Fresh content, big updates, and a mid-summer pulse check on the state of the game.
In this week’s episode of the Links Golf Club Podcast, we cover progress at Hillcrest, preview new videos dropping in July, and debate the state of pro golf. Gregory, Cooper, and Chris also talk about Stick (the new Apple golf series), revisit their golf games at the halfway mark of the year, and share their favorite new courses played so far.
Plus: LIV vs PGA futures, open qualifiers, and the internet’s favorite fake golfer gets in a subway brawl.
🧢 Club Announcements
• Hillcrest Renovation Update → https://x.com/LinksDAO/status/1940141352408301987
• YouTube Premiere: Reversing Spey Bay (July 8) → https://www.youtube.com/@linksdao
• Building LinksDAO Ep. 4 w/ Derek Duncan drops July 15
🔗 Links Mentioned in This Episode
• John Deere Classic picks → https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/2025-john-deere-classic-expert-picks-predictions-golf-insider-fading-si-woo-kim-at-tpc-deere-run/
• LIV CEO on PGA’s future → https://www.thegolfinggazette.com/news/liv-golf-ceo-scott-oneil-suggests-what-he-sees-happening-to-the-pga-tour-in-the-next-five-years/
• Open Qualifying drama → https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/articles/ce9xxx8ndx0o
• Hole-out eagle to qualify → https://x.com/jamierkennedy/status/1940136963581124975
• Shooter McGavin subway fight → https://x.com/ShooterMcGavin_/status/1940428388713513026
⏱️ Episode Guide
00:00 Cold Open + Intro
01:15 Hillcrest Update + Drone Footage
05:00 Upcoming Content: Spey Bay + Building LinksDAO
09:10 Big Reveal Tease
10:00 John Deere Classic Preview
14:00 LIV vs PGA Outlook
20:15 Open Qualifying Heroics
24:00 Shooter McGavin Chaos
26:30 Best Course Played So Far in 2025
30:20 Stick Review + Golf Movie Pet Peeves
36:00 Mid-Year Game Check-In
42:00 Outro + Feedback Ask
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Welcome back to Lyn Golf Club podcast everyone. Everyone on this wonderful July 3rd, 2025, day before 4th of July, a weekly conversation show about our wonderful club in the world of golf. I’m Gregory, joined as always by Cooper and Chris. This week, Hillrest updates, content announcements, summer gear, gear talk, plus a tease for a big reveal, thoughts on the show Stick, and some other golf content that’s been coming out we’re excited about, and a quick check-in on where our games are at. Gentlemen, Cooper, Chris, my esteemed colleagues, how you feeling? What’s going on? Feeling good, man. Ready for a little bit of a holiday weekend.
Try and squeeze in some golf here. Hopefully don’t melt my face off because it’s like 90 degrees and humid outside.
Yep.
Uh but feeling good. Feeling good. Coupe, how you doing?
Doing great. Um fully recovered from uh all the golf and travel and everything that’s been happening the past couple of weeks, the summer solstice. Um, you know, got out with some members in NYCC recently, which is just always a blast. Um, but yeah, looking forward to a a red, white, and blue golfing, you know, weekend. Might hit some golf balls. Let’s go.
Happy birthday, America. All right. Well, before we uh Yeah, USA. USA. We can bring it back to Ryder Cup uh now if you want to. Uh, every conversation leads to Ryder Cup. So, uh, first off, let’s do some announcements. Chris, I think you have some Hillrest stuff you want to talk about. Yeah, just in case you haven’t kind of seen some stuff that we’ve shared recently, there’s a lot going on at Hillrest renovation wise. This is Hillrest Country Club in Kansas City, our US course. Um, so undergoing full renovation this year, opening next spring. We shared some some new drone videos coming out this week from the links account on Twitter and Instagram. We’ve got some more of that coming. We’ll be sharing some photos, some videos, some other content. But, you know, you can see from that uh construction is well underway. You know, new holes are being shaped, all of that good stuff. So, do keep following along on X, Twitter, whatever you want to call it, and Instagram and in Discord and the Mulligan.
Great social,
our favorite email newsletter,
you know.
Yeah. Everywhere you see it, go roll up to the fence at Hillrest. No, don’t don’t do that. Actually,
not yet. Not yet. Not yet. We have the video actually up with our our screen share technology. Can you walk us through exactly what this drone video shows?
Oh, we love that. Love that.
Uh, so the one we put out this week was the 10th hole. So, this is one of the first ones to be worked on in in the renovation. So, this is the drone video is basically it’s coming not exactly from the clubhouse, but you know, close to the clubhouse. This hole will play away from the clubhouse. It’s a short par4. And so what you see, you know, you basically, you know, you can see kind of the treelined fairway and then the dirt on the ground is the fairway and then eventually you get to the green site that’s been shaped. And the green, you know, you can kind of see different colored dirt. The green site, the um outline of the bunker that will be built there or bunkers uh built into the hillside. Uh going to be an awesome hole. Kind of a short par4, some go or no go decisions right after the turn after you, you know, down down to a gizzy or some some burnt ends or what have you. Uh but so you know, cool to see that coming to life. Basically, you know, what’s happening now is all the regrading, shaping, building greens, all of that stuff. Then bunkers will come, then growing turf, and you know, all of that. But we’re at the beginning of that journey now. So, we’ll have some more to share. But yeah, that was the 10th hole that we shared a video of this week. We’ll have some more videos and photos of other new holes getting built. Actually, the practice area, the driving range kind of practice facility areas getting worked on in part of this first uh bit of renovation work getting done, too. So, lot going on. Really cool to see. follow along with us, you know, in in all the different spots where we’re sharing content. And of course, if you haven’t joined yet, you should join Hillrest Country Club. Going to be awesome opening next year. We’ve shared a bunch of exciting updates recently. You can always go check out more information in Clubhouse if you’re a Linkst member or go to linkstout.iohillcrests and learn more information uh and get on the list. Fantastic. That’s that’s all I got on that front. There’s a lot going on. We’ll talk about it more, but uh yeah, those are Hillrest updates for today. Fired up.
I I think you’ve got more for us, though. There there’s even more content.
There’s there’s lots of content coming down. Uh you know, shout out to you if you haven’t followed C. Bruce’s new Instagram where he’s battling early extension and kind of documenting some of the great stuff uh that we’ve been doing his his journeys around. Do follow him over on Instagram. Um
Creator Classic next year, I think. guys.
Rumors Room on the Street Arc.
That’s right. Yeah. Uh Paige and Cabb Bruce teen it up together next year. Um July 8th, uh this upcoming week, we’re going to have the reversing Spay Bay video out for you guys. This is a highly anticipated, long-awaited uh footage from our course in Scotland, Spay Bay. Uh originally a 1907 Ben Ser’s design. uh CDP, Bert, David, the team, you as the community have voted on some of the elements of this. Uh it’s all kind of coming together out there. We’ve had some great events this season, but we’ve also captured some great footage if you haven’t been able to make it out to Scotland to kind of show what’s new and different there on the course uh since purchasing Spay Bay in 2023. So, definitely tune in for that. We’re going to blast that everywhere on socials as well, but it will premiere here on YouTube uh on July 8th. And then we’ve got even more uh another episode, episode 4 of Building Linkstyle is going to be coming out with Greg, our beloved host, and Derek Duncan, the architecture editor of Golf Digest. So, Greg keeps on pulling uh these heavy hitters for the building links episode. We’re amassing just an incredible knowledge base uh with some of these experts in the world of golf. Uh so be sure to tune in to building link style. Uh Greg, what was that like? Can you give us a little preview uh little sneak peek? Like how was that conversation?
