1202: Scottie wins the '26 Tour Championship

[MUSIC]

>> The right club, I'd be the right club today. [MUSIC] >> I think that's better than most, how about him? That is better than most, better than most. [MUSIC]

>> I expect anything different. [MUSIC]

>> Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang up live show presented as always by our friends

at Titleist PGA Tour season. It's in the books I am Solie Joyn by Mr. DJ Puy, hello DJ. >> Hello, Solie, good to be with you. The champ is the champ, you know? It's exciting stuff, maybe not the most exciting, but it was a deserving winner excited to talk about it.

“>> You have to forgive our next co-host today.”

If he's a little distracted, we did float the idea of delaying the show a bit to see if Blocky is able to pull off the win. I know he's got it on at least one screen, TC is here, hello TC. >> Yes, I've got it on CMBC and now back on golf channel after they wrapped up the trophy presentation. Blocky's got a bottling in a way right now, the bad bad bogey on 13, the part five.

>> I'm watching on you and just look up, he's pulled the pin from a bunker, trying to hold one for the bunker, I mean, just he is by, we'll get there, we're going to chat toward championship, Scottie Sheffler, I believe is going to get coming up, it's going to come up in that conversation as well, we're going to get in a little bit on the good good situation. We talked about a little bit last weekend, a lot of developments on that front over this

past week, a lot of drama unfolded there, a bit on the LPGA and as mentioned, we'll come back. We're recording this here as the final group looks to be on the 14th hole up at the allied challenge presented by McLaren, Scottie Sheffler, wins the tour championship. Me and Joe Dean wins the British masters by three after a final round 63.

Ronnie Yinn wins the FM championship and we are in a hold, Steven Alcaras, a two shot lead

“here on the championship tour, this is absolutely wrong on that as a development.”

You said the ally, the ally challenge presented by McLaren, but you didn't say the British masters presented by Husqvarna, it's a hard and rich master's presented by Sir Nick Fouta. Yes, that's what it is, thank you. This is brought to you by Titles, the number one ball on golf and once again, the number one ball, the season on the PGA tour over the 37 events played during the 2026 FedEx Cup

season Titles was also the most played driver, the most played iron and the most played wedge, go to Titles.com to find a fitting near you. I'm, yeah, just go, just go do it. I am so excited, Ben and I have a four ball qualifier this week, I cannot wait to put my

top, my GTS driver into play in competition for the first time.

I'm excited to go play a competitive golf this week. Tell the people. I mean, it was a solo round. I did shoot a 67 this week playing by myself in under two hours, but yeah, listen, it was unofficial round.

It's by myself, can't enter it, TC, can't enter. It doesn't count. It'd be like Tiger's 59 hour though, that was an unofficial round too, and what did it lead to? It's the highest I could have shot.

At the tour, championship, Victor Havana, he took a one shot leading to the final round of a Ryan Gerard, got run down by Scotty Sheffler, played his first ten holes in three under par. Scotty then birdied the 13th hole and bogeyed 14, but Havana, bogeyed the 13th as that was happening.

Sheffler was back up by one there. On the same also, some I would consider to be pretty darn clear footage of Victor Havana's scraping the sand was shown on his backswing. The marked his bobby from the tour came in and said we looked at this video, does not appear that he had to us that he touched the sand.

Testing. Mur, you've had solid images that the thing they did touched the sand. If Duce wants to make the argument that the naked eye rule, I could maybe listen to that. Yes. I think that's what they did on sky.

But Duce just needs to be better there. That's all I'm going to say. I would tend to agree. I don't know if, yeah, I don't know if it was a rush thing because there's no commercials there for that final nine holes in the tournament and didn't have the time to cover it properly

on TV. I don't know. It was tough. Anyway, Scotty would go into birdie 16 and go up by two and did not factor into the final of the tournament.

Victor Havana did finish in solo second three shots back of Scotty, Ryan Gerard, finished

in third at minus 12, I was to say that that probably cost Ryan Gerard $1.3 million that

we could also say that like taking two out of the bunker also could probably cost me. May very well have dollars. It was. We'll get to Scotty in a second. I promised.

“But there was a moment of, oh, my, is Rolep, is he this on it?”

Because I was screaming at the TV like, what is the point of replay if they're not going to overturn that?

I was like, oh my God, it's kind of like a real sport.

Like I do that about baseball and football all the time. He stands on the field, it's called not a inclusive evidence to overturn it, but Scotty does it, man, doesn't make it looks pretty easy. Just looked like the best player in the world all over again. I don't know if you guys just want to roll the same combo we have after every one of these.

But third, one of the year feels like about his eighth win of the year.

He's the dude, man. He's the dude. It's only third win of the year. Right. About that.

Well, it's, it's, yeah, the guy that that should win wins, you know, is kind of the headline here.

“I think there's plenty of, you know, the quote that stuck out to me the most this week was Victor”

Holland and I think probably a number of other players got asked like, if you win this week, do you see yourself winning the tour championship or do you see yourself winning the FedEx cup? And Victor said the tour championship, like it's, it's a free for all, everybody starts at zero. It's just, you know, he's like, this is very different than when I won in 2023.

It's not really tethered to anything and that's kind of how it was feeling. It was a very cool leaderboard with him and Gerard and Ludwig and got her up and obviously Scottie, like up at the top of the board. It was a good golf tournament in a vacuum, but it didn't, like, this was the definition of what I think we're trying to fix and that it didn't feel like it was lattering up to

anything until Scottie wins, right? And it's like, okay, well, you know what, he was the player of the year. He was the guy that had the best season. He's the guy that strokes gained this scoring average this top five's this, like he, he, it makes a lot of sense to see him up there and the way that he did it is the way

that he always does it, right?

