More Ryder Cup Controversy! Justin Thomas vs. Grounds Crew | Fore Play Episode 820

More Ryder Cup Controversy! Justin Thomas vs. Grounds Crew | Fore Play Episode 820

I just picture some guy with an email, an unread email where he’s like, I should have checked that Gean Bradley email of him being like, “Oh, you got to get these green speeds up. Athletic, bold, commanding, the Equinox EV helps you show up in style. We’re talking about Chevy. We are talking about golf.” Welcome to the Fourplay Podcast, everybody. It is Trent Riggs and myself. We cannot wait to get into everything that we got to get into today. We got a lot of stuff. Tiger Woods, we’ve got Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas comments. We try and do an immaculate grit. It goes horrifically. We’ve got a lot of stuff. The holiday season’s all around our favorite Christmas movies. Uh our Spotify wrapped u our wrapped lists, which is always a fun time of the year. Trent, how are we doing? And how are we doing in Chevys? Uh we’re doing great. Yeah, it’s a packed show. Actually, a bunch of golf news came out since we recorded the last show. So, yeah, we got into all of it. There there really was a lot. And uh yeah, it’s all brought to you by our great friends at Chevrolet, great American company. If it’s distance you’re after, the Equinox EV offers 319 mi of EPA estimated electric range with frontwheel drive. Leave the driving to the Equinox EV and show up to the course, energize with available Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance technology. The Equinox EV has a massive 17in diagonal center screen, the largest of any EV in its class. And when it comes to the EVs, Equinox EV is the smartest choice you can make. That’s Chevrolet. Let’s get right into the show. Let’s go. Foreplay presented by Bar Stool Sports. We are into December Christmas season. You know, the holiday spirit. It’s beautiful time of the year and it’s a beautiful time of the year for a little he said he said situation. We’ve got some news in the golf world in December that you just don’t get very often. A nice a nice Christmas gift from Santa early. There’s a little back and forth between Justin Thomas. The grounds grew at Beth Paige Black. You got PGA of America getting dragged under the bus yet again. We got a Tiger Woods press conference. Uh we got Roy Moy with some comments about Royal Melbourne. We got Colt Nos getting a little promotion. We got a little bit to talk about today, gentlemen. Yeah, a lot of news came out over the last couple of days. Certainly for December, it’s it’s a lot of news. Um I want to give a shout out to Frankie Belli for decorating his office with a little bit of holiday cheer. Um that’s nice. I’m jealous of it. I’ll tell you that. You’ve got like a It’s darkish in your room and you’ve got the Christmas lights lighting it up. I I I love it. I think it’s a really nice touch. Yeah. Really cozy. It’s one of those small little Christmas trees with the big bulbs. I really like the feel of it. I like the aesthetic. Um you know, going all in on Christmas. We got Christmas tree in almost every single room in the house. We went out and bought a bunch of those little ones. Got one in the bedroom. Got one in the office. Got one in the basement. Got one obviously the main one that’s in the in the main living room. Big Christmas tree guy. You want every room you walk into, I said on the last show, Frankie Boy loves the lights and the Christmas lights. So, you walk him up to every single tree. Takes 10 minutes out of the day of him just staring at it, touching the bulbs, moving around, getting his hands on the tree. Um, so yeah, I absolutely love Christmas time. I think we’ve gone through our favorite Christmas movies, right, before each year we kind of go through them. You know, Fred Claus is really riding up the ranks for me. That’s a good one. That’s an underrated one. That’s got Vince Fon and Paul Giamatti in it. Yes. Anything with Paul Giamati. I mean, we talked about the holdovers on the last episode. Anything with Giamati in it, I’m in on. But Fred Claus is Sneaky. A really good Christmas movie. Yep. Bad Santa. Um, for sure riding up my ranks as well. like one of those that I always knew was funny but never really sat down and like watched it through and through and now it’s on HBO. I watch it all the time. I actually been watching it just like go to bed. It is so [ __ ] funny. That kid in that in in Bed Sand is one of the funniest kids of all time. Uh but yeah, no just diving deep into the holiday season right now. I’m pretty down the middle with my Christmas movies. It’s Elf. It’s Home Alone. It’s Home Alone 2. Same way, man. It’s the Santa Claus. Chalk. I’m chalk. I really am chalk. What’s I always forget the name of it. It’s the Oh, jingle all the way with Arnold Schwarzenegger with Turbo Man. I I really am down the middle except that holdovers has sort of cracked that rotation. But you really, you know, whatever your list is, just enjoy it because it’s a great time. Yeah, it is a beautiful time of the year. Well done, Frankie. Well done. That does look cozy, you know, just kind of warms me up a little bit. Um, I failed to get my Christmas tree up. I said I was going to do it yesterday and I just haven’t gotten it up yet. So that’s on my radar this afternoon evening. You know, I was maybe going to maybe crack a beverage and just get that Christmas tree fired up. I got so many ornaments. My mom for all like 38 now years of my life has stuffed our stockings with ornaments that are in line with what we like. I have like Darth Vader. I’ve got Mario Lemieux. I’ve got like there was um whatever the uh what what’s the damn company that does the um that does is it is it might be is it I have to go look at it back I do have some Hot Wheels ones cuz I was a huge Hot Wheels guy. I love My favorite animal is a penguin. So I had a bunch of penguins too. I’ve got like there’s a couple really cool ornaments I got of Penguins ice skating playing like hockey against each other. So I have point being I would get two or three ornaments every year in my stocking and my mom would always tell us growing up obviously we would go put them on the tree that Christmas morning and then she would always tell us growing up someday you’re going to have your own Christmas tree Sam and when you have your own Christmas tree you’re going to be able to put all these ornaments on your own Christmas tree and I remember by the time I got to like 11 or 12 years old all of us in the family had so many of our own ornaments I was like mom you’re crazy what what are we going to do with all these ornaments we had to be selective of what goes on the tree or what Now I got my own Christmas tree. I’m an adult, so I’ve got all these ornaments I get to put on my own Christmas tree. So I got to do that. One of my favorite things to do now, and I’ve been doing it for the last couple years, I’d say the last four years since we’ve had the house, is everywhere we travel, especially when I go with Hannah somewhere, we get an ornament. So my tree is filled with just memories of places that I’ve been. So I mean, it it’s crazy how many we’ve accumulated at this point. I’ll even get some when I’m on the trips with you guys. I’ll go in if we’re in the if we’re in an airport that I’ve never been to, a city that I’ve never been to, I’ll grab one. I’ve got like an Old Miss one. It reminds me went to that Old Miss game. Saw Jackson Dar saw Lane Keifin. There’s like there’s just an old miss that’s a great ball on my tree. There’s there’s a Memphis cuz Hannah and I went and we stopped in this little shop next to one of the Memphis barbecue places that we went to and we got a little guitar that says Memphis, Tennessee on it. We’ve got Nashville. We’ve got I mean it’s it’s Colorado. It’s awesome. It really is a lot of fun. I’ve got a Mast’s one up there that I bought this year when we went to the Masters. It’s an amazing little Masters ball. And then there’s the little gnome. I got the gnome caddy um from Augusta National. So, it’s really fun. It’s like a you I stare at it and and like Hannah will put some up. I’ll put some up. I didn’t see where she put it. And you find some. You’re like, “Oh my god, remember when we went there?” I’m telling you, that is such a hack on just on memories is ornaments. I got to do something with my ornaments. Right now, my Christmas tree looks like one that you would see in an airport. you, you know, you just walk by it and be like, “Oh, that’s a nice looking tree.” But the ornaments mean nothing. They’re just bulbs and they’re green and they’re red and they’re gold and they’re blue. But there’s there’s no meaning behind them. They’re they’re they’re sterile. So, I really like the idea of travel ornaments. I might steal that from you. Excellent call. This is my newest ornament is from my 5-year-old niece, Mary Kate. She made this. Oh, that’s really beautiful. Well done. Damn. Good job. She might have had to make this cuz this Yeah. 5 years old. Look at this thing. Pretty impressive. She gave this to me. She said, “Uncle Sam, I want you to have a Christmas ornament. I made this for you.” Said, “Amazing.” So, that’s going up on the tree. Um, all right. Nick Taylor video is out. So, uh, reminder, we kind of talked about it. We hyped it up. Watching that man just hit little baby cuts all around that, uh, TPC Pro Tour difficult golf course was insanely impressive. So, make sure you go check that out. Uh, okay, let’s get into it. We’re going to begin um with Justin Thomas. So JT who’s recovering from uh back surgery. We kind of talked about that on the last show. He was on the No Laying Up podcast. When you’re sitting around injured, you know, you’ve got Imagine podcasting is one of the things that would probably help you get through for an hour or two. So he’s on there, you know, chitchatting about uh a bunch of different stuff. They of course covered the RDER Cup and JT who’s always quite talkative, which we love. And I’ll preface all of this by saying that that, you know, we we want our athletes and our stars to be open and candid. I think podcasting has been monumental for allowing that to occur much more often than it did before. We talk on this show a lot. Like we turn down interviews if someone can only do 15 minutes usually because it’s like, “No, no, no. In order to have a real meaningful kind of conversation, it needs to be at least 30 minutes. We try to get at least an hour. And we talk a lot about how the first 15 or 20 minutes even are usually kind of just [ __ ] It’s like usual canned answers. By the time you get 30, 40 minutes in, you start really running through all the canned answers and you get really candid stuff from people. So, love when folks go on uh podcasts and are willing to just kind of talk, give their feelings, thoughts, whatever it might be about um the golf world or the world in general. So, JT’s on with the no laying up guys talk about the RDER Cup. Um, you know, he I you know, he’s kind of come out and I’ve sent the clips to Ryan Richen, so he’s going to uh be able to play a few things of JT’s kind of response to it. He posted something on Instagram, but his original comments um were quite inflammatory where he said, “I don’t know why they being the Greens at Beth Page weren’t at all what Keegan had asked for.” Uh, he had been pretty clear of asking for a certain speed and wanting it fast enough. I watched them argue with us that they were 13s on the stmp meter. Uh guys, we play golf every week. Look on TV at how many guys are leaving putts short. Nobody’s getting them to the hole. You can’t have a putt roll three, four feet past the hole at all. These greens are slow. Speed them up. He goes, “It was just bizarre because that’s not something you would expect at a home rider cup. a fun advantage you generally have as a home rider cup team is being able to do that a little bit and it was just so frustrating that we were being fought with and argued with on the speed of the greens that we had asked for. So that was bizarre. These comments of course were they got people going. Uh you know folks are sort of the the way that you read that see that clip whatever it might be. It’s hard not to think that he’s talking about the grounds crew. And in the world of golf, you know, there’s like you don’t ever want to be labeled a cheater and you don’t ever want to be anti- like caddy and you don’t ever want to be anti- grounds crew. There’s like certain things in this game that you can’t be against. I think with JT clarifying stuff, which we’ll get to, I don’t think he in any way meant that as like anti-grounds crew, but impossible not to read those those quotes and not have them come off like he’s talking about the grounds crew, the folks in charge of the speed of the Greens, you know, the head superintendent, the superintendent involved overall aren’t the ones that he’s talking about there. When you see those quotes, that’s how it originally comes off. And I almost don’t know how you could think when you see those quotes in the first time that it w he wasn’t talking about anybody else that that’s just how it has to come off to me when you read those quotes. