Did Tiger Woods fulfil his potential?

Did Tiger Woods fulfil his potential?

Welcome back to the Rich Shields Golf Show podcast episode. Did I even say that right? Welcome back to the Rick Shields Golf Show episode 33. You would think by now you’d have that absolutely nailed and in my head it was nailed. When it came out my mouth it wasn’t nailed. Hi guy. Hello Rick. I’ve actually literally come running through the door today. I’ve bust down the door. I said we are gonna come and make a podcast right now. We have not spoke all morning. How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? I had I just said to Gabe off camera who is producing the podcast. I had a very nice weekend, a very relaxing weekend. Nice with a mixture of sports, Rick. There was swimming on Friday with my little girl. It wasn’t really swimming. It was more just jumping in. But there was swimming on Friday. And um I’m sure a lot of people listening to this can relate. Toddlers are hard work. Toddlers are hard work. So we got in the pool. She’s got she still was a swimming nappy. She’s she’s nearly three. That’s fair. She said, “Daddy, I need a wee wee. Just got in the pool.” Right. I’m on my own with it. So I said, “Look, if you want to do your swimming nappy, just a wee wee, right?” Then she said, “I need to do a poo poo poo. I’ve done a poo poo.” I was like, “Oh, no.” So I got out the pool, went to change. She’s obviously all cold and and it’s all wet and obviously gets to the toilet, take a swim nappy off. There’s no poo in there. She just made it up. So I had to get back into the pool all and it’s just one of those things. It doesn’t sound a big deal at the time. You’re freezing. It’s wet. Trying to get a swimming outfit back on when it was wet. Anyway, that was Friday. I then went to the driving range. I need your advice on something massively. Rick, you need to help me with the decision I need to make. I thought you going to turn around and say to your daughter, “Daddy’s also done.” Wouldn’t be the first time. God, sorry. You went to driving range and last night I watched some of the golf watch Marco Penge go on to victory once again for this year. And he’s so good. I love him. We need to chat in depth at Marco Penge today. And also last night I watched the darts Luke Humphre versus Luke L. Did you watch any of it? I did not know until hold my hands up the format for the World Grand Prix. I didn’t hit doubles first. How incredible was that? I didn’t love it. Oh, I I didn’t love it. Um, one question I do have on this and yes, you have tuned into a golf podcast, but we talk about other sports. All right, deal with it. What I don’t quite understand is how is Luke Humphrey still number one? I can tell you this cuz I looked into it. So, it’s quite good. They do it off money earned over a two-year period and that’s always rolling. So a bit like the handicap system now some point it’s going to shift. So if he has a couple of events doesn’t do very well and which he probably won’t so good but then Luke Litler does well. I think now he’s about 70,000 behind him. The caveat to that is the money in darts although it’s come on massively and it’ll keep improving it’s still nowhere near that of like golf because yesterday I think Luke Litler won 120 grand. Okay. Luke Humphre came second at 60 grand. You put that up against the DP World Tour event or PJ Tour event. Yeah, it’s it’s not a lot. Obviously the sponsors and stuff like that, but yeah, at some point I would envision in the very very near future Luke Litler will become the world number one. Well, it was a dominating performance. It was it was good. I must admit I would like to go to the darts. Yeah, it looked like good fun. Um I I love the chant at the end cuz obviously they didn’t want it to end. It was like we don’t want to go to work and like they just want to like it for it to carry on, don’t they? It’s like can you imagine if you went and someone says have you seen Rick Shields? You know what? He’s in the corner being sick. Really? What what’s happened? He’s had 12 pints of Guinness zero. He’s gone dizzy. Just too much hyper just too much for him. It’s either that or Red Bulls. Um yeah, no is action week action-packed weekend. Um, I didn’t weirdly didn’t watch a lot of golf, but I was kind of following on my phone and and Marco Pang just seems to be dominating at the moment. And he really is. He is a cool kid. Yes. Very, very cool kid. And I say kid, he’s 28 years old or 27 years old. Um, kid to you. Kid to me. You know what he’s done really well? He had a little bit of controversy a couple of years ago. We actually got banned end last year when he got banned for kind of having a few casual flutters on the golf which he got a slapping of the on the wrist and told he can’t can’t do that and the golf he’s displayed this year has been nothing short of extraordinary and he now will be going on to the PJ tour right yeah so yeah you’re right a couple of things on that I read up on this last night actually apparently he was betting on golf that to be fair he wasn’t playing in the event and he was always betting on people to win as well so although it was a bit maybe a bit foolish it wasn’t really anything that deserved him to get a real, you know, black mark next to his name. But this year, he’s now won three times on the DP World Tour. His second race to do by only behind obviously Rory Mroy. He’s won 2.6 million euros. Bearing in mind last year was his best year to date with 300,000. So he’s almost 10x that. Um, but he reminds me in some regard, I don’t know why, and you might tell me I’m talking nonsense, a bit like a Mimu Lee kind of vibe. He absolutely smashes the golf ball. He looks the part. He um has seems to have an all round game. It was an amazing playoff against Dan Brown who was injured. I think was it the 13th hole he had some injury to have actually someone