1127: Players Championship Preview

>> The right club, I beat the right club today. [MUSIC] >> I think that's better than most. How about it? And it's better than most.

Better than most. [MUSIC] >> Expect anything different. [MUSIC] >> Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no-laying

of podcast presented as always by our friends at Titleist.

It's a major, major, major week here in golf players championship. Preview episode joined by the full squad here. Let me please, around of applause at a welcome back to the no-laying podcast for the first time in quite some time back from attorney leave.

“Mr. Big Randy is here, hello big, how are you and what's going on in life?”

>> Thank you, thank you, that's a nice applause, please, please be seated. It's great to be here, Solie, everything's different. You know, coming back to the no-laying podcast after having a kid, what a world. >> That's perhaps a different thing. >> That's the thing too, dude, perhaps nothing.

>> That was the voice of DJ Pi, how's key, Mr. T.C. is here as well, hello, T.C. Greetings, friends. >> Neal is here, hello, Neal. >> Gentlemen, good to be with you, happy to be here. >> Thank you, thank you, brother.

>> Mockneck Monday, that's right. >> We have a lot to discuss, it is, of course, players begin for today's show.

We're going to be running the first couple of segments.

Add free thanks to our friends at Titleist, and we'll be back also Wednesday after noon for a players kickoff show immediately following and also immediately following TV coverage each and every day. All proudly presented by our friends at Titleist, so shout out to them for giving us the platform for all of this content this week.

Guys, I'm going to start this, usually we do a little storyline draft in terms of previews. I'm approaching this from a little different direction here. I want to see where everyone's, where everyone's gut is. When you've fallen behind a little bit in the golf, and an event has started, I want

“to know what your first instinct is to go check, what are you curious to find out?”

I'm going to start with Randy on this one, like Thursday, when Thursday rolls around, let's say hypothetically, you wake up and the golf has already started, but just hypothetically in the mountain time zone. What's the first thing you're going to run to go check? What are you most curious about for this week?

Well, first of all, let me just say I feel very seen with you talking about, like, if you fall in behind on the golf, haven't happened to me all the time. So, I don't want to step on TC's block here, but I think there, if we're going to get wind, it looks like some wind Thursday morning, so I think, honestly, we'll just open the app, and I don't want to see very many low scores, like that's big tournaments.

I never want to see guys taking it super deep, especially not day one, so that's, that's

kind of where my mind's going to go. So, the answer there was, Big Randy checks the weather app, which, like, many people. I just checked. I've already checked the weather app. So now we're just checking the scoreboard, making sure nobody's taking it too low.

We want to see some carnage out there now. What are you going to do if they are? That's what I want to do. What are you going to do? I might go back to bed, honestly.

Inspire me on this one, TC. Do you feel like there is reason to believe the players is going to play more difficult in 2026 than it has in previous years? Did you go to Drone Shot? I fired a blive from, it looks, the greens looked more dry and yellow than they have in

years past. Now, we need this front to weaken that may roll through on Thursday. We're monitoring that, but I do have reason to believe that the greens should be firmer and drier and hopefully faster and the height of cut around the collars, especially on the holes like 12, will be, like, we'll see more balls in the water on 12 left of

that green. Come on. I'm going to show you this real world, part 40, so you pick on the blow might go in the water down like the worst design, Steve Winslaw hole ever. And then I'm pulling as well as the same thing with 17 too.

“So, that's how you got my attention, TC, the collar at 17 is a disgrace.”

That we need more balls in the water. Can I, can I be, maybe a lone voter descent on this one of, I feel like that collar, it's only stopping balls that are like crawling towards it. And if you hit a ripper McGoo that lands in the middle of the slope that has too much spin, your ball's going in the water.

And yet, if you hit like a, that slope is so severe, and like, they got my shot at the creator classic last year. I hit like a great shot right behind it, and it didn't spin, but it just trickled all the way back in that, that collar stopped it. I thought that was fair game, but if you have a ball that's screaming, it should go into

the water.

The collar's going to be shorter this year, a little bit shorter, it's not going to be crazy short. It's going to be shorter.

“I think I think a slightly shorter, you know, there's nuance here, Sally.”

I agree that a good shot shouldn't be punished. I was kind of, I loved it. I think one of you guys brought up last year, it should be like a true rubber of the green with just different patches at different heights. Like, if you hit one of those power alleys, like, sorry, you know, like, that's just,

you know, what happens? The circus ring at will wash, come on. 100%. The real ones will know that. Yeah.

I think that we can honor the, if we're looking to be a major, we honor the traditions of the game, Alex Smith, things of that nature. Not the quarterback, the US Open Guy, and look to the past, maybe implement some of those designs.

As I've always said, we'll say another 100 times.

It's a fucking, look at the hole, like, it's not, it's not like a real golf hole. Like, throw the rules out, man. We're not, we're not trying to, like, really accurately reward proper shot values here. It's an island greed in the middle of a pond that's surrounded by a bunch of hospitals. It just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's all, it's all, it's, it's all, it's out of my head.

It's an island. We're talking about an island green here. It shouldn't be possible to miss the green and not be wet when it's an island green. Exactly, especially when the green's so fucking soft. What would you say, but you want to get rid of the hot tub, then, instead of that little

“pot bunker that you've always wanted to put in there, then?”

I mean, gotten to the hot tub, when you've got hot tub, you're off the way. Come on in. It's always willing to horse trip, yeah, we're conflating a lot of different things here. But, uh, it's all, yeah, I thought you were going to ask me what I look for first thing on Thursday.

We're going to get there. We're going to get there. This is just a, just an opening into a bunch of different talking points. I, I will say, I don't ever feel like they're in shadow bed. He won't talk about what he can look for too.

I don't think there are balls that are ripping towards the water that, that, that rough catches. I do feel that way on 12th. I think 12 is bullshit, like, like, if you missed left of that green, it should go into the water completely.

I think we back their asses down on 12. I think we came in to shave in at that. All right, TC, I'm not shadow bedding. What are you most looking forward to come Thursday morning? So, hey, it's, yeah, like, the firmness of the greens, they go out there and I'm like,

are there mudballs in the fairways after it hasn't rained for three weeks? That's the first thing I look for. Next thing I look for is water team rose and Tommy doing the great man. That's, that's, that's first and foremost. It's a team rose really.

Yeah, team rose. Yeah, team rose. And what about Billy Horshull? He'd probably might be curious. Yeah, I said, really last night on the pod, I said, Billy may win the players this year.

He's not in the field, which is incredible to me.

Like, I don't know how patent desire and some of these other guys are in the field, but Billy's not. Do we know what alternate it is? Because you did say you may win, the tournament has to start. Sure.

I don't even know what alternate. A lot of, I mean, we saw in 2020, a lot of things could happen before the balls even get in the air. That's, you know. Two extra guys in the field this year because of the Brooks roll.

God, I forgot about that. That's, that's good stuff. So what are you looking forward to, man?

“What are you, what are you going to look for out there today?”

I didn't like fully realize it until I put this question out of like the first thing I check whenever I go to check boards and leader boards and everything. It's speed. I want to go, I want to see what he's doing. And if he's three under through four, I'm ready to blow up all my group chats and

go straight to the, to the everything app, but that is where my instinct is every single week. Of just like, is this the week? Is this the week we turn it around? I sure hope so. It's gone.

It's gone. It's record, as we talked about last night, record the players not great. So I'm not going to open it with a bunch of anticipation this week, but I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll always checking and always believing.

That's the, that's the first one I always go to.

Electric pairing. Do. Saw it. Medium dick rig and speed. I love that.

That's it. I love that one. Yeah, I would imagine the Jacksonville locals, the ball known or is it going to be fallen accurate for sure. Uh, that's, that's good stuff.

What's your future? Yeah. I'll go next. I, uh, I got a lot of like big macro trends. I kind of want to talk about, but I don't know, those don't really play into Thursday.

You know what? I don't know. What if you want? Well, I'll, I'll, I'll give you two. All the branch to you last night.

I'm curious what actually is going to do, you know, like that was, that was really fun. Again, he, I was rooting for Daniel Burger, but, uh, I am very curious of actually it keeps it going. It's been playing really good golf. That is a, that is a fun golf course to watch him at.