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you can get to what his response was because I think that adds the context that he wants in there, which is it was taken out of context in the sense that they were talking about the way that it was set up in terms of like the American Rder Cup team and the people that were communicating what the golf course setup was going to be because there are golf course setup people that work for the US RDER Cup team. They work with the golf courses. They’re there for years. We’ve met a couple of them. They they are they come in and they kind of take over. Same thing with majors. They’ll come in for the US Open. They’ll work at um at Shinikok coming up and they’ll work with the grounds crew of Shinik to make it sure and we’ve had these guys on the show before that we’ve talked with the USGA um you know golf course setup guys and and and the Ryder Cup guys as well. Um so obviously that’s who he is talking about when you hear it in the context of the conversation. Um but yeah, when it’s clipped out and it’s and it’s just captioned and you have no other way to you have no other context obviously. Yeah. like you’re saying, everyone’s going to say, “Well, holy [ __ ] I mean, you guys just lost. That’s not these guys that are cutting the grass are not the reason why you guys lost the ride or die.” Like, that’s not, you know, and and one of the guys in the response, which I’m sure you’ll get to, um, was like, like stats are stat like these are just cold hard facts. Like, we’re telling you, we have the data on what they were. It’s not an argument. It’s all a he said, she said. Um, I do think that a lot of the hate that Justin Thomas was getting for that comment, I think people are just harping on the fact like you lost, you can’t complain about anything, which I know is the way the world works. But I also think both things can be true. He can acknowledge and understand that they lost and then also just have comments about how the golf course was. I don’t think it’s like mut mutually exclusive. I don’t think that if you lose, you’re never allowed to make a comment about the golf course. I think a rational thinking brain would be like, “Okay, you guys lost, but also like tell me about the golf course.” You know what I mean? Like, these are just two things you’re allowed to have opinions on. One, we did not play well enough, and two, we thought that the golf course setup wasn’t the way that we it should have been. I don’t think that’s I don’t think that’s complaining. I don’t think that’s putting um reasoning as to why you lost. I think these are just his takeaways from what he had experienced, and in an hour conversation, it just comes out that way. Yeah. I mean, there was no way these comments weren’t going to come off as sour grapes. I think JT knows that. Like, I think when he’s saying it, he’s probably like, “Oh, yeah, we lost, so people are going to, you know, feel some type of way about it.” But also, if you look at the coverage after the RDER Cup, a lot of the coverage was like the setup of the golf course was not in the favor of the United States team. So, I mean, on this pod, on this very podcast, we were talking about that. We’re like, the setup was strange. Like, I’m not sure why they did this. I’m not sure why they did XYZ and a guy just who played in the Ryder Cup is kind of saying the same thing. So, I’m a little surprised people are freaking out that much. Although, I do understand that if you’re going to complain after losing a Ryder Cup by almost a lot, not you know, outside of Sunday, people are going to be like, “Well, you lost, so this is sour grapes.” Yeah, I I’ll read the quotes from the Beth Page uh you know, the turf crew staffer. But first, I think Frankie’s right to give the full context of what JT has said overall. Ryan Richson, you play the uh clip from Colt on or uh Colt from Justin Thomas who was on SiriusXM. Um, play that real quick. Unfortunate that things get lost in translation or or the the context is not there. I feel that I don’t ever uh never said anything about the this is being a Greens crew fault. Um the to my this is all obviously to my knowledge the the the captain doesn’t have communication with say the superintendent or the greens crew. Obviously he knows them but it’s not like Keegan is not going to the superintendent of Beth Page asking what he has done because I would assume for you know certain reasons that could probably get out of hand a little bit and you know that the PGA of America is still setting up the golf course and doing things so you know within they they need to know what’s going on. So, it was it was more so with whoever the communication is with Keegan. Um, and I think that honestly that point that the Greens crew made is is exactly my point. The fact that I mean I know for a fact that Keegan was is, you know, was asking for, you know, a certain a certain thing or a certain speed. And the fact that it never got relayed to them is that kind of proves the point that I was trying to make. Yeah. So, you know, he that is an incredibly important point which is that like the head super of Beth Paige Black is not just going rogue and determining like the course conditions for the entire event, right? Like there are Keegan has input. even like the um Keegan and as as you guys mentioned the folks that we’ve met that work for the PGA of America that are there for however know how who how whoever knows how long for a year years are working together to you know work with the grounds crew to get it where everybody wants it. I do think, you know, it’s a this whole thing is something that you never would ever hear out of Europe, even if they lost on, you know, home soil on European soil. I think that like that communication line being broken to the point where it’s obviously something that the players and the group chat and whatever have all talked about. If JT’s bring it up on a podcast, that’s like shocking and just I think a lot of people having kind of a fiery response to the whole thing is not necessarily just like a you lost so you’re not allowed to say anything. It’s more just like it feels like when we do lose we’ve got you know some years it’s Patrick Reed’s wife going to the New York Times about Jim Furick and pairings. It’s Justin Thomas going to the no laying up crew about arguments and like bizarre fights with whoever sets up the golf course. It’s just like it’s not just, you know, I remember when like the Europeans lost in record fashion at Whistling Straits. Yeah, you did have Rory was like emotional and crying afterwards about how disappointed he was in his performance. She had Matty Fitz who like chunked that shot on 18 and was like inconsolable cuz he was so like rattled and embarrassed. He hadn’t gotten any points. But in that presser afterwards, I remember watching those guys and they were laughing and smiling and being like, I love being a part of this team. This was not our week, but guess what? We’ve had an incredible stretch. We’re going to continue to have an incredible stretch. And you just feels like you didn’t see this kind of stuff come out of it. And so I think that is sort of a lot of people are just like god damn we can’t even communicate with the turf crew properly. It’s like [ __ ] man. Right. Because even all right JT’s not talking about the grounds crew. He is bus tossing somebody. Somebody he is blaming it on somebody. Like that’s still a complaint like yeah it does seem like the Phil and Tom Watts and like there’s always something that is like we just didn’t get it right. And yeah, this is going to now be the takeaway. like weeks and months later, we were kind of we were kind of chilling. Like I know Keegan’s made some comments about like what his year was like and the grade that he would give it. I think Keegan’s going to kind of always give comments like that at least uh in the short term. I just didn’t see this coming where it was like, yeah, we tried to communicate to whoever who was supposed to communicate to whoever about the green speeds, but this will now always be a note looking back on the Beth Page Black Rider Cup was that like we just didn’t have the course set up right and we don’t know who to play. It’s always going to come off bad. It just is. And it’s the unfortunate situation of getting kind of clipped and and headlined because anytime that that comes out in a conversation, it everyone’s going to just pinpoint that exact moment that you said that and they’re going to say, “Well, you all played the same course, so I mean obviously it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. They just played on the same slow. It’s not like it was slower for you guys and faster for them.” And he knows that. He knows all of this stuff. It’s just a matter of fact of of it obviously was a major stress point in that locker room. whoever this rogue PJ of America guy was that refused to relay any information. Clearly person talking about me. Clearly this person like lost their mind and like they were there was screaming matches cuz for that to be at the top of the mind of the players and to say it publicly crazy amounts of frustration had to have built up in the players room in the locker room for the United States for anyone to say that. So, like I get what you’re saying that you don’t usually see that on the European side, but I would think that Justin Thomas is a smart enough guy that he wouldn’t bring up anything unless he felt it was a legitimate reasoning as to why things kind of went ary in the in the in the first couple days. I just picture some guy with an email, an unread email where he’s like, I should have checked that Gean Bradley email of him being like, oh, you got to get these green speeds up. Yeah, cuz they there we all are talking about somebody. It’s a nameless, faceless guy, but there is somebody or a couple of people who just didn’t get this message relayed. And yeah, I I I I still want to say I support Justin Thomas saying these things. Rick said it on the outset. Like these things that these that the players are saying, I I want to hear it and I I want I know it’s going to make news and I know it’s it’s got to be a headache for Justin Thomas right now, but I’m glad that he said it because we want to hear these things. At the end of the day, we really do, right? And I Yeah, exactly. And to defend JT on that, it’s, you know, I think the way that the quotes get put out there, it’s it gets put out there like somebody was walking by JT on the sidewalk and was like, “How are you this morning, JT?” And he was like, “How about the [ __ ] grounds crew at Beth Page Black?” And it it’s instead it’s probably I haven’t listened to the whole podcast but it’s probably 15 minutes into a conversation about the RDER Cup where it’s like how deep can you get on the RDER Cup and he’s like oh I’ll go into the Ryder Cup with you talking about this talking about that and eventually being like oh yeah you know I know Keegan did mention that if he could do it over again the course setup would have been different it wasn’t quite exactly what we thought and actually there was like dis we were kind of surpris you know it’s like he’s saying what you want him to say and so yeah so I think that like that part of it, you know, you feel for JD a little bit when it’s like he gives he gives these guys, the no crew who in this case do kind of what we do. He gives him like a bunch of his time access and then he’s all of a sudden got to do damage control. So part of me is like this almost like I hope this doesn’t discourage people from coming on podcasts like ours cuz it’s like you if you’re going to give somebody your time and you’re going to be honest and then you got to go do a whole day of like calling into radio shows and posting on Instagram to defend yourself, that’s not really fair either. But yeah, it is funny. It’s like, you know, we all might be talking about somebody who let us on to Beth Paige Black a week before to film a match against me and Frankie, and it’s like, [ __ ] I don’t know who the hell we’re talking about. So, yeah. And the no laying up crew, that’s their thing. They love talking about the nitty-gritty of an event like this course setup and all of that stuff. I mean, I walked with Sully during the Ryder Cup and we were talking very much in detail about how