Scottie won’t stop, Team Europe off to America with VR headsets, & welcoming KVV | The Shotgun Start

The combined 0-6 Bears, Browns, and Jets lost by a combined 74 points on Sunday. But it is still a victory Monday around here as we welcome Kevin Van Valkenburg to the Fried Egg Golf team. Though he has been a contributor to SGS in the past, he’s now on the FE ship full time so we bring him on to bat it around following the weekend of Brocore, Wentworth, and continued Ryder Cup hype. We discuss Scottie Scheffler — his mere presence — putting everyone around him on the fritz, like Ben Griffin, who could have, should have won the Brocore. Did it take a low stakes fall event to really convince us the Tiger invocations are not out of line? Maybe. They also discuss king mule Lanto’s involvement in the proceedings and Jackson Koivun needing to stay on Tour and not go back to school. At Wentworth, they discuss Alex Noren being a top 20 player in the world and for sure a top 12 option for Team Europe who will be relegated to the ass-cap role. Then the notion of VR headsets preparing the Euro Ryder Cup team for battle is also bandied about with some amusement. They close with some football chatter and laughs about PJ having to send cringe tweets for the Lions following the Browns wishing Deshaun a happy birthday on Sunday morning.

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Greetings and welcome to a Monday edition of the Shotgun Start. It is September 15th. Andy, how we doing, Brendan? I’m doing great. I’m just so happy that there’s golf to talk about on this Sunday and and not have to to talk about our football teams. What do you mean? It was a great day. You got 21 points. You That was a good offensive explosion. The Chiefs would kill for 21 points. You got to be happy. I mean, I got 17 points. PJ’s lowly Jets got 10, but they won. They lost by only 20. Your team lost by 31 or something. Mine lost by 25, something like that. 75 points combined. I guess we’re we’re talking about football. My favorite moment of the day. Favorite moment of the day. I know we’re not a birthday podcast anymore, but the Browns social media, whoever person is, somebody put an absolute Jimmy Ham put a gun to this person’s head and said, “Do it.” And they said, “Happy birthday to Shawn with a picture to Shawn Watson.” Not a single exclamation point. Absolutely no accutraments to anything. Happy birthday, comment to Shawn. The picture and the replies. That was my favorite moment of the day by far football related. So, uh, that’s great. Maybe my favorite moment of the day was PJ in an earnest moment. We we played golf this afternoon and, uh, he walked off a green and he goes, you know, uh, Justin Fields isn’t very good quarterback. I go, nope. No, he’s not very good. We He needs to hit the trifecta and somehow land on the Browns. If someone could filter some stat site and see who’s played for all three, I think they are the three worst teams in football that we’ve somehow managed. The Chiefs are decrepit. The Chiefs are cooked, washed. Uh but but you know, we played good teams today to be fair. Three of the top five, six, seven teams, the Bills, Ravens, Lions. Let’s save this for later. Yes, we got a lot of stuff to get through. We’re joined. But I just I got to say it’s unbelievable how bad these three teams are consistently. It’s just unfreaking believable how the faces change, the names change, but nothing about the onfield performance ever changes. It’s it’s remarkable that that this podcast has somehow migrated with with this NFL suckitude. And if we were to keep things consistent and bring in a fourth person, we might go to like Charlotte or something and hire a Panthers fan. Uh but I don’t know that we’ve done that. We have added a four horsemen tonight and uh the form of Kevin Van Vulenberg, KV. You’re not new to this podcast, but you are new to this podcast as an official member of Friday Golf. So, uh, welcome. Thank you, boys. I I know I’m not really a Ravens fan, but I feel like maybe you guys needed to me to bring in like a Ravens report here, uh, for the podcast just to get some good football discussion. Andy knows I I grew up a Bears fan. Uh we’ve we’ve texted a lot about fields over the years and our our angst. Uh you know, so PJ, I can share some of those those texts with you, some transcripts of them to prepare you mentally for what’s to come. Uh but no, I’m I’m elated to be here uh for my terrible football takes uh or whatever else you guys want. Uh you’re joining the team. Mainly the house cat the house cat takes. Yes. Listen, I all those years ago when I was working at ESPN and I hopped on to do the House Cat takes with you guys, that was just like loading the chamber for years to come when when you could hire me full-time. Uh, and I I somehow slipped House Cat references into my ESPN column and didn’t get fired from ESPN back then. Uh, that’s right. But so, no, I I am joining the team. Uh, I am absolutely elated to uh to be with you guys and to tell many stupid jokes and uh and tell some good stories too along the way. We’re pumped. I think the official title is director of content. I mean titles we just made them up, right? Yeah. These are just a thing. Can you cook? Can you get in the lab and cook? Uh that’s what we that’s what we do. And we’re pumped. It’s quality. We were whether it’s quality amusement, quality, you know, insight. We’re pumped to have you on the team. We obviously been big admirers and friends of you for a long friends of yours for a long time. So, uh this is a big home run for us. You’re going to be at Ryder Cup. I will be at the Ryder Cup. I will I’ll be uh So, you’re coming. Yeah. Writing some stuff there and uh excited to, you know, just be I mean, the last time, you know, who would have thought when Andy was teasing me about when I I was over my skis at my takes about the 10th of River that we would be at this moment together. We would be What happened? Let’s go a trip down memory lane. Andy was jopping. Yeah. Yeah. I I It was It was an ill uh you know, probably out out of out of character poor Twitter reply. Maybe not out of character. I’ve had a lot of poor Twitter replies in my life, but you know, I was just getting into the architecture world. I was I was asking, you know, it’s Rory. It’s his He was out over his skis. Rory got me all fired up about the 10th hole at Riviera. Said it was garbage. uh said they needed to, you know, get all that uh they changed the grass around there because it was just trash. And I I wrote a I thought a really good piece about it. And uh you know, the architecture guys didn’t like me, you know, poking the bear, a little cathedral of uh of architecture golf. And uh so you you popped me and I think deep down it was cuz I forgot to bring you that coffee that day. Uh that was weird. I picked you up and got you from your hotel and took you to the course and you were like, “Where’s my coffee?” I was like, “Oh, I forgot.” Uh that so that was really the impetus of it all. Uh, could have been could have been that. Yeah. Well, we’re pumped. Or it could have just been me jealous I didn’t write it myself. We’re pumped. We’re excited. We’ll have fun with the Ryder Cup. We got We got stuff coming this week for Ryder Cup. And then we’ll all be up in New York teaching PJ to swim maybe in the backyard pool on Long Island. PJ, open to that. PJ, you don’t know how to swim? No. No, I don’t. Lives on an island. Doesn’t know how to swim. Lives on an island, don’t know how to swim. Uh, I it looks like as of right now it might be nice out, so the pool might still be open. That was a concern of mine that came came across my mind over the last couple. Wow. All right. Well, we’re excited. You’ll be you’ll be on for the whole episode tonight talking with us about the Bro and Wentworth. Uh, VR headsets apparently being the key to it. The first away Rder Cup win and whatever 15 years. So, we’re we’re pumped to have you. Uh, Andy, you have anything else to add to that? Obviously, you’re you people can read Kevin’s work and and yeah, just I uh I’m just excited. Uh you know, I think when when uh Brendan and I were were talking at uh at Oakmont, we had we were you know, our major championships, you know, obviously we have a great talented team and everybody kind of does their thing and everybody makes their makes makes their types of content. And I remember Brendan and I were walking back on Sunday afternoon uh after the the win and we watched one of our uh colleagues chasing down a player in the parking lot and you know Brendan and I’s job at Majors now is is we get ready for the podcast and you know we we make Yeah. try and get ready. Um, and and we looked at each other and we were kind of like, well, it’d be nice if we had someone that did that, you know, that chased down and got the quotes and and kind of told different stories than than the game action. And I think from from our stance, we’re always trying to add variety of content and variety of voices and and um, you know, I I think like I’m I’m super excited. I, you know, 10 years ago, never never thought we’d have this kind of stable of people um working and and Kevin’s the the latest one and I’m I’m through the moon about it. It’s uh it’s really cool and uh I I can’t wait to you know, mo most importantly, people talk about, you know, what they’re going to do and everything. Like, I just can’t wait for us to make stuff. I think that’s it’s what we do best and and what we want to keep doing is just making better and better stuff. And I know that uh Kevin’s going to help us make better stuff and that’s uh that’s what I’m most excited about. Hell yeah. We’re