we could host this as a facility everybody can play, and we can host this in August. It's going to be clear there. It is going to be it's going to be on primetime and there's nothing else on We're the only show in town. It just to me, like you, there's a way you could just elevate this event by two million people by in terms of huge tunes, in just simply by picking a different venue, and like, yeah, there are sponsor implications. You have Coke, you have so other company, all these companies. But guess what, Like the more popular the event is, the more sponsors are going to want to be a part of it wherever it is. You know, like this is the way sports sponsorships work, Like the more people that tune in, the more likely chance that you're going to have successful sponsorships. And I think, like, you know, like there's one thing you can't get on the tour about. It's like they've had really successful sports sponsorship, sponsorship. It's like it's it's astounding how they've monetized the sport.

01:02:03
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. I think it would be cool to have like a like a tour Championship ROTA, and that's the way you can keep it land and involved. I don't mind having East having it played at East like like every four or five years.

01:02:14
Speaker 1: It just shouldn't be in August there, Like yeah, you know.

01:02:18
Speaker 2: I don't think, you know, I think my perception of us like changed a little bit being there on site and watching like a final day there like fifteen. It might be considered a stupid hole, but it does create trauma.

01:02:32
Speaker 1: It's an amazing, amazing hole. Yeah, for the end of a tournament.

01:02:37
Speaker 2: I mean, Tommy said he was just happy to find have found dry land, Like, that's pretty fun.

01:02:43
Speaker 1: It would not be a fun five iron to hit at all.

01:02:48
Speaker 2: I literally can't even imagine that.

01:02:50
Speaker 1: Let's do a couple of quick kind of wrap ups on the on the on the season. What was your favorite non major tournament of the year.

01:03:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was thinking about this. I think I'm skewed because of the ones that I actually attended, but I would say Pebble for me was incredible. I think it was just the perfect primer for the rory season that we eventually had, and him winning at one of these cathedrals of golf ended up being so much more significant than we could have imagined. But then also I really remember enjoying the final round of the Mexico Open with Brian Campbell and Aldrich pottguider like tooling it out.

01:03:39
Speaker 1: I love I love that you gave us like a you know, like a a golf golf Ziko answer, and also just a very mainstream one here.

01:03:48
Speaker 2: Yes, had I mean, I just remember like being fascinated by like Campbell and being I think the shortest hitter on the torror and then buck Eider just launching it but springing it all over the place and not being able to chip at all. And it was just like one of these things where you sit there and you're like, we cover the strangest sport.

01:04:16
Speaker 1: Honestly, Yeah, do you know what I mean? Yeah, the Brian Campbell year is like one of the strangest seasons. Two wins, like very few bade cuts, very few made cuts outside of the two winds.

01:04:28
Speaker 2: You know.

01:04:29
Speaker 1: I love it like a weird like a weird tournament, like along the same lines as like you think about like Memorial where you had Ben Griffin effectively on Saturday. It looked like he was just running away from everybody and you're like, oh, he's maybe he's like the best player in the world right now, and then Scotty Shuffler ends up, you know, just the way the swings of it. You know. Yeah, I don't think this was the I there's so many to choose from, Like, I don't think it was the most exciting of but I thought like Ryan Fox at the Canadian was like a nice tournament, him and Burns going back and forth, and it's like Ryan Fox get this guy that's like kind of been passed over for President's Cups, has played all over the world, has like a fascinating backstory where he didn't play golf really until age eighteen, and you know, here's this guy that's been this world player, like finally getting his like big signature win on the PGA Tour in a way was you know, I've gotten to know Fox, and I'm obviously colored by that, but like he's a great, genuine human being, you know, where like people don't realize this with like a guy like Ryan Fox, but like you know, like having his life settled is like a jop parany. Yeah, this is a guy that's like undeniably been one of the fifty best players in the world for the last five years, and he's living effectively out of a suitcase for the first half of this year. Until he locked down the win at the opposite field event he won, he didn't know where he was going to be living next year. And he has a young family, like two young kids. Like just the idea of like, yeah, we you know, I talked to him at the US Open. He's like he's like, yeah, we bought a house. It was like, you know, we've been living in a rental and like the idea of like putting down roots, we're going to live here for the next two or three years is something that I don't think a lot of people consider with the professional golf life. But like how unsettling it can be being someone that played, you know, this world schedule on the DP World Tour and you come over and like you don't know if you're going to make it and stick on the PGA Tour.