the United States doesn’t have the right system in place and like this thing was lost even before we even got to Beth Page because of and I brought it up on the show after we had lost. Like he was giving me a lot of great insight, but he’s obsessed with that stuff and all those guys really do obsess over the little things. They want to know answers as to why things are going wrong. Why don’t we have the right systems in place? So, when you’re getting asked by guys that genuinely want to find out those answers, of course, you’re going to try and give them as much insight as you can. Justin Thomas is an open book. It might come off like we’re trying to just like only defend Justin Thomas, but I think just the realistic version of what happened is is what we’re saying. It’s it’s just a conversation. And yes, I do think you can see both sides. I think that people can have the takeaway that he is complaining and that he that part of it might be placing some blame as to why they played poorly on that disconnect in terms of the communication. I also understand that he knows they just lost. I mean, I’m just a rational thinking human. I know Justin Thomas knows they just like lost the the that that part. When you’re having a conversation, we all have to assume that we all understand that we lost like not everything he responds as a question. If they ask him any question, he’s not supposed to be like, “Well, we just lost.” So, that’s the answer. You know what I mean? That’s not how conversations or any sort of insight works. We We get it. We get you lost. We get you guys didn’t make putts. Let’s Let’s dive deeper into it. Why do you think, right? You know, you’re one of the best players in the world. Why are you guys not making putts? Oh, well, now they think about it. You know, this may have been one of the reasonings. This may have led to this or I don’t know. Like, that’s just conversation, man. Yeah. And if you if you say you read the quotes, you that takes out tone. that takes out his posture. It t like you really get into like if you just read something, you then put your own feelings on what is being said and that gets like and then it just spirals and then it turn that’s kind of how everything is now with with in the digital age where it’s just everything just sort of gets ripped and taken and then it’s like oh he was saying he was actually meant it this way and he was saying it this way. It’s just a conversation. I totally with Paige and Mo. It’s like any, you know, anything for one second. You see one second, it’s like that’s that’s that’s who that person is now. Ridiculous. That’s stupid. Yeah. That’s always the dumbest thing where you’re like, well, that person is this now. And it’s like, well, that’s the dumbest way to think about everything ever. Yeah. Gotcha culture as Rico Bosco says. Gotcha. Yeah. I you know I could see it from their vantage point too being like no no no the whole world talks about how we get this advantage of setting up the course and we’re like not getting the course how we’ve said we want it. Like I could see them being insanely frustrated being like it’s Ryder Cup week. How come it’s not this? How come it’s not that? And then you’re told something. And so you know to to I I guess playing both sides whatever middlemen. Um you kind of understand it from from all angles. It definitely didn’t come off right. It’s It’d be a lot easier again if I’m sure if you asked JT to give like one answer about the RDER Cup, he would probably be like, “They played better than we did and made more putts and defeated us.” But if you want him to give like his 17th bullet point about the RDER Cup, you’re probably going to get into like, “Well, yeah, we had a little bit of a we were frustrated the course wasn’t as fast we thought it was going to be.” By the way, keep in mind, you know, the American team uh hit more fairways and had closer proximity to the hole by a noticeable margin throughout the entire week. It really did just come down to the Europeans made everything and we didn’t quite make everything. And I’m, you know, I’ll my lasting memory from that RDER Cup will be the occasional time when we finally they finally cut to an American pairing putting and making something outside the realm that you don’t usually see, something outside of like 8 feet. Then every time they cut back to that, the Europeans made their putt on top of it. And it was just like, god damn it, we could not gain an edge on the greens. And so, you know, the course setup, the rough Beth Page wasn’t as hard as it usually is. Maybe that would have benefited us. It’s like we still hit it closer than they did. They just made more putts. Maybe if the Greens were a little bit faster. I don’t know if that would have made a huge difference or not. Um, but they did just beat us. JT knows that. And, uh, I will I will read just for those who didn’t. The response was, you know, incredibly pointed. It said a Beth Page turf staffer. This was from Top 100 Rick, who got this exclusive, by the way. Well done by Top 100 Rick. Uh, they can argue with numbers all they want, but these are concrete, collective numbers that cannot be argued with. Data is data, not an opinion. Player perception is an opinion. Point number two, there was zero. This is like Michael Scott. There was zero conversation between captains and the grounds crew during tournament week. And that is at fault of Keegan. We would have welcomed him with open arms any day or time. We were there 24/7 and only spoke with him directly once. Once was in all caps weeks before the event. If there was a problem, it should have come from him in practice rounds. Uh and then he put that they failed to play when they would have realized they didn’t like the speed. Point number three, they still lost and they still can’t accept it. Two months later and the excuses keep rolling. This is where he gets pretty like subjective. This guy, the grounds crew wanted to win more than any player on that American team. Quite frankly, it meant more to Beth Page staff and the state of New York than anyone else. Learn to practice and compete as a team or JT will continue to scrap together excuses in 2026. So again, this was a pretty damn pretty aggressive. Listen, man, he got riled up there at the end. He he he felt the momentum. Ball point one and two, he’s kind of like keeping it down the middle and then three, he was like, “You know what? I got something I want to say and I want to say that this meant more to the grounds crew than it did team USA.” And yeah, he just kept going and he kept firing. Listen, I really got a kick out of it. I mean, it was there are parts of it that are absurd, but the the whole thing is pretty nuts. And we know grounds crews guys so well. I mean, we did behind the greens for years. Um, we really got down and dirty with those guys in terms of seeing what they do on a day-to-day basis, waking up, putting in all those flags before the sun even rises. I mean, you you show up to a golf course and it’s pristine. you can’t believe that people have been working on it for four or five hours before you had that first tea time. Um and and honestly just knowing their personalities like you you tell you know um like our guy Luke at Rockville links like if if like if you put a face behind you know if you actually put a name to one of these guys or like someone that we know you could see how much it would hurt them hearing these comments from a player so passionate they absolutely love it. Um, so yeah, I I I don’t blame the player I mean the uh the turf staff at all for being pissed off. I I think that they have every right to be like, “No, this is bullshit.” It’s so much hard work. They they put in so much work and then for a guy to basically just be like, “Well, it wasn’t right.” It’s like, “Well, [ __ ] you, man.” Imagine Steve Rabido when we did when we did Behind the Greens at Wingfoot. That guy was talking about if the if the weather didn’t drop below 64 degrees, he was gonna freaking like torch the golf course on fire because he knew people were going to beat him. He’s like, I don’t want one guy going over par here. He was distraught when Bryson Dashambo torched the wing foot for the US Open. Like these guys live and die by the golf course. So of course, anything that has been to told to them, they’re going to do everything in their power to get it exactly the way it’s supposed to. They wanted to build that golf course for the United States to win it. Do you think that they went out there and cut all the rough down? I mean, Beth Paige turf crew has never seen the rough that low in their entire life. Every Super that’s ever been there since the since the day that that golf course was born hasn’t seen the rough that low. Of course, they were taking orders from the United States team. So, like somewhere somehow the communication got lost where the United States lost trust in what was happening. But that’s not on the turf crews side. There’s no way. They’re just listening to demands, dude. Turf Crew folks, I don’t know that anyone is more in love with the product and what they do than folks on Turf Cruise. Like they y they have a deep deep love for every part of that place that’s like alive or dead. They love every grain of sand. They love every blade of grass. They like are obsessed with the golf courses. And you have to be because you, like you said, these guys are getting up at, you know, I my cousin Chris is a head super um at the Crystal Springs Quarry Golf Course in uh in the St. Louis area and we were talking about over Thanksgiving and it’s like, dude, if the first tea time is 7:00 a.m., these [ __ ] are there at like 4:30 in the morning and they’re out there getting this thing ready to go and then all day long they’re working on projects. They’re checking out what part of the golf course is where we need to be. What part’s struggling? Do we need to change, you know, the the golf cart access rope so people stop driving there and drive here? This part get They’re just like they do that at munis all the way up to the wingoots of the world all the way up to the RDER Cup and what Beth Page is going to be like. These people bleed this stuff. So, I guess kind of to to put a little bit of a bow on it, like I get why this event is such a big deal and everyone involved cares so much. Whether you’re Justin Thomas hitting the shots or whether you are part of the turf crew that is preparing the golf course or whether you’re on the PGM America, like everybody is sort of like feeling the weight of failure or of victory. And in this case, it’s failure. And emotions are high. You know, like people, this this man or woman took this incredibly personally when the when JT said that and got again, the farther deep the deeper we got into the bullet points, he got a little more opinionated. Like, I’m going to let you know what I [ __ ] think here, which I respect, but um but yeah, I this what happens when you lose, you know, which is kind of none of this would be brought up if you just win the damn thing is really what it comes down to. By the way, speaking of superintendent, something that I always uh that I always think about that I feel like the general public doesn’t know is especially in the Northeast, these superintendents have a pretty damn good job. They get paid pretty well. Like these are very highly qualified. Now, it’s like Long Island, New York, I only know about. I’m not sure about the rest of the country. And these are really big exclusive clubs that a lot of the guys that I know that they work there or big, you know, big properties like Beth Page, but like these are 250, $300,000 paying jobs. like these guys are like the top top top in the world at what they do. So any sort of um my point being like any sort of negativity thrown towards like the work that they’re doing I feel like hits so much harder because this is like the top of the top. These are the best of the best guys. Um so any anything disparaging their name or their work I think just hits so much harder. Like these are these are massive jobs in the game of golf. They’re they’re the highest sought out ones. So, um it’s just a shame that yeah, any sort of negative, uh, you know, comments are being made towards them because I’m just glad that it all kind of got squashed. JT came out, clarified it, that guy got his shots off. It is what it is and and we should be all good from here. But, um, and then I also had learned that like in England or in the UK, superintendent aren’t typically looked at the same as they are here in the US. like we we hold our superintendents and our turf crew to pretty higher regard than they do where they get access to the golf course, they can bring out they can bring out um members, they can get access to