Derrick’s really smart, really smart guy. Uh has a lot of uh sort of say uh cultural capital uh that he’s built up over the years. He started in wine um and we had some great conversations about restaurants and hospitality and then he kind of went away from golf for a while, came back to golf and you know eventually became the architecture editor of Golf Digest which is really he’s the the guy for the top 100 lists, right? He’s the one who spearheads the entire campaign. Obviously, people go out and they do the ratings, but they’ve, you know, the methodology that they use, the writeups they do, the beautiful content of the courses that they display. Uh, he’s just a wealth of information, but he’s also just a really cool guy. So, it’s it was a really fun conversation, wide-ranging conversation, but uh he also has his own podcast, so he’s a very effective podcaster and and it was cool to sort of see in the video or if you’re listening to it on audio, him really sort of start to shift the conversation in a very interesting way. No spoilers, but definitely check that one out. Uh it’ll be live here in two weeks.
It’s fantastic. Looking forward to that. Uh and if you haven’t checked out the first three episodes of Building Links yet, you can find them on our YouTube page. They are awesome content. Um and then later on in July, we’re going to have the recap of the summer solstice 100 hole hike video. Uh all the content we captured out there during that epic day, the longest day of the year at Spay Bay for the summer solstice. So, lots coming down the pipe. Um, looking forward to all of that. And I think next week we’re going to have some some big news that pertains to to you golfers uh as a benefit. Is that right, Chris?
Yeah. Can everyone just close their ears and just you tell us and then we’ll just, you know, every just everyone else mute for now and turn up down your volume. Chris, you tell us the thing now and then they can unmute.
Yeah. Nothing getting shared this week. We uh you know speaking of early extension, we maybe have have had extended some some previews of announcements coming today, actually coming next week.
Um but uh yeah, we got some big news. We’re really excited about this one. So just going to leave it at that. Announcements coming next week on our live podcast, which will be on Thursday again, the same time next week. Uh so make sure to tune in for that one. Gonna be a fun one. and excited for excited to share some big news.
Yeah, you say big, it’s big. And I’m excited to uh to hear about it. So, seven more sleeps and we’ll get there. Uh all right, so let’s pivot it here and talk a little bit about golf news, then we’re going to do some some other chatter. Uh John Deere Classic this week. Uh there’s been some great social content so far. Uh there’s one video of Homa in a uh sort of a crane situation. I wish I knew more how to identify John Deere vehicles. Uh but uh and he they have this huge golf ball and a huge hole and then he slides it across and putts it into the hole. Uh and he makes some you know good quips. It’s like you know maybe I change over to this. Uh you know that’s you know the only short putt I’ve made all year blah blah blah. But it’s just it’s a fun tournament. It’s not a signature event. Those are obviously over but uh it has some personality which I like. you know, the people at John Deere, the marketing people over there are making sure that this is not a forgotten tournament in this sort of no man’s land between the US Open and the Open. So, definitely check that out. Top five on Data Golf, it’s a, you know, it’s probably the best field they’ve had in a while. Like, it’s a pretty strong field. Uh, Future Rider Cup just star Ben Griffin has a 5.7% uh, data golf odds. And then, you know, the top five David Thompson, Jason Day, Siu Kim, Ryan Gerard. you you have an opportunity to see some guys who are sort of playing in it on the fringes. This is kind of one of the more fun parts of a RDER Cup years. There’s some guys who are really trying to chase a bit and get into the conversation and even though these aren’t signature events, even though these aren’t majors, these guys show up and try to show out. Uh I did also reverse sort on data golf and it really pained me to see that future RDER Cup star, future future RDER Cup star Gordon Sergeant has the lowest odds on Data Golf to win. Uh we could do do a long conversation about what’s going on with him. I hope he finds it soon. Uh Vandy, Nashville guy. Yeah.
Nashville ties. Yeah.
Yeah. I was so happy with him in the Walker Cup and he’s just kind of been wandering around the wilderness, but uh it’s always always darkest before the dawn.
That’s golf. That’s golf, man. Yeah, it is what it is. Uh and then one kind of point in golf news this week, uh Live Golf CEO Scott O’Neal had pretty fascinating. Before we move on, before we move on from the John Deere,
I didn’t know you were a deer head. I didn’t know we were gonna talk about it. Yeah, come on. Lay down.
Deer head. I don’t know if I qualify as a deer head. Uh maybe. Who knows? Who knows? But my my I think my favorite piece of content that I saw this week was uh a post. I think it was on on X about how Jason Day could do the funniest thing. Jason Day in Melbourne could do the funniest thing ever. like him in John Deere overalls and a John Deere hat for his uh his his straw coming out.
Oh, that would be so good. It made made me lol made me chuckle uh when I scrolled past that one. That was a good one.
Yeah, I mean fashion wise like Maldin and Carheart are just kind of starting to converge a little bit. Carheart is more of like a there’s a New York store that sells like $80 Carheart t-shirts that you can get for $12 at Tractor Supply store. So, you know, fashion. Uh, uh, yeah, but it has it has been good. Like, I think they’re they’re they’re they are investing in like making people they’re getting some mind share, you know, not a lot, but they’re getting a little bit of mind share. Definitely got me excited about the tournament. I’m definitely going to watch. Um, all right, let’s talk uh Liv. So, pretty incendiary, interesting uh interview that came out. I’ve linked I’ll link it in the show notes. Um, Liv’s newish CEO Scott Neil uh, one just planted a flag and said it will be the dominant global tour in 5 years. Uh, while the PGA store tour will, you know, pick up the crumbs in the United States. Uh, he makes some comparisons between F1 and NASCAR. Uh, which seems obvious and seems interesting like if they can do that. I don’t know how realistic that is, but that could be a possibility. Said that PJ has PJ Tour has too many events needs to shrink to keep the stars together. probably not wrong there. Probably, you know, John Deere aside, probably too many events uh to keep track of. Uh he talked about expansion plans into Africa and South America. Uh he also uh in kind of a true uh you know, not naming sources situation, she doesn’t go here. Uh bigname players are reaching out to live. You know, my girlfriend’s at a different school. Uh you know, they’re reaching out. They’re they’re they’re knocking down the door just to just to get over and to live. Uh but he did say that they’re going to replace six relegated players this year. So that maybe we have an opening for some new names, which brings on a lot of conversation about that. Uh he also specifically said that there’s really no signs of a PJ Live merger anytime soon. Uh you know, shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. People are pretty pissed at this point, I think. And then to the point of just not even caring anymore, like we’ve gone completely over the valley there. Uh, and uh, and yeah, so it I don’t know, we don’t talk about live a lot, so I wanted to make sure the bots got their due uh, and we were at least able to touch on this, but it was an interesting article. Uh, don’t know how many of this will come to bear, but uh, you know, for both of you, since we haven’t talked about in a while, have you watched a live event recently, bullish or bearish on some of the things that uh, Mr. O’Neal was saying? So, I’ve not watched a live event um recently. Uh but I did see O’Neal like a clip of his interview and he kind of invoked some some history that I wasn’t really aware of about, you know, Jack Nicholas and splitting off from the the PGA and creating the PGA tour. And I felt like that was some real heady like he does seem to be planting a flag like you said, making some big bold claims about where Liv is going. Um, you know, I’m not sure if they have the cache or the star power to back up that type of bigname shift that happened in the 60s with the the PGA and the PGA tour. But, um, you know, interesting to see how it plays out. New blood, new leadership always is interesting to see. Um, and you know, we we have some members who post the uh the stats and the viewership stats every week. And I think this week it was interesting. Uh CBS and the PGA Tour waited for Liv to post their viewership numbers and like two minutes later they dropped theirs which were like three or five times higher. So um you know it’s it’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be a conversation. I think the best thing for golf would be a merger and have the best fields competing. Uh you know, however however we can make that happen. Um call your congressman. You know, we we got to make it happen somehow. But uh until then, right, let’s see how this this kind of cookie crumbles. Yeah, Chris, what’s going on in that brain of yours about LIP?
