Hack & Scratch Golf Podcast
Hack and Scratch is a golf podcast hosted by Dez and Casey, covering the latest news in golf with tournament recaps, discussion of upcoming tour events, and a pulse on YouTube golf. The show also dives into the knowledge, stories, and rich history that make the game of golf as compelling off the course as it is on it.
Hack & Scratch Golf Podcast
S1E16 - Billionaires and Golf, PGA Championship Overview, Career Grand Slam
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This episode covers recent golf tournaments, player insights, and rules of golf, providing valuable knowledge for golf enthusiasts.
Golf, PGA Tour, Golf Rules, Golf Tournaments, Golf Tips, Golf Equipment, Golf Strategy
00:00 Introduction and Trophy Trivia
01:33 Golf Highlights and Breakthrough Performances
04:46 Ricky Fowler and Alternative Pathways in Golf
08:25 Veteran Performances and the Ageless Game
12:12 YouTube Golf and Content Creation
15:46 The Return of The Big Break and Creative Golf Challenges
19:20 PGA Championship Preview and Player Predictions
24:22 Career Grand Slam Contenders
31:54 Golf Predictions and Future Stars
35:07 International Golf Trips: Ranking the Best Destinations
39:16 Sponsorships in Golf: Who Would You Choose?
44:46 Truth or Bad Lie: Caddy Rules and Regulations
So, Des, do you know who made the Wanamaker trophy and what company they ran and what notable trophy was created by that same company?
SPEAKER_01I have no idea of any trophy makers in the world, but I do actually have a guess on what other trophy they made, just because the Wanamaker is so iconically like chrome and silver. I'm gonna go the Stanley Cup.
SPEAKER_00I think that's a very good guess because they have very similar features. That's not true. The same company years later ended up manufacturing the Heisman Trophy, which I think is pretty cool. So originally the company started by uh Rodman Watamaker, who created the Watermaker trophy, but later uh it was manufactured by the same New York company, DJs and Clust. Fun fact.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so Calm Mark Howard just needs to win a Heisman so he can drop that on the floor. Perfect.
SPEAKER_00A local municipal golf course says it's been overrun by what someone's calling golfers. Has the game grown too much? Do we need more scratch golfers? I'm telling you, have to slow the game down. You can't grow golf if people are stuck in it into the weeds all day.
SPEAKER_01Scratch player, hey everybody, it's Des and welcome back to the Hack and Scratch podcast, episode number 16. Excited to be back. A lot of happened in our lives. Casey, you're a new father. It's exciting, but we're gonna keep the focus on golf today.
SPEAKER_00That's fair. I think my mind is kind of all over the place, so I'm gonna try my best to stay on topic.
SPEAKER_01That's a perfect place to talk about golf in. I feel like we're all all over the place, anyways. Um let's get into it. The uh the past weekend was a busy one. We had events from everywhere, it seemed like from Live, from PGA, alternative PGA events. We got to see a breakthrough performance with a newcomer at Quill Hollow. We got to see some really cool storylines develop on the alternative event at Myrtle Beach. Um, but we got to start with the lead one, Chris Wrighton, as he wants to be called, captured his first PGA tour win in pretty dramatic fashion at a very famous place, Quail Hollow, firing a final round 969 to finish 15 under and two strokes ahead of none other than Ricky Fowler and Nikolai Huygard. Pretty amazing stuff. I'll do a little segue here. Do you know the three billionaires to ever win a PGA tour event? Should I know that he's a billionaire? I had no idea. It would be Tiger Woods is one, Chris Wrighton. Really, and Maverick McNeely. Wow. Yes. You know what's so funny is Math popped into my head there. Yeah. Those are the only three billionaires to ever win a PGA tour event.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That that's amazing. Also, I was gonna call him Christopher Rattan. So nice. I'm glad that you corrected me on that. Where does his money come from?
SPEAKER_01So his uh grandfather owns about a $9 billion entity in Norway. They own a ton of stuff. So he will inherit a part of that nine billion. Well, and he just walked away with what, about four million? So that's just a drop in the bucket. It's so funny. It's crazy. I mean, we always talk about obviously, you know, maybe the downside of golf is that it is such an exclusive game to some, and and money does get you to a certain place. And it probably is the only sport where two, you know, billionaire heirs have won at the highest level of competition.
