Surprise, surprise: Brooks Koepka is trending again, just in time for the PGA | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss Brooks Koepka’s narrative-altering LIV win ahead of his PGA title defense, as well as the unique challenges of reporting on a player who loses a tournament (like Ben Kohles on Sunday). #GolfChannelPodcast #GolfChannel #BrooksKoepka

Chapters:
(0:00) Lav won’t apologize for a Nelson forecast gone wrong
(04:30) Brooks Koepka’s LIV win feels like a repeat of last year
(08:30) Can Brooks be a serious challenger to Scottie Scheffler?
(11:30) Why LIV might just be perfect for Koepka, and why the PGA is setting up well — again — for him
(17:30) Biggest takeaways from CJ Cup in Dallas
(22:00) Behind the scenes of reporting on Ben Kohles’ 72nd-hole collapse
(32:00) Lav’s upcoming trip to Pinehurst for U.S. Open media day
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Surprise, surprise: Brooks Koepka is trending again, just in time for the PGA | Golf Channel Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1

hello and welcome into this edition of the golf General podcast with Rex and lav we get to Ben Kohl’s and the unfortunate happenings of a 72 hole when trying to win a golf tournament on the PJ tour Rex I know that he exactly where you are in Dallas but first we have to get to something that is much further away in Singapore Brooks kka is back in the winter Circle the first one on live to get four career wins on the Saudi back circuit this one Rex I thought was an important one in his last start for title defense at the PGA Championship wins by H full shots in Singapore and ended a stretch of what was some uh pretty pedestrian golf at least by Brooks kepa’s high standards how meaningful do you think it was that he is once again a winner uh I do want to talk about Brooks because I did spend some time today looking into it because I was really really curious two things I wanted to touch on one what’s going on with your shirt What’s Happening Here happy CCO Deo to all who celebrate uh sure sure do you have a CCO Deo party going on at your house what’s happening uh we had a we had a little get together uh this was just part of an ensemble I also had a a custommade fedora uh that I was wearing while while drinking some dois earlier so it’s a whole it’s a whole vibe it looks that’s the one you got from Puerto Rico right exactly it looks utterly ridiculous right now as a as a standalone as I’m looking now into our streamyard record and seeing it on camera people are are going to be pretty confused especially when this post uh on on Monday May 6th but that’s the backstory is that we we had sing a mile party and this was this was a Vibe I felt like I had to clean that up and secondly uh you uh you have a Mula here you don’t even realize it but you defamed you drug uh one of the one of the greatest Minds on the PGA tour through the mud this week and that’s Stuart Williams he’s the PGA Tour meteorologist he told me earlier in the week oh we’ll be fine like and and look Stuart has been through thick and thin he knows exactly what he’s talking about I tried to tell you everything was going to be fine but you went straight to nope Tuesday finish you’re never getting out of there you might as well move to Dallas it’s going to be flooding it’s going to be Mayhem it’s gonna be terrible and yet we finished up so I’ll go ahead and wait I’ll hang up and wait for your MIAA I’m not the one who brought a PGA Tour player on live television to say how bad the forecast was you’re the one who brought Ben Griffin onto the set of your golf today hit and had him basically reading the forecast which was 10 shades of awful as well as explaining exactly what was going to be happening atmospherically it so in in hindsight this looks terrible they they moved up tea times on Sunday for the final round there was no precipitation it it rained obviously a lot uh overnight played lift clean in place uh for the final round but everything was on schedule everything finished Sunday night you don’t have a Tuesday finish in fact you could be coming to Pinehurst uh for the US Open media day to join me had you hopped on a flight on Sunday evening out of out of Big D not sure I could do that not not with Delta uh however I will say this and and to your point uh I actually liked I actually like the Ben Griffin um segment because I I thought he leaned into it which we always want from PJ tour players we want to see more personality and here’s an opportunity for us to see it I thought he did a really cool job it was funny I was teasing with him the next day like you’re fired I told him because you got the forecast wrong and he he didn’t if anything he’s hired just like 50% yeah and he goes no he goes actually I did that just so I wouldn’t cuz he had an early tea time he goes actually I did that so I didn’t have to deal with the weather uh we had one one one hour weather delay this week and you’re right we got a lot of rain overnight pretty much every night it rained but throughout the the course of the week it was fine um to Brooks kka no apology for Stuart Williams at all like you’re just gonna gloss over this this was his forecast that I was basing my doom and Glo by doom and Glo outlook for no he told me I wasn’t doing my own modeling I wasn’t looking at the forast I wasn’t I wasn’t working my sources in the meteorology world I was taking Stuart Williams at