Slip under the covers for a fun episode about Aaron Rai and the PGA Championship at Aronomink Golf Club.
A walking info-mercial of a golf bag with a fun mix of clubs and of course the double glove love.
We discuss Rory McIlroy's and every golf account's weird distain for this course/tournament
LIV files for bankruptcy
Bryson thinks the moon landing is fake
Recent club changes
THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson Preview
Trivia and One and Dones
Transcript
Dominic Colangelo: Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to Under the Covers, a golf podcast where we deep dive each week in the latest PGA Tour winners bag. We're your hosts. My name is Dominic. We have Kevin with us. How we doing, Kevin?
Kevin Spisak: Doing great, Dominic. Cavs are currently up 15 on the Knicks in game one of the Eastern Conference Championship. So let's keep it rolling, baby.
Dominic Colangelo: It's massive. And we have Matthew with us as well. What's going on, Matt?
Matthew Zampello: Gentlemen I got two gloves here ready to go for this
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic Colangelo: you
Kevin Spisak: If you're not watching on the video, pull up the video.
Dominic Colangelo: You need the video. That was incredible.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Kevin, do you, do you feel like, ⁓ the calves Nick's series is a little bit of a, ⁓ you know, who's going to go get body slammed by either the Spurs or the, ⁓ the Oklahoma city thunder.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ yeah, it's, it's varsity, junior varsity. This is the junior varsity side for sure.
Matthew Zampello: Okay. I'm good. I'm glad we're on the same page. No, things are good over here ⁓ in the deep south Dom. The tour's coming to Dallas. This Sunday was must watch TV. Old golf Twitter came out with, you know, aeronomic, aeronomink. I'm sorry, gosh. And man, it just was like a leaderboard. just was like, ⁓ he's in the lead. He's in the lead. He's in the lead. John Rolfe's gonna win. No, he's not. It's Aaron Ryde. It's crazy.
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: We actually, I do want to bring that up later about old golf Twitter, but that is a great point. So that, that leads us in to our winner of the PGA championship, Aaron Rye, the Englishman. It is his second and a half career win. I say half because he also won the par three contest at Augusta. But he is the first Englishman to win the PGA championships since 1919. massive for the country. The first non-American to win the PGA Championship since Jason Day in 2015, which is hilarious because Matt and I last week talked about where's all the American talent recently, and they've just been winning PGA Championships, I guess. So then Aaron Rye is also the first PGA Championship winner who has ever had a better score after each round, which is
Matthew Zampello: Mm.
Dominic Colangelo: Very fun, very impressive, kind of speaks to his personality. ⁓ So opening round of 70, then he had a 69, 67, 65 for a total of nine under to outlast John Rahm and ⁓ Smalley, I guess we can say. But very fun ending there. It was like Matt said, very back and forth, just with a very crunch leaderboard. And I think we can kind of get to Rory's comments a little bit later. ⁓ but the double glove, the iron covers, the castle tees, which the only other person I've seen where ⁓ actually play those is also British. Sean, I hope you're listening. And Matt's got the double gloves on again. I feel like he's everything that the early 2000s golf world would freak out about. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know why people hate iron covers so much.
Matthew Zampello: He's a walking infomercial that you wake up after you fell asleep watching golf channel on like a Friday night, you know, and you wake up and there's some like, you know, someone trying to sell you a tea that's going to make you hit it, you know, eight yards further or whatever some BS thing like it's it's amazing. know, to each his own. Right. He figured it out. He's one of the obviously played the best ⁓ and and he deserves to win.
Kevin Spisak: You
Matthew Zampello: Right? Like, I mean, he does his own, he does it his own way. He seems like one of the genuinely nicest guys out there. Everybody seems to love him. So super pumped for Aaron Rye.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Yeah, Kevin and I were talking about.
Kevin Spisak: Yes, Dom pointed out earlier this year. He was bound for big things and he's been playing well all season, you know, and then just really capitalize on a very difficult golf course.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, Kevin and I were talking this weekend about Rory's comments a little bit about the bunch leaderboard thing and how you can just bomb it and then you'll be fine. But ⁓ as our beautiful TikTok comment section let us know is Aaron Wright is not bomb it. He averages like, I think it's somewhere in the 280s. I don't exactly remember, but he doesn't hit it very far, but he was top five in driver accuracy this week. So that kind of leads to having those better approach shots. Cause I think he was number one in approach, like ⁓ into the green, but it's just, it really shows how important it is sometimes. I think they took it personally whenever Rory said, yeah, it's just a bomber's paradise. We'll figure it out later. So they made the rough really long. They made it really hard to have those like second shots if you're making it bad. mean, there was one graphic that showed If you hit it in the left rough, or sorry, if you hit it in the fairway, 90 % of the players were hitting birdie from there. If you went right of the fairway, you were like 40%, and then left, it was in between these bunkers, you were at like 15 % of the players were hitting birdie. So it's super important, and it's just like, you don't really always need to bomb it, know, shorter course. So he really just hit all the shots that he needed to hit.
Matthew Zampello: I think like aeronomic really showed out. ⁓ I think a lot of people, like you said, were saying that it was going to be a terrible major and, you know, it was just going to be a bigger PGA Tour event. That was like a real golf course. Now, did they put the pins? I think they put the pins in some really hard spots for sure. And ⁓ I forget the guy that does the course set up for the PGA of America, whatever his name is, ⁓ Keith, Keith Pelly, maybe something like that. He obviously tricked it out. Pins make that golf course. But I think also the rough, it almost seemed like the rough wasn't long or super long. It wasn't US Open long, but the grass was so thick that you couldn't hit out of it, even when you were in the rough. it made it, again, I always go back to those tour guys are so good. They only struggle when they lose control. And the way you make them lose control is you take away spin and you take away the predictiveness that they have. And, and, and kind of rough like that and really tough pins make it really hard. But yeah, I think it was super bunched up. That was probably more due to the pins. And I, and I get the argument there on Twitter from the golf course architecture folks, like, you know, knowing up and the Friday and stuff of The pins were so hard that even the best iron players couldn't go after the pins because they were. And so everybody was having 20 footers for birdie and 25 footers. Like it was, it was almost so hard. They had to aim for the green or the middle of the green ⁓ and take it to putt from there. So there wasn't a lot of doubles, but there also wasn't a lot of birdies, which made for a bunched up leaderboard. But I don't mind a bunched up leaderboard. Like it was cool on Sunday being like, I have no idea who's going to win.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yeah. I think Justin Rose was the interview I was watching, but he was saying it was kind of like it was similar to kukuya grass or it was kukuya grass, something like that. But we talked about that with Riviera where it's just really tough to hit from. But yeah, to your point, there was a lot of duffs from the rough. Even Rory had a couple that just weren't, they didn't look very good. But then most of them still ended up in the fairway and you just
Matthew Zampello: It was still fun.