I mean, he, he chipped away with the irons and he nearly makes an ace on number two, like maybe a lucky that didn't go in. It was just a quintessentially Scotty, it's just funny, man, when you look at his, his individual holes, you know, if you want to really like, if you, if you want to zoom out, you can see pretty easily, why is the best player in the world, if you want to zoom in and actually

look at the data, it's just every hole. It's just a little, a little gain here, a little gain here, a little gain here. Oh, that one was his worst shot and he, it was average, another, another gain here. It just stacks that up over 72 holes and it starts to look pretty inevitable. Uh, blocky just flagged along 14.

Uh, uh, dude, I'm with you in that, like, it was, it was a really good tournament on its face and then nobody played good golf. Yeah, bad golf, it was, and it's, it's, like, it's not an easy. There's some really tricky stuff and we'll get to some of the core setup stuff and kind of how he's like, um, you know, plays for these guys.

But yeah, the guys that I thought, you know, dudes, um, didn't, didn't, they weren't very dude like today. And I, I'm starting to think there might only be one dude, guys, uh, I think there might only be one. It's not Johnny Robbo.

“Uh, I think Scottie might be the only dude, solid, what would say you?”

Uh, so when we try to say that, this is an amnesty box. If you want to get out of the wrong. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'd have a hard time believing, uh, again, I was trying to like view this through the lens of, like, when we go back and do like the 94, 95 stuff like, who are the dudes, who are the dudes

who just kept doing it or they're all the time winning or top five and all the time. And I'd have a hard time putting Rory not in that, you know, in that being a dude of this time period, right? And again, there's a, there's a whole, another level that Scottie's at, but I still think there's like a, uh, a next, I will say that next layer of guys as the season went on, fell

off and, and kind of refused to challenge him. I mean, Rory came young and wrong the other guys that I said, we're in that class. Like, don't, if we made the list right now would not jump to the top, you know, it's, it has, it has been a thinning, if you will, of, of, of watching those guys go backwards and watch Scottie just reassend and do it again when it looked like, you know, is the rain

over a little bit. We saw the bitchiest version of him. We've seen all, you know, of his career so far this past year, you know, just see some weird misses on the golf course. It was a down year in Stroke's gain and in wins for him, but like, uh, his 17, 13, 20 starts

this year, T.C. 13 top five. I know. I'd like to thank you guys.

“You know how to tell T.C. invented of you don't have to tell T.C. about this?”

I'd say we're, we're looking at a generational talent here in fairness. You've said that about 36 different guys. We're going to get to another one of those guys today. I think. Uh, I saw that I'm so with you and that where I think that separation comes from and

what I walked away from today and I think maybe this gets into some of East Lake. Like East Lake was playing very, very, very hard in a number of different ways. This week and Scotty, I just don't think it's a surprise that Scotty's the guy that handles that challenge. You know, and I, I don't, I don't even mean this in an unfair way, but like you read

some of Rory's quotes about, I don't want to play more than three times in a row. I don't want to do it.

Which all of which is Rory's earned and his fair and I'm glad he always, you know, kind

of says what's on his mind. You just don't really hear that stuff from Scotty.

I feel like Scotty does such a good job of just like, man, if I'm, if I'm the...

going to try to, I'm going to do the same thing I always do.

“I'm going to, you're going to see the same Scotty pretty much every week, you know?”

It looks like a little birdie for a while. He's been a birdie. Oh, left the writer. He's just going to, oh, my God, who does he, who does he, who does he, who does he, who's the only point to get?

This is a forest here. He's in the crowd. Let's go. Hurry up, off. Ed's.

Oh, my, four holes left for like one of them in a part five. This episode is special treat for everybody watching live. Everybody with the recording is just going to be like, what the hell is guys up to? But you know what I mean? It's, it's really the, I just think it's his commitment, it's like dedication, his mentality

that, you know, and then you couple that with, oh, yeah, drives it long and straight and he hits his iron better than anybody ever, almost, you know, and it's just a, you know, he can put and when he does miss on these like East Lake kind of shavedown, short game spots, like he's flashes with the wedges and he's a great chipper.

“It's just, yeah, it's the same stuff every week, but it's, that's kind of the point, right?”

It's like, you know, hard it is to do the same stuff every week like that. It's really hard. And he's done it for like four years now. So a few, a few stats if you'll allow me. So far, he said 170 starts in his career about 40% of those have been top five finishes.

Tiger. Yeah. Tiger was right at, who's stupid, right at 50% through the same amount of starts, which is again absurd. But Roy is like below 30% through the same amount of starts, Phil was like 16% through

170 starts, just like just showing how ridiculous it is.

He famously didn't win in any of his first 70 starts.

This is win 22 in his last 100. So, you know, it's, this is, this part's unfair, I'm taking a small sample, but 22 out of 100 is 22% of course, that's better than Tiger's career win percentage. Now granted, in the same period of starts from 70 to 170 Tiger won 32 times. So it, you know, that was pretty peak time, and he, you know, Tiger's peak is better

than, than Scotty's peak has been, but the rate he is winning at is absolutely completely absurd. And I don't see it slowing down. He is over a shot better, per round than every golfer in the world, over a three-year period, not a small sample, over a three-year period.

He is over four shots better in the tournament than every player in the world. That is completely absurd. That's what he had said. That's what he had said. Hey, I would bet he probably goes, separates it more.

