The US Open at Oakmont Will Be BRUTAL!

🏌️♂️ Golf News & Updates | Max Homa’s New Caddie, Ryan Fox Wins, Kupcho Ends Drought & More!

In this week’s golf roundup, we break down the biggest stories from the PGA Tour, LPGA, and DP World Tour!

🔥 Max Homa hires Tiger Woods’ former caddie – Will this bring back the Max Homa of two years ago? Read more here.

🏆 Ryan Fox wins RBC Canadian Open in thrilling 4-hole playoff – A clutch wood shot seals the deal against Sam Burns. Check out his WITB here: Ryan Fox’s Winning Clubs.

🎉 Jennifer Kupcho ends 3-year LPGA drought – A huge win at the ShopRite LPGA Classic! Full story.

⛳ Weather shakes up KLM Open – Connor Syme claims first DP World Tour win – Another first-time winner emerges! Details here.

🎙️ Exclusive: Mike’s college golf journey at Southern & future plans – What’s next for this rising talent?

⚠️ Rory McIlroy’s driver struggles ahead of US Open – Can he fix it in time? Sky Sports analysis.

🤔 TaylorMade Qi35 driver struggles – Is this their weakest release in years? Debate here.

🏆 Oakmont’s historic US Open champions – A deep dive into past winners. See the list.

🔮 Our early US Open picks: Fitzpatrick vs. Scheffler – Who’s looking strong? Rod’s pick: Matt Fitzpatrick | Marcus’ pick: Scottie Scheffler.

📌 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE & hit the bell for more golf updates! ⛳💬

#GolfNews #PGATour #LPGA #USOpen #MaxHoma #RyanFox #JenniferKupcho #RoryMcIlroy #TaylorMade #GolfEquipment #GolfHighlights
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all right y’all beard Bros Golf Show back at it again i am Rod and I’m Marcus and we have special guest Michael Pimeintel down here at the bottom welcome Michael great to be here again yeah it’s been been a little bit of time since the last visit um but let’s go ahead and get into it a lot of stuff to cover us Open coming up kind of a leadup week this past week a lot of golf being played i didn’t watch any LPGA that just didn’t catch my radar this week we will cover it though um but let’s get into the PGA stories and and then we’ll just kind of see how things flow from there um kind of back earlier in the week when I started my notes go ahead Marcus i should say something no I was just saying yeah I’m I’m agreeing um earlier on in the week uh caught a story about Max picking up old Caddy of Tiger Woods i guess Tiger Woods last Caddy wasn’t a very longlasting relationship but Lance Bennett who is a veteran uh bag to has a couple of wins under his belt um high quality guy max looking for a home after his you know longtime caddy left him earlier in the year usually you don’t hear about the uh Caddy leaving the player per se um it’s usually the other way around and then of course slow news week the week before when we saw Max carrying his bag at the US Open qualifier which he did not make it into the US Open but every damn golf channel and social media account had to run a story about Max carrying in his bag so what what do we think about the uh the caddy switch and are we ever going to see Maxoma of a couple of years ago when he was on a really good good streak before the equipment changes before the the apparel changes and caddy changes yeah I think so i think so because um I mean like I mentioned probably in previous weeks with Max when you’re going through a swing change a coaching change and an equipment change that’s just a lot to juggle it’s a lot for your brain to you know kind of encompass so I think once he gets it figured out once he gets more of a feel for the Cobra the Cobra clubs he has in the bag now um you know and gets more acclimated with who’s coaching him and what he wants to achieve with this new swing uh this new re rebuilt swing I think they’ll be all right and then of course you know adding a very solid caddy that’s gonna you know kind of calm things down and not really have everything all volatile and everything like that hopefully you know he hangs on to this caddy for a while what you think Mike um yeah I think that he will we will see a a good Max home again uh you know with anything with equipment changes like like Marcus mentioned i mean if we look at Tiger when he went through that change with Butch Harmon you know we have arguably the greatest player in the world and the greatest instructor in the world and for a while yes Tiger struggled and he fell off the wagon for a little bit but he was back at being number one in the world for you know however long he did it for because he’s Tiger but I think it just it’s going to take some time um Tiger necessarily didn’t do an equipment change but he did have other factors in the sense of his personal life and stuff like that being involved uh but I do think Max we will see a return of Max and like honestly I love Max Hom as a player i sometimes try to emulate some of his things in his swing because it’s just so fluid it’s so easy it’s it’s it’s easy speed and uh I I I I really hope for the best for him yeah um Mike you’ve played high level golf what do you think the impact of a caddy player relationship has on a player’s game i think it’s important um you know as as Marcus being my caddy uh when I need him for events um we have a really good relationship he does a really good job of keeping me calm and cracking jokes when when the time is necessary but when we’re trying to push you know he he gets into that mindset um not to say that you know we’ve made mistakes as a player and as a caddy you know we all make mistakes um but I think it it’s important to have a good chemistry like if you look at Ted Scott and Scotty Ted does a really good job of reminding him like “Hey you need to calm down you need to settle down.” Uh Lava and Tiger when they were together it was a good dynamic i mean we can go on and on about great how these great caddies and great players mesh well together based off chemistry and how the ying and the yang work so I think um it just it just has to have good chemistry so hopefully he can build that with Lance Bennett hopefully he can um find what he’s looking for and you know sky’s the limit from there yeah it’s interesting when you see um guys changing up their caddy and they have like instant success where they come out have a really a good week where they win which we saw Justin Thomas pick up Max’s old caddy and win the RBC Heritage it’s very interesting how that chemistry comes together really quickly um you know for success but long term I’m always interested like does it make sense to just I don’t know have a have a caddy change every 2 to 3 years just to keep it fresh you know the rel it is a personal relationship where they’re traveling a lot together i wonder how easy it is for things to go left where there can be some tension that arises in the relationship and kind of that easiness that comes from you know an accountability that comes from a new relationship because you’re on your P’s and Q’s it’ll be interesting to see how it works out on all these situations we’ve seen a lot of players here recently make tons of catty changes cameron Young comes to mind as somebody who was changing it up pretty quickly um we’ve seen Justin Thomas as I mentioned before he’s gone through a spate of caddies over the last year or two um so like I said we’ll see with Max how how things fare out if it’s having someone mature on the bag we’ve seen the youth movement as it comes to caddies too where you know it’s kind of like where I’ve I’ve criticized Roy Moy for having Harry Diamond on the bag like dude how much of a voice is he actually providing to to you during play but you know there’s something necessary about that relationship so again it’ll be interesting to see how all these situations fare out over time um I actually also want to mention another great caddy who has been their first player through testing times and that’s Joel Damon’s caddy uh Gino Benelli really really has stuck with um Joel has really kind of helped them on the mental on it and Joel Damon’s another guy that I always pull for even though you know he doesn’t have the you know the best starts or the best tournaments but Gino has been with Joel for since he was a rookie and he’s seen his early success but I mean hats off to to Joel to uh Gino Benelli for really staying committed to Joel and making you know although Joel may not get paid every week or every so but he’s he’s stayed with him through the testing times that just shows the commitment that uh Gino has for Joel and that’s that’s awesome yeah it is and I think we got to know kind of that relationship through the full swing series a few years ago where we really saw the nuts and bolts and behind the scenes of how that worked um hell even this season uh Joel had a a rough I think they were in Pakana where Joel had a chance to win a tournament mhm so yeah yeah very tough and you can see it i mean sometimes I do feel I I root for Joel but I feel bad because it’s like he’s almost he’s always on the edge it feels like and one one bad round or you know that it could go left and and we have a really bad result so just always feels very tenuous with Joel but that’s a good call out there um with that caddy relationship um in the RBC Canadian we were very excited just to kind of see how that tournament shook up you saw quite a few you know named players go up to Canada to Toronto to TPC Toronto at Osprey uh to get their you know run in before the US Open and you know keep the swings going keep it fresh rory which we’ll swing back to horrible flame out just not good with the driver um did not make the cut but we saw Ryan Fox get his second victory of the year um really coming into his own as a you know mature player we always joke on this channel about how often Ryan Fox plays uh damn near every week somewhere in the world you’re going to see Ryan Fox tee it up um you know getting the shout out from Lydia Co uh the fellow Kiwi um you know shouting out her her countrymen what did y’all think of the uh the playoff um you know how much of it did y’all get to watch michael I’ll let you start this one out um I I didn’t really get to watch much of the RBC but uh for it to come down to a four-hole playoff against um I’d say one of the best products that came out of LSU in a while Sam Burns that’s awesome i mean that’s great i mean you you could see a lot of the weather was pretty tough uh it was almost I mean the rough was it was playing tough you know rough it was rough yeah i mean you can kind of see a little Oakmont in there conditionwise um so it it was a true testing ground to see where you were for those who did qualify for the US Open where your game stands and where you need to prepare going into Oakmont but for it to come down to a four-hole playoff and end the way it did is I think it’s fantastic i mean he really put his heart out there he put it all on the line and it paid off so you know congratulations to Ryan Fox yeah that’s one of the things that we’ve talked about pretty much all year is that courses on the PGA Tour have really um grown up the rough we’ve seen that change and we’ve talked about core setups and kind of how to defend the modern course and high rough is that defense when guys can bomb it out there you know you can’t just play the bomb and gouge and then just hit it out of low rough like as if you were playing in the uh Shell Houston opener you know whatever um back in the day so changes there