Dominic Colangelo: get up and then two putt from there. So makes a lot of sense. was, it was very interesting. I think golf Twitter is a weird animal right now where you just kind of find the most popular take and everyone jumps on that. Like no one really thinks for themselves anymore. ⁓ I didn't dislike this tournament at all, but like from the, the little bit that I was watching, but maybe it's just because I didn't get to watch too much. We were having a lot of fun.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Um, you know, there was two things I wanted to point out about the course. think, uh, Matt was spot on in our preview talking about how the PJ championship doesn't really like emphasize the golf course and like the notoriety of the golf course. And I felt like the coverage like was laying into Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, everything, Philly, Philly fans, you know, all of the rumors about what Philly fans have done and like, couldn't care less about the actual golf course itself. Like it was just, you you heard Philly, Philly, Go Birds, you know, all the stuff in the crowd. And I feel like they like really emphasize that just like a random ink, you know, it's just happened to be some patch of grass that a golf course was being, you know, hosted at in Philly. ⁓ But with that, ⁓ you know, this year I've become totally obsessed in tracking like the hardest holes on the PGA tour.
Matthew Zampello: video.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ and Arana mink actually got now three of the top six for the 2026 season. So number eight, ⁓ and number 10 are now two and three on the season respectively. And then number 15 is number six overall. So I've got two out of the top three, three out of the top six for the hardest hole so far on the year. That'd be pretty fun to see come the end of the year where those, you know, end up actually finishing out, but Um, you know, like, like Matt was saying, you know, not being able to control the spin, uh, you you guys reference like how difficult the pins were. Um, you know, it's kind of funny that we've got a par three as our number two hardest hole on the golf course right now. You know, and it's a 242 yard, uh, par three, but fun stuff there with the Ron and Mink.
Dominic Colangelo: That's gnarly. Par 3 is being that hard.
Matthew Zampello: I'd like to point out, ⁓ think his name, I can't remember his name. I always just know him as Joseph Lasagna on Twitter, but I think it's Lamanya. He does the fried egg stuff. He's like Eeyore. He's so negative. He's like, this isn't even a major because the course is so bad. Like blah, blah, Just be happy that on Sunday you have a bunch leaderboard, you don't know who's gonna win. Because it's like every time, he's like,
Dominic Colangelo: Okay.
Matthew Zampello: he was like, well, somebody should be able to separate and because the course, the course is so bad and it's not set up correctly, nobody can separate. It's like, okay, if somebody separated, we, then we would just have a boring Sunday and nobody.
Dominic Colangelo: And then he would say the same thing that it was boring. So like, that's where I'm getting at where he heard Rory say it after he had a bad round, cause he was complaining, cause he's like, ⁓ I couldn't score. So then he turned around and had a great Saturday and then you just change his comments like, yeah, you know, it's actually a pretty good course. it's like, nobody knows what to think. Cause nobody like Rory is back and forth. So it's like, ⁓ what do I do? It's so interesting. But I think we can get back to Aaron Rye. ⁓ We got a little deep in the weeds of the tournament there, but I'll say one more thing. On the bachelor party, we had a fan interaction, Kevin and I did. I wanna shout out Alejandro, I wanna shout Clay, and they were giving us hyped up on the podcast, it was very fun to hear, but Clay had Aaron Rye in his picks for his... pool that he had. So he picked the winner, which is sweet. So we're following that pretty heavily. He had like got her up, Ry. Ooh, Kevin, do you remember? I can't remember. He had a really good round. we know. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ was a JJ spawn. ⁓ cause JJ sucked. And then ⁓ I don't remember his fourth.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, doesn't matter. Clay, Alejandro, thank you for listening. Kevin, let us know, what does Aaron and I have under the covers?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. So, uh, really wild bag, uh, as Matt said, infomercial type of guy with goofy teas and gloves and stuff, but this bag is all over the place, but, fun. you know, that's why we do what we do. So, uh, Taylor made an M six driver with, uh, I'll deal a synergy blue 70 TX. Um, you can actually buy this shaft online at Mike's golf outlet for like 90 bucks. or I'm sure if you go to Kenny Riley at the Gimmie Golf Club, he'll strike you an even better deal. ⁓ mid-launch, mid-spin on the shaft and a pretty forgiving head from 2019. Dom and ⁓ I have a very good friend who doesn't listen to the pod, even though he says he will, who plays this driver. We'll see if he catches that one, but doubt it. ⁓ Very forgiving. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: you
Kevin Spisak: You know, the old style of, you know, tailor-made, you know, before they went to the full carbon face and all the, stealth and, um, you know, QI 35 QI 40, um, stuff that they're doing. So, uh, he, really likes that, uh, you know, versus probably the carbon face and some of the newer technologies kind of interesting. plays like an older shaft. That's like, not as exotic or as premium as some of the other tour players. ⁓ especially then when you talk about his three wood, ⁓ you know, we've discussed the QI 10 quite a lot in, in winter's bags. And this, his three wood is like basically out of every tour players bag, QI 10, 15 degree Ventus blue, eight X. So, you he plays a ultra premium tour level, ⁓ you know, shaft in his three hood, but not in his driver. So. Interesting thing there, but works out for him when he's as accurate as he was this week on tour or on the PGA Championship. Note their sixth straight major for the QI 10 three wood. What do you guys think about that?