we’re excited. He I mean it’s whatever dream. You’ve been a mentor honestly for us for a lot of like digital golf media people for many years with with your background in magazine journalism and as a professor. So I dragged you out to that bar in Tacoma all those years ago at Chambers Bay 2015. Yeah. So, I know we’re just internet friends, but please, please drive 90 minutes in one direction, uh, Brendon, and come join us at this bar with a bunch of washed up newspaper writers. Uh, all right. Should we call it in the air? Are we doing someone call it in the air? Are we going Wentworth or Brocore first? What do we want to talk about first? Let’s go Brocore. I got a new I’ve got just like a new, you know, we’ve had fun. We’ve had a lot of fun with the sheriff. I want to introduce another another soundboard. item for Scotty here. What do we do? Is this Jaws? It is. You’re drunk with power with the soundboard. The guy It’s unbelievable to watch these guys just melt. Yeah. So, you think it’s a psychological thing? this. I haven’t seen I you know I I feel like I’ve been pretty uh tempered with with tiger comparisons and I’ve thrown I think like some of the tiger comparisons like people just like always automatically compare people to Tiger and I think it’s ridiculous. I will say that I’ve never seen world class players melt the way they do with Scotty. Ben Griffin, you know, again, he did this at at Memorial. He kind of melted with Scotty in in in contention. The three putt obviously everybody’s going to remember um on on the on the 72nd hole, but I mean the middle of the round he he had that tournament just dead to right. So all he had to do was just he he could have put it away. And you know it’s not an a overly difficult golf course. I mean, he shot 1,8 underpar for the week and and that’s 18 under par with a final round 70. Just a very mediocre final round. And it’s just I personally think that if Scotty Shuffler’s not in that field, he probably shoots 68. Okay. Are you I I just like it was the Pro Core that put you over the edge that the tire comparisons are now apt. I’ve just seen enough evidence now. I’ve just got that the guy I think he’s now ascended like everybody this year has seen like the statistical they know he’s better. I mean last year Rory said Scotty’s the best player in the world, right? Yeah. And now you’re seeing the psychological effects of someone that’s clearly head and shoulders better than everyone else. I think should uh should Keegan have like gone over and told Scotty to take a dive for like the good of the Rder Cup? like maybe the maybe just go in there and like kind of adjust his uh collar a little bit and tell Scotty to stand down. I can see Ben Griffin being kind of broken by this, you know, like showing up and be like, “Well, I have to three putt in the Ryder Cup or two putt in the Ryder Cup to to secure a match. What guarantee is there I can do it?” I’ve got good news for Ben Griffin. You know what what solves any of this these issues? What’s that? spending a spending an entire week with Bryson to Shambo. So, this is happening. You think BG Ben Griffin is just going to be handcuffed to to Bryson the whole week as just two kind of miscreants or two outcasts or what? What do we say that like I think those those are the only two people not in the boys club. That wasn’t a good uh that wasn’t a good JJ Spawn maybe too. Four or five footer or whatever that was. Sounds like a pod to me. There you go. JJ Spawn. Who’d be the fourth in the Outcast Pot? Um, Paris, maybe Harris probably. Yeah, Paris English. Throw him in there. Henley’s Henley’s kind of gotten in bed with the the sheriff as a deputy. He’s sort of a dep he’s been deputized by by the sheriff of the fair place. Um, Ben Griffin and Bryson. That’ll be interesting. Could see them just Go ahead. Can we talk about how bad that putt was? The la the the second to last one. What do you think was worse, the lag putt or the the second putt? The second putt. The second putt. The second putt never touched the hole. Looked pretty straight. Four four and a half feet. The lag, you know, there’s room for, you know, there’s room. He got it to four feet. Wasn’t like he Gino titled it and four putted. Uh, you know, play ping pong back and forth. Uh, spoil. Oh, sorry. I spoiled the Kroger Queens. My bad. Sitting here waiting for the queen results before we even got to the ad read. You spoiled that cuz I’ve been I took a red eyee last night into New York and I’ve been tied up all day. I literally didn’t know what happened. So, you did spoil that for me and I’m upset about that. All right. I I apologize. I thought it was the 4-footer. Kevin, you thought it was the lag? Kind of thought it was the lag. Like if you just hit a good lag there, you’re, you know, you don’t have to sweat over it as much. But I mean, it is a 50-footer or whatever. I don’t know. Just like pros, tour pros should eat that up. Like isn’t Ben Griffith’s like whole deal that he’s like great at short game and and putting, you know? It feels like that should be a slam dunk. Supposed to be his thing. Andy, what did you think was worse? You asked the question. Feels like you have a thought. Um, I actually I would say actually the lag. Okay. These guys are so good. They make lag putting look so easy. And I know that wasn’t an easy situation, but I do think like there is something to like if you’re going to if you’re going to air on one side, if you run it by, then you see the line and it makes you like a little bit more comfortable with the putt. To leave it that far short, like then you have it creates like a little doubt in your mind of like I didn’t see the last the the putt break by the hole. Um, and it it made that that putt a little bit more difficult um than if he hit it that distance past. Um, but I that was like a very bad lag putt. He either was feeling the moment or or he really mishit it to to have that be the result after particularly playing 71 holes where you were argu best player in the field to hit that putt was was very poor. I don’t think they I don’t think they talked enough on the telecast about how bad that putt was in the moment. Um, they did talk about how easy the next P. I don’t think in fall ball anybody’s getting detonated for like all the bad lag, but I think they’re under strict instructions to just soft pedal it all. Oh, what a what a heroic effort from Griffith to hang in there. Yeah. Do you think um do you think the mules are upset that uh that the Brocore turn the Procore turned into the Brocore and the Rider Cupers invaded and took their points? Yes. I mean to use your Jaws theme like the sharks just swam in and gobbled up the mules just like they swam ashore pulled them in took him took him to the slaughter. Yes. I mean you look at the RDER Cup guys you’ve got you know four in the top 10 between Sheffler Griffin Spawn and Cam Young Burns and Henley in the top 20. These are points and money is in tears fighting for his fighting for his status. Yeah, not talking about having to go to Q school last year. He goes, Lto wins. Lanto wins if if Scotty and Ben Griffin aren’t there. I got a good text from it’s like this leaderboard is amazing. You got the number one player in the world, the number one amateur and Jackson Quin and the number one mule and Lanto Griffin is just an incredible leaderboard. Lanto came right out and said the quiet part out loud. He said, “I wish Scotty wasn’t here.” in a in a postgame chat with uh Kira Dixon and yeah, I mean that’s we need a Bour essentially like we need these guys to not be here, but it’s also to Andy’s point of like you know these guys see Scotty out there and they’re like what am I supposed to do and there’s like an a mental a mental sort of strain on you. Remember in the movie Uncle Buck when John Candy is like I got to go to these horse race because this is where I make like half my living for the year. Like this is how that’s like on the mules had to be feeling that way like this these guys come along and just hoovering up all the money and all the points. They’re how are they supposed to budget their year when this is usually their their go time? I mean it’s such a different frame of mind. Atlanta’s there talking about like how one of his main goals at the start of the week was to get to Japan to try he’s trying to get his an angle for Japan to for the what is now known as the Bay Current Classic. Scotty couldn’t even tell you what the name of that tournament is anymore probably. And and yeah, it is a different different mindset. PJ, are you familiar with Uncle Buck by the way? No. Can you come back? We got to watch that, PJ. It’s it’s an absolute classic. All right. All right. It’s on the list. It was good. I I a a neighbor of mine recommended watching uh he’s got a kid the same age as me watching the Goonies with my five-year-old daughter. Oh, that was a bad move. That can’t be politically correct anymore either, right? It’s got to be We watched it for like 30 minutes and I was like, “Oh my god, sloth.” I was going to say, you didn’t even get to sloth. Terrifying your your young daughter with this. I have a 13-year-old. She would never watch that. You’d just run out of the room screaming. God, there’s a kid on my street growing up we called Chunk and it didn’t it didn’t go. I mean, you just could say anything about We want to make a buddy of mine do the truffle shuffle because uh he was it was a bit on the thick side. PJ, you got you got to get some of I’ve still never seen Goonies. Oh. Oh, really? That’s why that’s why I play I was like, well, I’ve never seen it. I want to watch it. Well, you missed out. I mean, it is a classic, but we need to have maybe a Beth Page Uncle Buck Goonies double header. I think um I had a good Ben Engelman tweeted at great honestly my most fascinating question coming out of this Procore or Brocore Championship. Well, you know, Lant is trying to get his way into an invite to Japan. Ben poses a great question of is Scotty now sort of obligated to return next year? as the defending champ. It’s a fascinating question. He is there only for Ryder Cup come by a session. Does he have to come back now? I you know I don’t if I was going to say like if there’s one event on the calendar that you know isn’t a big event that you’re obligated to go back to. Is this the best one to do it? It’s like hey Meredith do you want to go go to Napa again? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. No, it’s a good one. It’s I mean, they’re going to have the Peacup next year, I guess, in late September for Chicago. I assume that’s late September. Um they should be just hanging out in Chicago. That would be the better the only thing better than Napa. Watching uh watching Cade Clubick under center for the Bears September or what are we talking about? What are we talking about? That was uncalled for. You got Joe Flacco behind center right now. Uh Dylan Gabriel got in. Dylan went three for three for 25 yards of a touchdown. He might be the new guy. Listen, we all live at glass houses, so I guess it makes it okay for all of us to throw rocks at each other. Yeah. Oh yeah, there was that report too to be be that Shadur didn’t want to play for the Ravens cuz he thought, you know, he wouldn’t have a chance to start over Lamar. So he he went to the Browns. What a That was sort of something similar there to like the guys not wanting Scotty to be around, you know, run away from that uh from the actual challenge of beating the best guy. Uh I just think he didn’t want to go to a franchise built on uh just a bill bankruptcy. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. Nothing, you know, statues to alleged certain pe indiscretions outside the stadium. Um all right, so we got Scotty. Anything else with Scotty besides the mental blunder he’s putting these guys? Do you think he like gets juice out of this? Do you think he like cares about any of this? Like he’s wired kind of like a maniac. So probably. But like I kind of was wondering down the like backstretch whether he was like I don’t know. I don’t care either way. I’m here like totally out of obligation. So I Well, I I think he’s like hyper competitive. It’s incredible. I don’t think Yeah, it is probably like a Tiger thing. I’m trying to think of I This isn’t a knock on any other like I don’t think Rory I don’t think other elite players are when the entire purpose is just to play with Ryder Cup like like not the entire but the primary purpose. I don’t think they’re going out and doing this. I think he’s just he’s you know to use a cliche built a little different. Yeah. He’s goes to play to win every single time. It’s not like the others aren’t, but he does it in a to a different level. That’s probably the closest Tiger thing I would compare it to. And if it’s like he’s going to be there, he’s going to step on your neck. He’s just going to, you know, and he’s going to shrug and do his kind of goofy laugh afterwards, but he’s going to like absolutely like rip your throat out. I feel like um human nature is to be complacent. Yeah. Yeah. And particularly with golf, like golf’s so hard to win a tournament, you have to beat 140 of the best players in the world. You finish one out of 140 or whatever the size of the field is. And that is such a hard thing to do that then there’s that natural like complacency. It’s everybody probably feels it in some way at at their their job. Like in in our world, when I get done writing something that I’ve really grinded on, I don’t just like do this, you know, send it in and then like open up a new Google doc and start going again. But that’s what he does on the golf course. I would say, you know, really since Tiger, we’ve we’ve had I don’t want I don’t know if it’s complacency or just the natural sort of cycles of golf, but these guys go hot for 18 months or two years, right? It’s like, all right, this is the Rory era, this is a speed era, maybe it’s Jason Day era, JT like that for me. And Scotty, I I mean, Scotty could lose his putter or lose his game at some point, I guess, in the next 12 to 24 months. But when you see him win something like this, I think that’s what feels probably a little daunting. It’s like this probably isn’t going to stop to Andy’s complacency point. This just doesn’t it feels like the the the the end point or it feels more hopeful, you know, wishful wishful than anything, right? Whereas others like all right well you know all those putts are going to stop going in for that guy you know speed or whoever at some point he’s not going to be able to recover like he did pull one out of a rabbit out of his hat forever or you know Rory’s wedge game say 2016 like that is going to come back to bite him. I think when he just keeps stacking proores and BMWs and Byron Nelson’s by nine or whatever it was at TPC Craig Nelson Ranch. It feels like he’s he’s making a statement that about how this this will run forever run much longer than the preceding sort of ta to taste of the month uh since Tiger, right? And that’s the Andy’s sort of complacency thing and it’s probably pretty scary. I don’t know what the I don’t know what the numbers are. Um, but like five five win seasons on PGA Tour are like very rare. Very rare. Yeah. I mean, when Jason Day did it a couple years ago, we’re like, he won five times. That’s crazy. You know, like you think about like great DJ years, it was, you know, five wins. Um he’s won six times this year and he basically the only reason it was six is because he had the hand injury at the beginning of the year and he got off to a really slow start. Um you wonder like what would have happened if the wine glass, you know, incident didn’t happen. Um he won nine last year. Nine. He’s won 15 freaking PGA Tour events in the last two years. 15 tour events and two majors, which he he he’s won in the last in the last two years is like what the bar for the Hall of Fame is. 15 tour wins, one major is like that’s considered the minimum threshold. And he’s done that in two years. Yeah. Yeah. No, I remember when he first won his first Masters, I made like is he like Freddy Couples? Like this excellent sort of run, right? Excellent talent. And people like, “Oh, that’s a good call.” And then that that died pretty quickly. He became like Freddy Couple’s career a couple times over. It feels like in majors. Uh, in true SGS fashion, we’re welcoming Kevin to the company with with pretty crappy Wi-Fi. And Andy is Andy is in an Airbnb, I think. Just I was, you know, my Wi-Fi is bad. Oh, yeah. You’re chopping, right? Yeah. Not the finger at me. All right. Well, that’s lying to you. The uh that’s lying to you. It’s not Caves Valley, but you know, it’s it’s fine. You remember last year when everybody was like, well, like he won nine. Like, you know, who knows? He’s he’s not going to do that again next year, right? And yeah, he didn’t win nine, but he got six and he got one more major than he than he got the year before. I mean, he’s two to one to win events. You know, that’s kind of bananas. Even if it’s, you know, fall or 30man fields, like he’s two to one. You know, that’s all I care about really is if you can’t frame anything to me in gambling context, then I don’t care about it anymore. That’s that’s how sports needs to be consumed nowadays. Um, but yeah. Can you imagine being like how like deflating it must be if you’re like trying your ass off and you are putting everything into like trying to beat Sky Shuff or trying to win tournaments and then he’s like yeah you know like this doesn’t define me. This isn’t even actually like really what’s important to me. Like I I you know I I leave these things and like 5 minutes later I’m like where’s what’s for dinner? Like where are we going to church? Whatever. And you’re just like, I would be so broken if someone was so much better at me than something I was like putting everything into. And they were just like, “Yeah, I mean, like I, you know, I appreciate that you guys like this stuff, but it’s just not that important to me deep down. It’s not part of my essence.” Like I I get his overall point, but it’s just hilarious to me that that’s that’s what they have to face. That’s what they have to look at. These guys trying to beat him every week. He goes and wins. He’s just like, “Ah, yeah, you know, it’s not that’s good. It’s nice to do.” Lant on the bench like the exhausted Popeye’s worker meme and he’s just like trying to like his whole life and world and this sweat was put into this guy. He just does it like all right. Um yeah. No, it was it was fun. Watch. Go ahead Andy. Jump in. I got to point something out please. Something that uh you know we we highlighted earlier this week. People are probably wondering like what could slow down Scotty Shuffler? What what possibly could get in the way of Scotty Sheffller? And I would pose a question. Could it be Rico Hoey with a broom putter? Finished T8. He gets basically to zero on the strokes gain putting a broom putter. Okay. He goes to the broom, gets to zero. all of a sudden, you know, is there a new new new contender uh has emerged for Sky Shuffler T8 this week? Who was dubbed the Jordan stopper? Like who were some of those guys? Xavier McDaniels was first. PJ PJ Tucker, the LeBron stopper. Yeah. I mean, is this what we’re saying? There’s no such thing as LeBron stoppers cuz