01:06:45
Speaker 2: Totally and you're in a totally unfamiliar environment. Like we heard I think Bob McIntyre speak last year about how tough it was to move to the States and like how unsettling it was to not have that same deep world tour camaraderie. Think Ryan has said the same thing. So it is like it's some in some respects, it's even more impressive what he's done, just knowing like how he really threw himself into this new world by just being full time on the PJ Tour.

01:07:12
Speaker 1: So we just threw out like six tournaments. Yeah, who's your breakout player of twenty twenty five?

01:07:18
Speaker 2: Oh, that's such a good one. I feel like we already went over it. But I think mine is going to be got her up. Got Yeah. I think I'm really excited to see him just blossom even more as as like a star. I just think he's a super real person, like even you know, I have a loose connection of my roommates, boyfriends, friends are like friends with him from New Jersey and just knowing that he's like a normal kid. He posted something last night. It was its Instagram story like going out at the Jersey Shore, Like it's he just has this vibe where I think that he can get a lot of people on his side if he continues to open up a bit. I also watched him chip for like twenty minutes at East Lake and he works with this short game coach. His name is Gabe Golf on Instagram Gabe Hrstett. Do you know who I'm talking about?

01:08:10
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm excited that.

01:08:12
Speaker 2: I was invested in like the short game coach like Instagram world.

01:08:17
Speaker 1: I think we need more figures than the chef and Mayo.

01:08:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, this Gabe is one of them. Gabe is one of them. He's he's extremely underrated and he coaches Chris and he was just hitting like Nipper after Nipper, like backspin from twenty yards away, and I highly recommend following.

01:08:37
Speaker 1: He works with Akha too. He's got to get it. He's going to get in with the TikTok generation, or he already is in with the Tap.

01:08:44
Speaker 2: He's definitely with them. He has a great Instagram presence.

01:08:47
Speaker 1: So following you know, mine's Ben Griffin. I don't think it's just like this is out of nowhere. I think, like, what's amazing is you see so often players like break out and play for like three three weeks really great. What's been super impressive to me is like you're like, Okay, he's gonna fizzle out, Like we're gonna have We're always gonna remember Ben Griffin month and it just didn't happen. He just kept playing great golf.

01:09:17
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah at the US Open that was so impressive when he was he was really up there. For a second, I thought we were going to see a Ben Griffin major.

01:09:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would I don't think the world's ready for that. I don't think TikTok's right for it.

01:09:29
Speaker 2: He's gonna have to up his blog game for the Ryder Cup. It's gonna be a lot of content.

01:09:33
Speaker 1: Him and Bryson. Maybe he can tap into Bryson's team.

01:09:36
Speaker 2: Bryson can lend him some video editors for the week or something.

01:09:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and that's that's you can show him the pathway to you know, being truly a great content creator. And in this era, let's do best best win of the year.

01:09:55
Speaker 2: Best win of the year. I mean, I don't think I don't think there's an argument PGA Tour Winner the Year. Gosh, I'm gonna go with Scottie winning by I think it was eight at then, just because I think I wrote that story like before he even teat off and it was awesome, and like I know that people say, you know, this isn't interesting, and you know, he makes it. He makes final rounds like just unwatchable. But I had to watch that tournament and it was incredible to see him dominate like that. I just I just feel like that tournament, even above all of like the comebacks that he's had or you know, crazy Sunday rounds from behind, like even at at BMW, Like seeing someone purely like just away in the field like that is something special.

01:11:04
Speaker 1: I think that win is so impressive because it's a golf course that like actively mutes, yes, the skills, Yeah, if you talk to any anybody in the analytics space, there's like they're like that that golf course should be hosting. It doesn't reward anything, you know, it is and for somebody to go out and just like I know, I wonder if like if you asked you, if you ask them, like what what was the end to end best performance of the year. You know, the Open was obviously like incredible, right, Like I think that was like would be for me, like the best performance of the year would be that Open, like where it's just like, holy cow, this guy's an like a but like for me that that event just winning that much by that much at a golf course that like seemingly makes it impossible to do that.

01:11:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't even that he like figured it out better than everyone else that week, Like he simply just hit way better golf shots and made a lot more.

01:12:06
Speaker 1: Pots and people will say, oh, nobody was in the field. It's like still level of golf is so high.

01:12:13
Speaker 2: The fact that he even played in that Like, I just love it. I love Scott I love I love Scotty domination mode.