marcus what do you what do you think about the RBC Canadian Ryan Fox getting his second win um kind of pushing through kind of the stalemate cuz they had both parred out uh the first three playoff holes you know it was getting kind of like somebody’s going to have to take a chance at some point ryan Fox did attempt early on I think it was the second playoff hole where he fatted his wood and did cover um but you know then ended up getting it done in the fourth hole but what’ you think uh yeah I mean I think it was more I wouldn’t feel like I wouldn’t say it was destined for Ryan Fox to win it but he was the one that finished closer so he had the adrenaline still pumping uh you know he had just come off the course and shot a good number to to and hold a tough putt right to left downhill to get into the playoff you know Sam Burns you know he went balls for the wall shot a a crazy 62 29 on the back to make it to 18 um and post it you know the commentators were saying that it was probably going to get to 20 or you know somebody was going to have to get to 20 to win it but you saw how the win kicked up it didn’t even really need to go that far so I really think that played a you know um really a factor into the playoff as well i think that’s why the guys couldn’t really be as aggressive as they wanted to in the playoff but um Ryan Fox went forward on the fourth hole two putted from like eight feet so um it was real good i mean he’s carrying so much momentum off of that win in um Myrtle Beach um in that opposite field event that they did um that was the same week as the RBC Heritage I think right or was that because they were both in Carolina yeah so yeah I I think that’s going to be good for him and what he’s got going forward but um I think this was a story of the like midlevel names because just like what we were referring to with Cam Young um coming back Matt McCartney coming uh coming T4 Ben Yan Ben he made a push he was T6 uh Cam Champ somehow got an exemption in he was like the eighth alternate or something crazy yeah yeah he people were dropping like flies so Cam Chant finally got into into the tournament yeah unfortunate for Matteo Manisero who started in the lead on the final day really I just think the nerves got to him it’s been a while since he’s been in that type of situation so um you know just really couldn’t handle it but you know he put himself in the situation you give yourself an opportunity and I think you know going forward for a little bit you know they got nine weeks eight weeks left of the regular season so hopefully he’ll be able to make a a push into the playoffs and we’ll see how it goes from there but overall RBC Heritage RBC Canadian was a re really good product to watch in my opinion yeah I think so too um you know they’re they’re always playing a different venue year to year so it never gets stale um up there and we get to see different looks and and different courses and the crowds show up in Canada they love their golf um I I I I could I know from like randomly a couple of years ago we were we took a vacation in Porto Varta and a lot of Canadians go down to Mexico warmer temperatures um you know for the for the winter and the guy was talking about how the love between hockey and golf and kind of the symmetry between the the two games for Canadians so you saw them lining the fairways um going through the playoffs so nobody left early they were cheering um you know when Ryan Fox landed on the bank there you know they were all you know hoping that it didn’t go in cuz they wanted to see the the round extended so yeah really good really good golf uh country and uh brought the energy um Michael I do have a question for you you mentioned Sam Burns being you know LSU product he’s been dry since 2023 i mean when you see him physically strike the ball you know the trajectory just a a really athletic player which you think he should be getting it done more often um what do you think it’s going to take for Sam Burns to I mean in my eyes he’s still very young um kind of ascend and take his place and does he have the ability in your eyes to get to that next level cuz right now I I don’t even think he’s in that second tier i say Tim is kind of really teetering on the third tier of of guys that we look for what’s up with him um you know it’s uh so actually you know before I talk about Sam Burns funny story so the the head pro now at LSU’s golf course he was Sam Burns’s roommate and his teammate so I actually got to pick his brain a little bit about Sam Burns and uh you know back in college was a great ball striker you know great driver of the ball um I think right now he’s just in his dad phase you know how every tour player has when they get married and have kids and you know he he has a newborn so you know he’s in that his focus is elsewhere yeah they you know sometimes they forget you know hey this is my full-time job you know but I’m dad now so I have to do dad things um but I I think he’ll he’ll definitely be in contention again fighting for for championships when you know in his early rookie season and his uh kind of like his sophomore season where he was really out firing um I just think now he just um kind of has to find a better balance in that aspect but I mean we see now that he’s you know after this you know he could be making a push like Marcus mentioned this is for some reason this year the the middle of the pack or the lower end of the pack are winning tournaments you know for example Ben Ben Griffin I haven’t heard that name in I don’t know how long whoa bro relax don’t on our boy no no no no no no i’m not saying that but but Ben Griffin is a two-time PGA Tour winner this year playing a Max Fly or one time you know playing a Max playing a Max Fly ball but shout out to Maxfly yeah for sure and I think um I think he’s he’s going to do something we’re going to see something out of Sam Burns this year i think so i think there’s going to be a lot of a lot of that Sam Burns wields it’s going to help him along i mean for sure that dude is a putting demon still he He’s always got that in the bag for sure and I mean his his swing is so simple just turn it’s very turn and burn like it’s like like I said the swings go ahead go ahead the the saying trajectory sorry i was saying like looking at his swing he’s able to hit a low ball and not you know it’s like he’s it that’s why it kind of boggles my brain that he’s not been more successful um right i would say I saw some weaknesses with the wedges this week um distance um I mean we’re in a different day and age like you know Louis stays in Ernie L’s some of the greatest ball strikers probably aren’t as successful anymore on the PJ tour why i don’t know i don’t know it’s the game is transcended from that aspect of where you can hit the ball tea to green you know in perfection something’s different it wasn’t our fault DJ it wasn’t even our fault this time well we are big Ben Griffin fans over here there well there’s not a stray but I’m just That’s not a stray i’m just saying that you know names that you haven’t heard in a in a while are making their comeback are making bigger well yeah ben Ben Griffin had a chance a couple of years late last year you know had a couple of close calls and then finally got across the finish line and then that momentum kept rolling right so we always are curious how guys will handle the success especially these first time winners do they keep going like a Ryan Fox like do I think Ryan Fox at this stage of his career in life is gonna have this massive um kind of surge where he’s winning majors no i think he can win tour stops absolutely he is a I I don’t know like he’s his build is crazy like he’s he’s got that kind of just squatty you know lower body a lot of power um high takeaway but generates a lot of power and we’ll kind of talk about a little bit on his uh what’s in the bag um I was impressed with that 3-wood and then to look at the uh the loft that he’s carried in that 3-wood chain even even more impressive um to get to get the you know kind of distance and uh shape that he was able to get on it so um let’s let’s go ahead and jump into the what’s in the bag for Ryan uh Fox there wasn’t a lot of pictures and info feel like uh sometimes golf WRX is like keeping their information offline but it’s cool we do what we do all right so there is the bag uh he is a Cleveland Trixon player through and through um we’re going to see a theme here i’ve just kind of with the lack of photos available I had to to change up the the flow a little bit here so let’s go with the woods first um again Shrixon ZXI 10 and a half degree driver Fuji car vintage black 7 uh TRX flex and then similar with the 3-wood again at that 16 1/2° um you know we’re so used I think we’re we’re seeing a few more people um have this loft in their 3-wood than we traditionally have we saw you know standard 15° forever then we saw people ratcheting it down um you know 13 and a half 14 degree 3woods and now I’ve seen a lot more 16 um this year than I think we ever have um same thing with that Fujak carventus TR blue um what do y’all think about the wood setup here i’m gonna just quickly interject because Mike is actually uh like a stricten player so he is wellversed in this category um I was actually going to ask him about that but I think the thing with the woods pros using more higher lofted w uh woods is I think it’s more CG based when you’re pushing the weight back and you know or w with the I guess with the weight adjustability with you being able to push it back if you want to let launch it higher or push it forward and create more spin and keep it more piercing you don’t really have to worry about if it’s a 15 if it’s a 14 five 14 or whatever you know exact number they can play with more loft and still get same numbers still get less spin and things like that but um Mike I I’m going to let you take it away how old is this ZXI model um and I mean do you know off the top of your head the difference between the Venice Black and a Venice Blue uh yes I do so the ZXI is actually a 2025 model so this actually just released um from what I’ve heard from the rep um the ZXI is a kind of a low spinning super forgiving driver so it kind of gives you both what you’re looking for um it’s I’ve seen it very common for tour players now to have that Ventus Black so you know to kind of fend off the high spin we’re going to get a low spinning shaft in there um it’s now I see it very common for tour players to now have that seven that 7TX or the 7X um just to kind of help out with uh with spin and uh launch and stuff like that um now the the TR blue u is actually a version of the black it sits in between the original blue and the original black so it still offers a mid to low launching uh shaft um but is a little softer than a than a true black so it’s something that you know players of of a high caliber who are looking for that shaft can definitely go into um and then to talk about the 16 and a half um it’s like Rod said it’s very common it’s you’re we’re seeing that a lot we’re seeing tour players get seven woods and five woods it’s I mean the metals and the materials and the carbon fiber all the stuff that all the R&D that go into some of these clubs and into and to making them as hot as possible legally um they they’ve been doing this for years so they know they know what to use they know you