2025 Masters Preview with Paul Burke

Paul Burke joins Sean to preview The Masters. 

Topics:

• Multiple major winners of the 2020s and who can join the club?
• Is there TOO MUCH Masters coverage?
• Who is feeling the pressure to win?
• Who is in the wilderness?
• Can players with scars from Augusta ever win The Masters?
• Picks and dark horses

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Transcript

Sean Melia  
 Welcome to the Baystate Golf Podcast. I am Sean Milley. It's Masters Week. It's Masters 
 Monday. And I've got Paul Burke on the other line for our, I think it's, I think we've, it's, is, 
 we're going on 45 years of this at this point. Paul, welcome back.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, know, thanks. I've just entered my 40th year in the last month or so, two months, 
 and yeah, thanks. This is as much of a tradition, unlike any other, as the golf tournament, 
 is us giving out bad masters picks and talking about the golf. So yeah, I mean, this is...

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, congratulations.

Paul Burke  
 For me, it kind of started last night after the golf tournaments ended. You really get 
 excited for Masters week and it's just the best week of the year. You pop on the TV and 
 of course I would expect Golf Channel to have Masters on in the morning and I get a 
 replay of the Augusta National Women's Amps. So that was awesome. Which everyone, 
 I mean from the very start by the way. But no, it's awesome. This is the best week of the 
 year.

Sean Melia (01:51.51) 
 Nice.

Paul Burke  
 there's really nothing better and I could, think we're just in for an awesome week.

Sean Melia  
 You know, I said jokingly, it's our 45th one, but the anchor of this of this podcast and the 
 time frame is Jonas Blix. And I just had to go back into his Wikipedia to look for his his 
 yellow 2014 was the year he finished T4 at the Masters and he was my dark horse pick. 
 And we were we were texting back and forth that week and like, holy shit, Jonas Blix is 
 going to win the Masters.

Paul Burke  
 Jonas Blix, Jonas Blix, yeah, yep.

Paul Burke  
 Still the best pic this pod has ever made.

Paul Burke  
 Downhill from there with Arpix.

Sean Melia  
 And that was the end of it. So at least 11 years, maybe there was one before that, but 
 we've been doing this for a while and we will do the same thing again.

Paul Burke  
 Well, 11, I mean, 11 years recorded. We've probably been doing this in some form one or 
 another for 20 plus years.

Sean Melia  
 Yes.

Yes, since our days back in high school. So yeah, we're gonna we're gonna do what we 
 always do just kind of talk through some topics and then at the end do our picks, snake 
 draft style. And I just thought before we really jump into the masters just to give a sense 
 of like the 2025 majors, we've got the masters PJ championship championship is a quail 
 hollow. We've got the Oakmont US Open.

Paul Burke (03:14.74) 
 UGH! UGH!

Sean Melia  
 And then we got port rush. So three out of four is not bad there. a pretty good quail 
 hollow. Quail hollow is tough. That'll be next month.

Paul Burke  
 I mean, you know, going to a regular PGA tour stop as a major works when it's Pebble 
 Beach. know, people say, okay, it's Pebble Beach, you know, a historic top five, six golf 
 course in the country. I'm not sure it has or ever will work as Quill Hollow, but that's for 
 probably our PGA preview in May.

Sean Melia  
 Yes.

Sean Melia  
 would have been really sick. I don't think this is possible still with the fires, but if the PGA 
 of America was just like, you know what? We missed Riviera. Riviera got missed on the 
 PGA tour schedule. Let's just go there for the PGA championship and just, sorry, Quail

Hollow. We're gonna, we're gonna punt and we're gonna make sure we have an event at 
 Riviera. But I would imagine they still couldn't have one even now with how bad the fires 
 were. But yeah, not a great, not a great venue, but Oakmont will be awesome. I'm hoping 
 to

be there for a portion of that week and and then Port Rush in Northern Ireland. Shane 
 Lowry's victory. Maybe we'll talk about him a little bit today. Maybe.

Paul Burke  
 Maybe, hey, not for nothing, but mass golf did very, very sneakily just poach the Mass 
 Open away from Indian Pond this year and switched venues. So maybe the PGA of 
 America can learn something from the golf facilities in our backyard.

Sean Melia  
 That's true.

Sean Melia  
 There is precedent. Yeah, there is precedent. And then the other kind of bigger picture 
 that kind of just gets us to thinking about the Masters a little bit. I just went back very 
 quickly. It didn't take too long. 2020 multiple major winners, and maybe this is where we 
 can kind of start. So bigger picture, but maybe this is also getting us to talk about the 
 Masters. John Rahm, Colin Morikawa, Scotty Scheffler.

Bryson DeChambeau are the four players who have won multiple majors in this decade. 
 And then you've got Justin Thomas and DJ who won their second. Am I missing one? 
 Who did I miss?

Paul Burke  
 You missed one.

Paul Burke  
 Come on, Nails. You missed it. yeah.

Paul Burke  
 I mean, you're better than this. Who won two majors last year? Are you expunging the 
 PGA from the record entirely?

Sean Melia  
 Xander. Golly. Xander. He. Yeah, I mean, maybe that's just typical of Xander. He's the 
 only.

Sean Melia  
 No, not at all. thought that was a good win given the circumstances and the putty had to 
 make it the end. And Xander. So those are five. And then JT and DJ won their second 
 majors in this decade. won earlier in the 2010s. First, there are some candidates who 
 can do this this week or this year when another major they've already won one in the 
 2020s. Shane Lowry, Hideki, Brian Harmon.

Fits, Wyndham Clark and Cameron Smith. And then you throw in Adam Scott, Justin 
 Rose, Jason Day, Sergio, Patrick Reed and Gary Woodland who won majors in the 
 2010s. Is there anyone of that list? You're looking at the agenda. So that's a long list of 
 players for people to hold in their head. Is there anyone who you think has a great 
 chance or the best chance to win another major?

this year given form or venues or something that just stands out to you.

Paul Burke  
 I mean, boy, those candidates from this decade, you'd have a great little game of miss 
 the cut or not on that list. You know, I think Hideki is always capable of winning any 
 week that he tees it up, regardless of form, and he tends to play well here. So I would 
 favor him. mean, I'm looking at some of these people. Even though Brian Hartman just 
 won.

Sean Melia  
 I know, I know. Yes.

Paul Burke  
 I'm not sure this is the place for him. Same with Fitz. Geez, Cameron Smith. Haven't 
 heard from him in while. You know, you've got guys like Jason Day that I think are 
 playing really well, but I just don't think he can win a major. So I don't really favor 
 anybody. I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be Hideki. But the rest, I'm not sure that they 
 can compete.

Sean Melia  
 I

Paul Burke  
 with people that when they get on their game and so if one person from Rory, Ram, 
 Brooks, Scheffler, know JT, if they're on their game I don't know that anyone on this list 
 can win so it would take a pretty staggering sequence of events for someone to win.

Sean Melia  
 Right, I Lowry going back to Port Rush as far as like later, that's an interesting one. He 
 also played very well at Oakmont in the year DJ one, like, and he's playing pretty well. 
 Again, he's it's amazing. He's 37 years old.

Paul Burke (08:22.37) 
 Yep.

Paul Burke  
 I think the course needs to play really hard for him to have a shot at Augusta. I don't 
 think he wins if... Yeah, I don't think he can win at anything that's above a 12 under, or 
 better than 12 under.

Sean Melia  
 Yes, I agree. And maybe that won't be the case with the rain they're getting this week.

Sean Melia  
 It's also amazing looking at the guys from the 2010s who have won like Adam Scott, 
 Justin Rose, Jason Day, Sergio, Patrick Reed, Gary Woodland, especially those first guys. 
 The fact that they only won one major is just amazing. And I think if you're gonna win 
 your second, I've done a little bit of, I researched this a while ago, like you win your 
 second one very closely after you win your first one. It's rare that you go.

six years like Lowry could, he won in 2019. Patrick Reed won the same year as Lowry, 
 which is also kind of like, it's just thinking about time. Patrick Reed feels like he won his 
 major way longer ago than Shane Lowry did, but they both won in 2019. So I would put 
 Lowry and Nadeki very much at the top of that list. I'd put Fitz at the very bottom.

Paul Burke  
 No, was 2018.

Sean Melia  
 I'm sorry, was 20, no Sergio won in 2018.

Paul Burke (09:39.01) 
 Yeah, just... No. No, no, because Patrick Reed put the jacket on Tiger.

Sean Melia

OK. Oh, yes, you're right. Tiger won in 2019. OK. That makes me feel better about how I 
 think about time. Sorry, Tiger. And sorry, Xander Schaafle.

Paul Burke (09:56.49) 
 It's okay, get there.

Sean Melia  
 I've been deep in some Frances Womit stuff this morning, so my brain is foggy. Thank 
 you, thanks. Coverage, you wanted to talk about the coverage of the Masters, and I'm 
 gonna let you set this up and then we'll go from there, because I've got some thoughts 
 too, but I have no idea what you think. You just literally wrote in the agenda, coverage.

Paul Burke (10:07.18) 
 That stuff was good, Mills. I like that.

Sean Melia  
 Too much is that blasphemous. And I wonder what you mean when you say coverage. 
 So the floor is yours, Mr. Burke.

Paul Burke (10:35.79) 
 Yeah, listen, no one consumes more Masters content than I do. I mean, actually, I'm sure 
 there's there people that are, but I consume a lot of Masters content. I got an email. This 
 this happened after I even put that in there, but I got an email this morning that from 
 Masters.com that was a 15 minute interview with Niall Horan.

Sean Melia  
 Yep.

Paul Burke (11:02.99) 
 I was just sitting there, you know, Niles, nice guy. He's a fan of the game. But on Monday 
 of Masters, do I really need a 15 minute interview with him and Keira Dixon talking about 
 Under the Umbrellas? I did click on it and I did watch it. So I'm a sucker. and again, this 
 sort of...

Sean Melia  
 Under the umbrella.

Paul Burke  
 you know, exacerbated my feelings because I wrote that agenda item before I got that 
 email.

And it's just been hitting me recently. You just get hit over the head. It's become such a 
 mainstream product that transcends the game of golf and the sickos that we are that 
 consume golf on a regular basis. It's just constant. And I have found myself the last few 
 years with watching every shot, tagging every player. Okay, it starts here on 
 masters.com and then it switches here and then it switches here. I've felt myself 
 overwhelmed at times in feeling like I'm almost behind.

on digesting all of the content, whereas I think as little as five or six years ago, was, 
 basic is not the right word, but it was concise and it was great and it was easily 
 accessible. And now I feel like it comes in all different forms that I'm just wondering if 
 it's a little too much.

Sean Melia  
 I can't disagree with you. think part of the symptom of the like Kira Dixon, if you follow 
 Claire Rogers, she's in Augusta for 14 days because the media is covering Augusta 
 Women's National, Augusta National Women's Am and that started on Wednesday of 
 last week. So they played Wednesday, Thursday, then they're at

Augusta Friday Saturday, the drive-trip and putt is on Sunday So you could conceivably if 
 you want to catch like the practice round of the ANWA you're there on Monday Ten days 
 before the Masters even starts so you're naturally Already gonna get stuff from media 
 people who are there Or their pre recording stuff to have ready for Monday morning with 
 Niall Horan So that's I think one thing too and that started in 2019

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, and it's totally.

Sean Melia  
 and really like kicked up in 2021, 2022 after COVID. And that does kind of tie in a little bit 
 about the overwhelm, just the feeling of being like overwhelmed with content. It's like a 
 fire hose of content. And I wrote, and I'm kind of working on something right now for my 
 newsletter about like, should the PGA tour just punt and not have an event this past 
 week? Like.

Should the Valero Texas Open be put somewhere else in the schedule that then you can 
 have like Anwah, the drive chip and putt. If Live Golf wants to have their little party in 
 Miami, they can. You've got college basketball going on this weekend. Like, just like give, 
 give the sports world, take something away to make, to give space for maybe whoever

wants to do master stuff to actually do it and not make people feel like, Jesus, there's, I 
 got the Texas Open going on.

like Brian Harmon is shooting 75 on Sunday to win. Like, right? It's just like the product 
 in general gets diluted and then Monday morning rolls around and I feel like, man, I 
 already like, I've already listened to three podcasts about the masters and I'm writing 
 stuff about the masters and I'm thinking about it, but I only have three days to do it 
 because then it starts on Thursday and.

Paul Burke  
 was so bad.

Paul Burke (14:45.18) 
 Don't stop listening to podcasts, though, including this one.

