← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Go Low - PGA Championship 2026 Predictions & Best Bets: Cameron Young to WIN, Scottie vs Rory
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John Middelkopf
The volume. What is going on everybody? John Middelkopf Go Low Podcast as we get ready for the second major of the year, we like to separate the Go Low podcast from the football podcast. So you know, I I thought I would come on here, bang out some of the biggest storylines, my betting card, which I'm going to be heavily, heavily aggressive this week, got a lot of plays, a lot of plays. I'm going to ride the hot hand and I'm going to hammer some top tens and top twenties, a couple flyers. So we will do that today on the show. We'll also do some mailbag questions @golopod is separate Instagram from where I do the football questions Just it's much easier for me to kind of corral them and put them all in one area. So if you fire into at Golo pod you can easy to get a hold of me. Any golf question you have when it comes to the PGA Tour, your own golf game, questions about Scottsdale, where to play golf, wherever, I mean just hit me up. And that's where I will find the questions pertaining to us trying to hit that little white ball or bet on people to do it on tv. But you guys know the drill. Subscribe to the Golo. It has its own feedback. We also have its own YouTube channel. So at Golopod or just go low, just type in Golo middle cough. And it has its own YouTube channel. So you can find all of our content there. And I plan on probably doing a reaction on Sunday to this event Sunday afternoon. But other than that, hopefully everyone's doing well. And yeah, let's just talk Iran a big so let's just the biggest storylines this week and this is a weird time of year, right because we peak, we go players basically right into the Masters and it's just a pretty incredible stretch there in late May, early April. And even right after the Masters the RBC Heritage in Harbor Town is, is awesome. Like that tournament slaps the last couple weeks at Trump Doral and last week at Quail Hollow. I love golf. I love watching professional golf on television. I like, I like a big golf tournament whether it's a major, whether it's a non major with big time names. You know, facing off on Saturday and Sunday as much as I do football in the fall. Like I love as a consumer watching these guys Cam Young and Scotty Scheffler and Xander and Rory, you know, and obviously Bryson Rom going head to head on television like it's I am their go to consumer. I watch a lot of golf. It was awful. It was a bad product. So I mean one big picture in the summer months post Masters and after Harbor Town, this is going to be a tough spot for roll out because we really just start thinking about the majors, right? The PGA Championship, which is clearly the fourth major, right. If you were ranking them and listen, I'm not going to get in some semantics argument whether the players should be considered one. You can't retroactively start giving people majors. But there is no disputing as of the last couple years the players feels bigger than this tournament. Now if you win this tournament because you can say I won a major Scotty last year, you know, winning this, it's, it's a bigger deal, similar paycheck, but the players just feels bigger. Maybe it's because we're consistently going to that course. It pops on television. You know, this tournament feels like it's gotten a little easy. I mean, a couple of years ago at Valhalla, I mean it was a cakewalk for those guys. By all accounts, this course, the numbers could be relatively low in the mid to high teens. I saw Ben Griffin say 12 under. I've seen a lot of other people, even Rory in his press conference kind of essentially said the course is too easy without saying it. Now, I don't know if it was 2010 or 2011. It might have been 11. My brother came out to visit me in Philadelphia, stayed with me for a couple weeks or not even, maybe a week, maybe not even that long. Four or five days brought us clubs. It was, I think the off season or maybe the spring, or maybe it was the summer. I forget the exact timing of it. Whenever this golf tournament happened and we went, we're like, oh, Tigers playing. And so it probably was 11. I think it was the year that Keegan won and we just went to the tournament and it was. It's a beautiful piece of property. Now it's kind of tough to get to, you know, the ingress egress, as Mark Davis used to talk about about the Oakland Coliseum, which worst call worst stadium probably in the history of stadiums. But the ingress egress to that stadium was pretty elite. And anyone knows that goes to a basketball game, goes to an NFL game. The ability to get in and out is key. I went to a concert here in Glendale where the Cardinals play. They it's got to have the worst ingress egress you'll ever see. This one could be tough. I remember we parked on the side of the road, had to kind of hoof it back. I would imagine they have shuttles. Most of you that are listening to this are probably just going to watch it on tv, so it doesn't matter. But I remember thinking we followed Justin Leonard, who was playing with Nick Watney, who was a multiple time PGA Tour winner, who went to Fresno State, who grew up a little older than me, but grew up very, very close to where I