come out on the golf course. I don’t if you saw this and treat him just lay down getting like a massage go and I think he had like three or four birdies after that which is incredible and that 18th hole was a perfect final hole. Um Dan Brown birded it and Marco pred it then leading to the playoff. But what was crazy, I watched it with my dad yesterday. He came around watching some of it. If you had Dan Brown and Marco Pen stood next to each other, which he had, and you said, “Which one of those hits it the furthest?” Most people would put the money on Dan Brown. Dan Brown is not sure. His ball speed with his driver was like 174. Marcos was 194. It’s incredible. Ridiculous speed. Incredible. It’s ridiculous speed. Um, was it just one playoff hole? It was one playoff hole. Marco put up near the green, a chip and a put, and won it. Um he now from winning that gets the Masters uh the winner of the the Spanish over gets the Masters but he’s also now 32nd in the world. So as long as he finished that to the year end anyway I think getting all the majors top 50. He’s now going to get a PJ tour card. Apparently he’s moving in January to the States cuz there was rumors that we’re going to live. Don’t know if you heard any of these rumors or not. There’s rumors that he was going to be joining live. Apparently he’s kind of somewhat put those to bed yesterday and said no I’m moving to the PJ tour in January. and his goal is to have a solid year um do well in the playoffs then come back and kind of play in these similar events next year on the DP World Tour. But the bigger question is as amaz of their best players are leaving million%. Like it’s it’s at million% like every single year their top 10 just flutter off to the PGA tour and it must be like gut-wrenching. I mean, I tell you what, if you’re a player that’s not in that top 10 though, you think, “Thank goodness. Go on, get out here. Let me go and earn some money next year cuz it must be really tough.” Um, I I like M Marco a lot. He’s um with a ex lady professional called Sophie Lamb. Uh they’ve got a kid and another kid on the way. They’re actually I don’t know if you I know she’s from Cleo Lanasher because she used to play at Cleo Golf Club where used we used to do a lot of filming and Marco actually practices a lot at Clethero Golf Club as well. I don’t know if that’s where they kind of call home but I know that he’s got a he’s got some uh history with the Northwest of England as well. Um yeah, I think it’s it’s mega. It’ll be really interesting to see what he does next year. Um it’ll be interesting to see if that decision is final or whether it was a little chess move to say I’m not going to move to live and see what happens if there’s any offers that come in strong. Um certainly the Majestics are looking for an incredibly talented probably English player to replace Henrik Stenson. So it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s on their radars. Well, what’s crazy is I mean you look at his game and looking at his stats now on the DP World Tour this year, his driving distance is is fifth. His greens in raggy’s sixth, his put greens is eight. So he’s got an all round game. Stroke averages is fourth. You’d imagine with that kind of distance he’s going to have if he does go on to the onto the PJ tour, he’ll do very well. He’s got the game that suits to that. But you know what is interesting as well and I know there’s a lot more to golf than money alone. Of course there is. But you look at the money Marco’s made this year on the DP World Tour and obviously if he goes on to play well on the PJ tour that that will massively increase. But you look at the purses on Liv if he is the kind of person which isn’t a bad thing. If he says, “Look, you know, I want to earn as much money as I possibly can in a shorter time frame and and and join live and have a great couple of years on live or however long he’s on live for, he will probably make more money.” That is there’s no debate that I don’t think, is there? Um, who knows? He said he’s going to be on on PJ tour, but like you said, I think Tom McKibben said similar things. Uh, Adrien said similar things. You know, John Ram kind of said similar things and people do change their mind. We’re going We’re switching lanes here a little bit. We’re going for someone who’s very much on the rise of their career on a on a pathway to destiny, major tournaments, multi multi-millions. On the flip side, I want to talk to someone talk about someone who has done it, been there, got the t-shirt. In fact, got 15 of the t-shirts. 15 of the t-shirts. The main man, Tiger. Tiger yesterday or a couple of days ago announced he’s going in for some more surgery. Yeah. Do you know what? The picture that was shared online, he’s looking He’s not looking like Tiger Woods anymore, is it? I don’t think I’ve seen the picture actually. I saw the announcement. Oh, wow. Yeah. Now, this might have been taken at a different time, but God, he’s he’s it’s hard, isn’t it? It’s hard watching a legend of the game just kind of I don’t know, get older, struggle, have health issues. U he’s going in. So, this is what he said as a statement. After experiencing pain and lack of mobility in my back, I’ve consulted with doctors and surgeons to have tests taken. The scans determined I have a collapsed disc in L45, disc fragments, and a comp compromised spinal canal. I mean, that’s a lot in it. I don’t understand it, but it sounds painful. I opted to have my disc replaced yesterday and I already know that I’ve made a decision for my a good decision for my health and my back. I mean, is is this it? Is this it? Is this is this are we are we genuinely I know we’ve brought this up a few times in the podcast before. Is this the end of Tiger Woods playing professional golf? This is a strange one to answer because in my opinion, part of me wishes that he’d