It's a golf course that rewards some of those heroic shots, the Joe Griner. Go hit the six out of your life type of moments like this place is pretty much built for that. Uh, it's got to drive it a lot better than you did last week, though. Definitely.

Definitely. Remember what he, what he finished last year? I have three. T3. Right.

T.C. we know we saw them at the junior players here for the first time. Uh, you know, lots of course knowledge. So was he anchoring then? That's a good question. A good question.

I have to go back and check some of the, uh, the hard drives, the old footage on that one.

And I think like a big, big trend is, and I think maybe this almost factors into some of

the major conversation a little bit is, uh, does, does, does the players championship luck of rewarding horses run out or continue, because there was a good, like, decade stretch of this tournament where it was like Craig Perks, Fred Funk, wins at 48, Steven Aims, your winner, Tim Clark, KJ Choi, who obviously great player, but not, not really a horse at the time.

Uh, there was, it was a lot of weird randomness, uh, going on at this tournament for a good decade. That's not the case anymore. Since they moved it back to March, they've had six tournaments, and Scottie and Roy have won four of them, you know, and it's like, Cam Smith and JT are the other two, and it's,

it's kind of turned into a, uh, big horses only.

“And I, I think, you know, begs the question on whether the big horses are playing that”

good at golf right now, uh, turn in your warm bloods. But there's a lot of, uh, you know, kind of medium horses that are played really good golf. And I could see a, you know, Jacob Bridge, like what we saw at, uh, at, uh, at Rift, right? Like a Jacob Bridgeman that breaks through it, just a really good player who has a really good week.

And, you know, almost looks like a quote unquote, disappointing winner, but is kind of

uses this as their first jumping off point.

So that, that's a bit long-winded, but I think it's interesting, uh, point for about this week. Neil, what's your, what's your thing you're looking forward to the most this week? I mean, the question was first thing you're going to check Thursday. Brandon, I can't believe you didn't say a pin sheet, I mean, that's just, that comes

out this day. That's nice. Yeah, I mean, you know, we just, just refer to it, though, as you're watching. Well, most weeks, you're right, but this is, this is big time. So we're checking.

We're doing our homework Wednesday night. Okay. All right. That's good. That's good clarification.

I appreciate that.

“And honestly, I'm checking the horses, you know, like the, the thoroughbreds, who are they”

for you? It's Rory and Scotty for me. I think, and that's actually indicative of Scotty watching Scotty's become a lot more fun for me lately. He sees some of what you're saying last night, like he has been very bitchy, uh, which is

unbecoming for him, but it's actually kind of more exciting to be like, I wonder, Scotty's going to be like, uh, in a bad mood, like, I'm kind of tuning in to see, like, it does you have a bad attitude on Thursday because this whole season, he's kind of blown up on Thursday.

And he's had a bad first round.

I turned on Rive, you know, during Rive, I turned on the golf on Thursday. And it was like, oh my god, Scotty's like ejecting, you know, that's, so that's almost become a little bit of a thing, uh, for me to look out for. And then Rory being, you know, with drawing last week, uh, is he healthy? Like, that's kind of, uh, on my mind, and you know, he just, I love watching Rory play golf

anyway, so it's usually like if he's in the morning wave, I'm going to see what he's up to, but I'm going to check the leaderboard. And then from there, I'm probably going to click into, uh, the horses Scotty and Rory, uh, nobody's ever had to. Nobody's ever won three times at sawgrass, either fun little piece of, you know, his historical

wrinkle there. They can be the first to deal with the meals going to the stage of the padded. Like, no, wait, at the derby when they walk them around, but the circle, I'm going, yeah, I'm going there to just just check the, the, the ponies on their pre-race walk. Neil, are there at your helmet?

I get, thank you, Randy. That's important. That's important. I always travel with it. So, are there any other horses besides Rory and Scotty?

Because I think that's a question. That's an existential question. I kind of have right now. Really good one. I don't, I wouldn't consider Xander a horse right now, you know what I mean?

It's like, I don't need not dying to look at the leaderboard, or look up what Xander up to is not, now, I do think you made a good point there, Deja, about, uh, it feels like the players, like, for somebody like Cam Young. It's like, what in the rival, what kind of like how Cam Smith, uh, kind of, I felt like he arrived when he won this event in, I think that was 2022, I didn't see it.

I was on my honeymoon, that, that, that doesn't exist for me, uh, yeah, when I was wearing a helmet riding a horse, exactly, uh, just cross the streams here, uh, but Cam, you know, it feels like a big spot for him this week, he's playing great golf and, and, uh, I, I think he could, he could make some noise this week. Well, I started jotting down names because I, I was initially like, uh, just a quick

on the stage, just Cam Young, of course, history, which could mean fucking anything for this tournament, of course, but T-61, T-54, T-51 cut, um, is his player's championship.

“Not helping my argument, but I was talking about that might, that might be the best thing”

for your argument, because I had a golf course that is impossible to predict. Everybody, I researched, which was like a horrible record at this, at this place, because everybody ever finished in the top 10 at this tournament, but, uh, I had a, you know, looking yesterday, I, I mentioned this a little bit last night, but when they broke into Bay Hill and they're like, you know, and now we can reveal the featured groups for tomorrow

the featured groups used to be kind of like, uh, used to be a thing, right?

Like you get to the majors and there'd be like four or five that you're like, oh, hell, oh my god, those guys are together, great. There's a couple, like you mentioned T-C, but last night it was like, we've got Rory and he's playing with Zander and Hadecki, and I was like, what the fuck is that? That's like, yeah, that's not getting me excited. That's the, like, yeah, of course those guys are all like, they're all very good golfers.

Yeah, but we're in a, a bit of a spot where, uh, to your point, I'm like, it's Rory, at least on the PJ Tour, it's Rory and it's Scotty and like, that's kind of it.

“That's where you miss Ron and Bryson. Totally. But then I think you get to this next level”

and where I'm like, man, that next level's really wide, but you get to like, I'm interested

to not have to pee on all these guys to talk about now, but it's like, Colin, like, I'm interested to see what Colin does. Ludwig Russell Henley should play really well. Okay, I'm young, Victor Hovel and Mittemoo Lee, Okshay we mentioned, Hadecki we mentioned, got her up. We haven't talked about Jake Nat, like, there's a bunch of, there's a bunch of those big tone have 20 in the tank. There's a bunch of dudes in that next, like, 20 that are all playing

really good golf that I'm, I'm interested in watching any of. It just is a weird one where it's like, either used to be like, eight horses, none of them have been like, and now there's two. Like, I want to say none of them have proven anything. That's not true. What I mean, they don't

ready for the first big. Yeah, it doesn't feel like all like, that's all in and dry and

other than like, are they gonna challenge Scotty and then Scotty's weirdly kind of just in a funk. So that's maybe why we feel this way. I don't know, it feels wide open right now with Rory, maybe hurt and Scotty just kind of in a willy lumen, quiet desperation situation for the last couple weeks. It's, it's an interesting pre-ternament buzz, a true TBD, Dege. Yeah, I can't wait to see what happens. Yeah, I'd nominate, I've been trying to work on this for a couple of weeks and I haven't gotten

very far of like, and I'm going to slowly unveil it here over, over certain makes like, who are the dudes of golf? Like, who, who are they? And I found that exercise to be harder than I was

“expecting. Because like, I struggle to get past like the top three, which I think like very clear”

the dudes of like right now in 2026 are Rory Scotty and Rome are like a step above everybody else. And then it's like, Rome and dude, I, I, I would venture say he still is. I know he has, he's acted like a dude, he's acting like a dude off the course, you know, they're not paying the fides, it's that that's dude behavior. Yeah, basic dude stuff. Yeah, I still feel like we're in like, you know, I try to look at this and like, who, if you, you know, in 2036 you looked back and you jumped into

2026, you're like, who are the dudes right now? Like we did this 10 years ago, it would be like Dustin Johnson, one of the dudes Jason Day, one of the dudes Jordan Speeds, one of the dudes, who 10 years from now will be look back and say any dude plus he, a great novelty of the chat there, who are they and like, I'm honestly like, all right, like if you'd ask miss last year, Fleetwood would have been the easy answer. Like so far this year, it's like, okay, was that

100% a dude right now? Right now. Right now. A little brainy. Now to breathe, right now for the world is one time on the PGA tour. I'd say more a cow is the one knocking down that door right now, but it is like a kind of a hard thing to do right in this moment right now. And I'm, I'm, I mean, quick smell test on this. So I like literally just going down the date of golf or hiking, Scotty, number one, I would say probably a dude. Ram, we can debate, but for the sake of argument, let's say yes.