SPEAKER_00That's that's just so crazy to me. For like a the amount of money that you can earn in golf through tournaments, but outside, even sponsorships, coming in as a billionaire, it kind of feels like you have a leg up. I know you probably don't, but it just feels like you do. It is crazy. It's funny because I just watched that episode of Full Swing with Matt McNeely, who he is an awesome dude. I want to hang out with him. He just seems like so much fun, really nice guy, and I want to go fly in his Cirrus with him. Yeah, you guys have that in common, both pilots. That would be amazing. Exactly. Yeah. So it just being a billionaire, golfer, pilot, that's the dream life right there. Yeah, and named Maverick all in. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. Uh well, back to the golf. Uh Wright and finishes that off and secures that $4 million check that we just talked about, signature event, all the things that come with it. Pretty crazy his steps to get in there. So, you know, I I can't remember it all off the top of my head, but he only got into like three events ago because Cantley dropped out. He then finished there and that got him into the Aon Swing Five, and that got him to the first signature event, and then he got him into the second one because he did so well, and then, you know, finally got him into this one, which he won. Pretty incredible, like run-up of how he's qualified for these last events.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, can we just take a moment to appreciate that alternative ways to get into a tournament are so important? That's why I'm always such an advocate for Monday qualifying. You know, you shouldn't need to jump through a crazy amount of hoops if you can beat the guys who are playing. And if there's if there's a narrower path like the A on swing five or qualifying through winning another tournament, like you should be able to do that. So it's really cool to see somebody take advantage of that. I I love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. It's a and it's a unique part of the sport too, which is so cool. Well, we can't talk about uh storylines without capturing one that's always near and dear to our hearts. Anytime we see Ricky Fowler's name at the top of the leaderboard, pretty incredible, has a T2, comes in a great form in the PGA. I'm you know, I'm kind of pulling for him this week, but uh yeah, pretty, pretty incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll talk about that a little bit later as well. It just seemed like he was pretty comfortable out there. Every he didn't have any kind of crazy blow-up holes, just seemed like he was moving through the course at his own pace. So yeah, I'm pulling for him too. It'd be it'd be great to see him do well in the PGA this week.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. What did you think of uh Alex Fitz Alex Fitzpatrick's round this week? Someone made a joke that you know Matt might be the second best Fitzpatrick in the field this week, and they were right. Alex Alex absolutely played some golf throughout the week and and almost pulled it off in the end, but I think it was at 15 that got him, but uh pretty incredible stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and same thing I was saying before alternative ways to get to larger tournaments, it makes sense, you know. There were probably a lot of haters after uh the Zerk Classic that were like, oh, he didn't really earn it, he didn't deserve it. Like, oh, really? Because he just got a top 10 in a signature event, so don't give me that. But really cool to see him continuing to play well and earning his spot even more on the PGA tour.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I kind of laughed to myself. I was like, man, what a moment. Two DP World tour guys dapping it up over a signature PGA event, and one of them walked away with it in the final group. Incredible. It's crazy. You know, that's that's awesome. I I love it. And yeah, it was overall a great tournament. But you know, a lot of focus, I feel like at least on the social media side this week, was on the one flight, Myrtle Beach, um, for a number of reasons, but pretty interesting ultimate winner of it being Brant Snedeker at a tender age of 45.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, I think we talked about him a couple of weeks ago. I forget which tournament it was, but he was knocking on the door at one of those tournaments as well. And it's just a reminder that the guys that are 45 years old can still come and beat you up. You know, we saw it with Phil with the PGA, what, four years ago? Uh just Justin Rowe is still in peak form. Like it's pretty awesome. But what I loved about this was that this was his first win in almost eight years. That eight years is a long time for somebody who has won a few times already on the PGA tour, you know? And so that ability to still be dedicated to want to go out and win, just super respectable. And he did win on Mother's Day, which uh I guess his mom passed away a few years ago as well. So probably very special for him to get that win.
SPEAKER_01Pretty amazing. It's the thing that fires me up about golf a ton, which is that, you know, you don't have to be at your physical peak age to play some of the best golf you've ever done. It's a it's uh it's a sport that you get to play for your entire life. And I feel like there's so few of those available. And so just another reminder that's you know, you can play some of your best golf at 45 years old and and probably even further down the line if you're uh if you're a hack like me. So it's uh it's it's fantastic. Uh and uh yeah, we have we have a couple other things to touch on as well. Brooks Kepka, all striking the hell out of it, showed really great stuff over the weekend. I think he shot like a 64 or 5 on Saturday and had an incredible showing. Seems like he's coming into form again for for the continuation of major season.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and we love to see it. We know that when he came back, he kind of had a rocky start, but clearly he is getting more comfortable and feels like he can compete. So I'm pulling for him. I'd like to see him play well, and I think these alternate events are great ways to for the guys who are kind of still either working their way back or working their way up to show off, you know, when there's not a Scotty Scheffler in the field.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of taking advantage of the moment, a golfer that continues to do good that I said would be the breakout star of the season, maybe not quite breakout star, but he is always making some splashes. Blades Brown comes in with a uh top 10 for the Myrtle Beach, 18-year-old amateur, um, who's just, I mean, poised for some really great things to come.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's so funny to see these kids play such incredible golf because you just know that we're gonna see them on the PGA tour soon. It's not, it's not a matter of if, but when. They're only gonna get better. They're only going to learn how to play in those high stress environments. And the earlier the better. I mean, look at Tiger Woods, you know, the guys that play early and can put themselves into position when they're younger get used to that sort of pressure. So really cool.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Uh, the last golfer I'll talk about in Myrtle Beach, uh, we were just talking about the other week because of how he qualified, which was through a YouTube series called The Q. And he beat the likes of Grant Horvat and and uh George Bryan and and Luke Kwan to qualify. It's Ryan Ruffles, who's no stranger to tour events, I'll albeit um, you know, he's not a completely just YouTube golfer. He was a great professional golfer at one point and proved it this week. At believe it or not, on Friday, at one point he was tied for the lead, which is unbelievable, actually, when you think about it. I mean, a lot of people said, you know, this guy shouldn't even be in the tournament, YouTube doesn't belong belong here. Guy competed, played his butt off, ultimately slid a little bit over the weekend, but uh fantastic, made the cut, made a cut at this you know, PGA event. So, you know, to all the haters of YouTube, kind of took an L this weekend, which was really cool to see kind of all the YouTube golf community rally around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. And if he never gets an actual Ruffles sponsorship, I'm gonna be very disappointed.
