Cameron Young finally wins his first PGA Tour Event, handing off the torch of greatest professional golfer without a PGA Tour firmly to Tommy Fleetwood. Charley Hull had some interesting comments on the game of golf today, Ben Griffin on why he didnt use driver at the Wyndham, and the FedEx Cup Playoffs are here! 70 players will tee it up at the St Jude Classic this week, with the top 50 moving on to the semi final event.
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It said big drive energy live on a Wednesday morning. The FedEx Cup playoffs are here. We’re going to be live every Sunday afternoon. Playoffs playoffs as they go down the stretch. We’ve got the FedEx St. Jude Classic this week. We’re going to preview that. We’re going to talk about Cam Young. He finally won on the PGA Tour after everybody was out. He reaches out and pulls everyone right back in. We’re going to talk about Cam Young’s win. We’re also going to talk about Davis Thompson because as we get to these playoffs and these next couple of weeks, I’m sure there’ll be more moments like this, but really unfortunate scenario for Davis Thompson this past weekend. Ben Griffin just deciding to go a whole round without a driver at Sedgefield. Charlie Hull making some interesting comments on the current state of golf and whether or not she watches it. And listening to Charlie Hull talk is um always a treat. just she doesn’t even have to say anything of substance. Mitchell’s going to react to Happy Gilmore, too. I still have not watched it. And we have, as always, on a Wednesday, WTF Wednesday. All right, let’s tee it up. [Music] [Music] big drive energy Wednesday. It’s playoff season. Yay. Yay. Do you know what that means? Football is right around the corner. Football is right around the corner. We’ve got a Denver Broncos game this Saturday. What’s up everybody? I am at Big Drive Spence. We got Big Drive Mitch coming to you from Denver and New Jersey, country to or coast to coast to Midwest, I should say. Um, this podcast just spanning spanning America. So, appreciate you all tuning in. We are part of the Golfer Gang Network. Go check them out. Great golf podcast. We’ll do some stuff with them roundt wise for the RDER Cup. We also have that coming up soon. So, actually, you feel like golf is over when the four majors get over, but then we’ve got three playoff events, really high stakes, obviously going into the tour championship. And then we’ve got the RDER Cup, which should be a banger this year with all of the news and the Keegan Bradley stuff and him potentially playing and who’s going to be on the team and Cam Young finally winning and all that, which we will get into. But first, let’s start with how’s your week going? Um, my son, shameless plug because we love the man BD. My son is currently watching Break 50 with Bryson uh in the living room. He’s got a hand foot and mouth. So, it’s great. Disgusting disease. Like, why the [ __ ] is it named that? I don’t know. It’s It’s really unfortunate, but uh so I’m home with him mostly this week and right now he’s hitting golf balls in the living room and watching Breaking 50 with Bryson Dashambo. and um probably against my better judgment as a parent, but he’s also it it’s the one with John Dailyaly. So So he’s in there locked in on BD and John Dailyaly having a time. Honestly, that one was probably I watched some of that one. I haven’t watched most of them. I watched the uh watched the one with 45 and 47 because that was just captivating no matter how you look at it. Uh, and let me tell you, I mean, we tweeted about that dude’s putting stroke, but it’s just unbelievable. Uh, Spencer’s dogs are barking in the background. He’s got a a real life firefest going on right now. Um, but the one with John Dailyaly was probably I I just wanted a little bit more juice out of John. Uh, and I’ll actually get to that a little bit later in the Happy Gilmore review because I I honestly really enjoyed the new Happy Gilmore movie, but I know a lot of people had a lot of hate in their heart about it. Um, but the but the Bryson Break 50s like that that [ __ ] is legit. That’s kids are going to grow up and be like it’s going to be like a a Tavon Austin high like college highlight reel. You know what I mean? Kids are going to be like, “Have you seen that break 50?” like the kid college kids are going to sit around and drink beers and watch Bryson’s break 50s and like highlights of golf YouTube because that is just kind of what this is what society is turning into which is uh pretty crazy. What I was gonna say is um remember when Rory talked about winning the tour championship and how like he kind of held that as an accolade similar to the majors like that is so Rory uh to dude you something put your dogs outside. I don’t know if you can do that or not but uh yeah it looks like he’s about to make that move. Um, oh, Rory in the Tour Championship absolutely cracks me up. And we’ll kind of get into that a little bit later because Rory is taking a by-week at the FedEx St. Jude. And in all honesty, I don’t blame him because Memphis a Memphis is not a a favorite tour stop, I wouldn’t say, amongst uh a lot of the players. It’s hot as hell. It’s humid. I mean, I know the course is beloved on the PJ tour. I know everybody loves that course, uh, TPC Southwind, but I think the weather, the heat, I think it and they decide these guys, I mean, it’s blasphemy. There’s no real great places to play in America in August, but they’ve got them playing in Memphis, Tennessee, then in Maryland, which Maryland will probably be the best of the three, and then like weatherwise, but then they go to Atlanta in the third week of August. Like I these dudes have just got to be and all these uh pictures have been surfacing of Lucas Glover again just leaking directly out of his [ __ ] Uh just his shirt is soaked, his ass is soaked, his crotch is soaked. It’s it is hell on earth for these guys. So I think that is probably why Rory is skipping the St. Jude. But talk about like arrogance to just skip a playoff event where there’s a $20 million purse. Tell me you tell me you have too much money without telling me you don’t have too much money. Like what where other place is there to point where there’s three playoff events and this dude just skips one of them. Even Scotty’s playing, you know, Scotty is has made twice the money that Rory has this year, I’m sure, at least on the golf course. And he’s still playing in this [ __ ] Yeah. Well, you sent me this over this morning. So, this is from Nuclear Golf and uh PGA Tour player director Peter Malady, which is kind of hilarious. I guess he’s he’s a, you know, by the people for the people type of scenario. You don’t have Scotty Sheffller being the player director, talking about how easy it is to win on the PGA Tour every single week. Um, but Peter Malady said he is quote very concerned that Rory Maroy is able to skip the first playoff event, hinting that a rule change could be on the way in the future to close the loophole. quote, “I think there is stuff in the works and I’ll leave it at that.” So, interesting stuff because, you know, I I don’t know how I feel about this. To me, if you’re in the top 70 and you want to skip the the the St. Jude, now I’m not defending Rory here. I’m never going to be s sitting out here defending Rory Moy about anything. But the the thing I think should have happened, and maybe it did, you’re going to have to clue me in on this. I don’t think so though is now there’s only going to be 69 players in this event. Like if Rory Mroy is not going to play in this, allow I I think it’s ended up being Davis Thompson, which we’ll talk about his absolute debacle on 18 this past weekend. I think let number 71 play in this event. If any of the top 70 guys can’t play in it, you go 71, then 72, and see if they have a chance to jump into the top 50. Because Rory’s taking the risk, he’s not going to drop out of the top, you know, 50 and then 30. But he’s taking the risk of of dropping. No different than if the guy at 49 or 51 this week decided not to play. He’s taking the risk of dropping out and not being able to make it to the BMW next weekend. So, if they’re going to do that and Rory’s going to just skip it or anybody is going to skip it because there there could be a reason, you know, maybe if you’re having a kid or something important, I’m not saying Rory has that, but in in the general scope of things, if you’re looking at it all-encompassing of what these players go through, they should know that they’re supposed to play these next three weeks. Like Rory’s had a couple weeks off since the Open Championship. He should kind of be just ready to play unless there’s some extinuating circumstances on his personal life. But let number 71 play at that point then. That’s just where I stand on the whole debacle. Well, I mean that is that just opens up a whole can of worms because you could have backdoor handshake deals like, “Hey Scotty, you want to take the week off? I’ll sl because it’s all guaranteed money in these fields.” I don’t think that’s what sports are about, bro. Back back door backhand deals. I mean, that’s what sports are built on. It is funny though because Mattie Schmid is the last guy in the field and he is the first guy off tomorrow morning by himself. 7 a.m. te time by himself. He’s probably going to go out and shoot a number. We should probably throw a little action on him cuz you go like I don’t know. There’s just so much less pressure it feels like when you play by yourself. You’re just kind of it’s you and your caddy. You have no other outside noise. you’re just going, you know, out for a [ __ ] loop with your boy. Um, so he could play a good round, but yeah, it is similar. I don’t know. It It’s just an odd thing. And it almost feels like Rory’s trying to stick it to the PJ tour even more. Like he carried their water for these couple years after the whole live debacle and [ __ ] and now he’s just so out that he’s like, I’m not even going to play in one of these playoff events. and it is truly a black eye for the PJ tour to not have a quote unquote star, one of their stars playing in in the playoff event. Um, so it’s just kind of a sticking it to the the PJ tour and Jay Monahan. I mean, really, what is there? I I don’t know what’s when it’s going to stop with Rory, but he’s kind of done an all-time heel turn where he went from wanting to be the PJ Tour’s poster boy to now realizing that like, oh, maybe they were just using me, you know, holy [ __ ] how shocking is that that a a multi-billion dollar corporation would use me as a puppet, you know, to as a mouthpiece to to tell the the general public all this [ __ ] about how high and mighty the PJ tour is compared to Liv. And now I feel like he’s just gone in the complete opposite direction. Doesn’t give a single [ __ ] about anything but really himself. And that is the PJ tour in a nutshell is you’re looking out for yourself constantly. And uh so you know, I get it from Rory’s perspective, but it is it’s more on the PJ tour like how can you allow this to happen type [ __ ] Yeah. And not having uh basically making it mandatory. Well, they kind of tried that with some of the signature events. And when you’re the cool thing about some of the signature events is they travel