It's a big year for Ram though. We call that out on the season preview. Yeah, that is for me, the majors. What are in majors? Yeah, like just a massive storyline. Glory. Glory number three is a dude. And then you get to Russell Henley, who is great. Love watching, Robert. This is a dog. Maybe I do exactly. Tommy Fleetwood. Again, we can debate. Zander is number six. Right now, if cam young, see who can call in more cow, you guys stop me if you hear a dude here. Zander's plummeting to hit

his deck. He's based on stuff from two years ago. He's right. Hedeki fits big shop ob, Ludvig, Bryson, Jake Nap, Benjamin Booms, like a auction rapidly, you know, rising up the rankings. But it's like, yeah, I'm with you. So there's a serious, and dudes might be fully endangered. Right now,

“they might be a protected, protected species. I think dudes are in a transition space right now.”

Transitioning from one set of dudes to another. Yeah, dudes. Like, it's hard. I, when I started this, like, the thought of my head was right after got up one twice early in the year. And I was like, well, clearly he's one of them. Now, he's 55 to one to win this week. Like, can you be a dude and be 55 to one? And if, if you are, I better be, I better, my instinct better be to lay a fuck ton of money on you to win the players at 55 to one. And I, I like got her up. The surf, I, you know, I, I, I, I think you

bomber style courses, which I think he's proven otherwise on that part to say, like, I think there's value in him at 55 to one. But yeah, like, the odds makers are also going to, going to drive a fair amount of, of, it's going to help fill in the blank and answer that question. If Ron was in the field,

he would be no worse than third favorite at this, at this event. Like, that's, that's a dude.

Without, honestly, so, you know, who should be in the field and is not, and who I think is, or, for sure, or, for sure. No, or, or, dude, don't, Casey Jarvis. Probably the hottest player in the

“world right now. It's not the fedora five, though. That's what the fedora five is for. The hottest player”

well, different to see. Yeah. Whatever I come up with this, it's going to be, I'm going to make make a rule where like, you, if you want you put someone in, you can't take them out for a year. Like, it's got to, you got to be projecting some permanent. Well, the whole thing about the fedora five is, there's no rule, sorry. Right. That's what I'm saying. Right. I'm putting some guidelines around me for my, my dude list, okay? Which I would then, with that definition, it's all,

I would probably put Henley in. I know it. He doesn't look like a dude. Right. No. But resume,

you say, and he's got dude tendencies, man. I stay in power. If you start looking at player A versus player B, it was paper. Really? No, we're close, ready. If he wins this week, it's a stereotype. Yeah. No. I mean, I know everybody, I know this is being a clown, but like, the line starts with little colon, and if you're not dude enough to jump the line on little colon. I think, I mean, colon is trending. I keep an eye on this. It's been ahead of colon as far as just put. Yeah,

it's crazy. It's playing. Like, I wear wins on, or he plays well on, you know, play about MX, plays well at Bay Hill. Like, he, he hard, easy course, birdy-fastig. I just gets it done week to week. I know he doesn't look like a dude, but he acts like a dude. I don't win like a dude, though. 13, or is it 12 or the last 13 events he's finished in the top 20? Russ? No wins. You got a win to be a dude. I do agree with you there. I'm, I'm the guy that rides for great

finishes and doesn't care as much about wins, but like, for this list, it's got to be like, no, you're enough. Good answer. It's got to be right. It's got to be, it's got to be recent form and like predator tendencies. And I think like, yeah, we need like Brooks Brooks is a due to emeritus, right, former dude, former. I think we need to, you know, the. It's kind of like the Hall of Fame voting here, Neil, where we need to at least have it on the record that Russ

had with was receiving votes. Yeah. You might not get in. That's sure. But we was receiving votes.

Yeah, I think it should be treated with that level of, you know, the getting a first ballot is,

is tough as well. Right. I think it's in re-hashing the, like, dog or killer conversation,

“or just changing the word here. It's an important. I think it's always important the question.”

I get a kick out of, you know, we're talking about Scottie being so shitty and it's like T24 is, is awful for him. Like that's how you know he's a dude, right? I just think I'm willing to say he's a dude. Yeah. We have such dudes that when you measure handling, when you measure all these guys against that, it's, you just, they're not. I think the guy that we haven't brought up yet, that I think he's absolutely, on the precipice of being a dude, Chris Goddard. I think.

Haven't brought up. We just were talking about two or three minutes. Also, I do want to revisit to Randy's point out. Yes. You got to, you got to, you got to laugh a little call it. I mean, Russell sucked the life out of him at Bay Hill in 2025. I mean, he literally, like, hands calling at Bay Hill. That was a year ago. I'm, well, I've just put it on the resume as part of the argument. Just, take, we've got a lot of things going a lot of different directions. I just don't understand how

“Goddard's not a dude. What's this place here? We just talked about, yeah, what were you doing, man?”

Did you miss that? I mean, it was like, I mean, I was like, how many, how many, six years old man's five wins? Come on. Come on. I'm with Randy, as much as I love Ross, we can, and we like across. And he's a total dog. Yeah, I'm mess with some product movement without looking. This is kind of also to my point without looking who's the fourth favorite on the board. Look at the Fandel odds right now for the players this week. We have Scotty, Rory, Colin are the top three

who's worth on the board. Oh, he's a good cast. Yeah, see who can type with Tommy. The door, five, a one, or five a love. Yeah. Past champ, obviously. Yeah. All right, I have a question. I'm going to DJ to be the one to answer this one and then if anybody else feels, would feel stronger about this than it, but I know we're doing a little Pete die. We're looking into some Pete die related stuff. I'm curious, but actually this, Dege, if Pete die was still with us, what would he say about

TPC sawgrass in its current iteration? Good question. Yeah, we're early in our research for a project and we're very, very early in it. I certainly won't pretend to be any kind of authority, but I think it's interesting when you look at some of the early quotes of what the

the complaints that the course got. And, you know, the fact that people aren't complaining about it as much anymore. Maybe that's probably a negative indicator. That was there's some of that

“but I think the TCC, you've harped on this a lot. Maybe you can talk more about it. But it's a lot”

different from a green speeds and slopes in the greens perspective. It's obviously a lot different just from the waste areas and the naturalness and all of those things, which, you know, I think he saw those changes kind of as they progressed, but it certainly wasn't exactly what he what he started with, you know, and you look at some of those old photos of sawgrass. It looks like a wild just jungle out there. I love the quotes from back in the day where people are saying

they ruined it perfectly, good swamp, which is always good. What do you throw what are those?

But I mean, I think there's a lot of the the hallmarks that are still there. The visual stuff, the, you know, the, like the test of the second shot, the like very wide test of skills that are tested. Like there's still a lot of stuff that I think, you know, is from the natural, like the first iteration of the golf course, but yeah, there's been some cosmetic things and green speeds

“and shaping and all of those things that are changing. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's right.”

TCC, I think that on top of them. Yeah, I think the, like you look at the greens, there's a heck of a lot less sloped, there's a lot less just going on. I think that kind of knew to some of the, some of the second shot, uh, importance there. There's just not as much teeth going on. It was

a lot weirder, like more, more rugged like deed set, even like shapes of bunkers or shapes of like

where certain, uh, certain native areas came out or certain sandy areas came out. There's still all the stuff messing with your eye. Good example. That's like 11. You stand on that tee and there's the sand goes all the way in front of you, but like it's, it's not even, it's not even close to it and play. It's 100 yards off the tee, but it's just obscuring your eye. You got the moguls and like, there's, there's a bunch of weird stuff, but there should be a lot more weird stuff. I think as

well, and it should just like the, I think the ruggedness and rawness and, um, you know, I don't think they have to necessarily go back to, to it being really, really rugged and raw,

“but at some point, I think there should be some of that brought back in the right spots.”

