No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 825: Friday Chevron Championship Live Show
Episode Date: April 20, 2024We are 36 holes complete at the 2024 Chevron Championship with two atop the leaderboard. Jin Hee Im and Atthaya Thitikul are tied at -8 with Nelly Korda 1 shot behind. Our very own Lauren Coughlin pla...yed tough trying to keep the momentum going after he opening 66. She sits at T5 with a host of others. We run down the leaderboard, discuss the other events going on, and close with our ESPN+ experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Be the right club. Be the right club today.
Johnny, that's better than most.
How about him? That is better than most.
Better than most!
Expect anything different?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Live From the Kill House. Cody here. Sarge is taking control,
of course, joined by my guy TC. TC, how are we doing today?
I'm great, Cody. I'm great. Been watching the tournament. Actually just got back from a
little seven-year-old baseball game. Freddie's team won on a walk-off, so I'm absolutely buzzing from that, but excited to talk some more golf.
Jordan, Ms. Jordan Perez. Good evening. How are you?
What's up, guys? I'm great. I am so excited to talk about today. I'm just
fired up. I mean, guys, I know we love to delegitimize Chevron, but it has been a good day.
I agree. Yeah, completely agree with you on that. and would like to welcome to the live show famous from working with our friends over at the Friday, Meg Atkins. Meg, thank you first for
joining us, but how are we doing this evening?
What's up? I'm doing great. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me in here. Excited to chat
some Chevron with you. Been a fun couple days and I'll echo what you guys are saying. Pumped to
finish out this weekend and see what goes down. It's been fun.
Absolutely. 36 holes so far of really, really good golf. We got Nelly towards the top of the
leaderboard. LC still on that front page, but before we get there, I got to pay a bill.
Our LPGA live shows this year and all of our LPGA content is of course presented by our friends at Yeti.
We want to thank them for being the title sponsor of all of our LPGA content this year.
And nobody does it better, whether it's luggage, hard coolers, soft coolers, drinkware, clothing, you name it TC.
They got everything.
Yeti products perform when it matters most. Everybody, please head over to yeti.com for their complete product line and more.
Again, thank you to Yeti.
Thank you to Yeti on our Torasauce trip.
We are released this week.
And our 17 of our checked bags outside of our titleist glove bags. I think we had what's 11 Yeti checked bags plus backpacks
plus duffels. It was a sweepstakes.
It's a lot. So this is an interesting show. All right. Big, we just received reports that
Big has made it back from Mexico. Thankful that he is back on US soil, but the big guy had a week off
much deserved vacation. You got me and Jordan back from, we're usually back producing this
stuff. So we're kind of man in the ship trying to do both things at the same time. But guys,
we have a heck of a golf tournament to talk about. And I'm not talking about the one in
the Dominican Republic. I'm talking about the one in Houston, Texas, TC, where are we going to go? Yeah. I think we got to start with Nellie. I think that's where we
started the week talking about Nellie. I have a feeling we may finish the week talking about Nellie.
Got some contenders and some challengers kind of rising up the board. Atayah Titikum went from
lingering to definitely loitering to kind of taking over the show late this
afternoon. But I think that it feels a lot like Scottie Scheffler at the Players when
he didn't have his A game and he's just sort of, you know, kind of button it around and,
you know, looks like, all right, when he starts making a couple of putts or when he gets a little bit of
momentum going, he is just going to rise to the occasion. Nellie, it's felt like she's had her B,
B minus game and she's one shot back right now. Doesn't have to sleep on the 36 hole lead
and going for five in a row. It's wild. Some pretty heady stuff. Jordan, what jumps off the page at you?
Kind of like kind of what TC said. I mean, she doesn't have to sleep on 36 whole leads,
so she should feel somewhat energized by that and knowing that like, okay, like Atayah Titicum is
a zombie here. I got to watch my back. Jean Haim, same, sorry if I totally mispronounced her name,
but got to get in the lap here a little bit.
And I think that's only going to propel Nellie to saying,
hey, I can't have my B game here.
I really have to step this up.
And because for the past month,
it's like Nellie could bring whatever part of her game
that was all inclusive of her own and just kind of wipe the floor with everybody and now Nellie is just kind of put on notice.
I mean today she was fine. She was getting through and she looked she looked like she was hitting the ball well, you know, made missed a couple of puts that could have really helped her out, you know, in the long run, especially when the afternoon wave came in, but I really think she should be kind of put on notice just a little bit.
I think we've kind of been waiting for somebody to be there week in week out with Nellie challenging
her as she's on this truly like historic run and you know who knows what this run actually
ends up being.
I know the story of it either way is going to be the five event thing.
Whether Nellie accomplishes that or she doesn't. And it's so awesome.
Ataya Tentacle, she injured her thumb in the off season. This is her first event of the year.
She's somebody that we, last year, were like, holy cow, man, like, Ataya's playing really good. She
just couldn't win. And I think the best thing about this leaderboard so far is that she's back. And
it seems like maybe she might be the person that can run neck and neck with
Nellie Meg. Yeah. And the injury, I mean,
coming back zero reps and doing this,
your first two rounds at the gate is insane.
And she changed her grip because of this injury, like not a minor,
not a minor thing at all. And her press conference before before
play started, you know, she talked a lot about how great it was to be home, but how much
she missed being out there and how much you you know, really, you know, it's a long break.
That's a they I think they told her to rest like total rest for like eight weeks. So that's
a lengthy lengthy time to be away. So I'm guessing she
was, you know, chomping at the bit to get out there for many weeks before this came
up. And I thought we would get like a tune up either in like Phoenix or something before
and that didn't happen. So to come in here just fresh, you know, but but zero reps and
do this is crazy stuff. We'll see if she keeps it up, but gosh, she looks comfortable.
You never guess that, you know, she had a thumb injury, changed her grip and hasn't played in four or five months.
So it's wild stuff. But yeah, I mean, Nellie's won all these without Gino in the field.
And maybe Gino's coming to get her this week. We'll see. The storyline there, I think in our preview show, TC, we talked a lot about Angel and these
kind of lofty expectations and how Angel's first event back coming off of injury was
massively in Vegas.
It's the honeymoon phase.
And it's the honeymoon phase. And that's what I'm like, I hope, Geno, can we make it to
Sunday with this? New grip, strapped together.
She says that there's no pain in her thumb, even though it's still wrapped up.
And I'm, I wouldn't say that she's like treating it gingerly.
I think you're just overly aware of it just because the tape is there.
Yeah, it's a gosh, watching now are watching Lexi today.
We're doing feature group coverage and Lexi was in one of our feature groups and
watching her with the thumb and and I think the tendon rest, you know thumb and wrist and
That's not the injury you want
This is all for especially especially on the grass and especially her swing
Yeah, exactly. But I think I like I can't imagine you know haven't
Yeah, exactly. But I think, like, I can't imagine, you know, having something like that happen. She missed, you know, LPGA Thailand as well, like, which is obviously a huge bonus for her. And then comes back and yeah, 69, radically different courses, you know, four different tournaments. But I think starting with the double bogey today, and then studying herself and, you know, making the turn and one under par for the day was
pretty impressive to see her kind of just shake that start off, especially after a kind
of topsy turvy round yesterday. But I'm just looking at this leaderboard, Maya Stark,
kind of rising up the board, Andrea Lee, great to see you, Leme Ngo's name, Lottie Wode. I know
you want to talk about her, Jordan, especially, but there's just, there's some talent moving to
the top of the board. And I think for a big part of the day, it seemed like, all right,
maybe the leads does stay at six, maybe it gets to seven. And to see two people get to eight is,
you know, it's kind of, kind of a message to Nellie, to Lauren, some of the others of like,
hey, we're not going to stay in neutral here. Like, you know, you're probably going to have to get to
12, 13, 14 under part of win this thing. So I got a good real quick, a great little Maya Stark nugget for you from her little
post post round press conference.
So she was talking about her mindset and everything.
And our coach said, you know, you're not going to react to shots.
So she says, so I'm not allowed to swear this week, no hitting the ground with the club,
nothing like that.
I feel like that just takes me out of what just happened. And I think about what I'm doing moving forward. I talked to Peter Hansen,
former player. He works with Ludwig. He said, instead of saying, just have patience to Ludwig,
him and his mental coach worked on saying, just keep playing because then you can kind of put your
head like on the next shot. And I think that's been way better for me just both staying calm
with what I'm doing, but also being aggressive on the next shot. You'll love to see it.
You'll love that.
You know, I think that's the best thing about the Swedish Golf Federation is how tight they all are. They share swing instructors, you're not going to find a lot of them that still are really close with the Federation that haven't yet made the complete move to the states that have gone to different coaches, different psychs, different physios even.
And I think that's where, you know, they have power in that community there and it's awesome for my idea of Peter, a shout out there and really, I mean, if Ludwig's doing it and it's working for him, you can't really say that that's a bad route to go on. I had dinner on Tuesday night with
Maya's caddy. Awesome dude and he told me that. He's like, we made a goal. He's like, we were
chatting last week, texting back and forth on the off week. And the number one thing that we said
that we're going to stick to, he's like, it doesn't matter the outcome of the shots this week. We're
not going to cuss. We're just going to keep it moving. And if it's really bad, even if we rent
something, we're just going to keep moving along.
So I'm happy to hear her continuing that because they're such a great team.
But yeah, Maya up there shoots a 69 today, five under, currently T5.
And I think that kind of brings us to LC.
I didn't really know what to expect today.
She had such an awesome first day, opened up with the 66. A kind of shaky start out of the gates. I know that they were
nervous. It's a long sleep for her. Sleeping on the lead of a major championship. This
is kind of territory that she's never been in before. TC, what do you think? I mean, overall,
she kind of rode the ship out. 73 isn't that bad.
She did. Yeah. No birdies today. She did have the eagle on eight,
three bogeys. I was hoping she'd get one on 18 there, but I think overall she's right there.
T5, three back. Pairings aren't out yet for tomorrow, but I think
this should loosen her up. I think it's, all right, you got the experience of leading a major
under your belt now. Move forward with that. I think yesterday, I was talking to John,
I was talking to Lauren, and my mom texted me and she was like, oh, I just texted Lauren.