around and go to different spots. So when you have that, you have these, you know, golf fans that don’t get a ton of they don’t get a consistent tournament every single year like the BMW we had last year where Colorado was just yearning for a professional golf tournament and they got the the BMW championship and all of the top 50 players were there and it was electric. But it would be kind of lame. I mean, the St. Jude is at TPC Southwind every single year, but you expect, you know, 70 player field is awesome because it’s very small. It’s tight-knit. They’re going off in twosomes and uh singles because this [ __ ] decided not to play. But they’re going off in tusums and you can really capture golf and see the best players on the PGA Tour throughout the past three weeks. And now one of the best if not the the second best, top two, definitely two or maybe three. Uh and Rory Maroy is just not teeing it up. So pretty unfortunate for the PGA Tour, but Peter Malady is already ahead of it and and talking about it. So hopefully there maybe there’s some changes and then you get to a point where it’s, you know, everybody’s playing in these events and they just plan them like they would a major championship. You know, that’s kind of how it should be. Yeah. I mean, it’s just never going to carry that same weight that one of the four majors carries. you you could throw any amount of money at it and I think there’s still obviously there’s guys that are very hungry to go out and make more money but these top guys you can’t unless they were you know unless there was the top three dudes went into a their own threesome and just played four days and the winner walked away with like 25 million I don’t think there’s going to be enough money to move the needle for these guys to just get out and and that kind of makes me uh think back to do you remember the shell wonderful world world of golf back in like the 70s and 80s that they did. Not I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I ever watched any of it. Dude, it was the one of the most electric things. Like looking back on it, it was so [ __ ] cool. They would take some of the best players. Like I remember watching one at Pebble Beach with Jack Nicholas, Lee Trevino, and I want to say either Arnold Palmer or Gary Player. And it’s just a money a televised money game between these three where they’re they get a certain amount, a dollar amount per hole that they win. They can gamble. They’re miked up. Like they did this [ __ ] in the 70s and 80s. Where is this now? I feel like that and this was on like national television. I think Shell sponsored it. because they still do reruns on Golf Channel and it kind of makes you wonder why has Golf Channel not uh not and also the Big Break. I mean the Big Break is one of those things too that and I know I’m going off on a little bit of a tangent but I’m just thinking of things that would be some cool non-tour content you know for the PJ tour to do. And apparently The Big Break is I mean The Big Break was one of the best shows of golf shows of all time if not the best golf show. I was tuned into that [ __ ] You and I used to watch that in high school religiously. It was every Monday night. We were tuning into that and we’ve talked about it before on the pod like you know because Tony F now was on it. There’s been multiple people uh you know that are now on the PJ tour that were on it but just an alltime show. Um and where am I going with this? I am not 100% sure. I just was thinking about the Shell wonder for World of Golf which was [ __ ] awesome and they played these sick courses and it was just a big money game. But that’s like stuff that Rory and Scotty and these guys need to do more of. If the PJ tour was smart, um they would make some sort of move like that to do some extracurricular [ __ ] outside of the PJ tour. But I guess when you schedule 35 tour events a year, you don’t have much time to do anything else. So, it kind of makes sense that these guys want their time off, you know, when they’re not playing. Well, they also have the matches like they’ve been doing some of those with other professional athletes and the Aaron Rogers and guys like that. So, I think that’s kind of in the same realm and not necessarily as you know hand old school cash betting like you would say, but like it’s miked up and and they do a lot of cool stuff with that. So, I think they’re on the right track with some of those events, but yeah, just bringing back some of the classics and getting maybe the the older crowd that used to watch that wonderful world of golf back into some of these fun events that are outside of just watching the PGA Tour every single week. And let me let me just say this while we’re at it. How has there not been any sort of live versus PGA Tour? either, you know, whether it’s competitive and actually means something or it’s just a uh what would you call it? A not a scrimmage, um a friendly or whatever. I like a non-competitive. Are you completely forgetting that Brooks and Bryson played against Scotty and Rory? I’m talking about like a Ryder Cup I’m talking like Ryder Cup style like 12v12 like a like a multiple day thing. I think that the golf world is just completely whiffing on not doing that. And I mean, who says no? I mean, if you had to pick a side that would say no to that, who do you think it is, the PJ tour or Liv? Oh, the PGA Tour 100%. because they still think they have this massive TV following, which they do for some events, and they don’t want to kind of partner with Liv, who’s their direct competitor, and give them all of that that access and and that those level of numbers because, as we’ve seen, Liv being on the, you know, USA Today network or whatever the [ __ ] they’re actually on, it’s on FS1 now and FS or FS. Yeah, FS1, whatever. But whatever they’re on, they clearly don’t draw the numbers that the PGA Tour does. So the PGA Tour doesn’t want to just hand them all of that viewership. But either whether they streamed it on both platforms or however they wanted to do it, that a 12v12 PGA Tour verse Live Rider Cup would be probably the most watched event in golf maybe outside of like the Masters every year or just majors in general. Or the Ryder Cup in general, like the actual RDER Cup. It would I think it would do just as good in numbers as the actual RDER Cup cuz real golf fans definitely uh would tune into that [ __ ] Real quick sidebar, I do have to say that FS1 and F like Fox Sports a lot of their daytime TV shows now I would say are far superior to ESPN’s. Like obviously ESPN has fallen off. It’s it needs to be studied. But I actually now I don’t know if I’m becoming a boomer, but I will actively turn on Fox Sports One and watch like the Mark Schlerith. Uh there’s a show with Schlareith and there’s a show with like Shady McCoy and those guys. Th those shows are those talk shows are in my opinion a million times better than Get Up and [ __ ] First Take. Like especially now that Shannon Sharp is out at ESPN, I have no reason to tune into First Take like ever. Yeah, I was just watching First Take and actually as you were saying that just turned it to the herd with Colin Coward on FS1. So I do and I do I I might this might be like the boomer coming out in me, but I do like me some Colin Coward. Like I the hat backwards analogies that other than his hate for Iowa football. Um I do like Colin Coward. And let’s talk about this real quick because we we are Denver sports fans. Um, he has been pumping the Broncos tires along with a lot of other national media. And how do you feel like that’s going to go for us this year? Does it scare the [ __ ] out of you? Terrible. I hate it. I hate everybody talking about how because going into last year it was like, “Oh, the Broncos shouldn’t have drafted Bo Nicks so early and Shawn Payeyton’s in over his head and this team’s got $60 million in dead cap space with Russell Wilson.” What do they do? go out and win 10 games and make the playoffs for the first time in 10 years and finally remove themselves from all of these graphics we have to see of longest playoff droughts in the NFL. And you know, with new ownership, Broncos are kind of getting back to a more storied franchise that we were out at camp last week and they’re building a whole new addition to the uh indoor facility that they’ve got that’s five or six years old. So, they’re doing a lot there. Ownership is incredible. Obviously having the Walton Penner Group and Lewis Hamilton and all these high high popular highly popular names just owning the team is electric. But all this love from national media and K Adams and Diane Rousini and blah blah blah blah blah. Like I hate it. I don’t love it because to me it just sets up for us somehow going six and 11 which I don’t think is going to happen but it just it just terrifies me. I’d rather just them kind of let us fly under the radar and go win 10 games again or 11 games, maybe win a playoff game this year. Take a next take that next step. But I do not like all the national media attention. I I’ll be frank about that. Yeah. I mean, even Diana Rini uh talked I I listened to the Bill Simmons pod the other day with Graini and they were talk they they had like a fiveminute clip about the Broncos and I’ve kind of let myself get back into like when I hear national media talk about the Broncos, I just want to hear it because I want to hear about like good things being said about my team. But she was talking about Bill Parcels back in the day and that’s kind of who taught her. I guess they connected after Parcel’s retired and she learned a lot from him and he always said that the teams that are talked about the most in the preseason are generally the teams that that don’t have it come regular season and end up flaming out. So they actually mentioned that with the Broncos and she was like but I don’t think that’s the case here and you know fingers crossed. I mean I don’t want to go down too much of a Broncos rabbit hole but uh let’s talk a little uh f just real quick fantasy football. How many leagues are you in this year? Jesus Christ, you are [ __ ] all over the map today. Holy [ __ ] I’m just thinking football cuz I was I wanted to mention a little football action before like we’re getting into football season before we dive in to like all this PGA Tour stuff because we did talk about it. But uh we got time today. We got a little extra time. I would Well, I don’t know if you have time. I got a little extra time. Um, I know your kid’s over there just running a muck in the living room doing his thing and I can hear him occasionally yelling, but uh, how many leagues are you in this year? Because this has always been a fascinating thing to me. Like, have you dialed it back or are you still in like seven or eight? I think I’m in four, I want to say. And two of them are with you potentially three of them are with you, maybe. Um, I’m in one with all of our our old work buddies. And then I’m in one with a bunch of my friends from college. And then we’re in our brother’s league. And then I’m in I think I’m in one with uh my wife’s family. And I believe that’s all four. I think there’s Oh, there’s I’m in a work league, too, with my current work people that So, five. Okay. But yeah, and and my strategy every year is the same. I