Dan is joined by RBC Heritage winner Justin Thomas to discuss his first victory in three years, chats with Korn Ferry Tour winner and Netflix star Neal Shipley and Corales Puntacana Championship winner Garrick Higgo, then discusses playing Augusta National with The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig, and makes Ryder Cup picks with Golf Digest’s Luke Kerr Dineen.
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Welcome to the show, Golf Sickos. Happy Monday. We’ve got an absolutely massive show. Just a massive show today. There’s no masters hangover here. There’s no masters hangover here. I’m joined by uh Sidekick. I feel like I’m giving you a new name every time. Do it up. Actually, I might have done Psychic before. I said co last week and then after I said I was like, whoa, that was big. Partner in crime. Partner in crime. That’s Ben Boscoish, Scratch, editor-inchief. So Harry Diamond, what he said to Rory Mroy after Rory made a bit of a mess coming home on 18 of the Masters, he said before the playoff, they were on the cart back to the tea and he said, “If I would have offered you this at the beginning of the week, you’d have taken it.” If I would have told myself that I was going to have three winners on Dan on Golf in episode, is this 11? Episode 11, I think, maybe 12, something like that. I would have taken it. Amazing week after the Masters. I thought we were going to get uh Neil Shipley, Joel Damon, and Justin Thomas as our winners this week. Neil wrapped it up for us on Saturday. It was a Wednesday through Saturday tournament on the on the uh Cornferry tour. Joel had some issues. We’re going to get to that. But JT uh it almost got away from JT also. Uh Andrew Novak had a putt on 18 to win the RBC Heritage, which would have been a pretty pretty amazing story. Cinderella story. Guys from Raleigh, North Carolina. Lives in St. Simon’s Islands, which I believe is very, very close to Hilton Head. Playing great golf this year, too. Playing great golf this year. Signature event too. This was, you know, no hokey stuff here. All the big boys minus Rory. Rory went back to Belfast uh to celebrate which got me thinking where would you go if you if you won the I’m not even going to say won masters. If you completed a lifelong dream which for you is I don’t know styling gymnance or something. If you style gymnants for one week where would you go? I’m going back to Pittsburgh to celebrate. So it’s a family thing. Yeah. Yeah. So my first inclination is Vegas, but that’s just it sounds really stressful. If you’re Yeah. If you’re like brothers and sisters and your parents want to go to Vegas. Yeah. No, but I’m just like you know go to Vegas to celebrate. But it just sounds especially if I’ve done something of note. I feel like I’m I’m like not going to want to a little on the nose. You go to Pinehurst number 11. What’ you say? Go to Pinehurst number 11. Pinehurst number 11. 11 golf courses at a at a golf resort. I love this country. I love capitalism. It’s 11 golf courses. It’s just a stunning amount. Um but anyways, I think I’m going to the beach, by the way, to answer your question. Okay. I think I’m going to like a resort at the beach cuz I can have some some drinks and just pass out and not worry about like ruining my life in Vegas. Play a little resort golf. Play a little bit of resort golf. I think I’m going to the beach. Okay, let’s show Andrew Novak’s putt on 18. I thought this was going to win it. I thought it was going to ruin our JT Joel uh double. Yeah. So, here he is. Amazing scene, by the way. Didn’t really have to worry about that putt going in right after he hit it. I wasn’t nervous about that going in. Not his best effort. And then once JT came out with that little snarl on his face. I love how he emerged. I love how he emerged. It felt like JT was going to win. Um we had the watch along going yesterday. We had it on this channel which was awesome. Yeah. Love this community that we’re building here. Dan on golf. Welcome to the show. Dan on golf. Dog. Uh, we were proJT. We were We were outwardly pro JT on the stream because Rick Aean on this show picked Justin Thomas to win 18 to1. And yeah, we were emotionally invested. Sue us for multiple reasons. For multiple reasons. What was the other reason? Because JT drought. Yeah, it was a drought. It was almost 3 years long. The Americans were off to a little bit of a slow start this year. Europeans were eating. Oh yeah. Um, here was JT to win uh on the first playoff hole. And here was our reaction on the watch along. JT for the win. 21 ft. He settles over it. It’s going to break to his right. He hit his line. Is that going to do it? Justin Thomas has won the tournament. JT, you give me a little shot. 21 ft. His first win in almost 3 years. A winner for Rick Gaiman. If you if you followed us on Dan on Golf, we had JT plus 1800 18 to1 to win. Justin Thomas with Joe Grinder on the bag. How about the worm cam from CBS? Oh, what a moment. Dustin Thomas. We wanted the JT Joel double. We got halfway there. Living on a prayer. Um the worm cam was a fantastic. Lot of good worms yesterday. I love the worm cam. CBS cooking. CBS is off to a really good start. Again, I know we don’t we’re not big on positive broadcast takes here on the golf internet, but CBS is cooking recently. That was a good call by you, I’ll say. Yeah, by us. Yeah, we’re getting better. I didn’t say made contact like last time. You got a lot of [ __ ] for I got I got a lot of [ __ ] going, but we’re going to we’re going to we’re going to go through all the [ __ ] that I get. Uh fantastic stuff. Great week right after the Masters and we had Justin We have Justin Thomas on this show. How lucky are we, ladies and gentlemen, to be joined by JT. He won RBC work. I got back in. No, that was on the way over in the car. I was thinking about it. Yeah, I caught up with Justin Thomas. Pretty awesome. Uh, here’s my interview with the newest winner on the PJ tour, Justin Thomas. All right, I want to I want to read a stat. I don’t know if I don’t know if they’ve hit you with this stat, but there’s before today there were only six guys who had won 16 times on the PGA tour, including multiple majors before age 32 was Arnold, Jack, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Tiger, and Rory. Now, you have joined that group. What goes through your head when you’re when you’re included in a group like that? It’s it’s great. Obviously, um yeah, I’ve I fortunate to to add to be added to some of those lists in the past and I uh I definitely have not the last couple years. uh because have not from not winning but um it’s great. I mean it’s it’s a lot of you know a lot of hard work a lot of of time and effort over the years but um yeah it’s very special today. I know every win feels different. This one it been a little while. Was it was it more relief or was it pure joy? What was going through your head after the final putt dropped? Uh pure joy. It was it was a lot of happiness. I I think that relief doesn’t seem fair to say. I think it there definitely is some relief in there. But like I was kind of saying to these guys is I feel like it’s almost so it had been so long that I had at least in my head I stopped getting asked questions of when’s it going to happen, when’s it going to happen. Um like I joke there’s you got to everyone moved on like there’s other things to talk about that’s really not that big of a story or deal. And uh so that that could have helped with the relief, but it also was just I I had a lot of faith and and and fully believe that it was just a matter of time if I kept putting myself there and kept doing what I was doing. Putting yourself in contention, that’s sort of the ultimate test of the Caddy player relationship, obviously with Joe on the bag uh this week. How did it go? How was he in in crunch time? Yeah, he was great. I mean, I I think that was that was the most important thing of of uh of deciding or or trying to decide last week was obviously we didn’t know what was going to happen this week, but you know, within reason uh of I wanted to if I were to play well last week be, you know, comfortable or somewhat comfortable with who I was with and and I know Joe so well like we obviously I mean every day we would figure out some things here and there and like we joked feel like we were find you know just getting close enough and ready to know to be like, “All right, man. Thanks for the help. Appreciate it.” No. See you. Um and hopefully Rev will be uh be back and and good to go. But uh he was great, man. He He’s such a good dude. He works he works hard, but we had a lot of fun out there. My last question for you, how you going to celebrate this one? And how might it be different from from before you had a little one? Yeah. Uh Jill Jill’s back at the the host house with with I think my dad and Molly kind of getting stuff together. I’ll probably meet him at the airport here in a little bit. And uh yeah, I think Joel’s got a workout class tomorrow morning, so I’ll be on wake up duty with Molly. And um yeah, there there’s nothing that could that could stop me from feeling great right now. And uh I’ll probably have a couple beers on the on the uh on the flight home and and enjoy it, but um and then then get back to work uh you know, when the time’s right. Well, Coil Hollow is coming up soon. You’ve got some amazing history there. So, good job, man. It was fun to watch. Thanks, D. Appreciate it, dude. You have some, you were telling me you have some uh thoughts on the lack of a postmasters hangover. Yeah, actually that that sparked two thoughts. Great interview, by the way. Appreciate it. I love your way to be joined by JT. He won RBC. Got to sing it. No, I like it better when it’s spoken. Everyone’s talking about like the Masters hangover, right? When they get into the RBC. And I’m sick of that phrase being said in the golf media. I’m sick of everybody talking about it. If unless you’re a top player who’s like tired of traveling or a traveling newspaper journalist who has to go sit in those media centers every week, I don’t want to hear about the Masters. Yeah, it was so hard. You had to you had to not watch golf for 3 days and then watch golf again. If this tournament wasn’t as grand as it was, the complaints are like, why do we have these like low stakes tournaments where nobody plays? Like they should all be signature events. Like we should be so lucky as fans that every week we get a tournament like that. And I’ll also say it’s interesting the past two weeks. It’s the story of two different droughts and two men like handling it very differently. Rory, the relief question you asked JT is like, you know, he also had a drought. So you think he’s going to like release all that? Finally, I win. You know, almost the same amount of attention on him. Exactly. Rory’s been like chopping with an axe at that grand slam like at the Masters for a year. JT for the past year and a been sawing at that tree, right? So he like almost expected that tree to fall at the end. So I like he’s at the end he’s like I was excited. It was pure joy cuz he knew it was going to happen. Rory was like watching it almost slip away from him again. Well, it’s also one of those things where you get 20 chances a year versus four. Yeah. So there’s a lot more pressure. A major versus that. That’s what I’m saying. Of course. But yeah, I like that metaphor. The the axe versus the saw. Yeah. Like a chainsaw. Yeah. It’s good. No, the stars are aligning for Quail Hollow. That’s I mentioned that to to JT. You’ve got Rory who’s won there four times. He’s now got the that monkey off his back. Um he’s got the fifth major in the bag. Career Grand Slam winner. He’s been playing free. You’ve got Scotty Sheffller. He’s got three top 10s in a row, including a T8 at RBC. We we were talking about this in the watch along yesterday. He got the two back before going for an absolute miracle shot on 15. He tried to hit that driving iron from the from the waist area on the right side over the trees. I I love your analysis of his mentality there. That was a great call yesterday. like he he’s not trying to like not win at that point. Okay, honesty button. Ready? Honesty button. Here it comes. Honesty button. I don’t think Scotty Sheets gives a [ __ ] about a top 10 on the PGA Tour, right? Like at this point, he’s won. It’s casual for him. It’s very, very casual for him. He’s third in the FedEx Cup. I looked at this morning. I said, “Oh my god, it’s been a slow start for Scott.” He’s third in the FedEx Cup. Still the betting favorite, too, tied with Rory for Cohaul. And I would guess that JT is a solid number three. Yeah, cuz JT is really rounding into form. Remember, he he almost won the Valpar. So, could could easily have been two wins in his last three starts. Those saws, the saws. Um, really, really good stuff there. All right, we’re going to jump into a segment we call the knockaround presented by Knockaround. Uh, I got the Mary Janes. It’s 421. It was 420 yesterday. I was looking at the Knockaround