She's leading. And I'm like, don't do that, mom. Don't. And she was like, oh, I just texted Lauren. She's leading. And I'm like,
don't do that, mom. Don't. And I'm like, Lauren, put your phone away.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's very, you know, I think it's good to have that under her belt, but I think it's
also good to feel a little bit less pressure, you know, heading into Saturday. She can just go play
her game tomorrow. And she's good enough to win one of these. She's, she's great Tita Green, putter needs to stay hot. And, and,
you know, I was talking to John earlier tonight and he was, he got his KB Hanna hat. He was
like, I officially made it TC. I got the hat deal. And I said, no, when, when Lauren gives
you the full time job, officially, when and if, then they'll get you the Yeti hat deal. And I said, no, when when Lauren gives you the full time job, officially, when and if, then they'll get you the
Yeti hat deal. And then then you'll know you really, really
made it. So
they were a lot more active in the group chat than I expected
them to be last night, that's for sure. But, you know,
overall, an awesome eagle there, a couple, you know, three bogeys
overall, but 73 on a day that was full of nerves.
And I know that what she's thinking right now is that this is the worst golf that I'm going to play.
It's very difficult to follow up such a great round right there.
Behind her, you got Andrea Lee played with her in the Pro-Am on Tuesday.
She must have, you know, whatever Arian Foster was whispering to her when they're on the other
side of the fairway, she must have picked up something from
some him maybe that's some of that speed or something. But
they're right there T 10 at four under join with you leave me
know great to see her back. She had a heck of a round going on
her front side. Couldn't quite bring it home. And then JP I
want to set you up here. It's a lot of woads world. We're just
living in it
I mean what a phenomenal couple weeks of golf she's had going but I know that there you know
This is how she normally plays college events amateur events everything
She is she's a staple on the women's amateur scene and this is just kind of outside of Anwar
Like everybody else's chance to kind of recognize her game
like everybody else's chance to kind of recognize her game. Guys, my very first reaction to Lottie's round today was like Lottie Wode,
I wasn't familiar with your game even though I totally was.
Because it's okay, this stuck out to me in particular from Anwou,
which I found really interesting.
So her winning press conference, she talks about, I think someone asked her
kind of about her timeline and you know, turning professional now that she's got exemptions
and different opportunities coming without Anwar win. And she goes and she says, I'm
not too sure yet. And I think there was a little bit of scoffing is we're like, well,
girl, like you just won Anwar and you're a sophomore in college and you're already talking
like this. And clearly she knew what she was talking about.
I mean, kind of going into this week at Chevron, it's like, okay,
this is a great course fit for Lottie.
She's a long hitter, she's been hitting the ball extremely well between when I
watched her at Champions Retreat and when we watched her at Augusta National.
And I mean, just today, I came out of yesterday and I was like,
I feel like our lower M race might not be that captivating. I was like, I'm not feeling it. But my gosh, Lottie came out of yesterday and I was like, I feel like our lower M race might not be that captivating.
I was like, eh, you know, I'm not feeling it,
but oh my gosh, Lottie came out of the gates today.
It was just absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, just gosh,
and was making some really, really solid putts too.
I was so impressed and especially just kind of
with the level of tenacity and you know,
this is her first major championship start too.
I think that's something to really put into perspective. It's like the moment is almost never felt too big for her it seems
and I think we can kind of trace that back to almost she's almost always had that in her.
When I think back to when she won the I think what was it the British girls right before she
went to college. I think it was like a massive, massive winner.
I remember she was playing Caetano Fernandez,
Garcia Pollo, who was over at-
The longest name in the world.
Wait, what?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The syllables he got there.
Okay.
Yeah, many, many.
But it's just, I just, and this has been a fun stretch for Lottie in seeing that like,
there's so much legitimacy to her game
and she just hasn't had the right stages to put it on and yes she's played into man was and yes
you know she had some experience there but like clearly it's almost feeling like this is the year
of Lottie Wode and she knew that when she won Anwou. That's a lot that's a lot going on there
Jordan. I was thinking hey you know you make, you make the cut here, your first major championship.
That's cool. Let's let's try to T20 and keep it moving for a couple of weeks to get the NCAAs.
But you're sitting here going, no, she she's a big time player. She's ready for this moment.
I mean, at one point today, she was only a shot back of the lead right behind Nelly.
Like that's easy when like, you know, 30 people haven't teed off yet.
It was what it's still wild. Okay.
Not, not taking anything away from her. It's phenomenal.
The crazy thing is she seems like unaffected and unbothered by these stages that she's
been put on. And the wild thing is like, you know, she doesn't have a license. So she's, you
know, in her post round from Anwad, you know, the comments were like, yeah, she ubers to
the practice range every day. It's like, all right, now she's like, all right, I think,
I saw that she I believe she said she got the last seat on her flight here to Houston,
because she was, you know, scrambling to make sure that she was okay to make miss ACC championship and everything. And then she's like, Oh yeah,
I got to figure out a caddy. Oh yeah. I got to figure out a place to stay. She's got a local caddy.
The broadcast was kind of giving her a hard time. She's playing with Madeline and Gabby, I believe.
And awesome pairing. Yeah, really great. Gabby was getting like relief from, I think, a drain or
sprinkler head or something by the green. And they were like, Lottie's going to go ahead and let Gabby
get settled and whatnot. And then Madeline started putting and they're like, oh, like, you know,
you don't really see that in the pros here, but Lottie had a Mark Treball and Madeline was putting
and so they're kind of giving her a hard time with It's like, dude, like this is her first ever pro event. She's got a little fatty like it's in and she seems totally
unbothered. And you know, she's she doesn't have any of her support system, like none of her family
that was all there for Anwar. I don't know if they're going to come out now that she's in
contention, but I got a warning for anybody out there. Like her dad may, you may hear him instead of the leaf blowers on the
broadcast.
You like obliterated my eardrum at Anwah on 16 with like a,
go on when she was, you know, that putt almost went in.
And, uh, I don't know if they're going to be down there,
but it's just so impressive what she's done without any support system.
This you know, friend frenzy of a couple weeks and everything.
And yeah, the big thing that sticks out for me is that she just is unbothered by the stage
and by the you know, her surroundings at all.
That's the national failure.
It's wild.
Yeah, I think the, a, it's cool that it's even possible for her to be playing in this
right now where, you know, up until last year, this was opposite the ANA, uh, you know, out
and like basically ANWA and the LPGA were just clashing and it wasn't really, uh, you
know, the best thing for women's
golf.
It's cool that you had to choose.
Yeah, exactly.
There were a lot of annual invitees who would get invited to this event and then they'd
have to pick.
Yeah.
And then, so I think on that, it's also very interesting.
Lottie's what?
19 or 20?
She's never played in a major before.
Some of these ladies have played in majors since they were 11 or 12,
which is also kind of an interesting dichotomy there. And thirdly, she may be practicing with
Ludwig down in Tallahassee because he's living down there with Vincent Norman and a few other
Seminoles. So she may be picking up on some of that you know my historic Swedish you know Peter Hansen
mentality there being extremely process-based and confident and you know kind of unflappable so
her head coach Amy Bond I just want to add really quickly when Lottie One was saying like yeah Lottie
is has everything down to a tee she is so routine. Like everything is just dialed like this and that. And it
was funny because I guess in her golf, she's very routine oriented, very like committed
to certain things. And then off of it, she's just very low key and chill. And some of that
was coming out in the ANMA press conference, but we'd love to see more of that because
she seems like a cool gal.
TC mentioned first major and that there's a lot of these people that have been playing in majors for you know 10-15 years. Angela Stanford won. This is her 98th consecutive major, has been
playing in major championships since before Lottie was born, which is a crazy fact to think of.
It's going back. It's kind of disappointing that if you win the girls amateur championship,
you don't get into the women's open. Right. Like, or, I mean, I guess you don't get into
the U S open if you win the U S junior, get into the VM. But I don't know. I feel like
there should be, you do get into the US open. If you win the US Girls Junior, yeah. Girls Junior. Okay. Okay. See, like, that's something I'd love to see the RNA, you know,
adopt their bring in the Girls Junior champ to the women's open. I just feel like the
career path and the trajectory there seems like it's on a much shorter timeline. Junior,
all the way to, you know, pro versus versus the men's game as well.
So we mentioned Andrea Lee, you'll leave me know
with Lottie Wode there, T10, the others at T10,
Anna Norquist, the big Swede, rounds of 70-70,
you like to see that on a course that,
if you miss a green, you're gonna either hit it in the sand
or you're gonna hit it kinda in this fluffy stuff where you're just going to chop it out.
There's not a ton of short grass out there. And she actually likes that because she puts it.
She doesn't really have to chip anywhere. So this could continue to feed into there.
I did not expect Lottie to be low-brit here, but Jodi oradow, right there with her at T10.
And then we get to Lydia Ko.
TC, what do you think of Lydia's tournament so far?
Had her a lot today on featured coverage on ESPN+.
Yeah, kind of an uneven round today.
Three bogeys, flubbed a chip at one point, and then almost chipped the next one.
I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You got to putt that next one after you flubbed that.
But, you know, Iron Play was a little bit uneven.
She had a couple really, really shaky approaches.
You know, wedges were good in spots.
She had a couple like, biggest thing here is just,
it seems like you really got to earn the birdies
on the par fives, especially with how
they've had it set up. Like that that that whole location on
what was that for today, all the way back right there. I mean,
some massive greens, raised greens, all sorts of little
plateaus and you know, very, very Nicholas quadrant style
stuff going on in Carlton Woods.
We'll touch on the course and overall course stuff a little bit later. But that gets us to through our top 10. I think you know
minus four and who we have in this group right now. I know we're going to get to how far back is too
far back but I think that's a pretty solid group of people that you're gonna see the eventual champion rise up from there Jordan
Am I wrong with that assessment at all?
No, I mean I it
Yeah, I think early in the day we were feeling like okay
This is Nellie's like this might be over and I'm looking at the leaderboard now and I'm like, this is totally not over
Yeah, Meg, different?
No, I mean, we're halfway through. We're 50% of the way there. I think a lot can happen.