It just, it feels like it's been completely optimized, right? Like all the, all the, all the, rough edges have just been completely smoothed out of the golf course in order, you know, kind of in the name of a premier test when it's like, I don't know if that's really accomplishing exactly the right thing, but that said, it's like, the shots at rewards, the various, like, uh, different skill sets at rewards. It is hard to argue with a lot of that

stuff, and that it is a very unique, very good test on the BJA tour still, despite the fact that it's relatively, you know, it's shorter, and it's, it doesn't, uh, places much of an emphasis on driving distance and all that, so it's, yeah, it's an interesting question. It's all added. Would you have any thoughts on it, too? Yeah, I, I brought this up because we did our 1994 PJA tour season deep dive. This was 93 Greg Norman blitz the course to tune of 24 under par.

Uh, this was just 11 years after the first players was hosted at TPC saw grass and, uh,

Dean Veeben came out and said, we're not going to change the golf course and, uh, Pete dies quote at that time was said, it doesn't hurt me. I don't have anything to do with what's going on there. It was supposed to be a rustic looking golf course. Now it's the most manicured course in the world. There's another, another quote I saw there is basically one, one, somebody shoots 63. It's kind of hard for anybody to complain about the golf course anymore,

too. So I think it, yeah, just kind of seems like it got out of, uh, what it was originally supposed to be, which is, you know, there's the belief that it might have been too silly in the very first iteration of its sound of just like, you know, they're coming into greens with five irons and trying to, like, uh, if you would Jack Nichols' quote was, but coming in with a five iron and trying to land on the hood of a Volkswagen, uh, it's very much like in that camp of like, you know, a perfect shot

and a mediocre shot again that ended up in the same place and it not being a very good test. But do I think it's gone too far the other way around the greens since then? I mean, without a doubt. And that's where I don't think the move from May to March has helped them, uh, because they've not, we've seen what happens at a little professional, when you get even less than perfect conditions in terms of your ability to protect, uh, scoring, uh, it, it, it drives fans away from the game like

big Randy, uh, is what I'll, what I'll say is what happens next. Yeah, I think the, the greens made a lot more sense like in the current iteration when it was, when it was in May, yeah, right? Like I, you know, you've got the fire in the middle of that, um, but I think also the, it's funny to hear Jack say that where Jack still a lot of greens in his career that, like, it's like landing a five iron in a,

to cast, uh, cast dispersions there, Jack. But I think the, just looking back to, I think there's

certain spots where like, the distance issue or the distance question being asked isn't being asked anymore, like on a hole like 18, where guys are hitting three would off the tee there and rope in a draw, and like that, that's a hole where like, I don't think they should lengthen the golf course in many spots. But I think a hole like 18 should be like, that should be 480 in my opinion.

“And if you should be hitting a, a five iron in there or, you know, a long iron into that green”

and trying to, like, trying to make a par, not trying to make a birdie. Yeah, it's a weird one. And I think, again, I feel like I keep bumping up on this, but I do think it plays into the major conversation, right? Or sure. It needs to play. If you want to keep beating that drum,

there's a, yeah, there's a case to be made that it's like, well, that it needs to play like a major.

I guess it's, I think when you get in with quote, unquote, serious golf fans or people who like talking about this stuff, that's where you get into, like, playability and, you know, all the greens need to play like this or the fairways need to play like this or this cut needs to be this higher, like, whatever. But even zoom it out. It's like, that's, like, why does that stuff matter? That's of all matters because it ladders up to the better leaderboard, which makes it

look more like a major as well. Because there's a way to make something hard and arbitrary, right, which is fun. Sometimes in Randy, I think, you know, we can lead a breakout session on that at some point. But it's like, that's not necessarily rewarding the best, the best field, or the

“best, the best, the best winners. And that's what the majors do. There's a reason why little boys don't”

win majors anymore. Like, that just doesn't happen. And it's, I think pretty much because of,

I mean, the pressure is one thing, obviously, but like it's set up stuff. It's like they're set up like majors. They're set up to reward the people who are, you know, can live above that threshold. And yeah, the players is, it's a weird one because it's also set up to be, well, 16, supposed to be, you know, it's set up to be more like a theme park in spots, too, where you're just want everybody to be able to make birdies and heagles and fireworks going everywhere. And so

it is a little bit of a conflicting identity, I think, that it's going to have to work through if, if this whole march is major thing is going to continue with a straight face. Yeah, there's, there's still so much to celebrate about this golf course. I, I forget what year was. But I remember when, when Zal tours was in contention and he got stuck up in the moguls on the right side of 14. And it was just like, he had a comically bad shot out of that. I'm

like, yes, that's great. Like, that is awesome. That is unique to this event. There's so much great mounting and moguling that is very contrived. But it is, it is a really good test for these guys. It makes them very uncomfortable. And it puts a lot of emphasis on the right golf shots. It just really comes down to the softness. That was like a alarm bell's going off last year. I mentioned this last night as well. But when I hit a shot out of the rough, the night before the tournament

started last year. And it stopped dead in its tracks. I was like, do we got something wrong with this, with this march thing? Like, really, if this is how the course is going to play, it's, it's really a let down. Especially compared to what we just saw to Bay Hill yesterday, which is very clearly a willingness to push that course. So one of the best sets of parfives in the world in my opinion, like, just awesome parfives. And then they got to fix 12 to they got to fix 12. It's, it's an abomination,

“right now. You see, say more on that. Why do you feel that way? I think it, it encourages you to hit”

away from the hazard for some of the most. It's gone through three different iterations now over the last decade. It seems to be getting worse every single time. I think some of the, some of the like, if you look at it last year, like, there were not any balls going on the water, really. Like, if for guys going for the green, like everything was getting held up and that strip of rough down the left, it was just like, like, you could just hit a five iron and the greens are soft enough

to where you're coming in with a with a wedge, you're hitting one close. There's a couple couple spots that they can put a pin there that kind of protects it. But overall, it just didn't feel like you had to hit two great shots to make. So my question though is, why is it a abomination? Like, you take the rough down by the water. Do you think that T shot is still too easy? Like, if you hit a five iron off that T, it's just like an easy five iron wedge. It's just kind of backwards.

Yeah, the whole backwards that you can just kind of bump one up on right side and get up and down from there for pretty pretty easy birdie. Like, I just, I just don't think it makes you hit either two really good shots or one great shot to have a chance at Eagle or a birdie. And then

it's just an easy three. It seems like the balance is wrong. You know, I think like when you get

“to a short par four, you should feel something. You should feel some angst, you should feel like”

there's something I've got a thread here. Like, there's a reason on a peat dig off course of all courses. There's a reason why they've tempted me with this whole being short. And they're better be a pretty darn good exchange of value of, you know, the layup needs to make sense as part of the equation. If, you know, if there's not proper risk award in the shot, then the layup doesn't. And then actually started like abandoning this whole as a drivable hole. Like, they played it,

I think more as a three 70-ish hole. I'm looking it up from last year, more than they did from a drivable perspective. Yeah, they only had to tee up one day. That was on Saturday

last year. We have a look, on this golf course alone, we have an example of like, look at the

fourth hole and how well they use the bulk head and the green that goes right up to the edge of the water to really drive the value of that hole, where off the tee, you better hit the fairway on four, or all of a sudden, that shot looks really, really difficult because of how close that green sits to the water. If I miss, if you miss the fairway on 12, it's the green is far away from the water.

“And it's not like anything runs down there and you have to fear actually going in the water.”

Like, the risk should be, now I'm out of position. I got to get really close to this bulkhead water and try to navigate that. Like, I'm one of the best players in the world. That's a pretty fair challenge. What's not a fair challenge is just have the green sit this far to the right and not have any real risk in any of the shots. Like, make it be a sweat. Like, that's what's so much of the rest of the course does is make you sweat the risk of a shot. Look at 16 green.