know they know that these tour guys and a lot of their R&D comes from the tour i mean so they know what they’re doing uh I think Shrixon has put out a great product um not just saying because I play tricks on but I think they’ve come out as a great product they’re definitely like I always say they’re a sleeper brand that’s just not you know I agree it’s not just they don’t get the national it’s not advertised in the United States well I mean you’re always going to have your four you’re always going to have your four your four biggest brands being tailor made Titus and Callaway um however if you fly to Japan everybody’s playing tricks on Cleveland everybody and at at its price point I don’t see why more people don’t play tricks on yeah very reasonable as well and and it’s definitely in fitting bays and as we get into the irons a couple years ago when I got fit for new set of irons the um ZX7 actually was one that performed probably the second best um for me so I agree i mean they they really do put out quality clubs i don’t think when I when did my driver fitting last year that I don’t I don’t think a Shrek driver came came out i think it was more of the the names but again I I think we’ve seen a lot of players pro players really tout the performance so they’re not taking a backseat to anybody um so then we get into to his irons here uh true combo set you know the ZXI 2ir again with that Fuji car vent black they didn’t have the uh flex there so just kind of going vent black the uh four and five iron the ZX ZXI5 uh with the True Temper Dynamic Gold issue X100 and then the uh ZXi7 and his six through pitching wedge same shaft there um again quality club you just I think we’ve seen facts you know more more players pick them up but I mean I wouldn’t be ashamed to have that club in my bag it looks solid what irons are you playing Mike uh so I still have the ZX-7 Mark II and the 45 and six with now a Money Taper X130 and the blades in the short irons so 7 89 pitching wedge with the same shaft um I mean I can go into the nitty-gritty on on his bag on the development that they put into these irons the how they’ve forged the club three times use a harder metal which actually comes out to be softer figured out the cooking temperature it they know what they’re doing just nobody wants them and that’s the sad part this if you put Yeah if you put down a ZXI5 and a ZXI7 down on each other you’ll never know which is which i mean yeah and the ZXI5 has a little bit of a wider soul just for forgiveness you know can you Mike can you talk about can you talk to the the notion that a lot of players are still just using I wouldn’t say a basic shaft but they still gravitate towards that true temper X100 can you gra Can you kind of give us the inner work into why they use that shaft more so than a KBS shaft or you know a lot of players don’t use that you know the loading zone or whatever you know right um I mean that the the true the that dynamic gold tour issue has been around for for years a lot of players still use it um it’s just an it’s an easy shaft I mean I don’t necessarily see myself playing it just because of how heavy and stout it is but I mean these guys generate the the the speed for it same thing with project with the project X it’s a stepless shaft but at the same time it’s something that they have played for many many years and that’s what they like i don’t see anybody I don’t see True Temper ever slowing down on getting those shafts out on on market in the bags of tour players and even in the bags of amateurs so it’s just kind of what they’re used to and everything like that right absolutely and you see a difference in shaft flex like some players uh they play an S400 which plays like the X but is a little softer or the X100 so I mean it all comes down to shaft flex but it’s just the consistency that Dynamic Gold is able to put out year in year out on that tour issue is bar none one of the best like I play the the dynamic gold onyx wedge shafts which are S400s very similar to a tour issue and I I don’t see myself playing another wedge shaft for I don’t know until I’m like 50 when I need something softer you would never try a KBS shaft in your wedges not really i don’t know what it I’ve I’ve hit a couple of them i just doesn’t they don’t they don’t give the same weight the same release as that tour isue um but it it’s it’s arguably the best shaft the best iron shaft in production interesting um I think we were totally mismatched when we were back in our Nike Pro combos what were we playing the S300’s that heavy shaft yeah that S300 it was just It wasn’t fun it It wasn’t fun we it wasn’t controllable for us at that level that we were at as well now you know we’ve we’ve gained an experience and you know consistency tenfold since then but I I don’t think I’d ever go back to a S300 to in this world too much work too much work all right let’s keep it moving to the wedges here so Cleveland RTZ clean i love the the rear of that wedge i was just so clean and simple um but classic i mean it’s it’s a Cleveland wedge uh the 52 52 degree with the uh 10 degree uh mid midbounce 56 again 10 i thought the w the bounce on the 56 was interesting and then the uh 60° at uh 6° with the low bounce with the uh S400 uh true temper in there any thoughts on the wedges different setup than most i don’t know maybe I’m wrong on that i mean I think I mean I see a lot more players going to the mid bounce on a 56 i have my 54 is uh 10 degrees as well i mean I don’t know i don’t really use it outside of on the fairway and for like kind of chip shots from the fairway and everything like that you know me I’m I’m a 58 around the greens all all day long and so as long as my balance is good and you know very much rehearse with that then I don’t really too much care or look into my 54 degree balance what do you think Mike what are your thoughts on this wedge setup it’s common you know nowadays well I would say me working in in still working in the golf industry as a retailer is uh it’s very common to match the lofts in the in the sense of everything’s getting a little stronger you know the only thing out of place is the 56 and the 60 usually it’s 50 54 58 um gapping but yeah gapping wise but who is to say it’s a true 56 or a true 60 you know it’s just a number so it could be 57 55 you know because So but um honestly I I love the wedges the art the new RTZ it’s a uh again I can get really really deep into the material if that’s something you guys are interested in which I don’t think so and and then you can you can spare us and then uh and then I mean here we go again back again with the dynamic gold tour to S400 there we go so keep it rolling here um putter and ball to to wrap it all up uh the ping answer 2D with Superstroke’s energy uh you know a uh grip from 2021 and then the Shrek ZAR XV we’ve talked about the this ball this year a couple times um a really quality ball i think again this is where Sheron really gets um shafted honestly I told Marcus I got a a sleeve earlier in the year on accident and it was one of the better balls that I’ve played this year um yeah you know I don’t think you’d get the most distance but from a control standpoint you’re not gonna have a lot of uh offline i I love the three layer approach for both of their highle balls it it to me it it’s really controllable ball predictable ball flight um I’m not going to see big misses left or right so I really enjoy the ball feel like it’s it’s super underrated and and doesn’t get the shine i think if they figured out a way to drop their price point just slightly below the the higherend balls they might be able to make some inroads and actually spend some money on marketing but I think it’s a really high quality ball that they don’t give enough effort into uh putting out there to the world yeah I don’t think you can ever go wrong with that that ping answer um I do think the grip he uses is a is a bit wild it’s a bit out there it’s a older grip but it’s like it’s a longer grip like it’s a long down the shaft and I think he does the arm lock i can’t he does can’t rem Yeah that’s what I was thinking it’s But whatever works for him you know it’s It’s weird to me mike is kind of using a longer uh grip now so I can’t really too much hate on it because he shot 64 on my head with it pause but um so I think Mike have you tried out the the Shrixen since you played Stricks and Irons or have you stayed tried and true to you know Bridgestone throughout at the time um I I’ve tested it for sure in the in the store um there’s just something about a Bridgestone now that I just can’t get away from right i’ve tried to tell people this yeah there’s just something about that’s another underrated ball that no one really plays as well i mean but Well their main rep is Matt Cooer so that’s kind of debilitating we’re not It’s not no it’s not yeah it is okay yeah that’s I mean yeah it is always going to catch strays on our show that’s one thing that I that’s not going to stop um he can catch all the strays but I mean I every single one I have played a strict song on ball in the past I think because uh STPGA Junior is they have the ability to get a sleeve or actually no a dozen of those uh with the Z stars when they came out and I actually I like I liked them in the past but it’s I mean I’ve tried everything from Tide List to Bridgestone and just right now Bridgestone’s in the bag and that’s what I like so yeah we had the Prestige Tour out here not too long ago and SDPGA was running it and so all the kids were getting sleeves of the the Strickson ZAR um and um one kid left her behind i pulled one out was kind of you know hitting it around with the wedge in the shop before I put it back on the table for them to grab it or whoever may have left it but yeah it’s a real soft ball for as much spin that it produces so yeah it really had a good feel so I might have to try to get a sleeve or a box and try them out myself eventually yeah i think for me this year with so many different ball choices that are out there I think I’ve tried both Prov1s both TP5s um the Shrions Chrome Tour and I I think there’s I haven’t had a bad ball yet it’s just depending on what the profile is that you’re looking for the ball game has come so far i remember years ago when the TP5s first launched that um you know Lord Jesus um that the TP5s were super inconsistent in terms of production you would have two or three balls that were just bad in the batch but I think the ball manufacturing game has stepped up with all these you know direct to consumer brands really coming high level that you can’t slack in that area anymore and so the high-end manufacturers have really done their thing so Jal Carson I don’t want to have to block anybody no no no no i know i know all right so that’s uh Ryan Fox’s What’s in the Bag and we’ll quick mention on the LPGA i I said it earlier I didn’t get to watch any of the coverage of the LPGA just didn’t fit into the schedule this past weekend um but shout out to Jennifer Cup Show she’s been on a drought of three years as well similar to Sam Burns and she got her first win um at the uh sorry shop right shop they have all these uh grocery store sponsors this these coming weeks so they have the Meyer LPGA this week and Shopright last week so um shout out to her that’s all I got i just wanted to acknowledge her win unless you got something Marcus