SPEAKER_01That is true. That is true. I think it's for right now, it's Melbourne and and something else, but he needs to start working in Frito Lay. Yeah, you gotta get some of the bigger guns in there. Yeah, there's a movie quote. I don't know if you know it, but it's how is this profitable for Frito Lay? That needs to be a meme for Ryan Ruffles. Yeah, that's perfect. Gotta be good. Okay. Uh, well, that's a perfect segue. I mean, I couldn't have planned this segue even any better, but uh as we go along talking about YouTube golf um and what went down this week, uh, we have a lot of good content coming up from Bob Does Sports. Uh, but first we have a segment that I growingly love uh and just the hilarity of it. But it's Grant Horvatz Breaking Bob. And this this week, they had a pretty ridiculous one. When I first heard about it, I was like, okay, this probably is competitive, but then I found out that Bob could literally throw his ball into the hazard and it counted as a penalty. And I was just at that point, I was like, okay, well, this there's no, I mean, from the moment it started, I was like, there's zero chance Bob loses this. Um, so and and likewise, he biggest margin of victory he's ever had on one of these, and easily walked away with it. No collaps, no nothing like that. But uh what did you think of it?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I loved it. I thought it was a great idea. But yeah, once I realized too, I'm like, there's water on almost every hole, but these are guys are playing. Like, there's just no chance. I think I would also just get frustrated hitting a good shot, like as Grant, you know, like there are some where he just hit it to like 10 feet or whatever, and Bob just picks it up and tosses it in the lake, you know. It's it's hilarious to see, but early on, I was like, I don't see a world where he doesn't walk away, Bob doesn't walk away winning this. Yeah. Agreed. I think my favorite part of it though was like, I think on the first or second hole where he threw the ball and the groundskeeper was like, what are these guys doing? And that's what Grant was commenting on. It's just fun. I I love that sort of stuff. Uh I just thought it was an interesting idea.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What a great week for Bob. Not only does he beat Grant in the breaking Bob, but he also takes down a stroke play event, albeit with handicaps, against FP and Joey. Pretty incredible, pretty incredible golf from Bob this week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I mean, I think, you know, it was more of a Bob versus FP at a certain point, but very early on. Yeah. And but yeah, I the the dude is getting better at golf. I'll say that. And I I hope that he he continues whatever it is that he's doing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, honestly, all jokes aside, there is zero doubt in my body that that Bob is a better golfer straight up than Joey, right? At this point, oh yeah. Joey is for sure third. Bob is better. Sure, he'll have a blow up, but oh my gosh, Joe's game is so bad right now. It's it's it's real rough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think I, you know, I was up with the baby watching this one. I think I texted you. And so there were moments where I had to look away, but every time I looked back, Joey would be in just some crazy position off the T. What is happening here? So that, you know, you can't take it home with with that type of play, fortunately.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Uh well, one of your favorites, Taylor Maid, put out a series this week. One of their challenges, the only thing I realized about it is I hate how they use AI generated people for their thumbnails. Like, why would they do that? They they don't have to do that. It's so weird. But they use heavily AI generated and maybe not even good models to generate their thumbnails, which bothers me for some reason. But other than that, how was the actual play uh the eight-on?
SPEAKER_00Well, first of all, I totally agree. I I think the art department had a layoff recently or something, and they're just using Claude to generate stuff. Uh was strange. But I I liked this little, you know, they they started doing these a while ago, just little challenges between players. And so this one was Scotty versus Rory. It was an eight-iron match. You do like three shots from, I think it was 170, three from 150, and three from 130 or something like that. Um, which was really fun to watch because they're that it forces them to make swings that they wouldn't normally make. When they're 130 in, Scotty and Rory are are basically hitting a flop shot with an eight-iron and just slinging it from way left to right to land on the green. It's just fun to watch. Like I love watching these guys play the type of golf that we're not gonna get to see on a day-to-day basis. So I don't know. They're short clips, they're just fun, entertainment, more relaxed.
SPEAKER_01The thing I noticed about playing it is just yes, when the golf is limited or constricted or the rules change, the creativity of shots that these guys have is so incredible. And it makes me think like maybe that's another way to altern, uh like make TGL different, is create some of these gimmicky kind of things where you have to be very creative in the shot shaping and and technique. And I know they tried to do that a little bit with like the one hole that was like a stinger, but I think, yeah, you could play some insane shot shapes, some crazy dog legs that you wouldn't see. And I think that would be really fun. Um, and it's obviously you know exaggerated with seeing the ball get to curve, you know, real time on the screen. I think it'd be really awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that would be cool too. I I think another thing they could do, uh, I I've seen a lot of those videos of guys where they go put like a table out on the driving range and put like a wine bottle, they try to hit it. Like target practice type stuff for playoffs or to in-between holes of TGL would be kind of cool of like just target practice and how precise these guys can be.
SPEAKER_01Well, we are getting one of my favorite TV shows of all time back that was very famous for setting up little things like that, which is the big break. The big break is coming back, yes. No way, so I'm very excited about that. And yeah, can't wait to see what it has. Wow, I did not know that.