retired at St. Andrews in 2022. would have been the perfect fitting, you know, for him to retire. He’s always said how it’s his favorite golf course and, you know, how historic the old course is. However, it’s how we look at this. You can’t be that guy that rules out Tiger Woods because if I do, this will get clipped in three years time when he wins another major or something and I look stupid. However, if I was a betting man, which I’m not, but if I was, I think now realistically I would bet against him ever winning again and maybe never competing again, which pains me to say. However, the caveat to that is, do I think Ty Woods will ever win again? I don’t deep down he can’t do. But does he want to retire now when he’s not obviously competitive, not playing, or will he get to a point, I don’t know. I’m not a doctor where he can at least play golf and battle through two or four rounds maybe at an old course where it’s flatter or something and you know he he can play in the masses till whenever he wants to. He’s obviously won the green jacket. Is there a future he just plays almost like a ceremonial role where he is playing a bit like you know Fred Couples or Bernard Langanger that have done so well and still competitive. Can he ever get to that level where he he he is maybe mid50s he’s never going to win it but he can make a cut or does he want to retire on a high because even saying that has the high almost gone does it feel sad for him retire like this now how does he retire when does he retire does he retire he’s 50 end of this year he’s 50 years old the end of this year I was looking online and this I don’t know if this is facts but I must admit I can’t remember when he’s played since that last time he played in an event was the 2024 open championship ship at R TR when he missed the cut. That’s the last time appar Someone might correct me on that on on that, but that’s apparently when he was last played a golf tournament. Um he’s obviously investing loads of time now in his in his children, which he’s he’s obviously he’s a dad. He has to. Um obviously Charlie is doing incredible with his golf. You know, it’s really really interesting. I as you said, I don’t want to say it. I don’t want to say he’s not going to come back, but it’s God, it’s looking less less likely, is it? It really is. Yeah. And I think realistically, as silly as it sounds, we’re kind of all somewhat selfish for wanting Tiger to play again because if the guy is in pain and he can’t, you know, Tiger was always the golfer who if he was playing, he was playing to win. And that was evident when he first became a professional and, you know, he said those statements about if he he thinks he can win every event he plays in because why would he turn up if he didn’t want to if didn’t think he could win? I think now it’s it’s pretty evident with the emergence of talent we’ve got on the on on the every tour DP world tour with Marco Penge Live Golf with obviously the amazing players over there the D the PJ tour is he ever going to be able to genuinely go to a major championship and compete and win I think the answer has as I said before has to be no is he going to be able to go to these events and make a cut that’s more likely obviously but still very unlikely you know if he’s 50 years old with all his injuries no matter what he’s done in the past your body does catch up with you And what opens my eyes now, probably more so than ever, is that the guys who are doing well in the majors, not only they playing four rounds of competitive golf to an elite standard, they’ve got the practice rounds before that, they’ve got all the um training that comes with that, physical training, you know, the warming up, the weight routines, etc. Surely he can’t put his body through that much more. Are we going to look back at this and feel like he he he didn’t fulfill his um potential? like is this is this going to be almost quite a I don’t know a a sad ending and outcome because you know he’s won 15 tournaments was it 83 uh sorry 15 majors 83 tournaments um you know he didn’t surpass Jack Nicholas’s record which he was so desperate to do like is he going to look back at it and go ah I didn’t quite fulfill my potential there in one sense when you say that statement or ask that question. Part of me thinks that’s ludicrous and part of me kind of agrees because very simply open up Wikipedia. I’ve got it in front of me now. You look at Ty Woods’s major record and you look from like well 1997 till the late 2000s 20078 etc. The amount of green which is obviously a first place is unbelievable. And clearly when we look from like 1999 from the PJ championship through to the masters in 2021 it was ridiculous. He went won the PJ championship in 1999. Then he came fifth in the Masters. Then he went win win in all the major. Obviously had the famous tiger slam. You look at that spell in the early 2000s. If you look at that in isolation and somebody says, “Did this guy fulfill their potential?” You say, “Of course he did. What an absolute dominant streak. We probably never ever see anything close to it again.” But then you look at from 2008 to 200 well from 2009 sorry 2019 when he won the Masters there was no major wins in that like 10 years span and lots of mis cuts and you know some top 10 finishes etc. That almost seems hard to comprehend and you think well could he have won more in that time? He absolutely could have done. Could he have beat Jack Nicholas’s record? He could have done. But it’s almost like it’s two careers. There’s a career that’s absolutely dominant where he couldn’t have done anymore. And then there is a 10 years or so where you think he could have won more. So I don’t know. It’s a hard question to answer. Definitely between 97 and 2008, you can’t argue he won he won more than he he he won so much it was ridiculous. But like you say, that 11year