uh no I I tried to watch but it started on Friday so I was kind of already out of the mood it it it was a three-day event i’m so used to them being four days again so I don’t I didn’t I didn’t really watch as much um I saw a little bit of the end blast from the past at Altahara Munoz on the on the leaderboard T5 um Sey Young Kim third outright been a while since we’ve seen her you know she’s a hot starter and then doesn’t do anything else afterwards uh Nelly Corda somehow got a T15 after that out of that after her start uh Patty T somehow got a T-15 out of that um yeah just I mean Gino T11 i mean your your hard hitters didn’t hit hard this week right kind of um it Yeah Ayaka Fway is always in the top 10 but always she played golf every week she does her and uh what’s the other one that you couldn’t remember nasa Hayoka every day all right let’s keep it rolling uh again another mention I watched some of the Saturday coverage of the uh Kell sorry Sunday coverage of the KM Open uh when it came up in the morning crazy weather i mean breezy cold looks super unpleasant um I didn’t realize how slowly uh what’s his name francisco Leaporta plays it It was kind of dreadful i had to turn it off honestly cuz he was in the final group and slow play all day um but we have another seam spelled a little bit different than than our guy Marcel uh winning his uh initial victory connor Seam uh won for the first time on the DP World Tour so congrats to that young man um we’ll see how his career trends going forward but we have a new replacement scene yeah i mean I didn’t really catch much of it at all but the thing when I did catch it it was never a time where I wasn’t blowing at least two clubs i mean the the wispy grass was steady on the slant um it was a good window cuz like I I had a lot of early shifts last week so I was up for it but you know busy at work in the TV in the background didn’t really get a chance to catch anything specific but um you knew you Yo Lden was going to be out there hometown home country kid you know he he always gets an exemption to that um who else you know what i wasn’t really paying attention to any other names out there if I’m being honest but there weren’t many in the top 10 and it was a pretty big gap between the leader and the rest of the field i mean at the top of the leaderboard he finished at 11 under and then you saw people at three under at the top of the leaderboard so there was a huge gap between um you know him and and then kind of runners up from there so he did most of his work in the first three rounds and held steady on Sunday so it it was kind of anticlimactic um again the weather made it pretty dreadful and then the uh the slow play as well but I’m so missing the the classic days of of the European you know DP World Tour it just doesn’t have the same pizzazz that we were used to when we first started getting into golf mike how do you consume your golf and what’s your favorite tour to watch besides the PGA like would you say like you gravitate towards the Champions Tour would you say you actually you know look out for the live like what what would you say no no and no shade i I’m legitimately asking what would you say is the best way for you to catch golf the the Champions Tour mentioned felt like shade but it was a stray because you know you just never know where somebody is headed but you know you know you got to throw it out there uh yes yeah uh no uh [Laughter] uh I usually catch most of my stuff on ESPN or on Hulu uh just because they have coverage going on um I actually like to watch like college events um not because I was a I’m now a former college player uh but the like watching um like the East the East Lake Cup um some of those highlevel college events those that’s something else I like to watch and it’s uh I kind of like you know sometimes compare myself or like think what I could do out if I was out there or what I would do um but I like watching college i catch some of the DP uh have yet to still watch some of Liv nothing on Live um I mean the events just sneak up on you i mean they played this week and it’s like okay I mean bro they were on You have to like search out coverage they were on Fox News only reason I know that is because I was trying to watch cop reruns that’s bad uh but yeah I I’ve always been a PJ tour guy like I don’t think I’ll ever be anything but a PJ tour guy um but honestly I do like how ESPN and Hulu have come out with like or more ESPN they’ve come out with ESPN Plus is really close right so I think I think with what ESPN Plus has done getting like early more earlier coverage uh instead of having to wait for the main broadcast at like two or three and you can kind of keep up with certain groups or see a certain hole or analysts aren’t too bad and it’s very I was going to say that their anal their analysts are I can actually listen to them you know i I’m a put it on mute person espn Plus brings a lot of insight to the uh Yeah to the coverage and and you’re it’s kind of like uh you know how August or the Masters they do their coverage where they do Heymon’s Corner and featured groups certain Yeah so I think ESPN has kind of taken a page out of their book and say like hey let’s offer this to our subscribers who do pay for ESPN plus or pay for the Disney bundle or whatever let’s give them more opportunity to watch more golf other than just the broadcast that comes on at two on either was it NBC Sports or uh whatever else so I think I think ESPN Plus has kind of hit has kind of hit a has added on so that’s great yeah I love the Yeah I love the college golf during the summer just to get some unique you know additional views um seeing who’s up and coming you know in the college game and see who’s next um also conversely who doesn’t end up uh you know succeeding after playing some highle golf like it’ll be interesting to see the kid who uh you know won the US AM last year uh from Spain name Jose Bair signed up with Liv yeah what do you do now right so you’re going to play a lot less than you ever have and you know we’ll see if he has the hunger to fight for for more than what Liv is currently offering or is he just going to be okay with collecting his 20 mil um and whatever he may get from victories but it’s it’s interesting that kids make that choice because then it feels like the uh development stops uh there was the other kid Caleb Serat who uh you know went over hadn’t heard from him since then right so surprised he’s still on the team to be honest right so that’s the downside of that choice but yeah I think I think uh PGA Touru has done a really good job with that i mean we’re going to see uh David Ford Luke Clinton um actually Kieran Van Wick finished high enough to where he can actually get a couple of cornfy tour uh cornfairy tour starts so so I think I’m it’s I’m very interested to see how David Ford comes out swinging and Luke Clinton like we’ve seen we’ve seen some some good stuff out of Luke Clan early on before he made got his tour card um another one Gordon Sergeant who has his card and decided to finish at Vanderbilt so we got you know we got three guys coming out of college who are very very good it’s very similar to the Havlin Morawa um who’s that other guy real weird oh Matthew Wolf um those like those three that they came out so we’re gonna see yeah so we’re going to see who who uh who’s kind of top dog out of those three and then who continues to be on the PJ tour who doesn’t continue to be on the PJ tour and uh honestly and also hopes for Kieran Van Wick i mean played at played his college golf at Charleston College and uh um he looks the he’s got talent absolutely and you know he even has status on in the APGA but you know me and some of my team former teammates were talking about it we don’t think that he should go to APGA that he should maybe take those starts on PJ Tour Americas or on the Cornferry um but at the end of the day he he’s playing high level golf whether wherever it is um and I just hope nothing for the best for those those top 20 guys who work their tails off day in day out fall you know and you know congratulations to them yeah I agree with on the Karen Manwick that he since he showed so well in that PGA tour event earlier in the year that um APGA is cool if you need that step up and that kind of leg up to to get an opportunity or a chance but I think his talent is a is a level above what those guys have to offer really good players out there but yeah I I think he can bypass that and like I said take those higher level starts play against higher level competition and accelerate his his his path towards success before we move on to kind of some of the US Open stuff um Mike talk a little bit about your experience so that since you’re no longer a college golfer finished up your final season at Southern this year um talk about the experience i know it was the tough part is it was an upstart program when you joined it um so you know a lot of aches and pains come from the restart of a college athletic program so talk about your experience um you know and the opportunity that you had there and what you have next in the future and what you plan to do with golf going forward right um so my experience at Southern wasn’t the greatest you know I uh I had some had to deal with some really bad situations with administration and advisors and even though I like my coaches as people I was not too happy with how the situation ended um it’s just I feel I feel bad you know not so bad but I feel upset of how it how I had to leave and um what happened the just the administr I feel like the administration failed failed me as an athlete can you elaborate on what kind of precipitated your exit yeah absolutely so um I played in the fall um by the way I can How long has this process taken start with that two years it’s been two years so I didn’t play at all in the fall and the spring for uh transfer transfer issues apparently I didn’t have enough credits we get into the fall of 24 um I did not I did play they did find a semester of eligibility um I was told that we were going to try and get an extension for the spring so I got to play got to play some good golf um five consecutive or sorry four consecutive rounds under par and three top 10 finishes so I’m I’m It’s a good round i got to play uh in the East Side Intercolgate um I’m actually wearing the East Side hoodie right now uh here in in Frisco so that was really it was really fun um being around some high level people um we went from being the last program in the nation to the fourth after one semester um I’m not saying that I’m the reason why but I am part of that team or part of that success um so we we we kind of we we’re now in the spring i’m waiting i’m waiting i’m waiting to hear from the athletic department and it’s the same answer I’m getting is “Oh we’re working on it we’re we’re trying to build the story we’re trying to build the the the right narrative.” And I’ve given them this information since last year July so we’re I mean they’ve had they’ve been sitting on it for a while um it’s not until we’re more than past half the semester and it’s you know the answer that I get was well we actually were we actually never did it just because we believe that the story wasn’t strong enough or it wasn’t we’ve heard from people on the board that it’s not good enough and it’s in my mind I’m like who are you you’re