SPEAKER_00Uh, but I am also very excited about that now. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Cool. Last one we'll talk about. Ooh, it's a rough watch. And for all those who are interested in Bryson this week at the at the PGA, uh, ooh, rough. I know it's a YouTube video and all that, but it's hard to deny. You tried to break uh another public course record and did not did not do it.
SPEAKER_00No, and you kind of knew early on, like this isn't going well. And I love Bryson, but I think halfway through this, you should have just been like, oh, let's try this again another day. We don't need to upload this video.
SPEAKER_01You know what's so funny? I feel like normal YouTube creators, nine out of ten times, would probably can it and you'd never see the light of day. But I feel like he might have such limited time to do these things that he's like, no, this is the one.
SPEAKER_00This is yeah, well, he mentioned that it was the PGA next week. So it's like we know that he filmed it in the past week or two. So yeah. But no, it he just did not have his game. He was missing a lot of really short putts. And you know what? I have I hate to say it, the mustache was a little odd for me.
SPEAKER_01That was new from Bryson. I'm like, this is you know, complete outsider looking in and making assumptions, but I feel like he's spiraling a little bit. Just I really, I really do. He he's kind of reverting back to the old Bryson a little bit. We talked about him, you know, losing his PR team. I'm I'm starting to get a slight bit worried. If he if he misses the cut, this PGA, we might see vintage Bryson just just losing his mind everywhere for all our sakes. I hope he makes the cut this week. Yeah, same. Well, that's good. That's another transition right into to what we're talking about, which is the PGA championship at Aaronamink. And we haven't been here since 2018, which is kind of crazy to say. Back then, Keegan Bradley won, but it's an incredible course, tipped out. I think it's gonna play at like 7300 around there this week. I think it's what they said. You know, comparable courses, which would is kind of funny given last week. Comparative courses would be like a quail hollow, maybe a caves valley, even East Lake would be a pretty decent comp as a course. So, you know, a course that demands a pretty complete game, but by no means is you know not possible to overpower um and and just play some solid golf and get around. I think for most of the holes, they tend to be probably straighter than the average PGA tour course. So, you know, driving accuracy is important, but you're not really having to uh choose multiple shapes and and doesn't really require that much of a creative golfer off the tee this week. So yeah, um, as far as key stats that that really show up here, you know, looking at we just talked about driving distance and accuracy really do help. It can be a little bit of a driver putter course. I think making sure you avoid key bogies, there's only about four holes that play above par on average. So making sure that you avoid bogeys at all cost and then obviously get some lower scores on those par fives. But yeah, it should be a great test this week. I'm excited to see it. Who do you like this week?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, one thing I'll say too is that I also realize it's a par 70, which we don't see that often. So with a par 70 and 73, 100 yards almost, like that's still got some legs. So some of the guys that can get a little bit off more off the tee, I think are gonna have have the advantage as well. But yeah, I, you know what, this was my pick earlier, but I'm gonna I'm gonna pick him anyway, even though there was some news coming out that Rory was having some foot pain and had to leave the course today. I don't think it's gonna be too serious, but we'll see. But I like Rory for this. He was still playing well, he's coming off the masters still. I mean, maybe is Rory thinking now, how many majors can I get, you know, by the end of my career? And everyone is now a milestone in the same way that anyone that Tiger plays in, he's hoping to get one more. So I like Rory. We were talking about earlier, Ricky Fowler. I mean, he played some great golf at Quail Hollow, and I would love to see him pull it off. And I know it's probably more of a that's what I want versus what I expect, but he's definitely figured something out so far this season. That's really good finishes. So I like him there. And then lastly, lastly, Shane Lowry. Uh, he's just kind of always on my list of guys that are gonna do well, especially in the major championships. He can stay calm in those positions, he knows how to handle the pressure. And I I think his game just suits well for this course. So those, those are my three.
SPEAKER_01Nice. I like those. Uh I too thought about Fowler, but I'll I'll go with who I picked instead. Uh my top dog was Scotty this week. I'm gonna try to find a good bet lineup matchup between Scotty and Rory. I think he's got the edge this week. And and just coming off of three straight runner-up finishes, uh, his game is as solid as it can be. He just hasn't gotten it done past three rounds. But yeah, I I think I think he's very primed to do well here this week. And uh I can't see any reason looking at kind of the course bias and things like that that would keep him from doing well. So I'm gonna put Scotty in there. I'm also gonna play someone who I hate playing, which is Patrick Cantley, but his golf is just so consistent right now that if he just pops on one area of his game, if he just has that magical week where he's gaining, you know, two or three strokes on putting, uh, he'll be right in contention. The the bad part is he has very few top five finishes at majors, which is is is tough. But um his game is really solid right now. Um and I think he plays from a a place of confidence, and when he can, he does well. So uh hopefully he'll do well this week. And this last one's kind of a little bit of a wild card. By no means he's an amazing golfer, but um just seems to pop at the right moments. He does, you know, every year get like a top five in a major, and it just seemingly comes out of nowhere. But I'm gonna go Victor Hovland. Nice, and so we'll we'll see how those three do. But those are my three picks for this week.