I see absolutely no sign of him slowing down. I mean, if this was the dip, like I think he's probably getting back to a better, I think he'd be closer to 2025 next year saying that now than I think he would be for 20 seconds. He's also got what, how were the kids, like he had one right around the masters. Yeah.

And two, maybe, like, doing it with a couple of toddlers running around, that's even more impressive. Maybe this sounds like late night dorm room talk, but it's really hard to compare like quarterbacks to just like the guy who lives down the street from you, you know, they're they're not really doing the same thing.

Even golf, like everybody kind of is.

So it's like, there's like 30 million people that play golf in the United States.

He's a full stroke better than all of them. Every all 30, all 30 million. It's not even just like the other 10 guys that are at the top. It's like, no, everybody on planet earth, he's better than all of them by that much. That's why.

And next up is Rory, prodigy, Rory, six time major winner, career grand slam winner, a full shot better over a three year period in which Rory has one two majors and has been excellent. There's been excellent over the last three years. That's the time frame that, you know, spans his swing change and everything that he made,

like it's, it's, it really is remarkable.

“I think it just comes back to like the consistency, right?”

Like there's just the floor is so high like that average average is not ever getting dragged down. It's just, it's every, every time he tees it up. Does he lock up player the year with this? Like is it, they were certainly acting like that was the case.

Was he the player the year prior to this week? I forget what we said last week. We talked, I mean, I think we gave it to Windham last week, but is this change thing? Well, we said if Windham, if Scotty doesn't win the tour championship, I think this reverts it back.

I think so, which feels silly to say also because like, I beat that group, but you know, there's 30 guys at East Lake granted it's the best 30 guys, but it's just feel a little strange that that's, it feels strange that what I just watched is the deciding factor. You know, that that doesn't really have kind of the, the gravity feeling to it, but I certainly think he is for all the reasons that you mentioned about the season and the

floor and all of that. And I get the argument of, you know, they both have three wins and Windham has the major and Scotty doesn't like being the deciding factor. But if I may, those two guys teed it up together in tournaments by my count 17 times this

Year.

Okay. Here's the head to head. How it went. MX Scotty won. Phoenix Scotty won.

Pebble Scotty won. Genesis Scotty won. Master Scotty won, Master Scotty won, RBC Scotty won, PGA Scotty won. Fire in Nelson. Windham won.

Scotty was third memorial, Windham, US Open Windham, Traveller Scotty, Scottish Open Windham,

Open Championships Scotty, FedEx Saint Jude Scotty, the MW championship, Windham, Torch Championships Scotty, 12 to 5 in times that they teed it up this year against each other. Scotty, Scotty beat Windham, that's the deal sealer for me. Like way more consistent didn't win the major like who's, who's your would you want? Who's your would you like take off the board first out of everybody?

There's a different question like the PGA Torch player of the year as I think. Totally agree. No. Who would you take? Who's your would you take?

Overall. Who's you in that regard? Like if you're Scotty, I think would take Windham's year.

“I think he's just like, are we talking money or are we talking?”

Yeah. Whatever. Like what would you want? Well, I don't know who the U is here. I mean, Roy won the master's this year, I think that would, that would be a big

ass one. Like I think, yeah.

I think if you're Ryan Gerard, I think Ryan Gerard would rather have Scotty's

year. Yeah. And I think if you're Rory, I think Roy would rather have Windham's year. That makes sense. Yeah.

Or I don't think Roy would trade his year for, for, for Windham's year, though. I think Roy. Right. Like because we're all set. Yeah.

Yeah. Everybody gets what they want. Yeah. I mean, Scotty finishing. The place five times this year is wild.

Five seconds, two thirds. He missed one cut. He was 18 and 19 cuts. Windham is five cuts. And a lot of those were just bad Thursdays that he was having.

And then just charge up the board and he could have won the freaking masters this year. And this is on the master's playoff by one shot. Like, he has to screw that set up. We don't have to get into it again.

He did. Yeah. We can't get into it if you can. Sorry.

“Um, any, uh, what's the, what's the, what's the hovelin conversation tonight?”

I mean, by all measures runner up the tour championship. Good job. It's all for today. Yeah. It's like belating a, belating a lot of wedge into 17 and kind of fluffing the chip

after that was just left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, probably the peak viewership hour. Just not, not even everybody with a good taste in the mouth tonight. 100% it's, uh, again, in a vacuum, you move this tournament to May. And I think it like becomes really interesting to talk about it all the X's and

O's and blah, blah, blah. It's just really hard, man, that you're, you're, you're kind of, I will get around to answering your question. But you're, you're starting the week being like, the, essentially admitting this system's broken.

It doesn't really work and we're going to completely blow it up. And then you get to Sunday and it's like, who's going to win? Fucking care. Yeah, like, why didn't we announce this maybe after the tournament, uh, anyway, so you get to Sunday and you're kind of, it's still kind of gets ginned up is like, you know, who's

going to win the season here. And it's like, well, probably not Victor Hoffman. That doesn't make a lot of sense. You know, so just to me, it was like a player that has been very spotty all year and clicked for the first couple rounds, butter got hot, like it did it Valspar and then, you

know, kind of just fighting to swing down the stretch. So it's, it felt pretty, pretty black and white, uh, but again, like you put it on that stage and it just can't help a feel a little identity list, which is kind of why it feels weird. Maybe.

Yeah, I thought it's a championship, not the FedEx cup finale. Yeah.