not the NCAA you are not you know you are not the the one who knows so I think that they still should have submitted my information they still should have put the best interest in the team um a lot of other college players that saw me in the lineup and didn’t see me in the lineup anymore kind of raised questions of like well why is Michael not starting why is Michael not here and I’ve heard from many people many different people from many different programs or players say you know in that fall when we came out swinging they were like “Oh Southern’s going to be a problem now.” And then it turned from Southern’s going to be a problem to “Oh Southern’s back to being Southern.” And is that is the team left with a lot of younger guys incoming freshman yeah absolutely so this this team is super super young um we have three freshman three freshman two s two juniors now so they’re going to be sophomores and juniors um you have two really good guys who are putting up numbers but you need more than two you need Yeah so I’ve I’ve seen you post a couple videos um on your Instagram and Yeah the guys look talented i remember i mean compared to the early kind of footage and coverage and stuff that Southern was putting out definitely a talent difference but youth is still still youth so do you have any eligibility left that you could pursue elsewhere or are you just that’s it no I’m done i’m I’m um on the academic side so I was misadvised i have technically another semester i was supposed to graduate this spring and basically the conversation that I had with my adviser in the fall going into the spring was I sat there in front of him did my curriculum sheet did it as it was and I tell him I’m like “Hey does this everything look right?” And the answer I got for him was looks good to me and I was like “Are you sure this is everything that I need?” And he goes “That’s what the paper says.” And you know I get get into the spring and I keep hearing about a class and I ask the dean of psychology who is who has been nothing but helpful and is an amazing person and and an amazing professor and she says “Yeah you have to take that class every graduating every no matter what degree you’re in you have to take it.” So they were trying to find a way to bypass that so I ended up getting another adviser who actually knew what she was doing and she looks back at it and she’s like “Michael the athletic department whoever your advisor is they they did not pay attention to your transcript they they just kind of went off whatever and you have a full semester left.” So it was you know hey I’m so I’m not going to graduate this spring and they’re like so not just not just a class but a whole semester correct full-time 12 credit hours correct um I since the fall of 23 I told them that I had no more uh veterans scholarship because of my father uh and I asked them if I could be on scholarship and they’re like “Yeah we’re going to figure that out.” Never happened we get to the fall of 24 when I’m actually eligible hey coach I need to be on scholarship yeah we’ll figure that out we get to the end of we’re getting to to finals week and I get kicked out of all my classes the week before finals and I’m like “Coach what am I supposed to do here?” And he’s like “Well you’re going to have to take out the more loans.” So and I luckily had a a great family friend helped me pay off my balance for the fall and the balance that I owed was just under $14,000 and that’s 14,000 yeah and he and thank God that he helped me and I’m having to pay him back and I’m still in a hole right now paying you know $3,500 that I have to work my tail off to to pay off so that I can finish here and I’m you know me and my mom and my girlfriend and her are just they’re upset i mean who it’s a it’s a pretty bad situation i mean and and the sad part is is that nor am I the first person this has happened to nor will I be the last and I’ve always talked about it and I’ve always said you know that blah and and the same response that I keep hearing and I’m sick and tired of hearing it is well that’s an H.B.CU for you it shouldn’t be an H.B.C it doesn’t matter you should still run your university and have the right personnel and the right administration who actually care you know you try to get something from administration and it takes them two years but trust me if you miss that first installment on your payment plan they’re the first persons knocking at your door to come and get your get their money but when you ask for help they’re nowhere to be found halfway through the semester last year in the fall the uh the resident the resident hall director she took my key away i didn’t have a way to get in and out of my dorm i had to literally wait on my teammates to hope and pray that they were in there so I can get in and out of my room damn Southern i mean this Yeah it sounds like a brutal case in the gut right and again look Southern is a great institution when it comes to education and and the professors there if if anyone who’s on here listening and who is a psychology major at Southern some of the best professors bar none they they know what they’re doing all of them still practice all of them know what they’re doing however what I do wish there was is more honesty from coaches and administration just tell me how it is i clearly told them “If you can’t if you can’t do it it’s okay it’s fine it happens college players go home athletes go home but don’t put me in a hole where me and my family now have to dig ourselves out.” And what I don’t think coaches realize is yeah you’re trying to keep players and yeah you know whatever blah blah blah but the financial responsibilities that students families now have to deal with is something that they probably couldn’t even deal with in the first place so just be honest put them in that position yeah right just be honest and be truthful the program will thrive one way or another but you will like I say you will lose the program faster by lying than by telling the truth and I’m not and look I’m not I’m not saying that southern like nobody should play for Southern or nobody should play at an H.B.CU no it’s division one golf it’s still you still get to play some really really interesting places they were just at Whistling Straits for the uh what’s that pga Works so there are some opportunities out there however I just wish that I just really really wish that H.B.CU didn’t function like that i really wish and and and I mean just to be honest it just from a systemic issue it does come from underfunding and you know promised dollars that that a lot of H.B.CU’s sees are are promised from the government for support that they never receive um I don’t I can’t remember what the number was for Southern but they are definitely in a hole of what the United States government has promised to them in terms of funding um versus what they have actually received so I think it multiple issues but I agree um you have to do right by kids especially if they’re going to be the future um let’s pivot so what do you plan on doing next with golf are you done with the game or clearly you’re not done with it i know you’re you you were you came on talking about uh playing so what what are your next things with golf that you’re trying to accomplish um so yeah I am well one I’m just trying to get my degree in psychology and finish up that um just just uh try and become a playing pro try and get on APGA as a kind of that stepping stone and then who knows maybe Q school in the in the in the future um just just kind of setting some short-term goals that you know can lead into long form uh long longterm goals um so I think uh just kind of having to play in some events really put some scores down and just kind of get in front of the right people as sponsors as well and that’s that’s another thing that’s very difficult for someone who’s known locally um I’m not a highle amer i’m not someone who has been playing much junior golf or amateur golf just for the financial reasons of it um but it’s I think it’s it’s possible you know to to play professional golf and just kind of be in front of the right people at the right time and gain those sponsors and me and Marcus talked about it how how difficult it is to fund raise um so it’s out there um but yeah just just trying to trying to play as much as I can actually I have the uh state open qualifier still i’m still an am so I plan on turning pro at the end of this year and just kind of figuring it out um also thinking about getting my class A so playing in the section still having the opportunity to um have chances of playing on tour like the Houston Open Texas or the San Antonio the Mexico and even qualifying for the PGA Championship so there are some there are many different avenues where I could still be a playing pro it’s just I’ll be a teaching pro as well but the the number one thing right now is just to try and become a playing pro sweet well of course you know we wish you nothing but but luck in your future and you know as long as you keep going i mean that’s theor truly life i mean you’re battling through adversity and trying to figure out ways because it’s not always going to go on the path that you you uh think it will be trust me as a 42-year-old with the kid life is never um along the pathway that you think it will take you so um we wish you nothing but luck and um anything we can do to support you going forward thank you let’s get to moving to some of the uh US Open stuff uh we’ll start off i mentioned it earlier uh with Rory Maroy flaming out of the RBC Canadian Open just did not have a good driving two days i think he ended up with like a snowman on the whole um really struggling going back to the PGA Championship where he had to switch out of his gamer the uh Qi10 um I think he put another Qi 10 in the bag um that week but fully converted over to the Qi35 which he had tried earlier in the year um I’m going to play a guy’s video Tez Talks Golf he’s heavy in equipment so his videos pop up on everybody’s feed you’ve seen him at least once but he’s talking about this year’s version of the uh Qi35 driver i don’t necessarily I’ll preface it by saying I don’t necessarily agree with his reasoning behind why the driver’s not been successful but we we’ll talk about it when we come off this video it has kind of a big driver problem right now but on the flip side to that they are weirdly making up ground in putters let’s talk you see this week at the RBC Canadian Open Rory Mroy moved into the new Qi35 driver which on the surface seems like a great thing for them until he proceeded to miss the cut and had his second worst off the tea week in the last year as a matter of fact in the span of that time frame he’s only had three total weeks where he’s actually lost strokes off the tea now to be fair he did gain half a shot in round one but for Rory half a shot is not much considering how long he drives the golf ball and on top of that he lost over two shots in round two and look some of that is on Rory not the driver but of course this does come after the fact that both Scotty and Rory won their respective majors this year both gaming last year’s Qi 10 and on top of that Colin Morakawa who seemed very securely in a Qi35 ended up going back to a QI10 just a few weeks ago and unfortunately on the women’s side it does not look much better three of their biggest LPGA stars