did. He actually, his senior year in high school went to Davis High. I think I was in eighth grade and went on to have a fantastic professional career. So I remember me and Jeff just followed Watney probably for like nine holes. And I just remember thinking like this course is pure now. That's 15 plus years ago. The technology has changed. These guys are so deep. I mean last week we had one of the hoarygard brother on like a 430 yard par 4 is hitting driver 9 iron. So the distance in which these guys play is a completely different game than that which was 15 years ago. I mean, some Tiger highlights are him hitting like three iron stingers at the Players Championship in like, oh two. Like those days are done. Cam Young pulls out, driver hits at 340 yards. So we were watching a different sport. It doesn't bother me as much as some in the media that want this rollback. And I was actually, I just had to go to the bank and had the PGA Tour radio on. I guess Cam Young technically is using a ball that would fall under the rollback guidelines. And that was the ball that he played at the Players where he hit a 340 yard drive. So the power in which these guys possess now is pretty incredible. And by all accounts they are going to destroy this course. I mean it is short par fives. It is one par five which is like 540 yards. I mean for some of these guys, they're going to be hitting six and seven irons in and just the majority of par fours, by all accounts, these guys are going to have mid irons at most. And some of the longer hitters are going to have like you and I playing a random course, have a lot of eight and nine irons in our hand. And when they do that, they usually dominate it. Now when you look at the biggest storylines going into this, Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion. Now, unlike the Masters, this course changes on a yearly basis. Last year was at Quail Hollow, but he has dominated this event in recent memory. In 23 he was tied for second. In 24 he was tied for eighth. And last year he finished first. And his form coming into this tournament is pretty unreal for a guy who hasn't won lately. He has finished second in three straight tournaments. So it is safe to say he's trending and he's probably a couple shots away from having like four or five wins this year pretty easily. And I was actually reading Brody Miller, who I don't know personally. I've been reading his stuff on the Athletic for a while. Had a pretty good article like, you know what would be fun? Scotty versus Rory McElroy. You know, and forever when I was a kid it was like, when are Tiger and Phil gonna, gonna get into a duel? And it never really happened. And it's kind of sad looking back that, you know, Phil kind of peaked in the majors in his mid-30s, in the mid to late 2000s. And by then Tiger had everything going off the field, got the yips, got injured, and it just wasn't quite the same. But they never quite matched up together. And now Rory is older than Scotty. I think he just turned 37. Scotty, I think turns 30 here in a month or two. So there's a little bit of a generational gap. Obviously, Roy's playing the PGA Tour a lot longer, Scottie Scheffler, but like, Rory's playing for majors now, and I think his goal is pretty clear to try to get to double digits. And I think it's safe to say that he's going to win another Masters. Like, is he likely to win next year? It'd be the first time ever. I think a guy would won three straight, probably not. But if you had to put like over under on his majors the rest of his career, the number would probably be set at like two and a half, three. You know, like he's winning another major now. He, you know, he mentioned this last week. I was actually watching him a little bit on Sunday. Just a sleepy, sleepy Quail Hollow tournament. He, he started fast. I mean, he was like 5 or 6 under through 11. So it's like got a little momentum. Clearly was used as a tune up. The problem is today I saw some pictures circulating on the Internet. He has like a bad blister on his foot and had to quit a practice round after three holes. Now, these guys aren't exactly like Lawrence Taylor, so, you know, on a toughness scale, could he have kept playing? I would imagine, but it's probably a pain in the ass when you're a golfer. And I think we would all like, I mean, Scotty on Hard Rock bet is plus 450, Rory's plus 800. They're easily the two betting favorites going into this tournament. And that's going to be for the foreseeable future for all these majors. But I think at this time I have, I struggle betting Scottie Scheffler just because the odds are so bad. I don't think it's crazy if you want to take him and then take another horse to top 10 to get those from like plus 50 to like 50 to 1 makes it a little more enticing. But, but I think, you know, kind of like the Indian app, the Indiana Pacers, when they lost their draft pick to the Clippers, part of the math was like, hey, we got a 50, 50 shot. And you really thought about it once they missed out on the fifth overall pick, you're like, that's not that great odds. Like those odds you ever flipped a coin, like those aren't really. Now if you say, hey, 50, 50 shot to win a major, that's incredible odds. And that's what it kind of feels like. Scotty is coming into this tournament, he's a coin flip, right? And I think by all