Like, when they put that pin all the way on the right side of, if you want to get close to that

one, you risk going in the water on that one and it's just kind of amazing that they've,

if this one sticks out as badly as it does in my opinion, I think. Yeah, I think the, the bunker up the left, like that fairway bunker, it's just, like, it's protecting you from the water. Like, you should be able to, you should be trying to, to, I don't like, and you dump it in that fairway bunker. There's no penalty whatsoever. Like, you're, you know, and then, like, there's nothing interesting up behind the green either. There's just, there's just a bunch of grass back up there.

So there's nothing really keeping you from forcing the issue. I'm, I've just looked at the scatter plot from last year to your point to see, I can find quickly two, but maybe two bogies from people that drove it in that bunker, the restaurant par and birdies from, from anywhere, drove into the left bunker. That's, that's just where it's like, even ten it river. Like, you drive in a fairway bunker on ten it river. You are going to have a bad time. You're going to have a very bad time. So

it's sandwiched between, like, two of my favorite holes on the course in 11 and 13. Those are awesome golf holes. It just feels like such a waste of, like, this is supposed to be this, this great, pivotal moment in between. And then you kind of lock in on 14, 15, which are really, really difficult golf holes. You know, that, like, 13 through 15 stretch is like you got a buckle down, especially with, when they tuck the pin left on 13 and 12 is just such a let down when you're

out there. 17 T balls out of 431 T shots went in the water last year on 12. So I asked all, I bring all this up because they just love, and his design team are, they're, they're redoing this golf course in 2028. And it's going to be, for everything we've heard from him on this topic is, like, he's bringing the Pete die stuff back into it. He's still, they're working annually, making little tweaks on the golf course. They did make it change to 12. Here's this

“passion. They added a bunker down the right side of it. I think there's a new T on two as well.”

I'm sure we'll hear a little bit more about what those changes are here in the week. But it's common. There's going to be some, I think almost certainly that love has been tasked with bringing the T's back into this golf course. And we're going to see it. So let's look at some odds. What do you say? We have Roy, sorry, Scottie Schaffler is the favorite at almost five to one. This is courtesy of Fandle Sportsbook. Roy is now 15 to one, more a Kawa 18 to one, Sibu and Tommy or 22 to one,

Ludwig 25 to one, Xander 27 to one. We have Russell Hindley at 30 to one, Cam Young 33. Matt Fitzpatrick 35. Also stuck out of the guy who has a very, very poor, of course history here. Victor Vick, the unstable compound then Mooli and Hadecki are all 35 to one as well, Okshay 41, stepstruck of 45, also with Jake Nap, Robert McIntyre, then we get to got her up who has moved to plus 5,000 or 50 to one. He's with Shane Lowry, Ricky Fowler, have me nearly 55 to

one. That's one that's on that part. Daniel Burger, Kirt Kityama, and they're Ryan Gerard, one of the hottest players in the world, 61 along with Harrison. The young wood Jordan speed, 65 to one to start the week. Do you see anything on that list? Stick out to you. Matt stuck out to me. For sure. I don't know what to make a Tommy right now. I think Tommy's,

or if he's been struggling a little bit. I think Ludwig's prime to break out in a big way. He's got the Potter sorted out. The approach plays back. He's probably going to have to wear a bunch of bad players stuff from the merch tanks. Yeah. Upside down 17 little vintage that they've had, and meet me on 17 plastic patches or other stuff. I don't know. But 904 hat that I've got here.

“I think I'm going to watch. I mean, Shane's playing good golf. Shane seems like a guy.”

I got stuck out to me a little bit. He's was Harry Hall, terrible record here, but that could be a plus. I know. He was like 80 to 100 something. I was thinking, saw there's a lot of value in that, like north of 50 to one, 50 to 100 to one. You had, you know, you breeze breeze past it for a very understandable reasons, but Ryan Girard's playing really fucking good golf and is a mega ball striker.

Second shot, golf course. He is a guy that is, there's potential, laugh if you will,

potential value on that one coming off of a bad week at Bay Hill, where actually it was only like two days. I know because he missed the cut, but some of his best ball striking numbers of the year had just kind of like randomly drove it and chipped it horribly, but that could be an interesting one.

“And that's kind of what got me thinking about like, what if it's not like a big horse that wins”

this year? What if it's, you know, Ryan Girard or Harry Hall or Ricky Castilias, like 100 to one? It's like, yeah, he's a really good player. He could absolutely go make some noise. It's a lot of entertainment. A lot of lower case D dudes that are are are interesting in that and that quadrant of the odds. Sam Burns is another one, 80 to one. I know they don't call him overseen Burns. He doesn't really have a great record here. He's got kind of three, but like this

seems like a place that I don't know, should, yeah, should suit. Yeah, I don't know what to do with a Ben Griffin. Obviously, Alex Norman was kind of sticking out for me. Is that any one for like a top 10 or top 20? Even you, again, you're listed him as you were rattling off there, but like, isn't, would you say burger is like 50 to one? It's like what about, what about what about what we just saw

“in the last four days makes you think Daniel Burger's not going to play well. You know, a golf course”

where you got to drive it super straight and hit your iron's great is like, I don't know, that seems like his recipe that we just saw. One of my biggest hit bets ever was Kimer at the 2014 players, because he had a great 54 holes the week before I forget what event it was and gagged it on Sunday and he fell way down the odds. He went to 80 to one. I was like, dude, that he's still playing great. Like I love this one and Burger hit that one. Yeah, I don't know why. It's such a weird week,

though, and especially the early part of the week, like you just you never know what names you're

going to pop up on this. Shane Lowry does have a solid course history here. The last five years, T-20, T-19, T-35, T-13, eighth in the most recent iterations. It's tournament, but I'll have what days and other one like that. We're like, he's got some good stuff in the past. Obviously a winner, but I'm an in kind of in poor form. Let's make some calls on this on the other side of this, because I'm going to give a shout to our friends with the subtle dog logo. It's calling our name just

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with Mr. TC on this one. The four predictions are going to be, and of course, of course, going to ask for one name for each of these. Someone 50 to one or more that you think can win who will not win, who will win, and won bold prediction. That is what all four of us are going to give TC. Who what are your four? 55 to one, Rick Fowler. Again, TC. I'm I'm ride with you.

Who will not win? Well, I had Billy Horshal in there now because he's not in the field.

But I'm going to combo platter of can't land zander. Both of them, because they're boys, buds. Both of them are not going to win. Who will win? I'm going to say Ludwig. I knew it. Ludwig wins. And then what was the last one? One bold prediction? One bold prediction.

“Good back to you on that if you want to. Yeah. Yeah. Come back to me. DJ. What are your four?”

Yeah. 55 or, you know, over 50 to one. I mean, I kind of said a lot of this already. The the Gerard thing sticks out to me, burger sticks out to me. I'll continue to be a Harry Hall respecter at a plus 8,000. Any of you guys are welcome to join me at any time. Harry Hall,

we know he rolls the ball. He's he's he's he's going to put it great. He can he can win. I'm not saying

he will win can that was the question can win. Who will does he still wear that dumb hat? Yeah. Extra dumb. And now the colors are even getting worse. It's a bad aesthetic. Bad aesthetic. But as DJ said he rolls his potato. He does roll the potato though. You got to be you got to respect that. He just doesn't drive it well. Who will not win? This is not the boldest call in the world. But it's just I'm going to use my time and my platform to just say JJ spawns playing a

trotis golf right now. And he was so close to winning this golf tournament last year. He is a major champion. Obviously rider cover and he's he's playing bad. Some of his worst putting of his entire career over the last. Oh, golf soon. Couple months. Yeah. It's what he said he would do if he wasn't playing pro golf. Yeah. It's it's it's not good right now. And so I'm going to say JJ spawn will not win. I'm going to I'm going to request you throw in another name with that one

in the spirit of the who won't win. I mean that's 65 to one's pretty down the board on that. Sure. He lost it up. Yes last year. He's 65 to one that's quite safe. So many names. Okay. I'll say

“Tommy won't win. Okay. There you go. Yeah. That's that's fine. Sorry, TC. Who's my pick?”

Fuck it. Here's what I'm going to go with my pick. Okay. The players has a long history of people

winning for a second time after a big gap. Right. We, we've of course have deal deal three one 11 years apart. Tiger one 12 years apart. House Sutton one 17 years apart. Fred couples one 12 years apart. This, this gentleman that I'm thinking of is going to be playing who went to fifth players championship team rose. You rose is never won it. That's right. He's always been a top 10's solid. It's got it. He's playing really good golf right now fourth at Rift T 11 last week. Adam Scott.