01:12:21
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you throw people a bone. You know, PJ is in charge with making me not look stupid. So I'm gonna give I'm gonna give my most impressive win to Cam Young for being mister one thousand of the of the tour, you know, the golf. Him and Joseph Lavani are a golfs preeminent Cam Young fans, So I'm gonna give it to Cam Young. But I do think it's impressive. Like Cam Young's career has been kind of been, you know, like you talk about him and Fleetwood were like the two greatest players without a PGA Tour win, you know, and you look at what Cam Young had done in majors and it's like the guy like you know, I sound like, uh, you know, somebody trying to make a viral uh Instagram post. But people forget that Cam Young legitimately almost won the Cam Smith over Champion, Like he was right there, and he's been right there in a lot of majors, and and I just, uh, you know, Dune at Sedgefield wasn't a place that you know, in that that would necessarily scream Cam Young and just the improvement of the putting, Like this guy, this is a guy that I would not be surprised if he won a major Championship next year.

01:13:37
Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't be surprised at all. I also really loved how, you know, defiantly cam Young made his pitch for being on the Ryder Cup team at Eastlake this this past weekend. He really just kind of stood up there and was like, Yeah, I play really well in Majors I Beth Page Black is a great course for me. I'm heating up right now. Like he just laid it all out there, and I really respected that from him, and I do agree that that was a pretty impressive win, especially mister one thousand. You know, we can't we can't forget about that.

01:14:08
Speaker 1: We can't.

01:14:09
Speaker 2: We can't listen back to the hat, the makeshift hat.

01:14:14
Speaker 1: J We can't with that, you know, on the shotgun start. You know Brendan uh, you know, he's doing everything in his power to discredit the thousand wins. And this, this podcast will not lower, you know, itself to that type.

01:14:30
Speaker 2: We won't go there, We won't go there.

01:14:32
Speaker 1: You're uh, the last one. I think this is a quick one. I don't think we have to probably talk about it much major of the year.

01:14:39
Speaker 2: I mean it's got to be the Masters. Yeah, Yeah, I just I like remembering like just like the bodily sensations like that occurred, like while watching that final round in person, Like it was truly Like I don't I don't think we'll experience anything like that or I won't like maybe in my I wasn't there for Tiger in twenty nineteen, but like, I don't know what else comes close to that in our next ten twenty years of Masters.

01:15:07
Speaker 1: Everybody always talks about like the presence that that the crowd has at at the Masters because of the lack of phones. Yes, but I think like as I get further away from from it, I the more like what I remember is like how you've seemingly for all of Sunday felt not I'm not saying we felt what Rory felt, but you felt a fraction of what he felt. And like the like from like the there was before he teed off. You know, he talked about how it was the most nervous he's ever been on a first row up. Yeah, and like I think like whether no matter who you were, like you you don't really have a dog, Like I kind of just root for like exciting stuff.

01:16:00
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.

01:16:01
Speaker 1: Like at this point, like all I care about is like will this be fun to talk about? Yeah, but like you're standing on the first tea, you could feel like I felt it when you were standing on the at the range and watching them warm up putting, you could feel the like the tenseness of it. And then on that back nine, like the swings and an emotion where after he hit the t shot on twelve, you're like it's over, yes, fully, fully, and then he dumps it in the water on thirteen You're like, whoa, what do you like? This? Like sick the sickening because like if he if you lose, if you lost that, it's like becomes like, Okay, is there any coming back from this?

01:16:46
Speaker 2: Yeah? For sure. I like I watched the entire thing just by myself in the crowd, and like all you have is you know, obviously no phones, Like I had my notebook and I was just and I ended up about how like you, like, the crowd was feeling it with Rory the whole time, because there were these moments where you know, I saw people like burying their faces in their hands, or like a green Jacket was like sitting in the in the grand stand near me and just gets up and goes I can't watch this anymore leaves the grand stand, Like there were just amazing moments that final round where you could tell how emotionally invested everyone was, and it was almost like you were like willing it to happen, you know, while all those swings occurred, like the first hole going out and making double yeah, and then hitting it in the water on thirteen, missing the putt on eighteen to win it out right, Like there were there were three separate times where he threw away that golf tournament, Like when is the last time in a major we've had that many complete swings to what the outcome that everyone wants to happen looks like it's going to be total heartbreak.