website before this. They’ve got a whole line of 420 glasses. That is just uh that’s just California for you. And we got a promo code for you. If you go to knockaround.com, you use the promo code danongolf 20, you get 20% off your first order. These are $35 to begin with. I got to tell you another story. Can I do another honesty button thing? Hit it. I’m going to hit the honesty button again. Personal [ __ ] you to the rental car situation at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Okay, so here’s what happened. I just I landed in Phoenix for I doing the the shoot with Jake Nap on Thursday and I said, you know what? I’m not going to get a rental car because I’m only there for the day. I decided, okay, I’m going to get a rental car. I decided this on the plane. Rented a car. No problem. I wanted to watch the Man United game. We won. We lost yesterday, but we won the more important game on Thursday. No one cares. Okay. I get in the car and it takes legitimately 45 minutes not to get the car but to just get out of the rental car center. Like it just there was a huge line. I get to the front and the person scans my door and they say this car is due for maintenance. I said what do you mean this car is due for maintenance? They said you I can’t let you leave this lot. It’s unsafe. You have to get another one. So I had to turn around and then go get another car. And in that process I lost my I left my knockarounds that I had brought Oh no. in the first rental car, which apparently, you know, probably still getting maintenance. And so what did I do? I looked at I went on the Knockground website. They got a store locator. I went to Dick Sporting Goods, and I picked up these awesome ones, and it saved the day. The store locator works. I honestly That was sort of a a long- winded way of just complaining about the rental car situation. I’m becoming one of these old journalists who complains about the rental car situation all the time. You gave somebody a new pair of knockarounds essentially, cuz whoever That’s right. Congratulations to the attendant. Maybe that’s maybe that’s maybe they weren’t it wasn’t actually due for maintenance and they just saw the knockarounds. They were like those were like those are the posobro these are the Mary Jane. All right. There was a lot of talk about this early in the week. A lot of talk about this early in the week. So Wesley Bryan was suspended from the PGA tour for competing in the Liv DS uh event on Grant Horvat’s YouTube channel Monday Q on the story here. And we’re going to talk about this but first I want to show in in the same week we then heard I don’t know if what was first but that Grant Horvat uh is getting an invite to a PT tour event. said on this show. I asked him cuz that’s clearly the next frontier after he won the Creator Classic. Uh here’s what he had to say on Smiley Show. I recently got an invite into the Barracuda. Yeah, it’s really cool. Um but I don’t know where I’m at right now on it. I truly believe in my game and I think I’m not going to shoot some crazy high score. But I’ll tell you one thing, when you play with the pros, you just realize how much better they are. They’re so good at golf. Yeah, I’ll hit a lot of high quality golf shots as Wesley would say, but it’s it’s truly a whole another level. He’s going to play. Yeah. Otherwise, he wouldn’t say that he got the invite in my prediction. Also, when he said he’s not going to post a really high score, that’s true because Barracuda Stableford, so it’s all points. It’s a point system. Um, but as far as the Wesley situation, cuz people were telling you, oh, what’s your comment on this? It’s really not that complicated of a situation. So, Wesley is a PGA Tour player. I think he finished like 128th in the FedEx Cup last year. 125 are considered like fully exempt members. They get into every uh non-s signature event. They’re like full-time PGA Tour players. Grant Horvat is not. Grant Horvat has never played in a PGA Tour event. PGA Tour players are subject to a different set of rules than nonPGA Tour players. They have to get releases for an event, even if it’s on the DP World Tour. If it’s not on the PGA Tour, obviously they’re not giving out releases for live events. He probably would have known this or I would have known that it was at least a possibility, not new information. Now, would it be great if the PJ tour could make an exception? Yeah. In a perfect world, yeah, cuz Wesley’s a unique case, right? Like, obviously, he’s just as much a creator, and I think he’s kind of moving more in that direction than being a PJ tour player. It would be awesome if the tour could just say, you know what, Wesley, that’s a unique situation, but that’s not that’s not how rules work. Then you would have Liv inviting Jason Day or whoever cuz he has a YouTube channel with lads. Yeah. they’d invite Jason Day to go play in the next live duels or they would invite you know whatever some some other big PJ tour player. So, it’s just a rule is a rule. And obviously, it was not going to be a popular thing because Wesley’s very popular and understandably so. It wasn’t like he played in an actual live event. But at a certain point, like rules are what they are. And again, it would be great if the PJ tour could make an exception for Wesley Bryan. But then if you make an exception for Wesley Brian, do you make that same exception for Jason Day? You know, do you make a has a YouTube channel? They can invite him to play and live duels. So, you know, I get the PJ tour is going to look like the bad guy here, and they do look like the bad guy here, but from my perspective, like kind of a opensh situation. Yeah. I don’t understand what else they could have done in that situation. Well, they could have made an exception, but then you can’t But you can’t. No, because then Right. So, you don’t know what else to do. Exactly. Follow the rules. He is a PGA tour player. It’s a different set of rules. Um, he also knew that probably what the repercussions would be and like decided that like Yeah. he’s appealing and you know, who knows where it ends up. But as far as like, you know, cuz I saw a lot of people tying those two things together, like Wesley gets suspended whereas Grant gets an invite. It’s a totally separate situation if it’s just a totally separate situation. I also think the uh if Grant played in a live event, I don’t think he’s getting an invite into into the PG. If you played in like a live tournament once you once you like break that seal where you’re like playing in the actual tournaments, you just put yourself in a different category. Does a sponsor’s exemption though like change that at all? Like he could still get in if a sponsor, right? No. If you’re suspended, you’re suspended. Okay. Yeah. So, like Wesley could not Well, he can’t be No, I’m saying Grant can’t be suspended for playing in a live event even like because he’s not on tour. So, he could he could theoretically That’s not true. If you play I think if there’s a rule that if you play in a live event, you’re suspended for a year cuz that’s what happened with Lorie Caner and then he had to wait a year and then he got back to the So, you can suspend somebody that’s not on tour like from being invited by That’s what I’m interested in is like Yeah. I don’t think because there’s a lot of guys who play on live who were not members of the PGA Tour and I don’t think they can just go like go play in a PJ tour event. But that’s that’s a different conversation. The conversation that we’re having is like Wesley’s in a different category than Grant. It would be awesome if they could make a special rule for Wesley, but it’s just not going to happen. And you think Grant will definitely play? I think so. I think so. And I think he’s doing a good job of like saying they’re way better than me. Set expectations. Don’t go in there and be like, “Oh, I think I can do this.” You know, I think it’s a good situation. Makes a no-brainer for the tournament. He’s going to bring 20 times the eyeballs. He, you know, he’s obviously a very, he’s a great player. I think he’s a content man and he knows what he was doing by playing the will I game. You knew all I think he’ll end up playing and I’ll be excited to watch when he does. Um, speaking of cracking the whip a little bit, the Masters, this came across my desk. So, there was some some ticket tom foolery, I guess. Um, yeah, according to a report from Front Office Sports, hundreds of ticket holders who attended this year’s Masters tournament were pulled aside and questioned by Augusta reps over the origin of their tickets where they were purchased, etc. with many passes canceled for the week as the tournament cracked down on resellers. So, this is my take on this. When you drive down Washington Road, there are like 30 signs that say like tickets. Yeah. Like we sell tickets. So, I don’t really get like I you know I I it’s been explained to me before where it’s like you have to you can only get the tickets from Augusta National or the lottery, but then you walk outside the the gates and there’s tickets absolutely everywhere. I think this is probably to like let the members at Augusta know that they should be doing stuff with their tickets unless about like ruining civilians time because there has to be because I’m sure Augusta doesn’t obviously doesn’t give those tickets to the people who are standing outside on Washington Road. So there’s some something’s happening. I don’t know if it’s lottery winner but something’s happening or do they? That’d be a great business to just like employ some scalpers on the low to stand on Washington Road and make a margin. Yeah. I mean that’s that’s what that’s that is the business. That’s what they’re doing. Um, but don’t don’t do weird stuff with Mast’s uh tickets. Just behave yourselves. Just behave yourselves. Okay. Right down the road. Uh, this is at El Cab, which is really like just down the street from here. Uh, Ingred Lindblad. So, I this is she won the JM Eagle Championship. This is usually played at Wilshire Country Club. They’re undergoing a renovation, another renovation. I remember when I was I think it was in high school or college when they they had a full renovation. Now they’re doing it again. So, this was at LCAB uh here in the valley. She was an incredible amateur. So, this is from a Wikipedia page. spent 53 weeks as a world amateur golf ranking number one. Finished runner up at the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, set amateur scoring records at the 2022 US Women’s Open, won the World Amateur team championship, collected 15 college titles at LSU, and in the third start of her LPGA Tour rookie season, she won the 2025 JM Eagle LA Championship. So, good stuff there. Uh over in China, Ashen Woo won the Vulva China Open on home soil. It was his fifth win on the DP World Tour. He’s 39 years old. Passes Haoong Lee for most wins on the DP World Tour by a Chinese player. Haoong, who is the most handsome man in China, if you remember what was stamped on his wedge. That’s right. Uh he’s got he’s like 26 or 27, so he’s got a lot of time. But uh Ashen Woo, nice job getting the win over there over on the corn fury tour. We referenced this at the top. Our guy Neil Shipley, I was just down there. We filmed it on the bag with him. I think it’s going to come out this week. Tomorrow. I think it’s going to come out tomorrow. Look at this putt. Look at this pump. He was fired up. Hate to be on the other side of that fist pump. He was fired up. Awesome. Awesome clip. Uh Leecom Sun Classic is the one he won. Uh the win brought him up to third in the points. It’s obviously still early in the season. Top 20 this year to get their PGA Tour card down from 30 before. Took five playoff holes. Um awesome stuff. And then Joel Damon, this was painful. Um we’ve had Joel on the show. Joel and I have become pals. He’s a he’s a knockaround guy. Team knockaround Joel Damon. Um he stayed at my parents house for the US Open at LACC. Like Joel and I are friends and we I was rooting for him. Uh he birdied I think it was 11 and I thought he had it. Uh but he ended up bogeying his last three holes to lose by one. The last two were particularly painful. Uh here was his putt on 17. Viewer discretion advised. It’s it just breathtakingly short putt. It was I think it’s shorter. I mean, good thing they didn’t have um shot link there to tell us exactly how short that putt was. We were looking I think Rory’s was I want to say 2′ 6 in the one he missed on 16 at Piner. That looked short. That looked shorter. Um Yeah. And then on 18 he hits the fairway long par4 hits it just long and right of the green, but it was got a really good lie on the rough. And that’s a chip where in a practice turn he’s getting it up up and down eight out of 10 times. Um just no bueno. Here, let’s watch it on 18. It was down the wind, by the way. Look at He went so much higher than I was expecting him to and then it just was left of the hole the whole way. The sea looked very unhappy. He was angry. It was like a flag