his word that this is was going to happen over the course of four days Stuart you’re a hero keep it up like I’m I’m sorry that you have to be defamed in this particular situation uh Brooks is fascinating and look I I was in Dallas I was at the CJ CJ cup Byron Nelson had a hard time with that um and I and clearly I was paying attention to that tournament and we’ll get to it however like the Brooks thing fascinates me because this feels like last year when he won in Orlando at the live event in Orlando at Orange County National going into the Masters and it had been a minute since he had done anything and suddenly he just flipped that switch and I I think I actually said this a few weeks ago after the Masters that oh of course he’s gonna flip the switch like we’re in major championship season we’re going to see major Brooks and that’s what’s going to happen and suddenly he’s going to suddenly snap two and play some of his best golf and he didn’t do it at the Masters I think he talked about it last or this week and called it in embarassing what happened at the Masters and I I’m really really looking forward to what’s going to happen at Valla at the PGA Championship in two weeks because suddenly he looks like Brooks and it is an amazing transformation I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player been able to do this look Tiger Woods in his prime he was great week in and week out it didn’t matter if it was a major or if it was the Honda Classic he was really really good regardless he was going to play well he was going to contend that was what he did best Brooks is fast fting to me because he can flip the switch and now all of a sudden he did it in a very pivotal moment over the course of the Season where he said he’s embarrassed he didn’t like what happened at the Masters and you look at valala and you think well yeah of course Brooks Brooks being Brooks maximum Brooks he he can contend there so I I I I even went on data golf which you’re always talking about and I was really curious so I kind of started combing through some of the stats because my my go-to is we don’t understand because we don’t have the analytics on live golf that we have on the PGA tour actually you do on data golf to be fair and he gained like five Strokes on the field off the te and three Strokes on the greens like the things he’s doing right now is Brooks at his best that’s part of the question and answer session on Wednesday in Liv Singapore he was asked how do you feel your game is trending to defend his title at the PJ Championship he said quote clearly not very good with a gus of the way that it went this is to to me the most telling one I kind of felt like I wasted all that time from December until then just keep grinding away keep doing the work and hopefully something will turn around again that was five six days ago where books Kea is pretty pessimistic now in hindsight with the trophy uh sitting alongside him he said look I shot back toback rounds of 600 par uh in the second and third rounds at live Adelaide like I clearly found something uh he said I think he makes it a little bit more simplistic uh than it actually is but he said it always comes down to fundamentals it’s a ball position thing he played a lot in the wind early part of the year the ball drifts back he has a two-way miss going and he he’s very particular with he likes to see his shots come out of a of a window and hit a fade when he doesn’t do that he really doesn’t know where the ball is going and I think that’s what you’ve saw from the results I mean he has not done much of anything really since last year’s PJ Championship there has not been you know any any phenomenal finish certainly in 2024 he’s gotten off to to a very slug start the Masters which he referenced as he called embarrassing was a tie for 45th and so um he he called it a good wakeup call and I think that’s the the exactly what it was he said he didn’t want to have to embarrass uh excuse me apologize to his team once again for playing like that you know he’s put in a lot of work he thought he was turning the corner and now he actually has a result that he can reference to me I think this automatically vaults him back into the conversation of who can challenge Scotty sheffler PJ Championship has been I think Brooks kep’s kindest major championship we look at how he’s performed over the past four or five years seemingly always has a shot to win that golf tournament the way it’s now set up under Carri Hig I don’t see any reason why Valla will be different this year and I I think I went straight to the idea that when Brooks is at his best you’re right he can challenge Scotty and I don’t know that there’s anyone else in the game right now that can do that we’re going to look to Rory and he’s going back to bajal where we won the PGA Championship last time we were there and and clearly that’s going to be part of the narrative but it’s got to be a one and a onea right I mean there’s no other way around it going into the PGA champ I mean Scotty’s Scotty’s won we’re we’re talking yeah that’s what I’m saying yeah yeah no I but I mean I I feel almost like Brooks at this point and maybe this is overstating it being a prisoner of the moment but I feel like he’s onea right behind one which would be Scotty like you’re right like Scotty is going to be right there and he’s not playing next week at the Wells Fargo waiting for the birth of