Yeah, I mean or li
Yeah, it’s it’s I don’t know. It’s still We’ve talked about this before. It’s still kind of a tough story to follow because you know, you hear so much stuff that doesn’t come to bear. Merger, no merger, you know, everything. It’s it’s kind you know, hard to keep track of what’s posturing, what’s real, what’s, you know, what’s uh what. But um I mean I think it’s going deeper in that article. It’s interesting to think about like the F1 vers NASCAR analogy or like you know is it feasible for there to be a international tour and a and a US tour and like what that could look like or whatnot. Um it’s kind of an interesting thought experiment. I don’t totally know if it’s workable really. I mean, it’s it’s uh something like half of the golf spend, golf courses are in the US anyways, right? It’s like, you know, the majority of the spends here. But, um, yeah, I mean, it’s kind of interesting to see how they’re playing it out. Uh, and this is, I think, one of Scott O’Neal’s first big kind of public communication since he became CEO, right? That was just a few months ago, I think. So, you know, interesting to see how he’s playing it and kind of positioning everything. Um, but you know, kind of like we said before, overall it’s it’s a little uh got a little bit of fatigue on like just kind of the PGA versus Liv stuff and, you know, how things are going to play out and everything else, but
uh but still interesting to think about. still going to be interesting to see how it plays out with, you know, all the all the guys that signed initial contracts and do they renew or how they renew and, you know, kind of how all that plays out. But, uh, you know, not exactly holding my breath either just because it’s it’s, you know, I don’t know. You know, there’s no clue what’s going to happen. Could come out with, you know, a merger announcement next week. Who knows? It’s kind of all means nothing at this point. Yeah. Are the Crushers going to make it past the first apron on the salary cap? I think I think like the I think the uh thing that’s going to have to happen and I I particularly sort of locked on to the it being the world tour situation. They’re going to have to build homegrown talent. They’re going to have to build someone from a European country, South Africa, Africa, Asia, and they’re going to have to build someone young who’s really exciting and get a star because it’s still very much a star driven sport, right? people pay attention to individuals. You know, the second we had a great actually great tournament at Oakmont, but the fact that no one of any note was competing in the last seven holes, uh, you know, a lot of people I talked to were like, I don’t know, it was kind of boring. I didn’t like it. Like people want stars. So, if Liv can actually generate stars, and I almost feel I mean, they had to do it because they had to make a splash, but I almost feel like they should have just built more slowly instead of spending a bunch of money on big names, especially older names, just like really try to develop homegrown talent. And that’s why, you know, you have Ballister coming in, who knows uh how he’s going to be, but if they can sign some younger guys, especially international guys, and then just within the ecosystem of Liv create really compelling golf, then I’d watch it. But it’s kind of always going to be Diet Pepsi compared to Diet Coke until they’re able to do that. Um, you know, and you can look in the past like you mentioned the, you know, the PJ tour and PGA. You know, the ABA and NBA is interesting. thinking about that like in the 60s and 70s for basketball, but it’s kind it’s an uphill battle and uh I think like the battle is mostly against not giving a [ __ ] about Liv, I think, at this point. So, uh bots come after me. Uh let’s talk about a couple other things here. So, open qualifying uh is is here. We talked about the longest day in golf for the US Open is really interesting. One thing that stood out, Peter Finch, uh YouTuber among those vying for the spot. Uh, another guy, the first from Georgia, the country, uh, grabbed one of the final qualifying spots of the whole out eagle on the first playoff hole.
Estonia. Estonia.
Estonia. Let’s get the Balkans. Gay European. I do not want
I don’t want our Balkan fans to give me crap for that.
Baltic Baltic. Uh, yeah. So, uh, I don’t know. There’s something to talk about here just is like both countries opens are interesting because anyone can attempt to qualify. Uh and a lot of good names out there, a lot of good courses being played. Uh are you all following this at all? Honestly, not that much. I mean, I see the highlights. It seems like there’s a few good stories coming out every year. You know, both US Open qualifying and open qualifying. Last year was like Justin Rose, right? He he played a qualifier and I think maybe Sergio maybe that was the year before, you know, and there’s always some good stuff pros, you know, carrying their own bag like Maxo was doing, you know, alongside dudes from Estonia who are holding out shots to make it to their biggest tournament ever. You know, that stuff’s fun, but I’d also be lying if I said I was, you know, on the edge of my seat following every single thing. Um, cool to see the stories that come out of it. cool to see some of these guys who qualify, you know, through through all of the um all the different stages and then perform in the actual open. And I’m sure we’ll see some of that. Uh but not exactly following it dayto-day. Don’t want to don’t want to give false pretenses here. Fair. It’d be kind of hard to fake. So, I appreciate your honesty. Uh yeah, I mean I I think the story lines are what make it interesting, right? Unlike the other majors where they’re invitationals, it’s having an open means you start to every year like for the US Open there was the dentist who qualified and that became a story. So I’m just I’m also just really excited for this open. The venue is going to be great. Uh and uh Friday Egg actually released a video yesterday uh outlining Port Rush. So it’s just now the content’s going to be about the course. We’re getting so close. We’re what three weeks away and uh it should be a good way to end the season. Uh, last thing I’ll have before we also we also go into Scottish Open, Open Championship, Irish Open, you know, coffee golf season. So, that’s always fun.
Little little different flavor, a little different stretch here, which is a cool change of pace this time of year. Where’s the Scottish Open this year? Do you know? Should know that, but I don’t off the top of my head.
Scottish Open 2025.
It’s at the Renaissance Renaissance Club. Yeah, of course.