Sean Melia  
 Yes, and you continue. Yes, right. But you can you just kind of like you consume stuff 
 until Thursday morning and then the consumption changes and like you said, you're 
 following it on you're watching like the quad box on your iPad and you got the TV going 
 and you're trying to you're right. You're on calls or meetings or looking after your kids 
 and you're just like, it's just a ton. And so I do agree. It feels like, man, it just keeps 
 coming.

And it gets earlier and earlier like Shane Bacon had a Twitter spaces. I saw he posted 
 last Monday about the Masters. That's insane.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, it is. I think I would take a slightly different approach to the solution. I think the 
 lead up is part of it, right? Like, I mean, I'm totally guilty of favoriting tweets in the middle 
 of winter that say, hey, we're only 150 days until the masters. I do think, you know, when 
 the PGA tour thinks about whatever the next iteration is, you know,

Sean Melia  
 Right.

Paul Burke (15:48.34) 
 Events that have identities are really important. I've always thought that the week before 
 the Masters, and I think you do need to have an event the week before the Masters 
 because it allows players to prepare that way, and some players prefer to prepare that 
 way, number one. And number two, it's always been cool the last week as a winner that

could get into the Masters. Like, that's a cool storyline. Where I think they should punt is 
 having an event the following week.

Sean Melia  
 Yes. OK. Yeah, Harbor Town is a nightmare.

Paul Burke  
 And I actually like Harbor Town as a vet, but just move it back. It does not, you know, 
 everyone needs, it's coming off that high of the masters. And then I just, you're watching 
 the Thursday of Harbor Town, like all of us sick people do, or tune in at some point. Is 
 this the same sport I was watching? Because it doesn't look like it. So I don't know. 
 mean, maybe I'm being a little hypocritical by saying there's too much masters content.

Sean Melia  
 for yes, yes.

Paul Burke  
 But it does, again, the Niall Horan interview is a perfect example of, we really need this?

Sean Melia  
 Yeah. The other thing is now that the like I it was 200 it'll be 263 days from Xander 
 Schauffele winning the open at Trune to the first ball being hit on Thursday at the 
 Masters. So we literally have like a hundred day stretch of major championship golf. So 
 that has been squeezed and because that's been squeezed also the window of time 
 between the majors is also

Paul Burke  
 Yep, it's tight.

Sean Melia  
 very wide. didn't have a Ryder Cup in September. So that makes it feel even more like a 
 desert. so like, there's got to be some way whether maybe like, maybe they mess around 
 with the schedule and there's a tournament that maybe that it ends on Friday, instead of 
 Sunday, and there's no golf like the weekend before the Masters and like, players still get 
 a chance to play the week before if that's how they want to prepare.

There's just like, there could be a little bit more creativity where the masters gets like 
 this little bit of a bubble that allows for like maybe that enhances the coverage because 
 people aren't spread so thin that they're like working on stuff about the masters in 
 February and March just to drop it during the week of the Texas Open. Because that's

the other thing I think that happens is people just, you you do your research and you 
 have something ready for that week. So I agree with you, the coverage is too much.

I'm glad we get to see all the golf because you can kind of pick and choose, but man, the 
 feeling of like missing out on stuff is overwhelming. And I think it just, that kind of goes 
 with how society is in general. Like you just, you can consume as much as you want, as 
 much as you can until you feel overwhelmed. And then you try to figure out how to like 
 feel normally well and again.

Paul Burke  
 That's what happens Sunday night when I just fall into my pillow and start crying.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah. At least when the Masters ends, you've got Quill Holland to look forward to.

Paul Burke (18:57.26) 
 Hahaha

Sean Melia  
 and it's the start of the major season, which I think like...

Paul Burke  
 It's gonna be so bad. If Rory doesn't win at Quill Hollow, then I honestly think he should 
 retire.

Sean Melia  
 Exemptions the field is huge. It's a it's a it's one of the bigger fields Yes, yes relatively 
 speaking as far as playing You know not splitting tees and playing in in April and trying 
 to get a bunch of players including some guys in their 60s Through it is a pretty big field 
 you pose the question that should

Paul Burke  
 come on, relatively speaking, let's...

Sean Melia  
 Luke Clanton have received an exemption into the Masters.

Paul Burke  
 I did pose the question, I'd like to answer my question too. Great journalism trick right 
 there.

A lot of, so for those who don't know, a couple years ago, Gordon Sargent received a 
 special exemption that really was from a category that had never been given up before. 
 was a standout amateur, had not won the USAM, didn't win any of terms that would get 
 him exemption. He had won the NCAAs. believe he was a freshman year at the time. I 
 believe you'll know better than when I was freshman or sophomore. He was young.

Sean Melia (20:18.36) 
 He won as a freshman and then the sophomore year is when he played in the Masters. 
 Yep. Yep.

Paul Burke  
 Correct, obviously, because he had to play in the NTAs. And so Luke Klin is an amateur 
 who has been, you know, tearing up the golf world for the better part of a year and has 
 recently received, you know, the special promotion via PGA Tour U to get on the tour. 
 And by some rankings, he's, you know, a top 50 player in the world. And so people were 
 pushing for him to get an exemption and

Sean Melia  
 Yes.

Paul Burke  
 He's definitely... There's two ways to think about this. One, does he deserve one as the 
 type of caliber player that he is? Probably. But why isn't he getting one? So was thinking 
 about this. Why isn't he getting an exemption? And my theory is that Augusta doesn't 
 view him as an amateur.

Sean Melia  
 Hmm.

Paul Burke  
 He has gone through so many of these P, getting sponsors exemptions, handouts. 
 Sponsors exemptions are handouts. That's what they are. We can argue the merits of 
 them, but they are handouts. He does not qualify for these PGA tournaments based on 
 merit. Only a couple times by finishing in the top 10 via sponsor exemption did he. And 
 so my guess is that Augusta does not want to promote that type of amateur golf.

Sean Melia  
 Yes. Yes.

Sean Melia  
 Yes.

Paul Burke  
 activity and that they view him more as a pro who did not qualify for the Masters.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, I don't know. don't know if that's not where I thought you were going to go. I didn't 
 really have a sense of where you're going to go, but that wouldn't have been on my bingo 
 card. I just think they don't want to give out exemptions to amateurs. And I know the 
 sergeant thing, could maybe they reverse engineered sergeant winning the NCAA to give 
 him that, or maybe it was something they had talked about.

And when the right player came along and won, they were like, yeah, let's do it. And let's 
 give this to Sergeant.

Paul Burke  
 they have not given up that has not become a standard category by the way. Some were 
 guessing that it might the winner of the NCAAs.

Sean Melia  
 He is the winner of the NCAA from last year is in the field this week. It's Hiroshi Tai. He 
 goes to Georgia Tech. The reason last year's player didn't win is because it was Fred 
 Biondi who turned pro. So he just he turned down the invite because so every year they 
 do they that is now an exemption that is given out. So Luke Clanton has had. Yes. Yes.

Paul Burke  
 No, please.

it is? I never thought they formalized it.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, they formalize it. So Hiroshi Tai is in the field. But the reason it felt like they didn't 
 formalize it is because the second guy who won after that was formalized turned pro 
 and just, you you turn pro, you lose that exemption because they don't allow amateurs to 
 play, which kind of goes to your point of like, Hey, if you're an amateur and you earn this, 
 we're not going to give it to you if you turn pro. Which is another conversation. I don't 
 think Augusta would ever move out, move off that stance, but I think

looking at this year's amateur field. Maybe they should. And to give like

Paul Burke  
 But Luke Clanton is not an amateur anymore. He's just not.

Sean Melia  
 I, right. I agree. I don't think that's why they're not giving him one. I just don't think they're 
 going to hand out an exemption to an amateur, whether he's an amateur that feels like a 
 pro, whether he's an amateur who has dominated amateur golf and played very, very 
 well on the PJ tour. but like you said, exemptions feel like handouts. And I don't think 
 Augusta is in the, in the, in the game of giving handouts unless you win a fall PJ tour 
 event, then that's a handout. so

I just think that's why they're not doing it. It would set a precedent and I don't think they 
 really want to do that. I think they're probably seeing more amateurs who are going to 
 possibly do what Luke Klan did. mean, Jackson Koyvan next year, you could be having 
 the same conversation about he's at Auburn. He's one point away from earning his PGA 
 Tour card through the accelerated. He's a sophomore at Auburn. He's won all of his 
 points by winning awards, less so.

than winning points on the PGA Tour and playing well. And you get a point if you make 
 the cut. You get a point if you finish in the top 10. You get a point if you finish in the top 
 five. You get three points if you win the Haskins Award and Freshman of the Year and all 
 that kind of stuff. But Koyvan is like the next one in line. And maybe Augusta just 
 realizes, like, if we do this for Clinton, man, this is more the norm now, where you're 
 going to have one, maybe two amateurs every five years to kind of roll through that you 
 could give an exemption to. But like, what's the?

What's the point? I don't think there's a point of giving one to Clanton.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, I agree. this might be a conversation for another podcast, but I would also 
 challenge this model that Clant just keeps getting sponsors exemptions and gets to 
 obtain points. Like to me, PGHORU, I mean, do know what the U stands for in PGHORU? 
 Do you know what that stands for? University, yes. OK.

Sean Melia  
 University. Yes, I do.

Paul Burke

Because it stands for university, I feel like that it should be gained through amateur 
 events or events qualified for it, like the US Open or something. And so it's a very 
 unbalanced way to get points. And listen, I mean, I know we're gonna do this next week, 
 but just a little bit of a preview. I caddied on the corn fairy tour this past week and.

so much talk about status and points and who gets exemptions and the list and priority 
 list and all of that. And this was right up there in the conversation.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, yeah. So I think I also picture, you know, like the optics of for the Masters and 
 maybe for amateur golf in general, this kind of goes to what you're saying as far as 
 being a pro. know, Clinton walking into the amateur dinner on Monday night and it's the 
 US am champ, the US am runner up, the Latin America am champ, the NCAA champ. 
 when you ding is I'm playing in it cause he turned pro, but he was the Asia Pacific.

amateur champ and then Clanton just like strolling into me like, Hey, I just, I'm just a 
 really good amateur and I'm here because they asked me to come here and looking at 
 like, you, yeah, you, like you guys all have, you guys all won, like you guys all have a 
 trophy that got you here. Evan Beck, the mid am champ, right? Like, so that's the, that's 
 the other, that's the other piece for me of like, I think, I think they like having that room be 
 trophy winners.

Paul Burke  
 I just made the cut in Puerto Rico while my college team was playing.

Paul Burke  
 Totally.

Sean Melia  
 And Luke Clanton was not a trophy winner. He was an awesome AM. He had a chance 
 to win the US Amateur. He didn't. He had a chance to win NCAAs. He didn't. So you don't 
 get to play in the Masters. Guys who are playing in the Masters who I think we got to like 
 Jeff Shackelford was talking about this on the McKellar pod. And I had made this note 
 last week looking through. We have some guys in the field this week who won six 
 months ago and are not playing good golf right now.

I mean, Pad Guzire won the Pro-Core in September. He's made four cuts since then and 
 he's missed his last six cuts.

Paul Burke

Yeah, but did you see him punta potter? That was pretty cool.

Sean Melia (27:51.61) 
 Johnny Vegas, Rafa compost, Joe Highsmith, Davis Thompson, who has won top 10 
 since winning the John Deere, which was, if anyone's wondering last July. So I like that's 
 five or six guys. If you're looking at 97, maybe, maybe they need to think about like, I 
 don't know. You've got guys who are just healthier now who can play a little longer, who 
 are past champs. Do they need to cut the past champs? Things like you gotta be.

Once you're 60, you're kind of done unless you're Bernhardt longer. Or you got to take a 
 physical test. I don't know. It's a big field. There's some guys in the field at this point that 
 I think dilute it. And that's kind of harsh to say. man, winning a tournament six months 
 ago and then not validating it, I don't know if those should be Masters exemptions.

Paul Burke  
 Hey, when do they play the NCAA tournament?

Sean Melia  
 They played in May. Yeah. And then, yes.

Paul Burke  
 May, okay. And so the May winner gets into the tournament. I couldn't be more on the 
 other side of that take because it's part of the Masters identity. Like you win a 
 tournament. You could come in second all year long. Granted that would get you very 
 well inside the top 50 of the world. you know, winning means something and it's always 
 been like.

Sean Melia  
 Yes, it would.

Paul Burke (29:21.43) 
 One of the first questions they ask people after they win, like, hey, you're going to the 
 Masters. And they're just pumped. so regardless of someone's form, you earned your 
 way into the Masters. you keep saying it's a huge field. It's not a huge field. We're not 
 talking about 144 players. We're talking about less than 100. close to probably a sixth of 
 them are closer to collecting their Social Security checks than they are being on the PGA 
 Tour. And so they don't even count.