LeBron was never that good. Rico Hoey is the uh Rico Hoey is you know the Byron Russell or Xavier McDaniel. He could be the Scotty Stopper with the broomstick. Who was that crazy guy Mason’s name first name on the Knicks? Anthony Mason. Anthony Mason. God that guy you like those guys just would not play in the NBA. Anthony Mason would not play in the NBA. Like he had no he just was big. Oh he was big and skilled. He was like weirdly like he he shot in such an very unusual way. Uh I had a dream about Anthony Mason once and he was like threatening me to pay up my debts for something. I’m not even kidding. He did have a terrible shot. Oakley and Mason at the same time. Yeah. Oakley clearly. Wasn’t Lance Stevenson the LeBron stopper for a brief period or he build himself as such? Deshawn Stevenson. Desawn Stevenson. Yeah. Blow the whistle. The Jay-Z brat battle. Lance too. Well, Lance, his younger brother Lance came along and he was the next Stevenson from the house of Stevenson to try playoff P had some uh had some big LeBron stopper energy for five minutes too on those Pacer teams. Oh, we’re all over the place. We’re JJ if the real LeBron stopper was JJ Berea though. Let the record show. He did body bag. He did body bag. Man, I mean Cleveland fans scored at that time moment in time. I was I might have been pulling for old JJ at that moment against the Heat. Who was the other little little white kid that they had who was the shooter like the coach’s son Brenon that back in that day? I can’t remember. It was like a little guard who was like wasn’t it wasn’t Berea, right? It was the other it was like a guard who they was like uh god it’s going to drive me crazy for the Mavericks. No, for the for the um Cavs like in the during those runs it was like little chippy guy. No. Yeah. Craigy though. Not Delvadova Matt. Yeah, Delova. Did you see Did you see like Draymond Green? We’re so far a field right now. Draymond Green had a quote that said, you know, Michael wasn’t playing with no Matthew Delvivadova and that’s why LeBron’s a goat. That’s what Draymond Green said in the past week. Oh, I’m sorry. We had We had Craig Craig Hodgeges. I’m just telling you, I’m quoting. I’m not making an argument, but I will make an argument for Beatty’s Collegiate Apparel. You can go to brady.com/collection/colgate. I got my uh actually I don’t want to talk about it. I got my BC gear, but I’m not prepared to talk about it after the embarrassment of Saturday night losing to Stanford on the farm. A disaster. Outplayed them again. Should have been up 246. But I have my BC gear. Maybe for hockey season ready for that. I might be done. Uh, but they they have plenty of ample schools with all their kind of their whole collection of products, whether it’s the rust crew neck, the jack lawn sleeve as you hit fall like that. That’s a great puma cotton lawn sleeve polo, the Liam polo, their original Peruvian Pima cotton. They have that. They also have it at ZR. Use the promo code SGS30. You get 30% off. So, if you’re looking to tailgate, you know, tailgate proper tailgate apparel, go to batty.com, hit the collegiate collection. most SEC schools, a lot of Big 10 schools, which you know is this coast to coast conference now. They got everything there. Go to batty.com. Use a promo code SGS30. Your linei Andy looking good. Up to eight and in and one pull. Big game game days going to Indiana. I saw we, you know, I think Illinois is one of like it’s like one or two power five program uh university towns they’ve never been to. Oh, really? Game day. Yeah, Game Day’s never got a chance. Uh Syracuse also on that list, by the way. Wow. Just for the record. That’s crazy. They must not want to be feel conflicted with all of the Syracuse journalism alums infiltrating all We almost had it. We almost had it once for when Trevor Trevor came and we Clemson was like number one in the country and uh Tommy Cutlets lost to Maryland like 63 to 20 and they were like, “Oh, we’re good. We’re not coming anymore.” True story. Game day was supposed to go to Missoula, Montana uh one year and then Kurt Herbstreet didn’t want to um do it cuz he wanted to fly to see his kid not play in the Iowa State uh whatever in like lame ass regular season game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. And they went to curb street slander is what you’re bringing on day one. Not slander. He just he had a fellow colleague of yours. No, he wasn’t. He was at the not at the time, but uh no, he you know he wanted to see his kids so they couldn’t like they had to fly over the next day or whatever to to go to the Ohio State game. It was when his kid was playing like back. He was like the fourth string quarterback or whatever for Ohio State. So they they went to Bosezeman the next year for the Montana State game. So they never made it to Missoula. What a heartbreaker. I don’t get the dog thing, but that’s for another time. You said we were off topic. Yeah, I want to bring it back on top. I don’t care. While we’re on collegiate. No, about about the the I don’t know what how we got to random player. So, we got there because of Rico Hoey. Yeah. Yes. I would I would suggest that it’s not too far of of you know too much of a leap to consider the the start of Tiger’s kind of uh original demise was uh was why he was a long long held belief of mine deep down to my core that he hadn’t been beat and for for so long he didn’t believe that he could like lose in life. Who would be the Who would be the Who would be the best random person to beat Scotty Sheffller? Like stare him down in a final round and and take him down and break his spirit. Yeah. I mean, probably like a few bad lies and some toughs of grass would be the one that could just put him on the fritz permanently. Well, well, you know, Havlin was was sort of the chaotic uh, you know, rioter, right? Whe from where it’s just total chance. He’s chipping in from off the green at Oakmont. So, I think that kind of drew drove him crazy. Is there a random you have in mind, Andy, that could just send Scotty down a well or start to send him down a well? What if Brian Campbell took him out hitting at 265? just dink and dunk like for a Masters victory like Brian Campbell pulled the uh the Chad Campbell and like made it all the way to the down to the end and and chipped in to win. Pretty good. Brian Campbell’s a good good choice for that. Um could be could be a guy that’s not yet a member. Jackson Quaven, could he be the one to come along? Is he the next Scotty Ster? Uh what a showing for Quinn. We’re on Collegiate. They got a ton of Auburn stuff at the B Drady store. Um he was in his Auburn gear today. Uh finished I think third or fourth in strokes gained approach and it fresh from the Walker Cup just goes up California way to uh Napa. Finishes T4 16 under. Kind of a I wouldn’t say fell back Sunday, but that was his worst round of the weekend. Uh, incredible showing from the amateur, fresh off the Walker Cup and and going out first there every day. Uh, I got a text from somebody that said this like the tour like what are they doing? And Andy’s made this argument a lot. Be like Cooper Flag going back to Duke at this point is essentially what’s but and I love college golf. I I think it’s interesting and the coverage of it is better than ever, but you know, people watch college basketball. People watch the NCAA tournament where Cooper flagged to go back. I don’t know. Are people going to be able to consume Jackson Kovven in any way, in any significant way at college golf? And you have a guy here who’s essentially finishing T10, top 10 in a lot of his starts. He’s Does he get the top 10 exemption? I assume he does to the next fall event from finishing fourth. I don’t know what you do if you’re the tour being like Jackson, you need to tour pro and and join the traveling circus right now. But but I think that’s a fair comparison, Annie. Do you agree? It’s like Cooper Flag having to go back to Duke. Yeah, it it’s um it’s a strange situation and I would say that it feels obviously we had Clanton doing this a a year ago. And I will just say uh and you obviously had Dick Dunlap win win the um the MX and and that was incredible, you know, and and I think this is just we’re going to see more amateurs contending. Um but like I will say like the one thing that hasn’t happened is we haven’t seen any of these players like really stick. I would say to a certain extent like none of these players have reached a you know Jordan Spe or Justin Thomas level even with their play and consistency that they had at similar ages. Um JT I I mean he was on tour by age 20 uh or 21. He had the one year on Corn Ferry. I mean Jordan Spith was playing on the you know President’s Cup team. Um, yeah. And I think Quavenven is of all of them, it it feels probably the most um real of like this guy is it. Um, but I was thinking about like you think we don’t necessarily have like a great young really a really great young player on the PGA Tour right now. H like everybody goes to 11. He’s 26. Yeah. Yeah. I’m trying to think. Ford Clanton and Sergeant I’ll miss a cut by the way on PGA Tour you except this week. Justin Hastings played well. Another young guy uh or amateur college recent college player. He played T26. But yeah, Kovven does feel like the Well, I mean, we kind of we we do get into this sort of well, Norman Jean is it is him. We we it’s tough. It’s tough to divine out like, you know, 18 months of amateur golf or 24 months of great amateur golf and a few cups of coffee on PGA Tour leaderboards. Is this the next guy? But Kyven does feel like an all. Let’s just put it this way. He should be on tour. You should be on