span then between 2008 and 2019 when he when he didn’t win and he had all of the drama, all of the, you know, time out of the game and all these other things, all these um shenanigans off the golf course that was happening. Yeah, sorry, I got the number wrong before as well. He’s won 82 official PJ tour events, tied with Sam Sneed, also on 82. again. He should have smashed that record. You know what though? If we ever are going to have this debate in it feels a horrible debate to have because I don’t want him to I don’t want to come to the conclusion that he hasn’t fulfilled his potential because it feels crazy to even say that. But the other thing I think that really really cuts him from a different cloth and does put him genuine in that conversation of the GOAT is the fact that he won went on to win that 2019 Masters because that was at the age of 43. I think Nicholas’s oldest major was when he was 46. So not too dissimilar. But you look at that and you think if you take that away from his if he hadn’t have won that event, there would have been a drought then from 2008 of the modern day with no major victory. Having that major in there kind of against the odds after, you know, periods of injury at the age of 43 to win a Masters, I will never ever forget that. I think that really really, you know, even the younger generation that might not have resonated with Tiger Woods, that opened their eyes. So, I I would hate to say that he hasn’t fulfilled his potential, but on the on the on the other conversation, you could you could argue, did Jack Nicholas not even fulfill his potential? Like, I know it sounds ridiculous. He won 18 tournaments. The amount of times he came second was staggering. Absolutely staggering. So, you know, almost that, you know, could he got to could Jack Nicholas have got to 25? Could Tiger have got to 30? it. There is no such thing as a perfect career. Like no, no athlete has ever had a perfect career. I was thinking this yesterday, weirdly. Maybe I was preempting this in the podcast, but as a huge Tiger Woods fan, I hate to say what I’m about to say now, and I’ve said this before on podcast and cause some debate. There’s no debate as to who’s the greatest of all time. In my opinion, it has to be Jack Nicholas. Because if we talk about a football match, if Liverpool play Man United and Liverpool win 1 nil, who’s won the match, Liverpool? Why have they won? Cuz he scored one more goal and they didn’t let any goals in. That’s quite simple. Who won the darts last night? Well, Luke Litler won. That’s the answer. Yes, there’s all sort of different times. It’s very hard. It’s not quite as black and white as that. I get that. But if you’re looking back at the careers now, and I think we can almost argue Tiger’s career in majors is probably over. got as horrible as that is to say out loud, he’s 115, Jack’s 118. How do you how does that debate continue? Really, you can’t. It’s the four majors. They both played in the four majors. It wasn’t as if there was more or less majors to play in. Um, it’s just it it’s imagine back imagine in 2018, sorry, 2008 when Tiger won his 14th major. It was almost it was almost a given he was gonna overtake Jack Nicholas, was it? Well, yeah, it was it was almost a given that just give it a few more years and that record and it would have been about 32 at the time. It wasn’t about how many it wasn’t about if he’s going to beat Jack. It was about how many is he going to get past Jack by. And he didn’t. He didn’t. I was just looking at this as well, by the way. Jack Jack Nicholas 18 major wins, 19 second places. Crazy. How wild is that? 19 second places. Um, wow. But anyway, will there ever be a golfer that lives that does fulfill the potential? I don’t know because golf in its very definition, you can’t ever fulfill your potential. Example, I know at the Marit Wy Park, I can birdie every hole. I I I I can there’s no hole I can’t birdie. You do struggle on seven a little bit. Seven, but you I can bird every hole. I know that I can par every hole. And it’s like, well, how often do I go and shoot level paring holes? Very rarely. Done it a handful of times in my whole life. I’ve shot under parath twice in my life. So, my potential in theory should be much better than where we are. Now, that’s just me in isolation. But, we know that, you know, let’s be honest now. I’ll I’ll list a handful of names. Scotty, Rory, Tommy, Xander Schoffé, the list goes on. They can all win events. They can all win majors, but Tommy’s not yet won a major. That’s not reached his potential, is it? Because he should have won a major by now. But then we’re looking at Rory. He’s not won enough majors. Scotty Sheff was doing very well, but unless he wins another big handful, has he reached his potential? So, how does a golfer ever maximize? different because suppose in a sport like football really the focus is on for the team winning the league. Let’s just say that’s the absolute goal and how you get to that point. You might not win every match but does it really matter at the end of the season if you’ve won the the Premier League. If you won every match or not they obviously prefer to but if they don’t they still won that end goal but golf it just feels like there’s so many events to win throughout a year unless you win every single one you ever play in. I don’t know. It’s quite a confusing concept isn’t it? cuz I feel ridiculous to say that Tigers hasn’t fulfilled his potential, but has he? On a on a on a flip statement then what? And I’m I’m using an example here. Okay. Has Danny Willie absolutely fulfilled his potential. Well, yeah, that’s the because did he ever presume he was going to win the Masters? No. But he’s won a Masters. So, so could you almost argue has he has he maximized his potential? Well, that everyone has different ceilings, don’t they? Yeah. So, if you were a guy, let’s