Golf’s NEW BIG 3? Tommy Fleetwood’s Incredible Run + Life Updates + Ryder Cup Look-back

Golf’s NEW BIG 3? Tommy Fleetwood’s Incredible Run + Life Updates + Ryder Cup Look-back

[Music] That’s Smiley Coffman for 61. Wow. I’m Smiley Kaufman and this is the Smiley Show. Smiley, it is my distinct pleasure for the first time really since the end of the RDER Cup to welcome you with the following words. Welcome to the Smiley Show. It’s it’s it’s there’s a little rust. I had to reconfigure the recording studio in here, but it’s good to be back. Man, honestly, I have not opened my laptop since the Ryder Cup, so I didn’t even know if it was going to be turning on. I didn’t know if my lights down here worked. I’ve been off of the grid when it’s come to uh the show. And I’ve I’ve kept up with stuff in the game of golf, but as far as just having my brain turn on to doing podcasts, it was it was really really nice to get away for a couple weeks. Uh, I wouldn’t necessarily call it getting away. Uh, cuz life was kind of busy, but it was fun. We should preface it. There is a reason why, if you haven’t picked up on this already as a viewer or listener, we are going down to one episode per week in the fall. Uh, so we hope you enjoyed the last two weeks with a lot of Tony Rigier, the due sweeper. I don’t know which was better, Smiley. Great two weeks. It was a good two weeks. hilarious podcast with Tony with all sorts of great stories about, you know, eating cheeseburgers and drinking Coors Light and getting his Ford Explorer repossessed and and losing power in his in his apartment and then making quote, man, that is an all time quote. Hard to pick up chicks without power and and that is no trueer words have ever been spoken. It it’s it is about one of the truest things anyone’s ever uttered. Uh and and then following up with that on YouTube, if you haven’t seen it, uh his lesson was smiley, which was, you know, I thought like any of these things we do on the show, just fun to grab a club and mirror some of the stuff you’re working on and see how you can improve your game in the process. Uh and a good reminder some of the things we were working on back then, but a very good reminder, by the way. We we are we we’ve not not been busy, Smiley, in the past couple weeks. And so, let’s start with some life updates. And apologies if you’re here for the golf, you can hit the skip button. can go ahead. We’re going to get to that fairly fairly soon. But for those of you that are interested, first of all, a warm warm welcome to Harris von Kaufman, the newest member of the of the Kaufman family. Uh how’s the little guy doing, Smiley? How many weeks are we in now? Uh let’s see, two and a half weeks, uh is where we’re at now. Uh he was born October 1st, so 3 days after the Ryder Cup, so we had a couple days at home. Kind of got getting life in order before we headed to the hospital. Gosh, we got up like 3:50. It was a C-section, which is like having a tea time for a golfer. It’s the most uh pleasurable thing for a male knowing, okay, we get to get here then, baby’s out then. So, it’s it’s a very structured thing for us us routine golfers. So, that was a nice deal to have. Uh the the C-section it all for the most part went great. Uh he was much bigger than we expected. 8 lb 12 oz. The guy was an absolute unit. And uh he was he was weighing you know they lose you know they lose weight in those those first couple days trying to get back to their birth weight once the milk eventually comes in. Uh long story short twoe appointment he was 10 pounds. This guy is trending towards being potentially the first offensive line recruit in the Kaufman lineage history. There is nothing well I I I can’t say this personally but this is as my wife Amanda told me nothing more gratifying than scheduling the C-section and baby comes out and it’s 8 plus pounds. Like our our daughter Kadik was 10 lbs and it was like it’s like right decision. Wait, she was correct. She was 10 on the dot. No, she was not. I do not remember that. Walker was 88 and Amanda was just like I have a feeling that that she’s tracking bigger and boy was she. And and on that note, did Amanda carry Kadic? Like did it feel like it was going to be a big baby? Like was she measuring big the whole time? She she it was one of those things where I I think you know how you can carry it differently like the baby can sit differently. Kadik was sitting a little bit different than Walker and also Walker was a breach and Kadic was not. So the the intent was to try to do the the V-back, like the natural birth after having a C-section. And we got there and and the night of delivery, Amanda’s like, “This is not happening. I need the C-section right now.” Uh so so on that note, my next question is, how’s Francancy doing? Are we recovering well? Happy? Healthy? She’s great. She spent so much time with Harris. That’s the one thing that nobody tells you for the second kid is that you were pretty much full time full time with your oldest. And I I kind of figured I was going to be helping a lot with Harris, but honestly, man, like I I see him like in passing throughout the day. Like, how you doing, buddy? Good to see you. All seems to be going well. Eating good. Good. Uh the milk seems to be nice. Uh so he’s he’s in and out of uh uh having having feeds throughout the whole day. They sleep way more than I remember newborns. And I’ve honestly just been playing fullcourt defense with Anna Carter. we’ve had the best time, but also at the end of the day, my my eyeballs are are literally just like, where am I? I I It’s funny, it’s such a nice leadin to the next question I had for you, which was just that, you know, it it is that time when Kadic arrived. I remember that time being not that I I didn’t have a relationship with Walker that was close, but that bonding time when it’s just you and the and the and the eldest child while mama’s taking care of the newborn is so special. And I’ve talked to you on the phone where you’re going to swim practices. Like you’re running Anacard’s agenda right now. Totally. Uh whether it’s going to, you know, swim practice or going to dance class. I feel like I’m starting to show up now with some confidence with all of the other moms that are there uh with with their little girls. And one of these one of these mornings, I’m going to show up with uh a bottle of Sav Blanc and we’re just going to we’re just going to really yap it up, you know, shoot the a little bit. Let’s let’s let’s gossip a little bit. Let’s let’s talk our talk here. this morning at 9:30 in the morning with a little sad blanc or a little shard. I I I love that so much. I I I just I can imagine just the the the ladies club like the book club just delighted to see SK walking in, you know, got AC rocking ready to display the latest hot gossip, a little bottle of white on him. I I love it. I love it. It’s a great brand play for you. I I tell you, I’ve I’ve talked more about baby products or just just things that our toddler uses or our baby uses and who’s p the amount of in the know that I am now about different things that people use, tricks of the trade, uh cooking, all the different activities around the neighborhood. Like I am plugged the f in right now. like nobody knows more about what’s going on in the baby toddler Birmingham scene as far as uh how to how to be involved as possible and I’m I just feel ready to rock and roll every day. I got the you know the double strap backpacks going. We got water me just like whoosh sucker bang pirates booty boom and we’re just we’re just absolutely hammering it out. Shout out Pirates Booty. Yeah, it’s it those first couple months I I remember it was like I was doing the gym classes. I was doing school drop offs, pickups. It was like me and the moms and you’re just, you know, it’s not a bad gossip mill to be be on, you know. It’s it’s a fun little train, you know. Yeah, we call it gossip, but it’s just uh I tell you what, if if Charlie’s calling for a work call in the middle of this, I’m not going to I’m not going to miss what’s going on here. We’re we’re going to have to catch up later, Charles. You know, like this is this is important stuff right now. I I got to hear about the latest social. I got to hear about the what’s going on the Birmingham mom circle as well. The pumpkin patch, you know, like we everybody’s got an opinion on where where to go the pumpkins. And that’s right. What kind of candy? There’s a lot going on, man. Yeah. Yeah. We we just we just had a I was unable to make the pumpkin patch run. Uh but showed up with about seven of those things that are adorning my uh right now. And and the squirrels are going to take to those in less than a half weeks. I was going to ask you this. How many pumpkins is too many pumpkins to where you’re showboating how many pumpkins you bought? Because if you bought pumpkins and you went if you went to the pumpkin patch and actually purchased these things, they’re not exactly they’re not overly expensive, but they’re not cheap. But when especially when you start to figure out, okay, we got to have, you know, four on this side, four. And it’s it’s like, all right, how how many pumpkins is too many pumpkins? Well, it’s there’s a lot of stuff that’s going on right here. And I’m I’m glad you bring this up because this, you know, as young parents, this is kind of our wheelhouse. Uh it’s it’s first of all these pumpkin patches, these apple picking things. I mean the upcharge on these things nowadays. It used to be just oh we have a farm and we happen to open it for like a month or two per year to have people come here. Now you have things that exist just to serve this