Matthew Zampello: So I want to talk about that one because somebody threw that stat out on Twitter and this is why Twitter is, know, this is why stats are stats, you know, and you can put holes in everything. Yes, the QI 10 3-wood is a goated 3-wood. It might be on the rocket balls level of 3-woods long term. But if you look at the last six majors champion winners, they've been, it's been...
Dominic Colangelo: Unreal.
Kevin Spisak: Wow, yeah. I didn't think about that,
Dominic Colangelo: You
Matthew Zampello: It's literally been Scotty Scheffler, Rory McRoy, JJ Sponner, Aaron Rye. And I think Scotty and Rory have won four of those. So take that with a grain of salt. Obviously you're gonna have the same three wood in the bag when you have the same two guys winning most of the majors. ⁓ Grain of salt.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, to fast forward a little bit to then how many straight majors has the spider won? know, it's... Yeah, he's a lab guy, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: You
Matthew Zampello: Well, not in JJ Spawn, JJ Spawn is a lab. But other than that, one of the last six outside of JJ Spawn. Yeah, five out of last six. Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Sorry, out of the last six.
Dominic Colangelo: Can I ask, so you were talking about the carbon face and is it, was it titanium on the M6? So is that technology switch, is that where the forgiveness comes in? Like think Matt, you were talking about it maybe last week or two weeks ago where you can hit it anywhere on your face and you really don't lose that much distance. Is that the main ⁓ technology upgrade of changing to the carbon face or what actually is it?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Matthew Zampello: No, I think the forgiveness comes from how big these heads are and how, you know, how far back the center of gravity is and like, and like things that they do of that nature. I don't know, Kevin, I feel like the tailor-made carbon face is pure marketing. I, I really don't believe it does anything different. And honestly, I think it's been almost bad marketing because I think they've had a bunch of quality issues with the carbon face and they've had more faces break and or, or.
Kevin Spisak: A million percent. Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: or like build quality issues because of carbon face versus not. I don't know. That's just at least what I feel.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, there's definitely some ⁓ like face thickness, you know, what am I trying to say? Like the way that they, they build the face thickness can add to the forgiveness. ⁓ And you can see like, you look at the inside of a driver, it's not just like perfectly smooth on the other side, you know, the side, not where the golf ball hits. So there's a part of that there. But I think on the carbon, it's just 100 % marketing that they're trying to just have something that sounds pretty buzzwordy and stands out. ⁓ But like Matt said, they've had a bunch of quality issues. TaylorMade has had a lot of quality issues with the carbon crowns, like the epoxy coming off, and just leaving the bottom of the driver still attached.
Matthew Zampello: Mm.
Kevin Spisak: So they've had a lot of that but unless you're like a real like golf sicko, you probably don't really even see it You know, you've got to be like really following stuff or have a friend that it happened to you know See it and you probably do have to play a lot of golf You know to hit your hit your driver enough to cause one of those damages But I think Taylor me it's been pretty good warranty wise of helping people out with replacements. So I've heard So yeah, I don't think there's all that much to the carbon face. It might be a feel and sound thing that someone might like over titanium, but I'd say most probably still prefer titanium.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I wonder if that was like a, cause they weren't the first person to do or first place to do the carbon, right? ⁓ they were. Okay. Nevermind. I was going to say maybe they're following suit that it was doing well, but so you said, going back a little bit, you said the thickness of the driver. So you weren't meaning the ground to top thickness. were meaning literally the face that it, hits the ball.
Matthew Zampello: They were, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. Face thickness, They ⁓ have to keep it within USGA regulations, but ⁓ they can move it around and they try to make it almost like a trampoline-type effect. When it hits the ball, they want it to deflect as much as they're allowed to ⁓ so that they can add ball speed.
Matthew Zampello: That's it. Yeah, I was doing some digging one day and talking to some club junkies and stuff like that and some guys that used to work in the tour truck and they actually say right before the driver breaks, like right before there's a crack in the face, ⁓ it gets its hottest. So that's when you'll hit it the furthest. So you might like the 30 drives right before you crack a driver.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: Really?
Matthew Zampello: you might have your longest drives you ever hit and then boom, it's cracked. It's almost like a point with like metals where it goes up and then it's a little bit of like a, know, darkest before the dawn kind of situation, if you know what I mean. But ⁓ supposedly like, yeah, there's the properties of driver. You really want to get it to right to that end point. ⁓ of like that's like the way that the face will flex, essentially. The face will flex more and more. Right before it's about to break, but in that little sweet zone, you get some, you hit some bombs.
Dominic Colangelo: It's juicy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. And you remember like when Rory won the masters last year, everyone was freaking out like a couple of weeks later about he had to change out drivers because, you know, it became nonconforming with like how much it was, it was flexing. ⁓ they were, and then people were trying to say, ⁓ he won the masters with a nonconforming driver. And it's like, no, that just happens a lot. He he's hitting drivers, you know, how many times per day and he's really wearing them out. ⁓ So he certainly had some hot ones when he won the Masters, but similar concept there.
Dominic Colangelo: So is it kind of ⁓ like an aluminum bat, like where you kind of have to break it in a little bit, or is it always fine, it just gets a little bit more flexible?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, just more flexible, just more trampoline-like eventually.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, gotcha. All right, well, let's get back to the clubs. ⁓ What does he have on a five wood?
Kevin Spisak: QI-10 as well, Ventus Blue 8X, so same shaft between these. I think the 5-wood actually may be the TR, so slightly different than the 3-wood. And then he's got a 5-hybrid, so he plays a Titleist GT2, 24 degree, the tune down to 23. And then he's got the Mitsubishi Tensei.
Matthew Zampello: Right.