I do think like the course can be stretched out quite a bit more than what it has, which
I think plays into Nellie's favor. We were but I don't, I don't, we were expecting some rain,
right? Friday, today, Saturday. Yeah.
I was about to pull up the forecast here.
Honestly should be getting some showers like right now.
Yeah. I think we're going to get a little
overnight, but you know, uh, I don't know if those greens have the ability to soften up at all.
They seem so firm.
Yeah, supposed to be 50% chance of showers, some patchy fog in the morning,
cloudy chance of showers and thunderstorms, high highs in the lower 80s. East winds pretty similar to today and then cools off on Sunday. High is
only 66 on Sunday. So,
so happy I'm getting a weather report from from John here.
That's official, official meteorology report.
We'll see what happens. I mean, I think I don't know, there's,
there's some good players at three, like Stephanie Kuryaku.
Carlota got to two, she had a great round today 67. Brooks at
two, NASA's at two. Gabby Ruffles.
TC's going down the leaderboard. I think those are supposed to go down the leaderboard.
I think two is in it. One is too far back, in my opinion.
We'll get to that game later. Meg, closing thoughts before you get out of here. I know
you got to go do your motherly duties. What do you think? What do you think?
If I ask you who's going to win this outside of Nellie, who are you going to go with?
Uh, important note, like Nellie's played on the worst side of the draw too.
Yes.
So, um, I, if we're picking Nellie or the field, I'm in on Nellie. Um, I think you're right. Like
there's some names that that one under,
but I feel like that's a stretch there. Like Alison Corpuz is there. I think that's too
far though. Gabby's at two. I was hoping for a little bit more out of her today, but it's
just the crazy thing about this Nellie run is that you get the sense of inevitability.
And we got that Thursday when she's right there, right out of the gate.
And it's, that's the feeling I have still, which is wild to say only two rounds through a major.
Um, but like you mentioned earlier, whether she does it or not, the story is still the streak in this historic run that, that she's on.
Um, it's just, it's really hard to go against her. It's really hard
Yeah, I agree with that. Thank you again to Meg Adkins
You can find her at the Friday you you got to subscribe to the Friday newsletter you get your your weekly dose
I won't say daily dose but bi-weekly dose of everything Meg content there. Thank you so much for joining
us. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and, and we'll see.
You're welcome, guys. Thank you for having me crack on. Cheers.
All the things
there you go. Yeah, bye bye, Meg.
I work real quick before we get to our next guest. Okay. I got a
shout out Shinsel bang here. Okay Bang here. She shot 65 today. She's currently sitting
T5, 74-65. Shot 31 on the front today. Went birdie par birdie eagle birdie on 5-9. and truly a Shin-Seul Pang. I was not familiar with your game situation.
I'm proud of you for jumping on the name there because TC, we were going to get to our ESPN
plus coverage.
I was kind of getting drug last night by the Korean delegation on Twitter for my mispronunciations
of a lot of these names.
None of them were out of offense.
I was not trying to be malicious by any means, just trying to get through it
when there's a lot of things going on live.
People are talking into both ears.
You're trying not to mumble and slur and everything else.
But TC, let's pay a bill real quick before we get our guy in KVV.
Hopefully people have read his article up on nolayingup.com.
Talking a lot about Nelly.
We're gonna welcome him in to highlight that
and kind of talk about what he's seen so far
of Nelly through 36.
But this is brought to you by our friends at Titleist
and the Vokey Design Wedges.
And we got a couple of notes here from the Titleist Tour Truck TC.
I stopped in there on Tuesday, saw our friends, and they got some wedges that are absolutely
dialed in this week.
Once again, there's more Vokey Gap Sand and Lob Wedges in play this week at the Chevron
Championship than any other brand.
Same as the Yogosta National Women's Amateur and the Masters.
Looking at the lob wedge,
a lot of tee grinds and L grinds went into play this week. Conditions at the Woodlands are ideal
for those lower bounce lob wedges. Fairways are cut very tight. The greens are firm, which requires
players to hit plenty of high and soft shots around the greens. I think that's exactly what
we've seen so far. Yeah, tee grind is honestly, it's been a game changer for me. You, I mean, people rightfully
so shit all over my wedge game, especially my chipping, uh, just all over the internet.
And I can confidently say, uh, you're going to see some better wedge play out of Tora
sauce, like the,, like the upcoming episodes.
Cody saw it firsthand.
And I can chalk up a lot of that to the T-Grind, both out of the bunkers, just full shots from
the fairway and shipping as well.
It's that low bounce.
It's like four degrees of bounce.
And I love it where you can open it up and that leading
edge doesn't really come off the turf. Where I feel like on some of those high bounce,
I play a 58 degree on some of those high bounce wedges, that leading edge comes off the turf and
you feel like you're going to cut the ball in half sometimes when you're trying to open it up,
which for me is not a good feeling for you. And then I end up chunking it because I'm
afraid to come up out of it. So anyway, go get yourself a tee grind.
TC is absolutely dialed. The reason why he is dialed in is because we've all been through the
fitting process and experienced the benefits of getting dialed into the right loft, bounce,
grind combinations for your swing and course conditions. It's absolutely critical to playing
your best. You'll have more confidence. It's absolutely critical to playing your best.
You'll have more confidence. You're not going to cut the ball in half. You'll have more shots
around the greens and you'll get the ball up and down more often. Specifically those new Vokey SM10
wedges. They got 25 different loft, bounce and grind combinations. If you're not sure where to
start, go to Vokey.com. They have a great wedge selector tool that will get you recommended
for a setup and answer a few of your questions about your current game, current setup, and
typical course conditions. But if you want the best option, just go get fit. You can find a,
you know, they have a fit locator on their website as well, or hit up the guys at TPI
and try to get something scheduled there. Head on over to Titleist.com slash fitting to learn more,
find those fitters in your area.
Thanks to Titleist and the Vokey team.
Let's bring in our guy, KVV.
Again, we talked a little bit about his written piece
this week, but KVV, what's stood out to you so far?
36 holes in, where's Nellie at?
Just the professionalism of their
game right now like right.
It just it didn't seem like she played remarkable,
but she just is seems like she's on
kind of like slow cruise control
like nothing no drama,
no like stressors over stuff,
just kind of mashing it down the fairway.
Every time putting the ball in the
center of the green when she has to.
I mean like you know two is a
great example, right? Today she bogeys double bogeys the first
puts it, you know, probably 25 feet from the pin. The safe
smart shot rolls in that putt. It's like OK, like if you're
going to do that, like you're just going to dominate. I agree
with listening to Megan. It just feels kind of inevitable, right?
She's just this is how I hesitate to say this, but like
this is how Tiger used to win majors used
to feel like he didn't take the lead like right away. He didn't
take the lead in the second round, but he was coming. He
was coming and it's just like it's awesome to see her just in
total control. And by the way, I think you know, please
address, please address what's going on. If you're looking on
the live show here and you're seeing me for the first time without a beard, I was inspired by Nellie's
like seven week break. You know, she took off from the game, came back and just kicked
ass. I was like, you know what? Like we all need a little reset. So, you know, went off
to Prague myself. She got shit. No, I just went home and was like, you know what? I was
feeling a little weary for the masters. Maybe like I was going to say she's stuck in the
beard. It's like the whole thing had to had to go this this has to be prime Augusta
Like we get Augusta hangover where you're just like on the road been working, you know
Sun up till sundown half sundown every single night. You're trying to keep up with all your boys out there
It seems like you came home and you're like, wait a second. I need a fresh start
Yeah, also, I think it makes me look about 20 years younger. So I'm looking to sort of set back our team demo a little bit. So watch out Jordan, you know, hanging, hanging the same,
same demo now I'm going to be like using, you know, your language, your, your teen langs.
So don't come to my DNC throne. That's right.
Okay, maybe we got a couple of people in the chat here. They're shouting you out
though, because you're actually using blades again. So I think the year of the blade, that's right.
Your clan, mafia folk, they're happy that you actually get me fit in those six eighties anytime,
you know, I think that's on you, buddy. KVVV I want to applaud your setup too.
You've been doing some work there at home.
It's looking more and more coherent and really focused behind you there.
Got a little Isbell stuff there, got a little golf stuff, a little Marco Simone.
I know Marco Simone is close to your heart TC.
It is.
And then strapped some strapped posters.
So hopefully starting to feel heart TC. It is. And then strap some strapped posters. So hopefully
starting to feel a little bit at home after a year, you'd think that the guy get his studio
set up. But yeah, and the Peloton made the trip excited to see that back there.
Andy was asking earlier and I asked on the on the live stream earlier, Lottie Wode, if she
continues this, she needs to sign up for ladies European tour membership because she
needs to play in the Solheim Cup. There you go. Like that's a that's a weapon for them
coming up and you know going on the road this year at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. She
might be the lady Ludwig TC. Exactly. That's what I'm trying to tee up here, you know? I was out here making calls for the Curtis Cup, but like, let's just skip that altogether.
Yeah. How are you calling her?
How are you calling her? Curtis Cup squad.
Lady Ludwig. That poor TV and I.
Ingrid's still coming. What is going on here? She's not even the... You're jumping countries.
I understand you guys are trying to keep this on Team Euro here, but I will say this, since we're talking about Solheim Cup, we touched on this during the
broadcast. Currently, the way that the European team looks is a heck of a lot different than
any of the last three teams that they put out there. Charlie Hall, of course, still
leading on top of that list of the L.E.T. list. So they run off two of them L.E.T. and then the Rolex list. But
Charlie, Alexandria Fosterling, Ana Peles Trevino, Carlota Bronte, and then Celine.
Celine firmly held that spot in down, or top spot down last year based off of her play
just, you know, the string of wins that she has. She's in jeopardy of not even making the LET list.
She's gonna, you know, she'll be saved by the Rolex list,
but when you get towards the bottom of them
and why this is important this week is because, you know,
it's major championship and I understand they have five
of them, but they get a lot of points here.
And specifically for, if you're a full-time LET player
that happened to qualify here, like this is where you need to make your move.
Yeah, it's I think Celine, especially after, you know,
she missed the cut this week,
especially after a kind of a weird showing in Spain
last year where she just didn't, you know,
allegedly didn't want to play with certain players.