“Really, I mean, Vic, uh, if I'm to see him up there, you know, I think this, I think this,”

I think this year was like a kind of stabilized would, like the free fall that he was in. That's right, um, if third in Canada, he won the travelers, um, you know, played, like kind of relatively good year, um, so I think that's something to build on. But yeah, I, with Vic, it's just, I don't know what it is, man.

There's just something, like there's just something that's just always on the edge with

him. I feel like we're just, just grip in the steering wheel, really tight trying to get it in the house and his puts don't ever seem to be like the right pace, like if they're always like going pretty fast and he's trying to jam him in or they just totally run out of gas and, and then like, you know, he had a lot of lips today.

I think that was, that was kind of, you know, some of those could have fallen, um, his bunker play is horrible. I mean, like really, really bad, and, uh, which is weird, like I know his chipping has never been his strength. But his bunker play is just, yeah, and then just, yeah, I don't know.

Like, you know, like the shot on 17 just summed it up, sorry, he was like, he had a great drive on an uncomfortable driving hole. He's got, what, lob wedge in and he, any, like 105, it over the green. Yeah. That was, yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah. But, but then again, like that can come about because you've been fighting

Your swing all day.

Totally.

“So, we're, this is like, I feel like after the tour championship in 2023, the, I would”

say the exact opposite of what I'm about to say. That havent sealing feels weirdly a lot lower at the end of 2026 than I would have thought the end of 2023. Like you both saw it. He said he's not a easy.

I know we're allowed to do it. Yeah. Yeah. The floor. TC famously took a number one overall at our little fantasy dress six year fantasy draft that

we did at the beginning of 2024. I'm an update for points list. Congratulations on your victory today.

So for that one, yeah, I did take Scott even the second overall pick that worked

out well for me. But his raises floor like it's not like he's decreased his quality overall as a golfer just doesn't feel like he's going to he has that ability to hit the noss and like blow people away and he could have used some of that today. Just feels like it's too fleeting.

Yeah. Right. It's tough for him to get to that to that highest level and sustain it. I'm not going to make the comparison. We don't need to talk about it.

“But it reminds me of someone that we don't need to talk about on the tour championship podcast.”

I'll say. Okay. I'll say that. Cheers to that. Hi, noon vodka, self-servodka iced tea.

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And here's to you at high noon spirits.com, high noon suns up. So what did, uh, what do you think of East Lake? We're, we're kind of going back and forth a little bit on, on Slack earlier.

And here's what you, you said you liked watching.

Yeah. Watching it more this year than you have in the years past. I, I, I, I feel like I did. And I was kind of, you know, I was like, oh, man, I'm getting heat checked here. You guys were, you know, not as, not as high on it.

“I think it, it's not the ideal time to see East Lake.”

It's August, and it's usually sopier. And it, it feel like it's usually hotter and more human and more miserable. And it just didn't kind of similar to last week in St. Louis. I know it's hot and humid, but it didn't like permeate. Like the, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the logic nature that comes with that didn't,

like come off the screen, like it doesn't Memphis. And it just felt like there's a little bounce in the greens. So, I'm interesting. Pintin, because it's some really interesting shots. And it was like, I, I just don't know if me personally, if I've given enough.

Love to the redo, I don't think that golf course is like amazing. But they did a lot of very nice stuff to it. Add a lot of short grass, change a lot of stuff around and, and made for some uncomfortable shots. I, you know, you hitting the sun spots. I remember watching got her up on Saturday hitting the, hit it long left of, uh,

uh, the sixth hole of the par five. And he's on down slope. And he's just like aimed completely away from the pin and uses a back stop kicker to like whip the ball back towards the hole to like 10 feet and made the birdie. And I was like, did that, that is sick.

Like that is way better to watch than just like circular greens. Deep rough straight forward bunker shots all the time. And yeah, again, it's not ideal. But it, it, it's, it's good. It was, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed seeing kind of some of it's like a hard to hold location on three. The front right, hold location on three today. Made for some interesting shots. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one.

And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one.

I think that's a good one.

And I think that's a good one.

And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one. And I think that's a good one.

“I think it's the best version of kind of like what it what it can be right now.”

I think it's a really good tournament golf course. I think the best player tends to win every year. Like I don't think it would be wins there. And it's playing like fluky golf or getting away with it. Or just putting things up.

Yeah, no, I think it's it identifies a really good winner. It also just and I hate to fall back. I'm like the easiest get out of jail free card of criticism. But like it just doesn't make me feel too much. But I'm watching it.

I don't know if anybody's watching that broadcast. And it's just like, man, I wish I was there. That looks awesome. I just I'm dying we got to go next year. And I think if you're trying to make this.

The capstone of the PGA tour season and it all comes down to this. Like I just think that. There's some intangibles, man, that you just it's hard to it's hard to explain. But you know when you see him and I just don't think he's like has those. Try as they try as they might.

I think that like the.

I'd never played Medina number three before.

The renovation, but I was just remember seeing it. You know, like you had those parathrees over the water and otherwise there's not a whole lot of going on. And it's not really interacting with the water. I feel very similar about East Lake totally of it. It's a it's actually a really good piece of land.

It's just routed the wrong direction. Like everything's kind of routed. East West instead of north south.

“And I think there could be a lot more interaction with the lake.”

Like 15's a good example of like you got that T box jam back. Next to the road and you have 20 buses just idling. It feels from the leaders. Yeah. DJ, you're like, yeah, a lot of you.

A lot of you are going to turn her feel. A lot of you. Yeah. Two more two more. Like I think the tour just just gaslighted us for 15 years of saying like no like you guys don't get it.