Yeah. Uh, last story here from this week. Sure. McGavin gets in an online beef with Subway, sort of our version of Drake and and Kendrick. Uh, this is really just a way to talk about Happy Gilmore 2. It comes out on July 25th. I personally I I’m going to watch it and I’m going to be excited the fact that we have another part of the what hopefully is a Happy Gilmore trilogy at this point. Maybe some prequels, maybe some sequels, maybe some prestige television. But I’m not like I guess my question to y’all is are you fearful that this will change the place that Happy Gilmore uh the original has in your heart? Are you excited about it? Are you going to watch it, not watch it? I I am worried. I’m worried it’s going to be really bad. And I’m worried that like that’s going to leave a bad taste in my mouth about the characters. And then the next time I watch Happy Gilmore, I’m going to be thinking about how just much of a flop Happy Gilmore 2. Can one of you walk me off that ledge?
Are you excited? Have you seen the trailer? When was the last time you watched Happy Gilmore, the original?
Uh 20 minutes ago or so.
Okay. This morning.
Yeah. Uh a couple months probably.
So I mean that’s good. You have it fresh in your mind. So you’re not building it up via nostalgia, right? I hadn’t watched it in probably like five years or so. And then with Greg Egan’s TheraGun boots on in Scotland, I threw it on the TV at the Airbnb and I was like, let’s let’s refresh this. It’s it’s a pretty good movie, right? It’s it’s got heart. It’s got Yeah. tons of celebrity and pro cameos. Uh it’s got the love story, you know? It’s it’s great. Um I think it’s a high bar and I I don’t think I’m with you. I don’t think it’s going to be exceeded by this. the the uh you know the classic is not going to be be overthrown but I do think it’s going to have a lot of those same elements that we love which are celebrities uh heart a a decent story and a lot of cheesy kind of like you know things that could potentially now that we’re a little bit older than we were the first time we saw Happy Gilmore might not come off to us as full grown adults as cool as they did when we were 12 watching this movie for the first Right.
Fair.
So, I think, you know, there are parts of it that are built up that are going to be hard to exceed, but I think it’s going to be a really fun movie and it’s going to, you know, achieve what they set out to achieve, which is revitalize it, you know, and sell a lot of Subway sandwiches
and make more money for Netflix. Exactly. Uh, yeah. I I want to set my expectations low going into it because I want to be happily surprised. You know what I mean? And, you know, they they’ve put out the trailer. they put I I also am like fairly worried by an increase of professional golf actors in this movie. It seems like there’s a handful and they’re just they’re not going to be good. Uh but uh but yeah, so we’ll see. Hopefully there’s, you know, some Chubbs lore. We can learn more about that character. Would love to see some like callbacks there. Uh and uh yeah, I mean these things are always like this is our version of Top Gun Maverick, right? like we’re going to watch this and it’s going to be callbacks to uh you know the original movie and I just I just hope it’s in good hands and I hope they do a good job. Chris, where where you at on Happy Gilmore 2? I think it’s almost certainly going to be a bad movie, but I’m definitely still going to watch it. And uh I think that’s exactly what they’re going for and they know what they’re doing. You know, it’s like uh and it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun to watch. It’ll be fun to see all the pro cameos and the other cameos. Um, speaking of Paige, sounds like she’s going to be in in the movie as the uh I forget her the original character’s name from the first one. You know, there’s going to be all all sorts of people in it. It’s fun to see Adam Sandler. Uh, I I I don’t think it’s going to be, you know, a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s still going to be a fun watch. I don’t think it’ll affect my love for the original Happy Gilmore. still going to be in the Pantheon. Uh, so yeah, that’s kind of where I sit with it. I’m I’m more curious. Here’s here’s what I’m wondering these days. So, there’s the Shooter McGavin Twitter account, X account,
uh, which has like 600,000 followers or whatever. Do we think this guy is just a random guy that started a shooter account and built it up? Is there any sort of affiliation?
Like when when the first Happy Gilmore came out, would you have believed it if you said, “Hey, this character is going to start a social media account.” Hey, what’s social media? It hasn’t been invented yet. And is going to make a living off of uh shilling sponsored Subway Netflix ads because he just continued on the shooter stick for two decades or whatever. What a wild world we live in, I would say. So, I have been adjacent to Chris McDonald, right, at a couple of of golf tournaments. It doesn’t surprise me that shooter mcavan is a Twitter account, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s his Twitter account. I always assumed it was, but it’s a good question. Maybe it’s just it’s not. But uh but I think that if you play a role, if you’re a character actor, I think that’s probably one of the best outcomes is to be identified with a single role because, you know, you don’t even really have to work in movies to get paid. At that point, you’re you’re a personality that people want to see. Uh, so I guess it wouldn’t it would have surprised me then cuz I was what 10 when the movie came out. But having seen him uh operate in in public and looking at this Twitter account, uh, not surprised that this is like his this is his like number one line on his obituary role, right? It it’ll be Chris McDonald known as Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore. And he inherited that role with such gravitas, right? So
something that that kind of comes up across crypto Twitter sometimes is accusations of people selling selling their accounts, right? And I I do believe that there was a transfer at some point in the past 10 years from a meme account, somebody created a shooter McGavin and now it’s been it’s owned by a movie studio or you know some type of uh social media cabal that is that is operating this for profit. Um, and you know, I hope whoever started it and started the shtick is is, you know, chilling on an island somewhere on the proceeds because they certainly deserve it. But, um, at this point, you know, taking a scroll through the account, I’m pretty sure, um, you know, it’s it’s being managed.
It’s a false flag situation.
Not so much a false flag, but like it’s been it’s been co-opted, right? And and like, you know, I think that’s a great thing. I think it’s a good personality on Twitter. U, but I don’t think the actor himself is running it, and I don’t think it’s just some Joe. I think at this point it’s now um you know a a functioning element of the infrastructure around promoting these these movies and events.
All right. Well, next time if he’s at uh the Jim Kelly golf tournament in Buffalo, I’m going to ask him. That’s my homework. I’ll get the answer.
If he pulls out his phone and shows you that he can send a tweet like he he does that like snap a pick. That would be that would be epic. I’m on it. Uh I uh I will consider that my highest priority. uh and will execute faithfully. Uh okay, so a couple of questions here uh for this next section. I we’re halfway through the year, so it’s a good time to reflect. Obviously, we had sort of our goals episode, but I really am interested. We’ve all played some pretty good golf so far this year. Never as much as you’d like, but we’ve played some good spots. So, to both of you, what is the single best new course you’ve played uh since January 1st, 2025? Uh, I can go first. I had a few different candidates. I was having a little tough time picking one, but I think I’m going to go with Narn our kind of neighbor in Northern Scotland with Spay Bay. Uh, had a ton of fun playing it. Goo and I played together with RW Dennis. uh who’s a member there I think as well as Spay Bay. Uh so that was a ton of fun. But really cool course kind of in many ways similar vibe to Spay Bay. You know it’s along the coast you know kind of out and back true links all that stuff. A ton of history there. They just played the um I think it was the I don’t I forget if it was the Scottish women’s amateur or the British women’s amateur or you know UK women’s amateur uh like the weekend before. Uh so cool to kind of get on the course right after that and yeah just had a ton of fun there. They’ve obviously they’ve got like the both halfway house which is kind of its own renowned thing. Cool to see that. Cool to see the clubhouse. They got a whole history room there, uh, which is a ton of fun to poke through, you know, been there for centuries and and all of that. So, think I’d have to go with that one. Tough choice, but, uh, you know, on a on a Lynx golf kick right now, uh, after being in Scotland. So, that’s that’s my pick for the time being at least.