to be able to play, they’ll get like housing on the golf course. There’s like a lot of great perks really, you know, good wages, all that stuff. I had learned from a couple friends that when you are a superintendent, you’re on the turf team at in a in a UK like old school golf course that you really aren’t like highly regarded at those courses. Like it’s kind of like a harder job, you know? It’s more like head down, kind of stay out of the way. I’m not sure if that’s that’s the case at every single place, but I had heard treat them like they’re just the help. Like what do you mean here? It’s just like not really as much. You don’t get as much like access, you know, like like you know the people that have helped us our whole entire careers basically doing foreplay has all been super guys. They all get access to bringing out whoever the hell they want. It’s their golf course essentially. All the memberships like yeah, whatever you guys want to do as long as you keep this place at tiptop shape, you can run wild with this place. Get your dogs run all over the place. I just heard that things are a little bit tighter over in the UK. If you’re a UK super and you want to come on, we use a voice modulator. We won’t show you. Yeah, that’s correct. Voice your concerns. What’s going on? How do I look up? Does the UK hate Superintendent? Yes. Make that the title of the episode. I can only picture the No, the UK does not hate superend. Yeah, I wouldn’t think. Who was the one police force? I’m on the wrong superintendent. God damn it. Who was the one super from I can He’s like a He’s a wild looking dude from one of the open championships. I want to say it was the one that Khan won. I can’t but he he’s got like a rockar look. That guy seems like he’s being treated pretty well. I I’m I will never ever think of his name unfortunately which might Hold on. I can find that was Royal Burkedale. Was it Shawn Mlan the head superintendent course manager at Royal Burkedale? You’ve been the role since 200 No 200. Guy’s got long hair. He’s kind of like it’s flowing in the wind. I know who you’re talking about. I know. I I’m just never going to be able to think of it, unfortunately. Which might be part of the problem with these, you know, these UK supers. We know who Steve Rapid is. We don’t know who this guy is. Brush them off. I just That’s interesting. I wonder if that’s true. I’ll be Yeah. No, I’m just reporting what I had heard. You know, I don’t know if Frankie facts before fiction. So, hear from And I’m sure it’s different everywhere. I’m sure there’s people that are treated like pieces of [ __ ] in America that are superintendents that work at like, you know, they they nickel and dime everything they do and they can’t get anything done. But yeah, I I do think that those programs are great. I mean, I know that I’m pretty close to it with all these guys. They’re I’m buddies with a lot of them. So, they always say like these programs, these these turf programs are great to go into and and they don’t get as much people in these programs as they should. It’s a good job, man. It’s a great job. You pursue it. You’re outside, you’re healthy, you’re working around grass, you’re working with your hands, and also you’re on the team. You’re on like a really cool team like Yes. golf’s new rockstar isn’t a player. He’s a greenskeeper. He’s a And he’s a as a wild as his iconic golf course. Look at this [ __ ] guy, man. This guy’s awesome. Maybe he’s getting treated so well that he’s just lost it a little bit. Look at him. What’s his name and which golf course is it? They don’t list his name. You know what I mean? Paul Larson, Royal St. George. Yeah, look at him. Royal St. George. Yeah, I mean, he’s he’s styling and profiling, man. Look at this guy. He’s got a great gig. Good find, Ryan Rich. That’s an excellent find. We’ll get headlines like JT did. Bar stool sports says Greenskeepers are treated like trash ini in United Kingdom. Some people still know how business know how business. Oh, that’s good. Good stuff. Um, but bottom line, we’re on every side, which I’m fine with. Me, too. I love being on every side. It’s called understanding how the human brain works. Every holiday season, we give the same gifts, things people don’t need, they don’t want, and they will not remember ever. But this year, Kraken, the official crypto platform of Barcel Sports, is offering something with real potential, the gift of Bitcoin. 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We all kind of know that feeling sometimes or you watch it, you’re just like, I’m not feeling it. This was different, man. His smile was beaming. He was telling dumb [ __ ] dad jokes. That’s our guy. That’s like a a man in my opinion that was in a great spot. Love is in the air. It just got such a good feeling from watching Mr. Woods up there. Uh I just no matter what he said, which we’ll get to, he pretty much said nothing for like 30 minutes, which is what he’s really good at. But uh that part doesn’t even matter. I just thought he the color of his shirt, of his skin, of his complexion, of his smile, of his his vibrant nature was [ __ ] A+. I thought Well, I mean, we got a sneak peek of this last week. We lurked and watched him eat breakfast in a in a room. We were just in the room. He was also in the room. Um so we knew. And yeah, he looked great, man. He looked he Yeah, he seemed in good spirits, which is which is always what you want. He did say nothing for a good amount of time, for a long amount of time, but yeah, he seemed good. He when he’s making jokes, that that’s when you know you’ve got the good version of Tiger Woods out there. Just just tripping and putting. I just got cleared and putt. Ryan Richen, you play this incredibly hilarious answer from Tiger Woods. This was just, you know, got a real chuckle out of me. [ __ ] incredible. Look at this guy. Happy early birthday, by the way. There’s been a lot of speculation about what you may do next year. What are your thoughts on possibly playing the PJ tour champions? Yeah, I’m probably going to play probably 25 events on both tours. And I think that should cover most of the year, right? Um I I’m just looking forward back to just let me get back to playing again. Um, I just want to let me do that and then I’ll kind of figure out what the schedule is going to be. Um, uh, it I’m a ways away from that part of it and that kind of that type of decision, that type of commitment level. Uh, unfortunately, I’ve been through this rehab process before as step by step. And then once I get a feel for uh, practicing, exploding, playing, the recovery process, then I can assess where I’m going to play and how much I will play. The thing with him play the hits. The thing with exploding the thing by the way that he has created such a relationship with the media that when he says the 25 events punchline, they don’t know if he’s serious or not. So that the room just goes and slows down for everybody because they’re not sure if they laugh, if they’re just going to be kicked out of the circle completely. But he is telling a joke there because he said in the past, I mean it was just a couple years ago where he said sincerely, I’m gonna play an event a month. I’m going to play. That’s where I’m at. So now to then bring this joke, the 25 events joke. People don’t know what to do and everybody’s in a weird like in between stage. Nobody does it like Tiger Woods is what I’m trying to say. Nobody does it like him. Explode. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Once he gets a feel for the exploding. Oh my god, man. He’s he’s the goal of interviews, golf, everything. Keeps you guessing. He’s just edge of your seat material 247 365. He It He just You’re spot on, man. The second that he said, “I I I I stopped in my tracks when I saw that clip come. I said, 25 events, what’s what’s happening here?” And I saw the joke and the laugh and the giggle. Uh it’s it’s fantastic. He will not be playing the PNC with Charlie. Just he’s got just got cleared chip putt. Um but yeah, I thought I thought he looked great. I love when he’s doing the jazz joke stuff. I think that that is a direct correlation to success if you go back throughout the different phases of this man’s career. I think that’s a great sign. So, I loved every minute of it, man. I really did. Yeah. And he al he made a couple little maybe he thought they were jokes and no one really laughed again when he was saying in TGL he’s like I’m I might have to hear a couple drives in TGL and you know he’s just because he’s saying he he wants to he wants to play he’ll be at every single event for the Jupyter links. Maybe towards the end of the year he’ll have to hit he just needs to see how his if he can ramp up the the recovery cuz you know he could trip and putt. I can trip and putt butt but I’ll have to hit a couple drives in TGL and like looked around the room. No one knows when he’s laughing. They’re on their toes. They’re looking around. He’s a modern-day Andy Calfman. He’s like, it’s unbelievable. He He just keeps everybody guessing really all the time. Yeah. I mean, clearly this guy’s been through a tough year. He has been a tough year. You can tell he hasn’t hit many shots. He hasn’t done anything. I mean, he he had the uh Achilles explosion. He, you know, he he tore his Achilles and then as he’s rehabbing his Achilles, he had to get back he had to get back surgery again. Um he he alludes to um it not being like a specific moment that he knew he had to get back surgery, but one of those moments where just that feeling saying he’s not recovering and and he could feel like it was going. So it’s more it’s another one of those uh you know I guess what’s the word I’m looking for? It’s I was going to say a preceded. Um Oh, that kind of blew my mind. You know what I meant? You know what I mean? Precedure. It’s like a I see what you’re doing John before. Yeah. Yeah. What’s that word I’m looking for? Like a uh um elective. An elective procedure just to make sure preventative, right? I don’t know. I think it’s elective. I think my point’s like every surgery he’s had on his back recently feels like something that he keeps getting in hopes that it’ll it won’t get to a bad spot. You know what I’m saying? Precautionary like precautionary surgery. So that’s what this back one felt like. So I’m a little bit more um ambitious about him being able to swing as opposed to it being, you know, he couldn’t get out of bed or he had a he drove off a cliff again. And this is like we’re not repairing something that broke. We’re just fixing. We’re tidying up, which he’s ramping up. He’s going to ramp up. He’s going to explode. He’s going to swing. Um we’re going to see Tiger Woods play golf again. That is a fact. We all agree that to to that, right? Like Tiger Woods is going to play at the at the Masters. He’s going to play Champions Tour events. He’s going to play um you know, probably maybe the Open Championship if it’s flat. Like we’re seeing this guy play golf again. I agree. I think he’s going to I think he’s going to try to play again on tour and majors and get to that point. Hopefully, he can do it. I think he’s definitely gonna try to win the He said multiple times, I think he’s gonna try to win the Senior US Open. I know he like he wants to hold the maximum number of USGA titles and I think that would give it to him. So I know he’s mentioned that multiple times. So uh I hope he gives it, you know, more of a run and tries to truly like tee it up. And it’s funny like the the open championship at St. Andrews, St. Andrews will be in a year and a half. And it feels not that long ago that we were looking at the open there when he was walking across the smoking bridge. He didn’t do the stop thing. He just kind of took his hat off and walked across. Oh, maybe he’s going to give it a go again. Like that’s only a year and a half away. So this makes me, you know, get like kind of excited being like he could play that. He’s played less than zero golf since then. Yeah. Right. Right. And I Yeah. He’ll have played less than 10 events from the time he walked over that bridge to the next time he plays that he walks on that bridge, right? I mean, legitimately, how many events has he played since that open championship? Oh, has to be less than 10, right? Got to be. Probably around there, you know, like it’s not been once a month. I know that. That’s for sure. Like once a year. He does still seem like pretty engaged with the inner workings of the PJ tour. He mentioned um the leaner schedule that we talked a lot about on the last episode and how I think he said uh a leaner schedule could result in a windfall for everybody. Um I don’t I don’t necessarily you know I don’t know he I don’t know what seven reference. What is that