Kevin Spisak: CK pro white hybrid shaft 90 TX ⁓ We've talked about tenses here on the show in the past but but more towards the tensi orange ⁓ counterbalance shaft ⁓ The 10 say white wouldn't be quite as stout as the orange But I guess I guess still similar to you know how he's playing like the ventus blue that seems pretty consistent ⁓ I think 5 Hybrid is kind of an uncommon tour pro selection. So goes back to Matt's infomercial comment, but to each their own there. We've seen ⁓ utility irons and other types of clubs, so this is just his version of that. What do you guys think there?
Matthew Zampello: It's bent down a little bit. It's almost like a little bit. It's I would call like almost like a four and a half hybrid. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. I think in a way it's like the five hybrid to me feels like what a seven would would have felt like to me four years ago. You know, where it's just like a club reserved for your grandpa. Like, you know, real players don't play that, you know, but apparently they play all sorts of different things nowadays. So, yeah. Yeah, he probably had a seven with like eight years ago. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: and now they do
Dominic Colangelo: Well, if anyone's gonna do it, it's Aaron Fry.
Kevin Spisak: On his irons, we've got the P7TWs, same irons that Scotty Scheffler plays, 5 through 9. True tempered dynamic called S300, stock model, not the tour issue on the shaft. Kind of bizarre there, what he's looking for.
Matthew Zampello: makes The only difference between the stock model and the tour model is this the tour models made it a tighter tolerance. So all the shafts weigh exactly what they're supposed to weigh like the stock model. They can be off by like a couple grams.
Dominic Colangelo: Weird.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, there's really no difference in the shaft. It's just the tolerances.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: It seems like he's just a, if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of guy. Like he just got good at him.
Matthew Zampello: He might be.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, it seems like it. I know there's been lots of stories going around about Aaron Rye, you know, and why he's the gloves and why he uses the iron covers and all that. ⁓ I'd be interested to know, like, what's the story behind the acquisition of these irons? Like, did he just like pick them off the shelf somewhere and they weren't given to him from Taylor made? Yeah, I don't know.
Dominic Colangelo: You
Kevin Spisak: You have heard stories in the past of like a PGA player goes to like Golf Galaxy and just like picks up something because they want it. And I don't know, maybe maybe that's case here. I doubt it. But that'd be fun to find out.
Dominic Colangelo: P Reed did that for, ⁓ what major was it? He had to go pick up a Three Wood from a PGA store right before he started. And then he ended up like top five.
Matthew Zampello: is probably some US Open or something. feel like that's where it always happens.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Anyways, let's continue.
Kevin Spisak: He probably made it up. All right, so then moving along to his wedges, some interesting choices here on his wedges. A couple model year old Title Spokey SM9s. apparently loves these with the goofy wedges. 46 degree pitching wedge bent to 44. He's got that nicely stamped on there. And then a 48 that is bent to 49. So he's delofting the pitching wedge and then adding loft to his gap wedge. Interesting choices there. The stamping's kind of cool. Then he moves up to the SM11 on his 54 and 60 degree. And then on the, here's the strangest part of his bag probably. is using the stock S300s on his irons, but then using the Tour Issue S300s on his wedges. I don't really know what to say there.
Matthew Zampello: It's totally what was just in his wedge, feel like. He's not even looking at it. I feel like he doesn't even care.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Well, yeah, maybe that's like a difference between just what the what the tour rep kept on the title is fan versus what the tailor made guy kept on his. He's. That's that seems like a title is thing, just a little extra premium.
Dominic Colangelo: Probably.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, starting.
Dominic Colangelo: Interesting.
Matthew Zampello: But gosh, I can't, these wedges, love a good, first of all, I love a good pair of Vokeys, right? At least he's playing the right sets. But I love when a guy gets a pair of SM9s in the bags, they're like an old wedge that he can't get out of the bag, and he's got two in there, the 46 and 44. SM9s were great wedges, I was a big fan of those, that line. think that was one of their, I think SM8 and SM9 were really good, I'm not. I'm not the biggest SM10. ⁓ I'm not sure on the SM11s yet, so we'll see there. But I think he could do a little bit better with his stamping. Maybe like we rise up, kind of doing some cool stuff. I don't know. There's definitely some things that he could do with his wedges there. ⁓ I don't know.
Kevin Spisak: That was so cheesy, it would fit him perfectly.
Dominic Colangelo: It would. That's awesome.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ but he cool wedges, a big fan of, ⁓ you know, the folks.
Dominic Colangelo: What is a Wedgeworks? Like what is the actual differentiator of Wedgeworks?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ that is so Wedgeworks is their like tour custom shop, essentially. So you can get you can get custom grinds and such as that. We don't see a lot of L grinds, Kevin. I feel like that's one we don't see very much. I feel like that's a that's an interesting grind.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay.
Kevin Spisak: don't believe we've covered one yet on Under the Covers. A lot of FMKs, but I don't think we covered any else.
Matthew Zampello: No.
Dominic Colangelo: You
Matthew Zampello: I believe it sits between the M and the T. So the T grind is the tour grind, right? That super thin sole and the M grind is kind of a wider sole. And I think the L sits almost a little bit between that. like a little bit narrow, but not as narrow as the T and then kind of, but. gives you more relief on those super tight lies than the M grind I guess. I don't think you can get this from PJ Tours Superstore. I believe this is a Wedgeworks only grind. So for those of you want to order, go to Wedgeworks, put the 250 in, get an L grind out.
Dominic Colangelo: We gotta try it. We all gotta get one.
Kevin Spisak: be fun. So then his putter, ⁓ it is the TaylorMade Spider Tour V. So here's a question for you guys. Do we count that as a win for the Spider, ⁓ even though it's a different shape than we've covered previously under the covers? don't think we've had a Tour V win yet.
Dominic Colangelo: Cause it's a custom putter, isn't it?
Matthew Zampello: He's got a custom flow neck on it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he doesn't have the... Go for it, Matt. Mm-hmm, custom flow neck and he doesn't have the like true viz alignment that would be stock, but he does use the stock, you know, pure roll insert.