just say you were a junior golfer who was kind of flirting with the county team and you in and out of it and you weren’t even the top best six players of your age in your county team, but then you managed to get continue to improve little by little, little by little, get on the DP World Tour and make a career where you never win an event. you you make the odd, you know, you do make cuts. You might get the odd top 10 and you’ve made a career off being a professional golfer and the players who you were playing with as a junior have since gone on to do other jobs and quit golf. You might have absolutely squeezed every last drop out of your potential, but you never even won an event. Whereas Tiger had the potential of winning three junior amateurs and three US amateurs back to back. So, six amateur events in a row of the highest pedigree. I don’t know. I don’t know the answer. Maybe we’ll have to do a poll. I’ll ask people in the comments. My my gut feeling is he didn’t he didn’t fulfill his potential. That’s my gut feeling. But then like you said, there’s not many that do. There’s it’s I think it’s one of the hardest sports to fulfill your potential. Well, there’s 150 guys or whatever in most events who are wanting to win. Yeah. Who all can win. But that’s what I’m saying. Is it more on a like a a Ben Curtis or a Todd Hamilton or a Danny Willlet? Sorry. Like I don’t mean to say Danny Willlet as he couldn’t win majors. Of course he could. But could he look back at Zinger and go, I won a major. Like he’s done something that Colin Montgomery couldn’t do. Uh Lee Westwood couldn’t do Luke Donald never did. You know, he’s done what Tommy Fleetwood has not done yet. But all right, then answer this question. I don’t know if you can. Maybe you’ll come back with Danny Willlet. But genuinely, I’m joking. How many golfers, if they were to retire today, god forbid, or when they do retire would look back at their career and say, “I’m absolutely happy with that.” And and I’ll use a very simple example again. Anyone who plays golf knows no matter what golf score you shoot, whether it’s your best ever or whatever, you go out and you go, but I could have buried three. I missed that three-footer and you could go, “Wait a minute, Rick, you did, but you hold an 80footer. You chipped in off the green. It was 80 foot long.” You’re not thinking about that one. Do you remember when your ball hit the tree and back in in bounds? Exactly. And the example I use here, kind of friend of the channel, amazing legend of the game, like Justin Rose has had such an incredible career. But will he be happy with I say only, but only one major championship when he retires? Probably not, cuz he’s an amazing athlete and he’s he’s got such potential and he can win more and he’s proven that this year. He’s so so so good. So, I don’t know. It’s very hard. I’m sure there’s some weird stat out there where you could almost work it out where you could look at someone’s career and what they should have won a bit like expected goals in football. Expected majors. Who’s overd delivered then? Who who has won multiple majors who has overd delivered? Um who has won multiple majors overd delivered? And I don’t even know how you answer that. how that is determined. um or even who there’s lots of guys who’ve won a major who you could argue I would never have had them down to major in like someone like JJ Spawn that even this year like you know even after he won was at the US Open he won it was like I didn’t expect I didn’t expect to be the guy that’s winning the major and it to him that’s he he’s he’s playing with with free money now with house money because he’s he’s achieved probably what he exactly wanted to achieve. Um, I mean there’s probably I mean I would say the guys who really really really didn’t reach the potential I probably put Sergio Garcia in that in that list potentially Ricky Fowler in that list. Um, do you think Tommy has to win a a major or multiple way majors to avoid being in that list in the future? Yeah. Yeah, I do. You know, and even and even you look at guy like you look at Anthony Kim. I mean, g he had literally the world at his feet. Crazy. Anyway, anyway, food for thought. Um, sorry. Sorry. Very quick one and I don’t I’d love to know if you saw this because I heard about it for a group chat. Did you hear about was it Nick M let me get his name up yesterday who shot Did you see his final round score one second it’s on PJ talk was it the 60 yeah at the bay at the bay current classic I if you had this down on your notes there was there was a lad yesterday was it Nick McCarthy um I can’t find his name now and he shot a final round Matt McCarti he shot a final round 60 Mhm. Mhm. With a bogey on the last. It’s ridiculous that isn’t it? He had to par the last to shoot a 59. And And this is how it went to uh shot number one. He basically hit it into the water. Had to take a penalty drop then hit a 304 yard shot down the fairway and he got up and down from 108 yards for a bogey. I mean this back n his back I mean his back n is just unreal. He he played it the wrong way around actually, but on the f So he played the bat n first. He was four and under through the first nine. Then he went eight birdies in a row and bogeied the last for a 60. But it also shows how many times do we ask this question? How is golf consistent? First round 75. His second round 65, his third round 74, his final round 60. He’s playing the same golf course four days in a row and he’s and his worst score compared to his best score is 15 shots different. It’s madness. Absolutely crazy. You know what’s Yeah. And I think we’ve said this before, haven’t we, about golf. It’s like we don’t give ourselves enough credit. Imagine if there was like a golf doctor on the first tea, right? And they look at you and say, “What’s your handicap?” I’m off I’m off 10. Okay. Let