Moby Dick situation. Um and then he had this putt for a playoff with the waves crashing. Gave it good pace at least. It wasn’t a feeble effort, but yeah, it’s his third top 10 of the year. Um but winning is still so important. You know, he only went up from 75th in the points to 69th with a tied for second because of the opposite field event. Opposite field. Yeah. And because he was T2 with like four other guys, so we had to split the points. Winning is a two-year exemption. Winning is I believe into all the signature events. It’s into it just would have been really big for him. But he’s playing really well. So the weather felt like more of a factor there than maybe I gave it credit for. Well, Jar Ko bogeied 17 and missed like an eight footer on 18. So it wasn’t like, you know, someone grabbed the tournament. And Joel was honest about this afterwards. He said, “You know, I’m prone to that on seven on 17, that little putt.” He’s like, “I don’t really know what it is, but when I get nervous.” Uh, I talked to him a bit this morning. He said, “It sucks. It still sucks.” You know, winning is it’s easy to be like, “Oh, you finished tie for second. It’s a great week.” Winning on the PG. There’s such a difference between winning and finishing tie for second. Especially once you’ve done it. Especially once you’ve done it. And especially in one of those opposite field events where the money is not like crazy for a tie for second that, you know, the points aren’t crazy. So disappointing, but he’s playing really, really well. Um, but one man’s collapse is another man’s second PGA Tour win. And that was Garrick Higgo. Uh, won his first tournament at the Palmetto Championship at Congereie. I was there. It was one of those weird COVID weeks. Uh, it was like a one-off tournament. He was 21. He had no hair. Uh, now he has an incredible uh head of hair. I mean, Neil Shipley’s got nice hair, but this is this is another level. Uh, and Garrick, we’re going to go to our second interview with a winner uh on the PJ tour. Here is me and Mr. Lettuce. Garrett. All right. We are joined by uh the winner of the Corales Punaana Championship, Garrick Higgo. Garrick, it was it was quite a roller coaster on the back nine. Walk me through your emotions. Where where were you mentally throughout that whole thing? Yeah, I was I was just trying to stay in it. Um I think like everybody else, um I knew where where I was uh when I finished 14. There there’s not many leaderboards out here, so um that kind of gave me some fuel. I knew, you know, I think I boied 13. I can’t remember, but bogey 13. Um, I I was playing great, hitting it good. Um, and I was just trying to make three or four. I mean, I know it sounds crazy now, but I was trying to make three birdies to try and really give myself a shot. Um, I guess that probably helped. I stayed aggressive, hit some good shots coming in. Did you Did you feel I mean, I know you said that you couldn’t see many leaderboards out there, but could you feel that Joel was kind of having trouble? Did you did you were you able to tell yourself like all right maybe just a couple pars coming in here? No, I I honestly I didn’t I knew he boied 16. Graeme told me Graeme Delet he was walking with um I didn’t know he boied 17. So the shot look looking back the shot on 18 was obviously really really great. Looking back now um I absolutely pumped that drive to get it over the over the I want to call it a creek but it’s not. um over third gorge. Um but no, I had no idea. I mean, I thought I mean I played with him yesterday. He played solid. You know, it’s a pity that he played he kind of didn’t have his best coming in, but you know, I’m obviously happy and I played great. So, you got deer two-time winner now. Bit of a bit of a gap after number one. You went through some some difficult runs of form. What’s been the key to kind of the resurgence recently? Well, I’m healthy. It doesn’t help having a a a wrist that you can’t practice with. Um, and I went through a pretty much a sex change in my swing with Sha. Um, so, you know, changing a lot of things, you know, being competitive and, you know, just making one change is hard enough, but I literally changed my whole swing and I was injured. So, um, not the best thing to go through, but it was a lot of growth. The the lettuce, the hair, it’s been a huge hit this week. Are we keeping it? I mean, you’ve won with it now. I feel like they were showing pictures of when you won at Conger and you look like a completely different person. Completely. Yeah, it’s crazy. I saw some pictures on, you know, when your phone brings up like memories. I saw myself and I’m like, that’s just not it. That’s not me. So, I’m going to keep it. I love it. And the Boston hat, is that here to stay as well? Might as well. Yeah. I don’t have any sponsors, so um that’s why I wear it. I had a Saints hat on yesterday. I was going to wear a Tigers hat today, but this one’s good in the wind. So, you know, with the letters, it’s already on, you know, maxed out back here, you know. I love it. Well, you know, I think we’re we’re going to we’re going to get you some sponsorships. I think you you went on the PJ tour. You know, we might not be able to wear the Boston hat as long as we want, but I wanted to ask you the life for this. I wanted to ask you one more one more question before I let you go here. I saw Eric Vanroyan uh stay on the on the green to congratulate you. Um, what’s it like having sort of mentorship from, you know, you came over here at a young age playing on the PGA tour, having some guys that you can lean on? Yeah, I think, um, Eric’s been great. We play a lot at Bears Club. Um, you know, there’s so many guys, Camilo, Alex Norin. Um, you know, even a guy like Rory, who I see a lot out there, he’s been great to me. Um, but even even guys like Brandon Grace, you know, he’s he was great to me. He still is. We still talk a lot, you I actually I miss him a lot. You know, a lot of those guys who went to live I I do miss. Um but yeah, it is great. You know, everybody’s been great to me. So, well, good stuff, man. Congratulations. I’m happy to hear that the hair is here to stay. Thanks, Ben. All right, we’re going to jump into Give Me a Winner. We’re going to give Rick Gaiman his unbelievable flowers. He deserves every every flower. He deserves every little petal. Rick, you beauty man. You are putting food on people’s tables. We got a graphic here. Can we show this graphic about how much you’re up for the year? I believe we are we are up to 39 plus 39 units, which is absurd. Absolutely absurd. Yeah, there it is. So, if we have a $100 bet, we’ve got $3,955 in winnings. So, if you’re not following him, again, you’re you’re putting kids through college. You’re probably, you know, funding someone’s addiction out there. How does it feel to have so much uh just just so much sway in the world? Oh man, we’re on a great run. Obviously, this is this has been this has been a lot of fun. Yeah, you know, even the ones that like you just got to give yourself opportunities, right? It’s just like these guys trying to win golf tournaments. I that was that JT one was about as sweaty as it gets, guys. Like that that was having to dodge the the putt on 18 h like the getting into a playoff those guys being three shots better than everybody else. Like that was about as sweaty as it gets as Andrew Novak’s bombing it into the trees and having it bounce back out into the fairway. Like just all that stuff. How about Ryan Gerard too? He made a bit of a mess on 18 and I think he finished like T27, right? Yeah, he did. So this was right on the So he That was a sweaty hole. So he hits it into the penalty area on 18, which is very hard. That’s That’s impressive. Yes. And then he takes his drop, hits his third into the native area long of the green. hits it. He chips it to 10 feet. So he has a 10-footer now. So after blowing this top 30, he has a 10-footer to redeem himself and he pours it in and cashes it. So like it was I was my heart was in my throat the entire day. It was a great day for us. We don’t sleep here. We we move on to the next week. It’s a next man up mentality. Rick, you’re you’re plus 39 units, but I’m I’m smelling I want to get up to plus 50 units. How do you go about handicapping a team event and what’s the pick this week? Yeah, this this is probably the most difficult event on on the PGA tour to prognosticate. You’ve got guys from a bunch of different tours. Some have status, some don’t. When you get to the bottom of the when you get to the bottom of this board, um the nature of the event, there’s a lot of luck involved, especially in the best ball format. You think like if Rory and Shane each make nine birdies, don’t make them on the same hole, boys, right? Like let’s ham and egg this thing a little bit. So, this is about as volatile as it gets. Uh, all that being said, I I look for some complimentary skill sets and and I’ve settled on the top of the board at JT Poston and Keith Mitchell. They’re 19 to1 this morning and these are two guys that can heat up in a big way. Like JT Poston’s putter is back. Keith Mitchell has been the greatest golfer in the world in rounds number one and nothing else. Like these two can just absolutely go nuts. And that’s what I’m looking for. Just a ton of birdies. I don’t care if you make bogeies because uh in best ball like uh if you make a bogey it’s it’s probably rare that your partner does as well. So you can kind of be saved by that. So a little bit of aggression, a little bit of of great ball striking and some hot putters. I I settled on the team of Poston and Mitchell here. Poston and Mitchell. I like it. Who’s our top 10 pick of the week? Yeah. So I think there’s a a little bit of value on some some under the radar Euro guys. So Lorie Caner and Jordan Smith are plus 320. So 3.2 two to one to finish inside the top 10. These guys are like experienced professionals who know how to golf their ball, who have been around the block. Lori Kzer outside of the Masters um has been awesome this year. Jordan Smith plays all over the globe and he’s been a great pro for a long time. This is just this number’s too long on two guys who kind of know how to do this. Uh the Euros always play a ton of team events, Dan, right? Like they’re always doing something as a team and always playing alternate shot. That that comes in handy this week. And it’s also a huge week, like a huge opportunity for these guys cuz if you win, you still get, you know, you get status and all that. So I I’m with it. Those guys are going to be locked in. Liv is back this week. Uh remind it’s Chipult, isn’t it? It is. So tell us tell us about that golf course that used to host the WGC Mexico. Tell us about the characteristics and give us your your live pick of the week. Yeah. So exactly right there there is a little bit of history here. It’s been a couple of years, but we we have seen this event on the PGA tour. So, a lot of these live golfers have played in WGC’s and and the one in particular that I went with here is a top 10 for Carlos Ortiz. That’s plus 150. He’s played a lot of great golf. He won in Macau just a couple of starts ago. He finished fourth in Liv Miami. Uh he played this event once as a WG I think WGC. I think he finished like 18th or 20th. So, I I think that this is a pretty good setup for him as he’s probably playing some of the better golf that we’ve seen him play in quite some and at home in Mexico. Oh, that’s an easy one. Yeah, it’s a home game. It’s a home game. It’s a big show for him. Rick, you are uh feeding nations. Good stuff, man. We’ll have you back. We got to sign this guy up. I say it every week. Thanks, fellas. Love you, Rick. See you soon, buddy. You bet. All right, we’re going to jump into uh I usually call them way too early Ryder Cup picks. Now, I’m just calling them early Rder Cup picks. At some point, you got to you got to shed the way too early. Oh, we got Will. We’re We’re shifting gears. We got Willie Wilcox. He’s back, of course. You know, with these caddies, you can never expect them to be on time. All right, Willie. Willie Wilcox, are you joining the show? Do we have you? I Yeah, I think so. Am I doing this right? You’re doing this right. We had a whole plan. What happened? Uh, so I was keying off at 2:12 and then I saw some friends and they let me join them earlier. Um, so I’m at Tree Farm right now and uh, yeah, and I got my new Tree Farm shirt, but yeah, sorry about that. Oh my god, I was such a space cadet. Obviously, you’re good. It’s I wouldn’t expect anything less. Uh, one of my favorite people on tour. I call him the most interesting man in golf. So, you’re you’re boss man. You call him the prince. He’s made 1.278 million over the last two weeks. Now, I don’t like to count someone else’s money, but 8% of that is $12,240. Have you officially passed your career earnings as a player, which I checked this morning were 3.378 million. Um, no, not quite. Uh, but man, it’s Well, when it comes to the um the time amount, I would say like average-wise by a