Dominic Colangelo: think we count it. I mean, it's got it's got tailor-made spider on it. I appreciate the question, but I do think it's still a spider. It's the mallet. It's from tailor-made. And just why not?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. It's the same general idea of the putter, right? Hi, MOI, weight on that weight on the wings, right? Like that whole thing. It's just that putter. I, somebody put one of those in Ludwig's hands. Damn. That's all I have to say. Somebody go take that stupid, whatever paint brush out of his, out of his bag and put a spider in there. I'll probably win some.
Kevin Spisak: IMOIPodder, yep. Ha
Dominic Colangelo: you Would he have won every tournament if he had a spider in his bag? The man can't putt to save his life. Well Kevin, what do you think? Do you think we should count it?
Matthew Zampello: He might have.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I guess. mean, yeah, like you said, it's the right concept with high M.Y. Mallet. The pure roll insert is still at least Taylor made thing. For whatever reason, I can't really describe it, but I just I find this one to be just like so ugly like that that flow neck. I do not love. ⁓ I'd like to get in my hands and actually see it.
Matthew Zampello: No.
Kevin Spisak: But I don't love that shape in comparison to what we're used to seeing with the spider. I kind of like the bigger wings. If you're going to play a spider, I like those weight ports. ⁓ But I guess when TaylorMade was coming out with different lines, they wanted to offer some different shapes, pick up people who may not like the bigger head or the weight ports or whatever. ⁓ But this one's definitely not my favorite.
Dominic Colangelo: That flow neck is pretty thick too. Looking at the face head on, it kind of looks like Phil Mickelson a little bit. It just looks like it kind of flows all the way into it, just one piece of metal. It's kind of strange. Matt, what are you saying?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. There was a day when I used to love a good flow neck, like the Odyssey 9, but for whatever reason, I've just like way fallen off of the appeal of a flow neck.
Matthew Zampello: We might have to make a specific area in our club tracker for type of spiders that win. Spiders are blowing people out of the water, So it's like, was the most popular spider out of all the spiders? I think that's going to be an interesting one to look at.
Dominic Colangelo: I mean, they're certainly winning. Yeah, I like that. That's actually a good time to bring that up. ⁓ Matt has created a website for us under the covers golf.com. Go check it out. It gives you access to all of our episodes. Our one and done tracker, as well as Matt's newsletter that he writes every week. And then also it's our club tracker. So you can kind of go see what we were just talking about. It shows every driver, three wood, irons, all the manufacturers that are the winners and then kind of It kind of gives you a good look at kind of which club makers are doing the best. So it's a pretty sweet website. So go check it out. Underthecoversgolf.com.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ yeah. So then moving into his ball, he's got a couple of model year old, ⁓ titles, Probie one. ⁓ so he likes some old stuff fitting broke. Don't fix it. guess. And then Dom something. Yeah. Yeah. A couple of years old style. So, ⁓ and then I think the next part you were particularly excited to, ⁓ focus on what's that down.
Dominic Colangelo: And it's like an old Pro V, isn't it?
Matthew Zampello: 19.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, we got to talk about his gloves. We never go into gloves on under the covers, but with him wearing two, it's so interesting that we have to talk about it. So the brand is Mack Wet Micro Mesh Rain Gloves. They come in multiple colors, Erin Rye Rocks, the all black. It's got a short cuff on it. So it doesn't go all the way down his wrist. So that kind of gives you a little more dexterity and kind of free movement, but. Very interesting website that I found and I wanted to kind of go through some of the verbiage that they have in the description. So shortcut mesh gloves, they're lightweight and breathable ⁓ that allows close contact and great grip, which it's designed for warm weather and kind of get some airflow alms. So I guess it kind of helps you with consistent grip on both hands. So I'm curious how that works because typically, pretty much every golfer that uses a glove, you use it on your top hand, or would you say top hand is closer to your body? Okay, so it's on your top hand, and then your other hand is no glove, and that's so, you kinda, you keep that stability in the bottom hand, so you can kinda be grounded to the club. And the reason people don't do two is because it gives you more chance for that fabric to kinda slip, if let's say you're sweaty, or just fabric in general is kinda unpredictable sometimes. But,
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: It's a unique aquatec fabric and moisture wickening technology that keeps the clubs from kinda getting that slippery ⁓ movement in your swing. It's really, no one I think has ever done that before on tour, I'm assuming, having both clubs.
Matthew Zampello: Tommy Too Gloves Haney.
Kevin Spisak: Two gloves? Yeah, Tommy, two gloves.
Dominic Colangelo: Hey, I apologize. up. Y'all came with the coming up that quick.
Matthew Zampello: But I, but I think he got popped for, I think he got popped in a prostitution ring at one point.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ yeah, heard he's not a fantastic family guy.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ boy.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: taking double-glove love to heart, huh?
Kevin Spisak: very, very fast, very fast ⁓ tangent on him. ⁓ when we were at the Valero, Texas open, ⁓ player we were following was playing with, ⁓ Tommy two gloves and you guys are dying over there.
Dominic Colangelo: Sorry, continue.
Matthew Zampello: You're worse.
Kevin Spisak: So following someone who's playing with him, and we had just heard his whole rumored checkered pass, not family guy, potential affair, however that worked. And then there's just this young girl who is wearing basically no clothing, who is just walking around following him. And apparently it was like a bartender who would serve his custom parties. It just seemed to really fit the stories we were hearing. was quite bizarre. Anyways, big tangent.
Dominic Colangelo: You hear a lot of news about people and you're like, you know, I wonder if that's actually true. And that one proved it right in front of you.
Matthew Zampello: but he's back, he's beating people up on the Champions Tour right now.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, think it is. And it's just like that thing when, you know, basically when anyone first qualifies for the champion's tour, they just go and beat up all the other old guys.
Dominic Colangelo: Really? Nice!
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. turns.