Okay. I like it. I like it. Cooper, what about you?
Yeah, Narin is a great one. Unfortunately, it was not or fortunately was not my first time playing it this year. Um, so it doesn’t qualify, but it might be the pick. Um, the best course I’ve played in 2025, uh, according to my Punch Bowl rankings, uh, is Pasa Tempmpo. Um, got to go out and I mean, just what an absolute gem, right? Uh, you know, and I had some good context around it, too. Played Half Moon Bay and Prescidio and some Golden Gate Park, you know, in that same same trip. Um but yeah, I mean just an incredibly special golf course and a cool experience and a great walk right up up and down the hills there. Um really really enjoyed that. And then honorable mention, shout out to technically a new golf course. We have a new scorecard and new routing spay bay. Uh the reversed routing or the new routing with the additional box sponsored content. Exactly. Got to got to shout it out. It is it feels like a fresh golf course experience versus the the the first time I played it. So, uh, for those of you who have not been back since those changes been made, I think it counts as a new golf course.
Yeah.
Best new golf course in Scotland.
Good call.
Maybe. Who’s to say? Any anyone can say people I’ve heard, you know, people
uh it is kind of shot. My favorite part about the reversing spay video is, you know, it obviously like kind of tells a story over the course of a couple years, but you see a lot of drone shots of like gor being removed, sand being removed, and then there’s like this last shot of what it looks like now. And it it it’s a remarkable change. Uh, and I’m very excited for the Ryder Cup coming up, so I’ll get to see it for myself. I think mine I’m kind of torn between two, I think. I think my number one is Lookout Mountain. Mostly just because it is in my favorite place on earth, which is East Tennessee. Technically, Lookout Mountain is in Georgia, but it’s up from Chattanooga, so I claim it for my home state. But, um, it’s, you know, obviously out there you have a lot of fun golf. I I’d always heard about it. I always wanted to play it. And you when you drive down 24, you see the sign for Lookout Mountain, the mountain. So, I guess it just kind of always stuck in my in my memory and got to play it a couple months ago. I’d never played a Rainer course. Um, people say it was his last, although there’s some dispute on that, but let’s just call it his last course. Opened up in 25 as the Fairyland Resort. So, one of those sort of places for mostly wealthy nor northerners to take a train down to and get away from the city. And I’d never played really any of the template holes. I’d never played a Rodan or a Beeritz or an Alps or a maiden or any of those courses or uh uh holes. So just net net as a person who’s learning a lot more about golf course architecture than I knew before as a person who wanted to sort of get a feel for a rainer course and as a person who’s from Tennessee. It checked a lot of boxes for me and it was really fun. I mean it’s just it is a thinking person’s golf course. There are times where we didn’t have caddies so you thought you hit an absolutely perfect shot. I like flushed a sixiron at this green and I was like that’s going to be a two feet and it ended up getting lost behind the green because it somehow chased uphill and off the back of it. Uh but then the you know you learn your lesson and you get around the course in a different way. So I felt way more uh psychologically tired after than I did uh physically tired. And then I think like a close 1B uh last week I played Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kansas and also a place that I’d always wanted to play. It is basically an Irish links land in the middle of farmland in the middle of Kansas. Uh the turn from, you know, just the straight grid lines of of farmland into the property is it almost like gasped a little bit because it’s just so lush and green and the elevation is insane. And uh it just it was a tough test. Uh I played remarkably bad uh both in the morning and in the afternoon. Uh but there really wasn’t a time where I wasn’t excited uh and and you know happy to be there but also just feeling like a test I I failed the test but at least I got to take the test and uh and hopefully I’ll learn something along the way. So uh yeah
that’s a good it’s a good sign if you played poorly but still enjoyed it. That’s like you know maybe a hallmark of a of a great course experience.
Sure. Sure. Um, so then let’s talk. We talked a little bit about some golf content earlier, but I am curious. I sat down last night and kind of for the first time didn’t have something to watch on on my on my feed like YouTube wise, watch a lot of YouTube. So, I guess my question to you all is sort of within the golf ecosystem, what’s some content you’ve been watching recently or anything that’s coming up you might be excited about? Talked about Happy Gilmore, too, but uh what are you watching? What are you listening to right now? Yeah.
Yeah. Go ahead. Oh,
you you go ahead.
Well, I saw in the chat Foster mentioned uh Stick on Apple TV. Um which I think has been a cool thing. It’s been hyped up. The trailer looks good. I’m like three episodes in. It’s not rolled out all at once, which is kind of keeping me interested, but also I like forget when it drops and I have to go go watch. I think there might be two or three episodes that I haven’t seen yet. Um the beginning was interesting. It seemed pretty good. Um, obviously it’s focused not for golf sickos, but for like a broad audience, which is, I think, uh, probably the right play if you’re the producer of the show. Um,
but they do get some of the details right. Uh, and it seems to have, you know, a pretty good storyline, some heart, and, uh, you know, just love Owen Wilson. So, that’s, uh, that’s been Have you guys watched it?
I have. I think that the if you haven’t watched it yet, I I there’s really just two questions. And if you answer these two questions yes, then you should watch it. If you answer one of them, no, you probably shouldn’t. First, do you like Owen Wilson? If the answer to that is yes, then that’s 50% of the the metric. If you don’t like Owen Wilson, you won’t like it. It’s an Owen Wilson vehicle and he spends most of the time on screen. The second thing uh is did you like Ted Lasso? If you like Ted Lasso a lot, then you’re probably gonna like this. Especially if you like Owen Wilson. If you hated Ted Lasso, you’re probably not going to like this. It’s very similar, kind of small, kind of cliche, but I I have really enjoyed it. Uh I like golf, I like Wilson, and I like Ted Lasso. So, it’s kind of a win-winwin for me. Uh the story is fine, but like there’s like a genuine sense of drama. Like you know it’s probably going to be okay, but they invest a lot in the beginning of like into the characters and you really root for them. Like they all have something like happening to them that you feel bad about and you really want them to succeed. Uh and I think that makes for something that if I’m just looking for a show that I want to spend some time with characters, it’s it’s very, you know, above decent watch. I would say I’d recommend it to people as long as you answer the questions about Owen Wilson and Ted Lasso affirmatively. Yeah, we’ve we’ve been watching it as well. It uh you know, I watch a ton of golf content, a lot of it on my own. This meets the criteria for watching with my wife, so that’s that’s a plus. That’s always a plus. Uh I can do some joint uh watching of something golf related. Always fun. Um and yeah, it’s been enjoyable. Good characters like you said, Greg. Uh, I will say though, so this is one of those things that uh once I once I say it, you aren’t going to be able to unsee it or unhear it. Uh, so, you know, apologies in advance. Plug your ears if you’re not into that kind of thing. But so here here’s the thing I’ve noticed while watching stick is they use the sound of a wood, a driver or a fairway wood hitting the ball when he’s hitting an iron
and it drives me insane.
Okay.