accounts, it would be stunning based on his form, if he's not top six or seven and definitely in the mix come Sunday. Now it's hard to win these tournaments. Other guys get scolding hot. I mean, a couple of weeks ago he beat the entire field. Just turned out Cam Young beat the shit out of everybody. So sometimes it's out of your control, like you dominating the field. But there is one guy just going nuclear, which obviously can happen at any moment, right? And I think last year at this tournament, Scotty won comfortably by five shots. So anytime you're winning a major, it's one thing to be leading after a couple rounds, like Rory at the Masters and have a six shot lead means maybe you chipped in, maybe you got, you know, you hit a bunch of 20 footers. It's hard to maintain that, as we saw with Rory at the Masters. But when you win a major by several shots, you are beating the shit out of everybody. So I have no problem anyone wants to take him. I'm rooting for him to be in the mix. I hope Rory's foot's okay, because I think one thing that's been missing in this whole golf world that has been fractured, that now looks like it's coming back together, has been these two guys doing what we never get. I mean, think about it. We've gotten Scotty head to head with a lot of other guys. We've gotten Rory head to head with Bryson a couple years ago in the US Open. It was awesome. We've gotten Rory the last couple years head to head with, you know, the Justin Roses of the world, the Ludwigs, the Cam Youngs. It's fucking incredible. Imagine if it's those two guys. I think that's what I'm personally rooting for. I would say based on the foot thing, which is crazy to say, it's shows you golf's not exactly football. Rocky makes you get a little nervous with Rory. But if he can get that figured out over the next couple days, maybe put a band aid on it, maybe we get, you know, him playing pretty well, which, you know, I think is he's definitely. His odds are a lot lower than a coin flip. I would say the one guy, and this is probably, you know, the guy that I'm going to hammer to win this tournament is Cam Young. And he won the players he won a couple of weeks ago at Doral by six plus shots. He's probably, you know, at the highest level. You could say Alex Fitzpatrick, who's been playing great the last three weeks. You could say the Reton guy, Raton, whose family's worth like billions of dollars over in like Denmark is. I mean, we have a lot of guys that are quote unquote hot. Justin Thomas is actually trending. I would say start to finish. If you go back to last fall, there's probably not many guys with the high end talent that are hot as Cam Young. You could say Scott is definitely roaring, you know, kind of roaring back into form. I was reading my guy, Jason Sobel, who does a betting column, puts it up on his Twitter account every single week. And at the beginning of the year because you can, you can do future odds on all the majors. Cam Young was 50 to 1 for this tournament. After he won the players, he got to as low as 30 to 1. I looked probably a month ago and he was 22 to 1. Right now on Hard Rock bet he's 12 to 1. Which I think if you're going to have a guy behind Scotty and Rory, and usually the third or fourth guy is hovering somewhere in the low teens, you know, 14, 15, 13, 12, that's kind of feels about right. And that's at this point in time now, Ryder Cupper, you know, won the players, has won multiple events. So he's got that kind of monkey off his back. It's all about, like, when's he going to get his first major? Is he the best player in, you know, professional golf to not win a major? I think there would be several guys that would kind of fit that bill. Tommy Fleetwood, I think you would have to, you know, throw into that mix. It might just be him and Tommy Fleetwood. To me, Ludwig hasn't been doing it quite long enough. A couple years ago, it was definitely Xander. And what happened? Xander won two majors in the same year. And I don't think it's inconceivable. Like, if you told me someone not named Scottie Scheffler or Rory, because he would just have to win one more, is going to win two of the next three majors, I think he would be the guy you put your money on. Now, I do think Cam Young's winning a major this year. So when I looked, was it a month ago when he was like 22, 23 to 1. That's basically was his odds for this tournament. The US Open at Shinnecock and the Open, which I don't. I didn't even look where they're playing it. And I kind of regret it now. I'm like, you know, I'll take $1,000 and I'll basically cut it into thirds and I'll just put a bet on each one. And if he hits, I'll make my money back in spades. And I don't know if I got distracted. Whatever, I didn't do it. Now the odds have dramatically changed. So I'm almost just going to take the approach of just betting him on a weekly basis. But not only is he my bet to win, I already have a relatively large unit size bet placed on him to win this tournament. And I think, like Scotty, I think it would be somewhat stunning if Cam Young come the weekend's name is not hovering around the top of the leaderboard. Might not be in first, but like if you tell me going into Saturday or in the middle of Saturday, Cam Young is six and just birdie back to back holes and is on the move, that that's what I would expect. Now last Sunday I was