Dominic Colangelo: until they even out. So, Mack wet gloves. The, the, the last tagline I'll use is, and I quote, beta fishing rod, load a gun or adjust tack with ease, keeping your gloves on ready for action, which Aaron and I was ready for action. Winner of the PGA championship. Super happy for him. I think all over everyone's saying how nice of a guy is, how good of a guy is. So very fun for him. to get the win. ⁓ Matt, I think it's time to maybe get a little bit more of a PGA recap. We kind of went to it in the beginning, but ⁓ let us know what you saw during this weekend.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I mean, I think we hit the high points, right? The course talk was the big point. ⁓ Is Erronomic a good major championship golf course? Is it not a good major championship? I don't know about you guys if I got an invite to play there. I would go play. mean, I think so. don't. Yeah, it was my arm. It looks sweet. Like it looks like a cool, cool place. Cool vibe. The leaderboard, I think. Yeah, I mean, it was awesome. Right. You had Alex Smalley and then all that stuff came out about Alex Smalley's mom. And it was like his whole thing where she's like.
Dominic Colangelo: Who's my arm?
Matthew Zampello: All up in his business every day and everything about like, she's like his manager, his like nearly caddy tracks, every one of his stats. Yeah, it was like a whole thing. And they kind of like, we're talking about it. And then it was like quickly they like left off of it. They were like, okay, we're not going to bring that up anymore. Cause like, I don't think they want.
Dominic Colangelo: Really? The only thing I saw was her walking up with him and then everyone was like freaking out about it. So I'm like, he's just walking in with his mom. What's so weird about that? I did not know she's super involved.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, golf Twitter was all up in it.
Kevin Spisak: Non-golf segue here. The Cavs blew their massive lead. Tied nine seconds left. I'm about to have a heart attack. ⁓ Sam Merrill. Dammit. ⁓ overtime. All right. Why did Sam Merrill get the last shot?
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ my gosh. Try not to react. I'm a little bit behind.
Matthew Zampello: So then. So, and then. Then you had a bunch of top players, Like Rory kind of hating on the golf course, which was like whatever. ⁓ you know, I think we can hit on our draft board a little bit. I would like to call out that I had one of the things that I won with ⁓ in. ⁓ There was an altercation between one of the euros and ⁓ the fans and there's two.
Dominic Colangelo: That's funny. Dude, that was awesome.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: How many?
Matthew Zampello: Two. Two. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, how many Matt? Please go watch the video if you can.
Kevin Spisak: You
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ so yeah, there was the John Rom divot thing, which was hilarious. ⁓ he basically like had, had a bad shot and then he like swung and, ⁓ you know, ⁓ like hit the ground and then he took a big divot and then like, you know, the divot went hit, a hit one of the guys, people in the, in the workers at the base.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha.
Matthew Zampello: And then somebody asked him about it he was like, wow, I was trying to take an air swing or whatever. And it was like, shut up. You weren't trying to take an air swing. You're just mad that the divot hit somebody in the face. ⁓ That was hilarious. And then later that on Sunday, I think somebody said something to Rory and he told him to go shut the F up. So that was funny. ⁓ And then he kind of pointed at him. He said, you get out of here. Took him out.
Dominic Colangelo: What do you all know?
Matthew Zampello: That was fantastic. I I knew it was gonna happen. I just had a feeling.
Dominic Colangelo: You called it and it's, we've talked about it before during the Matt Fitzpatrick recap, but find something else to yell at these guys. Why are you chanting USA still? That's so stupid.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ I picked Bryson to miss the cut, know, he famously, I think the funniest thing I saw was somebody was like, Bryson's new, he's gonna try to break 80 at the PGTV ship his next YouTube video. I thought that was good, that one was good.
Kevin Spisak: Heh heh.
Dominic Colangelo: That's a good one. ⁓ And then another heater, I called the Mr. McLaren getting top 10. ended up, Justin Rose ended up T10, which is very fun. ⁓ Matt Fitzpatrick and Alex Fitzpatrick. Kevin, he predicted that Alex was gonna do better than Matt. And this was the one weekend where they flipped. So, Fitz, Matt, let me restart. Matt?
Matthew Zampello: You did. You did.
Dominic Colangelo: and did T14 and then Fitzpatrick. I keep saying their last name. It's hard to do this with brothers. Alex ended up finishing like he was eight over. He was way down there on the leaderboard. ⁓ I genuinely thought that that was gonna be an awesome pick.
Kevin Spisak: Matt and Alex here. Mm-hmm. thought so too and that very quickly turned I there was a moment in time where it was looking like all of my picks were like just dead wrong. It's like Yeah, my one and done Ludwig didn't start great Cameron Young didn't start great Brooks was playing well and I said he was gonna miss the cut ⁓ if Brooks could have Learned how to putt before this week. Like he may have won. He you know his proximity to the hole was you know Unreal. He was playing well and everything else. He just could not make a single putt. Same with Scotty. We've said maybe it's potentially overblown at how bad of a putter Scotty is because season long he's good, but that was also brutal to watch. I that's not related to our draft picks, but two rough putters there, both using the spider.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: Kevin, I was so confident Ludwig wasn't going to win because I knew he was gonna have some four five footers coming down the stretch that he was not gonna make. So I was supremely confident on Saturday night that he was, there was no shot.
Dominic Colangelo: I heard the announcer, said at one point, Ludwig Oberg, who leads the field this week in strokes gained approach, has played his last 27 holes without making a putt of seven feet or longer.
Kevin Spisak: That's the stat you want right there.
Matthew Zampello: It's it's dark times for for Mr. Aberg uber ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: which Aaron Rye, I think it's a, I forgot the exact number, but he hit, was like something around 60 putts and he missed one of them from 10 feet. Like he had 60 putts like from 10 feet and he missed one of them.
Kevin Spisak: That's insane.
Matthew Zampello: it's he. I mean, he's got hot on back nine, right? He made putts on back nine and separated.
Dominic Colangelo: Hit the shots, man. Hit the shots.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ I got a hit on Garrick Higgo. That was hilarious. Okay, so Garrett Higgo, I was doing something. I was at work, but I was not paying attention. I get home and I look at golf Twitter and golf Twitter has just exploded about Garrick Higgo. My mom is texting me about Garrick Higgo.
Dominic Colangelo: We have to. Explain the situation first.
Kevin Spisak: Molly's mom texts you about Gara Kego too.