So no, I have no problem with the qualifying criteria. I think it's a unique part of the 
 Masters. Winning gets you in.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, well, we'll agree to disagree. I just think some of those guys don't need to be in the 
 field. You know what? You know what I'm excited for? Friday afternoon, one of those 
 guys being in the top five.

Paul Burke  
 I mean they stink, don't get me wrong, they stink.

Guaranteed, guaranteed. General Patton Kazire is gonna come marching in and

Sean Melia  
 He might. Joe Highsmith, the lefty, you get this, like, this place just lefties love this 
 place. Walking around this bucket hat.

Paul Burke (30:22.89) 
 I I can't believe you put him on the list. won like a month ago.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, I know. He's just, I mean, but he played well in the fall. He won this, this spring. I 
 don't know. I just, he just doesn't really move the needle. He's the least, he probably 
 shouldn't be on this list, but he would be a surprise if he had it, if he had a good week, 
 but lefties, lefties in the math and Augusta, you know, it's a thing. Let's talk about the 
 quickly. Cause I'm sure we'll talk about a little bit more during our picks, but just Scotty 
 trying to join one person as a player to win.

Paul Burke  
 50s.

Sean Melia  
 three Masters in the span of four tries and Jack is the only one to do it. Tiger was close. 
 Tiger wanted to know one or two or five. Just like I don't even have anything to say 
 about it. It's just as a very, very cool little extra storyline here defending. Obviously not a 
 lot of players have defended and then to.

defend while also saying like, yeah, I've got three out of four is pretty great, while not 
 winning any other majors as well.

Paul Burke

Yeah, it's tough to really throw more accolades on it than everyone else already has. 
 He's proven that he can do things that people haven't before. I know Nicholas has done 
 this, but he's the only back-to-back players winner, which is extremely impressive. And 
 so, if people have said this over the years, it was sort of an unspoken thing amongst the 
 touring pros for a long time, but...

Because of some of the dynamics that we mentioned a little bit earlier, size of field, 
 champions getting in that are bad form, past champions playing, amateurs playing, it's 
 actually the easiest tournament to win for the top players. Statistically speaking, it is the 
 easiest tournament to win.

Sean Melia  
 Right. Right.

Paul Burke  
 And a lot of time, people wouldn't go out of their way to say this because you'd get so 
 intimidated as a player that you'd actually be part of the reason why it's easy to win. And 
 Tyre used to think that way. And I think Brooks was one of the first people that came out 
 and actually said it, but he was sort of repeating what Nicholas had said a couple of 
 decades ago. And so they're not competing against that many people. And so for...

Sean Melia  
 Yeah.

Paul Burke  
 For Scottie, think it's not that hard of a recipe to deal in. Rory's got his demons, so if 
 Scottie plays his best golf, he's going to win the tournament.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's been a lot of chatter just it's a it's a Scotty Rory Rory event 
 and kind of everyone else is already an after run, which when those are the storylines, 
 something weird happens in sports in general to.

Paul Burke  
 totally, yeah. know, Terrell Hatton is gonna come down, you know, mother effing the 
 place on the 18th hole with the green jacket in hand or something like that.

Sean Melia  
 You know, Darrell Atten will win the 2025 Masters. He'll have to putt out with a three 
 wood because he snapped his putter on the 16th hole. That would be that's that's

possible. Speaking of players who might not have a chance to win this week or at least, 
 you know, players in the wilderness, a small field, some of these players in the field kind 
 of shrink the the field even more because they just feel a little bit a little bit lost.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah.

Sean Melia (33:46.93) 
 Max Homa, first off here. What an unbelievable year he has had with regards to thinking 
 about where he was on Friday night of the Masters last year.

Paul Burke  
 baby.

Paul Burke  
 It's staggering. It's hard, you put it in writing, it was hard to read that, you're probably 
 gonna get into this, so sorry for stepping your toes, but that he was running 14th in the 
 world and is now 78 without losing any status, getting access to all of these major golf 
 tournaments, signature events. That is hard to do.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, and...

Sean Melia  
 Step away.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, yeah, it's it's well the way you do it is I here are the results he has had this calendar 
 year t26 withdraw t53 cut cut cut cut His last event was the players. I don't think he 
 played last week. I don't think he played this past week. Maybe he did and it just wasn't 
 in the in the results yet when I was looking through this so

I can give that a quick look. finished T3 last year. He shot 67, 71, and then 73, 73 on the 
 weekend. he kind of lost steam on the weekend, but kept just in touch. know, Scotty kind 
 of, that was a weird tournament last year because it was close at the turn. And then 
 Scotty, think he just kind of went nuts on the back nine and.

Paul Burke  
 no, no, Ludwig dropped his power bar on his walk from nine to 10. That's why. But no, 
 mean, the thing with Max, and this can't go under played, in my opinion. He signed a big 
 equipment deal. He changed equipment and he was really coming into his own. And 
 these guys, again, having...

Sean Melia  
 And that was the end of it.

Paul Burke  
 watched a lot of these guys very, very up close this past week. They are particular to a 
 degree that even though we can sit here and say, these guys are really particular about 
 the way things react and feel and look, it's actually more intense than that. And for him 
 to, he wanted the money, obviously. know, Brooks famously went without an equipment 
 deal for years because he just wanted to play what was best for him.

And I don't think any of us can seriously blame Homa for cashing in. That was his 
 choice to make. But boy, the results have not been good. it was a weird start to the year 
 where he wasn't using his caddy, Griner, I Griner is his name? No.

Sean Melia  
 I think you're right,

Paul Burke  
 And it was just kind of weird. He was actually borrowed Grellor for the first term for the 
 century from Spieth. And then they just ended up splitting up. But it was a weird set of 
 circumstances and they're like childhood friends. So it seems like there's some really 
 deep stuff going on. He announces that he's leaving Twitter, one of the most famous 
 golf Twitter personalities, if not the most famous Twitter golf personality.

Sean Melia  
 Yep.

Paul Burke  
 out there and overwhelmingly well received too. So I feel bad. the game's better when 
 he's in it for sure.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, yeah.

Sean Melia  
 He did play this past weekend and he missed the cut at the Texas Open. So that's five 
 straight cuts in his last five events. Golf is weird. And I know right. Wyndham Clark is 
 another one just kind of in the wilderness right now. He finished T5 at Houston, but it 
 just he man. He came in last another guy last year who people thought like, this is going 
 to be interesting. He's never played Augusta National competitively before.

Paul Burke  
 First round leader, Hammer.

Sean Melia  
 He's never played in the Masters, may have missed the cut and it just kind of, he had an 
 awesome spring leading into that event and he's also just, I don't know, sputtering along 
 a little bit. Yeah.

Paul Burke  
 So I want to ask you something, and I could have done a little research. I just chose not 
 to.

I was looking at the odds, so maybe you can consider that a little research. How in the 
 world are his odds so awful? I mean, he's down there with people that have literally no 
 shot, and he came in fifth in Houston, which is not insignificant, that Houston field was a 
 good field. And he's also supremely talented. I just looked at his odds, and it made me 
 think that there was something else there.

Sean Melia (38:31.58) 
 Yeah, I don't know. it's the fact that he's only played Augusta National, this will be his 
 second time, and he missed the cut last year. I mean, his last recent finishes, he 
 withdrew from the players, which I don't remember. Do we know why? Do we remember 
 why?

Paul Burke  
 Yep, I remember that.

Paul Burke  
 I think he cited injury. He cited injury. But just as an example.

Sean Melia

Is it an injury or just was he sick? Okay. I feel like there were a lot of guys who were sick. 
 maybe he, maybe there's something going on where he's hurt, but I mean, he's got like T 
 73, T 16, T 31, T 22 withdraw T five. So he just.

Paul Burke  
 But Mills, let me just, and we'll get into our picks, but I'm gonna read the one, two, three, 
 I'm gonna read the four players with directly better odds. Jason Day, Sepp Straka, okay, 
 he's actually probably a little underpriced. Tony Finau and Corey Connors. You're telling 
 me that you don't think Wyndham Clark would, like, has way more of a chance to win 
 this tournament than those guys.

Sean Melia  
 Guys above him.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah. Yep.

Sean Melia  
 Vegas knows something that we don't.

Paul Burke  
 I know, it's really weird. It's the strange, and by the way, for those not looking directly at 
 the odds, he's plus 8,000.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah. What's that 80 to one? Right. Yeah. Sahif is another one.

Paul Burke (39:49.25) 
 Yes.

Hey, bet a hundred bucks. Go to a hundred bucks, get eight grand.

Sean Melia  
 I would would I bet him to miss the cut last year and I I wonder if that's just a another 
 bet this year saw hith one top 20 this year he finished t 17th of the Genesis just another 
 wilderness Walker I put Cantlay in this category as a once since 2022 that last his last 
 win was when him and Bryson at that crazy playoff that's yes yeah that's

Paul Burke  
 Is that right? No. Really?

Sean Melia  
 Someone said it on the coverage this weekend. I took it as the truth that his last win was 
 2022. He was seventh in the world last year. He's 15th now. He's been cashing checks at 
 a good US Open. He's a borderline like wilderness. He might be finding his way out. He's 
 actually been playing a little bit better. Fitzy. Last top 10 was Memorial last summer.

Paul Burke  
 Dude, ever since, ever since, I think it was earlier last year where he just basically 
 announced that his driver was on the wrong setting. Remember? I've got a great story 
 about driver settings to come in the corn ferry tour. boy, I was almost fired so quickly.

Sean Melia (40:58.99) 
 I Yes.

Sean Melia  
 Corn Fairy Pod.

You know what the funny part about that driver story with Fitz was? People thought he 
 hadn't been playing well. I think he went Harbor Town. Maybe he went Harbor Town that 
 week. And he was like, oh yeah, I've had this weird weight in my driver. And people were 
 like, oh, Fitz is unlocked now. Watch out. And he won at Harbor Town. was kind of like, 
 people thought he turned the corner and he's just not been good.

Paul Burke (41:38.19) 
 The other thing about him is he's also seemed to not be happy. Very ornery, 
 complaining, even watching TGL, he never really seemed into it. And he never really 
 struck me as that type, he always struck me someone that really loved the game and 
 loved the process, famously documenting every single shot he ever hits.

Sean Melia  
 Yes, a lot of complaining, a lot of gripes.

Paul Burke (42:06.23) 
 It's kind of sad. You thought when he unlocked the extra distance and won the US Open 
 that he was just gonna be a stalwart. And now, he's not on the Ryder Cup if they pick 
 today, right? He's not gonna be a pick.

Sean Melia  
 I don't think so. He now. Anyways, he wasn't even the other thing about him is as far as 
 the Ryder Cup, he had a good Ryder Cup last year, but he's never it was the first good 
 Ryder Cup he's had. So he's not even like a guy who you'd want on the team because 
 he's got like this Ryder Cup record. Yes, he he was 10th in the world coming into last 
 year's Masters. He is 74th in the world right now.

Paul Burke (42:38.86) 
 Not a Sergio.

Sean Melia  
 He just updated he was 70th when I made this agenda and he did not he's dropped so 
 him and Homa are and no one really talks about fits because he's He's not as kind of 
 gregarious as Homa. So I think he's just kind of tumbled down without many people 
 paying attention to him Yeah, so Fitz is Fitz is tumbling and I don't know if he's gonna 
 get it back just while that he won You know his two biggest wins were at Brookline

Paul Burke  
 God.

That is unbelievable.

Sean Melia  
 the two USGA championships, both at the same golf course 10 years apart or nine years 
 apart. So kind of crazy. I had Brian Harmon on this list because I did this on Wednesday. 
 I kind of started putting this together last Wednesday. Yeah.

Paul Burke  
 Hold on one sec. Before we move off Fitz, who would you take head to head? Maddie 
 Fitz or Alex Fitz right now?

Sean Melia (43:41.4) 
 I think I'd still take Maddie. I think I'd still take Maddie.

Paul Burke  
 Is there like an older brother domination thing or like a you know if they played in a 
 bubble?

Sean Melia

I just don't think Alex is, I know, I I know. He's a nice player, but.

Paul Burke  
 I'm joking. He's not on the line. I actually, you know, I have full swing this season was an 
 abomination of television. I actually do enjoy the dynamic between those two because 
 they're so different and like that I actually in like the content bonanza and the cliche 
 stuff that's some of my more favorable content.