Not so much based off play, but I think more based off personality. Team room. Yeah. Team room stuff. She needs to turn it around
because not quite the start that that she's envisioned here. Totally. KBV, you wrote an
excellent piece on Nelly. I think from the time that you were able to stop thinking about the Masters and you focused your attention to Nelly and this major championship,
what really stood out for you while doing the research for the piece?
I think just that Nelly is learning still, even at this point in her career, the balancing act between being great on her terms and being great as for the sport.
I think that's going to be something that she's going to struggle with.
She's naturally just kind of an introverted person.
There's a little bit of shyness there and she's learned how to deal with that and
learn to be in the public spotlight.
But when you're a great, great player in a sport that is trying to bring in
viewers, however you can, you're going to be asked to do a lot of stuff that you might not just love. I think she's done a pretty good job with it. But it was really interesting to hear Stacey Lewis kind of say like she needs to be doing more. She needs to get in here and be in here. You know, we've given the media a couple hours a week. And as hard as that might be for Nellie, I think that like it's kind of the one, you know, tide is lifting all the boats, right? If Nellie were to do that, I think that you would see more interest.
I mean, we're going to, if Nellie does pull this off, I think you're going to start to see a lot of fringe fans be like,
yo, I got to check this out.
Like I want to see her.
So I would love to see her like on the podcast.
I'd love to see her, you know, doing sports center.
I'd love to see her do it all kinds of stuff.
And she's good at it.
Like she, she isn't like the most dynamic
personality, but she's really smart. She's really interesting.
And she has a lot of interesting background and life experience.
And I just think as hard as that's going to be, that's going
to be part of what's asked of her. And I just, you know, my
kid is asking me questions about her tonight. Like what's you
know, Nellie's parents, grandparents from Prague, like
what, you know, tell me about her dad. And so I'm filling her in on all this stuff. And you know, part
of that is like, she's slowly been willing to open up about
some of that stuff, but she is super private. And she just is
gonna more feel more comfortable being in her bubble. So I think
hopefully the piece kind of captured a little bit of that
where she's talked a little about this year about, hey, I
need to like, disappear into this kind of silo after these wins, I need to kind of get away from everybody
be by myself. That's, you know, traveling by herself this year
has kind of been a big step in her maturity. And, you know, I
think that's kind of cool. Like I love the idea of people like
figuring out who they are in their 20s, and sort of using
that for professional success going forward. So I think it's been fun to watch her blossom in that way this year.
It's also interesting to like having a, having a sibling on tour,
you know, your entire career and then kind of, you know,
Jess obviously having her first child and taking a step back from,
from pro golf a little bit right now. And, and, you know,
having that opportunity to, yeah, for
the first time really be able to, hey, you know what? This is actually my routine. That's
not my routine because my sister told me to do that kind of thing.
I think also just with Nellie, people want her to open up or do more pressers or do more
media or whatever. None of that stuff matters unless she's winning. I feel like in the past,
it's been kind of foisted on her of, hey, you're the face of women's
golf and maybe to a certain extent, she felt like, hey, I haven't earned that. I've won
one major, haven't won a lot the last few years. And some of that's health related,
but first things first, I think if she starts getting the wins and all that, then maybe
she's one of those people that actually feels like she's earned it and then feels like,
hey, you know what?
I can let my guard down a little bit or I can be myself a little bit.
This is truly on my terms now, instead of people just telling me that, hey, I'm this
appointed face instead of having earned it.
Totally.
I mean, she has no interest in being an influencer, right? Like she's, she's here for the golf and she's a golf nerd. And I think that's kind of really cool,
you know, the same way that Tiger was a golf nerd and didn't feel exactly like super comfortable
sharing a lot of himself. Now she's, you know, a 10th as famous as he was, but I do think that
there is some sort of similarities there of like, Hey, I only want this because like the golf is the ultimate goal. And so, you know, I get why Molly and the commissioner, you
know, is asking her to do a little more. Some of the other players want to do a little more
because they see the benefit of it, you know, that, that having her be on sports center
would be huge for everybody. And it's just going to have to sort of find the right lane
to pick for herself in those situations. She just loves ball. She does.
I mean, you watch a shot on nine today. Like that was so cool. She's in the sand.
That is like a nightmare scenario for me. Like the 110 yard wedge from like a, you know,
fairway bunker and the balance that she had to like stay down in that shot and hit it smart,
you know, hit it 10 feet below the hole and roll that putt in. Like that was awesome. I was like, man, this is a professional golfer. When I think, you
know, three, four years ago, I thought like, oh, like beautiful swing, but like doesn't
quite understand maybe some of the shots that she needs to the trajectories that she needs
to control. And that was just like, wow, she is figuring this stuff out.
Yeah. You mentioned Nellie, you mentioned she's not an influencer. But there are a lot of influencers out there
that use her swing, specifically for engagement. And I think
there's so much more to Nellie and her golf swing than just it
looks good on tape. And I just want those people and you see it
when they live in this social media world where it's like
everything's directly in front of you like, yeah, go like
watch her play around. yeah, go like watch
her play around. Yeah, go.
I mean, I put that article I put that line in the article Cody
almost says like a jab at those people is like, okay, if you
want to share Nellie swing all the time on Instagram or on
Twitter, and be like, describe Nellie swing and like, one emoji
or what's one word is, then you better also be like covering
women's golf. Like I don't be about about it. Sort of like, you know,
poaching in to sort of like sneak the engagement
out of stuff, but then have no idea like what Nellie's
like career has been like, or you know,
have any, you could name a single tournament
that she's won this year.
That's why I wanted to sort of call out a little bit
of those people's like, hey, we're all like this.
It's really fun to follow the LPGA tour.
And there's a, I'm sure there's some guys out there
listening to this pod who is like, Oh, I don't know, man.
Give it a shot and give Nellie a shot because it's, it's fricking really fun to watch.
I really hope it doesn't rain much tomorrow and, and, and tonight.
Cause I think with Nellie's spin, she spins the ball a lot more than most of the other
players out there and most of the other players up towards the top of this leaderboard.
And Lauren does too.
Lauren's got a nice, nice trajectory. there and most of the other players up towards the top of this leaderboard and Lauren does too.
Lauren's got a nice trajectory.
I think these greens staying firm is really an advantage for Nelly.
And then I mean, shit, looking at the rest of the kind of the next six weeks on the LPGA
tour, like they go to Wilshire next week, like that's, or not next, or yeah, next week,
25th, 28th. That's a, you
know, super kind of firm fast golf course. They go to, you know, cognizant, that'll be
a little smaller, up and up or Montclair, that'll be a little softer up there, but Liberty
National and then they go to Lancaster for the like, like, what a stretch coming up on
the women's side, like, you know, this major and then basically four out of five weeks there through end of May into
into early June. That's like it's gonna be
this is the meat of women's golf season right now and it's great because I think on the men's side things kind of
kind of taper off. They die out. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know really up until
PGA championship in a few weeks, like it's, you know,
or kind of a month, like we don't really have a whole lot going on on the PGA tour side.
So I mean, I know you're pumped for, you know, Craig T. James Ranch here in a couple weeks,
TC, but you're right. Venues matter. And these the stretch that the LPGA tour has
coming up is, is their prime time stretch. Like these courses are absolutely amazing.
Yeah, I don't know.
And Nellie just impresses me everything she does.
DC, you mentioned hopefully not getting too much water.
They had the sprinklers on that course all the way up
until we started playing the Pro-Am.
And theoretically they were wet from a ton
of sprinkler coverage, and they
were just as firm as they played the last two days.
I don't think the soil there, whatever sod that they used to lay down on the tree...
Or they sandcapped it.
Yeah.
...on the approaches, or excuse me, and the fringes, like, I just don't think it's possible
right now for them to accept that much water.
It's just like draining out out because there's no way that
the sod actually has a root structure for it to like go down into the ground and be the moisture
is not isn't used for anything it's nuts how firm they are and i'll say this is it possible
is it possible yeah is it possible to say that like, I think they've played great.
And I know that there might be a little scuttlebutt out there because a lot of the women, they
don't, their swing speeds are not up, they're hitting longer clubs into these and they're
truly having to play runups up here and trying to figure out what their actual carry and
then release yardages are versus a player like Nellie who has plenty of distance
and has the speed where she's putting spin on her ball. It's such an advantage for these
longer players specifically on a course like this.
It's a tough it's a tough course to have really firm greens and really firm aprons too because
a lot of pushed up greens a lot of Nicholas quadrant stuff going on. And yeah, I don't
know. It's going to be interesting how they set it up this weekend. Because I've been
shocked at how, A, I think they've brought up some of the T's, but B, I think the whole
locations have been pretty tricky, for the most part. I mean, the par 3s are tricky out
there, really shallow greens. So shallow greens plus firmness,
not a lot of green in them,
but you do not wanna be short-sided on those.
And then the par fives,
where you're gonna really make,
hey, it's been tough to get it close on some of those.
Can I just shout out guys, Nellie's lag putting,
like her putting from distance,
like she left so many pots stone dead today,
whereas like right in the throat
tap in like no stressor. I mean you Cody you know you saw her
at the British Open last year. I watched her really closely at
the US Open like the putting could come and go right. It
could be streaky. She could put a lot of stress on herself when
the ball striking wasn't perfect. It's just so cool to
watch her basically just kind of walk off the green and kind of like shrug and be
like, All right, well, I might have let that one out or might
have but I left the next one like absolutely just to tap in
and I think that, you know, I know the putting stats are
similar, but it sure feels like there's a lot less strain on
them. Right now.
I know I go back to what Justin Ray told us to KVV and I'm like,
it's not, it's impossible that her putting stats last year compared to this year are close
to the same because just visually you're like, it's so
much better.
It's truly so much more confident, right? She just
looks like she's trying to make the long ones instead of just
score, you know, get them down there. And I just I don't know,
like the eye test to me says like absolutely better.
Yeah.
Uh, and, and really I'll say this for both rounds.