his first child which you totally understand but I would put Brook Brooks a onea like I don’t even know if there’s anyone like whoever is going to be second we can debate that when the time comes I don’t think it’s even necessarily close at this point like who do you trust at a PJ Championship more Roy back Roy Brooks kka uh Brooks right now with the way with with what we’ve seen like and this is no disrespect to Rory and and there’s a lot of things going on his life right now but you are what your record says you are and in this particular case he’s not onea in this situation it would be Brooks because he was able to to flip the switch and I’m G to be the first one to say it like I I will do my mopa on this one after the Masters and I think maybe even before the Masters I kind of scoffed at the idea that oh flip the S switch like it’s that easy like he’s really just going to decide okay I haven’t played well at all and suddenly in this particular situation at the Masters I’m going to be able to pull it off I do think it’s interesting and like we we can dissect this and we’ll continue to do it and certainly how toxic social media is is going to have a say in this as well but I I’m not quite sure if the Liv SK schedule is the best way for these players to get ready for major championships and I I don’t mean that as not get what what have you possibly seen that would suggest that it’s not uh because in in this particular case and and Brooks even said it today or said it on Sunday when he was talking about the win he wanted to make the putt on 18 not necessarily the win to make sure his team I think they were in third wherever they ended up finishing so there it’s just a different scenario and the Cadence is different and you’re not playing what you’re normally used to playing and I’m not even saying it’s necessarily bad I mean I think time will tell where there is an argument to be made that maybe playing less going into the biggest events is better for you I think Tiger Woods is probably a really good example of this but it’s just a different it’s just a different way to get ready than what we’ve seen historically and I think some players John Ron probably being the primary example have struggled with that I think it’s I think it’s very much TBD exactly how the majors are going to unfold in 2024 for John ROM I I mean he he plays a lot of golf typically on the PJ Tour 20 22 23 times likes to play his way into major form obviously he did not play his best at the Masters I don’t think he’s playing his best at all in 2024 uh for what we’ve seen certainly with The Strokes gain metrics as well I actually think live golf is perfect for Brooks kka and has been a very beneficial move for his career first of all he got the bag at a time in his career when he was very uncertain uh short term what his injury history was going to look like what his short-term future was going to look like on the PJ tour go ahead and get your money we’re not here to look at anyone’s uh Pockets second of all it allowed him with a longer off season in the start to the next year to rehab the injuries that had plagued him for the past couple years in the PJ tour whether it was hip whether it was knee those were nagging injuries uh that were costing him and when you don’t when you feel like you have to continually play whether it’s to get ready for a major championship whether it’s to get ready for the FedEx Cup playoffs whether it’s to get ready for a President’s Cup a rider cup whatever the case may be there’s just no time it just feels like you’re constantly chasing so I think it beneficial in that in that respect but I think the biggest one I think what we’ve seen now particularly with this latest victory at Liv Singapore is is Brooks kka has never cared about regular season golf he’s not motived by the history of regular tournaments whether it’s the memorial whether it’s beill whether it’s Rivier they are merely precursors to major championships how many times as he said Brooks keco over the course of his career no one knows how many PJ tour wins you you’ve you’ve earned it’s how many major championships so these these are just warm-up events for him would he have liked to play better than for yeah he he said as much that it’s not fun to go out and try and get internally motivated even externally motivated when you’re that far down the leaderboard he likes to be in the mix however these sorts of tuneups he this is what he’s trying to go out there for he wants to see his ball striking improve he wants to see how he handles himself Under Pressure he wants to play the smart strategic punishing golf that we have seen over the major championships where it’s very calculating he was able to do that in Singapore and that’s why I think this move has been been so beneficial for him it’s never been about regular season golf it’s all sort of preseason until the spotlight uh in the Showcase it it is amazing and we’ve seen it now for five six years how he can flip the switch I can’t think of anyone in the game’s long history who can be so pedestrian for so long and then look utterly unbeatable at a time when you’re supposed to perform your best like it’s an it’s an amazing character istic and I’m sure every top player Scotty Rah Rory Victor would would kill for that to be able to shine to to be able to shine the brightest when the lights are absolutely the most intense no it’s a it’s a trait