tour starting January, but he’s not. If you saw what happened with Dunlop though, like would you be in a rush to go on tour? Like I think kind of like with the NIL stuff, it sort of changed a little bit of the calculus cuz if I was a an amateur and I was making, you know, a good chunk of money playing college golf and like had a bunch of boosters who were willing to sort of give me a bunch of money to stick around and win a national championship, whatever. I I might be like, h, you know, I’ll my game will get there eventually. like I’ll just keep playing in Walker Cups and Masters for another year or two and and then figure it out. I mean, it just feel like it’s such a lonely existence, right, when you’re so young up there. It’d be one thing if you had like a couple guys you could sort of be buds with and turn pro, but like once you’re kind of wandering through the wilderness all on your own, like that’s kind of a a miserable existence when you’re 21, 22. I I do think Dunlap wishes he was back, but that’s maybe not. He’s just his game isn’t very he lost his game. I I think that the situations are so different, too. Like from all everything I’ve heard, the the Koven family is like very buttoned up and like it’s just a really he’s got like a really good foundation from what I’ve gathered. Um, I think it’s interesting how quiet everything is around him and I think that’s like uh probably because the the family kind of understands what they’re what they’re doing, you know, where I mean I think the tour is like a ridiculous place where somebody wins and like there’s four or five people that are running to take credit for the win every every time they go around. Short game coaches, people like that. I think it’s really interesting. Have you ever heard anything about Jackson Quoven’s coach? No. No, I don’t think so. Do you know who Jackson’s Coven’s coach is? Do you? I don’t follow college golf close enough. He teaches at a a public golf course in the South Bay of San Francisco. Cool. Uh his name’s Fred Garcia. and get down Hills Golf Course. Okay. Cineabar. All right. And it’s just like I just I think there’s something about the way they’re going about it. This kid’s like I think this kid is is the real deal. Um in comparison like I think Luke Clanton’s going to be a really good player, but I think he he caught a heater. M and I think this kid is just it. Um and I don’t know, you know, obviously the NIL thing is totally true and it’s easy like some of these kid like you look at like the life of a college golfer now at a big D1 program. You’re making probably mid6 figures a year in NIL. You fly private everywhere. Yeah. with with your team. You play better golf courses than the tour plays for the most part. And you know, you’re in college. You get to go to you get to hang out. You get to go to Auburn football games. Like that’s a good existence. But also on the other end of it from the tour side, this it you don’t want Jackson Koven to go back to college golf for for the next six months and then leave your fans where you’re trying to build young stars. Especially like we pointed out like I don’t as much as we’ve talked about young talent young talent like where’s been the breakthrough young talent that has join the you know superstar echelon of the game it’s been a while been a bit yeah I they’re so thirsty I mean there’s so many brands that just ready to throw money at golf and everything and and the Yeah it’s been a while that we throw them after these guys who we never hear from after 12 months. I don’t know. A question I have is it harder to become a superstar than ever because of all the brands obligations and how quickly your life changes in the modern era with you know success at a young age would be a deep philosophical question. I don’t know. I feel like it’s maybe less than ever. These guys just have to do like they’re not the travel’s easier, the life’s easier. You’ve got 18 different handlers that’s saying you have like you have to go do 10 seconds with, you know, Procore this week and they get one question. I I don’t know if it’s that ownorous. Peri’s point though, does it make you less hungry? Like does it like is there what makes the superstar the superstar is the hunger to basically like live, eat, breathe golf? And like is there something that kind of pulls you away from that if you have to do if you’re just have it easier? Is Scotty pumping out 10,000 words on a Sunday night, opening up the word processor and just starting on it on his next story, writing his followup for Monday. Another 10,000. I I I think the la the last guy we heard this about was Sergeant though, Andy. I would say like people suggested he had all the right people around him, the right foundation, the right whole like patience and setup and and and you know where you get lights turned off. I think that was a light switch in one of the rooms that Mader cameras on that turned off this like you’re living the Goonies watch Blair Witch project. All of a sudden it’s just like darkness your face is popping dying over here out of the darkness. Yeah. But Sergeant was like, “Oh, this kid like he’s won the national championship as a freshman. He hits it a mile. Has all the speed and and has all the time in the world and the right people around him.” I I don’t know. You got to go go pro. Make hay while you can. I think uh anything else from the Bro, anybody any other parting Scotty thoughts? Lanto. Uh as far as RDER Cup players, USA, they all made the cut. All 10 who were present. Uh, worst was JT at 69th, Morau 43rd, Harrier S. I mean, I don’t know. Are you Are you taking anything out of this for the RDER Cup? Are you taking anything out of these results? It seems like the guys who’ve been playing well in August played well again this week, you know, Cam Young, Griffin, Sheffller, those types. And the guys who’ve been sort of, I don’t know, Moral at didn’t, but they all made the cut. anything that it matters though. Ryder Cup I Yeah, I think it’s great equiv unequivocally great for the US RDER Cup team that they played at this event. I think like taking a month off is is a bad idea before you go play a very like highintensity, you know, golf match. But I I will say like I think like one of the things I take away is to me Ben Griffin is one of probably your five best players. JJ Spawn is one of your five best players right now. And my big question going into the RDER Cup is, is the team set up to where the best players are actually going to play the most? Mhm. No, I think is my init in intuition. I mean, right. I mean, does this like I don’t want to say that the players called the inmates are running the asylum, but that’s always been sort of a the the sort of tension, right, with with like how much empowerment you give the players and then is it become the boys club where they’re running the show? You know, does JT just put up all four fingers like I’m going four and he goes out every all four sessions on Friday, Saturday? I don’t know. Does Keegan have the guts to sit Morawa for or Xander since they both have not played well or JT or JT for Ben Griffith or J or or you know JJ? That’s a good question. I, you know, I would think maybe he would would have the guts more than some guys just because he, you know, knows this is like means a lot to his legacy and that if he screws it up, like he’s going to have to eat it, so he’s going to make the decisions he’s going to make. But what if Keegan got corrupted and and is now truly part of the boy club? That’s that’s tough to wonder. He was left in his hotel room, you know, head and hands on Netflix and now he’s become the president of the boys club. Who knows? You would think that by not choosing himself when I think like Kevin, I haven’t asked you, but Brendan and I agree that he was one of the 12 best American players. Yes, I have been beating this drum uh for quite a while that like he I I don’t know that I really believe that the job is so arduous that he couldn’t have essentially just said to Stricker like this is kind of what I want. You’re in charge while I’m out on the course and I’ll go ahead and take the baton, take the conch back uh in the Lord of the Flies type situation back when I’m off the course. Uh, but you know, I do think he probably made the right move in terms of like camaraderie and distractions for standing down. I just think like it’s sort of a cruel fate that like he was faced with this impossible position where he probably should have picked himself but couldn’t do it because of like all the [ __ ] that it would have caused. I mean, it would have been the story over and over and over again leading up to the writer. You can get if you’re the New York Post, you can get 10 stories out of Will Keegan like screw it up or, you know, should he how many sessions should he play himself? Uh, you know, I just I think like he couldn’t do it. Uh, but I do think like he he’s better than at least three or four of the guys here, especially on that golf course. Yeah, I think Andy’s point is one I’ve been thinking like I I I don’t think Ben Griffin or JJ Spawn are probably going unless something crazy happens in their morning sessions or like you cannot sit them, I don’t think they’re going to be playing as much as some of the other guys. Another one that that you could throw in the bucket of like among the top half of Americans is Cam Young. Yeah, PJ Finger. And uh but I I think like I do think by Keegan not choosing himself, it does give him more um authority to Mhm. I I would feel like I have more ability to be like you’re sitting I’m sitting this whole thing. Yeah. You you can sit this you you’re sitting because