Um, you know, she sits here seven under through two rounds and both of her
opening holes each day are not how she drew them up, like the doubles to start
today, but really if you go back like to her opening hole of this tournament, she had kind of shaky
wood off of number 10 and then just got absolutely boned and clipped that single branch that she
couldn't, knocked it straight down and then was kind of on her back foot trying to get the ball,
trying to save a four there, ended up making five. And then it was kind of like, she was kind of
nervy there through 11 and 12 and really
until she got to that part three absolutely stuffed it missed the putt and then ended up making birdie
on the part five i mean it's not each one of these rounds uh she's had adversity in it and she's just
completely let it roll off her back she's like yep okay just gonna keep moving got 18 more holes
now we are talking like this is a little bit of a foregone conclusion. You know, I see my guy Randy's in the chat saying maybe Neil was low on the 11
majors. I was going to ask at what point do we do we owe Neil a mea culpa? Like how many, how many
majors does Nellie have to get to? So, so for, for background here, Neil called over under was 11.
I think he said she's going to win at least 11 majors.
By the way, you can't set the over to under number at like,
it's got to be like 11 and a half.
Yeah. He was basically like, now he's going to win 11 majors. She's one one currently. She's 25.
Granted women have five majors per year, but what number does she need to get to
where we should stop shitting on Neil?
Like six, like halfway there?
Yeah, she gets six and she's 28.
I think then Neil gets to peacock a little bit,
but until then, like, I'm not sure.
And she's, you know,
she's got a pretty long language swing
that which should age well,
but she's also had some injury issues as well.
So, but it seems like she loves golf to the point of, language swing that which should should age well but she's also had some injury issues as well so
but but it seems like she loves golf to the point of like this is what she wants to do you know up and now this reminds me so much of the scotty talk that we had post players going into houston
and easter sunday he's gonna rise he's gonna keep the streak going guys and we're like wait a second
like the dude needs to get like a second
major. How about we get Nelly a second major here first, before
we start talking about double digits.
And I will say like we you know, prior to Chevron last year, we
sort of said like, this is a moment for Nelly, like Nelly can
run down these people. And she just kind of had nothing going
on all day. You know, she makes that eagle in the last hole. It
was like, it was never actually in contention.
It was very much like a Wikipedia sort of feeling like a top five or whatever.
But so, you know, there isn't, it isn't a sure thing like down the
stretch of some majors, she's kind of been meh, but I, right now it just
seems like a different person just seems like a killer in contention.
I have to think, right.
TZ, if you said it, if it's firm,
this is like, the one thing that makes me happy
is like the major, it's a major conditions, right?
It's a 68 feels really like a good score, really earned.
And then that's how I wanna see a major contested
where, you know, the final, let's say the final
is eight under, nine under here to win.
That might be even high, you know?
And that would be a great test,
I think, of skill. Yeah, I think I don't know, I'm keen to see what what Ataya does. I'm keen to see
what Heyron you does. She's, you know, she won last year, she won in Arkansas last year in,
towards the end of the season last year. Maya is a good contender. And you know, I'm,
I'm buzzing to see what Lauren does. I think Lauren comes back out studies herself
and starts starts playing aggressive golf again. And, you
know, is right there. I want to see Lauren in one of those
final two groups on Sunday, you know, because I think I believe
in her and I and you know, I know a lot of other people do
too. I want to see
I want to see john in the heat of it too. That's how I got to hang out with him. The
Masters are so much fun. Walk around and I was like asking
her like, alright, how would you hit this shot in 11 Lauren and
how would you take on this, this pan? It was really fun to like
pick her brain and talk to her about golf stuff and and then
got to talk to Big John about, you know, like how you how is
the caddying working out? Like how you you know, and he's,
he's very much taking it so seriously, you know, he's
getting up every morning at six and he's walking the courses and doing,
he's shadowing the other caddies to sort of figure out what it's like to be a
real caddy. And you know, he's almost like,
I think they're figuring out like their relationship a little bit on the course
and you know, not saying sorry or that,
making sure she didn't believe in him a couple of times. And she,
there's a couple of times where she told me like, he told her
like, all right, 135, you know, right here, it's a it's an easy
nine iron. She came up way short. And he was like, what,
what was the deal there? Like she hit that fat. And she's like,
no, I hit pitching wedge. He's like, what? Why? Just like, why?
I didn't think I didn't know if I trusted you on the yardage, or
she pulled the wrong club instead of like letting her hand
the club. And like those kind of things are, you know, that's natural growing pains. But I, you know, to see how much
success they've had already is
like really cool. That's
terrifying as a spouse. Oh,
totally. Just to think about
that. He's not a spouse inside
the ropes. Come on. No, I know.
But man, she's got to come.
You're right. Like the pressure
on a major championship of
like, oh, yeah, I've never done
this before. Like I actually
have to get all this stuff
right. And it's your livelihood and like it's the whole family's livelihood. major championship of like, oh yeah, I've never done this before like I actually have to get all this stuff
Right and it's your livelihood and yeah, like it's the whole family
That's crazy one of the biggest person in the year
TC it felt very much like us, you know talking all this stuff about oh, yeah, I changed this about the broadcast
Why don't they do this and then you like finally get put on ESPN plus for something. You're like, oh wait
Where's the direction? Where are we going next going next oh you want me to talk now I
thought he sees talking all right I will say this you know I had dinner with hats
it's Maya's caddy and we met up with a bunch of other caddies afterwards and
then we went over to Lauren's mom and dad's house at the Woodlands. And sitting there talking to John,
I think the biggest compliment that the rest of the caddies
that were there, and they said this,
first of all, not in front of him.
And then when he came back out,
they said in front of him as well is just honestly,
how much work John is putting into it.
He's not out there because he's LC's husband.
He's there because regardless of what was going to happen,
this is what he wanted to do.
It's a surprise that he got her bag right now,
but he quit his former job to go travel,
to be with his wife, weekend and week out,
and to caddy on the LPGA tour.
And the veteran caddies that are out there are so impressed
because just like you said, KVV, he's out there
super early in the morning learning to plot stuff. He's
picking everybody's brain. He's trying to become this
professional caddy. And it seems like he's doing a really, really
good job. And when you have those guys, some of them been
have been out there for 303540 years singing his praises. You're doing something right.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think there was some talk and I think
it may still happen there. He was going to kind of do a
little bit of an apprenticeship with a professional caddy is
going to shadow you know, on because former caddy and sort
of figure it out. But who knows like, heck, if you win a major,
you might not even need that aspect of things. You might
just jump the line right into into the catbird seat. He's gonna lotto it. Yeah he might
become the agent who knows maybe the manager he's like I got my cut of that you know major check now
I can just uh coast the rest coast the rest of the year off being manager. They've got a comfy pairing tomorrow. They're with my, uh, and I'm a Katsu and Lauren off
at 1108 local. So, uh, a Taya, Jen, he, M and Nellie great pairing. And then Lottie
Wode, Andrea Lee, and you leave me know, that's three very promising young players there as
well. So, um, guys, I think it's time to ask a question. How far back is too far back?
T.C. I'm glad you asked this.
So right now we got two at eight under low scores Ben 65.
I think.
I'm going to go with two wonder the group at
two wonders too far back. Yeah, I think that's what I would
pick too. I mean I look in at you know. Corpus you know you
could you could see two great rounds from her that one but
it just it just feels like there's no way that someone at
one is going to shoot 267s, whatever, and then Nellie is going to back up, right?
Like if those scores are out there,
somebody at the top is going to be able to shoot 70-70.
So I just don't think anything outside of two
even is a sniff at it.
Yeah, and that's leaving, Carlota can go super, super deep. But she's also, you know, pulling everywhere she goes.
So she might get chased off the course.
I'm trying to think who else in that 201 under group.
I mean, it sucks.
Gabby.
Yeah, I could do well, but we had Brooke on coverage today.
Her ball striking. You know, she usually she hits the crap out of the out of the golf ball from like the tee box. It doesn't matter if it's a driver or three wood and I always thought that her ball striking was that cleaner than it was today. And I was like, it was kind of shocking, to be honest.
to be honest. Putting didn't look great either.
So I don't leave that but off the T like why are you hitting
driver that you know, like is forcing you into all every
single fairway bunker possible and then it's just, you know,
highlighting the fact that you're kind of, you know, your
ball striking isn't the best right now and you go and you're
just chunking fairway, you know, fairway shots out.
All right time for picks.
I mean, I'll stick with Nellie, you know, I will say if I can write about the
winter prior to the tournament, you know, real difficult pick there to pick the
outright favorite, but I go ahead and say that she, she wins two majors this year.
And this is the first one.
This is like gonna go down as like the best year of,
well, you know, Lily won two last year,
but sort of answering like that, the bell.
I'm like, all right, you know, now I'm volleying back
and now I'm saying I'm the best American.
Welcome to the team KVV.
You know, we've talked about this at length so far this year.
Mr. Landis, the haters that are out here.
I've claimed I said this from the get go about Nellie TC is going to say something now because
he's on this on the spot.
There's no way that anybody cannot say Nellie right now.
I think it's a tie.
Thank you.
Okay.
I think I'm not worried about a honeymoon period at all. No. I don't know. 6967
seems like she's she's gaining steam. He's here last year.
Yeah. We're like we just got to the honeymoon, right? It's you know the honeymoon doesn't end until
next week, right? So remind me. Attaya was like had a like
kind of gagged on the last hole last year, right? Like just chunked it in the water
when uh she had a chance to straight
outright win the tournament. Am I remembering that right? No, that was Angel. No, what? No,
but a tie did too. Like she was, I feel like she was in the fairway in two and like had a chance
to kind of, you know, make birdie and get into that playoff and completely like, you know, had
it hit a terrible shot. Pretty certain that's my memory is correct there. See real quick. Okay. She finished fourth or whatever, but she was,
she was right there and she hit a really good drive on 18, uh, that had a chance.
I mean, I was thinking to myself like, Oh man,
the tie is going to win this, uh, win this championship.
And then all of a sudden she dunks it in the water, angel melts down. And then,
you know,
Lillia comes in and wins it kind of from, you know, the third spot almost.