glad because I made this bet probably on Thursday or Friday of last week for a split second on Saturday at Quail Hollow. It looked like he was going to win. And I'm like, I don't want him winning four days before the PGA Championship. And then Sunday his putter got squirrely. I think he four putted. I was watching him four putt, I forget what hole, but it was on the front nine. He kind of just blew himself out of the tournament. I was like, I'm kind of glad. Like I'm kind of glad. So I like Cam Young a lot this week. If you want to bet him top five, if you want to bet him top ten. I think he is an auto hammer now the other two guys, and this is a, this is a regret of mine. I picked Bryson to win the Masters. I obviously I look like a fucking idiot because all time implosion him screaming at the ball to not hook. Just a pretty embarrassing performance. And John Rom, who barely made the cut is another guy that I liked a lot going into that Masters who was atrocious. To me, both these guys are complete stay aways for me. If you want to bet them to top 10 or top 20, don't blame you if you want to bet either to miss the cut or wouldn't blame you either. I mean, the live conversation, you know, Bryson's a free agent. Obviously, he's like, you know, I'll just play on YouTube and then play the majors. It's like, are you really going to do that? I enjoy Internet golfing. I enjoy watching people play YouTube golf. I tend to lean to watch the shittier guys play. Like, I like watching Bob does, or, you know, I watched Bob does take on the foreplay guys. I do like watching, you know, the Brian Bros And Horvat. But to me, Bryson's been given this incredible talent. I think we're all better off. And I think deep down he knows this too. Like, playing competitive golf against the best players in the world. Now, he did have some comments last week at the live event, which I can't imagine many people watched, saying that, like, you know, if this is not about the powers that be, this is not about Brian Rollup. It has to be the membership wanting me back, essentially saying, do the players want me back on their tour? Now, I don't think they're going to kiss his ass to get him on the tour. I do think they were pretty complimentary when he was on the Ryder cup team. I mean, Xander and Scotty, I mean, they were really, really kind of hyping him up going into that tournament. Now, do these guys like them? Does Brooks Koepka actually like him or did he fake it and still can't stand the guy? I think it's fair to say most of these guys on the PGA Tour aren't big Bryson people, right? Like, he's not their number one pick to have to play with, to have to interact with. I do believe, though, the business model where they're trending, if these guys get equity, the importance of growing the brand and the business lines, their pocket moving forward, having Bryson around it, like, the powerfulness of, like, it's powerful to have Bryson in your event. There is no disputing that. He's easily one of the rare guys who is famous outside of the golf world. And YouTube has been a huge reason that he's exploded in terms of his brand and people's understanding of who the guy is. Unique player, right? But I. I do have to wonder with Bryson and Rom if in this major and at the US Open, some of the quote unquote, powers that be or powers power brokers for the PGA Tour, these could be prominent players, these could be prominent agents. These could be as simple as roll up. And some of his cronies are are doing some communication are are doing some meetings with if not them individually, their representatives to try to figure something out. Because I think we'd all be better off as a consumer if we turn on a non major and however many times a year these guys play together and I can't speak for Rom, I know his contracts a little complicated. I guess technically it's with live not the piff and Scott o' Neill's trying desperately to get people to give him money which I think is going to be challenging because this thing only loses money and the money you need to keep this thing going is incredibly high. I mean these guys have been used to playing for $30 million purses. Are they going to be cool with playing for $5 million purses? Some of the random guys probably would. Is Bryson and John Rom going to. I have a hard time seeing that. So I think the storyline of those two guys is going to be, I mean huge in terms of the interest and people just watching what they do. But specifically Bryson, Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock bet Florida's sportsbook. We obviously talk a lot of pig skin on this show but the second round of the NBA playoffs is here now and you better believe we're gambling because any single night wimy can go for a triple double. How about a little same game parlay? You like ant to score over 30 points. You want to hammer the Knicks to win it all. Just need to win eight more games. And if you're ever late to tip off, don't worry. Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all game long. PJ Championships also this weekend. Love Cam Young to win it. 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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy not quite on Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier this week. My guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter.