And I hear it every single time now. I noticed it one time. So now you know you’ll see him hitting an iron shot and it’s like and uh it really gets me. So you know it’s not you don’t like you were saying this isn’t for golf sickos. you don’t expect every, you know, they’re playing on, you know, not even great courses, well manicured courses or, you know, there’s plenty of stuff that’s wrong with it, but from like a golf perspective, right? Um, but that one really got me, which which actually led me to wondering if you guys have anything like that, like is there anything in golf movies that always, you know, is is a pet peeve or, you know, always gets you? um or maybe even in sports movies in general because that’s kind of a that’s always a theme, right? You have kind of actors who aren’t, you know, they obviously aren’t pro athletes playing these sports playing parts or whatever, but anything that you guys always gets on your nerves.
I’m gonna I’m an elite world class suspender of disbelief. So, honestly, like when I get into a movie, I it’s really hard to get me out of it. uh like even that I didn’t notice it and I don’t even know now that I know it would bother me the like one of the most famous examples is from major league and that uh Wesley Snipes is actually really slow even though he plays Willie Maze Hayes the fastest baseball player so every single
slowmo
it’s always slow-mo uh because he’s so slow and it makes him feel faster but then on by the flip side Charlie Sheen uh all of his throws are him and he was like touching mid 80s and had pretty good control and looks like a believable closer for a more bound franchise. Uh I I I can’t think of a single example because again I think I’m able to sort of just lock in and I don’t really pay attention to it. I probably like notice more about story, pace, acting, directing choices, that kind of stuff more than like some specific like I don’t know if you listen to Bill Simmons a lot, but he talks about wanting to start a like basically consulting company that just does consulting for Hollywood movies about sports. Uh I’m not whatever that range is. I’m on the opposite of range. Just like it’s just just is what it is.
Yeah. Cooper, what about you? I recently mentioned I I rewatched Happy Gilmore and that’s probably right at the cusp of digital graphics, right? The early end of that. A lot of the T-shots is just like kind of the ball flying through. They reuse a ton of the shots of the ball flying over the tree. That’s all fine. In a lot of golf shows, movies stick happy Gilmore. Looks like the greens are rolling at like a six or a five, right? They’re really fluffy.
Um bouncing.
Yeah, shout out Kovy. uh you know like yeah the the bounce of the ball were are just you know kind of silly and uh the way the putts are are rolling is something that I notice as well on those. I will give a shout out. I went and saw this is not paid but they should you know their budget’s huge. F1 um another Apple TV or Apple production um really really good. I’m not an F1 watcher or race fan but like boy those driving scenes were sick. Um, you know, and I’d love to hear if you watched F1 in the comments and you F1 fan or a racing fan, what you thought about like the realism there. Um, but like super cool. I think even as somebody who’s like a motorsport enthusiast, um, that they did a a good job there. And I think that just gets easier and easier to to get right with computer graphics and and all that technology.
Um, if you have someone consulting who knows what they’re they’re talking about or what to look for.
Yeah, I think it like depends on to what end. Like I I’ve gotten into so many late night arguments with my brother and brother-in-law about Remember the Titans. And Remember the Titans based on a true story resembles very little about what actually happened. But if you tried to make a movie about Remember the Titans, what actually happened, it would be boring as hell because like they were absolutely dominant. They beat the crap out of every team that they played against and there’s no tension, right? So instead they had to make the games close and they had to come back and then they had to have the winning you know play at the end and you know spoiler blah blah blah. So I I think to me like as someone who likes movies I think probably most there’s probably some decisions that are just stupid. Uh and that might be because of ignorance or that might be because of laziness or whatever. But I think like most decisions made about a movie within sports is probably out of convenience storytelling whatever. Like I I’d be curious if you you know Chris if you asked them like why are you using a wood sound? It could be just because like we only have one sound. I doubt that’s true. It could just be because it it sounds better or it sounds more flushed and we’re not expecting most of the people to watch it to notice the difference but it sounds better than an iron iron and it picks up better on you know speakers blah blah blah. So like I might be giving too much credit to filmmakers but like a lot of that stuff doesn’t bother me because it hopefully is in service to the story you know. Yeah very fair point. Who knows? Maybe they did a focus group and, you know, watchers, you know, like it better think it’s more impactful when it’s the sound of a driver getting thunked or whatever. Sure. It’s a good sound. Uh, I want to I want to put a plug into one thing I’ve been watching. I have been watching I’m not a a huge follower of Bar Stool. I want to see if I can piss off Live Bots and Bar Stool Bros on this podcast. Uh, so if you have any of those people in your life, pass it along and they can come fight me. Uh, but I really really have enjoyed this arc of Rigs who’s on bar stool. Uh, people have increasingly been calling him out on his handicap, that he lies about his handicap, that it’s too low. And so, I think when they did the Oakmont video, it really came to a head cuz he shot like a 107 and Trent, I think, shot a 106. And people are like, “All right, you’re you’re vanity handicap, blah, blah, blah.” and the trolls have just gone after him. So that now and who knows how much of all of this is connected into a marketing, you know, false flag, whatever. But now he’s going out and he’s people who are challenging him on Twitter. He plays them in a match. Uh and there was one there was one particularly aggressive troll that he played against I think last week. Uh, and he ended up winning like seven and five and and the guy was like talking all his crap and saying how they needed to go back and play from the tips instead of playing up and like and he just dusted the floor with them. So, I think like those are fun because you’re really rooting for against someone. Uh, that’s been one YouTube thing that I like. I know that they just released one where they were playing for like 25 grand. Uh, so that one isn’t as interesting to me because like you know pro golfers play for money, but having someone attack you on the internet and then just go out and just boat race them is uh is my kind of content. I want to see more of that.
Yeah, it’s been a fun one.
Thanks for the spoiler alert there. I I watched the first half and I was like, “This is great, but now I know how it ends.” I’m glad that is how it finishes. Um, yeah, the the chirpers on his Instagram page, getting to go out and actually play uh against him on the the feed are I think that’s a good that’s a good meta and I hope to see uh you know him continue to post those videos. I think that that was something I don’t watch very much of the bar stool golf content and that was one that um definitely caught my attention.
Yeah, good. Yeah, I saw it looks like the next phase they’re talking about doing um
I forget who it was, but an LPGA player responded or quote tweeted one of his his tweets or whatever saying uh basically we should do that with LPGA, right? There’s plenty of internet trolls saying, you know, they could, you know, they’re a Scratch player, they could be LPGA player or whatever. And it sounds like it might actually happen. So, I will very much look forward to that. I think that’d be a fun watch. 100%. Um, all right. So, then last question I have for you all here, last topic. Uh, let’s do another half your check-in on just sort of where the game is right now. Like, where’s your game? How are you feeling about it? Are you trending up? Are you trending down? Are you flatlining? So, first one is just if you could pick one word to describe your golf game as we live and breathe right now on July 3rd, what is that word? Narrowing it down to one word is tough. I think I’d go with like fluctuating. You know, it’s like uh you know, felt like I was trending there for a little bit, then got smacked in the face the last couple of rounds. Um had some really good kind of swing fields or or things I was working on, then also kind of, you know, flipped them or fell apart a little bit. So yeah, think I’d go with that. You know, I was maybe overly confident for for a bit there
as golf does
got, you know, taken down a notch or two. So, uh, that that’s my current state fluctuating a little bit.