demographic. You know the the young moms on Instagram want to go and wear their UGG boots and their vests and and take the pictures with the family. So it the pumpkins themselves aren’t expensive. Smiley’s like like holding up a hostage sign if you’re watching on YouTube. Like just uh I’ll drop I’ll drop the uh the the album. Yeah, I can’t wait to see the album. Uh but but I I think that a lot of this depends on are are you all a big like Halloween decoration house? We are we appreciate everybody else’s uh floats. Diplomatic of you. Same way. Same way. I I love to walk take the kids around the neighborhood and appreciate the other decorations, but we aren’t we we have one thing I I got a that’s our stance. We’re we’re not we’re not a float family. Now, we we do appreciate the inflatables from everybody else, but uh not not for us. I I got a a a skeleton wolf that hows. Uh that’s the only Halloween related decoration I have and I just get a kick out of it because Walker thinks it’s funny. He tries to pet it and the dogs like to to to, you know, bark at it. Uh, but that’s the only and then and then it’s just pumpkins. So, I think what happens is the less Halloween decorations you have, the more pumpkins you have to have to feel like you you didn’t do anything for the holiday. Do you feel does that track within your neighborhood? I I think so. Two things I have to add here is first off, when did they start getting more pumpkins other than orange ones? Like when did all this happen? From my childhood, all I remember is orange pumpkins. I show up to this pumpkin patch and there might have been 30 different variations of a pumpkin. Uh when did when did we start crossbreeding these things? It’s you know it’s like cleats. Remember as kids with cleats you could you just could get black cleat. You get you know black cleat that had white Adidas stripes on them, white Nike stripes on them. You know like that was it. Then now these kids nowadays they can get every color in the rainbow. Same with pumpkins. You get the you can get white pumpkins, orange pumpkins. You can get white pumpkins that are speckled with orange. You can get brown ones. I don’t know how they’re breeding. We have a yellow popcorn pumpkin and we also have a green orange pumpkin and they’re they’re phenomenal. like the color scheme with all these different colored pumpkins, it’s it’s definitely great. But uh the second point I was going to ask is when it comes to how much is too much pumpkins on your front porch and we kind of felt like we had our our setup good and and for the most part the neighborhood’s fairly similar to us, like nobody’s ever done it to a point like, man, they really decided to be, you know, the the house on the street that has the best pumpkin setup. I was over at my brother’s house and they had just gotten there set up pretty normal amount of pumpkins they have on their porch and then the next day they literally look across the street and they’re like, “What in the world?” The across the street neighbors basically doubled them up. Like that’s you can’t have your across the street neighbor, you know, showing you up. That’s that’s where I draw the line. It’s like a Christmasification uh scenario, right? Like where where they got the light, you know, you’re trying to out compete each other with the lights. Yeah, it’s a tough scene. I mean, I feel like it it depends on like it depends on your your front door setup, too. I think we have like three steps. So, I think we have six pumpkins. We have a pumpkin for each step. But but again, I also think that’s overkill because the squirrels here take those things down in less than a week. And you’ve got these like rotting pumpkins. I didn’t know the squirrels were going to be an issue with these pumpkins. It depends on what your what what types of squirrels you have. North Carolina notoriously has very aggressive squirrels, especially in Piners. say those big black squirrels that really like, you know, they’re larger than the regular gray squirrels. And uh yeah, but but here’s even in Durham, the squirrels, they love the pumpkins. I will say that we have a those pumpkins are basically camouflage uh for for all these squirrels. Uh but the squirrels are out and about, don’t get me wrong. And the reason why is we have 300 acorns in our front yard right now, and they’re landing on our house all night right now. Just douche. It just feels like we’re just getting hit. Yes, we’re getting hit with hail all night. Yeah. Well, and I also say too, I I I’ve noticed less of the pumpkin eating now that I installed the skeleton wolf. Skeleton wolf’s doing a great job of scarecrowing or whatever he’s meant to do. So, shout out Skeleton Wolf. Speaking of uh what are you guys being for Halloween? That’s so great. I was going to ask you the same question. So, uh, so Walker is Walker has taken a liking to many movies, but he’s also he started watching How to Train Your Dragon, and he loves Toothless, the sort of the main character dragon from How to Train Your Dragon. Well, I have to do some research. Yeah. So, he it’s got a very cute little costume. Um, Amanda, I think, is going to be another dragon from that movie. Unclear. I think she ordered a costume late. So, she really wanted uh Kadic to be a fairy. Like, she had a little cute fairy costume for Kadic. I’m like, I don’t like let’s make her like a, you know, women’s soccer player or something. She’s like, that’s ridiculous. She’s going to be a fairy. So, what am I supposed to be? So, she’s like, why don’t you be the master’s gnome? Like, okay, I could be sold on the M’s gnome, little gnome fairy thing. So, I got one of those, you know, like the caddy uniforms that everyone orders. I got like the the full white caddy uniform. It’s got Kadic on the back name plate. Um, I got the little white beard somewhere around here. You can kind of see him over my shoulder right here. I’m going to look a lot like that guy. And I’m gonna be holding my little daughter Kadic as a fairy. We’re gonna be a little gnome and fairy. Okay. How about that? I’m here for that. How about you? What What do you uh You dialed it in yet? Anna Carter has a different different one every day, but I think she’s she’s settled in it on Galinda from Wicked. And I think we’re going to have go with a I think we’re going to go with like a Wizard of Oz theme. So, there’s a chance we’ll either be the Tin Man or Scarecrow, uh is what I’m been told. So, it sounds like that’s actually best case scenario. Last year, I was Peter Pan, so being Scarecrow sounds a lot better. or throw like a flannel on and some jeans uh with a hat or something like that’s way way better than wearing tights. You’re like reliving roles in like an elementary school play, which I I was never in elementary school play. I feel like that’s like just a thing that happens in a movie. Would you would you ever in a play when you were in Yeah. Uh me and Big James were the the the co-stars. He was um I was Frosty the Snowman. I think he was uh gosh, I think he was Santa Claus, which is honestly something that he is like every year. Yeah, he could do If we ever need him to be Santa Claus, we just say, “Hey, do you mind?” And he’s got like a legit Santa Claus costume. He’ll he’ll dye his, you know, his his beard white. Next thing you know, Santa’s coming to town. He’s done it for A and his family. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, there we go. That That’s It’s We’re all kind of dialed in in October. It’s also both my child, both my children, I should say, is their birthday month. In fact, at the time we’re recording, it’s Sunday, October 19th. Walker turns three tomorrow. Oh, yeah. How about that? Little buddy turning three. Little buddy turned three. Katie turned one on the first. Sorry. How fast did that go? He’s about to be a threeager just like that. It’s insane. Uh striping the golf ball. Took him out at the range today. Uh just love a lot. Yeah. Um so I mean I think Smiley, we are going to get to the golf. I I apologies for the the the uh I don’t know what I want to say here. Just there’s not a ton of golf. There’s not a ton of golf. So we can keep going the personal updates. uh because because you’ve been busy uh I’ve also been busy in my own right and there’s a little bit of weightiness this next update but I promise you I find it very hilarious and light and I found the positivity in this is that um the week before the RDER Cup uh on this show before we’ve had on both Lance Armstrong and Joel Damon I’ve discussed the fact that back in 2012 I had testicular cancer uh I had it I caught it very early I had it uh removed and uh unfortunately was was able to avoid chemo or radiation uh which was huge and every year since then had surveillance everything was great. Uh on the Monday before the RDER Cup, I went to I just had been feeling off. Went to the doctor, got checked on on Tuesday, got an ultrasound. They found it returned on the other side. And you know, so in a lot of ways, it’s it’s obviously it’s a heavy diagnosis. My dad’s going through something much heavier really uh in terms of cancer. But uh the sort of fortune of that misfortune is that he’ been he’s been seen is currently being seen at Memorial Sloan Ketering. And we reached out to Memorial Sloan. Oh, I didn’t know that. That’s okay. I I was I was trying to figure out what the connection was with that to that hospital. Okay. It was it really I couldn’t could not have had it happen in any sort of a a better way because I had a flight booked to New York City on Wednesday to go for the RDER Cup. Uh the in contact with Memorial Slunking that entire day. They were amazing to get me