that I don’t think anyone else has ever had in the history of the game because you look at Jack Nicholas you look at Tiger Woods you look at Tom Watson Phil Mickelson you can keep going down the list I mean if you performed well in the biggest events you o performed well in those other events that were the second tier which would be every other PGA Tour event you’ve never had you’ve never had a player like this that not only did it but like openly flaunted the idea that um the Phoenix Open really didn’t interest me which in Brooks’s case that’s probably the only one that did interest him of the non- major championships but we’ve never seen this before and I’m I’m fascinated by the idea that in in the biggest events when the pressure is the most and and this is going to sort of track back to the CJ cup that’s when he seems to be most relaxed and and it doesn’t make sense because what we what we know about major championship golf is every shot is just the intense pressure cooker of trying to win a major championship and that’s what he thrives on and and I don’t even know Tiger Woods had that gear certainly in every event but it’s not as though he dismissed it everywhere else except for the majors because look the majors were clearly the most important thing to Tiger Woods it was Jack Nicholas’s record he had on the wall not Byron Nelson’s record that he had on the or I’m sorry Sam sne record that he had on the wall growing up but he still performed he still won you know 80 something times on the PGA tour to me that’s fascinating he said afterward on Sunday Brooks kepa did that what separates him is his ability to lock in and go someplace where I think a lot of guys can’t go we’ve talked so much abouty mcroy and the major list drought he has and how he twists himself into a pretzel before each and every major championship and once again ahead of the Masters he tried something different like Brooks knows exactly what works he never waivers from it and has tons of confidence I think it’s even more reason to be bullish about Brooks kka heading into Valhalla when you look at how these tournaments have been set up ever since the move back to May we’re not going to see a 1600 par win the PJ championship of alal like we saw in August 2014 when it was last played there Carrie hay has now put his imprint on this tournament where the last couple times it’s been in May nine underpar or Worse has been the winning score that’s exactly Brooks kepa Golf where you grind out a 69 a 70 a 71 you don’t make double bogeys you play to the smart side it’s it’s very tough smash mou style of golf that’s a Brooks Kea does best I think he will be very difficult to beat in his title defense Rex how about the tournament that you just covered CJ cup byon Nelson I don’t think it will uh be particularly memorable I don’t think anyone uh December 31st when we’re doing end of season podcast will immediately site the happenings at TBC Craig Ranch but it is Taylor pendrith who walked away and became a firsttime PGA Tour winner what was your takeaway from the day that was at the Nelson you’re right we won’t at the end of the year I will say watching those last three holes that’s probably three of the most entertaining holes I’ve watched all season long and look take the names out of it like if I told you it was going to be Roy maroy and Brooks kepa doing this over the last three holes everyone would be like oh this is fantastic this best thing that’s ever happened but because it was pendrith and because it was Kohl’s it’s probably going to go largely unnoticed but consider the scenario that Kohl’s birdies 16 and 17 to take a one- shot lead and then look he hadit some amazing shots on 16 and 17 and pendrith hits the ball a mile so you know he’s going to birdy the par five 18th hole you know what’s in store maybe he’s thinking Eagle what you didn’t think is that there was going to be that big of a swing where Kohl’s isn’t able to make par he ends up making bogey On a par five on a reachable par five you had a two- shot swing that was completely unexpected well and I’m going to do the the cheesy sports radio thing right now because and and look I I did the Winter’s interview and then after afterwards I did the runnerup interview because he wanted to be in the locker room kls wanted to stay in the locker room for a couple minutes and collect himself and he was fine I encourage everyone to watch golf Central tonight and and watch but like the question I asked him was and this is going to come down to his second shot ended up in a really weird weird spot he kind of got a little unlucky he was between two bunkers short of the green he’d been better off in either one of those bunkers because then you can put some spin on the ball and it’s a much easier shot but he was in the rough and the way he kind of explained it to me is I hadn’t been in the rough chipping really all week long he’d hit the ball really really well if you look at his stats but I asked him specifically it’s always weird when you’re talking to someone who’s just sort of done what he did on the 18th hole and essentially collaps but what were your options on 18 and his re immediate reaction was oh I hit the shot I wanted to and I like I I think I I didn’t have a very good face filter during the interview because I I sort of looked at him like really that’s the shot you wanted to hit because what he did is he came up short and he