Okay. Cooper, one word. Can it be hyphenated? Sure.
Uh, out to in Yeah. still struggling like you know working hard on your extension everything see video of my swing um and it’s just like why am I doing that why I look I look stupid like you know I’m improving but it looks it looks wrong and then you know my driver just doesn’t stay on the planet and I overcorrect and uh snap hook. So, uh, that’s my my main golf woe right now is, uh, the longer the club gets, the more wipey I I get. Understood.
I feel you.
Get it.
Been there. I think mine’s wobbly. Uh, I often like to describe like my in round golf mentality is like I’m driving a cart and, you know, one of those wheels of the cart starts to shake a little bit, then it falls off. Now I’m driving a three-wheel cart and I’m spending most of my time trying to figure out how to drive a three-wheel cart and keep it going. Then you start to feel the other wheel. Hopefully it’s one that I can still balance on and then at some point all the wheels are off. Uh give you an example like I played on Tuesday at uh in Witchah, Kansas. And uh I think I shot like a 43 on the front. So not great. Just wasn’t feeling it. Wasn’t driving the ball well. Uh, I was there was some positivity in the chipping. Uh, had pretty good control of the golf ball around the greens. I was putting well, but just driving. It wasn’t just like, hey, here’s where I want to hit it. It doesn’t go there. It’s like, okay, now I’m on the opposite end of the golf course. And again, like starting to hit wipey slices that I thought had just gone away. I thought I’d solved that problem. I thought it was done. And now they’re back. now. But then on the back nine, I think I I I bottomed out and I tripled like 13. I don’t remember exactly. Look me up on Jin. Uh and then I for the rest of the time I had three birdies after that. Uh one was a chip in on on a par five. One was a bunker shot. Uh just absolutely dunked it on a par4. Uh and the last one I uh missed an eagle like a 10- footish eagle putt. lipped out and got a birdie there. So, like the most frustrating part and like the word that I’d want to use is frustrating or fr yeah yeah is from the game is just that I think all three of us have both described and demonstrated market improvement and almost every aspect of our golf games over the course of the last three years. Like I’m a better golfer than I was before for sure, but I just can’t fit it all together in around. Uh, you know, like I broke 80 a couple times last year, have not done that this year. Uh, and it’s just it’s it’s it’s frustrating. So wobbly is like the feeling because it’s just you feel like it’s getting away from you. You feel like Jack and Titanic and just like slipping away down into the abyss below. But that’s that’s how I feel. So, if you know any therapists, let me know. Love Yeah. Not not a lot of positivity in our in our one-word slogans, but
probably the problem, honestly. That’s probably probably the problem. Uh, how about this? What word should you use? And let’s just manifest the opposite direction. Like, what’s one word you want to have described your game? That’s a good one.
Control. I like it. Perfect.
Yeah. or like stable or consistent to kind of the wobbly or the fluctuating thing like that consistent is the one, right? Like it’s but that’s kind of like the whole game, you know? It’s like if you can do consistent swing, consistent strike, then you’re then you’re golden. That’s like that is the goal. So, if we ever get there, then then we’re in a good spot.
Cool.
Once you get there, you’ll always be there and you’ll never ever lose it, I’m sure.
Because then you’re consistent. That’s right. Yeah, for sure. Uh, all right. So, then let’s let’s expose ourselves a little bit here. Current index, uh, your GIN number, your social security number, and the street you grew up on. And then what trend do you feel like that number is on right now? Yeah. I mean, the the irony here is like I said fluctuating, but my index has been flat basically all year. So, I I guess that’s a good thing. I’m like flat at around like 8.8 right now or something. or the year to 9.2 or something like that. Um went down a little, went up a little bit, you know, overall flat. So, I guess that’s the good news. You know, it’s like or you know, the spread of of what your index has calculated over the 20 scores or whatnot that, you know, evens out all the fluctuation that I’m seeing. And, you know, overall it’s okay. So, I think that’s maybe a positive, but you know, daytoday it doesn’t necessarily feel that way. But, uh, so overall flat. Still have some work to do with the the annual goal of getting down to five, though. So, you know, got to get it moving in in that direction.
You can do it. I believe in you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Cooper, where you at?
I’m hanging out at a 6.8. Um,
I was a
lowest of the three of us.
I I it’s been dropping. Um, I have an issue with whoever rated the Newspay Bay routing. Um, you know, my home course in Philly, which is wide open. you can spray it and not lose a golf ball is rated three strokes harder than uh than spay bay. So, you know, I posted that 75 75 77 and uh dropped, you know, 0.2 on the the gin. So, I’m a little bit
not rating the gorse properly.
The gorse needs to get its own difficulty rating. It’s a narrow golf course. Um
yeah,
a GCC at the end of every day. The Gorse, what does PCC stand for? I don’t remember. But something course correction course. Yeah, Gor course condition correction sounds like a necessary thing for the wind as well. Anyway, that’s a different story. Uh, so we’re trending well. Um, you know, I I read a a post which is like, you know, you guys have a number, you hit your seven iron, right? And you’re not expecting to hit your seven iron 20 yards longer. If you do, you might be upset, right? But with the driver, we’re just trying to hit it 340. And if it lands like 290, great, right? Like that’s kind of the way I approach my my driver shots. And perhaps the thing that I need to do is say, “Hey, I need to aim for a 265 shot and hit with that control.” And like maybe if I get the sweet spot and some roll out, you know, I’ll get 290 or something like that. But like every time I step up to a T- box and it’s, you know, a par four or five, I’m I’m trying to hit the ball
trying to crush it
the farthest I’ve ever hit the golf ball like 100% of the time. And I think that that there might be something there uh with the mentality that like if I if I focus on that off the tea, I’ll lose fewer golf balls. Yeah. I mean, avoiding the big trouble is where it’s all at. I mean, that’s like the challenge has been like part of the reason why I dropped so much over the course of the last year was because I was losing so many fewer golf balls off the tea. And then my issue is like, h like I’m in the wrong spot, but whatever. I’m starting to lose golf balls again. And that’s how you know you black out for like three hours and you wake up and you shoot a 99 at Prairie Dunes. Like that’s how that happens because you lose a golf ball off of every tee into the gun. So yeah, I mean but that’s what we talked about with Stack is you should feel confident to be able to I I don’t want to say swing slower because I think that’s bad advice, but like exert less effort I guess cuz like I think like one of the
That’s more of a mental thing, right? Yeah. Yeah.
I just like I am
I’m honestly scared driving the golf ball right now. Like that the the word that I would describe is fearful because the outcome is has recently been much more on the bad side than the good side. And because of that, now I’m slowing down. Now I’m trying to control the golf ball. Now I’m trying to, you know, steer things and it’s only making it worse. Right? So, uh, yeah, we need to flush this out of our systems and, you know, just need to do better. You know, the people are watching, people are listening. We got we got to do better. That’s all we got to do. Just do better. Yeah, that’s true. That’s true.
Play better.