Sean Melia  
 Yep.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, it is pretty good. They're kind of like oddly awkward kind of. It's like their office. 
 They got the office British office humor. It's just kind of like it's a little it's like a beat off 
 of the, you know, the pace of of most humor, but they're they're kind of funny and like to 
 dig at each other. Brian Harmon was on this list. He was eighth in the world last year 
 coming to the Masters. He's forty ninth. He probably moved up a little bit since I

I did this on Wednesday, so I had him in the wilderness and he wins. And he wins. But he 
 was not playing great leading up to his win at the Texas Open. So and then I just kind of 
 slapped Dunlap, Tony Finau and Cameron Young as three other wilderness walkers right 
 now that there are a lot of guys right now who are just not really dialed. It feels to me 
 like which is funny because last year, Scotty came in

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, I think he's moved up a little bit. Yeah.

Sean Melia (45:16.95) 
 and he had won everything that it made people feel like, man, that's not like, it's just kind 
 of the Scotty show. Scotty hasn't won this year, but there's a lot of guys who just are not 
 playing well or just just on the edge.

Sean Melia  
 So I don't know.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, I mean, I don't really have much to say about Dunlap, Fino and Cam Young. mean, 
 Cam Young still hasn't won an event. Yeah, I got nothing. Yeah.

Sean Melia

That's why I just wrote their names down.

Sean Melia  
 That's fine. That's why they're just three names on the list without any sort of stats. It's 
 kind of speaks to speaks to their to their dynamism right now. And then another little 
 kind of our our our last thing before we get to our our picks as we wander through here. 
 Last year we did a little I called a tick tock guys who feel like they're on the clock guys 
 who might feel a little bit of extra pressure this week. Maybe if they don't win or if they 
 don't play well mainly if they don't win.

They might leave feeling like the pressure for the PJ championship gets a little higher. 
 And I've got, I've got seven guys, eight guys, seven guys on this list. I'll read through 
 them and then we can talk about whichever ones you want to. Rory McIlroy, of course he 
 is Mr. Clock at this point. Every time you come to Augusta, Jordan Spieth, I don't think he 
 has to win, but I think, I think a good, a good result here would go a long way for him and 
 not playing well.

might just kind of make people start to ask more questions about him. Tony Fleetwood, 
 Patrick Cantlay, John Rahm, Joaquin Nieman, and Victor Hovland were my seven guys 
 who I think are teaming up this week with a spotlight maybe on them a little bit, maybe 
 personally putting a spotlight on themselves to have a good week. Any guy out there 
 that just stands out that you want to talk about.

Paul Burke  
 I mean, listen, Hovland won like two weeks ago. Nieman's won like seven times on Liv 
 every single time they tee it up. mean, jeez, we could talk about each one of these guys 
 and I think they're all different cases. For me, and I might've even said this, it could've 
 been to you, not on a pod, but like, I had zero expectations for speed this year coming 
 off wrist surgery. think that...

Sean Melia  
 I know, with his F game, according to him.

Paul Burke  
 Regardless of him being out here coming off that type of surgery, he's had to relearn 
 everything. So I, this year is going to punt year for him. It is a.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, I lost you.

Paul Burke  
 sorry, for some reason. Sorry, I don't know why I was moving the mouse around. Did you 
 hear me say ROM?

Sean Melia  
 You hit mute.

Sean Melia  
 No, you are in the middle of your spief not having expectations for him.

Paul Burke  
 So anyway, Spieth to me this year is a punt. He'll get his reps in after an injury and 
 surgery and I would look for him to be an impact, more of an impact player next year, but 
 obviously Augusta does different things to different people. He's one that sort of have 
 magic there. To me, the number one on the clock is Rob. I...

Sean Melia (48:54.9) 
 Okay.

Paul Burke  
 And it's not necessarily, I'm not sure, I like what you did with putting them on the clock, 
 but if you see another major season, like last year from ROM, this year, that's gonna be 
 troublesome.

So, you know, he's obviously won here. There's not, again, going back to our earlier point, 
 he's not competing against that many people. He should be at a top 10. He should be 
 right at home because of Liv, but he should be looking at a top 10 or top five here.

Sean Melia  
 I know.

Sean Melia  
 The live golf John Rahm top 10 discourse is insane. He's playing against 50 something 
 guys. That would be, to do, the equivalent on the PGA Tour would be top three finishes, 
 right? Like it's a third of the field. You got 150 guys teeing it up at a PGA Tour event. Like 
 he's finishing 10th place. That's the top, he's in the 80th percentile.

Paul Burke  
 my god. Get that out.

Paul Burke  
 It's ridiculous. It's so bad.

Sean Melia  
 What are we doing? It's embarrassing!

Paul Burke  
 I, it's so dumb. actually do respect a win on that tour. I do. I think beating even all of 
 those guys, professional golfers, is not easy. And so what Neiman's done is won a lot. 
 And so that's impressive. Rom coming in top 10 is not impressive at all.

Sean Melia (50:11.7) 
 Yeah, you gotta beat everybody.

Sean Melia  
 No. And in light of like, okay, he finished his top 10. Here are his results in the majors 
 last year. He finished T45 at the Masters. He missed the cut at the PGA. He did not play 
 the US Open with that foot injury. And then he finished T7 at the Open Championship. I 
 have no recollection. I remember him, yeah, I think he did have a good, or maybe he had 
 a good Saturday and kind of climbed the board.

Paul Burke  
 think he had a good last round or something.

Sean Melia  
 or got to play before the weather got bad on Saturday and kind of climbed up the board. 
 But like it was a non-competitive top 10. is nothing to, whereas compared to the year 
 before he left for live, he won the masters. He finished T 50th at the PGA. Then he 
 finished 10th and second at the U S open and the open championship. My dog, Murphy 
 loves that stat, I guess. So yeah, he just like, doesn't, the whole thing doesn't hold up.

Paul Burke  
 Something like that.

Sean Melia (51:24.02) 
 But when you look at his results the three years before he left for Liv, he didn't have a 
 good 22 and had a great 21. So yes, I agree. On the clock for sure. Can I ask you 
 something about Hovland as a competitive? We play competitive events. If you had a 
 guy say what Hovland said after winning, let's say like,

Paul Burke (51:37.24) 
 Sure.

Sean Melia (51:50.76) 
 we play in a four ball at the Concord Country Club or even like the mass AM if a guy was 
 like, man, I am so lost and I beat and I beat every like I beat everybody. I don't know how 
 I won this tournament. I don't know where I'm hitting the golf ball with that rub guys the 
 wrong way. Like if I was sitting there listening to this guy like collect his trophy and 
 basically crap on everyone else in the field like, man, I beat you guys with my D game 
 today and this week.

Does that like, does that, would that impact you as a player? Cause I think it might 
 impact me a little bit. Just as like, what a jerk. A little bit. I love Hovland. just, yes.

Paul Burke  
 So context really matters. He's very honest. again, another plug, a lot of people were 
 talking about those comments at the Corn Fairy Tour this past week. I sort of think, well, 
 no. I think that they were misinterpreted and used against him. If you really listen to 
 what he was saying, he was saying,

Sean Melia  
 Okay.

Paul Burke  
 he reeled in his misses, right? So he had a good miss that week where he could play and 
 make pars and the course was tough. And in other events, his miss was greater and you 
 needed to make birdies and you can't make birdies from that place. So because Valspar 
 was such a hard golf course, pars were of a greater value and he could figure out how to 
 make par. That's me like kind of piecing together.

But no, I love, as a fan, so you asked me as a competitor, I'm not sure how I'd feel as a 
 competitor. As a fan, I love it because I think he's honest and he's saying something 
 different and he's actually letting you in to his head a little bit and I always value that, 
 whether I agree with it or not. I value people that are willing to say that and.

Sean Melia  
 I agree.

Paul Burke

I don't have any problem with it because I don't think I think he's telling the truth and I 
 don't think he's doing that as like a disservice to the other people I actually think there's 
 a lot of insight into hey like you don't If you really look at it as a competitor, he's telling 
 you that you can still win without your a game But you need but you need to figure it out

Sean Melia  
 Right, or I can still beat you. I can still beat all of you without even close to my A game. 
 It's just like, I wonder.

Paul Burke  
 Tiger used to do that all the time, by the way. All the time. True. I mean, I think Scotty 
 does it too.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, he's Tiger Woods. He's not Victor Hovland. Yeah, I don't know. I had not processed 
 that thought until I just was looking at his name on the screen here and thinking about 
 his win and some of those comments. And I wonder how those go over within the locker 
 room or what guys think about Hovland after he kind of has that little, because he is 
 honest. And I think the nice thing about Hovland

And the thing that is nice about Homa is when you get guys who are talking when 
 they're down and when things aren't going well, it creates the narrative that then people 
 can tell when they might turn it around, right? Like Hovland, I think the thing that makes 
 Hovland's comments less prickly is the fact that he always talks. he, like if he wins and 
 he's saying that, but you have no other context of like,

Paul Burke (55:12.81) 
 I agree.

Sean Melia  
 man, this guy hasn't talked to, he has not had said anything like this for the last year 
 while he's been kind of completely lost except for that PGA championship run. Like he 
 has not played great. Like where did this, this is a weird thing for him to say. And now 
 he's kind of like talking, he's talking like this after he wins, but he don't talk and say 
 anything honest when he's not winning, which is not the case with him. think home is 
 the same way. kind of, you're right. creates this a little bit of a story and a narrative, 
 whereas, you know, like Kalamarkawa just

blowing off the media rubs people the wrong way. think partly because he looks entitled, 
 but also partly because I think people like to hear what people have to say when they're

down so that they can know how they feel when they win and match those two things 
 up, especially in golf.

Paul Burke  
 It's okay to be prickly. I mean, I don't consider myself a genuinely prickly person, but if I 
 play a bad round of golf, I'm not gonna be happy in a competitive situation. And so this 
 notion that these guys need to be happy is, I don't know, I appreciate what he said. I 
 actually, in some respects, maybe not the exact words, but appreciated Morikawa's 
 demeanor.

Sean Melia  
 I

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, mean, it's who they are, right? It's who they are.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, exactly. It's there.

Sean Melia  
 Anyone else on this list? I think those are the for me, Rom, Rory and Hovland might be 
 the top of the clock list.

Paul Burke (56:44.75) 
 I mean, Fleetwood is just, I don't know why he's on this. He is just neutral, baby. Like he 
 is the most neutral. He's probably gonna be on your list, but he is just the most neutral 
 person and you gotta love him for it. You have to love him for it.

Sean Melia  
 But he's...

Sean Melia  
 He is so fortunate that the best player without a major conversation is not an actual 
 conversation anymore. Langa did a podcast and they kind of picked out 10 guys.

Paul Burke  
 Because you have to be really good to be on that list. Like you have to be exceptionally 
 good. Like if Ludwig goes another couple of years without winning one, then that 
 conversation will kick up again. It's based on the player, it's not an evergreen 
 conversation, it's based on the players that haven't won a major.

Sean Melia  
 Yes. Yeah.

Sean Melia  
 Yeah, I also think people are less. I think in general, people don't want to talk about. 
 They'd rather talk about guys who have won and think, you know, maybe when Tiger, 
 maybe with maybe maybe with having Tiger around like I think Tiger heightened that 
 conversation because he created a lot of players because he won so much that like 
 Monty couldn't win. Phil, Phil couldn't win. Phil couldn't win.

Paul Burke  
 Well, that is enough.

Paul Burke (57:56.97) 
 I mean, Middlesex was the biggest one.

Sean Melia  
 for a long time. So like having a guy dominate also can generate those conversations 
 because they just swallow up majors. And Tiger did that and then started to make 
 people ask questions about some other players. And maybe Scottie does that, I don't 
 know.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, I don't know. mean, I think that even post-Tiger real dominance, you know, had the 
 Adam Scott, DJ, Sergio, even you could throw in Justin Rose for a little while. Like those 
 were all real conversations. Xander was one. I think it's always, as long as there's top 
 players that haven't won a major, it's always going to be conversation. I'm just not sure 
 there is one right now. Ludwig is close to it.

Sean Melia (58:42.03) 
 Yeah, Ludwig's close, but yes, he's only had four cracks at major. So it's hard to hold it 
 against him because that's really what this becomes is like, we got to hold it against you 
 that you haven't won in a major and you had.

Paul Burke (58:45.08) 
 But he's only had one year of majors. Yeah.

Paul Burke  
 Emiles, nobody expects Fleetwood to win a major.

Sean Melia  
 I guess, I don't know. mean, you listen to O-Ling-Up and you think, Toronto Carter would 
 think he should have won six by now. but he's had some close, I mean, he's had a couple 
 of close calls and some crazy rounds.