try to draft the same basic core of players, which in some drafts works out well for me because I’m picking guys that I think are actually being undervalued. And then in other drafts, I maybe reach for the same guys to try to get them on my team. But I’m not a big fan of cheering having because when you have so many teams, you got to cheer against your guys in some leagues and then for your guys in some leagues and just hope you score the most points each week. And you always have some [ __ ] Uh, out of those five teams, there’s going to be a few that of mine that are like four and four and 12 or whatever the [ __ ] Four and 15. Um, it’s terrible math. Four and 13. That’s where we’re going. It’s cuz you’re stuck at fantasy football, dude. Um, no. But then I have some teams I had like I think I was in the championship in two different leagues last year. So, I feel pretty good about getting a few teams in there, but it’s generally the same core of players. And so, I like to like to stick to that. But, I do like having a lot of teams. just pisses me off when I’m busy on a Sunday morning working uh my tailgates and then I end up forgetting to like set a lineup and you know that’s it’s just a whole thing. So I I’m trying to stay more on top of it, but I don’t know. Ever since betting became a thing, fantasy football just doesn’t get me as going as much as it used to. And I know you’re you’re the big fantasy nerd and you’re actually pretty good at it. I hate to admit it, but even though every year I look at your team after draft and like, “Oh, that team sucks.” And then you all of a sudden have four running backs that are just tearing it up. But how many fantasy leagues are you in, my boy? Um, I think I’m going to be in exactly four. Oh, he’s sneezing. Um, I think I’m also going to be in four. And I actually inherited a team. Uh, I am in our uncle Chief’s, well, we call him Chief, Chief Roser. Um, his, he bowed out of this league that they’ve been in for 17 years and I get to I got randomly selected because there’s three new teams or three new owners and you have to inherit these three teams because there’s four keepers on each team, which is pretty badass. Um, and so he did Aaron Skeletor, our boy, did a random drawing out of these hats to see who got what team. And I got randomly selected to get Chief’s team, which he’s in a pretty damn good spot. So, let me give you a few of these guys I think I might keep. He has Brian Thomas Jr., he has Bree Hall, he has Oh, who’s the other running back? He um, another very good running back. And then he’s also got DK Metaf. He has Courtland Sutton. Like, I’ve got some choices to make. He’s got some pretty [ __ ] solid guys that I could keep. Who’s the other There’s definitely another RB1. Um, oh my god, I’m losing my mind. I’ll have to look at it. Uh, but overall I I’m pretty stoked about that league because it’s been going for almost 20 years and I’m kind of the the new guy in town and I’m just want to go in there and show my fantasy prowess. Um, which I think I I’m pretty good at, you know, finding value and taking sleepers and all that. But then the other three leagues, uh, like I said, two are with you and then I forget what other one I’m in. Uh, maybe the one with Oliver. I don’t know if he’s doing that again this year, but uh I just love fantasy football. I think it’s so much fun because it’s one of those things. It’s similar to this PGA Tour one and done that we’ve been doing. It’s something that makes you pay attention. Similar to sports betting, but it’s a lot less. It’s it’s all like taking all futures bets, you know what I mean? You you watch the entire season like all your guys on your team, but you’re only, you know, in it for 100 150 bucks or whatever. Um, and then you have the potential to make a little money at the end of the season, but it is truly like a lowrisk, highreward type of scenario that really gets you into the the entire season. So, I know we’re probably going to bring back our pick six as well. Um, and make our our picks on the pod. And I I just I I’m stoked for football, man. Like August, this time till December 31st is my peak season. This is my favorite time of the year. Uh because you have a little bit of summer left. Then you roll into fall, best time of the year by far. Then you got Thanksgiving. You got o you got October which is the best month of the year. You got Halloween. And then you got Christmas. And then you got NBA coming. You got NHL coming. It’s like I have been so lost not being able to watch like any sports on TV. It’s been I’ve been just watching golf literally every single round. The entire round like eight hours of it. whenever I’m home, golf is on because that’s all that’s on right now. So, I don’t I frankly don’t know how the PJ tour ratings aren’t higher. Maybe not everyone’s like a sports crazy sports fanatic like me, but I feel like there’s literally nothing else on TV right now. Yeah, it does feel that way. Um, in the summer and golf really kind of takes center stage in the sports world unless you’re a big baseball fan, but it’s slowly uh creeping out of out of golf season and it about though and talk about tour event in 2025. He is the most cur one of the most curious cases in recent golf history bar none because he’s one of the most talented players ever. Not ever. That’s that’s getting a little crazy in the current PGA Tour. Like if you had to rank the current PGA Tour players by just total talent of hitting the ball and making putts and and make being able to make different golf shots and and just talentwise, ball striking talent-wise, Cam Young’s in the top five or 10 on the entire PGA Tour and still hadn’t won. And every week people were the amount of money people lost. Well, just from the one tweet that you sent me. So if you bet Cam Young every single week to win since he started playing on the PGA Tour about $100, you’d still be down $3,200 on on his entire career even after winning at I believe 60 to1 this week or 66 to1 because he’s just that talented and the money constantly rolls in on him every single week. And I will say uh I’m, you know, I’ve gotten a little bit out of the golf betting. We’re going to have our picks for the FedEx St. Jude. So, I’ve got some picks locked in on the DraftKings account for this weekend coming up. So, I’ll be a little little more locked in, but haven’t bet a ton since the open championship. And Cam Young was always one of those guys that I said if I’m not on him the first week he wins, I’m going to be a little bummed. And now that it’s here, I’m not as bummed out because he just wore me the [ __ ] down. And I was like texting one of our buddies, Tyler, this week. He always texts me. Um, Ziskin always texts me on like Sundays and we talk a little golf and he’s watching the tournament and he goes, “You seem like a Cam Young guy, right?” And I think my response was something to the effect of, “Yeah, I love the dude, but he’s just worn me down. He’s just worn me down over these past five or six years that I just have he’s kind of back burner to me. I’ve kind of forgotten about him and forgotten about caring about him.” And even going into Sunday with a six shot lead, you feel like he was just going to blow it, going to find a way to lose somehow. Yeah. I mean, his scorecard on Sunday was actually pretty wild because he had that six shot lead going into Sunday and then he bogeies one and Etchavaria is right there. There’s a handful of dudes that were right there and you’re like, “Holy [ __ ] is this really happening like this early?” Um, and then he proceeds to rattle off four straight birdies and basically slams the door by the middle of the the front nine. Like there was never really a question. And honestly, I was more This last week was the first week outside of Scotty Sheffller where I was just more caring about who finished second place because I had Matt Fitzpatrick in my in our one and done this week. Um, and he was didn’t have a great Friday. He was hanging around. And then he shot six under on Saturday, so he was at 10. And I’m like, [ __ ] if he can get one more low one, you know, just shoot five or six under, he could possibly finish second place. Um I think he finished like T6 or something like that. But uh Cam Young finally just put his foot down and was like, I am going to take this and own own this golf course. And Sedgefield is known to be like a shorter little more old school track where the greens are just insane. I guess I I was seeing reports that some of their downhill putts at Sedgefield were stimping over 16. Um I think just on flat land they were stimping a 13 and a half to a 14. So talk about [ __ ] insanely fast. Like there was definitely a few times where I was just tracking guys, you know, I was in the car or whatever tracking guys and they have 30 ft for birdie and you know on the PG tour average make from 30 feet like what 5 7% maybe. Um, but these guys I I would like to see the rate of three putts from 30 feet at Sedgefield because some of the places they put these pins this last week were just absurd. And you’ve got guys blowing at five, six, seven feet by and then, you know, you leave yourself a downhiller if you get too aggressive. You’re you’re almost breathing on that like trying to tupt from six feet because you don’t want to blow it by again and have the same exact scenario coming back. So, uh, that is just one of those old school really good courses that I feel like a lot of the tour guys like. And, uh, it was almost kind of surprising that Cam Young I feel like we usually see, uh, a real true ball striker. Not Cam Young is a true ball striker, but he’s not like a very precision guy. Like, obviously, he’s more of a bomb and gouge type of dude. And I was just looking at some of his stats, and they’re actually kind of shocking. Um, but you see like Aaron Ry won it the year before. Um, I know that Web Simpsons won out there. I think Adam Scots played well out there. There’s guys that you just feel like are very precise distance-wise, distance control-wise. Like, this would be a place I feel like Scotty would probably roll at. I mean, there’s not a lot of places that Scotty doesn’t roll. Uh, but it’s just one of those old school spots where distance really doesn’t matter as much. It’s more about where you’re hitting it. uh controlling your distance on the greens, giving yourself uphill looks. So, I feel like that was a good win for Cam Young. Obviously, the the field wasn’t super strong. Um, but I still think this is kind of one of those scenarios similar to like the stock market where Cam Young was kind of, you know, trending down and down and down and down and, you know, nobody’s got eyes on I mean, there’s some sickos that bet him every week. you know, there’s people that are riding him no matter what. But now we’ve seen this little blurp up in the radar and it kind of gets some people’s eyes on it. Like similar to Windham Clark a couple years ago, similar to these guys where you see them break through for their first win and all of a sudden could he rattle off three or four wins, you know, could he? And now I I see people saying that he needs to be on the RDER Cup team and I just do not agree with that. Um he sure won win at Sedgefield, but it there needs to be more emotion coming