SPEAKER_00I like those two. I think something that's always so interesting about Patrick Cantley's game is that he's just he's been a top 10 ranked player forever, and but we don't see him, he he has not won any majors yet, correct? Yeah, like that's just shocking to me. Um, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01He really hasn't been in contention, which is crazy. Like, other than other than that masters and in 19 and and a couple like he hasn't really, really been up there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Kind of interesting to to see a player to be that highly ranked for that long, but not being able to pull it off. I would love for him too. Fun fact, him and I actually played on the same soccer team growing up as kids. So that I think is pretty funny.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That is crazy. Nice. Yeah, nice. Yeah, he is a a SoCal kid, and yeah, it it's funny. My wife uh was his uh his his brother's youth minister. So wow. We were around the Cant Ladies for a little bit. You know what's funny? The inside there is that he does really get nervous around his family when they come to tournaments. So, like, there's been multiple years where he's asked them to stay home from the masters and and things like that. So there's clearly some mental thing there, a little bit. So maybe that's just the recipe for not being able to get it done in the end. Yeah. But yeah, we can't talk about the PGA without talking about your favorite one of your favorite golfers of all time, had one of the most legendary stories.
SPEAKER_00So I'm hoping you're talking about Mr. John Daly. Where's my golf ball? That's right. It's back here. It's back here somewhere. John Daly gave me his golf ball at the 2002 Nissan Open, I think. I'll figure that out. But yeah, we talked about this a little while ago, where he got into the PGA as the ninth alternate, which a lot of things have to go wrong for you to make a ninth alternate. Yeah, exactly. There was uh some payments under the table getting him into that tournament. And then he drives all night, pulls it off, and ends up winning his first and only major, I believe. But just what a cool story. It's the classic like 90s you're grinding into a movie. Should honestly should be a movie. I think Apple TV could pick that up very quickly, and it would be, I think they could create like a comedy out of it. It would be perfect.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if his son could act, but it he would fit the part, look the part, it'd be perfect. Love that. Yeah. All right, let's go pitch it. We got a quick one on the Pro Shop drop this week. Uh, you can run us through it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this one, it's nothing crazy. I just have been noticing things like this more recently of very small kind of gift boxes that go along with either tees or balls or some other sort of like golf accessory. So this one was a Bridgestone kind of ode to Tiger Woods nostalgia from, I don't think it was Quail Hall. I can't remember which tournament actually, but it's basically like his walk-it-in capsule comes with socks and a couple other little trinkets, all in an effort for you to go buy Bridgestone's golf ball, which is funny because I think people often get confused. Like, why does Tiger Woods play Bridgestone golf? I'm like, I don't know. They got him to sign a contract at the right time.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's stuff like this, which I think is kind of cool. Sunday Red did the same type of thing to like bring back nostalgic colors for Tiger Woods uh LA Open shirt, his first PGA tournament. I'm just seeing a lot of people do this more often now, which I think is cool. Some of it's a little more low level. Maybe this one is kind of on that side, but it's kind of fun to go go down memory lane with some of these products.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I agree. Um, I do like the resurgence of kind of the uh, I don't know, the 90s to early 2000s golf um kind of aesthetic resurgence we've talked about. I don't want them to overdo it. Like I like I feel like especially Sunday Red, obviously, is milking it for everything they can. But, you know, I yeah, there is a point where it becomes too saturated. I, you know, I think it was cool when a few people were doing it and a few companies, but yeah, I just don't want to see it blown out of proportion. But I am interested, it brings up a good question is after we get through these 90s and and 2000s, what's gonna be the next resurgence of golf? You know, are we going way back? Uh are we all gonna be wearing Argyle socks? Yes. So we'll see. We'll see. Uh yeah, cool, cool, cool capsule. And uh, I'm sure there'll be more things to come. I'm surprised there wasn't a ton of things around the PGA this year, like limited drops. But again, Aranamink isn't quite the iconic, you know, course that some of the other PGA venues are. So maybe that that had something to do with it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it could. I I think it is a missed opportunity. Um, you know, I just saw on Instagram earlier today they posted about like the PGA champions dinner. Uh and it just looks so much different than like the Masters Champions Dinner. There's only like a few guys there for sure. But what a missed opportunity for the PGA of America to create some sort of like timeless artwork piece or whatever, especially with all the live stuff going on, just kind of saying, hey, here's why we're the greatest, you know. I think that would have been a good idea for them to try and push out some cool products around this time, but not really seeing it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Well, there's a couple storylines to the PGA this week, but none would be more magical if uh if Speath could get into the mix come Sunday. That would be heavily talked about if that were a possibility. But it brings up a good question to come up with, which is who do you think is gonna be the next player to complete the career grand slam now that Rory has done it?
SPEAKER_00It's it is kind of the next question because I I know who we're all probably thinking, but there are a few guys out there that can still do it. And there's a new generation of golfers who could get started rather quickly. So yeah, are we gonna just pick some guys back and forth?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so let's do a draft. We're gonna draft who we think is the next player to complete the career grand slam. We'll just go back and forth. You can lead us off.
SPEAKER_00Okay, lucky me. Because I know we don't have too many guys to choose from at the moment, but I do think the first person to get it next is going to be Scotty Scheffler.
SPEAKER_01That's a pretty easy uh first pick. If you went anywhere else, I probably would have made fun of you. But yes, that that would be, and he'll have an opportunity this year. Um that'll be pretty amazing. Can't can't, yeah, can't disagree with that. Uh the next one I'm gonna go, um, where we start to get into the realm of okay, you could go other ways, but I'm gonna go John Rom. I'm gonna go John Rom. Still needs a couple to do it. There are people that need fewer, but he still he still needs a couple. And I just think his game is capable. It's it's gonna be I think he's gonna be a golfer around for a very long time. You know, I look at him and I don't see much like physical issues that that could really go wrong. I'm like honestly, Scotty, sometimes, you know, just with the kind of swing and the follow-through that he has, you know, you just never know if that's gonna lead to long-term issues. So, but I I think Rom's game's gonna be here for a while and it's good enough to get it done for sure. So I'm gonna go Rom.