Matthew Zampello: No, Smiley's mom did not tell me about Garrett here. And I see all these things where he showed up to the tee and the guy's like, you're late. And he's like, well, I'm not late late. then so I finally like watching his interview, he's like, know, well, I was late, but like, I was only a second late. So like I wasn't late. But the rule is written. If you're one second late, you're late.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: So you get a two-stroke penalty. It's that simple.
Dominic Colangelo: If you have the audacity to go, you know what I mean, right? And the guy's like, no, I don't know what you mean.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, like
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha.
Matthew Zampello: You know Dom, that reminds me of one of our college- that feels like one of our college roommates-isms. Well I was late but you know I wasn't that late, go on.
Dominic Colangelo: it absolutely is! well how late was i, you know? the clock still said 718 technically
Matthew Zampello: You know exactly what I'm talking about too. That's right. ⁓ I think I, Garrick Higgo reminds me of that meme that's like, you know, you have two brain cells and they're fighting against each other. Like he doesn't seem like the smartest, smartest rock in the room. If you know, if you know where I'm going with that one. And then he fired his caddie
Dominic Colangelo: No. But then, yeah, well, I was actually curious after that scenario, because he even said, my caddy was yelling at me. This was the first interaction that he had with the media. He said, my caddy was yelling at me. He was kind of laughing about it. And then after the fact, in the post game interview, when he was what, two strokes off the lead on Friday, then he changed his whole story. And he was saying, well, if I knew I was running late, then that would have been nice. So basically blaming his caddie So like, Did he fire his caddy or did his caddy say, F this, I'm out. Like this guy's unprofessional. Throw him under the bus. That's a horrible thing to do.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to point out another meme I saw. It was, I don't remember who it was from, ⁓ but it was somebody quoted it and was like, can you imagine Dustin Johnson and this guy doing a puzzle together? I thought that was a good one. That's a good one.
Kevin Spisak: That's awesome.
Dominic Colangelo: Would love to see that.
Kevin Spisak: The lefty in me only claims the round that he had post two-stroke penalty. ⁓ That's all we claim. We don't claim the time management skills.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: I respect that.
Matthew Zampello: And then ESPN was like trolling him on Friday and they had like a timer. They had like a timer and he was like on the putting green and they were like eight minutes before they got a countdown clock. I thought that was fantastic. And SVP was SVP was was Neil and I'm pretty good. I was was I was happy about that. That was good stuff.
Dominic Colangelo: That's incredible. He's good at laying those jokes on pretty thick.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. ⁓ David Puge. I love David Puge. I'm a big, big fan. The long sleeve shirt is that's my vibe. His whole vibe is is I mean, he's on the live tour. He plays for the Los Fireballs, which whatever he'll he'll get eventually get out of that. But yeah, I'm I'm I'm buying stock in David Puge Island right now. I think he's going to be a great player.
Dominic Colangelo: That's fun. I like that. And did he qualify through world ranking points or was it because he like he did pretty well last year in the PGA championship, right?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I can't remember why he's in. It might have been because he won a tournament or something. ⁓ Let me I'll look on that one. But ⁓ yeah, he must have he must have gotten in some way.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, there is a while you're looking for that. I think we should talk about like kind of the rumblings of just why people hate this tournament. I don't really. I think I kind of understand the other side where, ⁓ you know, like no laying up and fried egg, I feel like have good recaps, but they're kind of saying. There's no like risk or reward for some of these shots. So I think I can kind of get that side, but for the most part, people are like, they're almost mad that Aaron Rye won and it wasn't like the same four or five guys to win the major. Like they'd rather see the same guys winning all the time. Like, I don't know if y'all feel the same way. Like I feel like that's why golf is awesome. Cause Aaron Rye, he's been doing better every year. Like this year in general, I think his highest finish was like 25th or something. And then he just comes out. and beats all of these guys. They're playing the same course and he ends up winning, you know? So it's, it's very interesting to see why people are so upset that it's not like a Scotty or a Rory winning.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I think that goes back to what we talked about on our Masters episode when you want to see those legacy wins. You want to see Scottie rack up this big resume. But then you also want to root for the underdogs and the first timers. And then, you know, at the same time, then, you know, the the Charles Schwartz or Danny Willett Masters like feel like a waste, you know. So it's tough. Like, I don't I don't really know where I fall on that. It probably just depends on how much I like that golfer or not.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Would it be having the same conversation if Smalley won? Like, Aaron Rye is so nice and everyone is happy for him, but I don't really know too much about Smalley. Would it be the same interaction? Would it be the same situation if he would have won? It's kind of where my brain is.
Matthew Zampello: I think Smalley is like almost more of an up and coming player. So it would almost felt like it was like a here welcome to the scene. Whereas I feel like Aaron rise been around for a while and almost feels like maybe he finally got one or just he snuck one or something. ⁓ I don't know. It does. did look it up. It does look like David Puge was awarded a special exemption by the PGA of America.
Dominic Colangelo: Very cool. What would you consider being around for a while? Cause he's in his fifth year. So I feel like, like is that considered a long time, the PGA?
Matthew Zampello: We earn pro in 2020 2017 so he's been a pro for a long time but yeah I guess this is fifth year on the PGA tour so I would say that's been around for a while I don't think smally I think he graduated from Duke and like I don't know the late 2020s or something so he maybe hasn't been around.
Dominic Colangelo: Gotcha. Okay.
Matthew Zampello: I have a question for you guys. ⁓ Posted this on Twitter under the coverage golf. ⁓ Would you rather have Aaron Rye's career or Ricky Fowler's career?
Kevin Spisak: Ricky's.
Matthew Zampello: Why?
Kevin Spisak: You know, still win the players. You know, he still has wins. Just more it seems just more in general, I guess, fame and like all the fun that comes along with like he just seems like a fun guy, I guess. So maybe I'm thinking more of like how much I like Ricky versus like Aaron. Right. Hasn't been all that like prevalent and the PGA championship is certainly the fourth, you know. Fourth important major. You know, so I think I'd go Ricky.