out of and I I don’t want to just go into the RDER Cup, but if you saw the clip of Cam Young after he hit the winning putt, there was zero emotion involved. Like he is truly people give like Scotty [ __ ] Rory [ __ ] for it just being like a day job. And to Cam Young, I think it is more of a day job. Cam Young is like the Nicole Joic equivalent of PJ Tour players because there’s zero emotion shown. It feels like he couldn’t care less. Obviously Cam Young isn’t anywhere near the the type of quality of player that Nicole Joic is, but there’s just such a lack of emotion. And even he was walking over to sign his scorecard and everybody was trying to give him high fives. Didn’t give a single person a high five. And there was actually this one dude in this like purple hat standing to the left and he sticks out his hand for Knuckles and Cam Young just walks right by him and the dude they get the guy’s face on camera and he just rolls his eyes so hard right after Cam Young walks by and and leaves him hanging on the dap. like Cam Young just doesn’t really get I don’t know if he really cares that much and and for him to even be in the TGL like his personality just isn’t there and I feel like at Beth Paige we need players with personality so I personally don’t have him on that team but yes when he gets it going he is he’s a top 10 talent in the world like just from a ball striking perspective he is he can be a machine to degree yeah and I think you know part of that emotionless state that he was in at at time of winning this event, I think was more of just relief than excitement, you know, because it when you’re supposed to win so many events and he’s had a few 54 hole leads and shot 59s before at the Travelers and and things like that where you know it’s all there. When you can’t win and people are only talking about how much you can’t win, it’s got to feel like a giant monkey off his back to finally just win. he was like could take a deep breath and there was surprisingly a lot of um like some kind of some hate from people uh about where he grew up and I think it’s maybe because I don’t know I I can’t figure it out because it’s he seems like the guy that everybody obviously thought was talented knows is talented and just couldn’t win on the PGA Tour. So usually those guys are more celebrated. But the tweet from uh Kyle Porter, they did a little blip on the um on the broadcast over to Sleepy Hollow where if you guys didn’t know, Cam Young grew up at Sleepy Hollow. His dad was the PGA Pro there. That’s in New York. And it was a picture of like the watch party. And at this watch party, uh they started a party at the pool pavilion bar right at his 1:55 p.m. tea time. $ three drinks for every birdie, free drinks for an eagle, an open bar for an hour when he wins, and then he goes on to bogey the first hole. Everybody’s probably tight tight lip, tight butthole at that point, cheering for him. And then he rattles off five birdies in a row and lead was leading by nine. So that that whole place was probably pretty tatered by that point. And then uh Kyle Porter took a screenshot of it and said, “Cool to see those involved in Cam’s hard scrabble upbringing coming together for his first victory.” And I feel like a lot of people like some of the replies he said it’s a joke. Um but a lot of people’s replies were just like um the hard streets of Sleepy Hollow, hard scrabble for [ __ ] sake. Uh come on Kyle, you can’t help where you’re from, etc. But what it was really playing off of was Cam Young, some reporter asked him, they said, “Uh, Cameron, a Ford Prep School in the Bronx isn’t especially known for producing professional golfers, maybe more basketball players. Can you talk a little bit about maybe an improbable journey from the streets of New York somewhat too? Granted, you went to Wake Forest, but the links of St. Andrews, it doesn’t happen every day.” And Cam Young’s answer, I think the streets of New York is probably a stretch. Forom Prep is on Forom University campus. It’s beautiful. And I lived at Sleepy Hollow Country Club where my dad’s the head pro. I lived on the lower course out there. I took the train to school, but I also took the train back home to go practice. Might sound a little improbable, but I’ve been around golf my whole life. That’s kind of just what I do. And it is kind of funny when you get, you know, every week on the PGA tour when there’s a winner that’s maybe not a guy that, you know, the Scotties or the Rories that everybody knows, they always kind of drum up these stories and trying to say that he’s from the Bronx of New York when he lives probably on the 17th hole of Sleepy Hollow when his dad’s a head pro, which being a head pro isn’t the most glamorous job in the world. We’ve both done it. I was going to say I I think that we can both attest that if your dad’s a head pro, no matter where it is, you’re not, you know, you’re not making millions of dollars unless you’re teaching tour pros, you know what I mean? I if he’s just a head pro at any club, which Sleepy Hollow is probably one of the most prestigious clubs um in the the New York area, but it’s still I mean, you know, the guy’s probably making $1500, $200,000. And don’t get me wrong, that’s very very good money, but it’s not, you know, Maverick McNeel’s dad is worth billions of dollars. They live in a $70 million house on Pebble Beach. When the [ __ ] do you hear? He flies his own plane to golf tournaments. Like when do you hear them talking about Maverick McNeely’s uh you know silver spoon glow up story? Like I honestly I the more that I hear Cam Young talk I think he would low-key be one of the best guys to have a beer with on the PJ tour because he’s probably that real dry like witty dude that probably his boys probably love him. He probably talks great [ __ ] He’s probably just like that dude that is so sick of the just the pageantry of the PJ tour and just wants to go out there and play golf. And he is also, it is actively funny to me that he him and Peter Malady, ironically enough, are two dudes that are sponsored by the MLB. Like why does you know in what other world can you be sponsored by another sport play like another professional sports organization or sports league for that matter? Like it is just the weirdest thing to see him walking around with an MLB hat on. And he truly does feel like he is really the only guy and maybe it’s the MLB logo thing that kind of infers this, but he is the only dude on the PJ tour where I’m like that looks like a baseball player. like just his build, his his lettuce coming out of the back of his hat. I’m like, “This dude could be the third baseman on the [ __ ] San Francisco Giants or something.” You know what I mean? It just he does not look like a golfer to me, but I bet he is low-key one of the most fun dudes. Not not to other PJ tour guys. He probably doesn’t hang around a lot of circles on the PJ tour, but I bet his boys back home in New York and a lot of his like country club buddies, I bet they have a [ __ ] ball. Oh, 100%. 100%. And they uh you know, just the the his demeanor I love. He’s like a a little more gruff kind of Scotty Sheffler. It seems like the emotionless or less emotion than you would see from some PGA Tour players, but also like you mentioned, doesn’t really look like a PGA Tour player. He’s got the the MLB up here on his collar of a shirt and and just hits the ball a long way. It kind of feels like a like an old school golfer, just like a grind it out type of guy. Get it around hat coming out of the He’s like your, you know, 35year-old that’s playing to a two handicap at your local club where you’re like, ah, this guy’s seen some [ __ ] but he, you know, he gets it around and [ __ ] obviously Cam’s just super talented. I also want to talk about a few other things from Sedgefield this weekend that we mentioned earlier. One of the biggest stories uh was of Davis Thompson of course finished 71st on the official top 70 list and really I was just looking at this 70 to 80 is pretty strong I feel like so we’ve got se well 71 to 80 I should say we got Davis Thompson at 71 Gary Woodland at 72 Nikolai Hoygard Ben an Keith Mitchell Christian Bazudenhoy Mark Hubard Kevin Roy Alex Smallley and then Eric Cole at 80 um who hasn’t had the the year obviously that he had the past couple of years but kind of insane to see those guys and that all missed out but Davis Thompson by far the most heartbreaking because I want to say it was on 14 or 15 and what’s really fun about these PGA Tour events is you know especially this past week at Sedgefield and then these next upcoming weeks with you know exactly how many players are moving on watching the number move as they go and they’ll PJ Tour does actually a pretty good job of the graphics picks of, you know, on hole one they start at 74th place and then they move up to 71 and then they move back down to 72 with a bogey, move up to 69 with a birdie. Just kind of moves all around. But I believe he made like a 40 or 50 footer for birdie on sometime on the back nine to get himself into the top 70 and then ends up three-whacking the last hole, the 72nd hole of the event to drop himself just out of the top 70. And while that’s a great story for a forementioned Mattie Schmid, a guy like Davis Thompson, you just have to be sick to your stomach about finishing that way and costing yourself not only a potential like he’s still going to have his tour card next year, but costing yourself a chance at moving up in the playoffs and playing three more weeks and now having to go to the fall series and all of those those kind of opportunities that you missed by one three putt. Yeah, I mean it is like a devastating thing and to watch him do it, it was almost kind of funny because, you know, I want to separate the art from the artist here, but I have heard he’s like one of the biggest [ __ ] on the PJ tour. And I would say Davis Thompson’s got a top five punchable face out there as well. He just always has like a scowl. He never looks like he’s happy. And even when he’s smiling, it looks like it’s like this evil smile. He just doesn’t look very genuine to me whatsoever. He looks very like southern [ __ ] type of dude. Um, but the first putty hit wasn’t even I mean it kind of scared the hole, but it was like eight or nine feet by like it wasn’t even close. And then the second putt he hit really wasn’t close either. It didn’t even touch the hole. So I can only imagine for him it was a devastating thing. Obviously to miss the playoffs is huge. When you’re in in that point in your PJ tour career, you’re not going to see guys like Davis Thompson skipping the FedEx St. Jude. Obviously it’s a joke because he didn’t even make it there. Uh but guys like that, you know, to the opportunity to play for $20 million, that’s basically you’re getting into three signature events. If you can qualify for each one, you’re guaranteeing yourself some sort I think they’re no cut events. Um I think it’s just where you rank at the end of um you know, each one. So they I think they all make money. If you make the FedEx Cup playoffs, you’re making money even if you finish DFL. Uh, but I actually want to go in a little bit of a different direction because you mentioned Mark Huard and we’ve had him on the pod. He’s he’s just an all-time