these we’re doing who who gives us the best chance to win. He’s got he’s got more to stand on a little bit more stand on business a little bit. He’s already made his sacrifice now. JT like you need to make your sacrifice. You know, Xander, you need to make your sacrifice. I know. We’ve got like two more weeks here. We’re going to talk about the RDER Cup a ton a lot. I do think it’s interesting watching Scotty win again. What I don’t want to say it’s a lose-lose situation for him, but he might like what Russell Henley what if he’s just poof balling it out there into the rough and like Scotty like Scotty is the best play the best thing we’ve seen since Tiger but Tiger that didn’t mean much for Tiger when it came to the RDER Cup. I I think like Scotty is expected to win three three and a half points, but as we know, it’s a it’s a really interesting situation for him where he doesn’t have all the control and we know he likes to be in control. We know he doesn’t like when things might go uh ary and it’s and he can’t control every lie or every distance or or every, you know, every shot. Um it’s an interesting dynamic for him. I think it’s I don’t want to say it’s lose-lose, but he’s in a place where he has been so dominant and such the best player that like, hey man, like anything less than three points, but that’s not how it works in RDER Cups. It’s tough tough. We should do We should do a show that’s like first take that’s like Scotty went three and two in the in the RDER Cup. Is this a disappointment? No. Well, for the for the honestly the pros who show up at this event that just don’t understand that the number one player in the world by a lot doesn’t mean you just win every match and that’s not the way match play works. It and he just got, you know, he’s coming off getting boat raced in Rome. Um he wasn’t the same player as is now, but it’s an interesting dynamic. Another win just riding high as like the clearing away best player. he could go, you know, 0 and2 on the first day and and play, you know, approximately the same as he’s been playing and people like, what what the hell, man. He’s the best player in the world. It’s a tough I think it’s a tough spot. I’m not, you know, crying any tears for him, but it is an interesting spot. I will say I did this I was I was responsible for our capsule or my the Sheffler capsule in our preview thing. So I sort of borrowing from myself a little bit here, but like I think the scene of him crying in uh Italy is actually sort of refreshing in a way because it like it showed like he gave a [ __ ] like he cared about like what had happened and he was sort of really embarrassed by it. And after years of Tiger and Phil basically showing indifference and being like well what can you do? Like it’s match play. I guess sort of refreshing that Scotty was like devastated by getting his butt kicked uh in that match against Havlin and and Levig. And so it’s been a while since you’re right be it’s been a while since like an American player was really dominant like the best player in the world kicked ass in the in a Ryder Cup uh for them. So there is that pressure on them. Uh, but I also feel like I all some of this stuff feels to me like such overthinking of it because I like if you could throw Scotty out there with Bryson and what really are you asking Scotty to do in any way that’s like be friends with Bryson in in Forball? Like literally don’t talk to each other. Just go out and make a bunch of birdies. And then in the, you know, in forsomes, he can play with Russell Henley or he can play with Sam Burns or whatever. I would say like I don’t care who you want to play with. we we need you to I mean he paired with Bryson in the uh Whistling Straits and they were did well there. So like he could do that again that could solve your Bryson problem. The other aspect of this is that there I think like one of the things with Tiger in the RDER Cup for years was like guys were really nervous to play with him. Mhm. Like I don’t want to screw this up for him. I think that Scotty’s approximating some of those levels. This is, you know, micro analysis here, but like, you know, if I’m playing alternate shot with Scotty, I know my job is to just put the ball in the fairway. Like just like all of a sudden that like I know that’s like what I need to do. He’s the best iron player on the planet. Like if I just put this in the fairway, I’ve like done my job. Yeah. That gets harder when you know that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. The the other thing I’d point out, you know what the least fair version of golf is? All shot match play. Lots lots of misdemeanors rolling around. Lots of lots of speeding tickets to write for Scotty. Is it like hamsterdam or something? It’s just there’s different rules for match play. It’s not It’s You could shoot 63 and lose. Yeah. Yeah. He’s done well to be fair. Ah, he’s you know this quail he was kind of a mess with the putter Rome. He was not himself, but you know, he’s done well in match play. It’s not been a total whitewash like like some of those Tiger. Remember back when there was like the debate about whether to choose him for whistling and it was like a Kevin Kizner, man, he’s he’s a matchplay dog. Sky Guy Scotty might not have what it takes to win. Uh he’s he’s never won. So how can we expect him to come in the Ryder Cup and win? Where where those two golf careers have gone since that moment? Well, I mean Giz has a lot of opportunity with the upcoming TGL season. Giz did say I just looked it up today. He said it was he he was pissed because it’s too political for him when he when Scotty was the last pick that Oh, really? Oh god. Oh my god. I I don’t want to be part of this process anymore because it’s too political. Too political. Uh well well speaking of political, we’ll go across the pond to the lads club where the best player in Europe right now will not be on the team. He will be in the team room as an assistant captain, Alex Norin. Uh is your winner at BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Um he’s finished T7 at the 3M Open over here, T3 at the Windham Championship, won at the British Masters at the Belelfrey uh three, four weeks ago, and then wins in a playoff today at Wentworth over Adrien Sadier, another player with the you know the uh Pablo Laothabal argument that we’re turning your back on the diet in the wool actual European tour members. Where’s Peny? Where’s uh Sadier? Where you know those types? get Matt Wallace who actually played on the PJ tour. Uh Sadier loses in a playoff to Alex Norin who then went and got on the plane to come over with the team. He’s with the Molinari brothers. Uh Thomas Bjorn all off the ball in the assistant captain’s room. Um I don’t know. I mean, everybody played decent except for Raasmus. He missed the cut by a mile. So he spent the weekend, you know, hobnobbing around London, just waiting for the plane to take off on Sunday while the rest had 36 to play. That sounds like a nice weekend. It’s pretty good. It’s pretty good. He’s the only one who missed the cut. I think, you know, if you want to say there’s a weak spot, he might be it uh on the on the European side, but uh any reaction to Wentworth, Alex Norn, it was it was decent coffee golf. You had Dr. Chapinsky. He chipped in, did sort of a half-hearted phone thing again. Still unclear if he’s calling or they’re calling him, but he’s the one picking up the phone. Uh Patrick Reed, no. Liv, the Live Boys. I mean, I give them credit. The Livbots, they are incredible at spinning any. I mean, they could take a little crumb and feed millions with the crumb. And this is their This was the crumb they got today was Patrick Reed beat every European on the European team to at Wentworth. Therefore, he should be on the USA team cuz look, he just beat everybody. He beat them all. He beat, you know, Fitz and Lowry and Rory and Havlin and Aber Patrick Reed finished his T3 with a 66 on Sunday. Uh, but Norin is your winner. Any reaction to Wentworth, Andy? Um, do you see do you know where Norin’s ranked now in the in the world rankings? No. This is a big one. I’d say 21 17 16th. Okay. Um, that’s according to Noseratu, our friend, uh, the Twitter account. So, he’s ranked 16th in the world, which is or 18th. 18th, my bad. Pretty crazy. Like, I would never have considered him, you know, like to be or like consider the Europeans to not have like a top 20 player playing on their team, you know? Yeah, obviously it’s kind of similar to Billy Horchel years ago where he made this run late. Um, Alex Norin’s career, it’s pretty amaz like he’s won 12 times on the European tour. I believe he has the most wins now of the Swede. I think he passed Henrik Stenson and Bob Carlson for Europe European tour wins. Obviously Stenson’s done a lot elsewhere. I think the most impressive thing do you know how many years between his first and and this win have have good question past uh I’d say call it like 201 2016 something like that he first won in 2009 so 16 years at it and obviously like you know the social media catnip is like his hands and his the way he grinds on the range all that but I mean, I you kind of got to love Alex Noran where, you know, probably not been handed like the most talent of anybody out there. Um, you know, he’s very good. He’s obviously like a bonafide PGA Tour player, but he’s remade his game. He’s gone through lows. He’s gone through highs. And like anybody that plays, you know, winning level golf on on either of those tours for 16 years is it’s just an a pretty incredible career. And obviously he’s never had a ton of success at majors, but bonafide like highlevel professional