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John Middelkopf
Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.
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Robert Smigel
Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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John Middelkopf
I did want to look at the because they did put the pairings out and they look pretty good. Schoffley, Koepka Hatton. That's pretty solid. Cam Young, Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas. Not bad. This is probably the marquee one. Rory McElroy, Jordan Spieth, John Rom. That's pretty hard to beat. Scotty Scheffler, Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose. That's not bad either. So I think Jon rahm with Rory McElroy. Is that random? I don't think so. Like are they doing that on purse on purpose? Obviously these guys are teammates on the Ryder Cup. Justin Rose and Rory kept pushing him to figure it out. He finally did in terms of paying the fines and he can be on the team moving forward. But I think there's some intent behind that pairing. Now I'm not saying they're talking business as they're walking down hole four and Ron Amick but I don't think that was randomly put together. I think all this stuff you have to kind of put the pieces of the puzzle together and I think there's some I think there's some thought behind that that that pairing. So here are my plays for this weekend and I'm going to get pretty aggressive on the board. Like I said, if you want to take Scotty to me Rory I don't feel is great about you can never discount him because he's one of the greatest players of all time and if he's right the blister he hasn't really played beside last week where didn't even look like he tried. So to me he's a little bit of a wild card. If you want to take Scotty do not blame you at all. Plus 450 I do think if you're going to do that you basically take Scotty and you top 10 a Cam Young, a Xander Schoffle, a Ludwig, like one of the premium Guys, and you try to get those odds up to like 40, 50 to 1 instead of just taking Scotty makes it a little more entertaining. I have Cam Young. He is my only true outright bet to win this tournament. I think betting Cam Young to top 5 or top 10 is an excellent play. Now, betting guys to outright win this is not football or basketball, right? You're not just betting the Thunder to beat the Lakers. You got to take down the entire field. This field's a little manipulated because you get all these PGA professionals in. So it's, you know, there's a large percentage of guys that don't have a shot to make the cut. So you're really, if you're Scotty, you're Cam Young, you're any of the top guys. You know, Brooks always used to say this. You're probably truly playing 20, 25 guys, right? Because the top 40, 50 guys, half those guys, just aren't going to play well. It's just not going to be their week. And then you're going to get a couple guys outside of the top 50 who are going to excel, but there are going to be a handful of top 15, 20 players who are just on their A game. And you're going to have to take down and, you know, some of these US Opens or the Masters is about playing smart, taking your birdies while you can. If this tournament does turn out to be a little bit of a birdie fest, where you're talking high teens, 20 under, winning it like your putter is going to have to get hot. You know that's just a fact, right? You're going to need a lot of birdies. I did see them, you know, showing some of the course. The undulation isn't exactly Augusta, but there are runoffs. The rough is going to be a little deeper. You know, you got to hit draw in the fairways that are fade fairways, that if you hit a fade into it, it's going to run right into the rough. So you got to be able to work the ball. And if you're hitting fairways, you're going to have a lot of shorter irons in your hand. So to me, if you're telling me Scotty's accurate off the tee, it's like, holy shit, it's going to be a problem. It's where you know, Cam Young, if he's accurate off the tee, hitting it that far, good night. Because we've seen this year his putter has been. Looks like Brad Faxon, I would say. Listen, if you ever want to Take the top of the board to top five or top ten, I have no issue with. I do like taking a little bit longer plays to top 10. You get Justin Thomas at plus 450. You could get Ludwig at 2 to 1, I guess. JT, that's top 20. But to me, my favorite top tens, little bit of a longer odds. Rickie Fowler, who's had success at this course. Rickie Fowler, who easily is a couple missed putts away last week from winning the tournament, has a lot of momentum coming in. I do think if he got in the mix, it would be cool to see Ricky one day win a major. It does feel at this time like more than likely he's going to go major list his entire career. But this is a guy who's still making a lot of money and still top 10 in a lot of these tournaments. So you can get Rickie Fowler right now at plus 500, which is 5 to 1 