I'll say the quality of the play this year, like last year 10 under one, you know, eight
under was T4. I think this year, I mean, they're already at eight under. I think it with firmer
greens, trickier conditions. I think this is, you know, there's so high level golf being played. Like it feels more like a major this year. I think last year, we were all kind of rolling our eyes a little bit and saying, all right, like, you can't just move the tournament, declared a major to some, you know, some random suburb outside of, outside of Houston. And this year, it feels like, all right, between the build out between the purse increase between
improvement year one versus year two, all those things seem to add up to plus core setup. All that stuff seems to add up to
it just feels feels like they're moving in the right direction
with this thing.
I like the course better this year. I feel like I don't know,
I just it's starting to warm to me. I last year, maybe you're
right. TCI just was kind of snarky about it
and wishing that it was back in Palm Springs,
but this year watching it today,
I was like, no, I kind of like some of the shots
that are forced to hit here.
It's tough, I think.
The greens, I think there's a huge,
there's a massive difference from the way
that this golf course played last year
to how it's playing now.
Last year it was kind of like, it was a dart fest.
I mean, they had weather that they had to contend with but it was just you could throw it at every single pin and like that's
basically it. This and I think this is when we get you know we talk about this a lot but like the
fact that having the ball rolling and continuing to be on the ground adds such variability into it
but like that's what's making it exciting. Yeah I think think it's also it's a I think on TV, it doesn't necessarily shine through just because
you get some of that kind of hazy spring Houston, southern weather like it's just kind of, you know,
it just looks kind of gray out there. I don't know is Houston ever not like that. Maybe in the fall.
That's true. It looks like like 2019 Spieth is what you're saying.
TC like kind of just all gray all the time. Which is better than current Spieth with the
you know black generic hat there. So you guys are right KVV hit the nail on the head on
Attaya last year. She started the final round. She was seven under leaders were at 10 under
And then made it to 18 had an opportunity
That would have been to getting that playoff ended up shooting
Final round 71 to get her in at eight under at the playoff between Lillia and Angel was at 10
So spot on there bogey on 18 there too. It was like a totally unexpected bogey. I think like
her, she hit a shank or something that was just like,
Yeah, I think her and Ayleem Kim both shanked it on 18 there.
Yep. Guys, one thing that could help as well,
if it does rain, do you think they got plenty of blowers?
Oh, plenty. Do they
ever tune in to hear you guys and like, thank you for that.
It's like the drone fest or what's going on there? Yeah.
KVV. I know you were on the ground last year, but it was
almost, uh, well, actually I'll say this, this, the blowers that
are going on right now at Carlton woods where it's a lot
more annoying, I
believe, than the damn airplane that we had at LACC last year.
Because at least the airplane at LACC last year was a constant just buzz.
And it was as loud as it could be.
But these men, I don't know how they must have some souped up blowers or something going
along.
For sure.
Jordan, for the record, you've you've got a tie as well.
Yes. Yes. Okay. I, I, we're house divided.
No. Well, yes, we are not between you and I but between
everyone else between all the Nellie homers. It's okay. I get
it. It's a safe pick. But ties coming.
All right. I have a question. Would you jump in the pond? Me
specifically? Well I'm gonna put to the group but we can start with you Jordan.
Like would you, if you won, would anyone jump in the pond? Because I, you know
there was all that controversy last year. It's kind of a stupid thing with was
Lily gonna jump in the pond? They had like the Gator gate set up like in theory
that the Gator couldn't, I don't know, walk around the gate and get jump in the pond? They had like the gator gate set up like in theory that the gator
couldn't I don't know walk around the gate and get back in the pond. It just seems kind of disgusting
to me and I've I'm kind of wondering if Nellie might end this tradition just be like yeah I'm good
not doing it. So Jordan you would or wouldn't? I mean Florida woman right? Yeah. I went in Rome
right? I mean guys look I felt like Poppy's pod looked a little safer and, you know,
they made the pond, they made it in a swimming pool.
Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I jump in the pond.
I mean, you're already winning it.
Like, why not?
Well, there will be snakes in there.
Oh, yeah.
KVB.
I was telling them.
That's a tough, tough situation.
You just brought up KVB.
I was telling them before we hopped on the pod, Jordan was laughing at me and scoffing,
but I saw a snake on the way back from Freddie's baseball game in our driveway, went into some
bushes in the backyard and I think we now need to sell our house.
I don't do snakes.
I texted my wife, Alex. She said,
I'll look for the snake when I get home. Okay. Tough state to live in if you don't do snakes,
TC. I mean, you got these owners. I feel like we should talk about this on the trap door.
People buying pythons from zoos and stuff and then releasing them into the everglades.
It's down in the everglades. I feel like we live on an island out here and it's it's much more
Snakes don't really come out to the beach as much. Okay. So well that was thank you
If I was so if I put myself in any of these players she specifically so I say Nelly
I become Nelly for a day. I don't know what you're like
She's gonna get pure pressure
into it. There's so many people that are out there that, you know, they'll have the robe ready to go
and all the cameras will be there waiting. So she'll have, she will do it because anybody's
natural instinct is to be a people pleaser and continue tradition. And I think there's a lot of
silly traditions that are out there.
And this is going to be one that is continued. But me personally, I would say like, I don't know why they're really doing this. I understand a Poppy's pond because it was, they probably had chlorine in
that thing. I mean, it wasn't even, it was a different color. It wasn't even a sick one year
and they like, like afterwards. And so I think somebody jumped victims, year and they like afterwards and so they... I think somebody jumped...
I think the pond had some victims, man.
Yes.
Like somebody broke their ankle in it.
Yeah.
Because they would...
They got sick, sort of like Giardia or something like skin virus or something.
Well, they would take their shoes off and everything before it.
Every moment. You're not supposed to care about the consequences. Just jump in the pond.
Well, I mean, I'm sure if we're talking about this is number five, eventually I would hope
that there would be a number six
somewhere down the line.
And if you jump in and who knows what's down there,
you get a little gator bite, snake bite, who knows?
Maybe you just pick up some weird bacteria in there.
What if Nellie's-
It's your Nellie birthday, Nellie's from Florida.
What if the Nellie slam goes out the window
because of the damn pond?
That's what I'm saying.
We need to protect her at all costs.
Need to figure out if she's got an insurance policy. That's what we need to do.
I'm sure she does, but what is it? Anybody that missed the cut that we're, I mean, obviously,
Lillia withdrew back injury there, but I think Patty Tabatani kid, She tried to make a run today to make the cut but finished two outside.
Celine mentioned her already TC I'll say this right at the top barely missed it at three
over Megan Kang. I know that was one of your early picks. Rose. How about Jordan give us
give us some thoughts on Rose, you know, I don't think it's a good course but I mean
she she played well and match play but I don't think it's a good course fit. I mean, she she played well and match play, but I don't
think Carlton Woods is a course fit for her.
Jordan, is there is there an issue with Rose where are there
not enough course fits for her? Because she's not a bomber. And
she's not necessarily a great putter. She's just a really,
really great iron player and a good competitor. And I think,
you know, in order to kind of achieve greatness, she needs to maybe find more off the tee or,
I don't know, it just seems like there should be more course fits for somebody with Rose's profile.
Nicole Zaldea Yeah, I think maybe just kind of elevating it to the next step where she fully
hasn't come around there yet. And again, like I think, I think of other amateurs,
maybe in the context of Lottie Wode,
who's having a lot of success this week, who again,
obviously Lottie Wode is still an amateur,
Rose only done with her rookie year of golf.
And I think of it and it's like,
there's a level of completeness there that like,
I don't feel like Rose has fully, you know,
capitalized on just yet.
So yeah, to answer your question, I don't know. And it's something I've started to think about recently because I'm like, just how
many of these places really are course fits? And it's kind of weird to
contextualize that just in terms of, you know, she was so dominant the previous
level, right? And there was that little element of distance and decent putting
that was being asked of her. And there
are places that she's played that like, yeah, like those things have come alive. But I don't
know. I don't know. And I think maybe perhaps when she's not on her A game, that's, that's
a question that we should certainly be asking more often.
It seems like she may suit some of those more classic Northeast courses better than a place like this. So,
you know, I think next week at Founders or US Women's Open or even Sahale, right? More of,
like that's where KPMG is this year, more of a classic kind of tree line test. So.
I do have concerns TC while we're talking about Rose though is at some point in time
She's gonna have to put on some distance like she needs some speed
I understand this week is playing score like overall yardage wise. This is the longest course that they played so far this year
And it's not gonna be the longest that they play for the year
There's other majors last year and the year before that lined up longer than this one.
But I mean, they're playing it right at 6750
with these firm greens.
Like Rose is coming in from pretty far back
when you're trying to say, make a Rose comparison
to a Nelly who's coming in with, you know,
nine irons and pitching wedges.
Yep.
I think another kind of bomber that you're a little bit disappointed like Bailey Tardy
long, you know, one of the longer courses they play.
She's Bailey Tardy is now had five starts this year.
Cut win, cut, cut, cut.
Yeah.
Wow.
She caught a massive basso
when my pro-am group was passing her on Tuesday.
Out there slinging that rod around.
How about Leona?
I mean, I feel like, you know,
you guys were telling me about Leona,
the Sloughhine Cup, about what an amazing, you know,
killer she was.
And, you know, obviously finals is the match play, but I feel like every
time I tune in, thinking that Leona is about to take some
scalps, she just isn't. So is it a me problem?
Or that's a I think that's a course fit. I mean, Leona is not
at all. She, she run her up at the match play a couple weeks
ago, I think I I think course, course fit probably
more important for Leona than for most players out there. Yeah. And green complexes and short game
shots that, that, that you need to like have creative shots into, you know, around the greens.
This is pretty rudimentary, like, you know, and it's, it's when you're talking about overall length, she's hitting a lot of hybrids and, and long irons into these greens.
But, you know, Leona is somebody specifically how she played Baltasaral last year, like she probably
should have won that, you know, major. I see her for a couple of weeks in Lancaster. Uh, Sahale is,
is right up, you know, I, when I'm thinking of Leona's game, they're pretty good matches for her.
I think one other one, Minji Lee, can't be missing the cut in majors. 74-77. Can't do it. Can't have it. Not good.
On that line, is like, is Jin Young Ko done being a great player? Like, is it just, is that a thing of the past?