Charlie Hull Brook Henderson and Nelly Corda all continue to gain QI10s now do I think the Qi35 is a bad driver no i think it’s a very unique design and when you think about who it’s trying to appeal to a large group of golfers that do not have the most consistent strikes they lower the center of gravity trying to give people a larger area above the CG to essentially miss it so instead of relying on ball speed and centered strikes to hit a long drive you’re now relying on more optimized vertical gear effect and for amateurs it’s probably a good thing but for pros who have very consistent strikes they really don’t need so I think when you’re trying to figure out why these guys and gals are gaming Qi10 it’s not necessarily because Qi35 is bad the design elements of Qi10 are just more in line with drivers they’re used to so that’s kind of my take on the drivers and it’s going to be up to Tailorade to decide how they’re going to go about that in 2026 but putters is where they’re weirdly so we’ve talked about the putters um many times that the days of the blade are gone and Taylor May’s done a really good job of you know evolving the spider lineup but the thing I disagreed with him on is the kind of CG setup and for pros you would think company as big as Tailor Made has the ability to do whatever they want with the waiting in these customized drivers for the pros mhm so what do y’all think about that aspect of it i mean it’s clear that the QI10 has been a better fit for most of these players but I think I call BS on kind of the I don’t know that just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me when we know that there’s a ton of customization that they can do um for their signature players i think um I don’t know i think it’s more just a comfortability thing especially when it comes to like a guy like Rory because just like what you said with the specs if you’re going from the Qi10 same shaft same stiffness same grip same shaft I mean same loft in the head really just think it’s more of like an acoustic thing um a shape thing down by the ball what’s he’s you know that’s probably something that he’s having to deal with and when these guys are on the range for eight hours a day hitting full shots with the driver for you know half of that on the course seeing something different is going to flip you out for a little bit so I think that’s part probably more of an issue more than anything to me it would be I don’t I mean and it’s a completely different sound i mean Mike’s dealing with it with the G430 to G440 it’s a different sound it’s a slightly different shape even if it’s a low spin model just like the model previous there’s going to be things to adjust to and the face isn’t going to be as hot necessarily and you know you still got to have the wear marks and you still got to go through the the trying time so I don’t know if it’s necessarily the tech either but I think it’s more of growing pains again just like Maxoma yeah new clubs in the bag new things you got to de you got to develop a feeling a touch with uh the numbers might be slightly different might be coming off a little bit faster the carry numbers might not be the same you know things like that so might not be coming out of the same window that you know right we want Rory to come out and say some things i did see on the Golf Monthly they did a comparison of the Qi 10 and 35 and the shape was the number one con for the 35 that they mentioned may not fit everybody’s eye profile so you mentioned Mike you’re switching you’ve switched from the 430 to the 440 the drive correct correct and 3wood so I have the 430 oh and 3-wood correct um less less what What’s the difference yeah so from the 430 to the 440 uh it’s very muffled it’s very quiet another thing as well with the driver it and well with the driver it’s super light um it’s just kind of their I guess it’s their way of just kind of creating more speed um both now the 440 uh 440 Max LST and SFT now have that half uh carbon fiber crown um but still 1045 heat treated steel every all the way through um one thing I did notice on the 3-wood Max is it’s it’s hot it’s low spinning i don’t necessarily launch it the same as the 440 um and I think it just like I said with time like I was playing today and uh it comes out a little pierce it comes out more piercing um I guess over time I guess once I break it in or kind of get accustomed to it I’ll get back to that kind of high high three-way that I normally hit um but yeah it just it just kind of takes time and um on the on the Qi35 the Qi10 subject I mean the Qi35 is designed to be an optimized uh driver i mean it’s this is the first driver we’ve seen reflective markers on where we can actually use Trackman and GC Quad to actually fit you for a shaft like if you look at it uh Tommy Fleetwood was once a Ventus black now he’s pointing the Ventus red and that’s because of those reflective markers so another thing as well is that the LS model is very similar to the core model and the core model is now geared toward the Max model and the Max models you know whatever so I think that if they went back to those three head offerings that they had in the Qi10 we could probably see some more s you know see more players wanting to go to it but I think that with the Qi35 it’s very experimental as well because like I mentioned this is the first driver ever in history to have reflective markers and uh and also the the Qi I mean there isn’t there isn’t much difference going from a QI10 to a Qi35 i haven’t seen any difference in numbers i haven’t seen any apart from it being gray this is just the human factor and it could be i don’t know i mean changing drivers to me is always tough and I know the pros are usually contractually obligated to stick with theirs but yeah for me I if I get a driver that I like and it’s playable and it’s it’s putting me where I want to be I’m going to stick with it for at least two years probably closer to three or four especially if it’s performing i don’t know i mean I get it you know they have they have to meet the tailor made need and that’s honestly what we came to know Tailor Made for is their woods just being super hot um you know just really took over especially after the Slider I think they just went on a run where they were um killing it so I don’t know i’m curious on your your uh 3-wood would you consider a shaft change to get more height maybe a little more spin to uh to take down some of you know to add some more spin back to it since the head doesn’t deliver as much is that a solution you’d go to or do you think that more play will will balance that out yeah I think more play the shaft that I currently have in my 3-wood is a kind of a mid to high spinning launching shaft it’s a It’s a TA Dis 7X um and that is notorious for being a spinnier shaft or the graphite design are notorious for being spinnier shafts um I just think it’s going to take some time for me to adjust to it and Marcus has seen it it comes out very piercy and it it just could also be the way I deliver i’m now kind of delivering at the ball so um you know that changes um on Max Hom’s deal he has a driver that has 40 no no 33 settings holy cow yeah we’ve talked about the deal we’ve talked about the deal 33 fitting settings so imagine think about it like this ping and Tidless release every two to three years woods and ironings wise they produce the same thing every year and people like it now Max Hom’s let’s say he’s he’s in a slump he has 33 settings he can choose from how tinkery do you think somebody would be if they’re in a slump trying to figure out 33 settings and that’s I imagine it would drive you crazy right honestly and and to me I think for Titus to release every two Tylus and Ping to release every two years just shows that they’re actually taking time to quality control all their stuff making sure that games are actually where they need to be and testing and really getting response from the tour and and just putting out good product day in day out i will always like Tailor-Made Woods um Callaway I just The elite is to me I don’t like the elite i don’t like I didn’t like the AI smoke i didn’t like the elite i didn’t like I don’t like honestly I don’t like some of this the woods that Callaway puts out the irons on the other hand is a different story but I don’t know what it is about Callaway and the Elite and the Qi35 it but if we look in from a retail aspect the Qi35 is pushing they are moving it out they are getting in getting out so which is crazy because I feel like Brooke Henderson remember i felt like we saw her in like the Stealth 2 for the longest she didn’t even want to go to the Q10 i felt like I saw that red face on hers for a long time and she was still pushing it out there and just putting a new cover on like we saw what was happening on the PGA tour PGA rank so the the pros like what they like but when it comes to you know conforming and non-conforming sometimes you just got to move on to the next product unfortunately right and okay side note it’s not fair that I can hit the ball in the center of the face over and over and over again to the point where you’re like that driver is no good take it out that’s just not like what what do we do i mean you know well if if it’s compromising the ball speed and beyond the current acceptable um limits of what what’s allowed right so well I guess I’m I’m sure we’ve asked you so everybody complains about the ball um would you you know with this upcoming ball uh roll back in like four years what are your thoughts on that happening do you think that’s ridiculous do you think leaving everything the same as it currently is is should be the what are your what is your approach on on o distance overall do you think it’s it’s too much or it’s just fine right now it’s fine i mean what won the what won the the PJ championship at at Quill Hollow was it I mean was it like an was it like an obscene number i mean that’s how set up right right so the courses the courses are there i mean just make it the game is just Yeah the Right it’s like you know the John Rom said it best unfortunately it’s coming from John Rom but the game is just way more athletic than it’s ever been people are in the gym the speeds are uh in insane the the um ability the adjustability the forgiveness it’s insane the the shafts we use all of that stuff incorporates into the ball going further it has nothing to do with the ball i think we continue to have amateurs and newcomers enjoy feeling like they’re hitting the ball further i don’t see again when you’re hitting the ball you know when you’re hitting the ball out of the middle of the face you constantly and you become more and more skilled you’re going to eek one to two to three yards more out of these golf balls and clubs these gains aren’t you know substantial about being 10 to 15 as they market it realistically you might have some more no you know what I’m saying realistically some might but more times than not 80 to 90% of the people are gaining two three four yards and it’s like that’s enough i felt like I got my money’s worth because I’m getting more out of it or I’m getting more out of the golf ball so I don’t again we’re big haters on the golf ball roll back and we’ve had episodes of this i think you’re right because I I’ll take me as an example right average player above average in certain areas right versus like a