appointments in short order. So the Thursday and Friday at the Ryder Cup, I wake up before dawn. I take a car into the city, go to Memorial Slunkering, do all my appointments. I’ I’d take the car back and take the shuttle from our airport hotel out to Beth Page Black, do our shows, take the shuttle back late at night and then rinse, repeat, and do the whole thing over the next day. Which, by the way, with all that going on, bravo. Did a did a hell of a job. Uh, managing really a show. Like, it was a legit show. If you got to a chance to watch a production uh from the Ryder Cup, that was a lot of fun for us. And Charlie absolutely crushed the the host role that week. So, shout out to Charlie there. Well, you’re kind of saying and I’ll return the the thanks and the appreciation because you know I I talked to you. You said, “Hey, look, we can pull the plug on this entire thing if you want to.” Um, I I I I talked to Jack. Jax is about to step in there. He was he was about to be Reese Davis there for a second. Jax was on the sideline. It’s just, you know, getting some throws in, warming up the arm a little bit, just kind of looking. It’s like, yeah, he looks like he’s seriously injured. I think I might need to go in the game right now. Uh, but Jax was an amazing support system as well on the production side, the rundown building side. So, I I’m forever grateful to the two of you for the support that week. And then and then we had surgery the Wednesday after the RDER Cup, had it removed, and then the week after found out that once again, I’d caught it early. No need for for chemo or radiation. I think it’s a great lesson in paying attention to your body if you’re a young male out there. I I like say I’m a young male. I’m not young anymore, but I was once when it when I first had a diagnosis. It’s worth just paying attention. It’s worth self-checking. It’s worth if there’s something going on that feels like it’s wrong. it can’t hurt to go get seen by a doctor, see if it’s worth getting an ultrasound because better to be safe on the early end and end up like me than have to go through a lot of treatment like many others have to. And so I think it’s um and and I’ll say too like many of you on the show, I I posted something on Instagram, reached out. I I’ll forever be just so grateful and thankful to everyone that supported me, everyone that prayed for me, everyone that sent their love that that that those those weeks in there where I really needed that support. You all were there and it means the world to me. Um and I I think I can only be grateful for how this entire thing went. It was an opportunity for me to to talk to my dad, tell him what an inspiration he’s been for me going through his own sort of battle with this. And look, I got two beautiful kids. We just discussed the front of this episode. Uh I’m feeling really really good about this clean bill of health. Now, we sort of do some surveillance and do some other sort of management of the things that happen after this. But, you know, really the worst part was six weeks no golf, Smiley, and I’m already chipping a button. So, they they can’t stop me. Oh, God, man. Yeah, I’m proud of you. You handled the whole thing like a champ. Uh, you know, we we’re obviously we’re praying for you through that whole time, but just uh you had great spirit to the whole thing, man. I It’s so easy to to to uh you know, to question it all, but the timing of it all just was crazy to me. you know, like we we’re ending like this. We were doing these two episodes a week for an entire year and like we have no time. We’re always working and we get to literally like the end of what we call like into off season and all of a sudden like it was perfect timing like the same day that we’re having Harris is the same day you’re having surgery. It was like how like this like are the stars aligning? There was it was definitely felt like a God thing here in all this. So, it it was uh um you know, we’re we’re we’re very happy that you got a good outcome from all this. Well, it it means most to me and yeah, thanks again to everyone out there that reached out to support. I’m I’m very blessed and very fortunate, very grateful and uh you know, we get to keep rolling with these shows, man. So, that’s uh that’s it’s back to business as usual. I do want to see you pull a hamstring to where Jax has to come in off the bench, though. Like, I I kind of like that. I kind of like that visual. Yeah. We we’ll hopefully just a hamstring like not like another recurrence of cancer. I I think I’m done with cancer. I think two times was enough for me. So yeah, two Hey, two time champ. Two time champ, baby. Undefeated. Just beat those boys up. Uh so what do you say, Smiley? Uh there’s no real way to transition out of that into golf, but shall we talk some golf? Yeah. Uh let’s do our best. Let’s uh see what what I got. Well, let’s and let’s start with we have some we have more topical items that we’re going to discuss, but really we were there standing. I I I laughed thinking about our last episode we did together because we thought we had the perfect backdrop, the perfect vantage point, the vantage point of all vantage points to do uh the the the recap of the RDER Cup. We were at the top of the bleachers on the first year at Beth Paige Black looking down at the big video board. all these fans surrounding team Europe as they’re about to get the trophy presented to them and then they cut on that PA system and it was like okay they’re not gonna be able to hear anything that we’re gonna say. So, we relocated to an adjacent hill early in the week. I I had even said I was like, “Hey, uh let’s let’s maybe do it like on on one or like on 14 cuz I even said in my mind, and I don’t know if I said it out loud that it’s going to be too loud with all of the uh the the postgame stuff that they do.” And even when you’re said, “Hey, we’re going to do it up there.” It it still didn’t even click because I’m so I was so worn out from literally hiking. I was literally hiking uh for three straight days and I had nothing left to give besides just what just whatever I I had just seen. It was just a bizarre bizarre Sunday. Well, it just so let’s just wrap with some like any big picture thoughts you came away from the Ryder Cup with. You know, I mean there’s a lot that’s happened since. A lot of it’s been, you know, focused on fan behavior and where do we go from here, but I I just wonder if given more time to reflect, you have additional thoughts on how the RDER Cup went down. Yeah, since we since we have uh finished the writer cup and haven’t necessarily done a rap on it, uh the couple of the story lines that have come up. First off, the guy from the PJ of America, Don something, what’s his name? I think his last name was Ray himself karaoke. Yeah, that was a story line. We would have definitely talked about that on the pod if we had a chance because he wait for whatever reason goes out Sunday morning and basically gives an interview that uh to sum it up just says, “You know what? I think these fans are doing a great job. And it’s just like it was just so tonedeaf of, you know, I didn’t hear anything. It’s just it was just not the right time as the the head of the PGA uh when you’re the host in in the US to to uh to condone any type of behavior that week. It was it was mom the mom’s award was the right way to go if you were if you’re the head honcho that week. And he doubled down. He’s like, “Nah, I think we’re nailing it.” And then saying Eminem lose yourself karaoke that night. And and I I just stopped in like and then later that week at at the Dunh Hill Lynx Championship, you had like Yaser singing Sweet Caroline uh karaoke with Johan Rouper. Just the whole thing was crack like just golf karaoke world happening. Um as and as it relates to the PJ of America, definite miss by by Don Ray Ray, however say his last name, but you know, hey Don, man, he’s he’s but you know, the CEO Derek Sprag had to come over the top and basically say, “Hey, like we are not condoning this behavior.” Like I I think that there was messaging enough messaging there from the PG of America of like that was not the right tack to take and you know we know we need to clean this thing up and and you know and that’s not necessarily being an apologist for what happened. I think what happened was, as I said in some of our recaps, was I still, you know, when I talked to people about following some of these groups around, being inside the ropes, I’ll never forget on Saturday, the the Saturday afternoon, I believe it was, this would have been Forsomes, where it was it was uh uh Rory and Shane Lowry playing against JT and Cam Young and and just seeing Shane just get showered with insults. He hit a shot out of the the right rough on five and like we just briefly made eye contact and we both looked like our dogs had died. it just like it wasn’t fun out there. And I think that’s the bummer of it is that, you know, we then we had Sunday and Sunday was amazing and Sunday was so focused on the competition itself. And I think the biggest miss was in my opinion, I’m curious to hear what yours is, but no one did the thought exercise of if we rile up the crowd like this and we pump them up, what happens if we get boat raced on Friday and Saturday? Like what happens then? Because if they have nothing to root for, where do we turn? and and it’s a New York crowd and they’re they’re going to start just lathering the insults on to the Europeans and many of them are going to be out of bounds. Um and so I I I think I mean I think it’s a little bit of that. I think it’s a little bit of you know are we growing the game in the