was lucky actually to give himself up he fled it yeah he chunked it he flubbed it whatever you want to call it and look it it’s it’s sort of weird Bermuda the golf course wasn’t in the best condition this week if I’m being honest and he probably just got you know a little bit high on the club face caught it you know however many grooves too high the fact he even gave himself a putt for par is amazing and look he clearly whiffed out amazing it amazing because the I I thought the fourth shot was so much harder than the third shot I mean if you go back was and it was you’re standing in the bunker I think he was choked down all the way to the to the metal on the shaft and he had to create something and he gave himself two three feet whatever the case was for par it was almost a foregone conclusion that we were going to have a playoff like I was already sort of looking it up and all right it’s GNA be 18 18 18 and then 10 and this is what it’s going to be to miss that putt it it it it’s breathless to me but it was the third shot and in that particular situation it’s what are your options and talk me through the degree of difficulty and it was a really really hard shot but in that case don’t you have to play for par and again this is the cheesy sports radio thing but I I hate to second guess anyone in this situation but he needed to play for par no yeah I mean it looked like thick Bermuda clearly like some of the thickest rough on the entire Golf Course the one mistake you cannot do is leaving it short if nothing else give a little oomph at the bottom of the Swing blast it 20t past and give yourself a chance to make bir which would win the golf the one mistake you cannot do is flub it and then he was in in as you mentioned an impossible shot where he’s digging his heels into the top of the bunker and just trying to to squeeze it out to five or six feet to try and stve part I don’t I don’t want to dismiss Taylor pendri because I think this is obviously a hugely significant moment for him it’s great in a President’s Cup year uh it’s a nice turnaround for a player who has had three non-surgical procedures on his shoulder uh big hitter but he had not played for particularly well uh this spring five miscuts and six starts it is pretty rare to see a player Wi on the PJ tour who’s 140th Strokes gain T degre but look this is great for Taylor pendrith to me the story of this golf tournament is what happened to Ben Kohl’s and people love Rex the people this podcast love when we go behind the scenes we give the nitty-gritty uh Insider Golf Stuff where we’re reporters and this is how we do our job I’m always curious and fascinated to know when you have a player who so clearly kicked away this Gall tournament I saw the word choke used on social media uh I I saw I saw flub uh I saw choke job we’re not going to get into that how do you approach a subject who so clearly kicked away the golf tournament and make it so you’re not being I think even more insensitive to him while also trying to be insightful for the viewer how do you how do you go about doing that uh you know what’s funny is our our former boss Jay coffin texted me right afterwards just about the interview just some things and he he kind the point of Jay that that he made is he doesn’t seem too beat up about this and if you watch the interview on golf Central and I would encourage everyone to do that and he he did he was fine like it’s not as though he was sitting there in tears so it it wasn’t as difficult as it possibly could have been that said is he probably spent 15 minutes in the locker room and we were waiting to the point that I thought that wow this isn’t going to happen and the idea was he was inside the locker room with his agent I think he wanted to call his wife he wanted to talk it through it’s a really difficult situation but you do need to talk to the media and I I’m not trying to be that media person that says that oh you always have to talk to us no that that’s not the case at all but in in this particular scenario where you were in the final group you had an opportunity to do something really special and and look winning on the PGA tour I said it earlier this morning winning on the PGA tour is really hard winning on the PGA tour for the first time is exceedingly difficult like you can’t get enough style points when you sit and you look at how difficult this may be he was fine not only with me in the interview with me but he also did some quick quotes next to me and he sort of wrapped his mind around it there were no tears to drink and and I think this is what’s a little bit different from other sports and other sports take basketball for example with the playoffs going on you you certain the Orlando Magic lost today my Orlando Magic lost today and those are difficult coughed up a big halftime lead coughed up a huge halim lead and and I actually watched some of those postgame interviews and look that’s difficult because it’s over the season is done you won’t have an opportunity to do anything like this for a few months now it’s different in the case of Kohl’s and look it’s difficult you want to win on for the first time on the PGA tour but he immediately went to the idea that he got into next week’s signature event which is at quo Hollow he lives in North Carolina it’s really important to him he has an opportunity now to try to get into the PGA Championship golf is weird like that where you