me look at your swing. Okay. Be honest. Now you could go out today and you could shoot 79 or 95 and that’s within a happy healthy range cuz that that’s really for a 10 handicapper that’s you know what else doesn’t get spoke about enough and I don’t know why I’m well I do know why I’m so surprised but in that event as well if you look at the leaderboard tied 14th was Nikolai Hoyard and Raasmas Hoygard we how are the two twins who it sounds obvious twins often have look very similar have the same DNA you know it’s not that unusual that they might be into similar things whatever ever. But to both be so good at golf at almost the exact same level. One was in this year’s Ryder Cup, one was in the previous Rder Cup. They’re shooting the same scores. Well, these shots are same final score. But again, you look at there uh Nikolai shot 687264. Raasmus shot 7268 6866. So albeit the the the final score they both took for four rounds. They shot 274 shots each for four rounds. They did it totally different ways. And actually, weirdly enough, they they actually matched that guy Matt Mikart’s score uh of also 10 under. That’s wild. It is wild. How does that even happen? By the way, the guy who won, Zander Schoffé, um shot 19 under. Good golf. I mean, it’s good, isn’t it? Is good golf. 71 6367 64. Can I read an email to you, Rick? Speaking of these amazing golfers, this kind of ties in very nicely. Had a nice email from a guy called John Sanders, who I believe is in the USA. Says, “Hi guys, I love the podcast. In fact, I just finished last episode where you interviewed Rachel Drummond and it was easily my most favorite episode ever.” We’ve had a lot of very nice comments about that episode. We had It was a great episode if I say so myself. Well, it was down to Rachel. She was amazing. He says, “Her story is so inspiring and her personality is so fun. It’s just infectious. I went on to watch more interviews on the Live Golf app and I’m really impressed. Thank you, John. She’s she’s very good at what she does. Anyway, I’m curious if golfers in the UK have heard of the Fred Haskins Award. It is a US award given annually to m to the best collegiate golfer in the country. Past winners include Phil Tiger, Ben Krenshaw, and a host of wonderful players. So, I had to kind of Google this because it rang a bell, but I didn’t quite know if I’ definitely heard of it. The Fred Haskins Award. I definitely had heard of it. If you’d said to me, “What’s it called?” My guns in my head, I wouldn’t have known, but I had heard this award. Anyway, he then goes on to say, “Fred Haskins is my greatgranddad. He passed away in 1983, so memories of him are very few. The story passed down to me is that uh his family prior to moving to America, opened a golf club making shop near Hoy Lake, and their family’s apartments on the top floor. I think a few golfers in the US know of him and I’m curious if many UK golfers, particularly you two, have heard of him. I’d be dead chuffed. Did I say that right, Brackets? Yes, you have. To hear my greatgranddad’s name on your podcast. So, first of all, John Sanders, thanks for your email. You will hear your granddad’s name, Fred Haskins, on the podcast, because I did a little bit of research on this. So, again, I had kind of heard of it loosely, but we did a bit of um googling and Wikipedia, etc. And the Haskins Award, it’s presented annually by the Haskins Commission to honor the most outstanding collegiate golfer in the USA and it’s named after Fred Haskins. So some of the winners uh recent winners have been Ludvig Aberg, Chris Gotup, Sahath Fala, uh Matt Wolf, and then we go a bit older into some of the serious names you’ll know. Uh Justin Thomas, Patrick Canle, Russell Henley, um Hunter Mayhem, Gray McDow, then we go to Luke Donald, Tiger, Stewart Sink, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson won it three times in a row. Some unbelievable names. So what was quite interesting is about this is so Fred Haskins was born and bred I believe in Hoy Lake. So very near obviously Roy Liverpool and Wy etc. And if you look on the website Rick, there is his golf shop that was in Hoy Lake. Now, this is very, very old school. This is like the very early 1900s, I believe. How cool is that? It looks like one of the shops you’d now see in St. Andrews. Golf clubs in the window, etc. And essentially, he had this golf shop and he was born in 1898. And at the age of 23, he moved to America uh to East Lake where he became a very close friend of Bobby Jones. And a year later, Bobby Jones recommended that um Mr. Haskins went over to the country club of Columbus where he was there for many, many, many, many years and went on to coach juniors, inspiring golfers to win over 150 championships. And he retired in 1952 after 34 years of being a head pro and then went on to be the superintendent of the golf club for another 19 years and sadly passed away in 1981. But to kind of honor his impact on junior golfers and collegiate golfers, that’s this award was named from. But it’s mad how this award that Tiger Woods has had his hands on. Phil Mickelson three times again Lud Vaybermer recently all these names and the guy was born and bred in Hoy Lake. How wild is that? It’s cool, isn’t it? And you know what also it’s a really cool story. What also always inspires me is how these people back in, you know, the very early 1900s would go move to America. Yeah. How did they travel? How did they travel? How did they know what they were going to? It’s not you can go let’s have a look on Google now the Airbnb we’re going to stay for the first couple of months while we were there. Whatever. just just went on a whim and went on to forge an incredible career in golf and and you know was often I am anyway so naive for thinking that the world started when I was born because obviously I don’t know what happened before I was born other