It's her first thing of the past?
It's her first tournament of the year.
Okay.
She's been, she'd been out.
So Ty has taken the headlines on, on being injured and, and being sidelined so far this
year, but Jenny on Co has had the same exact thing going on.
Different injury of course, but hasn't teed it up so far this year.
I touched on Angela Stanford,
finished at three over, 98th consecutive major. I think now that everybody at least around
this event has done everything they pot done or has done everything possible to highlight
that to the USGA to see if they make some sort of decision to get the 99th consecutive
major. At some point though, you can't just like,
it's, it kind of cheapens the streak itself.
It does.
Streaks are made to be, you know,
are made to end and made to be broken.
Or not given.
Yeah, right?
Go through qualifying if you want to make it like.
That's, that's a great point.
I guess I never even, you you know didn't think about that but I agree with you guys there that definitely earned not given and
there's a lot of the counter argument of that'll be like yep and she made it all
the way to 97 of those things earned and not given I think we're we're okay
getting her across the finish line but at at the end of the day, you're chasing a number. And, you know, I still think 98 is a great number if that is where it ends at.
I think honestly, like I'm against USGA exemptions. If you've won three US opens, maybe
I'm into it. Like I think Tiger should get one, you know, once he no longer is eligible.
But in general, like I think that's part of the deal, right? Is that
you have an avenue into the tournament, go go through
qualifying. If you can't beat the, you know, the plumbers and
firemen who you're competing against, then like maybe you
don't deserve to be there.
Plum, well, in this case, the plumbers, firemen and also like
the 11 and 12 year olds.
Yes, correct.
And sixth graders.
Exactly.
I got a quick, I got a quick may a call in here too.
Thanks to Dennis came in here.
Jenny, I guess played two of the Asian events
earlier this year.
I completely missed that.
So thank you for pointing that out.
Did you guys talk Lexi at all before I popped in?
Cause I feel like, I know TC it's one of your least favorite subjects, but like, did you guys talk Lexi at all before I popped in?
Cause I feel like no, is it?
I know TC it's one of your least favorite subjects, but like is
uh, you know, I just feel like I kind of get sad watching her
beat. She obviously had a little bit of a rebound this last year
and I kind of thought that, you know, maybe she might get the
old vibes back from this event.
Obviously, you know, it was a different, uh, but this is the only place she's ever,
you know, the only turn, the only, excuse me, the only major
that she's ever really been great in, I think of the, you
know, she's gone through the finish line. I just, I don't
know.
It depends on how many holes you need to play in order to be
considered great. Cause, uh, she's had some great majors out
there.
It's great for 70 holes. Yeah. 68 holes. Yeah. So,
I don't know.
We had, we had her on coverage.
We had her on coverage.
It's clearly her wrist is, it is not in a good spot.
Um, it blows my mind how like she's had this wrist injury for a long, long time.
And at no point in time, have they attempted to like shallow or swing out at all.
Like they basically like treat it to get to a point where she's playable again
and then they're like, alright, let her rip and then they're just doing straight damage control immediately afterwards.
I'm like, don't you think like she's still relatively young like that they would make some overall changes to it?
I don't know. Like Lexi with a broom putter and like not getting so steep on it that the divots are like the size of hoagies would be a fascinating thought experiment.
What if they gave her an artificial turf mat like they do in the UK like, you know, pre
April 1st.
Now that's an exemption that I'd be into.
Once you reach a certain age, you can hit off the artificial turf instead. We watched her she hit an awesome job drive on a long par five.
And I was like, Oh, yeah, she crushed that thing she's gonna
have a, you know, mid to long iron into the screen and to
she can get it up there and give herself a good eagle chance.
And just watching her like set up to the ball, she's probably
hitting like a five or six iron or something like that. Her ball position was like almost towards her back foot.
And I'm like, almost towards the back foot.
What it was on like, Oh my goodness.
Like she's going to like her, her hand is going to come off of her wrist.
Like she's just going to snap the entire thing off because of how
steep she's about to get on this thing.
It's a, it's nuts.
Definitely. You know, how she finished the year, how she played in the Solheim Cup last year.
This is Lexi though. She's gonna turn it on, you know, middle of the summer and make this last-minute push.
She's still there on the Rolex list, so you got two spots there, but she'll find a way to...
She's healthy, she'll be on.
Right. The more surprising thing so far this year is is
DK Danielle Kang down there
one shot worse than Lexi at at
t9 rounds of 74 79 there's I don't know what's going on there, but
It's not good. It hasn't been good so far this year
The window for being great in that the LB in theG level LPGA level is just really small.
I mean, you can just, you look through and like, you know, Aria,
Jutanegarden, I remember when there was a time when she looked like she was
going to rip off five, six majors and it was just unbelievable.
It was longer than anybody in the game.
And she hasn't been contention in forever.
Now she just doesn't seem like she's even the same person.
She's still, she's still long.
She just refuses to hit a driver. Yeah
Can't hit a driver
We got a bunch of other golf this week I just wanted to
Be good on Chevron. You want to yeah touch on harbor. Yep. Let's do it
yeah, we got a
Harbor town, so we got two PJ tour tour events. We got Harbor town. We got
Punta Cana. I got Justin Lowers, I think in second place in Punta Cana behind Wesley Bryan
down there. One thing I, all right, Harbor town. You've got a guy like Troy Merritt, who is in
51st place. He's beaten 70 something 80, you know, 80 guys. He's in 51st place. He's beaten 70 something 80, you
know, 80 guys, he's in 51st place. He's in a similar spot
in the FedEx Cup to Webb Simpson. Web Simpson is also in
51st place at Harbor Town in a signature event. He's he's
gaining two or three spots in the FedEx Cup from his current
position. 51st place, beating
17 or 18 guys while Troy Merritt is losing four or five positions while beating 70, 80
guys.
The sponsor exemptions into this thing this year have really pissed me off.
And I think Adam Schupack had an article about it in golf week,
and some quotes from Webb that just seemed woefully woefully
ignorant to his position as, you know, as a board member as a
veteran, all this stuff. And it's, it's kind of one of those
things with Webb where it's, you know, hey, man, like, you're,
you're on the board making
these decisions, making, making these new rules. And I know you didn't invent sponsor
exemptions, but you invented signature events along with your colleagues, and they didn't
even fill a field, the field out this week, there's 69 guys, like, we can't get to 75.
We can't get Nikolai Hoygard or other guys that are in the top 50 in the world rankings in.
And I don't know. The whole thing just feels so fucking taped together. And I'm tired of it.
The tour posted something with Ludwig this week where he's still playing out of the Aon Swing 10 or Next 10 category or whatever. This guy just finished solo second at the Masters.
He was on the Ryder Cup team last year. He won a PGA Tour event in the fall. At what
point is he just inside the top 50 and that's the category that he's playing out of? I don't
know. I'm tired of it. But anyway, we've got Tom Hoagogy, Sepp Strock, Colin Morikawa, and the pound for pound
undisputed champion of the world, JT Poston. At 11 under out front, Patrick Rogers, Ludwig,
Mackenzie Hughes, all 10 under. And you know what? They all shot 66-66, all three guys at 10 under.
So if Mackenzie Hughes can go 66 four times, we'll see if he can,
he can, uh, you know, that would, that would be pretty impressive at Harbor town. I think.
So been a good week there so far. You got Cantlay, you got Sahith, I mean, you got Scotty,
Scotty might win like Scotty's three back kind of didn't get off the bus on, you know,
shot 69 on, on, on Thursday and then 65 today and Scotty, Scotty's coming. And,
you know, imagine if Scotty is is is trial birth, right?
See, imagine if 69 was your hangover round like, Oh, yeah,
last week was just so exhausting. You know, I flew
back and the internet got all mad at me because I, I stopped
to have a drink with my friends because my wife was asleep.
Now I gotta go all the way back to hell's meds.
Because what was there, I think, by the way.
People were dragging him. His wife was just outside the frame.
She picked him up at the airport.
It was this little silly controversy of all time.
What sacrifices.
TC, I agree. Thank you for presenting that T.C.'s Matt as Hell segment in order to get
us a little bit of DR love on the leaderboard.
Scotty hasn't even made a bogey yet. He doubled his third hole yesterday, but otherwise he
has not made a bogey yet. He was clean card today on a course that is pretty agnostic,
right? You got to hit a lot of other than drivers here, less than drivers here off the tee.
And no surprise, best iron player in the world right now is playing well around an iron player's
course.
I also got to give a shout out, Tom Kim's T12, probably one of the few courses that
Tom Kim can truly compete on out there.
So you got Rory T12, Ty with Austin Eckrode as well. I'm going down the leaderboard on signature event on a there. So you get Rory T12 tie with Austin Echorote as
well. I'm going on the leaderboard on signature event
on a Friday, we don't need me doing that. So you cut yourself
off. Thank you.
Cutting my
Wow, this is like restraint right there. You know what, we
don't need to go for these pins.
I was gonna let you go, man. Let that dog hunt. All right. You
talked about
sponsoring exemption you mentioned. Web already sucks to see kids down there four over currently
t 66 Gary Woodland t six currently or excuse me six over currently t 68 and then tied the
very bottom Nick Dunlap. I don't know what's going on with Nick Dunlap,
but this is not where I would expected him to kind of be.
I know that life came at him really, really quick,
but man, this isn't what I expected this young,
what everybody wanted to make, you know,
star or future star or whatever,
how when he actually came onto the PGA tour,
how it was gonna turn out to be. So hopefully, you know, star or future star or whatever, how when he actually came on to the PGA tour, how it was going to turn
out to be. So hopefully, you know, continues to battle, find
his way through it and through, I guess, signature events for
the rest of the year, because he's a winner, and he's going to
get into it.
Jordan, what do you what do you read into that with kind of in
the context of sergeants announcement this week as well
that he's staying?
I almost think it was it's's, it's interesting. Cause like, yeah,
I was trying to contextualize that just a little bit.
And I almost wonder if he watched Nick and the way that he was adjusting to life
on tour and said, you know, I,
it's probably not a bad idea to stick back just for another year because remember
if you earn that PJ tour card,
whether through PJ tour accelerated,
which Nick done that by the way,
regardless if he would have won or not
and stayed, et cetera, et cetera,
would have still gotten, it still would have happened.