windfall? Windfall. Oo weird windfall. Um a financial windfall. Uh so he’s clearly in communication with Rollap on like what the future could look like on the PJ tour. Um and it seems like Rolap has Tiger on his side um in terms of maybe slicing off a couple of these events. So yeah, he alluded to I mean he obviously knows what some of the backlash will be in terms of cutting down the fields, making sure that or cutting down the amount of events which then creates a tour that makes it harder for more pros to keep their tour card. It’s going to be a tighter tour. It’s going to be more of a star studded tour if they go this route. He says there’s so much that has to go into it in terms of sponsors, in terms of everything. They have to get answers from every CEO. That’s all every person that’s associated with the PGA Tour, including the players, all have to agree to this. So, they’re far away from getting to an agreement in terms of this shakeup. Um, but then he he did say because you could tell in the back of his mind, he knows that the backlash will be that those guys will end up there’s a lot of guys that will not benefit from this. they’ll actually get their cards lost and then they’re not going to be able to be on the PG tour anymore. And he was saying like it’s not as scary as people think. There’s other tours out there for you to keep your status around the world. And that is pretty scary though. Like you know, telling someone that has made their career being a top 65 player, you know, that’s just what the PJ tour has always been. You’ve had that chance to be a breakout star every week you tee it up. It doesn’t mean that you’re like set into being 77th in the world. Any moment you can be a Ben Griffin and just come out of nowhere and win and then find yourself on a Ryder Cup team. That’s what the RDER Cup Shout out to Ben Griffin. He was uh he was one of four nominees for player of the year. I saw out of nowhere, dude. This guy on the show a couple times. You’re like, “Oh, Ben Griffin’s coming on the show.” Now he’s a freaking household name. Playing in the RDER Cup, looks like me, but he’s like way leaner and more fit and just like everything about him is way better. I’m just the worst version of him. I’m like, if he just never played golf and then he worked at a pizzeria and then did like podcasting and that’s like that’s the version of Ben Griffin I am. Um, but you know, I think people are afraid that you’re going to lose that that that spirit of what the PJ tour is. And him saying it’s not as scary. You can go keep you can keep doing that. There’s other places for you to do that is like like dude, I’m gonna play on the DP World Tour. I’m gonna go play on the Asia tour. Like like that’s Yeah, it sucks. Like that’s not kind of what was promised when we signed up on for this thing. So, um, it’s a lot of dancing around and I think at the end of the day, just the big dogs are going to win, which is unfortunately the way the world works. It’s like capitalism golf, right? It’s just like these guys are just better. They’re going to make us more money and they’re going to be the ones we just That’s just like the way it works. Somebody’s somebody’s like, “Dude, AI is going to take your job.” They’re like, “No, no, it’s cool. You can go work at a factory in China.” Like, it’s just they got they got stuff other places. You’ll be all right. Plus, when takes over the PJ tour, then they’re all g That’s a joke. And I’m sure and I’m sure if like there’s a part of Tiger where he’s just like play better golf, you know, there’s probably a part of his brain where he’s just like if you play better, you you you’ll be involved in this financial windfall. And it is at the end of the day, it’s like if you’re a huge star and you’re driving revenue and you’re playing well, those are the guys who are going to be able to make the decisions. Uhhuh. And look how much richer they are getting. Look at how rich Scotty Sheffller has gotten in the last three years. Made like a hundred million dollars. It’s always it’s you know at least for the last 30 to 40 years it’s always been pretty lucrative if you’re really really good at the game of golf at the professional level. He picked the perfect time to be really really good at the game of golf. The purses exploded and he was like oh I’m just going to win all those. And then he did and he made a Scotty Shuffler’s career earnings are over $143 million with over 77 million from official PGA Tour payouts and 95 million from bonuses. He’s done that in like three years, right? Yeah. He didn’t win until the 2022 WM Phoenix Open was his first. That’s [ __ ] disgusting. That was not that long ago. It’s only 2025. So, he’s made 140. You said 1434 million. What kind of mental math are you doing over there? Just saying it’s like that’s, you know, it’s signing a threeyear 40 what $8 million deal or something crazy and more. He’s like Juan Sodto. It’s, you know, but yeah, it’s crazy. Three-year deal, though. Usually you got to lock up like long-term deals like that to get that kind of money. This guy’s getting NBA deals for three years. Playing golf. Playing golf. Never thought I’d see the day. Pretty big time, man. But, um, speaking of player of the year, we had the four nominees uh are Mr. Scotty Shoffler, who won six of 20 starts this year, including the PGA and the Open. Um, he’s going to win. But you got to look at Rory’s year was phenomenal. He won the Masters. He won the Players. He won at Pebble Beach. He won the Irish Open. Um, he won a bunch of [ __ ] He won an Away Rider Cup. Tommy Fleetwood and Ben Griffin are also nominated. So, those were the four nominees for player of the year. Um, Ben Griffin a couple wins this year. Ben Griffin. Yeah, what a year, man. Threetime winner. Look at that. That’s [ __ ] awesome. Look at Bren Griffin. Um, uh, Rory Mroy. So, Rory’s playing Royal Melbourne. I believe it’s for the first time, um, ever. He has won the Australian Open before. I think he was late in the year 2013. He beat Adam Scott. I was looking at a couple clips. He was talking about kind of how much that meant. Adam Scott had won the Masters that year. Adam Scott was number one in the world that year when Rory beat him I think in a playoff at the Australian Open, but it was not at um Royal Melbourne. But this clip made me laugh. You know, Royal Melbourne is if you are a course architecture, you know, if you’re living in that world, if you’re part of the fried egg community, uh Royal Melbourne is Alistister McKenzie golf course. It is in the sand belt of Australia. It is, you know, like they hold it to the highest pedestal. When Rory was asked where he places Royal Melbourne, uh, this was his answer. I going to I don’t want the membership to take this bad. It’s probably not the best course in Melbourne, I think. You know, that’s my opinion. Um, but it’s certainly in the top 10 in the world. So, it’s like, you know, there’s just there’s so much great golf in in this country, uh, and especially in this in this area. Question, what is the best golf course in? Uh, Kingston Heath. So, I mean, neither of those are PJ Frisco, if you ask me. The crazy part about that is the Kingston Heath was the first golf course we played in Australia. I feel I feel like we got robbed cuz it was straight off of 24 straight hours of traveling. Everybody was loopy. We were hot. Remember there was like no wind. There were bugs. We were just like, “Ah, this is like this is barely possible.” I I don’t have a It’s People are going to be mad at this. I don’t have a single memory from that golf course. I No. Literally got on a plane in New York City, flew to LA, got off the plane in LA, walked right onto the flight from LA to Melbourne, made it, barely made it. I can’t sleep on planes. I’m flying. I’m over the ocean for what must have been a 100 days, get off the plane, get our clubs, and I don’t remember anything after that. And apparently, I played in in terms of Rory Maroy, the greatest golf course in Melbourne. And it’s just like, bro, that I that’s as tired as I’ve ever been in my life. And it was hot and there was sand and I was just like, “Holy [ __ ] man.” We truly were out of it. Like our brains weren’t working. I I I wasn’t processing any of it. So I don’t have any memory of it. Like in the moment it was just survive. We were so tired. 24 hours of travel straight from the airport. Didn’t even check into the straight from the airport changed in the parking lot and you’re on a tea box in Australia. You’re like, “What is happening?” I remember talking to an Austral we had a meet up at a bar during that trip and a bunch of Australians showed up which was so cool fans. Yeah. And I remember telling one of the Australian guys like yeah we landed we played Kingston Heath and like yeah we’re just really tired and he looked at me and he goes I’ll never ever step foot on that golf course. I’m not allowed to go anywhere near that golf course. And I felt like an [ __ ] and I feel like an [ __ ] right now again but it’s true dude. We landed and went to Augusta like that. We went to the greatest golf course in that continent. Yep. And I’m with you, I don’t really remember much of it. And you know that clip, it really kind of turned into Rory being like, “No, it’s a testament to how amazing the golf is here that like I’m telling you, Royal Melbourne’s a top 10 course in the world.” And there’s a course right next to it, Kingston Heath, that I think is even better. So that area for golf is so insanely cool. How did we get on that golf course, Rigs? I believe that was uh we were firing around. We might have gone public with it, but we were kind of firing around um you know requests of where we should play. We knew nothing about it. And someone I believe at Kingston Heath, whether it was someone in the pro shop, someone in the like general manager or someone like that was a fan and was like, you know, you guys, it’s not easy to get you out. You could I think we had to go out like last off and it was like only that day and I remember what do we have like push carts or something that we got. Yeah. And we went out there and we just kind of you know like I think somebody they kind of said hi bought that bucket hat from the pro shop. I remember which I still got was that Kingston Heath one. And then we kind of like we didn’t really know where we were going and we just went out and played with no like there was no like caddy. There was nobody really like telling us whatever. It was just like go just go kind of we were like okay this is awesome. It’s pretty natural, rugged. We’re tired, but like never did it strike me that Rory Mroy is going to be like, “Oh yeah, that’s like the best golf course on the planet while we were out there. God damn, we’re such idiots, man. There’s a theory out there. The world ended in 2020 and we’re all in the afterlife.” Like to me, that happened before the like the purge. You know what I mean? like that that happened before the great awakening because like I that’s a whole another lifetime that I can’t break through my mental wall and grasp anything from it. Right. Everyone always asks me like oh like what’s your favorite memory of or like what do you remember who was in your middle school class? I don’t remember that’s on the other side of the wall. Yep. It’s just it’s just I can’t quite reach through and grab anything. It’s every everything’s fuzzy. Then there’s other people out there like my brother-in-law Nick that’ll remember, you know, Half Hollow Hills East basketball team and they played at the Hopster Championship against East Meadow. He remembers the point guard, the name where he went to college. It’s like, what are we talking about? That was in 2010. We went to that game to go watch our friend Shad Sheldon Hadel the Magical play for Westberry play against Tobias Harris when he was playing for half Hills West and he walked out in his Tennessee gear and everyone went nuts. He had he had announced that he was going to Tennessee and he had a guy See, I do remember a little bit of it. If I could start to get a little cuz that was such a moment. I don’t know if you guys know Tobias Harris and he’s like he’s made the most money of any athlete that’s ever come out of Long Island or New York. And he’s really not I don’t think he’s ever made an All-Star game. I don’t think Tobias Harris has ever made an All-Star game. Ryan Rich, what do you think? I think he made at least one. No. No sh. No, dude. Bro, it’s like the running joke of the NBA. Ryan Rich, how much money is Tobias Harris made? I want Trent to guess and Rigs to guess how much money this guy’s made in the NBA. He’s never made an All-Star game. I think he might be the number one boondoggle athlete of all time. I want to say Tobias Harris made 75 