to top 10. I don't like it. I love it. You can get Gary Woodland, who has had a fantastic year, who has won this season, who hits the ball a mile. And we saw if his driver is on, you know, eight to one is pretty tasty. But if you want to get a little less aggressive and just take Gary woodland to top 20, you can get plus 350. So, like, you're looking at pretty tasty odds on a guy who has won a major before, who's played in Ryder Cups, who's played in big events, who's had success in big events, and who's playing really, really well. It feels like Xander, who has four top tens this year, if you plus 165 to top ten, don't hate that. I would say two names that are kind of sexy right now is JJ Spawn is a guy that's trending and Si Woo Kim is a guy that's just had a fantastic year. One problem with Si Wu, not a great putter, honestly, has some comps to Hideki, you know, from years ago. Like, Hideki was clearly one of the best ball strikers on the PGA Tour, but he couldn't putt. And then when, when Hidecki, now his putter can get streaky and hot and he can fucking run, you know, Riv, a couple years ago, obviously the year at the Masters, like, he's won a lot of events because of his putter because he's hitting it so close. Si Wu, his putter is kind of a bugaboo, but Si woo to top 10 and top 20, don't hate it all. So my Mains are Cam Young to win, Fowler to top 10, Gary Woodland to top 10 and top 20. Don't hate Justin Thomas at all. Who's won the PGA Championship a couple times. Who's playing really well, top 10, top 20. I think Ludwig, if he's on his driving accuracy, if he's hitting fairways, he's so good with his irons, putting can be a little bit of an issue. But like top 10, 2 to 1, like that a lot. And like I said, Siwu and JJ spawn are two kind of longer odds guys if you want to just have like a heartstring play. He's a PGA Championship away from completing the career Grand Slam. It's hard not to root for just or Jordan Spieth. I did, I read, I read and I heard some people talking about it, that he has implemented a new title as driver that's like an inch longer and it might add to some driving accuracy, which I would say has been over the years somewhat of a downfall of Jordan Spieth. You can just turn on the television, it's like, oh, Jordan's on tv. Where is he? He's in like the middle of a bush on another hole, like a fair way over. So he's been known to spray at a time or two. My main issue, that even if you tell me that Jordan is driving the ball well and hitting his irons well, I have watched him so many times this year from 4 to 5ft, not even come close to hitting the cup like he is. The numbers might disagree. I feel like from the eye test he has become terrible to be too strong. But he's not a confident putter. And one of his greatest strengths in his heyday was he didn't miss and he banged out a lot of 20, 30, 40 footers. It feels like those things are, or those days are kind of a thing of the past. So another name is kind of Red Hot. I mean, he's, he's got to be on the most in terms of financially. One of the greatest three week stretches of the guy's life is Alex Fitzpatrick, Matt's brother. You know, they won the, the Zurich where they played together. Then he finished. He was, I mean, he had a pretty good chance to win it last week and then he started awful. But then he came storming back, hit a couple squirrely shots down the stretch. He had an awful iron shot on 17, which caused a double and basically ended his chances. But he's fucking played well, man. To me, Alex Fitzpatrick, now the majors are a little bit of a Different animal. Do not hate. Just a flyer. Top 20 on a guy that is just red hot. Okay, let's do a couple mailbag questions. Olopod. Olopod is the Instagram fire in my DMs. And get your questions answered here on the show. What are some of your favorite courses on the PGA Tour that visually quote, pop from the tv? For me, it's the RBC Heritage. Yeah, I mean, I would say, I think non major, right? Because Augusta's, I would say always number one. And then depending on where they're playing the US Open or the British Open, they could have some pretty incredible, you know, TV viewings. And then there's some boring, like, Texas tournaments and Florida tournaments. I mean, Quail Hollow doesn't pop. RBC Heritage is always like, I want to go to Harbor Town. And I mean, my wife's always wanted to go to kind of the Charleston area. And I understand why the Fitzpatrick's coming from London used to vacation over there because that area just looks incredible. Anyone that's watched Bravo and Southern Charm or Southern Hospitality looks like it's got a cool downtown. The RBC Heritage would have to be near number one. The course has become, if it's not windy, wet and cold, pretty easy for these guys. But you could argue it's really hard to beat Pebble Beach. There is something pretty special about, you know, hole 6, 7, 8, 9 up against that water, that anytime you see the ocean, to me, Torrey doesn't quite do that. I've never played Torrey