right way? Uh you know like are are we in growing the game? Are we educating the people that we’re growing it to about what this game represents beyond just getting a little white ball in a hole? You know, it’s a game that’s built on respect for your opponent, and it’s still based on competition, but there’s a lot of things that are built in as to how you play and go about the game of golf that are really important that I think are being missed as the game grows. That’s something I think we got to fix and correct. But, you know, Sunday I thought was a lot better because there was something to root for. And there was, man, I followed the Tommy Fleetwood Justin Thomas match from 10T to 18 green and that’s some of the most awesome golf I’ve seen in my entire life. There were definitely some out- of-bounds insults there, ones I didn’t love, but I just thought it was much more focused on we have a match here, there’s a comeback happening, we’re we’re we’re rooting for a close competition instead of like I’m so sick of watching my guys get beat up and I’m just going to throw a bunch of out-of- bounds insults at these guys cuz that’s not what it should be about ever. No. Well, it’s it’s no doubt it’s a it’s a true rivalry. Like I don’t think either of these either of these sides care for each other. You know, they they’re very very cordial. are friendly throughout the entire year. But when it gets to RDER Cup week, I think both sides, both locker rooms, whether they say they’re just focusing on their team or not, every single player is saying, “I’m going to take down this person this week.” And probably saying other explicitives along with it. And that’s that’s just the bottom line. I think the players have bought into how important this week is and how um how it can change your career as far as how you’re looked uh when you finish playing. And there’s been a couple players from that European side that have absolutely turned themselves into uh Rder Cup stars, you know, Tommy Fleetwood, T-roll Hatton, Victor Havlin, Roy Moy, Justin, there’s just so many legendary Rder Cup players on this Europe side, Tommy Fleetwood that are just they’re just going to go down as uh gosh, I mean, what a team they had. That’s what I that’s what I continue to go back to is that Europe was better. Now, I think I think America will say that, hey, we’re going to look at the ball striking numbers, and it was pretty similar. It didn’t ever feel that way to me out there. It always felt like the the European teams had the better pairings. They were better off the jump. Now, I know that they had they had the honor on the first TE, which is one thing I want to talk about. That’s the one thing that’s kind of stuck in my brain is why does the away team get the tea off first? I think it’s so important to have the tea in match play. It seems that wouldn’t the whole team want that advantage to be able to tee off first and and and is it and apologies for my ignorance here, but is that is that how it’s written? It’s the away team goes first or is it the cup holders go first? Have the honor? Well, I don’t know. That’s a good question, but I I I think the away team probably goes first. Although, I think it should be the opposite. Like when you think about home team should Yeah. Yeah. Like you would you would think just like baseball, you get to hit last. I don’t know if baseball’s the best example because they actually are in the field second but or excuse me in the field first and not hitting first but I I don’t know I always felt like the Europeans the last two RDER cups they’ve had blue on the board throughout the entire time like early US has really struggled to get the tea box they they’ve been better right off the jump and that was the the most important part to me about looking back at this Ryder Cup was that they had teams that were prepared and ready and I honestly think that Europe felt they were the better team. Um, they play like it, too. I completely agree. I think that’s the one bummer of what’s been lost in this whole discussion about the fan thing is like what a thrilling performance Europe put on on Friday and Saturday. Like really, if you’re looking at just at brilliance in terms of playing golf and matchplay competition, Europe on Friday and Saturday and then the Americans on Sunday, like that that’s as good as it gets on either side. It’s it was so cool to watch that, but it got lost in all this other stuff. And I I think on the American side like sure you can say all you want about looking at the data and ball striking we were better. Well, then don’t set it up to make it a putting contest. Like, it’s Beth Paige Black, buddy. Of course, like that if you didn’t want it to be a putting contest. Now, I get that it’s like, okay, our putters could have gotten hot, too. Sure. But I I I just I I don’t I I I think that you you unfairly is not the right word, but you tilt the competition in the direction of randomness at that point. Like if if you set up Beth Paige Black to make it a difficult demanding test, the cream was always gonna rise to the top, right? So like that’s the way you should do it instead of saying let’s just, you know, let’s just set it up like this and hope that our partners are hotter than Europe’s this week. Like I I don’t I don’t get that. I really don’t. Uh the only other thing I’ll mention I I I may have said this too um on the on the Sunday recap was that once the Greens finally got to a speed that was actually what they requested which was like around 12 a half I think is what the Americans wanted it. Uh it got that on Sunday you could see the ball starting to creep away a little bit and unshockingly the Americans played better. They outplayed the Europeans on Sunday. And I think a little bit of that has to do with uh the speed of the Greens, but also I think uh Luke Donald rightfully so played his guys, you know, 30 most of the guys didn’t sit, you know, when it when it came to playing uh throughout the entire time because uh once you once you get a lead like that, especially in a way lead, he he definitely decided not to to to throw out his depth. He’s like, you know what, I’m just going to keep sending my guys out there. And I think that was a big difference on Sunday. uh as we kind of close up this RDER Cup talk was that yeah it felt like the Americans were hungrier on Sunday they were were better rested uh for the most part and the there the players who had not played well like Scotty Sheffller uh who had not won they were motivated to win and when you have those guys winning their matches Cam Young winning their matches and and Europe kind of frontloading it was like okay now you got all these guys back here who hadn’t played as much for Europe that somehow got to win some points and um they almost did it man crazy. I mean, I I still am stunned and captivated by just standing there. I’m trying to remember the order of guys that I watched come in. I think it was it was JT, Bryson, and Scotty. And there was like a big gap because there were a couple matches that ended early. But watching all those come down to the wire. I mean, Scotty and Rory just stumbling in at the finish of like, “Please get me off this golf course and into like some normate boots or an ice bath or like just anything anywhere else than playing five, you know, rounds of golf in three days at high leverage golf.” I mean that’s just was that was but I mean I I you know I just think about moments where because you talked about this you know seeing a lot of blue on the board and I think about moments where Europeans should have been out of holes or should have been you know allowing the the Americans to get back into it like the shot that Rom hit on Friday on on the sixth hole from like the trash left. Like he shouldn’t even be able to get a club on that ball but the way the way that they and I I realize the lie looked bad. It was, you know, it was it was lighter than you thought it was when Johnson would hit the shot. But it’s like there were just there were a lot of things that where I felt like, man, these guys hit it there, now we have a chance. And then know, oh, you know, not only are they, you know, having the hole, sometimes they’re creating birdie opportunities and winning holes that they should have been completely out of. And I just I think that they would have been better suited setting up Beth Paige Black like there was no penalty at all. T to green. I I I hardly ever saw a player not be able to get literally from the TE to the green. The whole golf course is par fours pretty much. I think there’s 12 par4s at this place. And there was no problems ever getting uh into the green into either rough uh bunkers, uh fescue. There was there was just there was no penalties out there at all. Everybody was kind of uh playing from the same spots from the fairways and everybody was kind of having similar putts and uh I thought they hit it a little bit better and obviously they putted way better. Um, yeah. Gosh, I I think the the other the last part too, if if you would have had the Malinari brothers, I think if if they were on the American side from a stat standpoint, um, and whatever data that they’re using, it seems they seem to have a better jump on on how to pair their teams. Now, I I get I I get that they got experienced players. They got some formidable pairings that have worked, but they also switched some things up and they definitely played towards form and the golf course. They were smart about who they paired their guys with. And I think there were plenty of plenty plenty of uh pairings that you can look to for the United States side. Uh players that you felt were