legendary like middle mid-level tour pro that never gets talked about and is out making a couple million bucks a year. He was so close to getting his tour card. And I feel like every week, not every week, but on like at the Rocket Mortgage at um the 3M, I feel like he’s had so many really solid weeks. And I have no idea how he’s not in the top 70. And I was like, dude, it feels like this guy just has is one bad round a week away from being, you know, a top 30, top 40 guy on the PJ tour. And I actually just looked up the stats and this is vindicating exactly what I thought. Mark Hubard’s first round scoring average is ranked 80th on tour. His second round scoring average is ranked 35th on tour. Uh his fourth round scoring average is ranked 31st on tour. Now guess what? His third round scoring average is ranked on PJ tour. 110th 125th. So he is the Saturday not a big Saturday guy. Saturdays are for the boys, not for golf apparently. Maybe he goes out and has a few too many pops when he makes the cut because I mean this year he he made 16 cuts in 24 events. Like I feel like that’s kind of hard to not make the top 70 on the PGA Tour when you make twothirds of the cuts. Um and he only ended up making, you know, only is a relative term, but he ended up making $1.65 million this year and he made 16 cuts. So that is, you know, that feels a little bit low. Um, but I just w I hope that Hubs next year can turn around these Saturday rounds because he got it going again on Sunday. He finished T3 um at Sedgefield and I was like, how did he get I think he started Saturday at 12 under and then he I didn’t wasn’t really keeping track that much and then he starts Sunday at eight under. I’m like, the dude [ __ ] you know, all these guys are making moves on Saturday, shooting five, six under, and he’s going four in the opposite direction and then still ends up finishing T3. Like, he even shoots, you know, a couple under on Saturday. He’s got a legit, he’s probably one of the only guys that has a legit shot at catching Cam Young. And that’s kind of like a um a sliding doors moment or a uh butterfly effect. you know, if he shoots a couple under on Saturday and is in the final group, then does he have that great round on Sunday? But I’m just really hoping that uh Hubs can turn around those Saturday rounds because I would love to see him like he is truly electric to watch. He’s he’s a funny dude. Um and I would just love to see him competing inside of the uh the top 70 and getting into the playoffs. Real quick, I want to mention this because we have not talked about this. Yep. Brian Winhorse fingers. Um, and I don’t know why I was thinking I don’t know. I was thinking Rob I was thinking Cam Young and then I was thinking Robert Garagus. I know that’s a late that’s an old poll for anybody that uh has watched golf for 15 years. He was probably the longest player on tour in like 2009. Um, just something that came to the top of my head. But remember when he used to putt with like a 28 inch putter? No, I don’t remember that. But I know that that one guy on the DP World Tour went pretty viral this past week putting with a the short flat stick. I would love that for my 4-footers. Dude, he was putting he putts with an 18inch putter, which is the shortest possible putter you can use by regulation. And the guy was make he there’s videos of him making 30footers. Like why haven’t more people done this? You know, you go to the broomstick. I I personally I know I’m a shorter guy relatively speaking, but I love like bearing down and really getting low on a four to five footer. You know, you [ __ ] choke down to the metal on that puppy and you just feel like you have so much more control. Why have more guys that have the yips or whatever that everybody goes long? Why has haven’t guys gone short? Like is could this be the beginning of a fad of super short putters? Because I remember when I [ __ ] up my that one Odyssey putter and I cut it down to like 27 in and I w even I was like bent over like Michelle Wi. I feel like I caught a ton of [ __ ] for that. And I will say it is pretty hard on lag putts. Like imagine you got a 60footer and you got 18 inches in your hand. Um not familiar with that either, but it has got to be very hard to get the speed correct when you have that short of a putter on that long of putts. inside five feet. I feel like I would be [ __ ] auto. It you just are standing directly over it. It almost feels like a cheat code. Maybe get we could create a putter and make it for formable to the USGA where it’s like um you know one of those like scooters where it has the three little dots and then you can you can take the extendo putter. Yeah. You can extend it up to like 36 inches and then it has like a 24 and an 18 and maybe we’ll create something like that where because I feel like I would from six feet and out I probably want a little bit longer putter but anything inside of six feet I’d be down taking it all the way down to [ __ ] 18 inches and just rolling it in. Oh 100%. Well and to bring this full circle just to let you know how my mind works. Have you ever seen Mattie Schmid putt? No. because he he’s a broomstick dude and I’ve never seen somebody more visibly anchor their putter and never get penalized for it. The dude’s clearly got it stuck straight into his chest. And maybe maybe this first round at the St. Jude will bring that to light cuz he’s playing by himself. He’s the first guy off. But I swear to God, every time I watch that guy putt, his left hand is [ __ ] in his clavicle, just stuck there. I’m like, that is in no [ __ ] country is that legal in professional golf, but he just somehow keeps getting away with it. So, yeah, I I would prefer short putter over long putter any day of the week. Probably more of more of my stature, but uh it just it truly does feel like a cheat code. You go short putter. Yeah, I go short putter. And apparently a cheat code this past week for Ben Griffin was to go no driver. We’ve got a interview, a little quick uh snippet from Ben Griffin’s interview after his round on why he didn’t hit driver once uh in I believe Saturday’s round at Sedgefield. Let’s talk strategy. You didn’t you used driver only once out there today. Why did you take the driver out of your hand? Uh the wind was uh really challenging out there. It was uh swirling a lot. It was supposed to be from the southwest and it it felt like it was a new direction every like two or three holes. Um because of that, I knew driver uh on a lot of these holes and kind of get above the tree line and um it’s obviously a tighter golf course and it’s more of a positional uh position golf course and I felt like the risk wasn’t worth the reward on a lot of the the par4s hitting it off the tea. Um even the par five like 15 um you know driver was bringing that bunker into play. I hit three off the te I still four in the par five. So um fortunately for me I’m hitting my 3-wood pretty far too. It’s going about 300 yards. So I can uh I can take advantage of the fact that I don’t have to hit driver on every hole. But um yeah, usually in most years I probably hit, you know, five, six, seven drivers on a round and today for some reason the way the the pins were were located and kind of the the numbers I wanted into the greens felt like I didn’t need to hit driver on a lot of holes and um yeah uh only had the one bogey on 17. So obviously it wasn’t too bad of a strategy but need to be a little bit more aggressive tomorrow. And that’s just interesting from his perspective and and the golf perspective in general because I remember uh back in our days of high school, I played I was trying to like hone my game in. So I played an entire round from the tips, just nine holes with just irons. Didn’t allow myself to use a driver even hybrid. And so I was hitting believe I had four or five iron in the bag off the TE’s on par fives and I shot even par. And it’s just the intricacies of golf to where you it doesn’t feel like it it feels like it’s going to hurt you a ton, but then you actually go play and just like when I played in in Mexico this past May and my driver got snapped on the way down there and I’m hitting hybrid. I was still one under on the par fives throughout that entire course. I don’t I won’t say how many over I was on the other holes, but on the par fives I was one under in four of them hitting hybrid off the tee. So, it kind of makes you think and it’s tough because it’s so fun to hit driver and when you hit it really good and you have 40 yards into a hole or 60 yards in, you can flip a wedge up there. You feel like you got a really good shot at making birdie. But for a PGA Tour player to go an entire round without a driver in 2025 seems like complete blasphemy. Yeah. And I mean, I think all statistics would point Ben Griffin in the other direction, but that is kind of the beauty of golf. That is the beauty of all these sports and all these sports analyst nerds out there that have their spreadsheets and their numbers and this gives you the best probability here and all these stat heads like at the end of the day it comes down to feel for a guy and if he feels like he’s striping 3-wood and he’s hitting it much straighter than driver. Um and you know tour level guys they’re still getting 3-wood I’m sure he’s still hitting 3-wood 260 270. Um, so he’s getting it out there with plenty of distance. And if he feels like it’s putting him in a a better position to, you know, make a number from the fairway, then I don’t blame the guy. But I know that there’s a lot of people that would disagree with that. And I personally don’t have that luxury. I have to hit driver pretty much everywhere I can just to try to give myself more looks at uh, you know, making a birdie or or getting on a par five and two. But to have that kind of uh champagne problem of, oh, I don’t feel like I can hit driver cuz it it goes too high and too far. I I don’t think there’s a lot of guys that can relate to that. So, and I will say that we’ll get into the FedEx St. Jude, but Sedgefield and uh and TPC Southwind are relatively similar in the fact of it feels like the same kind of player wins there. Like I think we’ve seen Lucas Glover win at Sedgefield and I think well we’ve obviously also seen him win at TPC Southwind. It’s just a very much a ball striker golf course where you got to control your distance, you got to hit numbers um and you got to make a few putts, but it’s uh those golf courses are are great for the PJ tour. We don’t need a thousand Oh, and this kind of gets into Charlie Hull’s comments. We don’t need any more 8,000 yard golf courses where you can hit it all over God’s green earth and just go find it and hit it again. Like there there has to be some sort of precision out there on the on the LPJ tour, the PJ tour, you name it. Uh they they have to have a good mix of these courses in with the the bomb and gouge [ __ ] 8,7600 yard golf courses. 