Pines, but it's a pretty boring course. I feel like on television where pebble is just truly pretty awesome. So I would say the RBC Heritage in Pebble beach are really, really high. I think non major. I would say I would put the players number one. I've always been a fan of Memorial Jacks Tournament. I think just it always looks really good in the summer. I would say, you know, Riv, I think sometimes the country clubs they play don't pop as much. I know it's kind of a little rinky dink, but I'm a sucker for the Palm Springs, the Amex. It always. I've been to Palm Springs four or five times in my life. It always makes me go, God, I wish I was in Palm Springs right now. Kind of a sleepy town. You know, it's a big retirement community. Obviously Frank Sinatra finished his life there. There's just something I don't know that I hold in high regard when it comes to Palm Springs. So I would say the Amex something about the dead grass in the rough. I don't know. I just, I just enjoy it. But I'm with you. I'd put Harbor Town. I would probably have the players. 1 Pebble 2 I'm trying to think anywhere. You know, Bay Hill doesn't do it for me. Memorial is not bad. Eastlake I've never totally hated on tv. I know it's not the greatest like finishing situation for the PGA Tour. Question for the mailbag. I've really been struggling with my driver. I started playing about two years ago and fully picked up on a functional golf addiction. I play multiple times a week and have even gotten my handicap down around a 10. My biggest issue currently is my driver. I find myself having to go seven wood or hybrid off the tee. I tend to swing down in the ball and duck, hook it short left or hit an absolute worm burner anytime I pull out the driver. I have a decent amount of swing speed and can't pump my and can pump my seven wood that I can still manage low scores without the driver, but I feel unlocking it will allow me to shoot a low round moving forward. Any suggestions? You have to be able to bring the driver in play. If you're a 10, you're probably hitting it decently far. So I'm let's pick a number. If you hit a good drive, probably 260 and if you're hitting your hybrid or 7 wood 220 like you're talking big amounts of distance throughout a golf course now like you said, we're all going to hit drivers in the shit. We're all going to miss drivers. I'm by no means a teaching pro or have any understanding of the golf swing beside my own. But I do think I don't think it's crazy to get some sort of lesson and just hit someone up wherever you play at, whether it's a local club, whether it's a muni, maybe ask some friends that you play with if they've ever got a lesson. And basically if you are able to find an individual, some sort of teaching pro, just be like I want to hit my driver better and maybe for that hour my cost you a couple hundred bucks if he can give you a tip or two to give you some confidence because you can't play modern day golf without the driver and technology now, which I would imagine you're hitting it well enough with all your other clubs. You should be able to function with the driver but you cannot play golf and get to a 10 handicap and aspire to get To a single digits where you can never hit a driver. It's just. It's not possible.
- [40:53]
Ferguson Home Advertiser
Has John Rom ruin his career?
- [40:55]
John Middelkopf
There have been a lot of talk about recently about Liv, but he's also 31, which is relatively young for a golfer. He may have time to salvage things. I don't think he's ruined his career. Obviously individual. You know, as an individual, he financially changed the course of his children's children's children's lives. I mean, he's made. There's probably beside Tiger, Phil and like Rory, there's not a richer golfer or maybe Jack because of his businesses or Arnold Palmer, you know, I mean, he's got to be top five or six. Richest golfer of all time. And so if you're money motivated, which he claims he's not, but the only reason you accept that much money is because money did motivate you. And he's basically wasted the last several years. Now, like you said, It's 31 years old. This is not these other sports where once you get in your 30s, it can end at any moment. He could easily be a great player for another 10, 15 years. And by all accounts, with his swing, he doesn't get injured. His swing feels pretty repeatable. I believe that Jon Rahm can resurrect his career, but it's not even arguable in the last couple of years. He. He's pissed it away because at Liv, he has not been good already for the majors. And he can argue that, but the results speak for themselves. Where. If you told me he had never left the PGA Tour, and I don't blame any of these guys. I don't blame any individual. The older we get, we all have to make decisions. I don't get caught up. Like, I make fun of the Rossini Vrabel situation. That's. That's their fucking issue. Like I got. You want to cheat, you cheat. That's.
- [42:38]
Ferguson Home Advertiser
That's your problem.