million, dude. I think it’s I think it’s $200 million. Wow. Wow. I’ll say what’s the number? What’s the number? Over 300 million. Oh my. You see what I’m saying, dude? You’re telling me Tobias Harris didn’t make one All-Star team, but made $300 million in the NBA, bro. Just cashing checks. That’s awesome. I I love that game. I do that. I play that game with my brother all the time. I’ll just pick a random professional athlete and I’ll text him and I’ll be like, “Do not look this up. How much did X make?” It’s a really That’s just a fun game. He might be number one for that game. Like, it’s it’s a stunning number. I’ll I’m going to play that I’m going to text that name to my brother later. He just he benefited from these like six men men like getting big contracts and then obviously he’s a starter but he just never he’s never the guy but he’s signing big time deals. Big time deal. Five years 180 with the Philadelphia 76ers. Jesus 180. So yeah, he grew up on Long Island and I remember I went to his his high school championship game was against this kid that we played basketball with from Westberry. We played for St. Bridg’s CIO basketball and Sheldon I’ll always remember we he was on the bench in like fourth grade and then something happened in between fourth and fifth grade and Sheldon started touching rim and we showed up to the tryyouts the next year and we all it was like all me and like you know Dylan and Robbie we all we all quickly hit the bench and Shell did Shel Diddy Sheldon Hagical the magical started freaking flying through the air like it was Space Jam man. It was unbelievable. I used to play I believe I could fly off my off a boom box in the in the CIO gym. Anyway, we we went to go watch them play a championship game and freaking that guy Tobias Harris walked out of the locker room in at Hofra wearing his Tennessee gear and everyone’s like he’s going to Tennessee. It was nuts. I can’t believe Tobias Harris never made one all-star team. Not one, dude. Not one. Nope. Um I did pull up pictures of Kingston Heath and this place looks absolutely sick. So you want to know the craziest thing? If I could take this camera. So when you walk through my house, craziest thing, I have a picture of that exact tree. No way. Um, when you walk down my house, like upstairs, we have all the rooms and then there’s the steps to go down to the main level. And down the steps, there’s a big wall. It’s like a high ceiling wall. Uh, I have a picture that I really like printed photo, huge of that tree, and it’s like perfectly centered. I I must have taken like a.5 photo of that tree and I see it every day. I take Frankie downstairs. He laughs at the tree. He looks at it and he’s like, “Wow, dude. It’s I see a tree every morning.” Kingston Heath. That’s crazy. I wouldn’t have thought to say that on the podcast until you said that. Yeah. My photo is incredible, dude. Did you know it was Kingston Heath? Yeah. Yeah. I’ve always Yeah. And I always cuz I’ve got photos around my house that I’ve taken. I got one at Cray in my dining room and it’s just of the first hole and it’s all black. I I made them all black and white and it’s like very rugged and you just see that little barn on the right side that like greenskeeper house that was there since like 1507. You don’t even know it’s a golf course. It’s just like a rolling hill fairway and a little building and it’s like so I always tell people that’s cray that’s Kingston Heath. It’s awesome. I got one of St. Andrews of just the bridge. I love that [ __ ] because it’s it’s golf art but it’s not. It’s like golf photography but it’s not. You can’t really tell. That’s what I struggle with where with with golf art is like I don’t want to put golf art all around my house. But like send you what I got. But like ri but rigged I when we were rig’s apartment. Rigs has done a good job of just committing to it. He’s like this is a golfer’s apartment and I’m going to put a coolest [ __ ] that I got. I got all the coolest stuff I have is like from golf stuff. So it’s like but Frankie sounds like he hides it a little bit. He’s just like this is a tree but it’s a kink. Oh, he’s got like a wife and a family. I’m just like me. So, it’s like coming into the [ __ ] I got to get in my bedroom. Uh, going back to Tiger, did we want to say anything about his comments about being the next Ryder Cup captain where they asked him about it and he said, “No one has talked to me about it.” Kind of weird. Kind of thought that was pretty weird, you know, like I guess is everyone just throwing shots at the PG of America now? Is that just what we’re doing? We’re just burying the PG of America. It’s like my my read on it is it’s not a denial that he is open to doing it. I thought so too. I thought so too. But it, you know, the JP McManis and the whole deal, I think that like a lot of people assume it’s just going to be Tiger. So for him to Yeah. I thought it came off kind of weird that he would say it that way. Like I think if he would have said like, you know what, it’s still early. We haven’t actually discussed it yet. that would still give off the same sort of answer, but it seemed a little more like no one’s asked me was sort of like it’s in your court to ask me. Why aren’t you asking me? I see what you’re saying. That could be. Yeah, it is. It is like a very pointed way to say that to deny it. Yeah, it’s it’s a little bizarre, I thought. But but yeah, it wasn’t a it wasn’t a denial. It was uh for sure. I you know, I think he’s most likely going to be the Rder Cup captain in two years. Keegan also said made some comments and he said he’s open to doing it again. He would love to do it again. He said, “I would love that.” Yeah. And this is a discussion we had right after the Ryder Cup ended where it was, you know, we’re talking about how the Europeans do it. They’ve got a system. They’ve got Luke. They’ve got, you know, you kind of keep the same core going and it might it might do the U the Team USA some good to maybe follow that model. And you know, Keegan didn’t go great for the first couple days, but they showed some some life there on Sunday and it didn’t completely close the door on bringing him back. So, I think it’s I think it’s between those two. I really do. Just keep imagine you just keep digging Keegan’s Ryder Cup hole deeper where it’s just you, you know, two time losing RDER Cup captain. Never on top of those comments, he also was like, “This was the darkest year of my life and I give my year an F.” And so yeah, maybe to have a little bit of mercy, maybe you don’t have Keegan be the captain again because I do think if you lose it again, it’s like that’s that legacy is no bueno. H that make Yeah. Yeah. It makes me sad. I love Keegan. I [ __ ] love Keegan. I love his fire. I love all of it. I wish he had this awesome relationship with the RDER Cup, but I’m I remember right at the end there, they asked him, you know, like what’s your relationship with this event? and he was like, “I got a real weird relationship with this event. Like, I love it so much, but I’ve had so much heartbreak around it from losing, you know, losing captain, not being picked when I, you know, felt like I could have been picked.” Like, all of it. It’s just like, “Fuck me, man.” It like makes my heart break for Keegan because that guy wears his heart in his sleeve. I love that guy. If you’re serious about your golf game, your vision on the golf course matters. I talk a lot about how I got lasic eye surgery. Shout out to Dr. Delaruso here on Long Island. Unbelievable. Changed my life. And because I did get uh Lasic eye correction surgery, I’m able to wear Shady Ray sunglasses. And I’m even wearing them even more because I want to keep those eyes protected. 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We’ve teamed up with Shady Rays to bring you an exclusive offer. or head over to shadyrays.com and use code 4 f polarized sunglasses. You got to try these out for yourself. These shades are rated five stars by over 300,000 people. I’m telling you right now, go over to that shady.com website and use the code four for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Shady Rays. Colt Nos. Shout out to Colt Nose. kind of mentioned it off the top, but Colton Nos got a nice promotion. Uh Ian Baker Finch, you know, kind of called it quits. He had a nice uh retirement in August, I believe that was from CBS. Uh so Colt will now get a little promotion from walking around as the encourse reporter to being in calling the action up in the booth. It’s uh you know you’ve got Trevor uh and Jim Nance are obviously the top two dogs but then um you’ve got Frank Nabolo and Colt Nel will be up in the tower calling the play uh kind of calling a lot more golf basically instead of just walking with one group which is awesome. So Colts incredibly talented. I was just on with Colton Sle a couple weeks ago talking internet invitational and all that stuff. Um very good friends of mine here in Arizona. The Colts always giving us a bunch of his time. We had him on what most recently maybe at the PGA Championship uh where he kind of came on for like an hour and was telling stories. Uh he won the US Amter at Olympic Club. So he was all over that coverage of that event um this year when the US Amter returned to the Olympic Club in San Francisco. He got all kinds of people going in the last month or so when he said that he’s been working on retaining his amateur status because Colt played pro for a while. He said he’s mostly doing it now just to troll all the people that think that he’s like cheating everyone out of uh trying to win amateur events. So, um he’s done a great job getting into uh media, working with CBS. Um and now he’s got a great promotion, welldeserved. He’s very, very good at what he does, I think. Yeah, it’s good to see talented, funny people be rewarded, and that that’s what this is. He’s, you know, obviously we’re pretty close with him and he is a great guy, but like when you do watch the broadcast, he adds a lot to it. He adds some levity, but he also knows what he’s talking about. So the more more guys like that that you can have on a golf broadcast, the better. So the fact that CBS recognizes that and is promoting a guy like him, that is good news. I still haven’t gotten to the point where I’ve gotten used to hearing his voice like on the Masters, you know, on on some of those Masters broadcast or just Colt knows talking at Augusta National. To me, just because we are buddies with them and we’ve had drinks with them and done long nights with them and done golf trips with them, uh, it’s just funny to hear a guy with a familiar voice to me speaking in in in certain settings that are like, you know, not reserved for those moments. It’s funny, but no one deserves it more. I mean, the guy’s been grinding. He does all the those group uh all those group announcements and and those are not easy to do. We’ve done like a very small version of that when we get the corn ferry. It’s really hard to add good insight when you’re out there on the golf course. What they do is really impressive and he’s good at it. So, yeah, he definitely deserves this uh the come up and you know, shout out to Colt carrying those packs around. It was and Chicago in August. It was like as hot as it could possibly be. They also just like throw it to you and they’re like, “Now add insight.” And you have no idea where they’re at, what they’re seeing. You just got to somehow add color to like this putt. And it’s like, you know, sometimes that means like not really saying anything, which means you’re doing a good job. It’s a really hard balance. Really, really difficult. It is. It’s a It’s an incredible skill to have that little amount of time and to actually add something that’s meaningful. And I don’t know if we necessarily have that skill. Colt really has that skill, but it’s not everybody has it. When I think of the Corfair Tour event, I always think of like when somebody was like wrong, long, right, shortsided on 18 and they threw it to you guys like Frankie, tell us about the shot. Frankie just goes, “This is a really [ __ ] hard shot.” It was just impossible, right? The like the best thing I added to that broadcast is when I was like, “All right, all right, we’ll go to the next.” He’s like, he was like, “All right, we’ll go to the next.” I was running down the fairway and my heart rate was at like 191 and they were tracking it on my whoop. That was I outside of that I really I would just ask like hey what do you what do you think and I just be like I don’t know this stuff it’s hot out here really hot. Yeah it is hard and Colt is really good at it. I hate giving him credit but you are right like it’s funny to see you know one of our buddies golf trip guy. I always think like