maybe misused. And was this all Keegan’s fault? Now, I’m not putting full blame on Keegan, but yes, ultimately he does put the pen to paper, but I think the stats guys from the American side are are definitely getting put it stuffed in a locker right now. Yeah. I mean, and I you hear things like this is John Wood’s first year on the job and he’s really kind of you he’s he’s working to gain some experience and put together a more comprehensive organizational plan the years to come. I look forward to seeing that. You know, I I think he could do a great job with that. Well, he he doesn’t have anything to do with like the pairings. I’m talking about pairings. Sure. Well, well, you you’re correct in the parenting thing and and I I was almost extending it a little bit to just the entire program that Luke Donald has put together the past two Ryder Cups. You know, we heard things in the press conference about he he got at the team hotel and it was like uh the sheets are wrong and the pillows are wrong and like the shampoo and conditioner is wrong. You know, just the the the care to detail, you know, that that is one side of the player experience. And then to your point on the stats side, having someone that that really, you know, really a team of those two guys that that have have sifted through all these possible outcomes and have come up with ways to gain an advantage in a in a way that it seems like the US has not done. Uh I’m curious. Do you think do you think Luke runs it back for a dear manner? Do you think we see one of the Molinari brothers as the captain at a dare manner? I don’t know, man. Three would be a lot. Three is a lot, right? Like I mean Luke doesn’t play a whole lot. Maybe that he’s just enjoying doing this. He’s probably I love him. I mean, he he can make as so much money being the European Rder Cup captain by doing outings. Like the the amount that these guys are making per pop is stupid. So, I mean, they do for love the game. Well, I know. I know. But, uh that is one side of it is that yes, there are some nice benefits. Um although you’re uh they’re they’re playing for more than than uh than they what what was the whole saying that week? They’re paying they’re playing for more than just money is what it was. Something like that. This was that was God they won. They won that game. They won. They they really And that’s why I say it’s like, you know, we can sit here as Americans and be like, you know, tongue and cheek shaking our fist at things, but they like hats off to the European side. They got every detail right. They really did. Like from all the minute things like the shampoo and conditioner to the statistical, you know, pairings, things like that to the actual encourse product, you know? I mean, I I I still am just like I’m so blown away by Justin Rose of just like his career arc and and and just the way he played that week. So good. Holy moly. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. And it’s and there was so many guys like that. He didn’t miss a shot for two days. And I’m telling you, um not only was this ball striking elite, but it was he didn’t miss a putt inside of 10 feet for two days. the putty walked in on on Saturday in that that match with Bryson and Scott. He was like, “This guy’s playing a different game than everyone else.” Like, he’s playing with the greatest player on earth right now. And he’s and he is the greatest player on earth in this game. Find my yardage book at some point to go do the stats cuz I kept on having to like keep him up with him myself because the service out there was so bad. And at one point like Justin and and Tommy were playing together in four ball and they had I think combined had hit every single green but one at every fairway but one. It was just and I know the golf course was easy to green. It was just basically target golf but still man like the that’s the most important thing in four ball is like you got to have two putts. get like make yourself have two putts on every hole and it just continues to pile up pressure on the other team and that’s ultimately what they did and I obviously didn’t get to watch all the other matches but um hard team to beat when when you when guys are playing that good Europe was unbelievable and and and that’s a perfect segue to where we’re going to go next because we were talking about that specific match the Bryson Scotty Justin Rose Tommy Fleetwood match and so you had the number one player on earth playing with the guy that who was the number one player in that session like like within that those four hours, Justin Rose and the guy who I think was the number one player on earth that week at Beth Paige Black and maybe continues to be the hottest player on the planet, Tommy Fleetwood. And we’re sitting here at time of recording looking back at his DP World India Championship win uh and just looking back the past couple months because nobody has been on a heater like Tommy Lad has these past few. So first PGA Tour win at East Lake to win the 2025 FedEx Cup. He is the leading points earnner at the Ryder Cup. Won four points to to lead team Europe to that win on foreign soil. And Smiley, this DP World India Championship win also represented a first. Maybe not the one that you think of immediately. So here’s what I want to do. I want to take a listen to Tommy Lad’s thoughts after this win. He just said randomly. He said, “Hey, do you know what you’ve never done?” Said, “You’ve never won a tournament and then I’ve been able to run onto the 18th grade.” And I was like, “I’m writing that down.” So, uh, I had that written down all week. Um, like I said, it was just another opportunity really. There’s going to be many more times where I hopefully get the chance to do that. But that was like all day today had in my mind, uh, you know, could I put myself in a position where I can actually make that moment happen. So, it’s just one of those little things. It means a lot to me. Like, it means so much to me. Um, and that was that was really cool. That’s what I wanted to do all day. The the he of course that Tommy is talking about is his son Frankie. And and there’s one more image that I want to put up here just to to share with you because I I just love this image so much. You know, we’re here talking opening this episode with talking about dad stuff and here they are hugging on the 18th green. The the hug that Frankie was looking forward to and wanted and and smiley. We’re going to get into some Tommy stats. We’re going to get into just, you know, this week, these these past few months, and just the year he had in 2025. But, you know, newly minted boyad over here, watching Tommy share this moment with Frankie. I mean, like, does it get any better than that, man? Tommy’s easily probably the most uh easy to cheer for player right now in the game. Just uh comes across so uh so well to so many uh different people and his game is so fun to watch. He’s uh just relatable, I think, is the easiest way to describe him. you know, his his golf game is effortless, but the way in which he speaks, it just comes from a place of uh true authenticity where it feels like he’s, you know, just have doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, wouldn’t ever speak bad about anybody he’s ever met. Uh and and I could definitely speak to that too, just being around him. Uh personally, uh he’s he’s works his tail off. uh he cares about his job, but uh when it comes to, you know, off the course when you even the Ryder Cup socials, just getting a glimpse into Ryder Cup Europe and the team room and uh watching these players interact and just seeing how much everybody got along with Tommy and uh unshockingly seeing him win this week is is uh no surprise to me whatsoever because this golf course, if you had an opportunity to see any of this this place this week, an absolute nightmare for a player like myself, This place was jungle wallto-wall. I went onto this leaderboard to see like what these guys were shooting because I don’t know if I would ever gotten off this first tea. Um, and Oh, that’s amazing. There was It was a pretty wide range. It looked like if you hit the fairways, which it looked like a short golf course. If you found all the fairways, it looked like it’d be a pretty easy course. But if you didn’t, there was there was some pretty big disparity between the bottom and the top. There were some guys that were also had the highs out there. shout out. Uh there was one hole that kind of bent right to left and like you had to hit like a little bit of a draw and I was just thinking like what what club would I hit right here? Like would I try to like clip some leaves with a driver with a fade and just like hopefully that would take enough off of it cuz there’s nothing I I I can’t stand up there and hit a 3-wood and expect to try to turn one over and have a tight little draw. Like that’s that’s not in the card. I either have the toe slammer or the the spinny right. Like that’s the that’s the three-wood if I have to like make myself hit a draw. That that is uh I love just one of my favorite things we break down some of these tournaments and videos I’ve not seen before is what would this feel like for Smiley Coffin? Uh so thank you for painting that that that illustrious tapestry there. Shaking on that tea, man. Holy crap. And and and look, the the critique of Tommy in the past has been he doesn’t win big events. We’re not claiming that the DP World India Championship is like the strongest event in in the world, right? Like I I went back and looked at the OWGR. It was the 48th strongest field in 2025, which comes in slightly above like all the PGA Tour opposite