SPEAKER_00I think that's a great pick. I was thinking of that as well. I'm gonna be more hopeful here, like we were just talking, and I'll say Jordan Speith. I think he still has a long way to go in his career. And if it the PGA is the only thing that he needs, it's a little bit better chance than most. So I would go Jordan Speith.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that makes sense. That's probably where I would have gone. This next group is a real cluster. You could go either way. It's a crazy one. I, you know, I'm probably wrong on this, but I'm actually gonna go Brooks. I know he still needs probably two of the hardest ones. Well, at least one of them, Masters and the open, but he's been very close at the Masters before. His game suits doing well at the Masters. And if he can refind his form, and I think he wants to right now, I think he's dangerous. So I'll I'll put Brooks next.
SPEAKER_00I think that's a good one too. I was I was gonna go that next after this one. I'm choosing Colin Morkawa. He's won the PGA, he's won the open, he's been in the mix at the Masters most years recently. I would love to see him be a part of the Masters. So really it's it's it's the Masters of the U.S. Open, which the U.S. Open is a hard one to get, you know. And I know that sounds silly saying that about any of them, but if that's the one that he's got left, it's it's still an uphill battle. But I think he can do it. He's young enough, he has the talent, and I would love to see it.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna take his counterpart in this, which is Xander. Also needs to, and so I'm gonna take Xander, and I do think it's a little bit of a stretch to say he gets it done, but has the game, has the top finishes. I I think he could get it done. All right, let's push it. Let's do one more round. I'm curious where you go with this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, I had thought of a few different ways, and this person only has one major championship, but I think they have the ability to win all four. Hideki Matsuyama. Oh, are you serious? Yeah, absolutely. You don't you don't think Hideki Masya Matsuyama can get the career grand slam?
SPEAKER_01Not the way he was playing this last week, looking up at the skies, wondering what what has golf done wrong to me. That was crazy to see Hideki. That's true. That was pretty funny. Yeah, he's just so calm, cool, and collected. It was funny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's so funny too, because he is like always the first one to let go of his golf club, and then five seconds later, he's two feet from the hole. For sure. Yeah, no, I I have he has a tie for second at the US Open. He's got a fourth place, sixth place masters. He's one, obviously.
SPEAKER_01I think having the Masters one already is a huge advantage. I definitely agree with that. Yeah. All right, who's your last one? Well, you could have gone Bryson, you could have gone Ludwig, yeah, but me, I'm going Miles freaking Russell. Well Russell to win grand slam after all the people we've talked about have probably quit golf. Miles Russell.
SPEAKER_00I feel like every time I hear about this kid, he's younger than he was before. I was like, oh my god, he's Benjamin Button. He's Benjamin Button. That's right. I think that's a great pick, though. I mean, he's got 50 years. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01You know, today talk about this kid like professionals. The way professionals talk about this kid is there's something completely special and different and just locked in. And so I'm really excited eventually when he takes you know his talents to to the PJ tour, and it's only a matter of years. But um I'm gonna take a big swing and go Miles Russell. I think that's a great pick. Is he in college now or not even in college yet? He he'll be in college next year. Do you know where he's playing? He signed, or maybe it's not maybe it's not this year, but uh yeah, he did man.
SPEAKER_00It's either look it up, uh see where he's headed. He committed to Florida State University. Great, great choice. Okay, nice. Yeah, yeah, the dude is 17 years old. That's incredible. Damn, so he'll be there with Charlie then.
SPEAKER_01Is it that's where Charlie's going? Wow, that's crazy. What a team. That team is gonna be that might be the most talked-about collegiate team ever.
SPEAKER_00That's that's pretty impressive. In 2024, he made four starts in professional tournaments. 2024, he's 17 now. Like he would have been 15 years old. Good god. I was trying to get bogey golf when I was 15. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So he's built different. I'm excited. Um, that's where I'll put my last and final pick. That's a great pick. All right. Well, we are gonna move on. There is nothing, I think we can all agree, there is nothing better than a golf trip. And there is nothing better than a golf trip that is international. So today I'm gonna have you blind rank the best countries to do a golf trip in.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I like this. I will say I'm not super educated in a lot of the courses, but I can understand the regions. It's kind of a feel thing, it's a culture thing.
SPEAKER_01So that's where we're gonna go off today. All right, let's do it. There's eight of them. Okay. Okay. All right. First one, we're gonna baseline you a golf trip around the USA.
SPEAKER_00Dang, that's so hard because there's so many great incredible courses. I'm gonna say three. There's just so many great courses to play.
SPEAKER_01That's a fantastic. You'd be kidding yourself if you put it past five. Yeah. Okay. So let's go with three. Next one is Australia. Also really good.
SPEAKER_00I think we also don't realize how many golfers come from Australia, how many top-tier professional golfers.