And I almost think Gordon looks at that and says,
why not stay around?
Why not, you know, this is life on easy mode.
This is, you know, I don't have to answer to a bunch of sponsors.
I don't have to go on the road week after week.
I, you know, I get to compete on a team and with all of my best friends.
I get to, you know, I get to test myself and try to dominate respective to my level as
opposed to feeling like I have to push myself to the limit every single week, unsure if I am fully matched up.
I thought it was interesting for Gordon because Gordon kind of year after year, it's almost
been evaluated on a year by year basis for Gordon Sargent.
It's especially interesting now that yeah, he's got secure status, could take off at any time.
And it seems like I think in some ways, it's a lot of wanting Vanderbilt to
finally win a title because they have not won the title yet.
And the whole time that he's been there.
And I think this honestly is probably the best Vanderbilt team that he's been with.
They are all ranked inside of the top 20 in the world. I'm
sure golf thinking I there there is a really good chance that they get it done even though
there's a lot of other strong teams. UNC. But yeah, I and it's interesting because I look at
I look at Gordon's year and it wasn't it's not as been as dominant as his other years in college.
I was going to say, it seems like he's got some stuff to work on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's kind of settled off just a little bit and that's probably not such a bad thing because
if you can kind of sit there and identify your weaknesses and not necessarily say, well,
I'm going to catapult from this streak of wins or incredible pro starts or whatever
I'm doing over here and this, that and the other.
And you can kind of say,
well, I can identify myself in a low moment
and I can keep, and I can push myself forward.
Granted, he's coming off of a win,
but you know, I think if he's able to kind of see his game
in different seasons in college
and kind of understand himself in the world
that there is a safety net and there is time to mess up,
then I think that's only gonna set up better for him as a professional. I mean
TC you saw Ludwig do it and Ludwig got gradually better every single year in
college and he took his time and and he just came out and is a world-class
player now and I think I think in some ways to playing the
Masters was sort of a turning point for Gordon Sargent,
because I remember talking to him at SEC last year, and he
seemed to be like really have some level of awareness to
himself and was like there that taught me a lot, I had to work
on a lot after that. So I think this was the right decision. And
I'm curious to see, you know, there's no, this is the last year
of like the COVID years, if you will, that they can use their COVID year. I'm just curious to see,
you know, if there are more kids that do get their PJ tour cards early, sort of like Gordon did,
or they do, they accomplish some crazy feat like Nick Dunlap does in winning a PJ tour event.
I'm wondering just how long they stick it out.
Yeah.
I think actually going back to your point, Nick Dunlap actually did give him
specific advice of like, no, it's lonely as hell out here.
Stay in school.
School's awesome.
Like soak that up as long as you can. And obviously Dunlap
gets in.
Or don't ever leave.
Stay as long as you can.
Exactly.
I mean, they are pretty, they're very, very close. Grow up playing, uh, junior golf together.
The other thing too is that I think Nick's, uh, upbringing, um, you know, thrust on the
surface played, played a lot of these high level amateur events gets into college finally
as a part of a team and kind of fitting in there and everything else like that.
I don't know.
Uh, and I'm not saying anybody has regrets based off decisions, but I think that's the college finally as a part of a team and kind of fitting in there and everything else like
that. I don't know. And I'm not saying anybody has regrets based off decisions here, but
it's very interesting to hear that he reached out to Gordon and told him like, Hey, man,
like it's it's pretty good. You got a little bit of time, because this is going to be here
waiting for you, whether it's next year or in two more years. You know, you figure it out. TC, you want to go to Corn Fairy Tour, huh? Highlight Morgan Hoffman.
Yeah, I just got two call outs there. Morgan Hoffman, currently solo second there on
Corn Fairy. I think that's pretty remarkable given his whole, you know, everything he's
dealing with on a medical basis and, and, you know, kind of
how he's had to reinvent his game. And then Jordan, I wanted to ask you about this, this
15 year old that made the cut on corn fair. Have you seen this?
Mr. Miles Russell. Yes. Yes. What can you tell us about Mr. Miles
Russell? Oh gosh. I just, he's just been, he's just
been at the top of the AJGA for a hot minute.
I mean, I wasn't surprised because he kind of came out, he was like, he was what? He was like
four under through five yesterday or something like that. It was wild. Let me pull it up real
fast. I don't want to misspeak. Yeah, he's the youngest kid to ever make the cut at a corn fairy event. I just I wasn't surprised. He also, um, it's also been kind of sitting here, like toying around a
little bit with like PGA Tour qualifying just a little bit and trying to like test his game on
that level. And it's it's fascinating. I mean, he's just had such a good run. He won the boys PGA
last year. That's a huge event to win. He played really good at Sage Valley a few weeks ago.
I mean, he's just been so dominant, respective to his level, that I'm not surprised that
he's out here really trying to test the waters a little bit in professional golf.
And again, he's only 15.
I mean, hopefully-
You know where he's from, too?
Jacksonville Beach.
A little local.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So he's, yeah, he's, I mean, seven shot victory
at the junior PGA last year,
and then won the junior players by three as well.
So pretty, pretty heady stuff.
I think when sometimes when people are like,
oh man, Charlie Woods is gonna win like four or five
Masters, I'm like, you should see some of the kids out here who are his age group,
who are just dominating the actual like AJGAs and like the junior PJs and stuff
like that. Like there's got a lot of kids who are way, way ahead.
Now it doesn't mean that Charlie Woods can't be great someday. Certainly not.
Everybody develops at their own pace,
but there's a lot of kids out there who are
phenoms who are kind of doing not quite what Tiger did, but
like, you know, kicking ass at a really high level that
Charlie hasn't quite shown yet in junior golf and just just
like in Florida alone, much less nationally, right? You know
people got mad at me for suggesting that Charlie Woods
should try and dominate junior golf
before he goes and tries to play against professionals. It was just-
I think people are going to get mad at people for anything Charlie Woods related. Whichever
side of anything you're saying, it's just going to be this lightning rod, hot button
thing.
Yeah, I agree. Well, guys, I think that brings us to the end of the agenda, end of this 36
hole check-in live show for 2024 Chevron Championship. We picked winners. Everybody's confident
in them. Yeah.
No take backs.
All right. Well, we'll see.
I'll say I really,
I reserve the right to change it tomorrow on social
if Lauren posts to get around tomorrow.
I'd like to, you know.
You'd like to pick, is Laura,
I think you can get an out card with Lauren,
but not like, you can't go.
No, exactly.
It's just an out card with Lauren,
but it's setting up to be an awesome weekend.
I'm still cool.
KVB, quickly, I wanna go back to your Nellie piece for a second.
I think Nellie, you know, regardless of what happens this week, she's obviously at the top of
this part of the sport and probably will stay there for a while. And yes, there's been some
reluctance on her side to kind of be a little bit out there, be the face of it, talk. But I do think
a little bit out there, be the face of it, talk. But I do think she should take some comfort
in the fact that the expectations for women's sports now
have changed substantially in the year 2024,
because it felt like for a long time
that there was this like narrative or expectation
that a female athlete, when she was worthy of attention,
she had to be an astronaut, she had to run for office.
She also had to just be astronaut. She had to run for office. Um, she also had to, you know,
just just be this like a extra dynamic person. Right. And be perfect. Be never say anything like
offensive ever. Right. And male athletes have never really had that burden. Their play has just been
able to be solely recognized for what it is. And now Nellie's kind of stepping into this realm where,
yeah, if she was a little,
maybe if she was a little more outgoing
and maybe a little bit more willing
to take on a few more media commitments.
I mean, there's something here that,
I'm not saying it's going to be the Caitlin Clark effect
because granted we cover golf,
but it was something that could really resemble it.
And I hope this weekend that does shine through.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I agree.
I think the one thing too, and you touch on the
Caitlin Clark effect, and this is going to segue into, you know, TC and I,
thank you for everybody who sends such kind messages for us being on ESPN plus.
But I put a tweet out there, like just super appreciative of, of the commissioner
of Molly stepping up and being like, you know what, like we have some funds, we're going to invest in additional streaming options, like all
people want to do if we want to elevate our sport and you want to talk or even get close
to comparing to this glow up that the Kaylin Clark and the women had in, you know, national
championship and everything else right there.
In order to do that, you have to have broadcast partners who are willing to actually
show the shots to tell the stories to go and if you can't watch to go out on a
limb and sometimes that's shaking things up and and this was a good first step of
shaking it up and that just happened to include us but I think the traditional
broadcast partners at you know CBS has a single event with
them, but specifically NBC and Comcast can do the same thing because just because you
change up a graphics package here and there, it sounds pretty similar.
Right.
And there's a lot of advances that you could do all the way across the board.
So excited to see where they could take it. It's very, you know, this is like, padding a four year old on
the head for pooping in the potty. But you know, them
sticking with the coverage today for an extra 15 minutes, just
so they could finish Nellie's round. The fact that, you know,
like, yeah, good on them for doing that. But the fact that
we even have to call out like, yeah, good on them for doing that. But the fact that we even have to call out like, oh, good on you for doing it shows the low bar that we're coming from
here. You know, we'll get there. Things take time, but hopefully the right people are working
together and continue to push things in advance. So because at the end of the day, that's all
anybody wants to see is this, you know, these world-class athletes, the best women golfers
in the world elevated and, and,
you know, hopefully some growth out of that because that just means better golf courses,
larger purses, and more opportunities for them and us as fans. And I think that's, you know,
at the end of the day, that's exactly what we all want to see. So besides that, guys, we're gonna be back here Sunday evening, live again, the RBC Heritage
Chevron live show presented by High Noon tonight.
Thank you again, again, to our LPGA season long sponsor in Yeti.
Check them out at yeti.com.
Thank you to Titleist and our friends at Vokey Wedges.
I gotta produce a road show. I'm on my way
to San Diego Sunday morning. So we'll see. Hopefully the Wi-Fi and our great partner
in Omni holds up to produce a live show from there. But we'll see you guys. Appreciate
everybody tuning in and cheers.
Correct.
See ya.