mile. Um, because I’ve I’ve gotten close on the bag in just under two years. So, yeah, it’s pretty pretty unbelievable. I still I just can’t believe it. Every day I wake up, I’m like, “What is going on? This is so much easier than playing.” Um, you’ve had some amazingly cool experiences. Uh, you’ve cattied in all four majors, I believe, for Sunj now. Um, President’s Cup. I want to ask you, what’s it like catting at Augusta? Like, is it is it different from normal weeks? Oh, yeah. Way different. Way different. Uh because you got to um you got to make uh the book uh you got to detail the book and make it your own little art project and because the the greens are not very detailed. The heads are obviously in yards. Um there’s no slope in the book. Um you it’s very important to do the you know like whatever long left of this pin is just dead. Don’t go there. That type stuff. And it’s amazing like like the back right pin on Sunday on number two, you know, I was able to, you know, make sure he stayed short of that pin. Um because if you stay short of it, you got a back stop. And you know, there’s just a lot of spots where you can be 40 yards away from the hole and be in such a better spot than if you were 10 ft over the back edge and be within 30 ft of the hole, you know. So that’s interesting. So there’s no slope. So, usually in in a in a yardage book, like I’m thinking about, you know, the second shot on 11. It would say in a PGA Tour book, it would be like this plays minus six. You just got to kind of eyeball it. Uh, well, I mean, obviously in the practice round, you do a lot of walking and the Yes. You got to go around, shoot it with the laser, mark it in the book, but what’s really cool is like if you’re on the left side of the fairway on nine to a front pin at about 160 yards, it could play down one. And if you’re a 100 yards to a back pin on the right side of the fairway, it’ll play up eight or nine. So, you know, it’s just stuff like that that you have to be aware of. And you don’t want him to have to second guess it. And, you know, uh I I really found reading the wind a lot easier cuz um because you just look up, but the wind does swirl in a crazy crazy way. Oh [ __ ] I just infringed in the bird’s territory. Um but uh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got to be super Did you hear that? Um but uh yeah, you got to be super aware of that as to not piss off Sunj. Are you walking to a golf ball or are you just sort of walking? I took this hole off cuz I felt so bad. I appreciate it. Um Sunj’s English. Uh Sunj’s English is better than he lets on, but obviously, you know, not fluent. How much talking do you guys do out? Do you guys talk about like, you know, sports or the weather? No, I mean, you know, he’s definitely like he’ll say sweat towel when it’s hot or he’ll just say hot over and over. Um or he’ll say or I’ll say cult. Um and uh he was conversationally like personally there’s not much. Although we’ve been to to dinner now like four or five times. I think five because he came to the uh the Malvin home dinner at the Masters. and he’s just such a sweet kid like deep down because he doesn’t have much social experience. So, um he’d been there for like two hours and I was like, “Dude, scram. It’s Tuesday of Mast’s week. You know, you’re allowed to leave.” And he was like, “Is it okay if I leave?” I’m like, “Yeah, man. You’re good.” Yeah. You got a pure one. Most most Tour pros would be in there for about 12 minutes and then they would be out of their way. Yeah. Um yeah, he he’s a he’s good. But yeah, personally, I don’t have to be involved in his personal life at all, whereas I would say a lot of players kind of force their caddies to be their psychiatrist. I am not surprised that you’re playing golf right now. I’ve never met someone who likes golf. How many times you played last week during the tournament? RBC Heritage. Um, three. Yeah. So, three rounds of golf while you’re So, you you’re kind Do you track your steps? You’ve got to be averaging like 25,000 a day. It depends. I mean, obviously when I’m playing, I 100% of the time ride. I will walk like over in Scotland because they don’t allow boogies, but uh but I uh yeah, I would say 15 to 15 to 25 would would be the average. Um are you going to are you you I know you said you love this is so much easier than playing. You think you’re gonna be doing this forever or you gonna make a run at 50 at the senior tour? Um I don’t know. I think I could do both. I mean, Lance 10 broke did and um but I’m I’m starting to play good enough to where I think my insane anxiety levels like when I was on wouldn’t affect it as much. Uh if I’m really confident in what I’m doing, the nerves go away a little bit. So, I definitely would like to in the next, you know, couple years just play something. Um just to see how my brain and stomach and sleep schedule react. Well, I think there’d be less pressure because you have a job now, right? Yeah, probably. I mean, everything isn’t relying on it and and you know, I’ve just God, I’m just so lucky to be in the situation that I am. So, yeah, I would love to play again just so all this I do love the game, but it would be cool to get a little something extra out of it. All right, last question. I don’t want to keep you from your run in golf. What first of all, what are you at? What’s your score right now? Um, I went par par. So, tough par three into the wind, par. Couple nice shots, left the putt in the heart short, and then I took this hole off, but I would have birdied, so we’ll say I’m one under. Um, okay. My last question for you. Sanjay’s been quite through quite a few caddies in his career. You’ve been on the bag for a while now. Why Why does it work? You guys are kind of an odd pair. Why do you think it works? Um, I think getting paired with him when he was 19 and his first start in America is huge. I mean, I played with him the week before the Masters and beat him by six. Um, that certainly doesn’t hurt. Um, so I think he respects the [ __ ] out of my game and my hustle and and honestly he he just didn’t grow up reading these greens and I did. And you know, I’ve I’ve got a damn 27year head start on reading these greens on him. So I just I read those putts, man. And [ __ ] he’s five or six in putting. So I’m just I think it has something to do with just everything combined. And the fact that I’m uh an ex tour player, that certainly carries weight. All right, I lied. Ben Ben has a style question for you. Ben’s our style guy. So, what’s up, man? I know you’re the wave god, so I had to ask this. Um, you’re on the Min Flow team. What’s that been like? And when are we going to get Sunj into some Maldin? I feel like it’s time for him. He’d be great with that brand. Is it happening? Would um I mean, his his g um thing with Wide Angle ends in December. Uh he wears Malbin um away from the chorus 100% of the time. Um but man, it’s been awesome. I mean, getting to meet Andrew Santino for the first time last week. J.R. Smith, every time he sees me is super cool. I mean, Stephen and I are kind of like kindred spirits. We’ve been through the same type of stuff. Um but yeah, it’s been freaking awesome. I just feel so lucky that I met him uh when I did, which is when he was caddying in the AT&T a few years ago. But uh yeah, it’s it man, what a cool ride. And it’s just starting. I’ve just, man, it’s been [ __ ] great. Yeah, the Futura stuff is pretty sweet. Keep it up, Willie. Go play well. I’m setting the over under a two and a half under. Let me know how it goes. Okay, my friend. Certainly will. Sorry I was late. Thank you. You’re good. Talk to you soon. See you. I love that guy. Classic. He’s just one of So, he’s we when he comes to LA, he stays with me. He’s just he spends a lot of time on my porch. And you know, some people when they’re at your house and they spend a lot of time on your porch, you’re like, “Get off my porch.” I like him. I want him there. He just makes me happy. I’m excited. He wants to like really get back out there in a couple years. You were talking about the senior tour. He was like, “No, I’m I think he, you know, everyone knows or not everyone, but if you don’t know Will’s story, just Google it.” Um, wild story. But he, you really struggled like his anxiety was really, really, really bad when he was playing on tour. And I think, you know, the talent was always there. The question was just like, could he keep his head on straight? And I think having this caddy stream of income takes all the pressure off. So, I think it could be really good for him. All right, we’re going to move into the two early Rder Cup picks. Not way too early. Uh we’ve got uh we went the first time we did this we had Luke Curtinine on. The second time we did this we had James Greg on. The third time we did this we’re having Luke Curtinine back on. Here’s Luke Curtinine LKD from Golf Digest. What’s up Luke? What’s up Dan? I appreciate the bake off that you’re having. I got to bring the takes this time. Secure my spot for next time. You got to bring you got to bring the takes. That’s that’s the first rule of business here. You did you did call Sergio a while ago and that’s been sort of vindicated. So we’re going to we’re going to get going. I’m I’ll start with my first pick. We’re going to do this. The way we do this is we I pick one, you pick one, we go through if if the RDER Cup was started tomorrow. Um I’m I’m happy we’re doing this today after like a good American, like a really good American won a tournament because it had been a little bit of it been a little while, you know, before this last week. Scotty hadn’t won, Xander hadn’t won, you know, Canley hadn’t won, Schoffley hadn’t won, Mory Cow hadn’t won. JT finally gets us off the board. So I’m going to start with my first pick, Scotty Sheffller. Three straight top 10s. Um you know, hasn’t won this. I’m wondering if the Phil Curse might be real. Remember Phil said, “Is Scotty going to win before Beth Page?” I say no. I don’t know if Phil puts some voodoo on him, but uh he’s third in the FedEx Cup. So even his his sort of Bame has been has been plenty good enough. So Scotty be my first pick. No brainer. First pick for me, Rory Maroy. Obviously, you know, he’s he’s achieved his bucket list dream of completing the Grand Slam at Augusta National. Now I think Rory’s going to enter the kind of RD cup focus part of his career. I mean, he seems like he’s gotten more into team golf over the years, and I think that now he’s kind of checked off what he can do on the individual side. I think now we’re going to see a kind of upgraded Rory Maroy in the RDER Cup, so obviously he’s leading the line. Yeah, he said that one of his one of the things he wants to still do in golf is win away Ryder Cup. I don’t know how many points he has, but you know, I’m sure Sergio’s all-time point record is something that’s in his head. He’s played a lot of these already. Uh, all right, my second pick, Bryson Dashambo. I moved him up to number two. Guy’s a major killer. This is four of the last five major championships he’s had a legitimate chance to win. The only one was that he didn’t was the Open last year in Masters. He was in the mix, US Open. He won PJ Championship. He lost by one. Obviously, was in the mix. Did not play well on Sunday, but he’s he’s found a way, man. He’s he’s just he shows up on the big stages now. So, Bryson is my number two. Yeah, good pick there. Ludvig is my number two. you know, he’s a few years behind Scotty and Rory in the very upper crust of the game right now, but I think in terms of skill set, you can’t really find any flaws certainly in his game and really any comparison with anybody else behind those two perhaps. I mean, he this guy does everything and his weak spot is maybe putting and he’s still a pretty darn good putter. So, it’s just a matter of time before this guy starts racking up majors and he’s just going to be such an integral part of European Ryder Cup teams going forward. I think he’s locked on in the second spot. No brainer there. Justin Thomas, another no-brainer. He even before this week, he was playing at a at a top five level according to data golf. He’s fully back. You know, I think because you and I, Luke, cover this sport every single week. You know, we we we get very sort of caught up in the minutia. But that stat that I read out to Justin Thomas at the beginning kind of made me zoom out about guys who have won 16 times in multiple majors before age 32. And there’s only seven guys who have done it. So JT is a very, very prolific winner. He’s the heart and soul of this team emotionally. Got the pick when he was playing like ass uh before Rome. He’s playing really good now. JT, nob brainer. John Ram’s my third pick. You know, it’s I just I said this last time, but I just can’t get a good read on really any of the eur live European guys and especially John Rom. I just don’t really know like how his game is compared to two years ago compared to a year ago. I mean, obviously he’s going to be a stalwart in this Rder Cup team, but he feels