than looking at history things but like you know you’d experience it obviously and how golf has been here for so much longer than the last 20 or 30 years I love that is such a great story you know you know what I’d love to know more about and and I mean this story is so inspiring I always think of it when I think of um oh god I’ve just had his name in my head and I forgot it. Alistister McKenzie the famous golf course designer from the UK. How did he travel the world designing this many golf courses? If you if you are an Alistister McKenzie historian and you want to come on the podcast, email us at podcast richickshields.co.uk. No.com podcast at rickshields.com. Um, I’d love to know a little bit more about Alistister McKenzie. Um, and how he traveled around similar to Fred Haskins, like you know, from when did he actually move to 1923? How old would he have been? Uh, I think he was 22 23 when he moved. That’s unbelievable. Let me double check. I make sure I’m getting him. I feel like I need to get my I think he was a bit older. He was born in 1898 and he moved in 1921. Oh, 23. Yeah, he would have been 23. He would have been two in 1900. So 23 years old, but I mean to be a head pro of a golf club for 34 years, the 19 years as a superintendent, he must have known his onions about golf, but it was more I said impressive to to see that um it was his father apparently in 1880 opened the golf shop Haskins in Hoy Lake. They made custom golf clubs and were known for their golf balls cuz back then it would be these guys that actually make the golf balls, wasn’t it? It was like those brands of stuff. No tightly. Well, a Kushnet was a was a a brand like a person before Titus ended up taking on well became the parent brand. How interesting is that to go on and coach all these people who’ve played golf? It just shows how how much history there actually there is around you know our sport. Um how incredible was that? And his great grandson of this this real golfing family listens to our nonsense podcast every week. So that’s incredible. Thank you very much. Very humbled. He had to listen to the fact you took your daughter to the to the toilet who lied about poo in the pool. There you go. Can I give you another quick email? I won’t read it all in depth. It’s quite long, but it was from a bloke called David Billy who I believe is from Switzerland and he wrote us a really nice email saying um that essentially his daughter has moved from Switzerland to university in Chester. So he came over with whether he’s 50 years old. He’s played golf. So he’s 57 years old, but he’s played golf for 50 years. So since he was seven, he came over with his daughter to help her move to university. And while he was here, he thought he’d best go and play at Wallace after our recommendations. Went and played Wallace and has absolutely raved about it. And David is also a golf course architect as well. Um but yeah, he said, “I know it’s one of your favorite places. I just want to say thank you for the recommendation. It’s an amazing links course. and apparently loved the whole whole thing. Everything about Wallace kind of ticked all his boxes. So from a golfer with 50 years experience and someone who is a golf course architect, that was great to hear that he um enjoyed Wallace. Love that. Love that. Um we need to play more golf. The weather needs to get a bit better, don’t it? We do. It’s not going to get better. It’s going to get worse. It’s going to get worse and it’s going to get colder and darker. But this could be your time to practice this winter now every day and you might fulfill your potential. Well, Gabe very nicely went and got my clubs regrip for me the other day. I’m excited to feel them in my palms because I’ve gone for one thing we realized in the hit video recently when I I did a what’s in the bag. My grips was a real mismatch of everything and I didn’t think it affected me. The more I thought about it, the more I thought, what am I doing? Like, do you know what I mean? I I hate it. I can be honest with you. I can get that. I’ve got one golf club now, a full swing club, just my mini driver without the same grips. Everything else makes me feel a bit sick. Did you see even what I did? I went as extreme as regripping the stacks swing speed train. So now I’ve got I’ve literally a part of my putter, every single grip that I hold in my hands will be the same. And I’ve actually gone for interestingly um they were called I went for some golf prides and I got what they called now? Um chunky monkeys. Well, no medium chunks. No, one hand chunks. One a lower hand chunk. So I went and got the to velvet plus four. Yeah. So that means the low and I got it in midsize and that means the lower section of the grip is also it’s almost like parallel all the way through. I think it’s a good shout. I do think having that consistency is something that you should certainly you should definitely have. I think the reason obviously why you haven’t had that before is because you obviously get sent so many clubs to review and some of them make the cut and you go you know what I’m going to go and try this and use it on the golf course and whatever grips on it just you go and use it with that. So that’s where that’s kind of come from. It definitely it looks more aesthetic. Anyway, I’m excited. I’m really excited. Can I ask you some advice quickly before you wrap this up? Did you want this driving range? No, this was this is why I was Yes. Basically, as everybody knows on this podcast, I recently went to a more chunky forgiving iron. I swapped some Shrixen ZX5 irons. My feedback so far has been promising. They feel amazing. They go a long way and they are more forgiving. Downside was there was no spin on them at all. So, we got them um weakened in loft by two degrees. Went and used them a couple more rounds. Hit some great shots. You witnessed one