I think he's my pick to win this week. Thank you's playing awesome golf would be great. What's his order of odds? I don't know. I go off the I test mostly. Sure. No, I'm asking 65 to one 65 to one. Wow. I love that. I could consult someone in a legal betting state to help me tail it off line. Yeah exactly. And my bold prediction. Yeah. It's a good one. I'm going to say somebody in the final group hits it hits in the water on 17. I feel like we haven't had a real killer one of those in a while.

You know, I guess JJ I'm Monday. I'd say I'm saying I'm saying the moment,

“what everybody's like, is he going to hit in the water? Is he not going to hit in the water?”

He's going to hit in the water this year. So revisit that moment when we get there. Okay. Big guy. Oh, boy. Okay. Um, you know, I think can win this tournament and he's having a sneaky good season. He's and he's had some okay results here. I'm getting a lot of chatter from from some family members is Ryan Fox, the proud Kiwi. Foxy 125 to one. Wow. But I would just encourage you know, he's he's four top 25s. He was top 10 at Rive. He's he's had a top 20 at players.

He's out there doing things. So Willy win probably not but he could win. Good. Good. Yeah, a lot. Who most assuredly will not win? I saw it. It's like throwing up this mountain. I just want to say like, I just just can't this does not necessarily mean anything. It did go as if it was the six worst course fit in the field this week. I don't even know. Surprise. Of course fit. What is even course fit here? I don't know. It was a very big horrible

one. He's one of twice. So I think who won't win? Listen, I'll go. I was thinking about Scotty, but I'm not willing to put my name there. So we'll we'll go with Rory. I think the backspasms,

into them. Little college president. I think he's by and high. Yeah, I'm trying to hit the top again. Just I may need little Colin to throw in the players and I may need the players to become a major for me to get to the exactly. Randy shit on Rory by and high on Colin. He's

back baby. Some things never changed. Good to have you never changed. I was thinking about this

Randy. I mean, remember coming into the players for the last like four years of Colin's like Hadef. Like it was always like, oh, obviously Colin's gonna win. Obviously Colin's gonna be up there. You know, that's kind of died down. And even last year, you know, he had a horrendous round three, but he was he was otherwise. He was good. He's obviously playing good golf this year. We'll see. I don't know. This could be the year Colin. Maybe ten. T 45, T 13, miscut T 41 in the last five

finishes. Just slightly below average from a stroke's gain perspective to his normal baseline. And T. Okay. So I guess. All right. We'll put me down for Colin. And then my one bold prediction.

“I'm putting the B and bold here. I think somebody falls in the water. There's something close to”

the last couple of years. But I think one of the players falls in the water this year. Not jumps in falls in.

No, not jumps in. That's a very good distinction deal. I think somebody accidentally falls in the water. Oh, we need to run up like a calcium on this. And you can get some other stuff going buddy. That would be that would make my week. So what is in the what do you want to be? Vintry Gases to who or which hole. Well, you know, 17 obviously is a pick with one of these balls up against the collar. You know, it just got it. Just takes one. One step. What was the whole. We're Trent from

bar stool in the crit was that on 16. He's like still. But he didn't fall in the water. I guess he just fell over in the mogul's right of 16 or something. That sounds right. Yeah. I remember my guy were fucking locked into our process. Right. You guys want to see that. That was good. That was good TV though. Tommy's up in the in the news conference right now. And he's he's got a players rope hat on. They're kind of doing dirty with this shot. A big one. Look like he's about five foot two.

So those are my picks. Sorry. Neil. What that was bold big. I did that was went beyond my

“wildest dreams. That's good stuff, Randy. I fifty one. I had the dictator. But you know what?”

I'm going to go higher up the board who I think can win the star boy. Yeah. It's that soon. He's got I mean you know clearly a ball striker. I believe a flusher. He's want 12,000 plus 12,500. That's that's those are long odds. But I think he's proven he can he can he can run with the thoroughbreds. Can he close? I you know I don't think so. But can he win? Yes. I think so. Who won't win? I'll put my name. I don't think skies win in this week. I don't think we've bought him

out yet. Draft stuff from the from the buluga. Scotty will not win. But you see he just has been like really bitchy which you know and he's really seems. I think he's entitled to do that. I think it's unbecoming but I think I think he gets back to his top 10 ways but I don't think he wins this week. Famously not not a great course for being bitchy not not a course that rewards a lot of bitchiness. Yeah. Who will win? I'm going with came young. I mentioned at the top of the show. But I

feel like he's one trending maybe puts it all together. He feels like a worthy player's winner to me. And and it feels like it would be a big time arrival. And especially after his performance at the Ryder Cup, I find myself rooting for him to become one of the dudes of American golf. I don't think he's he's not a super exciting personality. But I look at him with the beard and stuff. He reminds me a little bit of DJ in the way that he kind of swags around the course

and how barry hits it and how quiet he is. I just think he's he's got a quiet swagger to him. And it feels like it's time to do something meaningful. You know from a win standpoint. It's it's time. So I'm going to go with came young. Basic dude stuff. Let's see. What was the last one? Bold prediction. Bold prediction. I can't. I can't. I actually had something

“similar. I think someone's going to hit in the water on 18 in a meaningful way. At the last”

hole, I think there we might be collapse in Bud on 18. And I love it when 18 is a factor at this tournament. He's seen your point. You're on the approach off the key. Or it was shot. Like came

some of it. Or the. Yeah. I mean, there's just a lot of options hitting the water there on burst or second shot. But I

sometimes that's contagious coming down to 18. Someone's wrecking their rig. That's that's what I'm predicting. Go. Can't believe this one's still available for me for somebody more than 50 to

“one that you think can win, Maddock, Newly. I think he absolutely could win this tournament. And I”

feel he's going to be in a lot of my a lot of my lineups this week. Who will not win? I can't see a world where's Andrew wins this week. That one's just wait a while. How many lineups you put together? So are you just like this being in the daily fantasy stuff? I don't know when ever, but it's fun. It's give you something to look forward to. It's a lineups plural. plural. Yeah, I might make three or four. That will be said is Dave up on the sheet. Outside the coach's office.

Congratulations. I'm the mark for these things because I do more than one was. Oh my God, right, you're right. I'm going to be Bogey on the last set of double. And then for Sally's burner, he's up in there. There replies like you blew it for my fantasy team of speech. I could be good to get out there. I could get much your fucking problem, man. Why don't you get it to you? Oh, yeah, why are you afraid to go at the pit at the last few pitch?

It's still chasing that high for the wrong, wrong round at real estate judges that cost me

like a million dollars. Sorry, go ahead. It's not going to be my lineup as zander.

Who will not win this week's solid? I'll follow this fantasy stuff. God, I hope I delighted up this week. You guys can taste it. I'm going to, instead of doing what I did last year with this guy, when it wasn't going well, I'm going to steer back into this.

“Make sure I'm on the leading edge of when he does come back. I think Scotty wins this week.”

I think he, whatever's going on, I think he gets it fixed between now and and Thursday. And I think he is still going to win this golf tournament. The he's first guy to win it three times. These will be the first one to win it three times. Yeah, that'd be safe. Mr. Nicholas, of course, one at three times. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Holy, old, old prediction. I was going to go with something pace of play related. Like somebody gets dinged for pace of play.

I don't think that happens. I think I've been going to 100. I think Max Homo is in the mix. Coming down the stretch on Sunday. Hell yeah. God until he hits it in the water on 18. And then falls in. Yeah. And then, and then gets a pace of play. My bold prediction was going to be

wins to the shaley fantasy. My bold is auction is going to finish second. He's going to be

rolling it up this week. It's going to be a specific specific second because he gets penalized for anchoring and falls in the water exactly. Do you just got a little game prepared for us before we get there? I want to give a shout to a friends that's so far, the all-in-one finance app where you can bank borrow and invest. Think about your golf swing. The more you practice, the better it gets, same goes for your money by investing consistently over time. You may increase the potential for

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so-fi invest. This is a paid advertisement by so-fi technologies and it's not intended to be financial advice. Same goes for my line-ups that I was going out there as well. All right, we're ready to play each. I'm ready. I'm ready. This is a game called Who Am I. We've played this game before in the past.