golfer who might be playing the best golf at a time when he probably thought he was in the twilight of his career. And that’s pretty cool. If you’re playing a match next week, you want him out there instead of Good news is he is. He’s an ass cap. He’s an ass cap. He said he’s not bringing his clubs. I saw an interview with uh Sky where they were asking that’s ridiculous. If he’d bring his clubs and he was like, “No, no, no. The lads have played much better than earlier part of the year. Uh I can’t can’t do that.” I would be like, if I were Donald, I’d be like, “Yo, like Hoygard, like we might need it to you to take a dive on this one. I need you to like fake an injury or or an illness of some kind. What if somebody gets hurt? You bring your club. He’s the guy, right? Yeah. Yes. 100%. He should be ready to go. He can they you can sub a guy in before the opening ceremony, I guess, is is the rule according to it. So, when is the opening ceremony? I love that rule. F. It’s Thursday at like 5:00 p.m. around there somewhere. What year was it when nobody had sunglasses and they were just staring into the sun? might have been Wisconsin, I think. Right. They’re all in their the brown jackets looking hun over and they’re just like spearing into the sun. But yeah, the real story about what about rules is the year in Valddorama 97 when they bullied that guy, this fellow Spaniard off the team. Yeah. Uh basically cuz they did cuz he was hurt, but he and like they came to some sort of like negotiated agreement where he could come to the opening ceremony, be in the picture, but not play. What a ridiculous. We might have to revisit that on a flashback Friday. I would not have obliged. Did he come with just like a putt and stand in the picture and then go home? Yeah, it was it was a whole deal. It was like one of Seby’s great fights with uh the European tour. Yeah, I remember. I I mean, didn’t he get his redemption in or was that wait 97? Well, that was when they won. Yep. I I think yeah that opening ceremony we’ll talk about it I guess just some random musician some speeches like you know it’s just hilarious I guess you could you could go you know Jeff Galuli on Raasmus walking up to the stage and then Noran’s already on his way out the right place for it you know in Long Island. I’m sure there’s a guy looking to make make a quick buck there’s some guy who’s ready to come out the woodwork. Any other Wentworth thoughts? Patrick Reed probably doesn’t need to be on the team. The the po the notion that Noran has of like these guys played better throughout the year is is preposterous. Like you know the guy who scores 30 points per game in in January doesn’t mean anything that much in in May and June in the NBA or you know Lamar Jackson obviously incredible quarter incredible just stat stuffer in September through November. What a welcome to this podcast. Yeah. throwing it into the third row come January. Anyways, I’m kidding. Uh, but yeah, the notion is ridiculous that that they played better throughout the year. If you’re playing it next week, you want Alex more. Anything else from Wentworth? No, they got nothing else. Fine. Uh, LPGA Charlie Hall continues the streak of zero repeat winners. Just the great the great parody year on the LPGA. Just what the new commissioner wanted. Honestly, honestly, he’s a disaster. This is like this is the worst case scenario. And also none of us seeing Nelly Corda like throughout the whole year. That’s even worse. This would be like if every NBA team went 41 and 40. Um it’s I mean Charlie Hall is catnip central. That’s a name player. They probably want the winner circle. And she did it without having cigarettes. I don’t know if you heard. Yeah. You’d like to see her win like five times. Yes, I got it. And the way she won was Gino did a cool. It was the number one player in the world. Two puts to win, three for a playoff, four to go home. She went touch them all, rounded the bases, all four, and went home. and and she blasted the lag, you know, six feet past, hit the lag about this, I’m sorry, the second putt, another four feet past, missed that one, and then four putt, you know, tapped it in for the four Charlie Hall two putts. How far away was she on the first putt? Yeah. I mean, it was like Ben Griffin territory. It wasn’t 90 ft. It was probably 50. Crazy. 60. And I I didn’t see it. How did she gun the second one? Like way back, too. The second one I was like, whoa. They they shouted about that. Like you just need three to keep playing. That had to be so uncomfortable as the playing partner. Well, Holland hadn’t putted yet. I don’t think Oh, she was. So, she was in the group. She I think she thought that had to be uncomfortable. I believe she was and and then she went and rolled it in and wins. Do you say like sorry? It was awkward. it. I wouldn’t say she like, you know, went nuts. It was this, yeah, you just watched a car crash. Am I supposed to start dancing now? Um, situation. One time somebody just like kind of melted down against me in a match and after it ended I I said, “I’m sorry about that.” I didn’t know what to say. I just came back. I just came back from a golf trip with and all the guys on my golf trip are like 18 plus, you know, 15 to 18, 20 handicaps. And so this is very relatable. Like guys putting off of greens and uh just completely like car crash shell shock face. But this is the number one player in the world. He needs three putts for a playoff. And it’s four putting to lose is like that’s about as bad as you can get. They went back forth back forth the whole time. No real breakers, nothing. No G giant Sidewinder. Um, on the Champions Tour, the goose is loose. Ratif Gusen wins at South Dakota. Uh, the mini haha, whatever. Sanford International, he wins. Uh, gave a great victory speech. Any know, it’s good to win. Uh, this this was the week that I feel like the champs tour really broke through into the public consciousness. Sure. Uh not in a not in a good way. Uh John Daly uh shot an 88 in round one after that with a 19 on the par five 12th. Uh just one putt 19. Um but that went that was on ESPN. That was on House of Highlights. That was uh that was like the first time that the chtor really kind of broke through. So, who needs Tiger when you got John Dailyaly making 19? Uh, I feel bad. I feel bad. I got I got wind of this happening. This This has happened on Friday amongst some people in the biz, I would say, and it wasn’t yet mainstream and they’re like frantically scrambling to pull together the assets because they knew they were sitting on a sitting on a whirl or howitzer. And so, I’m just going to say I’m happy for all my, you know, aggregators and social media managers out I know it’s a tough time of year. September, you’re kind of there’s just not a lot to work with. This is a windfall. You got a little JD Friday afternoon catnip making a 19 uh to to bump the impressions number. You won’t believe John Dy’s 19. Uh so I’m happy for them. Uh that’s your champs tour a minute. Thank you. PJ news. Rder Cup players on the European side are using VR headsets. Can you overprepare for the for the Ryder Cup? We’re gonna find out. We’re gonna find out here. I mean, there [ __ ] they’re spending 25 days together when you account Wentworth flying today for matches that are, you know, September 28th. I get it. I not But it’s big commitment for the Euro side. They’re now using VR headsets. Uh no pictures of them yet because you look like a total dunce, you know, when you’re looking around with the with the goggles on. Um Rory talked about this Sunday after his round. They said, “How far do you want this to go?” So, it’s to simulate heckling. You know, they’ve got crowd noise and heckling. Now, I don’t know if you’re, you know, they’re getting really personal with this or what who’s it be kind of like, you know, these people who are trying to, you know, who are like mods on Facebook groups who see some like really disturbing [ __ ] like what kind of messed up stuff can I come up with to heckle these players? Um, they said, “How far do you want this to go?” Oh, Maroy told reporters at Wentworth it. Uh, I said go as and Rory said I go as far as you want. It’s like, oh my god, get get twisted. It is just to simulate the sights and sounds and noise. That’s the stuff that we are going to have to deal with. So, it’s better to try and desensitize yourself as much as possible before you get in there. You can get them to say whatever you want them to say so you can go as close to the bone as you like. Wow. um and added, “We are doing everything we can to best prepare ourselves for what is going to feel like on Friday, but nothing can really prepare you until you’re actually in that. You can wear all the VR headsets you want and do all the different things we’ve been trying to do to get ourselves ready, but once the first tea time comes on Friday, it’s real. You have to deal with whatever’s given.” So, they had a big dinner on Tuesday and they were I don’t know. They’re doing the VR headsets. This got aggregated. This became light newsw week. This became a big deal. I don’t I don’t mean to bring up LeBron again. I really don’t. But uh you you have you you guys are familiar with the uh Sopranos episode that is technically cannon that was used to recruit LeBron to the to the Knicks in 2010. Do you think they got like Bobby Bakala Steve Sheriffa to like just just do some voice over work? Some voice over work as close as you can get. Like I want to know what the line is if we’re going right up to it. Like I want to know where it is. I love that you pulled out Bobby Bakala. I mean, yeah. I think you get like, you know, Andrew