like he hasn’t really got a rhythm in majors. He had a weird major season last year. So, I’d really like to see some signs of life there for the remainder of the majors this season, but he’s obviously going to be like part of the backbone of this team and, you know, his partner’s coming up next. Part of the backbone, part of the backbone for sure. I think he finished like tied for 14th through the Masters. He had a decent weekend, but yeah, he was not in he was not in the mix basically all week. Uh, my fourth pick is Colin Moria. Had his first bad week of the year. I think he finished like 54th, but Ben and I were we were talking about this earlier. I love how edgy he is. I love his attitude. like he just won’t he won’t give an inch and uh I think in match play that’s a really good characteristic and also just such a solid ball striker really good for alternate shot not going to put his his teammate in in a bad position just really really good at hitting the golf ball straight which honesty button is very important in professional golf okay that was that was not the best honesty button execution but we’re moving on to to your fourth pick I appreciated it though it’s a good one um Terrell Hatton is my fourth man on the team. You know, in some ways him and Ram kind of solve each other’s problems. You pair them together. It’s kind of a set it and forget it thing. Also, he’s probably the guy who outside of Bryson has fared the best in his post live transition. I mean, he’s playing great, right? Played well at the Masters or one on the European tour, had another good finish on the European tour during the winter season. So, yeah, he’s uh, you know, I think he’s again pretty no-brainer. And again, set it and forget it with Rahm. Pair them four times together if you want and he’s going to do great. These eight I’m confident in saying are 100% going to be there. So now now we’re getting into the after the top four. I think you might have one or two definitely still going to be there. I think I have one or two definitely still going to be there. One of those who’s definitely still going to be there is Xander Schoffley. So you know we talk about Scotty having a little bit of a slow start this year. Xander’s had an even slower start. His injury was a little bit more severe and missed most more time. But what I’m just so impressed by he’s got 11 straight finishes of top 18 or of T8 or better in the majors. That is almost three full years of major championships of finishing T18 or better. you just you know what you’re getting. Obviously, you know, two majors last year. He’s he’s plays with Kentlay. He plays with Morin Kawa. He’s he’s part of our backbone. He’s part of that Scotty Xander JT backbone. So, Xander is still a no-brainer. Yeah. Victor Hovlin is my next pick. And, you know, finally, we’ve got some optimism from here. He’s been so down in the dumps with his own golf swing. He said, I asked him at the Masters about this in his press conference. He said his golf swing was nonfunctional this time last year, which is ridiculous cuz nonfunctional means you can’t hit a golf ball. In his mind, it’s nonfunctional. Now he’s ranking it like a seven out of 10 and it was a four, so it’s trending up. You know, it could be on this rate could be an 11 by the RDER Cup rolls around. So yeah, buying all the Victor Hovlin stock we can. Another another winner. I think he’s got seven wins. Um, so you know, and he’s 28 or something in that range. So a guy who’s when he’s up there has no problem closing it out. My next guy, Patrick Kentlay, having a very Patrick Kentlay season. Um, not hearing much from him. Kind of popping up on leaderboards every now and then. didn’t do much in the Masters, but still a top 10 player on data golf rankings. And I feel like after Hatgate, he’s sneak and he was really good in the President’s Cup. He’s sneaky like a team competitions guy now. You know, he’s got a little bit of an edge. No hat. So, I’m going with Can’t Yeah, Tommy Fleetwood. I would say this is my last solid dude. He’s so good. He’s such a good ball strike. He’s a friendly guy. There’s no I I don’t think you could find a reason not to pick Tommy Fleetwood. I kind of feel like he’s our generation’s like Ian Palter kind of storewart of the team except he’s really friendly guy too. Everyone loves Tommy Fleetwood. He’s just a A+ in every category when it comes to the RDER Cup. Yeah, maybe not on Sundays on the PJ tour. I think he shot even or one under yesterday but didn’t had another chance to kind of semi-win. Didn’t get it done. But this is not a PJ tour event. This is the RDER Cup. I’m going with Russell Henley. Had another really high finish tie for eighth. Obviously got uh that was this week at RBC Heritage. Got the biggest win of his career at Bay Hill. I think he shot like 7968 at the Masters. So the 68 on Friday was really good. Just one kind of really horrible round. Um but another guy who’s really solid. Kind of a similar profile to Colin Morales. Similar type of player. You can put him with anyone especially on alternate shot. You know what you’re getting. Uh the guys really like him. They speak really highly of him. I’m going with Russell Henley. Yes. Shane Lowry is my next pick. You know this time two years ago Shane Lowry coming to the Ryder Cup was really not in that great shape and kind of scraped in at the bottom of the barrel but I think he’s coming in a lot stronger this year. He’s 12th, I believe, in strokes gain approach with his iron play, which is which is great when you pair it with his short game. Those those are going to be the kind of stats that you really look closely at when it comes to Beth Paige. Someone who can get up and down when he does miss greens and and doesn’t miss too many greens in the first place, which Shane Lowry’s doing right now is just an already great baseline skill set for a guy who brings kind of the good vibes to Yeah, I was going to say like he’s he’s the ultimate vibes guy, I think, in that in that locker room. I think if JT is sort of the emotional leader, obviously Rory is is a titan of the game, but I think Shane is is big- time heart and soul vibes. My next pick, Maverick McNeely. He was on my first team. He wasn’t on my second team. He’s on my third team. Runner up at Tory Pines. That was the Genesis uh elevated event. Made the cut at the Masters. Tie for third at the RBC. So, he’s starting to do it in the bigger tournaments. He’s a great putter. He’s a really, really good putter, which is great for match play. And he said on this show, “My goal is not to be at Beth Page, it’s to get points at Beth Page. I want to give Maverick the chance.” The guy was a prolific winner in college. which took him a little while to get that confidence on the big tour, but he’s doing it now. Yeah. Justin Rose, who I think nobody likes, nobody has gathered more fans post Masters who hasn’t won than Justin Rose. I mean, everybody just loves the guy now. He’s a class act. He handled it that loss so gracefully. And he wasn’t on my team last time. And the reason why is cuz I just didn’t see the record there that was particularly exciting. But with but since then, he’s just completely proven me wrong, right? He did well at Pebble Beach. did well at Arnold Palmer and then of course at the Masters. He’s incredible partner. He’s clearly at the stage of his career where he is gearing everything towards these big events. The Ryder Cup being won with the eye of winning one and I think I think he’s definitely at this point booked himself a place on this team. I mean runner up also in the last two majors, right? He was runner up at Trune and he was runner up and he him and Luke Donald go way back. So I think he’s a really good bet to reprise that kind of elder statesman role. I’m going with Daniel Burgerer, Bug Knight, DB Straight Vibing. I’ve said it uh from the beginning of the year. I think he’s gonna be on the team. He’s got eight top 25s this year. Just a really solid player. Kind of part of that, you know, him and JT go way back. He’s he’s played on Team USA’s before. Had some some really gnarly injuries with with his back, but he’s just been really really solid this year. And I think another guy who can pair with a lot of people and uh he’s just vibing. He’s straight vibing. I think he’s I think he’s going to absolutely love the atmosphere at Beth Page Black. I’m going with Boo Knight. Uh, so Aaron Ry, I’m just I’m just hardening around the idea that I’m just an Aaron Ry fan. I just really like him as a person. I I like his golf swing. I like the way he plays golf. I mean, he’s just he’s 20. He’s inside the top 25 strokes off the tea. And he’s one of the most accurate. He was the most accurate driver on tour last season. Just a really good ball striker. Really, you know, really clean game. And I think that’s the kind of guy who is a pleasure to play with an alternate shot. He’s good guy. You can do a lot of different things with a skill set like that. And I just like the guy a lot. So yeah, Aaron Ry, he’s getting in this team for me. Awesome. I’m going to go with uh Ashe Batia. He needs some young blood, right? We we can’t have uh all 28-year-olds and and and above on this team. I want Ash there. I love the way he shapes it. I’m a little concerned about the putter. The long putter just makes me nervous cuz I’m just not a long putter guy in general. But I love his moxy. I think he, you know, he’s a guy who who I think will be on plenty of these teams moving forward. And you got to you got to draw that first blood at some point. So I’m going with Ash. So Seb Straer is my next pick. Love the guy’s golf swing. Also number one ranked iron player on tour right now. Strokes gain approach. I think he’s one of those who maybe is on a trajectory of he started his season really strong. I hope doesn’t it doesn’t run out of steam. I hope he kind of keeps this season long peak going or at least sort of maintains it. But you listen, there’s nothing to quibble with in this guy’s game. He’s got Ric Cup experience. He’s a number one, like I said, number one ranked player on tour right now. So, I think that’s a really positives when you get down later in your lineup. Yeah. Another guy who I think played really bad at first round at the Masters and then kind of bounced back. Um, but yeah, I mean, your your guy’s team is just like really really solid. Every every name that he brings, I’m like, “Yeah, that’s a good pick.” Yeah, that’s a good pick. All right, we got two more left. I’m going with Denny McCarthy. I’ve wanted I want this guy on the team really badly. I think, you know, you mentioned Ian Poulter. I think this is a guy who could sort of play that role where it’s like he doesn’t necessarily hit it the best, but he finds a way to get on the green. And I think he’s Mr. Mongolian reversal in match play. I think he’s going to make a bunch of putts. Putters are hugely frustrating to play against. I still have nightmares of of Madina when we couldn’t close it out because we had all those old guys who couldn’t putt. Steve Stricker, Jim Furick, and they missed a bunch of four-footers. That’s not happening with Denny McCarthy. I want him out there. Denny is my 11th and second to last pick. So, my second to last pick is Rosmus Hygard. I didn’t pick him last time. To be to be honest, he’s kind of defaulting his way into this team. I mean, I I really think you got to show a little bit more than what we’re currently seeing from this part of the lineup. Like, if you want to earn a pick over some experienced guys and you’re a rookie, you really got to be like racking up some good finishes, especially closer to the Ryder Cup thing. We’re just not really seeing that much from guys like Fitzpatrick or whoever may be in this conversation. So, Rasmma’s kind of defaulting his way in. But, I don’t think this is like safe steady form that locks you up one of those captains picks. I think we we’re still waiting an upgrade from Rasmos, but we’ve seen enough there, but in this current moment that he is probably nabbing one of these. Yeah, those those top 10 are really solid there. I was expecting you to say Bobby Mack. Maybe that’ll be your last pick. I’m not sure. My last pick might surprise some people. Patrick Reed. Oh, you like that? Back like a phoenix. Like an American Phoenix. Third place at the Masters. I don’t need to say more about his history in the RDER Cup. A little bit of villain energy, you know, in in New York. Maybe not the worst thing that’s ever happened. You know, it’s kind of like he’s our guy, right? You know, the New York crowd, if this was a normal tournament, they might be tough on him, but he’s our guy now. You know what I mean? He’s You want to deputize him? I I his short game is unbelievable. You want to talk about short game? And yeah, I mean, I I just think again, this might be a little bit of a prisoner of the moment off of his strong Masters, but if I see that name, and again, there’s no one here that’s really like taking that spot with two hands, you know, like I Tony Feno is not really playing well. Brooks Kepka missed the cut at the Masters. Windham Clark not really doing it for me that much. So, I would pick per if it was tomorrow, but again, this is very much subject to change. Then, you bring up a good point there that because it’s in America and in New York specifically, you won’t necessarily see guys turn on Pat. He’s our guy, dude. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Um, so yeah, my you predict my final pick, Bobby Mack. He’s my He’s He’s rounding out the team. um seventh on tour in strokes getting off the tea. Again, I you’d really love this. I’m looking for more of like a form player from this part of the lineup ordinarily, but this is kind of as good as Europe got right now. I think the majors are going to be ultimately deciding these two spots, but right now Bobby Mack with his experience he had kind of got he was nervous at the last Ryder Cup got through it and his game has seemed to have sort of been upticking since then. So, he’s kind of rounding out by 12. I can’t wait to see what the what the world thinks of these picks. Their their team is freaking really solid. It’s like scary. Like Bobby Mack is playing is really good. He was twice. He’s their 12th pick on their team. So I’m a little concerned, but still plenty of time to go. Luke, we’ll do this again, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us. Good seeing you, Don. Anytime. Yeah, good stuff, man. All right, Sugarloaf Social Club. They’re on fire recently. This is Is this navy? Uh, it’s it’s it’s a a grayish blue. It’s it’s blue. It’s not quite navy. Okay. Well, I thought it was navy. I’m color blind, obviously. But they their newest collection, this is part of that newest collection. comes out tonight at 8:00 p.m. and it’s a special one. Elevated tournament basics. It’s got everything you need to gear up for golf season. Tezips, hoodies, hats, and solid polos, which people have been clamoring for. New new colors in the polos. Yes, sir. It’s like Christmas morning. Um, I’ve seen a sneak peek of some future drops, too. So, make sure you subscribe to their email list, follow their Instagram, Ian, who who runs it. He’s a legend on there. And join their broadcast channel to never miss out. I know I’ll be refreshing the website right at 8 p.m. to see the new drop. Everything they make is just cool, fun, and quality. They’ve got you covered head to toe. Like literally, they sell hats and socks. I’ve been wearing the socks. I wore the socks with my member guest this week. Ben’s wearing them right now. And they’re more than an apparel brand. They’ve got head covers, towels, tees, and anything else you could think of. Make sure to check out their grips, too. I’ve got their grips on my irons. Got some uh got some compliments on those this week. Sugarloaf Social Club almost never discounts their stuff. Honestly, guys, they almost never do, but and some of the stuff Yeah. is probably sold out, but they are letting us give 10% off your first order made this week. Just use the code dan ongolf at checkout. Exclusions apply. Sugarloafocialclub.com. Check them out. Use code dan ongolf at checkout. Exclusions apply. All right, we’re going to bring on one of my good pals, Gabby Herszig. Gabby uh is doing amazing work at the Athletic uh also the New York Times. I feel like I’ve been seeing Let’s bring her on. Gabby, I’ve been seeing your name a lot like in the what do they call it? The old lady. The gray lady. The gray. Is it the gray lady or the old lady? Gabby, you’re on mute. Mute. Mute. Mute. You’re on mute. Or I can’t hear. One of the two. I can’t hear. Oh, that’s not good. There you are. I hear you now. Can you hear me? I can hear you now. So, there’s this like little mute button uh on the bottom. Yeah. Anyways, is it the great lady or the old lady? Gray. I don’t know. I don’t know. Like, you know what I’m talking about. That’s what they call the physical New York Times. Yes. But I don’t know which one it is either. Okay. Well, Ben says it’s the grey lady. It’s the gray lady. Anyways, you’re doing great work. That’s not why we’re having you on the show. I love your work, don’t get me wrong. We’re having you on the show cuz you played Augusta National. So, there’s a media lottery um that any anyone with a press pass can apply to and you won it this year. How did you find out first of all? Yes. Uh funny story. Our our friend here um shoots me a text. I So, as the tradition goes, they at around, you know, 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon at the masters, um the the master’s front desks puts this screen up in the lobby that shows everyone’s names who won the lottery. And everyone rushes downstairs to look and see if they made it. And I was like, I don’t want to go down there. Like, I’m just going to sit here and wait until someone gives me good news. And I see a text pop up on my phone from Mr. Dan Raport. and all it reads is just three exclamation points and I immediately just dropped my phone and run downstairs and I had to see my name for myself obviously but that was that was how I first found out. So I noticed you didn’t say any you kept the secret which is very was that a business you didn’t say I’m playing Augusta National until I think was it after you played? Why was you just like were you you didn’t want to wake up from the dream? Yeah. No, I think actually it was more like I didn’t want to have to answer everyone’s questions about like how I was going to play the golf course, if I had my clubs with me, you know, have all the weight of everyone else’s expectations on me cuz I already had all my own. So, I didn’t want to make it worse for myself in that way. But I also thought it would be a nice surprise for the readers that, you know, on Monday night see that question answer box that we posted on the athletic like what questions do you have for Gabby about playing Augustine National? And it was a nice little postmasters bonus content. You got to be curious what you like the storial choices, don’t you? Oh, yeah. What did you wear, Gab? Oh, yeah. So, I wore um honestly, I didn’t pack that many like actual golf outfits. So, you know, you have your masters. Yeah, you have your photo shoot outfits. We were going to I didn’t know if I was going to bring this up. It’s basically just Yeah, you got to bring some fit. It’s a photo shoot. It’s a I mean, it’s a great tournament. It’s also a photo shoot. I’m just saying, you know, you’re if you’re putting that much effort into looking good at the Masters, I strongly believe you have every right to pose for a photo and share it with the world. So, fair enough. That’s my take on that. But for Augusta, I went pretty simple. I did navy pants um just a white polo that I actually had gotten earlier um the week prior to the Masters when I played Palmetto, which they have a great little logo. It’s like the little palm tree. Um super subtle. I love that logo. And then I had a like I think like a navy blue pullover as well from Sunday red which um was the full fit and and I had a master’s hat on from last year that had the little Sears sucker blue and white print on it which I thought was a nice little fun touch but definitely like a very like a basic golf outfit that I felt confident and comfortable in which was definitely the goal. Put you next to your playing partners too. Like that’s how you stand out, right? Look at all three of those guys. Yeah, she looks she’s got a better outfit on than them. Um, okay. What did In between finding out that you had won the lottery and playing, did you like hit balls? Did you practice? Yes. So, I went to the range on Saturday morning and Sunday morning. Um, on Saturday morning, funny story. So, on Friday after I found out, sent a couple texts to the people that needed to know. One of those people was Parker McLaclin, Chef, our boy. Yep. and um he very graciously responded to me. I wrote something along the lines of, “Parker, I won the media lottery. I’m playing against the National on Monday. I need to learn how to chip in the next 48 hours.” So, he very graciously was willing to give me an emergency FaceTime lesson on the range on Saturday morning. Probably a thousand couple thousand dollars there. It’s a big I don’t even want to know. It was very nice of him to do. Um, and coincidentally, our our good friend Paulo, who writes for ESPN, was there at the range as well, and he stood there with me and held the phone while I chipped in for Parker on FaceTime for 30 minutes, and he fixed me in like 30 seconds. It was unbelievable. Um, you know, I was very bottomheavy. I was like chunking and thinning it. And that was my one fear about playing Augusta was those tight lies and having to, you know, maybe flop it over a bunker or something like that. And I hit some great short game shots on Monday that I was really proud of. We’re going to get we’re going to get to the round in a second here. Morning of Tell me like what what was your tea time? What time did you pull up? You get to drive down Magnolia Lane. Like what were the instructions they gave you about how to actually do this logistically? Yes. So very specific instructions. Um surprise. My tea time was 11:45 a.m. You get this card. Yep, there it is. Where you basically you cannot arrive on the property even 30 seconds prior to your arrival time. So you have to time it up perfectly. Um, and I I had heard stories of people showing up like 2 minutes before that time and being turned away at the door. So, I really didn’t want that to happen to me. And so, um, in the morning I What did I do? I I, um, did a couple errands like I needed to get like sunscreen from CVS or something and I made sure all the So, do you get you didn’t get to use like the club facilities? No, you do. Oh, you do? There’s no sunscreen in the back in the locker room of Augusta National. Well, I just want to be prepared, Daniel. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Um I So long story short, I parked in the parking lot across the street from Magnolia Lane. Um which is like a Christian bookstore and it’s like this parking lot. Yep. And so I waited there for like 15 minutes in my car like literally just twiddling my thumbs. And actually so funny when I was sitting there I saw Scotty Sheffller’s dad run across Washington Road and he it looked like he went and met someone at the gate who handed him a Trackman. So, I guess Scotty forgot his Trackman at Augusta. Breaking news. We just broke some news here on the show. Scotty Sheffller left the Trackman at Augusta and it was returned to him via his father. And it turned out that the guy who actually gave Scotty’s dad the Trackman was Mike Caddy, Steve Clling, who’s like Scotty’s guy at August. It’s all happening. Yeah, it’s all happening. So, um, where was I? Oh, so then you you get on property and you do get to use all the clubs facilities. So, you get to go in the champions locker room. You get to go in the member pro shop. You can walk around the clubhouse, which we were able to do as media members. But it’s a really cool experience just getting to see like where they host the champions dinner and walking up that winding. We’re allowed to We’re allowed to go in there. Not We’re not allowed to go in the champions locker room, but we’re allowed to go in the clubhouse. Yeah. Things you can eat breakfast up on the porch. Yeah. I know. I That was my eighth one. I’ve never done that before. Yeah. Back. We got to go back. Yeah. I gotta go back now. We got to schedule a a morning breakfast on the patio overlooking the green umbrellas. It’s It’s amazing. Great omelets. Wow. Okay. So, you you get in there, which is fun. You and then you use the tournament range or the member range. Tournament range. So, my first stop was the pro shop. So, I got that out of the way. I was like, I need to get in there as soon as I stepped foot on this. You did some damage. I did some major damage. Yes. Well done. Um, they really, really good stuff. Lots of AMGC logos and um, really good women’s selection, too, which I was very impressed by. They have like Tori Burch. I think it makes a lot of the women’s stuff. So, it was very like designer logoy. Yeah. Um and then went to the tournament range and I set up right in the middle probably right where like Rory and Bryson were right next to each other on Sunday morning and I was already like, “Oh my god, like what is happening right now?” How’d you play? How was your golf? Okay. So, I context is I’ve played three rounds of golf this calendar year. Uh yeah, sure. Had had to put that out there. Haven’t been playing much golf. Excuse number one, it’s Augusta National. You’re freaking out. Excuse number two. But I actually played like relatively solid for those circumstances. I shot 85 with a quad on the second. Okay, you’re a good player. You’re probably what, like a two handicap or like a Yeah, I’m like a one or two handicap right now. And um but I shoot like I play from, you know, 6100 yards, 6200 yards. And I’ll shoot like mid to high 70s or like low 80s when I’m off. So that score wasn’t like