So, I will just say for postparity, I’m at a 77 now. It went from a 71 up to a 77 after some bad rounds recently. I have another one of my low rounds coming off of the next round that I play. Uh, so I expect it to go up probably a little bit more. Uh, but hopefully we can stabilize. My um trend though right now unfortunately is up. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing because I also like there have been times where I’ve played people straight up who are seven handicaps and I do feel at least emboldened that our games are pretty similar. Like there’s like the immediate feeling is just fraud when you go out and you play against people and you play poorly. But, uh, I I definitely don’t deserve the amount of strokes I have to give up where my game is right now playing against people who have a higher handicap than me. So, I’m not saying I’m manipulating my index by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m looking forward to it catching up to where my game is right now, which is one of the beauties of it. Um, last question here before we wrap up. What’s your current focus on? Obviously, we talked about speed a little bit last week, but of all the things we’ve talked about in our games right now, where it’s at, where it’s going, where it’s been, what is your singular focus in game improvement today? Yeah, I can go first because I’ve been sharing some of this stuff, I guess. But, you know, battling the early extension, trying to get to compressing the golf ball better, more consistently. Um, and uh, you know, getting a little forward chapling just, you know, that’s that’s that is my biggest focus. We talked about this a little bit I think on our maybe on our goals podcast earlier in the year, but just irons is where I have to improve approach game and it’s all that. So getting it being able to do that, be more consistent with it. So that is definitely the focus. It’s, you know, it shifted around a little bit. Um, and you know, kind of similar to you, Greg, Driver went haywire for a bit, then kind of got it back and, you know, but overarching uh theme is that and trying to get, you know, hone in on the iron play, get that together. I think that’s what I’m going to have to do to, you know, get to that index goal for the year. Anyways, so far and away the the focus for me right now. Okay, Cooper, what about you? Yeah, it’s uh 100% just the stand up in my swing versus staying low, keeping my butt on the line on the left side. Like that’s if you look at my swing down the line, I just stand up. And when I can stay through that, it’s super super consistent. So like that’s the move um that I’m working on like throughout my swing. And for some reason, it’s just a lot easier on the short clubs. Um when I get longer clubs, start swinging harder or faster or anything else, it just it falls apart. So, um I think it’s deeply tied to to mobility. Um probably. So, I don’t know. I have to stretch more. Um getting old.
Shout out AJ and TPI.
Yeah, for sure.
The goats.
That’ll tell that’ll tell you some things. He’s a truth teller.
Yeah. If you haven’t yet, pop in the Discord, post your swing and swing analysis. Um we’ll tell you what’s wrong with your swing uh and what you need to do to improve it. It’s really great.
Um yeah, that’s that’s my focus. And guys, I have to I’m sorry to throw us off here, but uh somebody’s popped into the New York City chat and uh said that there’s an extra last minute spot on Beth Page Black today at 4:40 p.m. And so the question is
breaking news. The question is
I’ll be there in three hours.
Do one of you in chat want to take it or should I drive up from Philly um and play Beth Paige Black this afternoon? Um you know, for
one of the last chances to be able to do it before it closes, right? Speaking of getting ready for the Ryder Cup, got the stands up. Uh, so chat, please chime in here. Yes or no? Do I make the drive up? Uh, you know, I think it’s Chris. We’ve played it a couple times. It’s a It’s a good spot. So, I don’t know. Would would you guys do it? Uh, I would say like let let someone in the chat do it, but if no one takes you up on it, then you should go. Why not? I mean, what else what else are you going to do? Just, you know, sitting at your desk, you know, just
typing at the the keyboard, doing some work. You can do all that later, right? You can’t play Beth Page. You You can come back and do work tonight.
Come now. That’s right. Yeah, for sure.
Um that’s that’s funny. It might be the first, you know, live beta black uh tea time offering that. Uh
somebody take it, please. Um if you’re in chat, you’re closer than I am. Go.
It’s a great course.
Somebody’s already running to their car just like typing as they’re driving. Uh my current focus is definitely on the mental side of the game because I think I am an overinker. And because of that everything that y’all described about how your body is moving and everything else makes it really hard for me just like be an athlete. You know what I mean? So, I think that like I feel good enough about my swing that I can perform at the level that I want to right now, even if it wouldn’t look good in the swing analysis channel, even if AJ would, you know, slap me across the face with what I might be doing in different spots. I’m just trying to be an athlete. So, I’m I’m focusing on speed, but I’m not really focused on how that’s happening. I’m just hoping that the stack system works. I have very few swing thoughts, and I’m just trying to feel those constantly. I’m trying to turn, I’m trying to finish, and that’s about it. The thing that I’m spending a lot more of my time on because I feel and I could be wrong, but I feel like most of the reason why my game isn’t where I want it to be is on the mental, social, emotional side. Started reading Zenolf, which was recommended to me. Uh, it’s been very helpful. It’s sort of like a book that overlaps like Buddhist teaching with with golf psychology. Um, and a lot of it’s just sort of coming down to what’s my process? Like what’s my pre-shop routine? How am I visualizing my target? Am I committed to that target? And then do I accept the outcome for whatever it was. And I think like what that’s taught me a lot is like the round that I played on um the round the morning round I played at uh at Prairie Dunes, it just was a constant nose dive. like it was just a race to the bottom because I wasn’t thinking about my pre-shot routine. I was too worried about the people I was playing with. I was too worried about my score and that just became worse and worse and worse and worse. But like you started to notice was like, yeah, if I hit a bad drive certainly that could infect the rest of that hole or round or I can just hit a better neck shot. I can get myself in position for a bogey. And part of that was like playing with P Simmons in the afternoon at Prairie Dunes. bogey was basically a birdie at that point for me. Uh, and so, you know, just trying to make sure that I’m keeping the ball roughly in play, scrambling well, not giving up, grinding through, and focusing on price process. That’s what I’m trying to commit to right now. Solid. Cool. All right. Well, let’s get out of here. It is uh Fourth of July eve before our great country’s birthday. Uh, for all the listeners out there, I hope you have a wonderful day, a wonderful weekend. I hope you eat the food that makes you happy. I hope you see the people that makes you happy, and I hope that you are all safe and smart with firework decisions. God bless America. Uh, but just hope everyone has a really good time. It’s a fun part of the year. See loved ones, see friends, see family. Uh, enjoy everything about it. If you’re not in the United States, uh, this is what you’re missing, candidly. So, uh, you know, do better, uh, rest of non-America. Uh, but really, thank you for listening. Thanks for tuning in. As always, if you’re enjoying the show, leave a comment, drop a like, ping us on Discord. We want to hear. We read all of it. Let us know the topics you want to have, whether that’s for this podcast or building links, any guests that you want. Give us all the information. We’ll take that information. We’ll take it under advisement. We’ll make good decisions for you. uh follow, subscribe, and of course next week we got something big coming up. So
yeah, mark your calendars. Eastern Thursday next week.
Yep.
And we just spun the wheel of names. Congrats, Nathan Gilmer. Open a uh ticket in Discord. We will get you your prize. Tune in next week. We’ll have more prizes, more fun stuff going on. Uh thanks for chatting.
Sweet. All right, everybody. Be safe. Be good. Talk.