- [42:39]
John Middelkopf
You deal with your wife. You know, you. You want to marry this girl that no one likes. That's when maybe you do like her. Anytime you make a personal or financial decision, the older you get, that impacts you and you. Only because that's what it did, right? He's. It's out. You know, the. He. He was a member of the PGA Tour, but it's. They were independent contractors. I have no qualms or issues with these guys making decisions. But decisions have consequences, right? And I think his goal, he always stated, was to be a legendary player. The history of the golf meant a lot to him to be one of the greatest international players. He idolized Sevy Ballesteros and it kind of derailed him for a little bit. Now we'll see with live ending. It'd be stunning if it doesn't. But you never know. Maybe it has nine lives. Feels like they've already used eight, maybe nine, especially with the money gone. But maybe Scott o' Neill can pull a rabbit out of his hat because as John Rom stated, because of my contract, I'm kind of stuck now. If it just disbands, I guess he would become available. It's kind of confusing. Like I don't how is, how is Liv going to afford Jon Rahm if they don't have the funding? If the Piff is gone a little above my pay grade. Maybe that will be reported on as the year goes on because that would be pretty complicated if we're talking hundred million dollars just to pay him alone to keep him on the tour. I also a little stunned that I'm no lawyer, but I've done a few contracts and you would imagine if you were him, one sticking point would be listen, I'll come to live, but it is contingent on PIF being involved. If the PIF financing leaves or pulls, specifically pulls out. They, they, they want to move in a different direction. This contract at that point comes null and void. It's, it's, it's no longer valid that why would Piff have been anti that language? Like if you guys yank out and you are no longer associated with I'm free. You would think all the top guys would have had that in their contract that this contract is directly connected to Piff because PIFF is live. But it by all you know, according to John Ron, that's not really the case. So yeah, I mean I, I by no means think his career is over, but these last couple years do feel like a waste of a guy that had won a couple majors who looked like he was going to be a dominant, dominant force and then just took a lot of money and kind of wasn't that relevant for a couple years. We'll end on this. Another question beside the obvious, like Augusta pebble and Sawgrass, what's the best course to watch on tv? For me, it's Tory. I also think it depends where you live, right? If you live in Philadelphia or New York or Washington D.C. or Boston or Chicago, when Tory comes on at the end of January and it's 85 degrees and you see the ocean and you're freezing your ass off. One I didn't Bring up and they're not going there anymore. It was hard to beat Kapalua. Even if you're on the west coast and living in Scottsdale where 75 degrees Kapalua comes on early January, you're like, that's where I wish I was. Now I understand there's economic situation that got a little murky with the Hawaii situation. I was, I had a soft spot for Kapalua and then the Sony Open, like that sucks. I'm not cool with them leaving Kapalua. Probably better for the players because unlike them, you know, we would. You want to go play Kapalua, we'd be like, yeah, those guys are so numb. They look at, they look at a nice golf course like I look at a football game. It's just, just business, right? But that tournament, to me, slapped that, that was. And I understand it was easy pain in the ass for some of those guys. Especially now tgl if you're playing and Jupiter one night to fly to Hawaii. Even if you got a Gulf Stream, it's a long flight. But I. That might have been number one. There was nothing like the start of the golf season. Early January football playoffs are starting in like Thursday and Friday. Just flipping on, even for us on the west coast, like five o' clock in the afternoon. And they're just on like hole five. And you see the Pacific Ocean in the back, Kapalua, which is just like, God, that's where I want to be. So RIP Kapalua, because I'm going to miss you. And that, honestly, beside sawgrass, might have been my. It wasn't the hardest. Probably one of the easiest. Nothing like that. That final hole where they hit that crazy hook shot with the ball above their feet to the below, you know, where you kind of can run it up the right side. Some legendary moments between Ernie and Tiger Bubba's hit some legendary shots there. Gonna miss it. Gonna miss it a lot. So I would put Hawaii pretty high on the list for me. The volume.
- [48:08]
Mood.com Advertiser
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- [48:58]
Podcast Announcer
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products and fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done
- [49:28]
Robert Smigel
Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy not quite on Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier this week. My guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter.
- [49:47]
John Middelkopf
Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.
- [49:50]
Robert Smigel
Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [49:58]
Timbo
Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning the Internet lost its mind and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source. The athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports slice on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice Life 12 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.
- [50:33]
Podcast Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [50:36]
John Middelkopf
Guaranteed human.