totally out of the ordinary for me. And that quad on number two just like totally How did you do that? It’s not the you hit it in the left trees. Yeah. So, well, I made like the best part of my life on number one. And then on two, we kind of had to wait on the tea a little bit and I think like everything just hit me right then and I was doing that thing where you like tea up your ball and you’re like waiting and taking a million practice swings for no reason, just like getting in your own head. So, I snap hooked it into the trees on the left. Um, which there’s a hazard over there, which I didn’t even know. There’s a creek in those trees. Yeah, it’s pretty far left. I had to drop. Yeah, I had to drop and then I was in a terrible spot to punch out and then my punch out went back in the hazard. So, that’s how that happened. But you played it you played with some integrity. You said you you were telling me you played like ball and hole, right? Yes. I wanted to like I really wanted to put everything out and just see what I could shoot there. And so, didn’t let the nine ruin the vibe. I was kind of just like laughing it off at that point because I was thinking to myself like when I go home and tell my little brother about this like I’m going to get so much crap from him. And I think that’s the move. you if there’s one if there’s one round to like really grind it out, it’s Augusta National on the Monday after mat. You made two birdies. Tell me about the birdies. Yes, those are huge. I mean, my one goal going into the was I just wanted a birdie. Like that was my that was my thing that I just was holding on to. And so 13 um I was so excited to hit that T-OT because it it slings around to the left and you’ve played with me, Dan. I hit this like massive puff draw involuntarily and that one I could really just let it rip. And so I hit a perfect drive for that shot shape and it just caught the speed slot and took off. And then I had a seven iron in to the green which was sweet. And then I just completely chunk the seven iron cuz you have that ball above the feet line. That’s a tough shot. And it’s just so intimidating. And I think I thought for sure that I was in Rays Creek and would have to drop. But we get up there and my ball is sitting like on the water bank like in the sand. Um and and I just went down there and hit it and kind of clipped it off the the wet sand and it spun a little bit, held the green. I had like a 30 30footer 25footer down the hill and made it for birdie and it was like probably one of the best birdies I’ve ever made. That’s lit. And then you had one more and then 16. Yeah. And then 16 was sweet cuz it’s that back right pin location which is not the traditional one. It was there to honor Jack’s uh victory in 1975 I believe. And I just kind of went right at it. It was probably my best iron swing of the day. I think I hit eight iron and or maybe nine iron and um I thought I made it for a second. It was like kind of draw drawing towards the pin and I was like, “Oh my god, this would be the coolest place to have your first pole in one.” Wild and it ended up being like seven or eight feet short of the pin and I made the putt which was and that’s also how I closed out my match against Drew Powell of Golf Digest. So that was sweet as well. Amazing. Wait, so did you you played the member TE’s? They don’t have a ladies TE’s. Yes, everyone plays the same TE’s. It’s 6,365 yards. which is a little bit long or hybrid in greens. Like I remember 10 yards in which is which is a long ways for me on a par4. Um that’s a tough shot. It was it was honestly like a great setup for me cuz it was challenging enough to be fun but not like ridiculously hard where I was struggling to reach greens and stuff like it was bas it was the setup which is cool cuz you know a lot of those girls like I hit it you know maybe close to what some of them hit off the team. Yeah, that’s cool. What was your what was your takeaway like? What was you know, you’ve you’ve seen the course. I don’t know what Masters number masters is for you, but you’ve obviously walked the course a bunch of times. Okay. So, you’ve but you still you’ve seen the course a bunch. What was different about playing it? I mean, it’s it kind of felt like a ghost town. Like it was kind of an eerie feeling being there without the patrons and especially after what had happened on Sunday night with Rory and like they had the leaderboard up still and it was just like I was kind of having deja vu throughout the entire round because I had watched his final round and obviously like went through all the emotions with him. Um which was so cool. My takeaway is that like the and everyone talks about this, but I feel like you don’t really understand it until you’re actually there is the undulations in the fairways specifically. Like you literally never have a flat lie. And as as as someone who hasn’t played that much golf recently, like I did not know how to adjust for some of those shots and I was just screwed from the second I walked up to my ball and saw it. Um, like even on eight, I had like a 60 or 50 yard wedge shot in, but it landed right on top of this like little mound and I just didn’t know how to hit the wedge shot and like scald it over the green. Yeah. No, it’s I think it’s one of the reasons why you see guys play welder every year. It’s like it’s just different. It’s its own beast. That’s awesome, Gabby. I’m really happy for you. Um, thank you. 85 is a solid score. There’s there’s nothing to nothing to be ashamed of there. Absolutely. All right, we’ll do this again. Thanks. Thank Whoa. Thanks, Gabby. Thank you. Good stuff. All right, our dog of the week. You know, I wanted it to be Joel Damon. That was good. That was my initial little peak behind the curtain here. It’s a play on Dan on Golf. Welcome to the show. Uh, but I don’t think Joel would have accepted the dog of the week after bogey in the last three to lose by one. So, we went down one tour to Neil Shipley. Love this guy. Absolutely love this guy. He’s got just a totally different personality than you’re used to seeing from most professional golfers. We posted a rapid fire interview with him earlier this week. People loved it. Um, we’re going to post some more Neil Shipley content. And here’s even more Neil Shipley content. Here is our interview. He was in the airport, I believe. We’re joined by Neil Shipley, the latest winner on the Cornferry tour. Where are you? I am currently in the Palm Beach International Airport. Uh, headed to Dallas today and uh, yeah, getting back to work tomorrow. What’s What’s in Dallas next week? Uh, we got the Vertex Bank uh, Classic or something. I don’t know. I don’t know the whole proper name of the tournament. It’s just a horn fair event at Texas Rangers. Um, so Oh, this is I think Yeah, I think this is I remember this tournament from last year. I think this is where uh the little kid Miles Russell made the cut. Anyways, you won yesterday. Congratulations. We were talking all week cuz I was playing in a member guess this weekend and I sent you a text on Friday and I said, “I’ll go win if you do.” You held up your end of the bargain and we finished in the middle of the pack. I’m honest. I’m I’m disappointed in you, Dan. I have high hopes from you guys. So, coming into last week, because I posted, you’re third in the points now, which is amazing. That’s great. You’ve had three high finishes. You missed a cut in five tournaments. Explain that to me. You know, I think that um you know, to start the year off in the Bahamas, my game really wasn’t in a good spot. Just kind of coming out of a chaotic winter, moving, and you know, maybe not being focused on golf as much as I could have been. And I felt like once I hit kind you were you’re saying you were moving like where you live. Yeah. I moved from Pittsburgh to Palm Beach in like the beginning of December. Had Q school and I was traveling a bunch for family and Christmas and you know I think that those Bahamas events really snuck up on me and I I wasn’t I wasn’t quite sharp for those events. And um I think that golf course in Panama though was like an awesome golf course for us. It suited my game super well. started getting my feet under me on the corn ferry tour and yeah had a great week there and then uh yeah I just I was tired and to be honest I was just really tired when we got the focus on 8,000 ft played like crap there and you know a lot of it too I think comes down to just my putting was really not very good and sharp and short game wasn’t sharp and we’ve been working a lot on that recently and it really showed this week we made a lot of putts we need to and got up and down a lot so it was fun to see that work pay off so you were a little bit back going into Sunday you played a really good round on Sunday and I feel like usually on on the corn free tour maybe it’s like Thursday, Friday, Saturday you post a number and then you get past but you it kind of held up. Were you surprised or is it kind of like when they get twitchy bum time you think that maybe the scores aren’t going to be as low as they might as they are otherwise? Yeah, I think you know for sure that golf course the last four holes are kind of tough. You don’t see a lot of birdies on those last four holes. So, um, once once guys got through like 14 and were not really passing me up, I thought we had a chance and, uh, Lee there, he fell back on 16, dropped a shot, and yeah, I think it’s that when you get under the gun, you have that type of pressure, it’s, you know, I think a lot of guys will drop back. Um, especially on tougher golf courses, but I think I’m fortunate that this week we had a lot of wind on Sunday, which really helped me out. You know, we have calm conditions. I got to go out there and shoot probably nine or 10 to have a chance. But the wind really helped us out. And when we were able to post a low number, I think, you know, that put a lot of pressure on the guys behind us. And that’s that’s what I was telling my caddy all day. It’s like, you know, we’re we’re not in a pressure situation. We’re putting pressure on the other guys. We’re the ones applying pressure. Speaking of pressure, I mean, Netflix came out earlier this year. You’re definitely the only Cornferry player who was featured. Do you feel a little bit of like, okay, I’ve got all this media attention. It’s time to deliver on the golf course. I mean, yeah, definitely a little bit. Um, you know, I don’t want to be that guy who’s just a Netflix guy, uh, and, you know, doesn’t really do much on the golf course. I want to be somebody who wins tournaments and wins majors and it’s one of the best to ever do it. So, um, you know, I’m glad that I got a nice win under my belt and that I’ll be on the way soon here. Tell me about the playoff. Five holes. That’s a really, really long playoff. I think, you know, something like 90% of playoffs are like done within the first two. You had a couple good looks. Were you, were you like mentally tired? Were you phys was the adrenaline just going like crazy? Like just kind of walk me through five playoff holes. Yeah. Oh, the first whole playoff the first playoff hole there’s definitely a lot of adrenaline. I mean that’s that’s crazy. Uh you know you play for those moments and you practice for those moments. So it’s awesome to put yourself in that position. Um yeah and you know we had played the whole an hour and a half before so we kind of kind of played it the exactly the same as we did before. Um, and you know, I I tell we just kept hitting it just long at the green and just putting from the fringe and um, you know, I had, you know, we both made bogey on the first hole actually, which I was kind of a gift for me. And then, you know, I think the second playoff hole was really boring. Two pars. The third playoff hole, I had the 15-footer to save par and I made canned it to extend the match. you know, fourth plat, a lot of boring pars and then made a 35 40footer on the fifth hole and that’s, you know, that’s what it was going to take because it was a hard pin to get to and it was uh no one was going to be hitting it close there. You said we we we filmed a video, I think it’s coming out this week and you said, you know, you don’t win a lot in this sport. I think your last win in any was a little while ago. How’d it feel last night and and you’re at the airport now. Did you did you celebrate at all? I mean, I know you’re on like uh you know, like the Atkins diet now, but did you allow yourself to sneak some beers in there? Yeah, we uh had a couple had a couple of the like seltzers in there and um No, we did uh we had a little cheat meal. We went to Five Guys and I got a Rio burger and a shake and just a massive amount of fries. I think it was between me, my girlfriend, my caddy, and my swing coach. We spent like 80 bucks at Five Guys, which is impressive. Yeah, it was a really really good hall. Um, so that was that was fun. But, you know, at the end of the day, it’s it’s a great win. You know, I’m super happy about it, but um I’m looking