field events, slightly below most of the elite DP World Tour events. But just looking at his 23 starts this year across majors, DP World Tour, PGA Tour, Tommy’s had two wins, eight top fives, nine top 10s, 14 top 20s. He’s only had five finishes outside the top 25. He only had one miss the US Open at Oakmont, which I think bamboozled a lot of guys out there, a lot of really good players. So, you know, not crazy. of course mentioned before leading point scorer at the RDER Cup goes 4-1 and0 and the only loss he had was that thriller singles match with Justin Thomas where I don’t know that JT was losing to anybody on Sunday he was a man on a mission so we talked about prior to the RDER cup after the PJ tour season had ended our our player of the year podium and so the question I want to pose to you now is Smiley what if the player of the year was across all events not just the PGA Tour so we’re including you know DP World Tour we’re including the RDER Cup here Uh, and it’s inclusive this entire year, 2025. Is Tommy still your bronze medalist behind Scotty Sheffler and Rory Mroy? Yeah. And I felt bad that he was my bronze when you asked me this question after the tour championship, I was so prisoner of the moment. But I I really do think that JJ after the tour championship. Uh, thinking back and doing just a little bit more thought, just thinking about it a little bit more, I probably would have had JJ at third, I think that was the right answer. Mhm. And after the RDER Cup, I change my answer. And then not that DB World Tour Indie event changes anything like it doesn’t doesn’t it doesn’t make one hop jump over anybody whatsoever, but uh it does add to what an incredible year that Tommy Fleetwood has had. And yes, still bronze. Uh I still think what uh Rory starts of the year and winning the Masters uh I I think that’s I mean that’s clearly the next step for Tommy is like getting over the line at a major championship without a doubt. And you know we’re looking at still haven’t don’t have the up we’re recording Sunday nights so we don’t have the updated OWGR. We don’t have the updated data golf rankings but I don’t think they’re going to move much based on the DP World India Championship. So he he was entering the week fourth in the data golf rankings fifth in the world rankings. Um, what I’m accurate. Yeah, pretty. Well, and and so that the next question I had for you is just given his current form is are we entering big three territory in 2026 with Scotty, Rory, and Tommy? And if we are not, which other guy should hear me read that statement and take an issue with it? Like I need some names here. Well, gosh. Uh I meanh, that’s that’s tough. I mean, uh, is this in regard to majors or how they play in PJ tour events? Because, you know, if we’re putting this because John Rom is, you know, what we saw from him at the Ryder Cup was obviously incredible and what he potentially could do at some majors could uh would be a name that you would would have to talk about. And uh, you know, Xander Schoffley to see what he might potentially do. I know you want to talk about him here in a minute. I’m No, I’m not putting Tommy in in this category with Scotty and Rory. I feel like those two are in a category by themselves. Uh I think Tommy is definitely in that next tier of guys who I think have the capability of win major championships, win signature events. Uh you know, potentially can play their way into being a solidified third player in the world from a world ranking standpoint. I think everybody has work to do uh to chase down um obviously Scotty’s got a three touchdown lead, but maybe if Rory were to have an off year to become the second player in the world like Tommy uh definitely in that category for certain uh for how he’s played, but um yeah, I I’m not I’m not ready to to pronounce that he’s in this big three category just just because of I I I hate to use age as a as a as a reason why, but um his his consistency for certain the way he hits the golf ball. Uh the feeling that he has no weaknesses, but I I will say that yes, he does hit it fairly far, but is it like is he gaining strokes off of the tea like Scotty and Rory do with their length uh to a degree over over the course of an entire year? Uh I still feel like that’s such an important stat. I I know he hits a lot of fairways, but I still feel like the more distance that he can pick up, the better it’ll be for Tommy because um I I think to be the best player in the world, you you you can’t just be just a little bit above average when it comes to uh uh distance off the tea. And I hate to make that be a reason just from an age perspective. Well, no. I mean, I think it’s fair and and you ask me what my criteria is and and my uh you know, the criteria is uh embracing debate and and and golf punditry and and and there is no set time frame or period. It’s just like how do we feel in this moment, which I realize is a flaw system and and it’s one that we we do. We we like to do it because I mean I’m I’m even thinking back when we talked to Vicer Havlin after what a run he had to finish 2023, you know, and winning the tour championship and being one of the key players on that team that won in Rome and thinking, man, this guy’s right there alongside Scotty and Rory and Rom and all these guys. And so, you know, he’s got to back it up. I I just think for Tommy it is seemingly this breakthrough that he’s made on the individual stroke play side, you know, with this win at the tour championship where he knocked on the door so many times. He had the near miss at Memphis. He had the near miss at the Travelers and, you know, now all of a sudden he’s had this breakthrough win and then he goes to the Ryder Cup where he’s thrived before and and he plays, you know, maybe as good as he’s ever played in a Ryder Cup. And then he goes back on the DP World Tour and he wins another stroke play individual event. So for me it’s like just tracking that trend and what’s different and and and is it literally just down to a mindset that’s shifted in some way shape or form and and so you know with that kind of playing it forward looking at 2026 I’m going to read you all four of the major venues right Masters of course August National that is a move PGA Championship at Aronom the US Open at Shinhok and the Open Championship at Royal Burdale which boy that’d be a heck of a home game win for Tommy Which of those venues do you see best suited to Tommy winning a first career major? Uh I I I wouldn’t say I mean Masters he’s he’s had some good some good uh uh finishes at that event, but still man he’s he’s not the longest player like he doesn’t hit his irons necessarily crazy high. Now I wouldn’t call him a short player but he doesn’t uh like his season average off of the tea is less than 300 yards. Um he’s he’s deadly accurate with that many drivers. So, you have to point to golf courses that maybe are going to be playing a little firmer. I’ve never played Shinny, but I’ve heard the golf course can get really firm. I I think back to uh when they lost the golf course uh back in the last time they played it when was it Brooks Capco one. Is that right at Shimmy? Um I don’t know how that place plays. It’s really hard for me to give a to good give a good guesstimate there. Um and then the US Open is at Chenny or where’s PJs? PJ’s wear I don’t know anything about Aronomic either. I’m sorry. Uh so I I’ve never played Burkdale. My my mind would go to Burkdale with how well he’s played at open championships. Uh how how important it is to uh you be accurate off the tea. That’s a definitely a starting pack for for any open championship for the most part. Um the Open I think will be the place where where he either wins that or a US Open. Yeah, I I I think look, Royal Burkedale is the one I’m rooting for for sure because the scenes there, the story lines there would be unreal. I I’m so curious having, you know, literally set eyes on the property Shinikok while it’s getting just hammered with a deluge of rain and like wanting to get back there as fast as I could and actually play the place to understand it better. It is just that I think back to I forget which guest we had on, but just talking about Scotty at the US Open at Pinehurst and how, you know, you you’d think that the US Open is this execution test and the best iron player is really going to, you know, thrive in that setting, but in reality, the way those greens were shaped, there was just one spot on each of those greens where you had to hit the golf ball. So really when everyone was playing the same sort of iron game and having the same putts and it was it really kind of almost neutralized Scotty’s advantage and and and that sort of situation. So, I really would love to understand more the Shinik Green complexes and you know how I mean, of course, I’ve watched on TV for past US Opens, but understanding the property better and and and who it’s going to because you’d think a guy like Tommy Fleetwood who hits it straight and who can keep it out of all the nasty fescue you see lining those fairways at Shinik that that that that venue would suit him. But I’d have to understand more about those greens and where they can put pins and how that could neutralize some of his advantages to say whether or not I like that better than Brookdale as a place for him to win a first major. Tommy can win any any of these major championship venues. Uh you could point to one being better than another. I think firm always helps Tommy just from a length standpoint. He’s he’s not the longest. He’s not definitely not the shortest. Uh but he’s deadly accurate and he’s he hits it where he’s looking more often