This is the tour. I mean, ship, this is the FedEx Cup. This is really important. This is the fitting venue for it and all that. And I think I think everybody's finally realized like no like we can do a lot better. And that's not like I don't even think that's a slight on East Lake.

I think it's just, hey, let's play offense instead of. Yeah, tripling down on something we know isn't working. To be clear, I think it clears the bars of PGA tour venue. I do not think it clears the bars of tour championship finale venue. Like and yeah, we had a whole podcast if you're looking for you know stuff.

The new match play finale that's coming up. We did a podcast on Tuesday. If you miss that one kind of breaking everything down with a full reaction to that one. But I think it's like, I don't know. And I'm not to open up a big finale discussion here.

But I would say like the tour would just make the most sense if there was just one big end of your tournament that felt like the biggest PGA tour event like the players. And we're not coming down here in August, so that's off the table.

Like, I'm not even like a million percent positive like a match play finale is going to feel like the tour championship.

“Like I think we're also ignoring the elephant in the room that like that already happens four or five times a year.”

So it's like, it's almost like by default because of the last 50 years of professional golf. It's like at best, this is probably the sixth best thing of the year. Yeah, maybe seven and like it all comes down to this. It's like, well, that's pretty, that's stack of the next week or yourself. Yeah.

So as long as you're working with this, this is going to be the best PGA tour event of the year. It does change like what you're trying to get out of it. And again, as we said Tuesday, I'm very happy with the direction they're going over this. But and I do agree with what you said on like it does play different now after the renovation. Like there is real consequence to the shots.

And yeah, it is just bite. Yeah, it feels like you're watching real golf. You know, it's, yeah, it's just not, it's just not all the way there. But I don't know if it really can be at that venue. It just, it doesn't feel big.

It feels like, like it feels very vast and big. Like the course does, but it almost, that almost sucks the energy out of it and the fans are far from the action. And it's like the build out isn't big. I'm not saying need a big build up because energy the opposite thing at the, you know, match play stuff. But even just like the commercials like that, that eccentric commercial like the proud partners.

Coca Cola Coca Cola Accenture and Southern Company. I don't think they, I just don't feel like they've gotten anything out of this over the last however many years, especially, especially Coca Cola.

That that old Coca Cola machine.

But you know, it's like, oh, that I just mean like when they used to give it to the winner and like, Oh, we're good. They still do. I don't know if they do or not. I haven't, yeah, I haven't seen them do that.

That eccentric commercial with, with the vote of phones CEO is horrible. I mean, horrible. It's like one of the top three worst commercials in the year. Competitive race this week. I know.

I won't out the person. If they, if they don't want to be out of this, but subverted our slack was like,

Oh, over to Brian Rullet for first words.

Hello fans, we apologize for this. We are going to fix this. I wasn't a joke. Somebody else came up with it. I laughed very hard that.

Uh, what do you, let me ask you guys this.

“What do you think as the, it sounds like the tour championship at East Lake kind of comes to an end next year?”

What, what was the peak since you guys started really watching golf closely? What do you think the peak tour championship was or is if it's not today? I think you don't think it's today. Yeah, I mean, the mass, but like, not just because he won, but like that. Talk about like vibe like the crowd walking up 18.

How many years have had been like, it had been a long time since he had won. And that was just, that was something. We were at the, we were at the corn fairy tour or web.com tour championship. That day, T.C. if you remember, right? Um, and we like, we're like, Oh, shit.

Tiger is going to actually do it. I had to hurry home to watch that and it felt, it felt big. It felt important and, um, it just hasn't felt that way. That one's almost, it sounds like that. That's like, shouldn't even, we should take that one out.

That's an outlier. Well, outside of it. Is it, is it Rory beating Kevin Chappell and Ryan Moore and a playoff? No, he's, I was kidding. I mean, the horse and the horse is the water and the horse.

I had Jim Fierick too. Like, I don't, I didn't tell if maybe that was, I just kind of got in the media. And maybe I was just a little too into it. But Jim Fierick backwards hat in the rain was fun. Alexander when he like, eaked in that little two and a half footer that barely barely went in was a, was a weirdly good one.

But yeah, the memories aren't, aren't strong. T.C. not saying Tommy kind of says a lot here as well. Sure. Yeah, I was there and I can't, like, I feel like we're gaining up on it.

“I think the point is they've maximized what this king could be, right?”

It's, it's, it's, they've extracted every little bit of value before. Like, I think the ceiling was just so incredibly low. Yeah. With these like. Yeah.

Um, I think there's a picture of Tommy with his Coke machine. Coke, cola machine. Thank you, Cody, for that. Uh, I think you guys with a little-- It's supposed to look Coke machine.

Yeah. You guys were getting ready to make a joke. I could hear it happening. Uh, I paid you guys with a little question of who had an interesting season. A season worthy of discussing, looking back on in some way, asking for a nomination of a positive one and a negative one.

Uh, and we'll start positive like we always do.

T.C. you have a season you want to shout out or somebody that made a leap in your mind or that you'll look back fondly on. Yeah, I got, I got three. And they're all at the top of the board. I'm just trying to figure out which one I want to shout out. Um, I'll say Ryan Gerard.

Yeah.

“I think Ryan Gerard was unequivocally prove that he belongs and his, you know, he--”

He needs to get better with his wedge play from today. But overall it was, um, yeah, he just, he was pretty relentless this year. And I think he's, he's, uh, he's proven that he's going to be a force to be reckoned with for the next. Next two or three years, I think. Uh, and just seems like, you know, for what it's worth, just seems like a delightful guy.