the other the day at JCB with a long eye in some great shots. Superb five iron. However, you know when you something doesn’t quite feel right. There’s a bit of a feeling inside goes this isn’t quite right for me. Something’s giving me a bit of jib here. It was very much from the I know I’m not the best golfer in the world, but the creativity I felt like three/arter pitching wedges came off hot. Softer golf shots I couldn’t quite trust. Hitting a 79 into a green. I wouldn’t be surprised if it carried 170 or 190. A lot of that. As you well know, we recently went to title list and you got fitted for all the new gear. reviews coming very soon on the hit channel. Titless T100, 150 and 250, all coming very soon. Make sure you’re subscribed. And I got fitted for Titus T 100, which an Iron I’ve used for many, many generations, which I was using before I went to Shrix and had a great fitting and learned a bit more about my swing and what I need to improve on. So now I have got a very nice predicament where I’m thinking, do I use his new T100 or do I remain with my Shrixens? Okay, went to the driving range at the weekend. Hitting him, no data, hitting him, hitting him, hitting him. Not a lot to report back on. Stricks are more forgiving. Great. This morning before you got here, I went in the hit studio with Ben. He set it all up for me and I hit about 40 shots. They’re taking so far. Shrixens go further. Arguably 10 yards per club further and weaker. And you made them weaker. Yeah. And they’re more forgiving and they feel great. Lots of hands there, lots of pluses. The titleist look smaller behind the ball. Don’t give me quite as much confidence. go about 10 yards less. However, the spin on the tight list for every club is about 700 revs more. And I just know I’m getting the numbers that I should get. And if I hit a bad one, yes, I drop some distance, but if a good one doesn’t go further. So, for example, last bit before I know I’m boring you a little bit, but the listeners, my seven iron with the stricksen can go literally 190 with the tit is going 170 every time. Give or take a bad shot obviously. And the spin is I get 700 revs more. You know my game. What do I do? Well, I I’ve always had this issue with hot irons. It scares me to death. Like spin out aspect of it. Just having an iron that Yeah, it might give you confidence, but as a better player, you strike one and everyone knows when you strike one, you think, “Oh, yeah, it’s it’s come out good.” You can’t afford to have it going 10 of 12 yards further, can you? It just can’t happen. So that for me is always a real kind of I I would rather my re my good shots go the said distance and if I hit miss strike it comes a little bit short. I can live with that. What I can’t have is a really good shot. I can’t be looking down a flag and absolutely flush one and going oh my god that’s the perfect number. I’ve hit a perfect shot and watch it sail over the green because what do you do next? Like how do you hit the next iron shot? Do you hit it softer? trying try and hit it worse like do you then say right well actually now my 7 iron does go 190 it’s not going to do that every time you’re not going to be able to stand there and also I always think with that type of power iron even though it’s not ridiculous power I also think if you hit it harder you could probably get it to 200 well and also the worry I found from playing a little bit of golf is the longer irons is not as much an issue because you saw me hit an amazing four iron at um JCB which is a one in a million for me now if those shots that didn’t do in that instance in instance. But if those shots do go a bit further, it’s not maybe the end of the world cuz I’m never expecting to get a four iron that close to the green. If I’m just happy I’ve hit a decent strike, it’s the seven eight nine wedges where I am going for the green. I want to hit it obviously as close as I possibly can. I don’t want to hit one that I think I’ve hit well and fly the green by a mile. But the bigger picture and why I’m kind of sharing my somewhat dilemma on the podcast really is Titus by the way, great irons, striken, great irons. You’re not going to go wrong with either. But it just shows that if people do get fit off a mat and they take two irons buying A and iron B, most people look to distance and the one that goes the furthest they will end up buying and I understand that. But on the golf course, that isn’t what always what you’re looking for. Things like spin and descent angle are actually more important. I totally agree. Couldn’t agree anymore. Um, next week we have an incredible guest coming on. um who will have some unbelievable stories of his 40 years of being a caddy on pretty much every major tour and is caded for this list. You ready? Hit me. Sevy balanced. He was good. Done. That’s it. List done. Um Tiger Woods, he was also for a spell. Uh Lee Westwood. Um he uh Thomas Bejorn. Matt Fitzpatrick. The list. Can I throw a little Darren Clark in there? Daza Clark. Of course, Darren Clark sening when Matt Fitzpatrick won the 2022 US Open. Hit that amazing bunk shot on the last hole. He might have been the guy that handed the very n Iron to him. So, Billy Foster, the man himself, is on the podcast next week. So, be sure to tune in because it’s going to be an awesome guest episode which I already know is going to be full of unbelievable stories. Guys, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned. Lots more to come and we’ll see you very soon. Bye.

00:00 Intro
03:39 Marco Penge’s Breakthrough
06:30 DP World Tour Players Leaving
09:00 Tiger Woods Update
18:20 Who’s the Real GOAT?
20:05 Untapped Potential
26:25 Matt McCarty Shoots 60!
30:25 Fred Haskins
36:20 Wallasey Golf Club
37:20 Rick’s Club Rebuild
39:15 Guys Iron dilemma
43:50 Next Week’s Episode Preview

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