Paul Burke  
 Yeah, fine, he's wrong.

Paul Burke  
 He has not had close calls. He's had backdoor close calls. Like he has not.

Sean Melia  
 That's what I mean. He close calls through one incredible round. What do shoot? 64 at 
 Shinnecock? Or 63, 64 at Shinnecock.

Last question before our picks just this popped into my head as I was walking around 
 yet this morning and listening to Andy Johnson and Jaime Diaz, which was a very good 
 conversation to listen to. Is it? Is it possible to win at Augusta when you have built up 
 scars?

Paul Burke (59:50.52) 
 Great question. Did you have more?

Sean Melia (59:54.65) 
 Thank you. No, that's all I have. I I just put, I put down four names. I didn't really go back 
 and look through the eight. Like I didn't go and dig into a lot of this stuff because it just 
 really popped into my head this morning, but it just, was a thought I had and I wanted to 
 share it and ask you.

Paul Burke (01:00:10.008) 
 So the most recent example that I could come up with and I thought, as far back as I've 
 been watching the Masters, I didn't do any additional research. And by the way, my, what 
 should I call it, Cognizant Masters is probably 30 years old. Like, 95 is the first one I 
 remember watching. I've said this many times before, watching Ben Crenshaw cry on 
 that green hit me as a 10-year-old. Like, whoa.

Sean Melia (01:00:29.37) 
 Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:00:34.574) 
 Yep. This matters. Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:00:38.73) 
 what is this? I will always remember that. And then the Norman fall though was next 
 year and I off to the races of just being obsessed with golf for the rest of my life. So 
 again, that's my timeframe for, my timeframe for knowing the Masters goes back longer 
 than that, but experiencing it starts there. And so it's from that on. I think the only one 
 that you can make a reasonable case for that has is Sergio.

Sean Melia (01:00:59.716) 
 Yes.

Sean Melia (01:01:09.135) 
 Okay.

Paul Burke (01:01:09.43) 
 you know, in contention multiple times, like a good amount of times, but, but what you 
 say by scars. Yeah. Phil. Yeah, I'm not, but it's like, just how do you, how do you define 
 scars? Right. So Sergio and Phil had scars from other majors before that, like Sergio had 
 some serious major scars, but I'm not sure he had.

Sean Melia (01:01:15.513) 
 and Phil.

Paul Burke (01:01:37.226) 
 real Augusta scars like a Greg Norman had.

Sean Melia (01:01:40.591) 
 Yes. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I'm looking at Sergio's record at the Masters and from 
 1999 until 2024, he has one, two, three, four top tens in 25 events. He's got more. No, 
 that's what I'm saying. So maybe like maybe, you might be right. Sergio doesn't have any 
 scars. finished eighth in 22 or sorry in 2002.

Paul Burke (01:02:00.674) 
 I wouldn't say that's an exceptional record. Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:02:10.179)

He finished fourth in 2004, but man, he's got a lot of like, jeesh, not even a lot of top 20s. 
 So you know, scars there really, I don't know what the eight and the T four. Yes. He has 
 plenty of scars. Yeah. He's got Harrington scars and all sorts of stuff.

Paul Burke (01:02:22.006) 
 Augusta scars, like he has obviously has other scars.

Paul Burke (01:02:31.298) 
 So yeah, I don't know. Sergio was the only one that came to mind that had one.

Sean Melia (01:02:34.969) 
 Phil doesn't feel like one.

Paul Burke (01:02:38.476) 
 I think he had just longevity scars and like obviously US Open scars. I'm not sure he had 
 real master scars before that.

Sean Melia (01:02:48.493) 
 Yeah, mean, yeah, I guess.

Paul Burke (01:02:51.118) 
 I mean, he was going up against Prime, Tiger, and VJ. That was a tough little stretch 
 there. and Prime might weird too.

Sean Melia (01:02:58.295) 
 Yeah. Mike Weir is playing in like his 26th Masters this year, something crazy. I was 
 looking through the some stats.

Paul Burke (01:03:07.092) 
 That is such an irrelevant statistic because he won.

Sean Melia (01:03:10.667) 
 I know that but it goes to say how far how long ago he won. It's still what he won in 07 
 but then he had to play like

Paul Burke (01:03:19.406) 
 No! No no no no no no no, you wanna know-

Sean Melia (01:03:21.903)

Sorry, he wanted to know three. Okay, so he's played, okay, so that makes more sense. 
 But I was just, I don't know, you get some of these guys who are like, Jesus, he's played 
 25 of these.

Paul Burke (01:03:31.478) 
 Yeah, you went, it's a great start of the run. go, you have VJ, Tiger, Tiger, Weir, Phil, Tiger, 
 like Phil, and then just Weir throw it in there between Tiger, VJ. And then you go in the 
 bad run, you, like starting in 07, yeah.

Sean Melia (01:03:40.579) 
 Tiger, Phil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you've got Immelman, Cabrera.

Yeah, so the guys I just put down off the top of my head were Rory, obviously. I put 
 Keppka on here because of 19. It feels like if anyone of that group that lost Tiger, he was 
 the one. Golly.

Paul Burke (01:04:07.822) 
 He really kicked that away. mean, I've watched that thing so much. I mean, Mullenari has 
 not been the same golfer since then.

Sean Melia (01:04:13.966) 
 Yeah, dude, I looked up his, he's like, he's not even in the top 500 in the world right now, 
 Molinari, which I'm saying that with shock, he hasn't been around for six years. It's 
 staggering. When you watch some of these guys, he...

Paul Burke (01:04:22.252) 
 He was.

Paul Burke (01:04:26.92) 
 He played pretty poorly together. However, I will, and I send this quote to my cousin 
 every now and then because I just love it. And before he even won a major, they asked 
 him what he wanted to do in retirement. He's like, if I win a major, I'm just gonna become 
 a Twitter troll and drink coffee all day long in like a cafe in Paris or something like that. 
 Like, I forget the exact quote, but he's basically doing that. His brother's now more 
 impactful in golf than he is.

Sean Melia (01:04:46.017) 
 Well, that's what he's doing.

Yes. And he's still playing too. Brooks also had the ROM that was at 20. When did ROM 
 win? 23. Had that. That was another. That was a weird tournament that Brooks had a 
 chance to win. They had like they were playing. I mean, was ROM Brooks, Kepka and 
 Sam Bennett in the last group on a rainy Saturday. Like, what a weird. That was just a 
 funny weekend because of the weather.

Paul Burke (01:05:07.063) 
 It was a weird.

Sean Melia (01:05:20.129) 
 The Friday storms bring the trees down and all that kind of stuff. I would put Jordan 
 Spieth in here. Can he win again after what happened in 2016, even though he won in 
 2015? Does that scar of just completely blowing it and letting Danny Willett win 
 outweigh the fact that he has a green jacket? I don't know. I'm not sure.

Paul Burke (01:05:44.613) 
 Sean Melia (01:05:47.243) 
 And the player he is now versus the player he was then. That was 10 years ago at this 
 point. Like that's insane.

Paul Burke (01:05:47.808) 
 hey.

Paul Burke (01:05:52.466) 
 It's unbelievable. And he really was in position to win three straight Masters. So he lost 
 in 2000. He was in the final group with Bubba Watson in 2014 and had the lead.

Sean Melia (01:05:57.63) 
 I know.

Sean Melia (01:06:07.095) 
 Man.

Paul Burke (01:06:10.478) 
 Yeah, I would put Spieth in the, he just has scars category. Cause he still pops his head 
 up at Augusta every now and then. He came in second to Patrick Reed or second or 
 third in hitting one of the worst tee shots in the history of the Masters in the final round 
 on 18 when he like just, I know, know. It is a scar, you're right. You're right.

Sean Melia (01:06:11.082)

I don't know.

Sean Melia (01:06:31.66) 
 Well, he shot 64 that last round so there's but that's another scar like he hit that tree on 
 18 like that's insane He could have shot 62 Yeah

Paul Burke (01:06:43.19) 
 So I think he generally has scars. I, and he's so close. I mean, to have, and Tom Watson 
 had this for a long time, but to have the PGA as the thing that's holding you back from 
 the career Grand Slam has to be the most frustrating thing as a golfer to enter into 
 something that only five would be six players.

Sean Melia (01:06:55.328) 
 I know. I know.

Sean Melia (01:07:05.387) 
 Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:07:05.654) 
 in the history of the game and it's the freaking PGA that they have, you know, have in 
 Valhalla and Quail Hollow and all these venues is gotta be tough, tough to-

Sean Melia (01:07:14.892) 
 I know. I know. And then Greg Norman obviously is on this list. There's no doubt. then 
 this might be something I pull apart a little bit and write about because I do think it's 
 interesting. If Rory doesn't win this week, I think that it makes it a more interesting 
 question. If Rory wins this week, it kind of shatters the whole idea of can you win when 
 you have scars? if anyone has, there's no one with more bruises than McElroy. Although, 
 I mean,

Paul Burke (01:07:20.748) 
 Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:07:44.184) 
 I think come on.

Sean Melia (01:07:44.31) 
 He doesn't have that. He doesn't have the funny thing is like he doesn't have that many 
 scars from you mentioned Sergio. He has his horrendous rope hook where he was, you 
 know, 21 years old and then he has the final group with with Patrick Reed in. In 2018.

Paul Burke (01:08:04.428) 
 I think that one bothers him more, actually. I think that one bothers him more.

Sean Melia (01:08:08.252) 
 I think you're probably right because it was to Patrick Reed and at that point he was at 
 the back end of the career Grand Slam, never having won a major before and being 21 
 and like, well, that happened fast.

Paul Burke (01:08:14.838) 
 He was mature enough that.

Paul Burke (01:08:23.224) 
 But he clearly has scars because everyone probably knows, he stole some guy's phone 
 because at the players championship, well, NCAA division one golfer, for heckling him, 
 saying that's like he did in the masters that one time or whatever he said, over a decade 
 ago during a practice round. mean, I...

Sean Melia (01:08:33.14) 
 Not some guy's A very good college player who might be on tour with him in the next 
 year and a half.

Sean Melia (01:08:48.684) 
 You

Paul Burke (01:08:52.238) 
 Like people were talking very seriously about this. I thought it was one of the funniest 
 things I've ever seen. Like a practice round. This was a practice And he just walked away 
 with the guy's phone. But you don't, like that is a scar. Like that is the definition of a scar.

Sean Melia (01:09:01.472) 
 Yeah. And then actually used it to post to Snap. I think it was Snapchat he got into or 
 TikTok, which one of the two.

Sean Melia (01:09:12.62) 
 Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to look more into this because I think it is an interesting topic 
 just to like, man, can you is is the fact that the Masters is at the same Lee Trevino. Like 
 there's just there's all these guys who have never won at Augusta. And Andy Johnson 
 posed a question to Jaime Diaz like, who are the best players to never win a Masters?

And they were going back in history. And I just thought, like, He yes, he was at the top of 
 the list. Trevino came up.

Paul Burke (01:09:17.614) 
 in a practice room.

Paul Burke (01:09:37.006) 
 Well, I think Greg Norman's got to be at the very top of the list.

Sean Melia (01:09:42.594) 
 And then.

Paul Burke (01:09:43.65) 
 But Trevino, so I guess you have to define the question. I haven't listened to podcast, it's 
 on my list. And Rory will be on this list if he never wins. Trevino, Augusta was not a good 
 golf course for him.

Sean Melia (01:09:57.407) 
 You're right. They talked about that.

Paul Burke (01:10:01.216) 
 Augusta is a perfect golf course for Greg Norman and a perfect golf course for Rory 
 McIlroy and they're also all-world talents. So I put them in different categories. Rory and 
 Greg Norman should have won a Masters. Lee Trevino, I'm not sure you can say should 
 have won a Masters, but in the context of their broader careers, he's a great player that 
 didn't win a Masters.

Sean Melia (01:10:22.475) 
 Yeah. And it's also, I believe, Trevino's only major he didn't win. I think. I don't know. I 
 don't have Trevino stats off the top of my head, but I think that was a that was his career 
 grand slam miss because I'm pretty sure he won the other three. So. I might be wrong 
 about that. I should look it up as you're doing your picks. Let's get to our picks. As 
 always, we're to pick three players and then a dark horse.

I did try to put the dark horse so that Russell Henley so that Russell Henley fell inside of 
 it. Now he's inside of it. So when I when so when I was looking at when I was looking at 
 this on DraftKings this weekend, I said it I was I looked at that looked at the list and 
 Henley was plus forty five hundred. And so I so I put it at plus five thousand.