Yeah. You know, I really like the chasing Sunday stuff with him. I like, you know, kind of his going back to the open and just him getting a little bit more shine. I mean, it just seems like somebody that I'm like, I'm excited to have on my TV, which is a hard bar to clear in professional golf. He started the year, rocking.

He was T2 at Sony. He was second at Sony. He was T2 at American Express. Uh, and then he finished his, you know, he lost in a playoff at the memorial. Uh, he had a couple other top 10s as well, played both the open. And then, uh, and then, you know, finishes his, it's strong in the playoff as well.

I check my lineups T. See, I haven't in the lineup this week. I don't see how I did. He's a, he's a, he's a fantasy favorite of mine.

Always always a good value.

I think it's remarkable, too, that he's, he's turned his potting around from being like, like, like a truly horrific potter to actually gaining strokes with him. Yeah. So he, uh, I had JJ's spot on this week. I got absolutely boned. Oh, that one's stuff.

They got a file. They tried it.

It was DM's.

Yeah, exactly. I love going to protect the gamblers. They need to file. These are your reports.

The $15, never going to see again.

But I love the line. They, I forget who used it. If like, he's got to replace the, the groups on his, he's got to replace his lob wedge. After this week for how many just, you know, how far he hits it now.

He was 10, he had his first 10 fairways today. Didn't miss till he got to 14. The fairway, it's almost impossible to hold. He's just a very impressive ball striker, which, you know, the golf swing looks a little funny, man.

But I would. I think we need more weird golf swings. 400%. Trevor had a great breakdown, too. Uh, and yeah, the side by side of him and Scotty,

and just showing his, you know, his side bend and how his head's basically parallel with the ground when he makes impact. It's just really, really good breakdown. Uh, yeah, sorry. I'm going to, you said who kind of took the leap.

I'm going to ignore that you said that because I don't, I was not the prompt you're right. That's not exactly how I took this. But this is a bit of a strange one, perhaps.

“And I think it'll lead to a larger discussion about today, maybe.”

I didn't realize how good Ludwig's season actually was, if you look at the numbers. And I know he didn't win and I know maybe he has a massive closing problem. But I think like the way that I've viewed him just from a zoomed out perspective. I'm like, oh, man, he took a huge step backwards.

And reality like he finished in top 10, like, almost half the times he teed it up this year. Think he played 20 events. I think this is his ninth top 10. Uh, is worse finished the main point well.

The majors, you know, again, like finished well at the majors. Maybe didn't play well at the majors. But worse finished there was T21. I know it's a lot of like non-competitive stuff. But if you look at the, again, maybe don't like this.

Maybe you do. If you look at the strokes gained over the last six months,

he's been the third best player in the world.

It's, it's kind of crazy. No, you cannot do, you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to look at that. Uh, we just have, all right. I think T.C. is going to be check me.

I'm going to be my negative. Totally. And that's why I think is interesting. It can go, it can go either way. Like I would love to sit here and be like, I fucking sucks.

And it's like, ah, he plays really good every week to be kind of a shitty golfer. It's just a very fascinating. It's very fascinating. Very fascinating. That's it.

Massive closing problem. T.C. We need to talk about it. I cannot, cannot win, but he's got. I can't.

Let's see what I saw at the players. It might have the big tones syndrome going right now. We have to go wait. There's a, there's an app we did this several years ago where it was like, dude, I could just see him being around a lot.

And I just don't know how hard he's going to peak. Like does he have the peak weeks as he put good enough, you know, to win. Like you just have to have out of out of standard deviation, putting weeks to win on tour.

And he just doesn't seem to have. He's a good putter, but doesn't seem to ever get hot hot, like hot enough to just like slam the door. Yeah, he ranks like he ranks. What is he?

If you want some high tests, I don't like, I don't like watching him put it. I hate how it looks. I hate how rigid it look. I just, I'm out on that.

87% top.

“You got him in the, I think it's pretty good.”

You got him in the, the mallet now. I'm happy about that. I just, I don't think it can feel like anything except for a big disappointment. I love this. So he's, he's my negative.

One of just he, you know, yes, he put himself in position in these things. And then he kicked it away when he was in position. So yeah, I think the, you know, the results should look a lot better.

I mean, 16 of 19 cuts made seven million dollars,

plus whatever he made today. He finished really well, but like even the, there's, there's no seconds. There's no solo thirds. It's a lot of like T fours, T fives,

T eights. So that's just not going to get it done for me. And we need to do better. There's a little better. There's several of these players where I have these emotions on Sundays of like,

I kind of want to root for this guy to win, but man, T C is going to be insufferable if it happens. And like that threat looms. And I will say it's about love. Like a lot of the threat doesn't feel like it's looming.

You know what I mean? Like when he comes up the board, I'm not like, oh shit, here comes love. Like it's just kind of like, yeah, I don't think he's probably making it sweeter when he does turn that corner.

Which, yeah, this, I, I kind of regret not making this my guy. I thought, I thought T C was going to take him here, but like, I feel kind of the opposite when got her up. Up there of like, oh, he's around. He's sniffing like I, he's, he's a problem.

It's got to be dealt with here. So I could have taken got her up here,

“but I think, I mean, he won three times this year.”

We, we, we, we, we saw that one. We've talked a lot about him. I want to give you a shot. It was, he funneling today though. It was just kind of off today.

Yeah. But like, he's got enough credit in the bank with me of like getting up near the top of the board and getting shit done. Like you're, you're not going to hit 100% of those. You're going to have times where you get at the top of the board and do not have your best

stuff. Like, I don't think, I, I zero points lost in my book for God or I would today.