typical am but from a distance perspective I’m not some long ball hitter but this year life has been busy so like usually in the off season I’ll do some speed training you know that way when I come out into January February March I’m playing really well off the T- box and then figuring out the rest of the game from there right because I’m not playing as much during the winter i did not do any speed training this year and as a result you know I went I went back to tracking my yardages uh with Aroscos and I’ve lost seven yards off the tee from where I was playing at the end of last year again it goes into the user versus equipment right nothing else has changed i’m still playing the same driver that I was playing last year but I’ve lost seven yards off the TE that’s significant for me i’m not playing it’s taken I’ve had to figure out other compromises in my game because I haven’t had the time to get my body back right and um pick up those few extra mile hour in my head club head speed that I had last year so I I I totally agree that it’s it’s the the user and not the equipment that’s giving us all of these gains you know and you know technology um yeah shaft shaftway talk has never been more prevalent than it is now right and the ability to have options and change it out um and tinker there because I think we’re we’re more dialed i think I you know you can go to any lineup of shafts and say “Okay I know what this shaft is going to do for my game i know what my numbers are and I can pick out a shaft that’s going to get me where I need to whether it’s the you know Fujakara line the Tensei line the Tour AD line they all have you know these characteristics that are predictable versus when we first started playing golf in 2012 I don’t think people really gave a damn about shafts it was just simple you know looking at flex and weight all the characteristics with spin and the availability of numbers just weren’t as advanced as they are today versus you go out on any professional range um practice round there’s track mans there’s foresights all over the course when you know that that was just not the case before um yeah so anyway on a side note I will admit yes you’re right that there are a lot of players who talk about oh I need this chef or I want that chef there are some that don’t need it and if you know you’re one of those guys who don’t need it don’t ask for it seriously oh for sure cuz I get I mean holy cow the amount of people that walk through the door at at Golf Galaxy and say “Oh yeah i swing really hard i need I hit it 300.” And then I get sit in there and I’m like “Good grief can you at least get one where I know what what to put you in holy cow.” You know and it’s like they got that they got that fitting anxiety yeah or like or or yeah like if you don’t know what you’re talking about and you’re like “What’s my asmith?” It’s spell assmith and then I’ll tell you what it is you know and then everybody’s like “What’s what should be my face angle what?” Hey these are the main this is the main thing you need to look at ball speed club head speed spin rate that’s it that’s it right and just let the f and let the fitter do his job don’t Don’t try and sound smart just just let us do our job we know what we’re doing please i know most most ams cannot aren’t the athletes to be able to control um attack angle it’s just like dude go up there and swing the swing that you’re going to swing um and optimize for that and then when your game comes around come back and get fit for something you know as you get better right i could h I could probably say two years ago that’s not a conversation that I could have like I had no idea about face control and all kinds of you know advanced stuff like that but you know yeah I I love listening to other people get fit it’s it’s an interesting experience when you’ve done it a couple times and then the egos that walk into the fitting bay it’s a trip i mean when you see me you you’ll see me at Golf Galaxy and Mike will be working on the club or I’ll be yapping it with yapping it up with him and you’ll just casually catch wind of somebody getting fit and you just look at it and you’re like there’s no way you’re serious like for instance just this past week a guy was coming in talking about he was driving at 280 uh you get him on the track man carry is 180 he’s got 80 yards of roll out and max number was 260 like let’s be for real and those are like And those are like really like how how often are you going to get that much roll out exactly that that was a top spin demon and it was a h like a hard draw hook and so it’s like you’re you’re doing so much to get that 80 yards of roll out that you know you’re not consistently getting even when you swing your hardest so let’s be for real or uh we always we had this running joke where it’s like you know that one guy that hits it really thin he’s like I hit my gap wedge like 180 exactly skulling every damn one of them i hit my two iron like 300 like Yeah because you like bend it across the world yeah be for real we went straight tangent um question like do y’all think that Rory has a chance given his driver struggles to to write the ship in these early part of the week and actually compete or is he completely out of this one i don’t think it has to do with his club while he’s out of it i think we’ve both kind of seen how motivated or the lack thereof he is now as of now and I think he’ll log back in i think the open will mean something to him it being in his home country of Ireland Northern Ireland my apologies there is a difference um so I think maybe we I think maybe we missed the gun on this one um with Rory or I think he misses his shot um to kind of you know solidify what he’s doing this year but who knows we might he might catch lightning in the bottle you never know because he missed the weekend so he might had some time to you know get the wrinkles out um I think it’s I mean it’s going to be a it’s it’s tough this is one of the toughest fields uh it’s going to be one of the toughest courses that they play so if he can get it anywhere in the short stuff I think he’s gonna have an opportunity to win it because I think he’s a he’s not we talked about it last week Rod i don’t think he’s a Scotty as it pertains to being able to fight for par and play a par par you know battled game but when it comes to not really you know getting in trouble all the time I think he’s okay that way he He’ll throw in a quad he will throw in a big number but he’s not doing that you know what I’m saying he’s not doing that all the time and he’s got bounceback ability so I’m not giving up on but yeah but we know who my pick is for this US Open we do so so our picks we we we did pick early on in the year and I think the way this one lines out you’re you’re in good shape i’m questioning my pick at this point mike who do you who who do you We I’ll reveal ours here in a sec mike who do you Who would you pick uh going into you know this year’s US Open at Oakmont who Who do you Who’s high on your radar well my pick didn’t make it through qualifying it was Max max oh that’s fame did you see the longest day did you see that Mike he threeooted his last hole he three-footed his last hole to get into the playoff which was a five for one with Cam Young Ricky Fowler him and um there was two other guys they were pros as well which this is a which is a crazy field but yeah it was a five for one playoff and Cam Young made a birdie on the second one to get him through when Cam Young when Max Homo my apologies could have got through in regulation he had a eagle putt then he had a birdie putt and ended up three putt parring for it on his last hole yeah I wanted I wanted him in the field but we’re Max fans too yeah we are he’s he’s a seems like a just a fun person real down to earth you know self-deprecating just sucks genuine um um so my pick was Matthew Fitzpatrick uh he has not shown up this season i mean it’s better than he did last year um but I I saw him kind of trending saw him you know still staying in the gym picking up extra yardage i I don’t know i don’t see it um just hadn’t been playing well enough to uh to get back to the the height that he he was a few years ago you pick Scotty Shuffler i mean that’s looking real damn good right now it just is i mean he’s he’s coming off of his first major outside of the Masters which I think bodess well right i think Scotty Exactly right and kind of as you mentioned with Rory Scotty’s going to play a safe game scotty’s going to get up and down scotty doesn’t put himself in positions to make a big number um he’s going to get you 305 off the tea and be in the fairway you know and I think that’s going to bode well this week i mean outside of some really crazy long par 3es I mean everything else is standard fair there’s not these crazy yardages out there that he can’t can’t get to so I I think that’s going to be a really solid pick i mean he’s got to be at this point what we’ve talked about when he’s competing it’s it’s starting to turn into Scotty versus the field he’s become Yeah he he’s putting himself up there where he’s an intimidator now he is he truly is i mean he doesn’t get tracked down um I don’t know i just don’t see anybody else playing consistently great enough golf to feel like oh yeah they they they have a good chance i mean again it’ll be interesting to see what JT does um you know with his new Caddy relationship you know coming off of a win earlier in the year you know he can he can pop up and have a really good week but there’s no one else that I’m thinking like okay they’re that next guy and that’s where I think that gap between where Rory is top top tier Rory Scotty Sheffler and then everybody else and it’s not even really close right it’s crazy to even say that because remember the years Colin Mora Kawa was putting together it’s a big distance between he’s more closer to the field now than he is to an elite player and he’s not far off from being back up there one two three four but same could be said about Xander xander literally had one of the hottest seasons you know in recent you know in recency bias but we haven’t hardly seen him on the leaderboard this year injuries i mean that’s that’s the biggest thing i think he’s not been very vocal about it but I think you know he’s he’s battled some for it right and that’s just why we’re not seeing what we saw from him last year i think Will Zelator just got his third dyectomy if I’m not mistaken on spinal spinal surgery so yeah he’ll be back before the end of this season but yeah just sad i mean we’ve talked about that as well i mean how these younger guys are just so athletic that they’re not really doing the technical things to protect themselves physically from the physicality of the modern swing that’s one thing that needs to be studied the torque the modern day torque the modern day physical friction and stuff that they’re putting on these vertebraes and stuff like that and I hate to be just like a brainiac and throw out all these you know big ass words but that’s literally what it is the the back the strain on backs nowadays is just unreal compared to what it used to be the reverse C finish the easy you know swing that they used to make compared to this hard I’m gonna rip the turf off like the NCA champion the ND the NCAA individual championship Michael Lasasso we’ve talked about his swing for three