100%. So that leads us into Charlie Hull. We got a little clip here of Charlie Hull talking about uh if she watches current golf and what the current state of golf is like as a product compared to back in like the 70s8s. Could you imagine yourself in the late 1860s playing golf with little feathery balls and things like that? I’d love that. I think it’ll be so much fun. I think I think to be fair I think golf back 20 30 years ago like say 19 up to like like 2000s it was more of an art like you the players like even the men would have to hit draws and fades to stop it in but I think where now it’s become more of a power game and where it’s become the technologies advanced so much everyone just couldn’t hit it straight and far and it’s kind of taken the art away from it like whenever I watch golf I watch you know Shell’s wonderful world of golf and all that lot you know or like who won the British Open in like 1970s and that I find it found it way more interesting back then. Like I wouldn’t watch golf now really. So interesting to hear from her. That’s my girl right there. Shell’s wonderful Walder Golf. I just love Charlie Hole even more now. That [ __ ] fires me up. 100%. I can listen to her talk uh anytime. But the Was she talking? Is that Oh, she said something. Uh no, the I think Do you think though like do you think that’s different now? The LPGA Tour is very different than the PGA Tour in terms of most of the LPGA Tour is people that were born in America, but they’re not h that’s kind of [ __ ] up to say. How do I say this properly? They’re they’re not like there’s not a lot of American players for American fans to relate to on the LPJ tour. Correct. And so does Charlie Hull being from across the pond, does that change you does that change your do you think that changes her view of the game versus a girl growing up in Texas or Colorado and how the game is played from, you know, American golf, if you will? Do you think it’s it’s a little different for her because she is from Europe and not not from America? Yeah, I mean I think in general Europeans view golf in a different way. They grew up with Seviest. They grew up with these these dudes that were famous for getting up and down out of a paper bag, for working balls right and left and and really truly like I know it sounds corny, but the game was more artistic than and I still think that a lot of Europeans view the game as that. And this American version of golf, it’s similar to like everything else. It’s just bigger and louder and um not as you know creative, I guess you could say. It’s it’s our golf is like the American suburbs. It just is [ __ ] boring and efficient and it’s there and it makes money, but it’s it’s nothing like spectacular to look at. You know what I mean? And I I honestly do feel the exact same way. and we talk golf all the time and talk on a golf podcast, but I would have loved to have watched, you know, golf back in the 80s and the 90s and and watched these guys really have to hit numbers and carve a five iron around a tree and it how rare is it anymore to see a guy on a par4 on the PJ tour with long iron in his hand on the approach shot? It is truly just really not a thing. Like other than like the Brian Harmons and guys that just don’t hit it out of their own shadow. It’s not Yeah. It’s not something that you’re used to seeing like driver wedge, driver pitching wedge, driver 9 iron, you know, par five, or even driver four or five iron, seven iron. Like it’s it’s just insane how distance has kind of taken over the game. And then as you said with the whole Ben Griffin scenario, the stats bore that out and and help show that that makes golf easier if you will. If you can hit driver f the further you hit it, the closer you are to the green, the better shot you have of getting it on the green, the better shot you have of getting it closer to the hole, the better shot you have a birdie, all those stats. And and it’s not saying it’s ruining the game, but it’s just different. Like golf is different now than it was 40 years ago. And most sports are kind of like that. But I feel like golf in general, you know, you can’t change the equipment that much in football. I mean, they went from leather helmets to legit helmets and they have shoulder pads and all this stuff, but like in other sports, you know, the torpedo bats were a thing a little bit this year. And in baseball, like it it’s it’s borderline like if you related it to baseball, it’s borderline taking wood bats and allowing the MLB players to use metal bats. That’s essentially what technology has done for the game of golf over the past 40ish 50 years. Yeah. No, I I totally agree. And the more you think about like the ball roll back, I was so against it, but now I I honestly have kind of turned heel and I think I not turned heel, just changed my opinion on the uh the roll back situation. But the only tough thing is with the ball roll back is it’s obviously the old saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I’ve heard that rolling back the ball, it only magn and I guess it it kind of makes sense in my dumb pea brain head that rolling the ball back would only hurt the shorter players more because it creates more of a gap in speed and distance because I I and I don’t need to extrapolate out all the [ __ ] math for you, but I think it would end up hurting shorter players even more because they’re going to hit it much shorter. Um, and the percentage that uh the the big guys are going to hit it shorter is probably around the same, but they’re not they’re losing a little bit more, but they still have such an advantage distance-wise that uh no matter what you do, it’s still going to the the longer players are always going to have the advantage. Like this one guy I’ve been teaching now for the last like month and a half, um he’s my [ __ ] boy. I I really do enjoy this guy and he’s like in his mid30s just a uh you know pretty athletic dude pretty like takes care of his body but he came to me and he was you know slicing at 60 70 80 yards. We straightened that out. We got everything in line there and now he feels like his game has improved a bunch. But we were just on the the Trackman last night. His driver club head speed is 123 miles an hour and he’s just a a run-of-the-mill dude. Yeah. And his mid like I I was telling him and I I don’t think he understood the magnitude of it, but I’m like he had these driver numbers that his path was like two degrees left. His club face was one degree open. and his driver, he’s got an old school Callaway XR, like from probably seven or eight years ago with like a stiff shaft that doesn’t really feel stiff. And he was hitting it 290 yards with like 4600 re uh revs of spin. And I’m like, dude, I don’t think you understand. Like, so his next step now, I’m uh going to try to get him set up with a new Callaway driver with an extra stiff shaft in it. But I’m like, there is probably half of the PGA Tour that would pay you a million dollars for those driver numbers. Like, and I’m not [ __ ] you. It’s the people who hit it the longest have the highest ceiling no matter how you slice it. And I was like I was like I know this sounds dumb because I’m teaching you and you’re you know trying to break 90 right now which is kind of insane but I’m like you have a higher ceiling technically in this game than I do you know and you don’t have necessarily he’s got a family he’s got kids he’s got a job and [ __ ] He may never reach anywhere near that potential, but he’s got that ability strictly because of how hard he hits it to like he’s hitting seven iron 190 yards of sea level. That is just something that you do not [ __ ] see. And there’s some people that are built with that kind of speed and it’s [ __ ] it it truly like even though I’m teaching him and he’s paying me, I sit back and I’m just like, I don’t think you understand the magnitude of how good these numbers are and how insane this [ __ ] is. Um, and I was just I was thinking about that because I wanted to talk about that on the pot as well. But the dudes who swing it faster are always going to have the advantage. That is just golf in general. So maybe I just convinced myself they don’t need to roll back the ball because no matter what the law what you need to do is make golf courses hard again. You need to [ __ ] keep the trees on the golf courses. Look at I mean these couple events at Sedgefield and and TPC Southwind and you go to Hilton Head. Those are golf courses where it truly does minimize the advantage for the longer players because they still have to hit the fairways. They still have to keep it on this side of the fairway. They still have to, you know, hit this side of the green. And I think there’s just too many golf courses. I think that is where we’ve gone wrong is the architecture of golf courses have just gone straight down the toilet. Yeah. Instead of defending the distance with trees or placed bunkers or things like that, they’re defending the distance with just, hey, let’s add, you know, f five different tea boxes that are 100 yards back and further up um and further into the trees where guys can hit it in the same spot they would from up here as a normal amateur would hit it. you know, it’s just it’s just taking and and then they’re normal amateurs hitting, you know, seven iron from 160 165 and a PGA Tour Pro sometimes are pulling out gap wedge from that same distance. So, you know, it’s it’s flattening the field, but instead of adding more distance to these courses, let’s keep the trees. You know, there was I think we showed it a couple weeks ago, but the difference of uh the open was it the open championship golf course maybe where or one of or maybe the US Open, one of the golf courses they played where it looks like a completely different golf course from the 1970s or 80s to now because they just took a bunch of trees out and let these guys just bomb it over, you know, ex dog leg or do whatever they wanted to do versus defending with wellplaced bunkers and runouts and thicker rough, you know, And it’s just playing to the amateur side, but also if you’reo hosting a PGA tour event, I hope you know those courses can just be better. Just be better at golf courses. 