Like, that's just, I was kind of impressed.

He was competing on that golf course to begin with. But I want to give you a shot to see what Kim. See what Kim has been around for a long time. It's been a really long time since he won the players back in 2017. And he had to like buy far the best season he's ever had.

I mean, gaining almost a full shot per round on his numbers from last year was always a bad

putter. He is like almost all the way up to like basically he's at 64%ile putter now, which is a massive leap for him. Hitting his iron play is a reach in the 97th percentile. He had the best iron year of his crazy delightful guy by all accounts.

He was great in chasing Sundays. I, or on chasing Sunday, the, the PGA tour thing. I, I feel like even after watching that when he comes on the screen, I light up a little bit and I get excited to watch him and his, he had a great whole out on 10 today. He was playing with Justin Roe.

Justin Roe's dunked one on nine. They're okay. They were having a blast. It's just a great great season for see who Kim didn't have like a stamping victory. Only had zero wins this year.

But seven top five finishes, 14 finishes in the top 20 as well. Just a, just a, a massively foreseeable and I look forward to watching the president's cup as well. Totally agree.

“Also, think you could, I think everything you said about Ludwig.”

I think kind of applies to see who Kim a little bit.

As soon as the light started to get bright this year, he looked like a different player. And like none of those, none of those were ultra competitive top five, top 10s, either. But I agree with everything you're saying. Yeah.

A lot of, a lot of other, I mean, again, I don't think Ludwig had a better season than like Matt Fitzpatrick, Alex Fitzpatrick. You know, like there, there's a lot of, a lot of guys that took Bridgeman, even though I would put on there. Bridgeman back to back towards championships for him.

Yeah. You know, got started off hot. And then he was top five today. Yeah. Didn't even realize that.

Totally. So it's so interesting that everybody's individual, individual perspectives on how they look at it. I think the, the biggest thing there, just how DJ views Ludwig versus how he views you, and he, you're pretty immediate, like, see, we wasn't even close on Sundays, right? Neither was Ludwig.

Neither was Ludwig. Neither was Ludwig. But I, my point, no, I'm not saying that.

“I think it's, I think Ludwig must have like a bunch of horrible finishes.”

I'm like, oh, no, he doesn't. It's like crazy high. I think it's one of those things, right? Where we internally put their floor and where we think that their ceiling is actually at. Because I know, I'll throw this out here right now.

And Solie, we've talked about this at length, and you're going to disagree with this, but the phenomenal season for came on. Yeah, like, yeah. I don't know how you can, you, I don't know understand how anybody could say it wasn't a. The best season of his career. Oh, yeah.

Money. Stroke's gained. You name it wins, like, phenomenal. Are we disappointed by this season? Hell, yeah, we are.

Extremely disappointed. Just like, see, who I'm sure is super disappointed about how well he played. Like, just didn't even, like, get close to getting a win. But man, the only other name that I think hasn't been really brought up was mentioned once is just. Alex Fitzpatrick from being like, the constant little brother, hey, he's going to get, like,

the kind of the charity case to being like, holy shit, man, like, he's way better than I thought he was. And like, he's Alex Fitzpatrick, like, he's not just little fits anymore. He can stand on his own. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we could do this for for a long time.

But really it is like, you almost had to finish the season pretty hot to get a mention here. Like, one name that, like, a season we should most definitely shout out is some of, like, Matt Fitzpatrick, like, three wins the season. Best season he's had on the PGA tour on top of that. He and his wife, welcome to him.

His wife Catherine, welcome home of baby boy.

It was a incredible year.

And we've talked about this throughout the season. But Arcos has really become an important part about how Matt prepares and builds his strategy. He works closely with Eduardo Molinari using Arcos pro insights to understand exactly where he's gaining and losing shots, identify opportunities, build a strategy around his game. The same philosophy is really what Arcos has brought to the rest of us with the new Arcos app.

I've been using it all summer. It's a completely different experience. I use it. Ben and I are going to go play a foreball qualifier on Tuesday. You can just go right to that golf course.

You can, it simulates the conditions you're going to play in on that particular date with the wind direction

“and tells you how you should play the golf course.”

What clubs you're likely going to have in quick identifier. I had there. It's going to be a lot of wedges. I don't need to hit a ton of seven irons on the range this week. Like, it's just a really great tool.

It's a great example of how some of the top players in the world are using something like this. Tells you what to focus on. Give you a personalized practice plans drills based on your game, your pre-round warmups, AI power round summaries, strokes game on every individual shot. Then they got the arcos smart laser.

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I've been using arcos all year tracking my game with arcos air. I love it. The air automatically tracks my shots without sensors on my clubs or having to carry my phone. And then all of the data feeds directly into the new arcos app. The developments I've seen have just been great.

It's caused me to make a couple of tweaks in my setup. The clubs I'm using. It's got a great tool to compare your clubs against each other.

“And what you should take out of the bag cannot say enough great things about this.”

And you can go to arcosgolf.com. That's ARCCOS golf.com promo code NLU15. We'll save you 15% on this. Fill one of the guys I play with regularly asked me. You know, it's heard me talking about it so long.

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Arcos golf.com promo code NLU15. I'm not a big gadget guy and this just kind of runs in the background. I got to have to be a gadget guy to it's just it's kind of it's this. It's almost like this little invisible hand. Yes.

It's just getting rid of the data. I had it and then it's really fun to look at after the round. So I've found it very, very insightful. On the flip side, just some seasons that were, I don't know, negative is maybe the wrong wrong word here.