than not. uh a very solid putter that’s improved uh a ton over the years. Really, he’s he probably could have won major championships to this point if his putter is at the level that it’s at right now. Uh I would say that Tommy does not have a weakness in his game and if he can just continues to give himself chances. I know he we said that he said that over and over uh towards the end of the year when he just was knocking on the door, knocking on the door. Uh well, guess what? But when you break through, sometimes the floodgates open. And it seems that for Tommy Fleetwood, a player who’s won plenty of times on the DP World Tour, we know he’s capable of winning. He’s done it plenty of times. Broke through in the PJ tour, win the Tour Championship, back in the circle with DP World Tour, and here we are uh talking about the potential big three. I’m not ready to make that jump yet. Yes, he’s a very good player. Um I see him playing very well on the very firm golf courses and tough tracks and the on the PGA tour at signature events. Uh so I continue to see him be big part of the story line next year in 2026 and uh we’ll see if he’s able to make that jump at the majors where uh he kind of breaks that door down and wins one. All right, Smiley, we are about 50 plus minutes into this episode and somehow we’ve exceeded all the rundown items. I had lots of additional things I want to talk talk about. Marco Pinch playing on the DP World Tour, the whole amateurism debate that’s been raging in golf media circles the past few weeks. We’re going to shove those topics for later. So stay tuned to the Smiley Show. You’re going to have your one episode, your one treasured episode every week. We’re going to break down those things. But on Tuesday, it’s it’s got to recalibrate my mind, too, cuz I’m so used to Monday, Wednesday drop. So tomorrow morning when I pull up my phone just to see, all right, there was this episode up and it’s going to be knock up and be like, “Hold on, what’s going on, guys?” And it’s it’s uh it’s like the course is closed, you It’s it’s per well it’s perfect and it’s imperfect because most people like for for me here at home in Durham, Hope Valley is closed on Mondays. So you’re like, “Oh, it aligns with that.” It’s like, “Well, that’s the day when I want to listen to something for golf because I can’t go I can’t play.” Here’s the other thing is most people are busy on Mondays and that Tuesdays maybe a little lighter. I’m still busy, but um look at this guy. Just a thought. Look at this guy. Little Mr. Positivity over here. Uh the the last last thing I do want to touch on here is kind of the flip side of the RDER Cup really uh on the losing side, Xander Schoffley. And I went back and looked at this and and for all the you know the sort of I I don’t think we critiqued Xander, but just all the negatives we we kind of placed on the on the USA team, you know, outside of really Cam Young, Xander tied Cam for the most points earned on the American side. Three points earned over the course of that week. And so just Xander just won of course recently on the PGA Tour the Bay current. Um so just looking at Xander’s year maybe unpacking it a little bit because it was going to be difficult to match his 2024 performance winning two majors. Uh but I think even Xander would tell you 2025 probably beneath his standards or at least his renewed standards after he became a major winner. He of course missed two months of the season with a rib injury between the Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. um for a guy who’s usually one of the best putters on tour was I think you’d say he’s disappointingly average and I thought and maybe you can kind of reiterate this cuz we talked a little bit about this the Ryder Cup is that maybe some of that had to do with a loft issue on his putter which I found interesting. Um and then for a guy that’s usually the East Lake whisperer didn’t even qualify for the Tour Championship this year. But despite all that he still made all four major cuts, had top 10 at the Masters and the Open Championship. uh as mentioned co-leading point earner for team USA in the losing effort of Beth Paige three points won and then wins the Bay Current Classic and again we talked about Tommy’s strength of field at the DP World India Championship Bayern not the strongest field in the world was the 39th strongest field in 2025 one below the Dunhill and one above Vanta but in looking at this and looking at the trend this past few months for Xander does this kind of feel like the get right that he needed as we look towards 2026 finding that form again. Was it ever. It just feels uh so important for Xander heading into next year. He’s a player that gosh, not only did we talk about him, we were screaming it from the rooftops. We couldn’t wait for him to get uh started in 2026. Uh coming off of two major championships and you mean there, right? Yeah. To 2025. I mean, just we had just the highest hopes for the guy, you know, um uh after the just the massive year. just felt like he was going to continue on, especially uh again when you talk about his game, there’s just not a whole lot that was that was ever felt like he could get off unless of course that he had an injury pop up and that’s what happened. It took a long time uh for him to get sorted through the injury. And then uh and unfortunately for him, I think the toughest part for Xander, and he’ll probably say the same, is that when he came back, he’s playing his way into shape on golf courses that are really hard. when you when you show up at the Florida swing that those you’d like to have some some tournaments underneath your belt or at least if not tournaments a lot of prep at home uh done you know just playing a bunch at home uh where where you’re really challenging yourself uh whether it’s playing matches or you know really advanced uh p practice and having to show up at Bay Hill as your first start it’s not exactly where where you’d like to be to figure out uh where your game is at um and just just a snapshot for Xander Shafley at the end of the year. When you look at all of his stats, uh you kind of match mentioned the putting. He was 130th strokes game putting uh this past season, which is uh I mean he’s a in my mind always been a top 10 putter. Um and I just wanted to kind of look even in more in depth. Uh from 4 to 8 ft, it was 143rd. So really just those momentum putts when you talk about whether they’re for birdie or for par, uh the putts that you got to make to keep the momentum going in rounds. uh he was struggling to make them this past year and uh I think he’s always had one of the best setups. Um he’s got nice high nice high hands for somebody with uh a left-hand low type of style putting. Um lines look really incredible, but it really struggled all year with the the matching his line and with the speed. So um when we look to next year, Charlie, I I really expect a big bounceback year for Xander. This was a huge event for him. Xander is a world-class player, world class talent, no weaknesses in his game, and seeing that his ball striking kind of came back to life. Uh just the consistency, I would say that he he showed at times over 72 holes that he has the shots. It just wasn’t consistent enough. Like you go look at his iron play, it was pretty dang solid throughout the year. But he would have weeks where he would drive it okay, weeks he drive it well and just wasn’t having everything matching up to where he was able to to put weeks and weeks together to where you kind of build that momentum and confidence heading into big weeks where you felt like, you know, Xander was a part of the storyline heading into the week and could win the tournament. It always felt like we were thinking, “All right, you know, Xander can just flip it on like a switch of the hat like any good player can do.” But the reality is golf isn’t that easy. You know, sometimes you find lightning in a bottle where everything works, but to be really really consistent and a high elite player in this game, you have to kind of build your way to to these big events to play really well. And, you know, I look for more consistency out of Xander. I think outside of Scotty and uh Rory Xander over the past gosh uh you know decade has been one of the most consistent players hasn’t missed a tour championship till this past year if I’m by by my records and and I don’t know what the cut streak is at now but again in spite of everything that he went through and especially to your point coming back from injury and that Florida swing did miss a single cut this year which is incredibly impressive trying to kind of knock the rust off the game you I think somewhere along the line, you know, he’d have he’d have a little bit of a slip up, especially with with the putting being uncharacteristically bad. I think it’s such an interesting sort of like sliding doors moment at the end of 2024 because we had Scotty who had had an improvement in putting, but it still wasn’t, you know, where it is now, which is, man, you know, he is going to be tough to beat when he’s when he’s fully healthy and and his game’s clicking on all cylinders. it was he he’d gone to to the the that sort of claw or saw toward the end of the year used that to win um the Hero World Challenge and Xander at that point we were talking about you know using the baseball analogy he’s the one five tool guy that we have on tour and so man he could really rip it up in 2025 both of them get injured to start the season smile I mean Scotty of course the the infamous lasagna incident or ravioli incident whatever it was and Xander of course with the whole rib cage deal and