Paul Burke (01:10:54.752)

I know exactly what you did. Yeah. Outside of it.

Paul Burke (01:11:03.5) 
 Wait, what?

Paul Burke (01:11:15.918) 
 He's moved!

Sean Melia (01:11:20.138) 
 so that he couldn't be your dark horse pick and now he's plus 5,500. So yeah, I don't 
 know what happened. must have had a bad week last week.

Paul Burke (01:11:25.848) 
 Wow, that's a big move.

Paul Burke (01:11:30.586) 
 I do have a different dark horse because I truly believe in the nature of the dark horse 
 and I don't think a guy that won on a very difficult golf course like two weeks ago is a 
 dog with dark horse.

Sean Melia (01:11:41.586) 
 I'm glad you are picking in the spirit of the dark horse. yeah, the good guy. This is the 
 hardest one to pick a dark horse for. We talk about this every year because there's just 
 not enough guys and the odds aren't quite right. I'm.

Paul Burke (01:11:57.74) 
 I actually like my Dark Horse this week, at least for a top 10. I actually might bet him for 
 top, well, we can get there.

Sean Melia (01:12:04.458) 
 All right, so just circle back on Trevino. I was right. He did. won open. He actually won 
 two of each of the PGA, the US Open, and the Open Championship. But that's amazing. 
 Yeah, what a fascinating character he is. OK, I'll let you go first.

Paul Burke (01:12:15.448) 
 Pretty good career.

Sean Melia (01:12:23.562) 
 Who do you have? And we're gonna snake, I get the second and the third pick. I'll give 
 you the choice of what you would.

Paul Burke (01:12:24.066) 
 And we're snaking, we're snaking, right?

Sean Melia (01:12:33.418) 
 Would you like the first pick or would you like to defer?

Paul Burke (01:12:33.987) 
 Paul Burke (01:12:37.772) 
 I will take the first pick. I will take Kolomorkawa.

Sean Melia (01:12:38.547) 
 Okay.

Sean Melia (01:12:42.11) 
 boy.

Paul Burke (01:12:44.984) 
 Good, very good history at Augusta. Multiple top five's, final group last year. He's hitting 
 the ball tremendously. I think he's extremely motivated. I think that this whole media 
 thing that he's gotten himself into, he strikes me as somebody that uses that as 
 motivation. It doesn't impact him in a negative way. And he's been, I know he hasn't won 
 a lot, but.

Sean Melia (01:12:45.226) 
 State your case.

Paul Burke (01:13:14.658) 
 man is he playing some of the best, probably statistically the best golf of anyone. And I 
 don't, I think if he gets in the situation, he will close.

Sean Melia (01:13:26.067) 
 You're not worried about short game. You're not worried about putting, developing some 
 scars.

Paul Burke (01:13:31.91) 
 Listen, he's he's been there he is Maybe but he has He's been there. He has proved he's 
 has a very good track record on that golf course for not having played there what five 
 times probably

Sean Melia (01:13:46.333) 
 Yeah. Are you worried about him being able to win a major with people there?

Paul Burke (01:13:54.778) 
 Yeah, that's a better question. He famously won his first major at Harding Park with 
 nobody there and his second major at the Open with, I don't know, maybe a thousand 
 people there. No, was definitely not your classic. And I actually made the joke back 
 when we were podcasting then that the reason why he won is because there were 
 college tournaments. There was very few people there.

Sean Melia (01:14:05.907) 
 Yeah, well, more than that, but it was a smattering.

Sean Melia (01:14:22.584) 
 were in the hunt at that PGA Harding

Paul Burke (01:14:26.719) 
 and Bryson that was an awesome tournament that actually was like it was too bad there 
 weren't fans there because that was an awesome golf tournament

Sean Melia (01:14:33.715) 
 Yes. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah. Like looking back at that one, it was definitely some, 
 there was some college vibes between Morikawa and Wolf was just coming off, I think 
 from Oklahoma State. Yeah. Yeah. more a call was record at the masters the last three 
 years, fifth T 10 T three.

Paul Burke (01:14:46.732) 
 And I think it was Bryson Scheffler. It was a very good leaderboard. Xander may have 
 been there too.

Sean Melia (01:15:00.722) 
 So yes, he's been he's been very good. He has got and then a T 18 and a T 44. So he's 
 got four top 20s. So if you're just looking even for like if you want to parlay, if you're a 
 gambler, I am not anymore. I'm tired of losing money. top 20 parlay with him might be 
 and maybe you parlay him in a Wyndham Clark miss cut and you can take that maybe 
 take that one to the bank. That's nice. You get one of you get one of the bets out of the

Paul Burke (01:15:01.4) 
 Pretty good.

Paul Burke (01:15:15.362) 
 Ha ha ha!

Paul Burke (01:15:24.99) 
 wow.

Sean Melia (01:15:30.69) 
 you know, done by Friday. You either know or you don't know how the parlay is going to 
 land the rest of weekend. All right, so now I've got two picks.

Paul Burke (01:15:38.648) 
 You've got two picks. mean, this is the thing. The two picks was the strategy that I 
 should have gone with, but I just wanted everyone to know that Morikawa's my He's my 
 pick.

Sean Melia (01:15:47.432) 
 Collins your guy this week. OK. I mean, it's irresponsible to not pick Scottie Scheffler to 
 have two picks. I cannot give you I cannot give you to Scotty. Is is Ravioli the only thing 
 that can stop Scottie Scheffler at this point? Has to be asked. It just. I know that's what 
 I'm saying. As I once said Ravioli.

Paul Burke (01:15:54.19) 
 It is very good.

Paul Burke (01:16:11.456) 
 No, mean, he hasn't won yet this year, so...

Sean Melia (01:16:17.232) 
 mess him up Christmas Eve, if that's the true story.

We'll see. Yeah, no, no, no other comments about Scottie Scheffler. I'm going to pick 
 him. He's been a little cranky. Who knows what kind of putter he's going to bring with 
 him to Augusta, but.

Paul Burke (01:16:34.498) 
 Wait, has he been switching party? he's, he's partying.

Sean Melia (01:16:36.55)

No, just mean like just as far as putting grip, maybe maybe he's he's messing around 
 with his putting grip, which which is never great as a as a frequent putter grip finnaker. 
 But man.

Paul Burke (01:16:50.38) 
 I think I used seven different grips in my round last week. I'm not even joking.

Sean Melia (01:16:56.999) 
 But I think Scotty at Augusta at this point, it's like the reverse of the scars. He's just so 
 comfortable, knows where to hit shots. And he's just he's just so good around the 
 greens. My second pick. Is man, I've got like a list here that this is this is not ideal. I'm 
 going to pick. I think Justin Thomas is going to have a good week.

Paul Burke (01:17:27.29) 
 god, are you kidding me? That was gonna be mine.

Sean Melia (01:17:29.166) 
 No. Yeah, I think he's I think he's trending, which means he's going to miss he's going to 
 miss a cut. But he just is playing good golf. He's kind of around. He's, you know, I think 
 he's figured figured some stuff out. And I think he's going to have a good week. He's 
 trending. And you got to find guys who are trending.

Paul Burke (01:17:47.874) 
 He is definitely trending.

He hasn't had the best record at Augusta. He's a great bet to be like first round leader. 
 You know, you could see him going out there and shooting 65. I actually was gonna pick 
 him. I would have liked to have seen him pick off a tournament this fall. I think he needs 
 to win again. I think he is...

Sean Melia (01:18:01.862) 
 Yes.

Paul Burke (01:18:18.274) 
 I would bet he could probably get pretty value for him to win a major this year. I Quail 
 Hollow obviously would be right up his alley. I would like to see him win a tournament 
 before that though. And I know he got snake bitten a couple of weeks ago with Victor. 
 Wow, was, hey, take that to the bank. Well, snake bitten at the Valspar.

Sean Melia (01:18:22.992)

Yeah. Yep.

Sean Melia (01:18:33.766) 
 Yeah, I know he kind of fizzled there.

Paul Burke (01:18:43.682) 
 But no, I think it's a great pick.

Sean Melia (01:18:44.657) 
 Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. He's he, I just a bunch of top tens already this year. and 
 that's, know, kind of part of the reason you, we pick six guys is you're just looking for 
 dudes who are around on the weekend. And I think, I think he will be. So that's my, that's, 
 those are my two Scotty and Justin, who are you taking second and third?

Paul Burke (01:19:05.322) 
 So this next guy is sort of not in that category that you just mentioned. just, I have a 
 feeling that he's been prepping for this week all year in a weird way of prep. Great 
 history here, great experience here. I'm going with Brooks Kapka for my second pick.

Sean Melia (01:19:32.024) 
 Okay.

Paul Burke (01:19:33.43) 
 Form is questionable, form is questionable, he's one of the very few guys that I think 
 form isn't, you can't say it's not a factor, but I think it's less of a factor for him than other 
 people.

Sean Melia (01:19:47.92) 
 Well, he's the ultimate mystery with regards to form because between Liv and just his 
 general inconsistency outside of the majors, you just have no idea of how he's playing 
 because he just seems to not, he seems super unhappy at Liv. So maybe he just gets to 
 the masters and he feels completely loose and free because he's not dealing with all the 
 nonsense that goes around.

Those events. I don't love the pick. just I think he had his I think he got his last major. 
 You know, I think. The way guys trend is if you if you win it.

Paul Burke (01:20:28.066) 
 By the way, having your last major being your fifth is not bad.

Sean Melia (01:20:31.276) 
 I know. I'm just looking at the way the way guys finish their major run when they have a 
 handful of majors is they get like they get one more at the end. Tiger did it. Phil did it. 
 Jack did it. Brooks, I think, has done it. Rory might do it. I think Oak Hill, I think Oak Hill 
 was the was the exclamation point. Yeah, that's that. That's that's how these things 
 work. Guys don't win.

Paul Burke (01:20:48.942) 
 So you think Oak Hill was his end? I mean, but that was still like a four year period. It 
 was pretty tight.

Sean Melia (01:21:00.015) 
 five or six majors over the court. they don't, the last major comes like four or five years 
 after the second to last one. They don't.

Paul Burke (01:21:11.0) 
 So Phil was obviously different, Tiger was different.

Sean Melia (01:21:14.553) 
 to fill those they were long and they are like the greatest players of I think all time. I don't 
 think Brooks is in that is in that category. I

Paul Burke (01:21:21.91) 
 I think Rory will be in that, he will get another one.

Sean Melia (01:21:25.581) 
 I think so too. So I think Brooks is kind of, he, so I guess the other thing is like Brooks 
 has won his, I think the thing that Mark's, that I am using to mark Brooks's kind of period 
 as far as major championships is he took five years to win that last one. You know what 
 I mean? So like it's rare to go five years and then win another one after.

Paul Burke (01:21:50.051) 
 No.

Paul Burke (01:21:53.72) 
 He didn't win it five years after his last major. Yeah, I think it was pretty tight. Like his five 
 majors happened pretty close together.

Sean Melia (01:21:56.121) 
 Sorry, three years. Three years?

Sean Melia (01:22:04.035) 
 He won at Bethpage in 20.

Paul Burke (01:22:07.982) 
 2020 2019

Sean Melia (01:22:10.437) 
 That was 19, right? And then he won in 2023. So four years. So we won that four year 
 gap. you typically, if you look, you don't see guys who win another one after they have 
 that gap. They don't win a second one after they win that last one. Palmer, like it's just, 
 it's an, it's a, it's an interesting, uh, kind of little bit of like statistic that

Like Hogan didn't do it player player one in 74 then he won in 78 and then he was done 
 Trevino one in 74 and then 84 and then he was done Falda one in 96 92 and then 96 and 
 then he was done Seve 84 88 like there's this for there's a window of time like Seve for 
 example

Paul Burke (01:22:57.878) 
 I do think that...

Paul Burke (01:23:03.254) 
 Nicholas must have been nine years before.

Sean Melia (01:23:06.212) 
 So Nicholas won in 80, he won two in 80 and then he won in 86. Like this is this is a, this 
 is kind of a trend. Brooks won 17, 18, 18, 19, 23. Like that is exactly on the same trend. 
 Ernie L's 2000, Ernie L's 2002, 2012. Ray Floyd, 82, 86. I'm looking at this cause I have a 
 spreadsheet. Bobby Locke, 52, 57.

Paul Burke (01:23:09.484) 
 And that is... Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:23:25.174) 
 Yeah, I'd be interested in like the...

Paul Burke (01:23:38.114) 
 We're going back to the 50s now.