But just forgettable, maybe is what I should have, should have posed this as. It wasn't a bad season for this guy, but just mega forgettable. Considering the leap he made two years ago, how often he was in discussion. And we want two majors, two years ago. And I have zero memory of this guy from this year.

If you told me he had been out for the last three months. I'd been like, oh, yeah, I kind of missed that news. I guess, but say in her softly. Again, not a, not a bad season. He had 20 starts.

He only had three top fives all year long, though. Like we just saw him have 10 top five finishes in in 2024. Obviously, he had some injury stuff in 2025. Didn't get off to a great start there. And it was a struggle overall.

But I was expecting a bounce back from Zander this year. To at least that level pre 2024.

“Which, again, I think we might be looking at that one as a peak.”

And not a fluke year, but just a peak year that you might not be able to recapture. But he didn't even kind of come close to that two strokes gain level that he has kind of lived at. They did a golf literally named like the X score. Like that's two strokes gain per round. Like that the nickname was just because Zander did that for many, many years.

And he fell short of it. Way short in 2025 and fell well short of it again in 2026. And feel like it's a little. It's, it's, it's iron play has definitely come down. But really, I mean, he was like one of the best putters in the world.

And it's just now he's a slightly above average putter.

And he never, I mean, he was gaining a half shot per round.

On the greens for a sustained four or five year period. Like he was a very, very good putter. Just not the same quite peak. And then yeah, the iron play is definitely definitely taking a dip. Yeah.

Yeah, no, no notes. What's your great? What's your great? It's a was he involved in a tournament that this, like down. It was it was at the US open open.

I forget which one was where it was just. Like you get through like 36 holes and he's kind of lingering and you're like, Oh, it's time he's going to make a move. He's going to turn into Zander. And it's just, it was big spots that he just uncharacteristically went backwards.

Yeah. The crazy thing is he was third of the players. T nine at the masters. T seven at the PGA. T 11 at the US open and T 18 at the open championship.

So this worst finishing of major was T 18 this year. Yeah.

“Hi, Floor. That's great. We're going to need just a little bit more out of him, I think.”

Yeah, I will I'll go next. I this one's fairly obvious, I think. I think he certainly would agree with this as he said as much after Windham. But I will say Brooks, you know, didn't really know what to expect. So I think you were you were kind of on this block after the returning member program was

enacted and just like, hey, I don't get too excited. This guy might not be the guy that you think he is or was going to go back to 2018, 2019. Didn't know I wanted to believe. You know, I thought I wanted to think he'd come in with some spite and some hard work.

He does seem like he's working hard. He seems like he's committed. He seems like he's done and said all the right stuff. It seems like he really likes being back on the PGA tour. But the results just have not followed did not follow this week.

I got there. One or this year, one top 10 at the cognizant. T 13 at the players probably is best full performance, you know, full tournament performance. The year T 12 at the master's in a smaller field.

And then just nothing going in the second half of the season.

Clearly frustrated after he didn't make the playoffs. Can't make anything. Can't make anything. Can't make anything. And probably guy that just, you know, it seems like he's been through a lot.

Just the last couple of years. Certainly on the course and and off the course as well, but probably needs to just shut it down and maybe read, you know, kind of re get reinvigorated.

Fire up GGL, baby.

Oh, God, that's right. He's shown a TGL.

Yeah, congratulations to the people of Detroit on that one. I forgot about that. But yeah, that was just, that was disappointing. I was hoping for hoping for better. Yeah, it's not, it's not going to golf anymore.

Unfortunately. I don't know what to expect next year. I wouldn't, in golf, like hard work doesn't necessarily translate to success. I don't know if he's got any magic left. I'm, I don't know if he's doing it right now.

I hope it changes because it's not. It was kind of worst case scenario. He's, he's back, but he's not involved. And I do appreciate his competitive nature and he, you know, wants to be on the more competitive tour now.

“And I think he has regret about how things went.”

That's not been a secret at all. But yeah, next step up. It doesn't seem like he's mailing it in to your point. I don't know if he's got any magic left. I'm, I'm suspicious.

I would, I would, if I was to predict next year, I would say like flirting with that top 90 again, to make it, to make the championship level for 28. And did he come back? What?

His first event this year was farmers.

In February. So he was there from the beginning. Yeah. Yeah, that's a little surprising that. I don't know. I think with a good off season ahead of him.

And when he did get off the stage. You couldn't take sponsors. You know, he didn't get all those events. Yeah, I mean, maybe as a little harsh to like, to be on that 90 line.

He, he, he feels like he gets a full year. Without all the hubbub and all that stuff. Like a full off season. I think he's playing in that 50 to 70 category. Yeah.

I got the only pushback out have going, all, not to compare everybody's Scotty, but to use it as an example. It's like, it's not like Brooks was ever weak to weak guy. Totally.

Ever, you know, he was peak for the majors guy. I'm just, this is all. I'm going to put all my eggs in this basket. And this is going to be all that matters. And maybe he can, I almost in a weird way.

And like, maybe he can get back to being that guy.

Because I don't think he's ever been going to give us that.

I'm going to show up at the Byron Nelson. I'm going to treat it like the US Open. And they're both going to look pretty similar. I don't know if he's going to become that guy at 37 years old. But yeah, I don't know.

He just, he remains a very interesting character. You know, in a tour of fairly uninteresting people.

“I think he's, he's one that my eye continues to be drawn to.”

Like he was playing pretty good golf early on. He had the, it was top 10 down Palm Beach, a cog. T-13 at the players. T-team at Balspar, T-12 at... T-team at the Balspar.