We played it recently at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. It's kind of a time-killer game, but it always makes

me just so happy. I love playing this game. I think you guys got to kick out of it back at Pebble. I know our our Fred John's tank. You got to kick out of it. I think I figured if I told you you guys this, but we were doing this during the Pebble shows and I saw him behind the AT&T green after more cow and one and he walks up. He's got to keep, keep a leave. I missed that gym dance when I've been kicking myself up that all night. So these are all, I've got five of them

for you guys here. I'm going to lay out some clues. They're going to start from the most vague you know, and they'll get slightly more specific. It'll kind of give it away as as we go. You can throw out a guess whenever you want. If you are wrong, you're out. You're out for that question. Okay, and we'll just see who can get the most right. I was going to do a whole like the first clues worth this much. That's a lot to keep track of. We'll just see who can do a good job.

All right, guys. First one, I was born in, these are all, these are all players championship

It's tied to the players tied to the players somehow. Okay. I was born in making Georgia, grew up in the Florida Panhandle, but spent my summers playing golf in Jacksonville Beach. Practically a home game. No guesses. Okay. What's called with this? It is not put,

“call it T.C. You're out. And remember you're out because then you're going to hear a clue.”

We're like, oh, no, I know it. I know it. I know it. You're out for this. We'll see if he's out.

Yeah, he sanctioned me with the hole in one. Okay, in 1974, the first year the players was

contested. I won the U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood. The Olympics, he might, Jerry Pate. I knew you were going to get sick. I knew it was Jerry Pate. Oh, yeah. You know, that makes my, that makes my year, Dege. I knew you were all about it. You're all about Jerry Pate is the former kid. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's a great one. Oh, for me, the volcano. That's impressive. That might be good. I didn't. I didn't know that was the

right answer, but a new Neil was going to get out of Ridgewood. I was like, no, I know this,

“because I remember looking at the plaque. I played out there last summer. I was like, oh, Jerry Pate.”

That, you know, my good. Yeah. The other clues are going to be eight PJ tour winds, include the players, the U.S. Open Canadian Open in my hometown, Pensacola Open. Right next to Bubba's sweet spot or what it was ever the candy store is. Uh, and then what, Bubba here, worked as the player consultant with Pete Diane Bobby. Weed to build the Dyes Valley course and famously

the first player to win the players at TBC sawgrass. Next one, guys. Tc, you're back in. Thank you.

I did win the players championship, but I only played the U.S. Open one time. Show show we continue. Craig Perks. Holy shit. I was right. I can guess I want to hear one more. He got me. That is right, TZ. I can sneak it in. Craig Perks, players, players champion only went on the PJ tour, of course, played for two different colleges, University of Oklahoma, and the University of South Western Louisiana, the Cajun Kiwi. Of course, Tiger Woods won the

players before mine. I was going to say, and then of course, famously, over the last three holes of my win, only needed one, but you guys would, you guys would have beat that one out. I didn't think you were going to get after one clue. Yeah, that's impressive. Good. But yeah, only played the U.S. Open one time player champion. That's crazy. Good stuff. All right, moving on. I was the first non-American to win the players.

Good clue. I have no idea. We continue. I won two majors that never got higher than number three

in the world rankings. I'm not ready. This might give it away for one of you. I won the open before the OWGR started, and I won the master's after it started. Not losing them. You're out. Good guess. He won the player. I said movement, so I'm back in. Meals going to go with a pinch. I should know this is bad. My win was the only time I ever finished top 10 at the masters. I finally hung it up at Augusta in 2023. Sandilile. Sandilile is the one of

the first non-American win. I was trying to pick which lined up in the lobby there. They're all in the lobby. All the pictures. I didn't know this one. 1974. A lot of 1974, first year of the players.

“I got a golf scholarship to the University of Houston, but I never attended. Do you know why?”

I didn't want to. I didn't want to go to Houston. I didn't want to go to Houston. I went to another

runner up at two of the first three. Two of the first three. Players championships or the ones at Augusta. Two of the first three. The tournament players championship. It's not the first three. It's Augusta. After college, I played pro baseball in the Washington Senators organization before switching to

pro golf. I would be an impressive, impressive, full. Do it now. Go on. I'm always the first one out.

I'm holding my water. If it's helpful, I did win the senior players in 1995 at a playoff over

“Jack Nicholas. I think I might know, but I rate Floyd. That's what's going to be my guess.”

I rate Floyd too. Rave Floyd is not the answer. All right. So only TC's out. Only TC's out. The first year that the player's championship was played, 1974, which we know by now was the same. Your my uncle went into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Oh, that would caught Neil. Curve. In the Washington Senators organization. Right.

Great. So you continue. I got two more. Yeah. Yeah. Leaderboards. Leaderboards always

list me by my initials, but I prefer to go by my middle name Carlisle. Jaycee Sneed. Exactly. Right. So. Wow. This guy. What a unit. Really. Really good stuff. Yeah. Jaycee Sneed. I was going to last clue is going to be. I was born in hot springs Virginia, which makes sense if you know my last name. Do you do you guys remember the story of Jaycee Sneed from the, the, the, the,

well, what do we call that one? The, the, the, with the high scores. The, the podcast we did about the

“high scores. Carnage tournaments. Yeah. Do you remember that story from the sawgrass players?”

vaguely. Put those people. He was the one by the way that said they ruined a perfectly good small. Yeah. The, uh, this signature, uh, big, brilled, brimmed hat here. Uh, when the players, when the wind got up, really, really bad at sawgrass country club, it blew off his head. And it rolled 100 yards down the fairway and hit his ball on the green and hit a lot of shots. I do kind of remember that. That's the greatest one of greatest nuggets I've ever found in research. The brim

was too big. He needed a fedora. I guess that's good stuff. That's so tough. So solid. What do you got

“two? Neals got one. TC's got one. Yeah. Sounds right. All right. Last one here. Uh, when I was a freshman”

at my now renamed high school, uh, Ronnie van Zant. Well, the founder of the Leonard Skinnered was a senior. Um, that day for me. Moving on. Moving on. All right. Uh, I was a runner up at two majors, wants to Kurdish strange, wants to Nick Faldo. Okay, moving. Uh, I won 10 times on a PGA tour with a lot of double ups weirdly. I won Dirral twice won the Western Open twice and I won Kings Mill twice. Scott Hoke. Good guess. But no, that was good. I guess I'm glad. He's the eliminated Neals. The only guy

that can can tie solid. I do not have a tie breaker. Come on, Randy, you got to get this one for me. Uh, my last win on tour was actually the tour championship in 1994 at Olympic club.

Oh, God. We just did the pod always a shout out that the tour champ used to be at Olympic

club. You did do that. This was your category now. Yes, what was last one last clue. This is this is going to kill T. C. My son was the guest on episode number 18 of the Trapped draw podcast. Randy, I don't think you got to get. You got to get this one. Come on. We've had so many big name people on the trap draw. God, I'm, I'm nice. So mad at myself. Come on, guys, it wasn't. I thought

Jacksonville. Ten time tour winner from Jacksonville, whose son was on the Trapped draw.

It's pretty specific. The Trapped draw's throw a bit. Son was on. Son was a professional golfer. Still his P.J. tour player lives in Jacksonville. Came over to the K. Mark McCumber. Mark McCumber is the. Yeah, that's exactly right. Which kind of ended with a whimper. Tyler McCumber is his. Yeah. I was hooked on the 94th thing. Fuzzy Zeller got a lot of

“run in that tour championship, but he didn't win it. He came in second. I couldn't remember who won.”