Sean Melia (01:23:38.54)

Mikkelsen, yeah, well I have it, I just have it all here in front of me. Mikkelsen, 13, 21. 
 Mikkelsen is like kind of a weird one because he won in six, then in 10, then in 13, then in 
 21. Like Mikkelsen's career is bonkers. Seve, 79, 80, 83, 84, 88. So I don't know, it's more 
 likely that Brooks is done than he wins another one, I think.

Paul Burke (01:24:04.332) 
 Hmm, I think he's very motivated by the Masters, But listen, those are good stats. The 
 fact that he's won five majors is still very underplayed in the world of golf. He's won 
 more majors than Rory.

Sean Melia (01:24:14.595) 
 Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:24:22.157) 
 I know, I know. Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:24:25.067) 
 I think he's a fascinating character. I don't actually root for him or like him very much, but 
 I think he's fascinating. Totally. Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:24:32.429) 
 Yeah, I like having him. I like when he's around. Yeah, I like when he's around. Another 
 honest guy, I think, for the most part. I think he can be a little guarded.

Paul Burke (01:24:42.307) 
 Yeah, I'm not sure he's that honest, but

Sean Melia (01:24:46.103) 
 Well, I think we get stuff like you were talking earlier, like walking down the range and 
 checking guys like I know that I can beat. I think that stuff is interesting. Like that's he's 
 kind of a he's kind of a dick, which I don't which I don't always hate. Who's your last pick?

Paul Burke (01:24:52.983) 
 Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:24:58.52) 
 Totally. No, you need to build. My last pick, I mean, it's kind of chalky, tough to not pick 
 them, but it's Ludwig.

Sean Melia (01:25:09.922)

Okay.

Paul Burke (01:25:12.27) 
 He's had a little bit of a weird year this year.

Sean Melia (01:25:14.839) 
 Yes.

Paul Burke (01:25:17.358) 
 um to the point where I was debating whether to pick him or pick him as my my hammer 
 my mc hammer um which I still wouldn't be mad at as like a a wager to wager on him 
 for hammering

Sean Melia (01:25:23.831) 
 Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:25:30.231) 
 I know. He's a tough one to root against. Like I just wouldn't feel great on a Friday 
 afternoon. I love, yeah, he's great.

Paul Burke (01:25:33.87) 
 I like him. No, I actually like him. I like him. mean, he's...

I loved, you know, it was either the first or second TGL or whatever. And I was like on 
 Twitter watching at the same time. And there were the constant was, you know, guys 
 like you and I sitting on the couch watching golf on a Monday or Tuesday night where 
 there was nothing else on. And then the wives sitting down like, this guy plays golf. 
 who's this guy? I'm like, yeah, that's Ludwig Ober.

Sean Melia (01:26:04.002) 
 I know, I know, the 10,000 watt smile.

Paul Burke (01:26:12.238) 
 Yeah, I mean listen second place last year. He's won an event this year. He's also You 
 know had other good rounds So yeah, I don't know. I just think he could be one of those 
 guys that Really likes Augusta too. Like he could really really he could be a speech type 
 even though he's older than people think he thinks he is I Think he's tough to pass up

Sean Melia (01:26:32.578) 
 I know.

Sean Melia (01:26:36.16) 
 Yeah, he's had a weird, like he got sick. He obviously had his knee surgery in the off 
 season. I think there's another thing that hasn't, I haven't heard anyone talk about this 
 with him is, and I'm watching it a little bit right now with our local boy, Thor Bjornsson 
 too. And I was talking to, so I got to interview Ann Walker, who's the Stanford Women's 
 Head Coach for amateurgolf.com. Good podcast, she's great to listen to. And I was 
 talking to her about like,

college schedule and how she schedules out a season with her players individually. And 
 she was just talking about how heavy a schedule the players play like throughout the 
 whole year. And particularly from like, from that May to like the end of the college 
 season, like that's really their, their main, like golfing time.

The college season is long, like they play a ton from May and then they go into the 
 summer. They're traveling all over the place. They're playing individual stuff. And I think 
 Ludwig like got his tour card graduated from Texas tech in, 23 and went right on tour, 
 played well, one played a rider cup. and then was suddenly playing in the majors and 
 having like full swing, follow him around. And he was a star.

Paul Burke (01:28:00.385) 
 everything.

Sean Melia (01:28:00.757) 
 Like all of this stuff, he has not had an off season. He has had like no time. So it's 
 natural, like he's getting sick. He's traveling around. He had to have surgery. He still had 
 a pretty good, like if you just kind of look through even the last six months, he's had 
 some very good results. He wanted Genesis, finished second at the BMW 
 championship, finished sixth at the hero world. There's like, I think there's 10 guys in that 
 field. He finished T5 at the century. And then he's since century, he had the win and a 
 couple of missed cuts, but.

He's played so much competitive golf in the last nearly two years. He senior at Texas 
 Tech this time two years ago and he's played a ton of golf. And I do wonder if like maybe 
 he has slowly just worn down and maybe this week's a week where he kind of gets 
 rejuvenated at the Masters. He's missed a couple of cuts. He's healthy. I don't know. 
 He's an interesting, he's going to be an interesting one to watch this week just because 
 of last year.

Paul Burke (01:28:59.192)

They're, yeah, and you're sort of convinced me that I probably shouldn't have taken them 
 because they're probably, like he's, he might be due for a sophomore regression as a 
 season, like a major season, but he's still supremely talented and he's a top five talent 
 on the tour and he seems to pop up in bigger events and like the swing just.

Sean Melia (01:29:22.251) 
 Yes.

Paul Burke (01:29:26.642) 
 not quite sure how he ever misses, frankly. Watching that swing is pretty impressive. 
 yeah, I mean, I sort of said this. I could see this going really anyway, but somebody that 
 finishes in second in their first masters with that talent, this wasn't like, wasn't in their 
 first major and it wasn't a fluky...

Sean Melia (01:29:28.481) 
 I

Sean Melia (01:29:46.047) 
 in their first major.

Paul Burke (01:29:52.204) 
 you know, Sam Bennett type run where like he just had a great week and he was 
 talented. Like he put it all together. Like the talents there. And when you mass that up 
 with, you know, match for the golf course, I think that there could be something there for 
 the long run, like kind of like speed.

Sean Melia (01:30:10.059) 
 Yeah. My last pick is Patrick Cantlay.

Paul Burke (01:30:14.504) 
 Woohoo! Wow!

Sean Melia (01:30:15.073) 
 Yeah, I'm putting, know, a little bit of a little, it's.

Paul Burke (01:30:19.362) 
 God! On the cutting wood, you left Rory McElroy on... Is he your dark horse? Is he your 
 dark horse? I'm not kidding.

Sean Melia (01:30:24.885)

Listen, man.

Sean Melia (01:30:28.981) 
 I made a promise a couple years ago, I'm not picking Rory McIlroy anymore. And the 
 only way I will pick him is if he wins a major or if he shows up with a new caddy. I just 
 think, and you know what, I know Rory wants the same thing that Xander had walking up 
 with Xander's caddy Austin. He wants to win a major with Harry on the bag. Whatever, 
 that's fine.

Paul Burke (01:30:40.206) 
 God, he's so bad.

Sean Melia (01:30:58.048) 
 It's his friend. I'm not gonna get into the caddy stuff, but I'm not picking Rory until one of 
 those two things happens. If he wins, I won't be there for it. I hope he wins this week. 
 And I'm just not gonna pick him when we do this podcast until one of those two things 
 happen. So we left Rory on the table, which is amazing. We picked six guys.

Paul Burke (01:30:58.743) 
 to meals.

Paul Burke (01:31:13.678) 
 So I'll let you get into camp light. I know. This is a relevant tidbit. Again, plug for our 
 podcast next week about me caddying on the Corn Fairy Tour. So the gap between 
 myself and the, and I'm a scratch golfer, the gap between myself and Evan Harmelich, 
 who I caddied for on the Corn Fairy Tour, who was one on the Corn Fairy Tour.

on for a few years is it's massive by the way as a player it's massive that is as wide as a 
 gap between me and the other caddies and I've caddied before other caddies on the 
 corn fryer tour

Those guys are so good. So like everyone knows the players are good. Watching these 
 caddies is unbelievable and it matters. I'm not gonna say I cost Evan strokes, but some 
 of the things these other caddies were doing, didn't even, it wasn't in my realm of 
 thinking of things that I would possibly do to prepare. And so.

Sean Melia (01:32:20.18) 
 Right, your strokes gained with caddy was zero. You didn't cost him anything, but you 
 didn't give him anything either.

Paul Burke (01:32:24.846) 
 Well, so strokes gain is based relative to the field. I might not have direct, like, it's a 
 relative statistic. And so I was telling people, just want to be 0.0 going in strokes gained, 
 catting, but that was, that was like, that would have been the best week of my life had I 
 done that. It was impossible.

Sean Melia (01:32:29.535) 
 That's true. That's true. That's true. Sorry. Yes. That's true.

Sean Melia (01:32:50.333) 
 Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:32:53.496) 
 That would be like I'd have to be a plus six golfer all of a sudden because those guys are 
 plus six caddies. And so anyway, but kind of a circuitous way to get to the fact that 
 caddies matter and your best friend, he might be a fine caddy and you might think that 
 you own a lot of these things, but having watched this up close and personal, I'm just 
 not, maybe he's putting in the work, maybe he isn't, but if he's not and he's just there as a 
 friend, then that's bad on Roy.

Sean Melia (01:33:23.155) 
 Yeah, yeah, and who knows, maybe this week he shuts everyone up and he gets to.

Paul Burke (01:33:30.882) 
 But Rory can do that. And by the way, like he can win in spite of a bad cat, for sure.

Sean Melia (01:33:34.143) 
 Yeah, he's, mean, he just won the players, you know, like, and this is, and this is also 
 probably while August has just a massive amount of nuance to it. He's played there so 
 many times now that it's not like it's a new course that he's got to kind of learn on the fly 
 with this caddy by his side. Rory has 14, 15, 16 years now of, of, institutional knowledge 
 and, um, and some, and some scars as we talked about.

So Cantlay, just as far as, mean, he's another one like Thomas who feels like he's 
 trending. T12 at the Players, he finished T5 at Genesis, T5 at the American Express, he's 
 got a bunch of top 20s. He didn't have a great week at Valero, but it's not really a golf 
 course that really does anything as far as preparing you for the Masters. I just, he's 
 another one.

Paul Burke (01:34:30.552)

Which way is he trending? I mean, his world ranking has gone from seven to 15, I think 
 he said.

Sean Melia (01:34:35.356) 
 Yes, it has gone. And I think he's slowly coming rounding back into form. Because if you 
 look at his results kind of towards the end of last year, like maybe after the US Open 
 where he finished T3, he wasn't, like he hasn't been bad. I don't know how he fell so far in 
 the world rankings, to be honest with you. Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:35:00.472) 
 I know, that was shocking. That's a big fall.

Sean Melia (01:35:03.442) 
 Yeah, world golf ranking right now. He's 16th as I'm looking at as I'm looking at data 
 golf. He's data golf. He's ninth. So they like him a little bit more. He's 23rd in the FedEx 
 Cup. So he might not be playing. He also hasn't played a bunch, which also can hurt you. 
 So, you know, since the U.S. Open, he's played in one, two. He's played in like maybe 10 
 events. So he's not playing a bunch, doesn't play in this fall. You know, went from the 
 tour championship. His next one was hero. So.

That's like September to December. didn't even tee it up. So that's another reason you 
 can fall. So I like can't lay this week as a potential contender winner. Another guy who 
 should have a little bit of like best player without a major pressure put on him at some 
 point because he's been exceptional for a long time. you know, he could have won. He 
 could have won that U.S. Like, don't think I think what gets lost in the Rory Price and 
 stuff is

He had a bunch of birdie putts on Sunday and he just couldn't make a putt. So.

Paul Burke (01:36:03.906) 
 I know, he played that terribly. So, preeminent gambling podcast, obviously, we left Rory, 
 John Rahm, Bryson, and Xander are the top ones that we left off. I think Xander is an 
 easy one to leave off. The others are interesting, like Bryson, I thought about Bryson.

Sean Melia (01:36:14.182) 
 Off the list.

Sean Melia (01:36:25.552) 
 I don't quite, mean Bryson last year I think he's gonna make people talk about Bryson the 
 way he played at the Masters. He had a great first round and then wasn't great the rest

of the way. And I know that that Friday was bananas with the wind. So I made a list 
 actually, I made a list off the table. Like guys, I am not picking this week. And I had Ram, 
 Bryson, Brooks, Hideki, Spieth, Nieman, Hovland and Fleetwood on my like.

Paul Burke (01:36:35.862) 
 It was just the first round.