can look at the the immed the immediacy of the moment and you can say wow you hit a bad shot like you know spill it give me your tears I want to drink all of your tears right now or you can be like I learned a lot this was much better and and this is where he went with me I asked him specifically he was in contention he had a two-stroke League going in the final round at Puerto Rico last month and he ended up shooting overpar terrible final round yep and I I said how is this different than what you experienced in Puerto Rico and question uh thank you I actually try sometimes and his point was I I was so much better this time around I was so much more relaxed I was so much more composed he did Birdie 16 and 17 just to take the lead it’s not as though he just stumbled around all day long and found himself in a weird spot on the 18th hole he did some stuff coming down the stretch that if you’re going to process this and look he’s going to get on a plane tonight and fly home and probably spend a lot of time thinking about what happened if you’re going to process it then yeah you’re going to go to the good stuff you’re going to go to he hit his approach shot on 16 to two feet like that is just lights out you make a birdie on 17 when you feel like wow that this could win me the tournament I think those are the things he’s going to focus on he’s not going to think about that bad Chip Shot yeah I mean you and I have have covered multiple Sports and we’ve all interviewed players who go ice cold in the fourth quarter of a basketball game and and miss the and miss the critical shot or they throw a game clinching interception you know in the final two minutes or the the closer who serves up a home run in the bottom of the ninth it’s very difficult to ask those players who are in the the Heat of the Moment questions I think there’s there’s always like a division between you know we’re not the ones who are in that Arena and you’re asking someone to to basically go through the worst part of their day like it’s it’s a it’s a pretty awkward dance golfers however to your point they always seem to find silver linings easier I think than other athletes part of that I think is just the dynamic DCS of tournament golf where as you mentioned now Ben Kohl’s is is playing in four days at the Wells Fargo Championship like he’s he’s his season has just turned around pretty significantly second place money is also quite good for a player who has bounced back and forth between the corn fairy tour and the PJ tour for the majority of his career this gives him a pretty significant leg up to try and keep his card now for 2025 and so when he’s in the locker room when he when he is processing that for 10 15 minutes as he did after the final round here that is to me where his mind is going where he’s talking to his agent he’s talking to his wife he’s talking to his sportsy he’s talking to his best friend whatever the case may be I am sure they are planting those seeds of positivity in Ben Kohl’s mind like hey this sucks right now I’m sure it stings a lot but there was a lot to take from this week moving forward it I’ve I’ve always found that interesting with professional golfers and the concept of competitive golf compared to like a pitcher who then has to face his teammates you know it’s all on him as opposed to like the the team Dynamic have you do you do you feel that as as as well from kind of your past experience the difference in in team sport individual sport or even just the popularity of those Sports no it’s a great point because I think at the rider cup and you know we saw it from Hunter Mayhan a few years ago I think it was the the Celtic Manor Ridder cup when he was just devastated and like he didn’t lose the rider cup that year but what he did coming down the stretch it wasn’t very very good golf and like just gutted and everyone around him tried to circle around him and and give him support but it’s really really difficult and to your point you’re right you lose so much more in golf even Tiger Woods like I don’t know what his winning percentage was but the greatest of all time you could argue won what 20% of the time 10% of the time like it it just you’re always sort of trying to find but he almost always won Rex with the 54 hole lead which is different so he’s he’s closing out golf tournaments at a rate that we had never seen the one that sticks out of course is the 09 PGA against where where that’s that’s the tournament that he lost and that was sort of the the first kink in the armor so to speak well I remember asking Han Kaney when he was working with tiger at the time about that phenomenon but like why is the 54 hole record so good and it was so simple in Hank’s mind it’s like if he has the 54o lead he’s probably playing pretty well and if Tiger Woods is playing pretty well then every else is playing catchup which made total sense to me but as it applies to to this particular case and and you’re right it’s really really difficult I think professional golfers more so than any other professional athletes are really good at processing a loss even a heartbreaking loss like this because you have to be I mean what are you gonna do beat yourself every beat yourself up every single week like that’s not a good way to live that’s a terrible lifestyle I I go back to though and he he was on the broadcast with me this week Terry Ganon I’ve worked with him a couple times but for