01:18:05
Speaker 1: It what you said about like this is I think this is probably like a little behind the scenes of our lives at the Masters. But like I went to a baseball game with three friends yesterday and I was like very present during the game. Like but because I was with three friends, I was we were just chatting, yeah, and like I was like not as engaged in the game as if I was watching a home on TV. Right, Like, but at the Masters, like the way our jobs work is like you just like at a normal major. You're on your phone a lot when you're out there, but at the Masters in particular that one because of like you know, the way he the way the Sunday set up, it was Bryson or Rory, and then the way Sunday went it became just Rory until it wasn't. But like, because you're out the way the Masters works for us is you're out by yourself with no like nothing.

01:19:06
Speaker 2: No connection to the outside world, and no friends usually like no one with you.

01:19:12
Speaker 1: Nobody with you, and you are just like at a normal term, but we're inside the ropes and you're you're talking with like each other in the media. At the Masters, you're outside the ropes by yourself. You can't really stick with people. You don't I don't really like to be with people because then you're starting to think, like what other But you're just by yourself with no connection, and the only thing you can think about is what's it in front of you? I mean, like it's just a wild It's amazing. I like always like leave that week thinking about like how amazing of an experience it is to like truly be locked into one thing for a week, like, cause you get done with work and it's like I get done and it's like I just try and talk to my family for like teen minutes, and then like it's so you're up the next morning and it's back to like just solo focus on one thing.

01:20:06
Speaker 2: No, it's really cool. I feel like the you know, not encouraging other tournaments to ban us from inside the ropes. But like part of the reason I think I was even able to write that like final round story about Rory and like all the emotions was because I was not, you know, inside the ropes and I was out there, you know, experiencing it with everyone else, and I thought that was you know, that was really cool. And it's probably why you get a lot of great content out of the Masters versus other tournaments. You know, it's the Masters and it will always be elevated in that way. But the way that we cover the tournament definitely impacts like how those articles and stories come out.

01:20:43
Speaker 1: It's I'm like such a big believer in this, but like the it they constrain us the most. Yeah, And but like sometimes like constraints are like the best thing for a creative process, like and creative work.

01:21:00
Speaker 2: You to think outside the box. There's no other way to do it.

01:21:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like can be frustrating at times how little access you have in comparison, But then you know what ends up if you if you kind of can grow to like appreciate the constraint, you can yield you know, the best stuff. And I think it's one of the many reasons like why it's it's the best, maybe the best sporting event in the world. You know, yeah, it's Yeah, it's just a cool event. A cool event too, because it's like the weekend with no phones or no cameras allows like you just you know, like from like it just like a human interest thing. You just see like celebrities just like intermitting with like regular people, and it's like something that just doesn't speaking of you know who was just a row down from me at the at the baseball game yesterday. Matt Kocher.

01:21:55
Speaker 2: Was so much.

01:21:58
Speaker 1: It was a guy that only only golfers were recognized.

01:22:04
Speaker 2: I was thinking about my interaction with Harry Styles at the Masters, and then you go, guess who I was saying, comes.

01:22:13
Speaker 1: I should have asked I should have asked him last night about Keegan and I could have gotten a little tweet off that would have gone viral. But but yeah, thank you for coming out. You know, the Masters is it is where you get cool like uh, celebrity interactions in our job. But yeah, I.

01:22:32
Speaker 2: Know I will. That's the best day of my life for sure.

01:22:35
Speaker 1: Well you're gonna have better days ahead.

01:22:37
Speaker 2: I have the three minute long conversation with Harry Styles and like, I don't know what's better than that.

01:22:42
Speaker 1: You'll get you You'll probably got to play golf.

01:22:44
Speaker 2: With them at some point, I mean, not gonna live.

01:22:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for joining as always, pleasure. It's been amazing to read your work at the Athletic and then in the New York Times. Uh, it's been fun to watch your career kind of ascend through the years. And thank you as always for coming on the pod.

01:23:07
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Andy. I enjoyed it as always, and I'm happy to join whatever.

01:23:23
Speaker 1: All right, big thanks to listening to this podcast for all the support. Next week we will be diving into the Walker Cup with Jeff Shackelford and other guests. We're really excited for that event. We're excited for the Ryder Cup. The golf season is not over. I know we've got football starting, but the Walker Cup is going to be absolute musty TV. Along those lines, we did release a big video this week on Cyper's Point Durage people to go check that out on our YouTube page. That was I've got a lot of compilerary notes and just an absolute honor to be able to do so. Big thanks to Cyper's Point for the opportunity as well as the USGA to make a video about the golf architecture of Cyprus Point so check that out on our YouTube page. And big thanks to PJ Clark as always for editing and producing this podcast.