one of my one of my images I always think of when somebody asks me or mentions Cultnos is him sitting on that little bench next to the first tea at Pebble Beach with a transfusion with one of his legs crossed over like his knee and I was on the tea and he’s just sipping his transfusion just goes well this should be interesting is what he said and I just that’s like our buddy who’s also just moving up in the in the golf commentary world. So he is uh he’s kind of a he’s a little bit of that Kevin Kisner ilk too where it’s like he’s still tight enough with the guys and he you know he’s boys with that crew so he’s got this like access he’s able to add all that insight they like you know they like him being out there with him or now him being like up in the tower giving the insight because they believe he’s got credibility because they know him they’re buddies with him and so yeah uh in the golf broadcasting world that’s that’s big news so well done to uh to Colt nose very very welld deserved. Ryan Richen, can you try and find real quick? There’s a video that went uh it was on Instagram, but I’m sure it’s on Twitter of like NBC, it wasn’t NBC, it was CBS uh director during the Masters, like basically when Tiger Woods won in 2019, him directing Jim Nance to like not speak during that moment. Have you guys ever seen this behind thescenes video? No. It’s incredible. And everyone kind of gives the commentary, guys, all the glitz and the glam of of owning the moment, not saying anything. A lot of people say it’s Jim Nance’s best call of not saying a word during Tiger’s Walk from the Green. Him and Faldo. And F. Yeah. But it’s the director saying, “Do not say a word.” He was It’s crazy. Really? Yeah, dude. It’s awesome. Oh, I’ve never You’re not going to say a word. Don’t say anything. He’s like, “Cut. Here’s the sun. Oh my god, what a moment. Don’t say a word.” It’s insane. Interesting. You got to find I It’s got to be somewhere. It’s like behind the scenes. Tiger 2019 victory like director. No, some some companies still know how to get it done. Good luck, Ryan Richson. Ain’t going to find this [ __ ] We’re doing nothing so far. That is Yeah, cuz you think cuz there are some announcers. It’s a skill to say nothing and I just assumed that they were always just like I know what I’m doing. Bro, I I have spent my last four or five years always in the back of my mind thinking about that call cuz obviously we it’s one of the greatest calls of our lifetime. Tiger Woods winning the Masters again. But I I I never saw anyone give those guys the credit. I’m sure they have. Jim Dance of course would probably is done interviews and said like, “Oh no, that’s all in the booth.” But um yeah, I mean I don’t know if we can find that video. It’s probably going to be hard. It was like one of those Instagram algorithm things. I’m getting fed that and how to play crapsless craps because we played that one time in Vegas and now all I get is freaking strategies on how to play craps now. It’s outrageous how Instagram work. Play we won crapsless craps. It was awesome. You know what I’ve been getting fed since we had a podcast on Tuesday is how the holdovers was shot in a way that makes it feel like it is older. There you go. I’m going to send them to you. They’re actually pretty interesting. Awesome. Was it on film? I’m sure it was on film. Yeah. And they were basically just like I it’s u Andrew Payne I believe is the director’s name and they basically were just like we are going to act like we he said sometimes when people do period pieces they like really throw in your face like this is a period piece. He wanted it to really feel like cuz the movie is set in the 19 in 1970. This stuff’s really interesting. I’ll send it to you. It’s just real warm and the lighting even the audio they like did it in a way where it sounds muddy and crackly. It’s it’s it’s going to be porn for you. What was your uh Spotify age? What was your music age this year? Spotify rap. 71 years old. 71 years old. That means you listen to a lot of guys from the 70s cuz mine was 69. 69 years old. That’s nice. Two, baby. I listen to a lot of 70s Grateful Dead. I think that’s what put me Grateful Dead. Yeah, dude. I I had the most outrageous Spotify rap this year. Like you couldn’t even make it up. It was the Beatles, then it was Noah Khan. Beatles has been number one for me for like three years. They’ve overthrown Foo Fighters. All these documentaries that get me going like, you know, now the anthologies out, the Beatles anthology. Unbelievable on Disney Plus. I got to watch that. Oh my god. Remastered beginning to end story of the Beatles. I unbelievable. Yeah. Um I got I went Beatles, Noah Khan, then I went Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, and then the guy role models with that song Sally when the wine runs out. How how often are you sitting down listening to Sinatra? Is it is it just like around the house or is it Yeah. dinner time I put Sinatra on every night almost cuz I love Sinatra too. I just I just don’t find myself for six straight months when we’re sitting down eating dinner. The first sound you heard is the summer wind came blowing in. It’s the best. That’s nice. And like and that’s that’s how I grew up. My mom played Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Periccomo, all those m. So I was like 7 years old reciting these freaking, you know, Rat Pack songs. Yeah. And everyone would look at me like, “Who is this kid?” You know what I mean? Like I’m sitting there be like, “Oh, Mack is back in town.” Dude, we would have family karaoke nights. I’m 9 years old singing, you know, Dean Martin. They’re like, “Who is what’s wrong with this guy?” So hopefully Frankie’s the same way because I play old music all the time. So, and Billy Joel, when that Billy Joel documentary came out this year, Hannah and I ripped Billy Joel in every single car ride we were in. Yeah. One thing I have adopted into my adult life that I did not have when I was growing up is I constantly have music playing in my house. We My parents just didn’t do that. I don’t know why. I was They just didn’t have it going. But now, anytime I’m just hanging around, like as soon as I’m done, we’re done doing the show here, I’ll be doing stuff around the house and I’ll just put music on. And it really, you start to notice it when you go to someone’s house when they don’t have music on cuz you’re like, there’s a lot of dead air in here. There’s too much dead air in here. I got obsessed with it being so I I just didn’t want to do like the construction and have someone come in and like cut holes in the ceiling cuz you can get those Bose sound systems or whatever brand you want to use and put them in the ceiling, right? Like I want to do that where like and then it’s just super easy to connect. I end up going like probably the cheaper route and I got a bunch of Amazon Echo and I put one in each room. So I’ve got six of them. I got one in the garage. When I’m in the garage cutting up cardboard every single day I’m cutting up cardboard. I have that and and and all I got to do is you basically make a group and you got you just on Spotify you hit like everywhere and it plays and then you can change like when you walk in the dining room it’s that level. When you walk in the living room it’s that level. So it plays no matter where you’re at. You put it at a level 30 and it’s all just one nice smooth round sound. It’s a ball. It’s a red ball of sound if I could visualize it. Um and I really like that. only thing and if you’re going to DIY it like I did is like every day when you start your day, one of them is like not connected and you got to go into the Alexa app and like just hit like restart device and then you’ll get it going. But like for Hannah to do it or something, it’s just like a little bit of a headache like if she doesn’t know how to do it, you know what I mean? So she like can’t get it going and sometimes you raise one, it raises them all. So it’s like let me get my hands on the sticks and then like so it’s it’s a lot. So, she can’t really play the music she wants to because I have I’m the one that’s hit and play. I can just I’m just fully picturing that discussion between the two. Just like I would just let me do it. Yeah. Let me get my hands on the sticks real quick. So, um my latest is I can’t for whatever reason my I got the new phone and my new phone just like connected to the CarPlay in my car and then now it just won’t connect for whatever reason like 2 days later. And the issue is you never are in a position where you can just focus on it. It’s always you jump in your car, you pull out, you start driving, and then while you’re driving is not a time to be trying to like connect the audio and whatnot. So, it’s like I’m just driving. I’m either listening to FM radio, which is horrific in the morning, by the way. I don’t know why these [ __ ] shows do like they do all the dumb call-in [ __ ] which is just like play music, man. Like, I’m here for music. They think they’re I don’t think they’re like the next stand up. They all think they’re the next WFAN in New York. I guess some good sports radio talk. We got boomers. I might have to get that going because I I can’t I can’t get my [ __ ] phone going. So, I’m listening to the radio and then you’re like trying to connect or I’m listening to [ __ ] dude. I’m turning the volume up on my phone and just like listening to my phone in my lap in my car. It’s a [ __ ] nightmare. I just don’t I don’t know what to do. Here’s the thing. They need to fix CarPlay. Okay, this one drives me [ __ ] up a wall. So, let’s say, and you’re not supposed to be texting and driving, so it really shouldn’t be you, but like let’s say someone has your phone and they’re in the passenger seat and or someone in the passenger seat is connected. This happens a lot when we get into Hannah’s car. She’s the one connected to her Apple CarPlay, but I’ll be driving and she’ll be on her phone. When you’re playing music in Apple CarPlay and you’re on your phone and you’re playing Spotify and you pull up Twitter or Instagram, the music stops. Yep. and then like goes out of Spotify basically goes out of CarPlay or even Oh, and or if you’re listening to like Sirius XM, right? And you just pull do anything on your phone, it shoots you into CarPlay. That’s the one that drives me insane. We’re listening to 70s on 7. We’re cruising down the we’re cruising down Main Street and all of a sudden she wants to pull up Twitter or anything, right? Instagram just to see. She wants to look up the restaurant we’re going to. We’re listening to a great song. all of a sudden it comes to a screeching halt because the phone can’t conceptualize why you wouldn’t want to hear that noise come through the screen. You know what I mean? Like there’s there’s got to be a way that like there it could separate it. There’s some one there’s some apps I have it figured out and but it’s not it’s not CarPlay. It’s not those. I have one app where I listen to live music on it and I can stream it to my speaker and it it acts like that’s in its own entity because then when I’m on my phone I can watch like Tik Toks or I can do whatever it so it’s possible. They just got to CarPlay doesn’t have that technology. CarPlay shoots you down. It’s like all right we’re listening to Siri XM. Someone just pulled out their phone. We’re going right back to just an empty screen on on your dashboard. I hate it. Y it’s really frustrating. It happens a lot. like long road trips. Like Hannah, if she has if she’s doing the if she’s doing the car play, she can’t be on her phone for three, four hours. If we’re going out with the Boston, she cannot be on her phone because it just ruins the whole day. That sucks. We got to rip a immaculate grid here because I’ve been getting my Ryan Richen sent in our group chat that he wanted to hit us with a Immaculate Grid. I didn’t even know they had immaculate grids for golf. I do immaculate grid all the time for hockey and baseball. It’s so freaking hard. Yeah. I mean this apparently they have them for golf which doesn’t make any sense because you can’t have a team but I guess it’s uh these are all categories like statistics. I think this is going to be really hard. All right fellas. So let’s just I think with Immaculate Grid I I know a lot of people like to get cute with it. I think for our very first one we just try and go as chalk as we possibly can and try and go nine for nine. Okay. Right. like born outside of the United States and qualified for the basically the playoffs, the BMW championship in 2023. What United States golfer qualified for the 2023 BMW championship? That could be anybody. Born outside the United States, right? Outside the United States. Okay. Born outside the United