Mark McCumber was your winner, which I, the only other thing I'm going to dig up here. I sent this to T.C. earlier. I was doing some research on Mark McCumber and I just, there were two YouTube videos that popped up. I don't know who's running these these YouTube videos. Cody, I don't know if you have these. It was just Mark McCumber names five players. He absolutely hates. And Mark McCumber names seven players. He actually respects hate watch. I haven't watched it yet. I'll give a,

maybe I'll give those a watch. We can do a follow up on a Wednesday. I've got a who he's there. Yeah, Thursday or Sunday. Shout out to it. It looks like beyond golf is the YouTube channel. Just guys, name and players he hates. Guys and name and players he actually respects. It's just really through me. It really, really got him made my day. Tron was was Tyler? Is he the surfer? Yeah, big enough. Okay. All right. That's coming back now. He lived on Colorado for a while. He's a two-time

national open winner. He won the Ecuador open in the Peru open. He was, yeah, that one took you. He had a nice not profit to do with surfing. Yeah. Yeah. I won't took Neil out. He just totally froze. Watch. The booze men is down to the cow. The booze man. So there you go. That's today. That's great. That's great. T.C. What do you, we got, obviously this is players week. We get the

state of the union from the head of the P.J. Tour. This will be Brian Rollab's first go around

and delivering this message is going to be Wednesday inside the boat. Instead of the normal Tuesday, what are you expecting? I don't need specifics as to what's going to get rolled out here. But

“something's going to come out of this meeting. What's a realistic expectation for people?”

Rollab's going to melt in the water. What's your one bold prediction for with this? I'm totally lost. I feel like they're going to say, hey, we're breaking stuff. We're moving with the future competitions committee or whatever, but I have no idea what it's going to be. And they've kind of, yeah, like, but I think he has to figure out something. Yeah, do you think we'll have an announcement of a new competitive structure? I don't think we'll have a full on announcement.

I think we'll have some hints about where we're going, or at least some decent talking points about where we're going, but you know, I don't know if we're going to have a bunch of specifics. Be very curious, too. I think how he positions things from a media perspective as well, like I saw they're doing the hard knocks thing this week with NFL films, which I thought was really interesting. I was like, oh, what a shot across the bow at the full swing team, which the

three thumbs way up for me on that. Let's do something for the sickos. It's not just entry level kind of stuff, but yeah, I don't know. I have no idea what the, the finer points would be, and it just doesn't sound like at that far along on the schedule stuff.

“Yeah, I think it'd be unrealistic to expect a full schedule roll out, but I think I don't know if”

you can show up and not have like, here's the next year. Here's the competitive structure we're going to have. You know, he might come out and say it's 22 events on this circuit, and it's blah, blah, blah events, somewhere in this range. We're still working out the final details on the secondary circuit, but for all the talk, it's been, the talk's been going on for quite some time, and it's getting kind of late for 2027 of, if you don't have, maybe the announcement is we're not

ready for 2027, and you know, we'll see in 2028 when things are really going to actually change. I'd be, I'd be curious, it would be impressive to get a turnaround this quickly, especially knowing they're in the middle of a media deal that something was sold to the media partners that's going

to be different than what they would like it ultimately to be. So I don't think it's going to be

nothing, and so just like following that trail, I have nothing but gut instinct here. I have no

tour is headed. So I think that's a fair expectation too. Yeah. Yeah, I hope so. It's kind of a point of viewing for anyone who cares like, you know, about the inner workings, the machinations of like all of this PGA tour stuff. It's, it's one I've, I'm looking forward to more than I

“have in quite a while, I guess. So actually, you know what a bold prediction is? I think I”

was going to be there on Wednesday. Do you have any info on that? Or is that just a, no, I've no info whatsoever. I just think that would be something that roll-ups like this is important to me that tigers on, like he's heading up this future competitions committee show face. I think

I, I, I, sorry, cut out there for a second power outage. I think it's just macro, like a big

spot for roll-up, which I know I'm kind of stating the obvious, but just on, unlike he did the press conference, I think around the tour championship, but haven't heard a lot, and I thought he was impressive in that press conference, but, you know, it's a big spot for your boy. Like to your point, it's like he better have something to share. If it's not schedule stuff in, in full, it better be guidance on how they're going about it. Like there needs to be some detail on, on, on, what's your, what's your,

he laid out the macro priorities back in, at the end of the last season, but there needs to be some details, is what I'm getting at. Or else, or else, or else he's going to start feeling some criticism. I wouldn't even say from us, but it's going to be a little bit of like, well, what, you know,

“been in the job six months, like, where, where we, I think we've been able to do a 360, you know,”

look at kind of, uh, the sawgrass mare, that's already off the, off the blanket, brother, like other than, like, they would last week, they announced, like, brought it, like a TPC course, that they're buying, and you know, it's like, what do we, what do we do? What's strategic in, from the sports group is, is what I'm talking about. Yeah, I imagine somebody will last the question, too, if, you know, if he's only going to speak a few times a year, like,

what's the, what's the, you know, the plan and strategy as far as the, they got to make a decision

by, by January, I think of next year on the remaining $1.5 billion potential draw from SSG, and

if they, if they want that, and I, I do not pretend to be as up on all that stuff as I probably should be, but, um, you know, a lot of people like Josh Carpenter and those that follow, follow the nuts and bolts week to week, on a week to week basis and Sean Zock and that, that, that group will probably be sniffing around some of that. So I hope, I, I'm assuming he's playing on taking questions as well. I believe us all report is what the, that the full P. J.

Torst staff is going to be there for the presentation as well along with the media. So that's a definitely a different vibe than has been put out in the past with with Monhand Pressers, but, yeah, I guess my point is it feels like they're putting a lot of gravitas around this, you know, speech, meeting press conference, whatever it is, like it's sent out like RSVPs, it sounds like it's, they're making it a big deal. And the fact that he hasn't said much in the last three, four months,

makes it a big deal. So I, you know, it's like they're almost building it up. So it better be something. And as someone who's been in quite a few P. J. Torst all staff, all hands meetings,

I hope the employees are allowed to ask questions because those are always, always really good.

You get one guy who's just like really fired up about IT stuff for stuff that the model logs for 20 minutes about, you know, some sort of like the email security client or, you know, any, any of that stuff, I, I encourage them to open up the floor, open up the floor and all the employees, anybody who's got a question, that would be all in this together. Yeah, that would be a dream. Yes, T.C. Uh, what, uh, just to roll out, are you going to, you're going to connect the

intracosal waterway to, uh, which DJ uncovered some really important information on that from. I was reading a thing, uh, yeah, Pete, I was talking about how, how, how underwater all of that sawgrass stuff used to be. It was out there rolling over the whole property in a robot. He said, so we dug a, we had to dig a ditch connecting it all to the intercostal, which T.C. I was like, we're, we're almost there, man, who's going to finish what Mr. Dodger

“heard. Yeah, that's how they, that's how they drilled the land. They just doesn't seem like we're that far off.”

I mean, I just connected to 17. We're almost there. Let's get some fish and wild like this. I have to pull some imminent domain and, you know, make it out. Um, that's probably, that trenches been built over. It's filled in a little bit back in, in those parts over the years for sure. Uh, anything else, guys, before we wrap in, uh, get players week out and run in. Got it. Excited. That does it for my notebook. Again, we are

going to be, uh, little, uh, players, you almost have bad slip their players, uh, kick off podcast on Wednesday, evening five p.m. Eastern time. Uh, going to react to the news of the week, a bunch of press conference, clippings, all that stuff and, and react to, uh, the state of the union,

live after every round, uh, of play Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday. Maybe bring in some guests in,

“uh, as well on OTC now. You guys spend a lot of time out there on site this week. Have a bunch of”

stuff on our social media channels. Make sure you follow us there on the everything app on Instagram,

on the talk, uh, and subscribe to the knowling podcast YouTube channel right here. So you get

“notifications, uh, when we're getting ready to go live and you won't miss that content. Thank you”

to our friends at titleless row back and so far, Cody running the ones and Tuesdays, Matt running

the socials to all four of you for being here on a lovely Monday afternoon, uh, everyone

“have a great player's week. And we'll see you guys on Wednesday. Cheers.”

Cheers. So, you guys are also the school of the school of the school, just to get some rest and then, hope that it's a bit stimp. No, not at all. So, I'm so sorry, so my safe space. You're my, I'm all right. Yeah, exactly. So, I'm so sorry, it's so sorry, who's just a little bit. I'm just a studio, job or to the end. I'm sorry, I'm not as sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. "Faif"

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