those of you who don’t know Terry Ganon was on the North Carolina State basketball team that won the NCAA Championship the volano won the one where you know you believe in dreams early early 80s yeah yeah yeah yeah it’s it was a long time ago but it’s a very famous moment and in that moment I remember him talking about this at a dinner a few years ago if you watch and and I would encourage everyone to do this if you watch that sort of last whatever five seconds of the game when they hit the game winner Terry is over in the corner he spotted up up just like you would be if you were you know a modern NBA player and he has his hands up and to hear him tell the story it’s I had my hands up for a split second thinking that yes give me the ball I’m wide open I want to win this and he goes and then it dawned on me like no I I don’t want this and he literally put his hands down and I think that’s such a telling moment where not not not not everyone’s made to be the hero no no I don’t want this I don’t want this where you have a player like Tiger Woods or or Michael Jordan or Brooks capka we can keep going down the list of goats they want to be in that moment 99% of the people in the world don’t want to be in that moment yeah and I’m sure there was no loner place than the 72nd hole at the CJ cup Byron Nelson when Ben Kohl’s makes six and all he can do is watch Taylor pendrith make a two and a half three-footer uh to win his first golf tourament when five 10 minutes earlier uh it looked for all the world like at worst Ben Kohl’s was probably going to be in a playoff in in all likelihood if you saw the betting OD uh he was a prohibitive favorite to go on and win his first PGA Tour event any other takeaways Rex from the week that was whether it’s Jordan spe will alot torus this early week WD looking ahead to Quail Hollow uh we got a lot of really really good stuff this week when we asked for or I asked for stops on barbecue I want to thank everybody who reached out to me uh Hard Eight was was very good I thought it was great I didn’t have an opportunity to really do much else I will say this tonight uh literally right next door to my h hotel is a In-N-Out Burger so I’m heading there right now oh that feels wrong to enjoy that in Texas and not before I board a red eyee flight uh as I do typically every year from La slam some In-N-Out hop on a red eyee pray for the people in 12a or 12b I have a very eventful Monday and Tuesday lined up wrecks at Pinehurst Resort you and I did the boondoggle to end all boond doggles last year at this time you and I played LACC hopped on a private jet and then played Pebble Beach uh site of the US Open and US Women’s Open respectively last year I’ll be going solo this year playing Pinehurst number two on Monday afternoon also supposed to be getting some time with reigning US Open Champion wendam Clark on Monday so that will be great and then the media day for Pinehurst number 10 which is supposed to be spectacular is on Tuesday morning so when we uh reconvene on Wednesday to do our preview edition of the Wells Fargo Championship I should have plenty of fodder to bring the folks on what they can expect from this year’s US Open never played the golf course before uh really praying that I have enough golf balls it has been uh All Aboard The Struggle Bus of late uh but I can’t wait to get up to Pinehurst North Carolina early Monday morning all right that is going to do it for this Edition you got a SAA finger up go ahead please I do I wanted to pull back the curtain but before you hit the record button your comment to me was how much water is there at Pinehurst which is not exactly a good frame of you’re not a good spot no I’m really I’m really not I play with my wife uh nine holes at our home course Marshall landing and if if you guys are familiar with Northeast Florida golf actually Florida golf in general like it’s pretty punishing where you if if you miss the Fairway you’re in the sand you’re in the water you’re in the marsh you’re in some sort of unplayable Hazard like it can be pretty claustrophobic at times and so i’ I’ve been playing a lot of steer golf basically Ju Just just playing away from from Big misses my confidence is completely in the tank my psyche has been broken I’ve never played worse golf than I am right now what better time to go to a US Open venue uh one that is notoriously difficult now with the wasy areas and the the turtleback greens than right now like it could be very ugly but I’m I’m just PR that the driver Yips that I’ve since come down with do not rear it’s its ugly head because it has been very very difficult I will give a full report though on Wednesday I do appreciate everyone’s teas and peas thoughts and prayers all right that is going to do it for this edition of Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lab you guys know the drill in the meantime nbcsports.com golf for the latest news notes and updates we’ll be back on Wednesday afternoon to rehash what will surely be uh a completely an utterly devastating mental round uh at both Piner number two and pinor number 10 as well as a preview of the wells varu Championship where all the top players in the PJ tour in the field are there except for of course world number one who at least as of this recording is still expecting his first child with wife Meredith as always thanks for listening thanks for the support talk to you guys on Wednesday