States. Okay. So, that’s John Rom. Yeah. Was he qualified for the 2023? I mean, don’t type it in just yet, but yeah, that to me that’s like John Rom. That’s I mean, that’s Rory, right? That’s like Rory Mroy. Rory’s a great one. That one’s right down the middle if we’re if you’re saying we don’t want to go crazy because I know the the Immaculate Grid thing is like guess what other people aren’t guessing, but I think Rory’s right down the middle. Well, you also Well, no. Yeah. And you also want uh Well, all right. Because you got to look with the Mack of the Grid. You got to see what else you got up here. you have played in the last President’s Cup or Ryder Cup. So that also is John Rama Rory Maroy. So we’re in a good spot right now. Okay, put Rory in there. Ryan Richson, Rory Maroy, dude, you really could have gotten crazy. This one’s an easy one to go just like anyone top 30. That’s just not Rory Mroy not coming up. This thing is glitching. Damn, man. We can’t do the back of the game. Maybe it can’t work. What do you mean? Of course it’s Rory Mroy. No, I know. I’m saying like maybe the the website is just like broken. I’m watching I’m typing in. It’s not working. What are you [ __ ] kidding me right now? It only gives you a couple of people. I don’t know. Milo Viegas. What? The launch of our Immaculate Grid series is not going. Refresh this [ __ ] You can’t even type in John Rom. Is there like a specific No, man. Well, oh man. All right. We tried. We’ll try next time. Wow. Well, I mean, we could do our own. You would just Well, I guess you want to know if you’re right. I mean, it’s definitely Rory Mroy. It’s definitely John Ramen played in the last RDER Cup. It’s top 50 in stroke approach. The century participant. Why is that? Like, is that like a I don’t I don’t know. I don’t think they’re there yet with the golf immaculate grid. But I don’t think they would joke. I feel like they’re behind on the golf one. You know, the golf Immaculate Grid, it seems to be an afterthought in the Immaculate Grid community. Yeah, it does. And that’s a shame. We’ll cut this. What a joke. No, keep it in. I want to know. You can keep that in just so people know that the We tried it. Just it wouldn’t work. You know, golf, we gave it a hell of an effort. Probably should have checked it on my laptop before, but I I just assumed I assumed it would work. Doesn’t work on my phone either. You can’t type in Rory. Yeah, they got some work to do. You know, we got we got to wait for Golf Immaculate Grid like version 4.2 or something and then I think we might be good. Not to not to throw more Ryan Rich in here, but did you happen to find that clip of the No. Okay. No way. Not even close. Not even close. I was typing in everything. I was different variations of director, Jim Nance, Don’t Speak, Tiger Woods. It was Yeah, there was nothing. It’s okay. Uh I Yeah, I was kind of firing up mine, too, and I never got anywhere near it. I Yeah, it is funny because we had that clip come out from the latest breaking 85 where I was trying to think of crosssection for a a deli sandwich. Had you ever heard of that, rigs? No. When you cut open a deli sandwich or Ryan Richen, when you cut open a deli sandwich, you open it up, it’s called the cross-section. And I couldn’t think of it. I couldn’t think of it while we were playing and it’s one of those things where it’s like, how do you even Google that? and you’re just throwing so many words into the Google machine. I eventually found it, but I think that don’t speak gymnants thing is is probably pretty similar. Frankie’s over there grinding. It’s a I can’t find it. That’s a tease. It’s a cliffhanger for the next show. Somebody sent it to us. Somebody sent it to us. Now he’s he’s he’s put the mic down. That’s how invested he is in. He’s got to send it to us. He needs both hands. But here’s the thing, too, is that um I actually saw that Meta or I think it might be Instagram is adding a feature where there’s going to be a tab that shows you every video that you had seen or scrolled by. So, in chronological order. Interesting. Like there’s so many times where that your algorithm shoots you out a video and you’re like, “What was that?” Like what? And you type it in like this like 2019. Like you can go to a tab and you can it’ll go by date and time and it’ll be like you scrolled by this one at one point. So like it’ll always just stay there. I thought that was a really smart feature. That’s a good feature. That’s a great Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. I went to the skin doctor today and got two more things taken off my back. Man, you got to just go to these skin doctors. It’s crazy. What’s going on with your back? I think my back’s trying to kill me. I mean, we don’t know. She She’s very like cautious now because I had that one taken off. Sure. So now she took sent these two for testing. But it’s crazy, man. Just makes you think if you don’t if I didn’t go and get tested. If I just let this go on for 10 years, I have skin cancer like with like full-blown. Yeah. I mean, after you did it, I went and got checked and I was totally fine, which I was obviously grateful for. But yeah, it’s like definitely go get checked. Get get your yearly checkup for everything if we’re if we’re putting Especially us too. We’re outside the sun every day all the time. Although my back doesn’t really see the sun, which is bizarre. Yeah, that’s true. You and I had a very intimate moment at the Dadv Classic where you had just gotten the procedure done. We were sharing a room and I had to apply ointment and put a bandage on your back. That’s awesome. That’s beautiful. Apply ointment to my precancerous scar. I remember Frankie being like, “Wow, we’ve really this brand and our friendship has really come a long way.” Like I I’m from Iowa. You’re from Long Island, New York. Chances were we were never going to meet each other, but by happen stance and by the job that we got and just everything broke a certain way where we eventually shared a room at Pebble Beach and I applied ointment and put a bandage on your back. It’s just it’s crazy how the world works when you think about it. Oh my god, dude. It’s absolutely insane. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, you flash back 10 years ago and or 12 years ago, whatever, and and we’re both sitting at a computer. We’re we’re both like both of our internet connections are somehow touching but we don’t know that that each other exists. You’re at your security desk in Iowa. I’m at Blli’s in the back room while Larredo’s making dough and one day you’re going to apply ointment to my back. You know what I mean? Crazy. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s really It’s really a crazy thing to think about. We’re both on Al Gore’s internet at the same time and like that led us to you touching the inside of my scar on my back. It’s true. It’s a beautiful thing. Uh, doesn’t make any sense. It is. It’s gorgeous. Uh, all right, gentlemen. Um, I’m I got to go to a lunchon today. I got to put on a suit and go to the WM Phoenix Open kickoff lunchon down at Chase Field. Our good friend Larry Fitzgerald is the like keynote uh speaker. I believe that the um tournament chairman or big chief will do an interview with uh Larry Fitzgerald. So, it’s like a bunch of, you know, big Phoenix Scottsdale thing is dragging a wagon, big old nice tight, nice tight suit pant just with a fatty. He feels like the like the the pseudo mayor of Scottsdale. Every time I’m there, he’s there shaking hands, kissing babies. Great guy. Really a nice guy. We see him, you know, at a lot of golf events. He’s I like that guy a lot. He’s the [ __ ] man, dude. He is such a nice guy. He loves golf. He’s really in the community, knows everybody. He’s just very like present with you. He’s the man. So, yeah, he’s the uh he’s the key note. He’s the He’s the big draw today. So, we’re all going down Chase Field. I got a table with a bunch of my buddies. Bunch of folks that you guys know, the Greyhawk folks will be there. The CMC folks will be there. Everybody will be there. So, um so it’s going to be a nice little I got to put on a I put on a suit. I probably put on a suit less than three times a year, maybe. Five times a year. You going tie for this one? tie. Yeah, tie. And then Yeah, tie and a and a blue blazer and gray pants. It’s a It’s a It should be a nice fit. I think I’m going to look pretty good, actually. Pretty excited about it. Oh, that is exciting. Yeah. Mhm. I really like it. But I always dude like I used to have to in, you know, I went to public high school for uh what couple of years and then prep school for like couple years. And in prep school, you had to wear a tie every day. So, I used to be able to tie a tie like you wouldn’t believe. And then when you dress like podcasters and YouTubers for [ __ ] 10 years straight, I like sometimes I get I stand over it. I go I got I got nothing. I don’t even know where to [ __ ] start. I sometimes I got to Google it or YouTube it and then you’re trying to do it in reverse. It’s kind of a nightmare. So the John Cooper days we beat his ass last night. Came over to Long Island, got his ass beat. Flew all the way to Long Island and get his ass beat. It’s nice to always get one on Tampa Bay Lightning. They My dad and I were walking out of the arena last night. We’re like, it’s just good to see these fans holding their head down a little bit just looking down at the ground cuz they’ve walked out of here with their head held high way too often. And I know it’s usually for like Eastern Conference Championship wins. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s way it’s way bigger wins, but us just getting a, you know, a good oldfashioned December 2nd victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning felt real nice. Uh, leading up to the Olympics, we’re we’re getting Coupe on this podcast. He promised it when I played Gazer Ranch with him over the summer. He wants to come on and really chop it up with you over the Islanders Tampa Bay Lightning history over the last six or seven years. That could get ugly. I That could get ugly. I mean, he just beats my ass every time. But yeah, I finally got one little jab back on. Although we’ve we’ve, you know, Islanders have gone to game seven against them. Like every time, you know, it’s been great series. You know, it they beat us on a freaking one short-handed goal in game seven to go to the Stanley Cup finals. So Josh Bailey. Yeah, it just is what it is, man. Um, all right, everyone. Enjoy the uh enjoy the weekend. You know, get that holiday spirit. Keep that cranking. Keep that cranking. I’m going to I’m going to promise to all of you, listen, I will have my tree set up uh you know, by by the next time we do this podcast. I’m excited. I got the ornaments. I got the new ornament from uh MK I got to put up. So, uh enjoy the weekend. Be safe out there. Big thanks to Ryan Richen on the ones and twos. We’re gonna get the Immaculate Grid fire. I’d be better with that, Ryan. Like that. You gotta get that [ __ ] going. It’s not you. Like, you’re gonna get me all jazzed up about the Immaculate Grid. That [ __ ] better be firing, man. I was nervous that if I did it, it like doesn’t let you do it again cuz like already So, I didn’t want to like guess and then have it be like I couldn’t do it. So, that was my thinking on that. So, they just need to be better. The Macthegrid.com needs to be way better. Yep. Yeah. It is what it is. Is what it is, man. is what it is, man. All right. Uh, thanks to all of our sponsors. We got Chevy, we love Chevy, Kraken, we love Kraken. Rocket Money, we love Rocket Money. And Shady Rays, we love Shady Rays. So, big thanks to everybody. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the weekend. We’ll see you next Tuesday. Hit it hard. Hit it hard. Hit it hard.

On today’s episode, we’ve got a full slate of December golf news to unpack. We dive into the latest Ryder Cup controversy, with Justin Thomas’ comments about green speeds—and who might be at fault—stirring up chatter across the golf world. We also break down Tiger Woods’ recent press conference, discuss Rory McIlroy’s favorite course down under, and wrap things up by congratulating our good friend Colt Knost on his well-deserved promotion to the broadcast booth.

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0:00 – Intro
2:15 – It’s Christmas time!
8:15 – Justin Thomas criticizes Ryder Cup green speeds
40:50 – Breaking down the Tiger Woods press conference
54:55 – Rory’s favorite course down under
1:05:40 – Team USA’s next Ryder Cup captain?
1:10:15 – Colt Knost’s promotion!
1:18:10 – Spotify wrapped 2025
1:25:15 – A failed attempt at the immaculate grid

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