to win one or two more times this year and lock up a card. You know, that that’s the goal. And, you know, we’re just uh we’ve got one of one of three done. You know, we got to get two more. Yeah. I mean, so the Battlefield promotion, that’s that’s what we’re after. Absolutely. Yeah. That comes with a lot of perks and uh I’d like definitely like to grab that. And you know, they they give out a trophy every week, so why not us? Amazing stuff, dude. I don’t want to keep you much longer. You probably got a flight to make. Congratulations. I can say I’m proud of you. You know, I’m getting older now. You’re you’re you’re, you know, significantly younger than I am. So, I can say that I’m proud of you. I think you’re you know, you low amasters in the US Open. I don’t think anyone had doubts, but I I’d imagine it feels really good, especially it’s still early in the season to be up there in the points. Got to feel good right now. Yeah, I know. It feels great to get up early and uh yeah, it’s um yeah, I think I I always had a saying when I was in school like if you get behind early, it’s you know, you have more time to make it up, but I didn’t really want to have that stress coming down the end of the wire this season. So glad to get out of the way early. Just get one more this week and we’ll be good. See you on the big tour soon. Yes, sir. All right. Good stuff. Thanks so much, Neil. All right. Yeah. Take care, Dan. Cheers. Two winners with long hair on the show today. You know, golf is changing. Two good guys, too. Two really good guys. Yeah. You can root for guys you can root for. All right, we’re going to move on to uh Church from the Gallery. I love the internet. Even when they roast me, it’s a very Dan this is a very Dan Roast heavy Church from the Gallery. Um but we’re going to start with tears and I wanted to ask you about this. So we have this uh about the about Rory Mroy. Can we put this on the screen cuz I need to read it. Yeah, there you go. I feel as a millennial this was therapeutic. This is about Rory’s win obviously. We had our Tiger Glorers unexpectedly cut short after assuming he would smash every record in the book. Rory to the baton and we all assumed someone always just dominated golf as it’s all we knew with Tiger and it’s now Rory’s turn that 11-year buildup. I’ve never felt more relief from sports in my life. So happy for Rory and for us as sports fans. Haha. A little closure in a way. Did you feel this way? I didn’t feel like the mass like closure everybody was feeling. I don’t know if it’s cuz like I expected it to happen eventually or like maybe it wore off. Did you cry? I did. Yeah, I cried. See, I didn’t cry. I cry every every Masters whoever wins because like somebody is achieving that thing and you see it in all like the Nike commercials and like the fan stuff afterward like he’s been thinking about that specific moment since he’s a kid. Like as an empath you you know you can really feel that moment. When I got over it though I started to get a little cynical cuz the internet got went a little too crazy with their like it’s for me too, you know. No it’s not. No it’s not. Rory won it. It’s for him. But you know I get it. It was like it was one of those things that you just never I didn’t really think it was going to happen. I just I just thought there was a lot of scar tissue there and uh I I I thought he would win another major, but I didn’t think he would ever win the masters to complete the career slam. I always thought he would get it eventually just because that’s a course that you can play well into your older years and play well at. And he typically has played like good rounds of golf there. So like I I thought was going to happen. Yeah. And then one more thing before we just roast me. Uh I got a new putter. Uh, I got a lab putter. Uh, it’s coming for everyone. If you if you’re holding out right now, you can keep holding out if you want, but it’s coming for you. I truly believe that everyone’s going to be using like a zero torque putter very soon. Um, but some people said, you know, is this a broomstick? Is this a broomstick edition? Absolutely not. It’s not a broomstick. I’d rather drink bleach. Why? I never than use a broomstick. There’s some honor left in this world. And again, I don’t blame the guys who use the broomstick. You got to do what you got to do if you’re a professional golfer. But I’m not a broomstick guy. There’s some level of like, you know, I have really sweaty hands. Also, I’d probably be a better golfer if I wore two gloves. I’m not doing that. Tommy, two gloves. There’s just like a line that you don’t cross. And for me, I’m not showing up with the broomstick. So, big on the lab, not so much on the broomstick. Okay, moving on to the meat and potatoes of the trips from the gallery. So, I did a shoot with Jake and App and I knew this this outfit was going to trigger people. I can I don’t have to do much to trigger people. So, I wore this tan rapport outfit. That’s what That’s what Grant Horvat was calling me. Tan Rapaort is a It was a beige on beige. I want I want your Well, first of all, Yeah. And and also I want to get out in front of this on the angle. I’ve actually lost weight. Yeah. This guy says, “Enjoy the pan cheese.” The It’s a baggier shirt and it’s a and the wind was it was a it’s a bad angle. And I showed it to Jake as soon as I was done with the photo. He goes, “Oh man, it’s one of those.” He said, “You could, you know, you could edit it.” I go, “That’s a can of worms that I don’t really want to open.” Oh no. If I start editing my photos, that’s a that’s a really, you know, that’s just a that’s just a can of worms that I don’t want to open. What do you think of the tan on tan? I like the tan on tan. I will say like as your friend, like you’re abusing it a little bit. You’re going a little hard. You could make it more special here and there, but I really like it. We used to back at Esquire call it like the toasted coconut fit. Like all all off-white. I think it’s also the season to do that. So, um, you know, don’t hate on him. No, it’s okay. I like it. Toasted coconut is a good one. Other people were calling it the uh dictator fit. Or this one. Did you come straight from the operating room, Dr. Dan? I’ll take it. It’s a little Dan Jong-un. Yeah. So, let’s roll the next one. We have I think we dressed like Kim Jong-un. There you go. I I um I I thought it was more of a Kim Jong-il. Uh I thought it was more of his father’s color palette. Um but Kim Jong-un obviously carrying the mantle. Uh Fidel Castro. Little Castro. Another one that I got which uh I think I said Saddam Hussein yesterday. Nurse. So, we got nurse and we got doctor. Those were sort of the the two ones that I got. Sorry. Nurse, doctor, and uh communist dictator. More like a military nurse. If any nurse, you know what I mean? Like Absolutely. Like a little full metal jacket action. No, I think you continue to go monochrome. I think you continue to lean into the tan a little bit. I think when it hits fall and you’re able to layer a little bit, that’ll that’ll help out. But I’m here for tan Rapaort. Um you might see me joining you soon. Let’s do it. Let’s let’s be the tan. Should we wear all tan next week? Yeah, let’s do that. Let’s we’re going to wear our all tan next week on this show. We’re going to trigger some people. All right, our last one. We’re going to finish with a logo convers. Oh, whoever dresses you should be fired. This is one of my favorite ones. Yeah, like I’ve got I I appreciate that people think I have someone who dresses me. You kind of do, I guess, on like the color front. Well, that’s actually Yeah, I do FaceTime you or my wife because I’m so color blind, but that’s why I like the monochromatic is because they match and I don’t have to worry about the colors. I don’t have to worry about the colors matching if they’re literally the same color. Um, let’s finish with a logo conversation. So, I saw this uh I’m all for pro shop halls and I absolutely love this account, but for the love of God, don’t get a bag from a club you’re not a member of, especially a club like Seminal. And if you must get a bag from a non-membered club, at least have the logo match the bag. # shrink. I don’t like the hashtag shrink, but I I do agree. I played in the tournament this weekend and the the logo flexing is just it’s something that we have to chill a little bit on. I think it’s getting really really crazy. Chad and Wells discussed this on Vanity the Index. I feel like logos from like if you have like a ball marker, if you have maybe like a hat, totally fine. You want to show off you played it great. There are certain items that I think like a golf bag. If you’re not a member there, you probably shouldn’t be getting a logo. That gives the wrong It’s like actually misleading if you have the golf bag. Yeah. Like if you have a ball marker, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I played there. I got this ball marker.” If like you spent like $800 on a golf bag or whatever it is, cuz that thing’s not cheap. I think you should probably have some connection have some connection to the club. 90% of the merch that I’ve gotten from like Riv and places that I’ve actually played, Pinehurst, like I don’t wear it that much. I just want to have it. I just want to have it forever. You know what I mean? It’s people are getting out of control with needing to like multilogo flex. I was happy to hear Gabby only wore like one Mast’s logo for her round. I thought that that was a flex. Also another club’s logo big flex. Very demir. But Seinal is like that’s the one you definitely don’t do. Yeah. like seminal like Pine Valley like Chicago Golf Club. Like you just I would buy a Beth Page black bag. Well, that’s everybody’s club, right? It’s everybody’s club. It’s everybody’s club. It doesn’t send the message that it’s my club when it’s really not. Um, so I agree with that. But that is a cool logo. Maybe a hat. A hat would have been a little bit more tasteful. All right, we’re going to leave you with our clip of the week. Animation and AI just make everything look a lot cooler. I thought we were going to do a lot of Rory stuff, but it’s amazing how fast the world moves. So, we didn’t really talk much about Rory on this show, but we’re going to finish with our clip of the week. Uh, it’s it’s an animation version of Rory’s second shot into 15. What a fantastic show. We love all you guys golf sickos. Like and subscribe. We’ll see you back next week. Enjoy our clip of the week. All my minds go up and they stay there and they say, “Yeah, [Music]
22 Comments
Look forward to this every Monday fellas! Best golf content out there!
Nice Walk-and-Talk with Will ❤
Must watch. Made me $100 last weekend with that JT pick!
Agree with Patrick Reed pick. Pair Reed and Cantley against Mcilroy so LaCava and Reed can irritate Rory!
Reed over Spieth is bonkers, Dan! If you have JT 3rd, we gotta sneak is playing partner in @ 12. Spieth will have his game there by the time the cup rolls around. I can’t think of a more hated guy in that locker room than Reed.
This is my Monday night sit down. Will Joe Griener be staying JT’s bag? We need more Gabby and less Alan. (Sorry Alan)
Dan what about a masters hang over when your watching in Australia and first tee off is 1030 pm, they are some early morning and long days at work haha
Dare i say we have a caddy controversy on out hands? I hope he keeps Greiner on his bag!
Would love to see Billy Ho sneak his way into the Ryder Cup picks.
Some pretty bold questions
I love the reed shout from Dan, I don’t think it will happen but I think it should and would love to see it
Luke Kwon immortalized in the backdrop. Throw away the dry eraser.
Work cam good. Needed a pull back when the putt goes in to see him celebrate
Fast forwarding though some stranger’s experience playing Augusta was easiest decision I’ve ever made.
Another great pod for the sickos
Not sure why this account doesn’t have 100k subscribers. Let’s get him there soon!
Excuse us… what is this “range” at Augusta?
24:24 Higgo’s swing is outta the closet, wild comment 😂
The PGA Tour has a top creator literally on their doorstep as a member of the tour yet they do not take advantage of his social media presence. They hardly show him when in contention. So yeah they missed the boat massively with Wesley and Im not surprised at all that Wesley ended up playing in The Duels because at least LIV is a tour that gets it. Also par for the course for the PGA Tour to then react with a ban against him like the litte bitch they are
Another great show, Dan!! 👍👍
JT was lucky to win without Matt Meinster on his bag. He had such a smirk on his face when Andrew Novak missed that birdie putt. Garrick Higgo was lucky to win PuntaCana. He backed into that win. All Dahmen had to do was play even or +1. I havent seen a +4 final round lead somebody to win unless the lead was big enough. Neal Shipleys win was sorta forgotten. Not cause it stunk but it was a Wednesday-Saturday tournament and it wasnt on tv.
LIV rules, PGA Tour sucks.