it is Scotty who comes back after he kind of gets healthy and gets right and starts putting like, you know, crazy good and and wins a zillion times and and is a guy really kind of finds the form that he wants to this year, wins two majors. Uh, and Xander never really kind of finds that level again. So, I I think it’s I think it’s great to see him win at the Bayern Classic. I think I’m really intrigued to see what happens in the offseason with the whole putter situation. if it was just a lack of feel, if it was an equipment thing like you’ve mentioned, if it’s going to someone who he trusts and and advises him on it, like I think fix up. I think he just ran out of time, man. I really do think like if he had more time at the end of the year, he would have been able to kind of piece it together. We saw what he did at the Ryder Cup. He just it just felt like the clock was just shifted too far back and he was playing catchup the whole year. Um, one one quick question, too. I want you to like close your eyes and imagine this. All right, here we go. I say, “All right, Charlie, Xander Shaflet won the Bay Current Classic. Where was that?” And it and like where was this event? And I I know it was in Japan, but like where the Bay Current Classic Scream Screams everything other than Japan. So like where in your mind should this be played? I I already have the Well, okay. If you were like, okay, you first the first brain you’re going to get is Charlie’s just going to like PGA Tour schedule brain like what he already knows about previously existing events and which sponsor dropped and which one got picked up. So if you said Bayern, I’d be like, “Okay, it’s Bermuda now. It’s now the it’s now the it’s the Bayern Bermuda Classic.” That’s where my head went too cuz the fall schedule. But in my mind, I I thought if like take away the PJ tour schedule and just say like where is this where is this like where should this event be played? Like I in my head I said it’s at TPC Harding Park. Like that’s Oh, really? Bay Current Classic is a T. Like that’s See, I I’m I’m going I don’t know why it’s popped in my head. It’s like this is a cabin St. Lucia. We got the Bay Current happening down at St. Lucia. It’s got like a little trendy like sort of jet skiish logo. I don’t I have no clue what Bay Current is or does, but that’s a sick company name. Uh, in fact, I should probably I should probably Google that so I can learn more about Bayern before I uh that’s where they get they they sponsor an event in Japan to make you think, wait, what are they Japanese company? Like, what’s going on here? Japanese consulting firm specializes in IT and strategy. See, I really wish they made jet skis. It’d make it a lot easier for us. I just Is there office in San Francisco? Uh, I believe uh headquarters Tokyo, Japan. I I like that game. I like I like the game of what’s the sponsor and what event should it be sponsoring instead of like actually where it was held. So, um well, there you have it. That those are my thought those are your thoughts on Xander. Those are some of my thoughts on Xander. I I I do think this could be I do think this this could be a big year for him and and I think that’s the the most fun part of these off seasons is, you know, we start looking at all the guys who are seemingly getting their games back into form. You got guys like Tommy Fleetwood who are trending, you know, as high as they’ve ever trended in their careers seemingly. You got guys like Xander Schoffley who are hoping to get it back. And then, you know, you have a whole host of other guys who you see kind of ups and downs. Oh, I’m excited to see what we uh what we get from Rahm at the major. He’s not going to play DP World Tour the rest of the year. He’s not doing races in a by that point. That’s an episode in of itself. like is he going to be able to how’s that whole going to work with the Ryder Cup? You know, it’s it’s we need we honestly need to get an expert on to talk about DP World Tour’s potential strategy as they move forward with these Liv players. And uh we’ll definitely get a good guest to educate all of us on what to expect uh with the DP World and these live guys because it’s uh it’s a huge huge talking point as we head towards uh a Ryder Cup that’ll sneak up on us here in two years with players potentially ineligible. Well, and and I think too and we can get into this in the episode itself, but it’s like there is so much happening there, Smiley, like there is the existing strategic partnership between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour where they’re underpinning DP World Tour purses at a not insignificant expense. And so what happens when whoever that deal was cut prior to SSG when SSG comes in and says, “Does this make sense anymore?” and okay, maybe we don’t, you know, we’ve already kind of cut back a little bit on what we’re spending on the Champions Tour. Now we’re now we’re looking at whether the investment makes sense on the DP World Tour. We’re handing them 10 C cards and does that make sense? And so then if there’s no financial underpinning the DP World Tour, they’re going to have to go out and get some money. I know of a tour that’s got some money. I mean that. So, so do you want to do you want to, you know, cut off your nose to spite your face, whatever the saying is by banning these guys right now only to have to welcome them all back in in a couple years if Liv cuz, you know, Liv’s done a lot in the sponsorship this off season. It’s interesting. I mean, I I I know we It’s been actually a nice brief respit to not talk about the business side of golf for a while, but every once in a while I get I get a little, you know, I read a little Sports Business J article. I’m like, I think I could do one of those episodes. Yeah, definitely. Let’s uh let’s get Josh on. Let’s get Josh on. Let’s call Josh. Let’s go to the pin. Let’s Let’s get Josh in. Let’s get Jackson once I pull a hamstring. Yeah, we’ll definitely get him. Uh All right, that’s it, huh? See you next time. See you another week. I see you another week with uh we got some exciting guests coming up. We got some fun stuff banked and we got a few more on the docket. So, here you go. Once a week. Uh you know where to find us, podcast, YouTube, and uh I guess we’ll talk to you. We’ll talk to I’m not dismount anymore. Mason Mason Allen next week, USA champ. Uh already already did this interview with Mason. He was uh really just a delight to talk to for I mean just so nice to be that young and that good having everything in front of him and being able to catch up with him post Walker Cup was a really fun combo. Definitely getting into some more amateur conversations next week and uh we’ll continue to touch up on a lot of topics this fall. There’s a lot to get into and uh we’ll try to keep you guys on your toes for uh keeping you keeping yourselves educated on in the the landscape of the game in golf and um and also just the general hy jinks of the fall. Uh it’s football season’s over for both of us and we’re looking forward to gymnastics season. Uh LSC looks to have a good gymnastics team. Uh North Carolina, I’m not maybe we’re men’s golf, baby. They’re they’re playing some primo golf down there in the Williams Cup at at Eagle Point. I’m locked in to the leaderboard. Live leaderboard there. So dumb with football. Yeah, I’m I’m We don’t We don’t even watch it. We’re We’re watching Premier League. We watched Premier League all Sunday. We didn’t watch any football today. I’m I’m I’m done. I’m done. All right, I’m out. Peace. See you. You know, I listen to this podcast. It’s really cool. And all of our fans and subscribers, but make sure you like and subscribe. It’s cool to see what you guys are doing. I know golf fans appreciate it, but we we do too. So, please keep it up. For all the good people of YouTube, like and subscribe. You guys have some good takes, so I’m happy to come on and and shoot this.

Smylie and Charlie are back for a jam-packed episode that mixes life updates, heartfelt moments, and golf talk. Smylie shares stories about welcoming his new baby boy, and juggling dad life, while Charlie opens up about his recent cancer scare and recovery.

Then the guys dive into the Ryder Cup — from behind-the-scenes chaos at Bethpage to fan behavior, pairings, and why Europe got everything right. They close out with a deep look at Tommy Fleetwood’s incredible year and whether he belongs in golf’s next “big three.”

📺 Watch full episodes + clips every week on The Smylie Show YouTube channel.
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Back in the studio after Ryder Cup
01:10 – Why we’re down to one episode a week
02:10 – Smylie welcomes his new baby boy
04:30 – Parenting two kids and full-time dad life
06:00 – Smylie joins the Birmingham mom gossip circuit
08:00 – The pumpkin patch and Halloween debates
12:50 – Halloween costumes for the Kaufmans and Hulmes
15:00 – Family birthdays and dad milestones
15:50 – Charlie opens up about cancer scare
21:10 – Transitioning into Ryder Cup talk
22:00 – Ryder Cup reflections: chaos, fans, and respect
26:40 – How Europe got everything right
29:10 – Course setup mistakes for Team USA
33:50 – Stats, pairings, and the Luke Donald effect
36:40 – Europe’s attention to detail vs. Team USA
38:30 – Tommy Fleetwood’s hot streak
40:10 – Tommy’s year, stats, and emotional win with son Frankie
44:10 – Where Tommy ranks among the world’s best
46:10 – Is there a new “big three” forming?
49:00 – Which 2026 major fits Tommy best?
52:00 – Tommy’s ceiling and next chapter
53:10 – Wrapping up: lessons, laughs, and what’s next

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