100%. Talking about being better, let’s uh I have not watched it, so I’m going to give you the floor. Let just give me your quick minute rundown on the Happy Gilmore 2 because I am going to watch it. So, no spoilers. Um, but just give me a quick rundown. It’s gotten a lot of hate on Twitter or X the everything app, but I feel like a sequel of almost anything is never going to be as good. But I there is a lot of star power in it. I mean, Adam Sandler went all out, put his own wife in it, his own kids. So, I think from what I’ve heard, it’s it’s actually a decent movie, but when it’s being compared to the original Happy Gilmore, I think you’re kind of starting, you know, 10 yards behind in a race already. Yeah. I mean, it was like when they put out like the second Sand Lot or, you know, any of those classics from the 80s or 90s and uh then they get remade. It’s it never feels like it’s going to have that, you know, it’s not the original. It’s like the stepdad. You can come in, you can be cool, but you’re never going to be the the real thing, you know, unfortunately. Um, but I honestly thought it was funny. Like, there was a few parts that I legitimately laughed out loud at. So, I thought it was a very good movie. Everyone, that is a top five least favorite person of mine is people that watch movies and all of a sudden they’re a [ __ ] Rotten Tomatoes movie, you know? It’s basic. It’s right up there with restaurant um [ __ ] reviewers. Like, people just somehow think that they’re the authority on what’s a good movie and what’s not. I honestly enjoyed Adam Sandler in that movie. He does like they they show him like being an alcoholic because his you know I don’t want to get into it but and and the John Dailyaly parts are [ __ ] hilarious. J D is a legend in that. Um and he’s kind of in the entire movie. He’s one of the few cameos that’s not really a cameo. He’s kind of there the whole time. Um but I mean there was a few parts that I wasn’t a huge fan of, but overall I thought it was [ __ ] hilarious. Like it, you know, I’m sure their budget was huge for this thing. They obviously paid hundreds of people, hundreds of famous people to be in it, but uh I just don’t understand all the hate for it. I just I really did enjoy it and I would watch it again. I mean the I will say the golf part of it was probably the worst part, but obviously so was the [ __ ] first Happy Gilmore. This dude is standing in a batting cage taking baseballs off the chest getting ready for next year’s hockey practice and all of a sudden he’s on the PGA tour. Like the golf part is not the part of the movie that is supposed, you know, golf is just a sideshow of of the movie. So people getting pissed off about the golf aspect of it and whatever. It was just people are think think they’re think a little bit too much of their opinion in my opinion. Let’s put it that way. Oh yeah. People love to um tout themselves, smell their own farts, basically. Yeah. And and there’s nothing wrong with having your opinion and saying I didn’t I didn’t like the movie, but going out and saying that was a bad movie is just a different way to put it. But it’s not it’s acting like you’re the authority on that topic. I’m actually excited to watch it. I think uh I I have a mostly free night this evening and Friday evening. So I think I’ll I’ll sit down and see if if Sawyer wants to watch maybe if he sees some golf swings, he’ll be pretty dialed into it. He somehow has in the living room changed his changed the show to trash truck. He found Netflix somehow got off of YouTube and changed it to trash truck and then turned the volume way too high. So I had to go in there and remedy that situation. But uh all right, let’s before we get to um well no I guess we’ll just let’s just hop into the St. Jude Classic, which is funny that it’s now a playoff event cuz I feel like it was always kind of just one of those it I don’t know when it changed to a playoff event. Maybe three, four years ago. Um, down in Memphis, Tennessee, TBC Southwind, one of the better golf courses on tour. Kind of ironic that it’s in Memphis, Tennessee. But first playoff event, top 70 players, as you know, the top 50. We’ll move on to next week’s championship. But let’s do a little preview of the golf course down at TBC Southwind and then we’ll give our big bet energy picks. And remember, if you’re watching this live show on a Wednesday or whenever you’re watching it, we’ll be back live on Sunday. Uh we’ll see when the tea times are, but as the leaders are coming down the stretch on Sunday afternoon at this playoff event, we’ll be live for that, kind of reacting to it as we watch it. Hopefully, it’s a intense tournament. We’ve gotten kind of a few stinkers the last couple of live sh live Sunday shows we’ve done. That’s a tongue twister, but uh let’s talk a little bit about TBC Southwind and then get into our picks. Yeah, for sure. I was actually just looking at the uh the weather forecast in Memphis because I think that definitely has something to do with it. And I think they’re This is one of those events where guys are actually going to have to fight the heat because it heat can like take down your golf game. at least in my humble opinion. Uh cuz I’ve been taken out by the heat before. It’s [ __ ] like you’re battling uh Muhammad Ali out there basically. But so Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, all highs of 91 or 92. And it says today it’s 82 right now. And it says it feels like 88 because of the humidity. And it’s not even noon yet. Um, so I assume once it gets up into the 91, 92, it’s probably going to feel more like 100 degrees out there for these guys, which is just brutal that southern heat, especially if you have no like you pray for wind on these days. I think these guys would prefer to have some wind just to have a little air flow out there because it’s uh that humidity is absolutely brutal. But this golf course, quick rundown, it’s uh 72, a little over 7,200 yards, par 70, which is a little lame. Um, but let’s see here. The par uh there’s one par five on the front nine. It sounds like there’s only two fives. Um, or it sounds like there’s Yes, there’s two par fives and uh one is 580 yards. The other one is uh 530 yards. So, the finishing sequence at this course kind of looks like uh it could have some fireworks relatively speaking because you have 15 which is 395 pretty short par4 relatively speaking for those guys out on tour and then you’ve got a 530 yard par five 16th and then you go to 17 and it’s a 500 yard par4 and then 18 is a 450 yard par4. So, a couple of hard finishers, but a couple holes before that you feel like you can make a couple birdies. This is truly just a precision golf course. Not super long holes, pretty narrow greens. I actually played with a dude years ago that Monday qualified for the FedEx St. Jude before it was a a signature event, obviously, like 20 years ago. And he said, “I’ve never played a harder golf course in my life.” Like, he said, “These pins were just in [ __ ] impossible spots. They tricked this place up. they make it so hard and that’s that’s what you got to do when you’re 7200 yard golf course, you know, in 2025. So, I think it is going to be challenging, but it is a true ball striker golf course. Um there’s a few there’s a lot of water hazards out there quite a bit um that they’re going to be dealing with. I want to say uh yes, 18 there’s water up the entire left side of the golf course. So, I think was it Hideki that won it here last year? It was Hideki and then the year before that was Lucas Glover. I believe that is correct. Yes. Yes. So, it’s definitely not your typical uh bomb it out there. And realistically, I mean, every course fits Scotty, but this is truly like a Scotty golf course. And it’s more just like a a battle for second place. But let’s get into our picks because I want to hear who you got. Um, and then there’s a few guys on the cutting room floor for that I could greatly regret, so I just want to say their names. All right, we are going to get into our big bed energy picks for the week. Layoffs are here for the PGA Tour. And here’s what we’ve got. We’ve got a beauty. Uh, I don’t know why I’m doing this really. Uh, I’m taking Elmer’s glue, Patrick Kentlay, to win this tournament. He’s had a few decent finishes here. Uh it feels like he’s had a really quiet year on tour. He still probably will be in the RDER Cup. Maybe I I don’t know. Maybe not. Another guy that just should not be on that team. Yeah, but he’s plus 3500 to win it this week. Uh Russell Henley, uh a guy that I’ve rode a few times this year to no avail. So, I’m hopping back on the Russell Henley horse. He’s plus 450 to top five. Obviously, as you guys see these odds and you’ve seen odds for uh tournaments in the past with only 70 players, the odds are pretty slim pickings. you’re not getting great odds on a lot of players to top five or top 10. Uh you’re still getting good odds on them to win because the fields are so stacked. But I think Russell Henley, like you said, it’s precision golf course. He’s just a grinder. I don’t expect him to be even in the conversation like Friday night. You’ll he’ll be like 10 shots back of the leader, but then he’ll grind out a 66 on Saturday and like a 65 on Sunday and all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, he’s done.” And there’s like 10 20 players left on the course and he’s like, “Oh, [ __ ] Russell Henley up there in the top five.” So that’s what I’ve got this week. Patrick Kentley to win at plus 3500. Russell Henley to top five at at plus450. All right, I like that. I I’m rolling with Victor Havlin this week. I really do think that this is a course that suits him. He finished tied for second here last year with Xander Schoffé who I was in between these two dudes picking them in my one and done. Um but I think Victor has a week this week. He loves this golf course. Although I will say the majority of the holes out here, I think it’s it the the it’s not a very straight golf course. There’s plenty of dog legs um throughout I I don’t think there’s hardly a a single par4 that’s like straight away or maybe like one or two of them. But uh Victor Havlin, the only thing working against him is he is a strict fader of the golf ball. But other than that, he’s played well here. He finished like T13 two years ago. So I feel really good about where Victor’s at. He won this year down in um Tampa at the event that I was at. That is one of the ball strikers golf courses on the PGA Tour as well. I would actually say that these two courses are are fairly similar, the Copperhead uh course at Inisbrook and this course at the FedEx St. Jude. And he played his college golf at Oklahoma. He’s used to that [ __ ] crazy heat in the middle of the summer. Oklahoma State in the state of Oklahoma. Um, but I think he’s kind of a guy that’ll be able to handle the heat and hopefully as outlast the field because that is my guy that I’m rolling with. And then I’ve got uh to top 10 I’ve got Sam Stevens. Kind of a a you know off the-beaten path type of pick, but plus 500 to top 10. He’s top uh he’s 53rd in total strokes gained. His approach game is really the only aspect of his game that is not very strong, but he’s 37th in strokes getting off the tea. And he’s top 30 in scrambling. And if you’re going to miss Greens out here, you got to get it up and down. He’s been he’s been one of the best ball strikers that nobody’s talked about on the PJ tour now for multiple years. Uh and he’s from Tennessee, so I think he definitely has a little bit of that advantage knowing the humidity playing out in it. Um, I think people do truly underestimate like the mental battle that it takes to play in this kind of heat. So, I do expect Sam Stevens to have a solid week. So, he’ll probably miss the cut, finish the NFL. Well, there’s no cut. But, I want you to give me uh some of your cutting room floor guys because I’m looking at just the top, you know, guys from 51 um to 70 right now and there’s a lot of big names on there and those guys like got to get going. It’s different than a normal golf tournament where you obviously show up and you’re trying to win, but this is more of NCA March Madness style for especially these guys. They’re just trying to survive and advance. So Chris Kirk’s in there at 61, Tony Fe now at 60. Ricky Fowler 64, Eric Van Ruian down at 68, Cam Davis 69, Ameiliano Grio at 67. Um Max Griezerman’s won this year, he’s at 57. Aaron Ry, uh Kurt Kittyama’s out of that just won two weeks ago and is out of the top 50. JT Poston sitting there at 51. So, um just a lot of guys in that 51 to 70. Steven Joerger’s won. Mackenzie Hughes is one. Like there’s a lot of talent that’s trying to catch up to, you know, the guys in I mean Xander