Sean Melia (01:36:54.425) 
 no touch list.

Paul Burke (01:36:56.814) 
 I'm surprised Hideki's on there. I I said it earlier. I do think that he has the game that just 
 sort of pops up sort of similar to Brooks, except it happens at random events too, where 
 it doesn't really happen with Brooks, where Hideki just shows up one week. And like, you 
 remember the event he won earlier this year, he just had a new putter and I was like, I 
 was at the Sentry. I was like, yeah, I'm not even sure if I'm gonna keep going with this 
 putter. I just shot like 32 under or whatever it was and I'm not gonna keep going.

Sean Melia (01:37:20.894) 
 I know.

I just feel like he's always hampered by something at this point. He's a hard one to pick 
 going into the week. He's almost an easier one if you're looking at Friday lists and he's 
 lurking, he had a good first two rounds. He's always, shoulders bothering him. He's got 
 just something always going on with him. So those are my no touches. How about your 
 dark horse?

Paul Burke (01:37:38.498) 
 Yes, good point.

Paul Burke (01:37:48.204) 
 So I feel good about my Dark Horse, especially as a top 10. And it's a true, very true Dark 
 Horse. This guy has added distance over the years. He's played Augusta enough. He has 
 not fared particularly well, again, hence Dark Horse. I think he's played okay to the start 
 of this year. I like Stephen Yeager as a Dark Horse.

Sean Melia (01:38:13.193) 
 okay. I like that pic.

Had a good, was he, where did he, he should have won a couple of weeks ago.

Paul Burke (01:38:18.806) 
 You know, he's become...

Paul Burke (01:38:24.118) 
 Yeah, he should have won, was it Valspar? Might have been Valspar. Well, he won 
 Houston last year. And so, I don't know, I just think he's become a real, like, entrenched 
 on the PGA Tour. For a few years, he was bouncing back between Corn Ferry and then 
 he gained like 20 yards magically.

Sean Melia (01:38:27.152) 
 Yes. Yes. It wasn't, I was thinking of Houston, but it would, it was farther. Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:38:43.42) 
 You say that with is that some doubt in your voice. Is this a Brady Anderson situation?

Paul Burke (01:38:49.664) 
 No, I think... Brady Anderson, that's a great...

What a great time to be baseball fan that was. Brady Anderson, 55 home runs after 
 never hitting like more than 19. I don't know, I actually say magically like it was pretty 
 cool that he did that because he was kind of a short ball hitter. And now he's been on 
 the PGA Tour solidly for four years or so and contends, hasn't really popped up in a 
 major.

I don't necessarily see him winning. I don't see him winning this week. But I was looking 
 at his odds are pretty long. you are all by the way, you are always going to get people in 
 the top 10 of the Masters that you're like, where did he come from? Always, always, 
 always.

Sean Melia (01:39:35.312) 
 Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, there's some long odds here. Like Seth Straka is 70 plus 
 7,500. He's not, in my mind, he's not a dark horse, but like, you can,

Paul Burke (01:39:49.09) 
 But Sepp Straka would not be a bad person. So I was, actually looked at him too. I didn't 
 even want to pick him because I don't, like, he was a dark horse. He's like second in the 
 FedEx Cup right now or something. And so he.

Sean Melia (01:39:55.408)

He doesn't feel like a dark horse. Yeah.

Right, right. And they've got him in with Tony Finau and Jason Day and Wyndham Clark, 
 like you said earlier, like that's the

Paul Burke (01:40:05.678) 
 But he's also plus a thousand for top five. Like that's pretty good odds for Sepp Straga, 
 who's playing really good golf.

Sean Melia (01:40:11.578) 
 Yeah, so it's plus what is it plus 400 for a top 10 like that's yeah, it's not a bad bet my

Paul Burke (01:40:15.95) 
 of 400 for a top 10.

And my guy, just to round out so we can give these live odds, Jaeger, 20,000 to win, 
 2,800 for top five, 1,100 for top 10. That's pretty good. Those are the things. Picking a 
 winner is really hard. I think kind of dabbling in the top tens and top fives is a pretty, not 
 a bad place. Even Nikolaj Huygaard is.

Sean Melia (01:40:48.368) 
 Yeah. Top 20s are fun. Like parlaying a couple of top 20 guys, you typically, you can get 
 them through the, if you know they're going to make the cut, you feel like you're going to 
 be just top 20s, especially at the masters when the cuts at like 50 guys is kind of a fun 
 bet to just track guys. Cause guys can go nuts at Sunday and just climb the leaderboard 
 because they don't, they're just shooting at pins and make birdies on the holes that they 
 need to make birdies on.

Paul Burke (01:40:48.747) 
 same odds. Jesus.

Paul Burke (01:40:53.069) 
 Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:41:06.338) 
 And so.

Paul Burke (01:41:16.142) 
 So I would put myself in the very, very casual gambler. I usually don't do it, for big events 
 like this, I'll allocate myself a certain amount of dollars that I just view as entertainment.

I never bet the winner until after Friday. Because the odds don't change that much, 
 believe it or not, because the leaderboard changes. So they're actually baking odds into 
 how many shots behind they are.

or ahead, but at the same time you could bet, you know, John Romney could miss the 
 cut and you're just gone. Like to me that's a waste of money. So I think, you know, 
 betting top tens and top fives at the start of the week is fine, but I would wait to bet the 
 winners until Friday.

Sean Melia (01:41:53.242) 
 Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:42:04.323) 
 All right, my dark horse is... I'm picking a major winner.

Paul Burke (01:42:07.64) 
 Dark horse. If you pick Russell Henley, you're disqualified.

Paul Burke (01:42:14.328) 
 Justin Rose. Nice, I like them.

Sean Melia (01:42:14.735) 
 Yes.

Yeah, and it's a funny, we were just talking about guys winning. No, because he just 
 shoots 66 the first round and then kind of feels like he lost in a playoff, right? So he does 
 have scars. I just, like the trune stuff from last year where he had, he finished T2. He's 
 got a couple, you know.

Paul Burke (01:42:25.688) 
 Does he have scars?

Paul Burke (01:42:30.892) 
 It was for playoff.

Sean Melia (01:42:44.95) 
 T10 at the Palmer T3 at Pebble Beach. He always plays well there He's missed it. He's 
 had a couple miss cuts like t47 last week. So he's kind of all over the place, but he just I 
 don't know there's just something About him as far as playing the Masters. I Could he's 
 you could have the same kind of storyline as we had a true. This is the next major

Sometimes guys kind of just trend a little bit or have like a good little patch of time. 
 That's why

man, this is why I thought about Xander. Because you could make an argument. You 
 mentioned like, who would you, Justin Thomas, would you bet to win a major this year? I 
 think you could make a really, you could just make a bet that Xander wins a major this 
 year because he might just be in that eight to 10 to 12 major window where he's going 
 to win three and he's already won two of them. Like he's going to win another major in 
 the next six. I think there's a, could make an argument like that and that might be it for 
 him.

Paul Burke (01:43:42.528) 
 Yeah, the injury is a tough, tough thing to deal with.

Sean Melia (01:43:44.698) 
 Yes, that's why I didn't pick him. just, feel like me, but I, you look at these guys' records 
 who win, if you win three majors, you do it in a pretty condensed amount of time.

Paul Burke (01:43:58.766) 
 I would say, I'm surprised Lowry wasn't on your list. I'm sure he was on your short list. I 
 would put Justin Rose in the same category as Lowry, that he can't win. It's gotta be a 
 slightly tougher master. I could see him shooting .369s or .268s and .269s and like 13, 
 like he's got a, I think 13 to 12 is probably his ceiling.

Sean Melia (01:44:01.624) 
 He is on my shortlist.

Sean Melia (01:44:18.681) 
 74.

Paul Burke (01:44:28.302) 
 Like that's like the 10 to 13 is probably his good spot for winning. If it gets lower than 
 that, better than that, I'm not sure he can compete with the birdies.

Sean Melia (01:44:40.237) 
 Yeah, or he's just going to have one bad nine hole stretch, right? Like, there's always 
 those guys who finished top 15 and they look back and they think like, man, that back 
 nine on Friday cost me four shots. That feels like Rose and Lowry could be in that 
 category. Trunk slammer, I'm putting Wyndham Clark on the trunk slammer list. Who do 
 you have before we wrap up here?

Paul Burke (01:45:07.883) 
 man, my trunks genre.

Sean Melia (01:45:13.665) 
 Okay. Two US Open champs slam a trunks.

Paul Burke (01:45:21.1) 
 I feel like we've had better success with our trunk slammers than we have our fix.

Sean Melia (01:45:22.841) 
 I know, I know, I know. Well, there's more of them. Who did you pick to win her last year? 
 I don't know who came up, which one you Sander at the PGA.

Paul Burke (01:45:36.0) 
 No, I Scotty. I mean, if in the next five years we go a Masters without either one of us 
 picking Scotty, then something's gone terribly wrong. And I just pick Rory. I don't pick 
 Rory out of principle, although I did jokingly pick him last year, if you remember.

Sean Melia (01:45:36.496) 
 you picked Scottie in the Masters. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Sean Melia (01:45:49.314) 
 Terribly wrong. Yep.

Sean Melia (01:45:55.168) 
 Yeah, you did. I remember that.

Paul Burke (01:46:01.646) 
 He could still win three masters. I mean, if you look at the time when Phil won his first 
 masters, he was old. I mean, not old, but...

Sean Melia (01:46:03.7) 
 I know, I know.

Sean Melia (01:46:08.824) 
 It was 34, 33, I think. Yeah.

Paul Burke (01:46:12.116)

So a little younger than Rory, but I think, and Phil has had tremendous longevity. you, 
 speaking of Phil, did you see that shot that he had lived this past weekend? They hit the 
 bottom of the stick and went in the water.

Sean Melia (01:46:24.503) 
 I did.

It's it, I didn't feel bad at all.

Paul Burke (01:46:29.55) 
 No, I didn't feel bad. He was about to say, wow, what a game. Like you hit a perfect shot. 
 A perfect shot.

Sean Melia (01:46:31.84) 
 Yeah.

Sean Melia (01:46:36.61) 
 Someone pulled up the clip of Bones tending the flag on a shot that he hit from like 60 
 yards, maybe at Torrey way back when. Maybe during US Open. yeah, it was just a 
 whatever it was, PGA event.

Paul Burke (01:46:42.476) 
 Yeah.

Tory.

Paul Burke (01:46:50.55) 
 It was not US Open. It was the Nissan or whatever they used to call that, not the 
 Farmers.

Sean Melia (01:46:57.752) 
 Yeah, Roy could win. I saw Paul McGinley said he's got to win somewhere else before he 
 wins Augusta. Like if he's going to win the Masters, he's going to win the one before 
 that, which I think we've kind of talked about too.

Paul Burke (01:47:09.518) 
 I'm just gonna reheat a take that I've had forever with Rory and it's different than your 
 caddy take.

Tiger and it seems like Scottie were famous for having the same routine every single 
 major. And every single year Rory shows up and says, I'm trying this, I'm trying that. I'm 
 talking to Bob Rutella. I'm gonna show up on Sunday. I'm gonna show up on Wednesday. 
 And so changing the routine to me is as impactful as anything.

Sean Melia (01:47:24.108) 
 Yeah. Yep.

Paul Burke (01:47:45.588) 
 He just needs to stick to his regular PGA tour routine or change it for majors because 
 Tiger did and do that but the changing every single time I don't think it's gonna

Sean Melia (01:47:56.351) 
 Well, and he did it again this year because he went to he's been at Augusta twice 
 already.

Paul Burke (01:48:03.094) 
 Last year, didn't you show up on Wednesday last year?

Sean Melia (01:48:04.855) 
 And last year he showed up late and had like a really rushed press conference where, uh, 
 yeah, it was kind of a weird, but yeah, he's been there twice. So he probably going to 
 show up late again and just try to play a couple holes and nine holes and get after it on 
 Thursday. So, all right, Perky, we're, we're at like the hour 40 marks.

Paul Burke (01:48:12.333) 
 I think he was...

Paul Burke (01:48:26.316) 
 Yeah, no, hey, we could do this forever, but our 40 is pretty robust.

Sean Melia (01:48:29.419) 
 We will be back. Next week, you will be back on, and we're going to talk about your corn 
 fairy caddying experience. You have not talked to me about it at all, so we'll kind of 
 unpack all of that and maybe talk about a new career Grand Slam member in Rory 
 McIlroy as well when we do that next week. So thanks, Paul. We will talk to you next 
 week, literally. All right.

Paul Burke (01:48:51.074) 
 Sounds good. Enjoy the Masters, everyone.