SPEAKER_01By number of golf courses, I believe it's two. Two or three. Wow. Yeah. That's great.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna be up there for me too. Um, I'm gonna say four. Okay, cool. Nice. Norway. That's gotta be just beautiful. I feel like one of the Norway courses was the ones I can never win in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003. If it's anything like what I saw on those, probably be very, very beautiful. I don't know why we're doing like down below, like one by one, but I'll put five.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um, Norway's pretty cool. If you play in July, you can play as late as like midnight in like broad day. Do now do they stay open that late? I don't know. I know there are some courses that you're allowed to play like as late as you want, but I I think just like more most courses, they do close down, even though it's still bright out. Um it's pretty crazy. Next one is Ireland.
SPEAKER_00I'm hoping you include another country. So I'm going to but I'm gonna put Ireland at two. Oh, okay, good.
SPEAKER_01I like that. Yeah. That's good. Okay. You're gonna have some tough choices here. The next one's gonna be Japan. Shoot, Japan would be pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00Have you been to Japan?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Uh not to play golf, but they are actually I messed up. They're number two in this uh in the amount of courses that are they have. I think it's USA, Japan, then Australia.
SPEAKER_00I could see that. And you said there's eight dang. So I'm gonna put that at six because I think that's my highest one, other than my number one. That's fair. Um all right, next one, England. Dude, I I messed this hard thing up. What a hard list. I know. You messed this up. I don't know what you're gonna say for the last two, but I feel like one is gonna be have to be number one. I don't believe this, but this is my choice, and this blind ranking is seven. Okay. Uh this next one, China. You know, I I actually knew somebody uh growing up playing junior golf who would go uh to China to visit family and play. And he always said it was the best golf that he's ever played. I don't I don't know what that means, but I know that they have incredible courses. Yeah. And I'm gonna put it down at the bottom, number eight.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you got you gotta go there. All right. You did at least one thing right about this draft. Last one is Scotland. Thank goodness. Because if I if that is anywhere other than number one, that's a problem. Yeah. Nice. Okay. Well, you had a little rough middle section there, but you ultimately got some great ones up at the top. Only one I really truly disagree with is Japan. I I think it would be incredible to golf in Japan. Yeah, uh that's definitely on my top of my list for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh to do a golf trip anywhere to any international country would be pretty awesome. Which I know you and I have tossed around the idea. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_01Hey, we have tickets if we want them. We have tickets to to 2027 St. Andrews, the open. I mean, that's it doesn't it does not get better than that. So it does not.
SPEAKER_00That is the that is the the top tier right there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm excited. All right. Um, this next game, why don't you walk us through it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I, you know, I was going through a lot of one, so I was watching the Bryson DeChambeau video, and somebody, I forget exactly what the comments said, but the general gist of it was there are so many sponsorships in this one video. Like there are cutaways to like different drinks or different whatever. And you know, you see it with Bob de Sports with prize picks and all this, which like, of course, like makes sense. But so I was thinking, like, what would I want my sponsor to be? Right. And so I think we should make our pitches for what we want, who we want to sponsor us for our golfing career or this career that we have built within the world of golf, and why. So why don't you start us off? Who are you picking that you want to sponsor you? You will be the spokesperson for all the products, you will use them all the time. You will speak and uh read and add about them before the start of every episode.
SPEAKER_01Man, I think the coolest sponsor would be McLaren. I wish McLaren got into golf.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. I thought I thought I believed you for a second there. Goodness.
SPEAKER_01Man, honestly, though, um, all jokes aside, when they were jumping into golf, I did think that was one of the coolest adjacent companies to do it. And I thought that'd be amazing. So far, not a great start, but you know, long, long time to go. So, well, my joke was either going to be McLaren or Blackstone. I ended up not going either of those. Nice now. I have to preface this. I am actually not joking on this one, but I am stealing one from you. And it feels more of your pick than mine. But I really, I really would love it. I wish Anthropic would jump into the golf space. Wow. So, for those who don't know, Anthropic is a company that is focused on AI development, and they specifically have a user interface called Claude. So, you guys might have heard of Claude before. And I just think there is a lot to be done with a partnership with an AI technology company and the space. We talk about it on the show so much. How much of all this stuff is data and analytics and and things like that, and how you track and how you train and all the things and tools that are available to use. I think it only makes sense that, and you you kind of saw it a little bit with like IBM Watson, and they jumped in as a big sponsor for for the space. I I think some of these newer, kind of younger um technology brands could do the same. So I'm gonna throw one out of left field here and I'm gonna go anthropic. And give me that, give me that Claude, give me that Claude Polo. I'd be rocking it on the course for sure. There you go. And and my only concern, I mean, brought to you by Anthropic. I mean that yeah, my I would that sounds great.
SPEAKER_00Yes. That sounds awesome, but I hope that I don't get replaced then. If that's your ultimate goal, is to replace me with the Claude AI. No. You already are. Yeah, it very yeah, exactly. No, that's that's a good one. And I feel like we are gonna see those partnerships and integrations probably with a something like a track man or a foresight or whatever. So that's a good one. It's out there, but I think it's it's the future. So very cool. All right, where'd you go? So I had trouble kind of picking one. I think you know about my obsession with Wilson. I'm not gonna pick Wilson because I know that I'm going to get that sponsorship one day. So I just know. But I kind of went a similar route as you. I love technology. And if I were to pick an already established golf company to partner with somebody like a Claude or whoever, I would pick Track Man. I think they have been the most kind of successful launch monitor brand. Top tracer and all that, those are great. But I just I love using a track man when I went and took lessons at these places, and I would love for them to build me a simulator here in my garage. I just think it's going to be those companies that are going to pull some of that technology, that AI investment in. And I would love to see where that goes. So if I can get all the track man equipment, get one to take with me on the range. They are very expensive and I cannot afford it. So if they want to throw me one, I would be very grateful. Yeah. I'm a software engineer, so I can help them out. I can give them my feedback. So I'm a good candidate for it.