Shlay at 42 is insane. Matt Fitzpatrick at 41, Windham Clark at 49, Spe at 48. So, there’s a lot of guys on that bubble that, you know, the the guys in the bubble in the top 50 are just hanging on, but the guys from 51 to 70 got to get it going and got to put put a couple low ones out there. They can’t just plot like, you know, I think it’s a little more aggressive for those guys coming up this year or this week specifically versus a normal tour event where they’re trying to win, but if you don’t have it, you can’t you got to kind of keep being aggressive versus like, oh, I’m just going to try to make the cut or I’m just going to do this. Like, they have to go. Yeah, exactly. Like hung hungry dogs always run faster and that’s why we are going to see some guys, you know, jump into that top 50 and we’re going to see some guys drop out. So, it’ll really kind of show us who’s got the stones this week. But, Windham Clark is a dude that at 49 I feel like could have a good week. Although, his game really isn’t suited for this golf course, but he hits it super long, so length is always going to help you out a little bit. He is a pretty strict fader of the ball, I would say, especially off the tee. So, I don’t know if that’s going to benefit him out here. Um, but being at 49, I think coming from the place where he was a, you know, a top five American player in the world, he had won the US Open, he was on the Rder Cup team, all this [ __ ] to now being, you know, not not lower level, but back kind of towards the middle of the pack, I think. And his his game has kind of been trending in the right direction. So, I could see Winon making a run. See, I everybody’s on Xander Schoffé this week, and I personally think that I’m on Shaley next week, and that’s maybe just my own bias. Um, but next week they’re playing a 7,600 yard course. Uh, more of a bombers type golf course. And if you had to, you know, Xander’s a pretty accurate dude, but overall, I would take him on a longer course any day of the week versus the field relative to a a shorter, more precision course. So, that is ultimately why I landed with Havlin. But I think Xander could have a good week. Um, and like you said, dude, it’s some of those WY ball strikers, like Steven Jagger is an older guy that just, you know, gets it around, gets it in the hole. Um, well, Chris Kurt, Chris Kirk to me is like he’s been in the top 10 of almost every event it feels like the last six weeks. So, it’s kind of crazy that he’s maybe he was just way way down the list and kind of earned his way into the top 70, but a guy that’s playing pretty good golf that you could see earning his way all the way. I mean, Chris Kirk playing in the Tour Championship wouldn’t surprise me at all. Even starting out in just the top 70, not in the top 50. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, even to add on top of that, he’s one of the strict drawers of the golf ball out there. So, it feels like he’s got a little bit of advantage with all those right to left holes going out there. So, I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised either. Chris Kirk is just one of those dudes that knows his game better than just about anybody on the PJ tour. He’s been out there for 15, it feels like 15 years now. So, uh, I could definitely see him making a charge as well. He almost won, what was he in the playoff? He was in the playoff in Detroit when Potguer won. Yep. Yeah. And then he was like top three two weeks ago. So, he’s playing some good golf right now. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see him vault himself up to the top 50 and then the top 30 the next two weeks for sure. 100%. Well, let’s finish this Wednesday pod up with our favorite segment of WTF Wednesday. I’ll start it off. Um, obviously I talked about the hand foot and mouth scenario with the kiddo. It’s just kind of a reading more into it. I didn’t W I didn’t WebMD it. Um, which is what they, you know, the adults say now. The kids don’t know what that is. Probably just AI ask AI what’s going on. I didn’t really do want to do that because that gets in a rabbit hole with with stuff. But uh my what the [ __ ] Wednesday is dude I’ve been getting between me and my wife we’ve been getting an insane amount of parking and speeding tickets and none of them we’ve gotten actually pulled over and what I came the cameras keep getting me we paid like $350 $400 in parking and speeding tickets up in Gley uh early July we got one for that just going like I was going 71 to 45 and just on some random side county road apparently that felt like a highway. So, you know, life is not a highway. I’m not riding it all night long, apparently. And and then like I got a ticket for my car that I sold, my Jeep, because I didn’t renew the tags on it. Uh because I was selling it. I was like, I’m not going to pay all this money, renew the tags, and then just sell it. So, I got a parking ticket and I was like I I walked up to the car after work one day and I was like fuming. I was like, this got this has to be [ __ ] wrong. This is a parking ticket. I’m This says street sweeping every Tuesday and Wednesday or every third Tuesday. Today’s a [ __ ] Wednesday. And then I realized they can give you a parking ticket for having expired plates on the street. And I didn’t get to park in my parking lot at work, which would have saved me that day because they can’t go into your work parking lot and give you a ticket. It’s just if you’re on the street. And I got a [ __ ] $100 ticket for that. I’m like, well, that’s fun. So yeah, there was like a a list like a laundry list of these receipts on the counter that I just finally got pissed off one day and went and paid all of them. I don’t even know if you have to pay them, but I I don’t need any like warrants out for not paying a expired tag parking ticket. I’m just going to just going to pay it. Move on. Well, and I will tell you this. Do you know that you uh wait, do you get credit if you sell a I think you get credit if you register a car and then sell it immediately after. You basically get all that money back. Yeah, I know. I just didn’t want to deal with the DMV and the whole scenario that I dealt with trying to just sell that car was enough of a disaster that I was like, I’ll just pay this parking ticket and move on. Yeah. Needless to say, you won’t be owning any more rental cars anytime soon, [ __ ] [ __ ] Uh my uh what the [ __ ] Wednesday is I was going to Home Depot. So, first of all, um our septic our septic didn’t back up, but we had a little bit of a plumbing issue. let’s put it that way. Um, and just at the least opportune time, I was trying to get out the door to go to training camp. I have a toilet overflowing. I’m [ __ ] two paper towel rolls deep, uh, mopping all this [ __ ] Missy has no idea. She’s upstairs working. I’m in the trenches, uh, [ __ ] walking around in water. I was like, [ __ ] gross, gross [ __ ] But anywh who, I’m going to Home Depot to try to buy a a snake uh to snake our our plumbing and not buy a snake, rent a snake. And I’m sitting on the um at the intersection of Colorado getting on to I25 taking that left. And I’m behind this one car and there is a uh an unhoused man on the the median looking for a few dollar bills. And uh this car in front of me, this Suburban, the light turns green. Like 10 cars go. He’s sitting there. I’m laying on my horn. [ __ ] sits through the [ __ ] red light. Oh yeah. I’m laying on it. And this dude is just lights are on, nobody’s home type of [ __ ] Sitting at the light. And uh the the homeless guy walks over and knocks on the window and wakes this guy up. This guy fell asleep at the stoplight. And so, thank God for that homeless guy. Otherwise, this guy could have been taking an hourong [ __ ] nap in the turning lane getting on to I25. So, the the homeless guy like knocks on his window, wakes him up, you know, gives him a wave. And this guy had like a sign that had like a a song on it, like he he’s one of those whimsical homeless people that like it seems to find positivity and everything, which I totally respect. U but he actually did me a service. So, I [ __ ] wave that dude down. I was like, “Did you wake him up?” up and he goes, “Yeah, I did.” And I handed him a $10 bill. I was like, “That’s a [ __ ] service I can get behind.” And then sadly enough, my brain immediately went to, “Is this [ __ ] a hustle?” Like, “Did this guy do this on purpose so this guy could go over and actually do everyone a favor sitting there in order to get money?” Like, that’s some kind of jaded ass [ __ ] Then you get all 10 of those cars just walk back and like, “Hey, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. You’re welcome.” Ex. That is the jaded ass [ __ ] that goes through my mind where I’m like, did this guy just hustle me into giving him money cuz he woke the guy up that passed out at the wheel in front of me. And it was just a a big cluster [ __ ] But I was just shocked. I’m like, sure, you know, you don’t see a light turn green for a second, but we just sat there for a good 10 seconds. Guy’s just [ __ ] taking a nap on the on the road. So, that was uh just threw another inconvenience into my very inconvenient and literally shitty afternoon that day. Well, uh speaking of real quick tidbit, speaking of falling asleep in cars, yesterday my son uh fell asleep in the car as we were driving home from this home inspection we were getting and he fell asleep with his Arby’s fries in his lap and he was just going to town on these things. And then when I woke him up, cuz I woke him up when we got home and I was going to take him back in to go nap. You know how when you wake up you kind of like can’t get you just don’t he just wakes up and he goes, “Fries, fries.” It was cracking me up. I was like, “No fries, dude. They’re pretty They’ve been in the car for about an hour now. You You just want to go take a nap.” And then he just was It’s like when you wake the It’s like when you hold like meat in front of a dog’s face while it’s sleeping and it just [ __ ] wakes up because it smells the food. I would 100% do that [ __ ] Yeah. He’s like fries. Fries. I was like, “No fries, buddy.” What a great life he lives. [ __ ] I was saying this and it’s kind of similar to you. You like eat and then you go to sleep and then you wake up, you crap your pants and then you eat again. Like that’s just Is there a better life than that? No. It’s an elite life uh for a toddler. Well, that wraps it up for us on this Wednesday. We appreciate you tuning in to Big Drive Energy, part of the Golf Gang Network. Make sure you follow us on all the socials. Give this video a thumbs up if you’re watching on the YouTube. Helps us out a ton. We will be live Sunday afternoon St. Jude FedEx FedEx St. Jude Classic, Memphis, Tennessee. Hopefully, we got an intense one coming down the stretch. We’ll be live reacting to that uh and talking it out with all of you guys. see who moves on to the top 50. See which names are left out of the BMW. Going to be a real fun three weeks on the PGA Tour. Make sure you’re tuned in to Big Drive Energy for all that content. We appreciate you all. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the FedEx Cup playoffs because we know we will. Have a great weekend. We’ll talk to you on Sunday. Peaks.