Schultz or these some of these these comedian types who I mean, what are we talking about here? I I assume we’re talking about like women and children and family stuff that you like are just programming these VR headsets. That’s what I read into. One of my favorite underrated Rory moments is at Hazeline when they were singing Sweet Caroline to him because of Caroline Wniaki who he had like been broken up with for like two years and he like was in such a like like competitive rage that he was like screaming it back to them in between TE’s like singing along to it. I was like this dude is is wired in a fun way. That was that was that was nasty. That that Hazel team got nasty. I don’t know if we’re going to get there Beth Paige. I don’t know if people are priced out, but do you think that I honestly think, you know, this is first take stuff. Like, are they overdoing it here? Are they like really over over emphasizing this? It’s you got to win an away game to like really make that’s the last big thing. And we’re going to do VR headsets and we’re going to go two weeks ahead of time. The VR headsets to me strikes me as just some like PR [ __ ] that like Rory’s putting this thing on for two minutes and being, you know, somebody’s being like, “You [ __ ] suck, Rory.” And he’s like, “Yeah, I’m good. All right.” Like, I don’t need this anymore. Like, I’m not going to sit and hit wedges while this, you know, guy is going at me. That’s like this. It just doesn’t strike me as like a real thing that they’re actually like prepping with. But it makes great content to put out a press release and be like, “This VR company is going to load up on this.” Let’s be real, too. Like if you’re doing this in virtually, like the reason that what somebody would say riles you up is because of the competitive moment. Yeah. And the where where the competitive moment has you mentally allows you to get riled up because people say stupid [ __ ] to these guys every week. Yeah, they do. They do. I mean, that’s like one of the most like I would say amusing things about going to golf tournaments for me at this point is like just listening to what people say. It’s like, oh, you had you waited for this person all day and that’s what you that’s what you came up with. The best is when they give them advice on the read. Yeah. Or if it’s it’s not playing as loud as it looks or stuff like that. That’s just the best. Um Yeah. I don’t know. That was the big news. VR headsets. The other news uh from Josh Carpenter, PR returning or PGA Tour returning to Austin for a fall event in 2026. This is at the Barton Creek uh facility. I believe that’s a resort with four different courses. I don’t know. Okay. Fall event. I mean, isn’t the fall going the way of the dodo under roll? I mean, the fall series might be not long for this world, but Austin’s going to have one next fall. allegedly reportedly by Josh Carpenter Sports Business Journal. Uh Andy, any reaction to this? Great market to go to for the fall though. I mean I mean still like sports starved big metropolitan market. Good idea. I mean, are you worried if you’re in ticket sales for the Longhorns on a false Saturday, people are just going to bail and go to Omni Barton Creek and not go to home game? If Arch keeps playing the way is playing, it’s fair. Just a guy Arch. No. No. Oh, that’s future future Jet Bears quarterback next year. Future Jet. Arch manage. He He’s destined to be a Jet. You know, it’s it’s serendipitous. I’m sorry. I could see the family. I I was gonna say Payton quite literally stayed in school so he wouldn’t be I can’t imagine they’re gonna let him do that. Not that I want him, but what if all of our teams are drafted quarterbacks next year? There are no quarterbacks. They’re all bad. Clubnick, you can have Garrett Nusmeer. You want Garrett Nusmeer? You can have him. Take him. It seems like Seems like you might have him. It’s I I’m the most likely one of the three of us. I fear it’s uh it’s dire. So happy birthday, Deshawn. Happy birthday as we’re about to go. That was big. That was that was sponsored, too. That was that was a big get. Yeah. Like decorators or something like that. Oh, hold on. Give me two seconds. I’ll pull it up. But that’s a big get for that uh for that sponsorship. talk about. They did not attach a sponsor to Deshaawn Watson’s birthday. I swear I swear. There’s no way. You used to work for a team. I’d have to do that. No, I actually didn’t. No, usually they are. I I as someone who had to attach sponsors to those posts. Those those can be big impression boons if you get the right guy. Give us Was there anybody from the Lions that like just guy who missed three field goals the week before you? It’s Yeah, it would always work out that way that it would just be like the the guy you did not want it to be his birthday would always be his birthday. Do you think the lack of punctuation in that message was like negotiated by there was meetings about that? That went all the way up the ladder. I I know that for a fact. We can’t go obviously no exclamation point, but like the lack of a period was you want to comp it? Happy birthday to Sean. Nothing. 10:00 a.m. 10:05 a.m. A happy game day birthday to Dylan Samson today. Exclamation point. Oh, so we had an AB. We have like a test. Dylan Samson has played one game for the Browns. He’s a rookie sixth round running back. Oh, they just they don’t have to do it. Deshawn is so out of sight, out of mind. You don’t have to set the facility. They have to do it. Clearly Quincy Avery’s posted all the all the clips. Sergio Sergio would argue otherwise. You know the bolter. That’s right. Should have go at him. I I one of my favorite amusements of of hearing PJ’s tales from social media world for professional sports team is how you like have to tweet out the game result. I was sitting in the car with PJ and I was like, “Oh, the Bears the Bears just tweeted out the game result. Looks like people aren’t happy.” And it’s like, “Yep, they never are.” That was a big one, too. When you attach a sponsor to that and you suck. So many replies and engagements. God, that’s one of those where it’s like, “Invisalign, untag us, please.” It’ll like reply. In Invisalign can’t handle the bad press from I was thinking about getting my teeth straightened, but now after this Oh, that’s good. All right. Well, this is a preview of what’s to come. I think next next couple weeks at Ryder Cup KBB. Go ahead. PJ and I talked about this a little on the golf course today. Yeah. Which of our team three teams is the best team? I think the Bears. I think the Bears. Probably the Bears. Oh, we said we said the Browns might be the best. No. No. Joe Flacco is our starting quarterback. He’s like 42. Nothing against Joe Flacco. But listen, if you gave it to me right now, a third Joe Flacco Jets tenure. I’d probably take it. I’ I’d be in. We have a lot of people in Baltimore are up in their feelings this week for Joe. and Lamar were hugging after the game like they were, you know, father and a son. It was great. Our defense is good. I think Flaco on the Bears, the Bears might be a better team. My god, they might be. I mean, he was way better than Zach Wilson was like way better than 40 what? 52 points today, Andy. I don’t know. It’s all on Caleb. Well, the defense is abomination, but who would have guessed that when all you did was spend all your money in draft picks on offensive players who don’t the draft from the draft picks aren’t even playing. They just draft a tight end of the top 10. Let’s just not even play them. Wow. I did find though there’s one player that has thrown a pass for all three teams. Who is it? Uncle Josh Macau, offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings. That scans. That scans. That’s about right. Good. Love that there’s a player that’s thrown a pass for all of us. Um, all right, Kevin, it was a treat to have you here as your first kind of introductory day with the full time with the team at Fried Egg. Thank you. Uh, you’ll be jumping in with us a lot on Ryder Cup, like recaps and live shows and things like that. That week, you’ll be in New York with us. We’re going to have a great time. We’re pumped to have you. Thank you for joining us this week. I I want to say I was wearing this hat around uh Baltimore yesterday and uh What hat is it? No interest in fighting. No interest in fighting. You’re you’re jumping in. We got you dr. We got you no interest in fighting stuff. You’re ready. And uh wife and I went to sort of a a fancy coffee shop uh in Baltimore. I won’t name it. Uh but you know, everyone there is like got a couple nose rings, you know, got a couple thesises that they’re working on and stuff. And the the nice lady at the the front desk, she said, “I really like your hat.” And I was like, “Well, thank you.” you and I so if we feel like we’re big with pacifists here that we’re they really feel that this is not a person who under any circumstances could have possibly known what this hat meant other than you know I just don’t didn’t want to engage in fighting uh in general. So I feel like we can we can move a lot of these units uh in Baltimore amongst those kind of hipster coffee shops. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll get it we’ll get it out the Andy’s granola crowd. We’ll be good. We’re gonna be good with the no interest in fighting stuff. All right. Uh that does it. Kevin, we’re pumped to have you. This is a big big moment for the podcast Friday. We’re pumped. We’re excited to get up to Ryder Cup. You can read his work in the newsletter on the website. We got a Ryder Cup hub coming this week. Uh until then, we’ll talk to you guys on Wednesday.