SPEAKER_01I can't deny that's a that's a good pick. I also think, like, man, I've tried out a ton of simulators before. I've done Foresight, I've done uh GSR, I've done um Trackman, I've done um Full Swing. Trackman's like way above everyone, like in my in my true opinion, like way, way accuracy. All the data, all that stuff, trackman for some reason, like this this should be pretty simple from a technology standpoint, right? Um, there shouldn't be that gap in performance that that there is, but there there is. There is for someone doing it to do it so well, yeah, a pretty amazing partner, and that'd be a great sponsor to have.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Nice. Um well, good. Hope we hopefully we get those. We're gonna close out today with a pretty popular game that we play, which is truth or bad lie. And obviously the PGA championship is famous for being the only tournament to allow caddies to use range firefinders on. So I was gonna test you to see if you know what and what caddies can and can't do in a game of truth or bad lie. All right, let's try it. All right, can a or a caddy can stand behind a player when they are taking their stance.
SPEAKER_00I think that's true. I feel like I've seen images of guys like standing up to their putt and their caddy behind them. And you can take your stance, but you can't address the ball.
SPEAKER_01It is mixed angles when you see that, because they are not allowed to stand directly behind the player when they're taking their stance. So when they go in to take their stance, they have to move out of the direct line behind them. Because, for your point, it helps them gain an idea of alignment. Makes sense. All right, so I didn't get that one. All right, here we go. A caddy can enter the bunker prior to a player's shot.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna say no. That seems kind of weird.
SPEAKER_01This is true. They can. Really? The only thing that they can't do, and this is a full honor system, is they can't test the sand. So they can't reach down and grab the sand, they can't even, they can't even dig their feet in. They're allowed to get a a sight a line of sight and see it from from the bunker, but they are not allowed to test the sand. Wow. I did I did not know that.
SPEAKER_00I feel like you're kind of testing the sand by walking into it, though.
SPEAKER_01It's a weird one, right? It's a it's a weird one. Um all right. A caddy can tell another caddy what club they're hitting.
SPEAKER_00I'm 99% sure that they cannot do that. I don't think players are supposed to be communicating any sort of club selection. That is a bad lie.
SPEAKER_01Now, the truth of it is they all do it. So yes, this the symbols for it are your stock is a seven. So if a caddy is having their player hit at a nine, they'll go like this. We'll just put two down from seven, and that'll tell the other caddy that they're hitting a nine.
SPEAKER_00Fascinating. That's tricky.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So they all have hand signals, and it's pretty well known, but they are not allowed to tell each other what club they're hitting.
SPEAKER_00Why why would they want to tell another caddy though? I don't know, but they do.
SPEAKER_01It's talked about all the time.
SPEAKER_00Interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay, cool. A caddy can take a player's club and demonstrate the proper swing away from the ball. No, that sounds ridiculous. It's actually true. They're totally allowed to do this. Oh my god, really? As long as it's not over the ball and you're showing them the alignment, they're totally fine to do that. So they're able to take it and show the pace and show everything that they would do as long as it's not over the then.
SPEAKER_00Your caddy better be a good golfer, is what I'm saying. I don't know if anyone's ever done this, but yeah. Imagine Steve Williams being like, hey, maybe you should try this.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Okay, we're gonna keep going. A caddy can flatten out any imperfections on the green only in the player's line. I'm gonna say yes. This is false. This is the only thing they can't do. They can move impediments, they can move loose stuff, but they cannot flatten or stamp anything out, including pitch marks.
SPEAKER_00Only the player can do that. Only the player can do it. Dang. I I I am a rule follower, so this is incredible.
SPEAKER_01I feel like I did a fantastic job for coming up with these questions. Um, all right, here we go. A caddy may hold an umbrella over the player while the player makes a stroke. I'm gonna say no. You cannot do that. You have to, and you see it all the time. They hold it till the very last second and then they take it away. You cannot, yes, while the player is taking a stroke, you cannot impact the elements. Yeah, makes sense. All right, good. You're one for seven. I'm just kidding. Uh all right, last one. Here we go. A caddy may place a T on the ground to show the player the line of play, but then remove it before the stroke.
SPEAKER_00I think my strategy should be do the opposite of what my instinct is for this round. So I'm gonna say yes, they can do it. No, they cannot do it. It'd be a ridiculous thing to see someone place a D and say hit it up for that T.
SPEAKER_01My God. Case that was not your best game, but man, did that make for some good entertainment.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm glad. I think this is my first uh sleep deprivation dad brain going on here.
SPEAKER_01This is a direct result from having a kid this week.
SPEAKER_00Man, well, that's funny. Thing you those are you did a good job kind of faking me out there.
SPEAKER_01Well done. Thank you. I appreciate it. Well, hopefully, all the caddies on the PGA this week know all those rules and abide by them. Hope so. All right. Well, that's gonna do it for us. Thank you for joining and see you next time.
SPEAKER_00That was great.