weeks in a row now the own your game guys how they’re just ri turning and ripping as hard as they can and playing a fade and holding on for dear life it’s only sustainable for so long that’s all I’ll say though yeah i mean literally I strained a muscle in the middle of my back a couple weeks ago and I was like I I mean imagine how many practice swings and you know reps that they get in and I’m like I played three days in a row and I felt like my back was killing me so right imagine how they feel you know so I don’t know it’ll be interesting i mean Oakmont’s you know historic we’ve we’ve had 10 major championships here um we know we’re going to get Last time we saw Dustin Johnson hit that majestic sixiron going into 18 on on the final day i I just want to see a really close tournament i want to I do want to see Scotty dominate that’s that’s the mode that I’m in i want to see him just turn up on people and just create this separation between him and everybody else so that’s what I’m looking forward to it at the end of the day it’s it’s always fun watching major championship golf um crazy how fast the season’s going we’re We’re going to be three out of the four majors done before July crazy crazy crazy um that’s it for the golf stuff um I I did want to talk anybody anything else y’all want to wrap up on golf before we we we get into some other sports stuff no all right coco Golf um shout out to her for winning and roll on Garos but quickly the story became the hate and just the inability for people to cheer for somebody who because she has to comes across as a really sweet you know genuine 21-year-old um I heard somebody mention like that’s how she makes the money that she makes off the course like her her New Balance deal they really take care of her um because you can feel the authenticity um but we saw uh Sabalinka take shots at her saying she didn’t deserve it and then even in her apology um has to mention that she had 70 unforced errors well when you’re playing with pressure the the errors are going to come right if you’re anticipating your opponent getting to a ball or you know being able to recover that’s where the unforced errors can generally also come from it’s in your mind you know both of them had to play in the same windy conditions so I I don’t know man i haven’t seen anybody come to the uh to the aid of Sabalinka and just her approach but I also saw this clip today from the live coverage and this is more around just the weird racism i guess I don’t know y’all listen and tell me what y’all see feel like we couldn’t have handpicked four players for the final i agree i love I would have loved an American but to get Coco Sabalanka in that epic final we just watched that was Coco’s America oh you made it to the Sorry but yeah that was uh that was unbelievable it was weird bro i I didn’t know Coco Golf was no longer not an American right i don’t know i don’t I don’t I don’t know for her to get her shine loser who is that career loser sam Query career loser a nobody anyway correct so shout out to Coco Golf um as as a college athlete I I mean tell me what your experience was in terms of criticism and around y’all’s performance Mike did y’all have like professional haters when y’all didn’t do well or um I don’t know i’ve just you know as the internet has has evolved the proliferation of hate um has become super high did you have any experiences with that um not not in my personal experience um I don’t think either none of the members on the team ever experienced that either um uh like there’s one kid on our team who like you know that you look at professionals and how they address the ball and how long their process is and he kind of made a comment on social media and was like maybe I should start paying him a bit more attention about my pre-shot and then he kind of got all this like no you shouldn’t you know it’s taking too long blah blah blah blah blah [Music] um that’s kind of the only hate that I’ve seen um but so far in at Southern or they I mean there’s just a lot of support and love that everyone has for the team like I still I still have um some connections and some people that I met who still text me to this day and ask me how I’m doing and so I mean Southern yeah I had a pretty rough situation with Southern but the people of Baton Rouge and some of my professors and like that they’re they’ve shown nothing but love to me and support and what I want to do and what I aspire to be so I think uh I don’t think any of us have seen that at our level um and I’m kind of grateful for that that none of us have gotten any ridicul and and it never feels justified it’s always weird um [Music] very few times does it feel like it it actually is something that makes sense or matters so I’m I’m glad y’all you have had a good experience with that um I always think anytime high level athletics come into play that that’s where the haters come from so yeah um last last one of the day nba Finals game one and two in the books bro um I don’t think either Marcus you and Ne neither one of us were surprised by the Indiana playing it tough playing a full 48 you know minutes we’ve seen them do it all playoffs and you know I know it’s kind of turned into the cliche and you know play till the final buzzer but they legitimately do that um you know and I think sneak up on teams i think teams underestimate Indiana um you know we saw Oklahoma City come back strong in game two and pretty much control it and learn their lesson but I I mean they had to you go down 20 going back to Indiana bad bad story so right what do you think of the first two games what’s your outlook uh for the remainder of the series Mike um I’m not a big basketball person but I have Let’s go ahead and kick him kick him let’s boot him out the the show for now um no but I I think that from what I’ve seen I think uh Hallebertton has done what what he’s been asked to do he’s been a great distributor of the ball he’s been shooting it well from the mid-range i mean he made that insane game-winning shot i think it was game one if I’m not mistaken um I mean for the most part when I did watch the Eastern Conference I mean he really didn’t have like super big numbers but I mean he was just doing a really good job of being where he needed to be uh he’s still scoring double digit points um do I think that Oklahoma thought that this is going to be a walkthrough potentially um but that I mean that Oklahoma team is young i mean Shay Alexander Gillis Chad Holgrren um there I mean there are some it’s a fairly young team and for them to make the finals against the Timberwolves uh you know but at the end of the day Shay you know Shay will get his calls as always but I think the Pacers are they’re are doing a good job of really scoring points and just doing what they have to do to win games nothing flashy nothing outrageous just getting the job done and I think if they keep that up then at the end they they’re going to win they’re going to be champions i’m proud of you for making it through that Mike let’s go let’s go they play ball good they pass good they shoot ball better you know like you know you remember that one interview it was like a Baylor guy he’s like he’s like “How did how did this other school out outrebound you?” He’s like “Well it’s when you go up and you grab the ball and you come down with it they had more they did that more than us.” Yeah they did that more than us um Yeah i think um I think it’s kind of like what we explained last week where Indiana and OKC kind of play similar styles okc just kind of has like a level up on them but they’re going into Indiana indiana’s going to have some homec court advantage they’re going to have a lot of energy rick Carlile probably going to pull some out of his ass again i mean we’re seeing it now we’ve saw it before rick Carl one of the most you know underrated brains in the game of basketball and he’s been doing it since he was a player he did it in Detroit as an assistant he did it originally for Indiana came over won with Dallas then you know went back went on back to Indiana and I feel like he has really turned that team around from a dumpster fire to something that they can be proud of um they got Halle Burton hallebertton although he’s not putting up crazy numbers he is a typical Carile point guard offensively for sure because he is a distributor doesn’t turn the ball over can control the game doesn’t really need a lot of plays called from the coaching staff he knows how to he knows how to run the offense they have a very fluid motion offense that has multiple different looks you don’t have to necessarily keep going to one play keep going to one action because they have multiple scores they have multiple different lane fillers they have slashers they have spot ups so yeah I think um Indiana is definitely going to make something shake again do I think they do enough to like actually take it to six or seven i don’t know but I think it’s going to be three at least three more hard fought games i don’t think there’s going to be too many just crazy blowouts because you saw it even in the last game yeah OKC took off in the second half but in that first half they got up 20 next thing you know they were already they were only down 13 or they were only up 13 indiana can make runs and they can make runs with the best of them so they can they just need to slow it down they cannot play at the same pace that Oklahoma City plays at because especially if they’re not going to do it efficiently no Oklahoma City can I mean game two Oklahoma City was going on runs without forcing turnovers they were just playing solid defense getting a rebound getting out you know in transition and scoring buckets pretty quickly so that’s that’s the the tough part for Indiana is that they need to take the pace down just a little bit cut down on the the possessions that Oklahoma City can get because they’re they’re efficient um and Jay Jaylen Williams hasn’t even played well and if he gets his stuff together it’s it could be really rough it could be really rough for for Indiana so if they can you know take advantage while he’s still not playing well or continue to force him to play kind of subpar slow the pace down I think they have a chance to push it to six um I mean ultimately I think Oklahoma City pulls it out but I think Indiana at least gets one more game yeah yeah yeah i could see that i agree all right Shaw michael I appreciate you joining us man much appreciated for your feedback bring a different insight um than we do so we always love having having guests on the show hope to have you back sooner than the whole like year gap that we had this last time so uh Beard Bros Golf Show will be back at it again next week talking US Open um it should be epic i mean I’m looking forward to it um the ladies will be back at it as well um playing at the Meer LPGA Open i’m sure just because the the uh the big guys are playing the the senior tour is going to be back at it too um they they’re coming off of their team event so we’ll see how the Live Boys do did did Live Virginia get them prepared for the US Open we shall see we’ll see how many are in the top 10 we’ll see if Dashambo uh performs again for Liv who the hell knows so um we he’ll he’ll be out there defending his uh championship but either way we’ll be here to discuss it read Bros Golf Show i’m Rod and I’m Marcus and Michael yep