Dominic Colangelo: And is this question like if both of their careers ended right now? Right. That's one of those questions. Okay. Yeah. It's a tough one because it's, it's two versus six wins. One of them being a major versus Ricky, like Kevin said, he won the players, which could be a fifth major. Who knows? Yeah. That's, that's a hard question. mean, long.
Matthew Zampello: Right. Yeah. But Aaron Rye has been.
Kevin Spisak: And Andy's got all the top threes and majors and stuff. He's like, Ricky has a great resume, just not a major winner.
Dominic Colangelo: Both?
Matthew Zampello: But Ricky, Aaron Rye has wins in Europe as well, and some pretty big wins in Europe, not just on a PGA Tour.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I don't really know too many about those. Has Aaron Rye played on a Ryder Cup? Because Ricky's played on several. That would be a huge ⁓ determining factor.
Matthew Zampello: That was your they're not. You're right. You're you're right there. I I would probably go with them. I would probably go with the major championship. I would probably go there.
Dominic Colangelo: Ricky's on TGL.
Matthew Zampello: Strictly career not sponsors not fame strictly like if I had to look at Ricky Ballard and I'm looking at the rocket classic WM Phoenix open the Honda classic the Deutsche Bank players Wells Fargo hero world challenge Like stuff like that. I Would go Aaron Rye with one major if they ended right now
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, it's really hard because like it's, Ricky has a longevity, very fun career, but then like you play golf so you can win majors. So you almost want to have a major under your belt, but then like, man, the other side is, you get put in with those Danny Willetts if that's your only win? You know, like people might call it a sham or whatever.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that's a good question.
Matthew Zampello: But Ricky Fowler might be grouped with Lee Westwood at the end of his career. Best player should never win a major.
Dominic Colangelo: Charles Barkley.
Kevin Spisak: He
Dominic Colangelo: Man, I don't even know if I have an answer.
Kevin Spisak: I mean... And Lee Westwood was also ranked number two in the world for how long? I don't think that's like some homeless guy or something. These are really great accomplishments from both of them.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, that's a good point.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I don't know.
Kevin Spisak: I mean, would you rather be Aaron Ry or Danny Willett? I mean, like that the Masters versus the PGA Championship is a big, big difference to me. So that seems closer. But like also, like, I don't know, it's just Danny Willett seems like a boring pick.
Matthew Zampello: Danny Willett for sure. Master's over PGA. 100%.
Dominic Colangelo: Cause then you get to play the Masters every year, which is sick.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: That's a question. Well, Matt, let's dive into some golf news going on. I know there's some live news that happened recently.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, Liv is, I guess, preparing to file for bankruptcy ⁓ at the end of the 2026 season. ⁓ Shocker. That one's I guess. Yeah, I mean, I have no idea who's going to invest ⁓ in Liv. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: classic. This is my shockwave. Mr. Beast.
Matthew Zampello: Mr. B's. I think it literally live might actually become what was portrayed on Happy Gilmore 2 maybe Whatever that that thing was maybe mr. B's will buy it ⁓ So, I don't know man, hey, it's it seems like it's a dying thing I think Bryson's out. I think John Rahm once is once once out ⁓ I don't know. They're gonna have to figure that out ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: be insane.
Matthew Zampello: Bryson went on a podcast today and he thinks the moon landing is fake ⁓ with a common other things, which is just about the most Bryson thing you could absolutely say in the world. I don't know. It's like, dude, why don't you go practice a little bit? I don't know. That's some grass, man.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Go touch some grass, dude. ⁓ man, yeah, he loves being in the news.
Kevin Spisak: Maybe that's just what he was doing.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. He's easy. Yeah, he's he's definitely a media junkie for sure. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Hmm
Matthew Zampello: Club changes? ⁓ Yeah, some big ones. Cantlay put the GTS4 driver in the bag, which is interesting. Not a ton of guys play the GTS4. There's a guy at my club that plays the GTS4 ⁓ and he thinks it's right for him. Nobody else thinks it's the right for him. I hope he's not listening, but you know who you are. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic Colangelo: Can't wait for the first one to do it. So we'll see how that goes.
Kevin Spisak: Supposedly the GTS4 is more forgiving than any of the GT4, TSR4s. It's supposed to be a more forgiving of the number four in the lineup, ⁓ where it's almost more like the GT3, ⁓ a lower spinning version of that, but still more forgiving. So it'd be interesting how many people throughout this year do put it in the bag.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ really? Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, Kevin, have you heard anything? So Jason Day, he's been kind of playing around with it this year, but for the PGA Championship, he threw in the Ping prototype mini driver to kind of replace his three wood, because he wanted like a 280, 290 yard club. I want to say to avoid all the bunkers that are kind at that 300 mark, have you seen anything of this Ping prototype?
Kevin Spisak: I saw when it came out on the like USJ's like conforming list and then I feel like it just disappeared for a bit and wasn't like that out of an item. So this is the first that's kind of popped up since I feel like about like January. You know, but no one ping. I mean, they make just such forgiving woods. You know, you get the smaller head, shorter shaft. I would just assume this is like the ultimate like fairway finder. I haven't personally like swung one or anything. But just kind of thinking of how I feel about Ping Woods, Ping drivers, and Mini drivers, all about forgiveness and just finding fairways. think this would be a fun one. be fun to watch how that pans out for him.
Dominic Colangelo: appears when it hits market, if it ever does.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Tommy Fleetwood, ⁓ you know, he loves changing clubs and kind of playing around with stuff, but he has a very precise short game. So he changed to the new ⁓ SM11 and used a T grind lob wedge during this tournament at the Mink. ⁓ It has a low bounce and a narrow sole. So it kind of helps you with that firm turf ⁓ that the Mink was kind of providing. So kind of just... adjusting to the conditions, which definitely seems like Tommy Fleetwood. So that's kind of fun.
Matthew Zampello: And getting away from TaylorMade too, putting the titles in the back, which is interesting.
Dominic Colangelo: It is. then the I think the more interesting one out of out of the four Michael Kim, ⁓ he borrowed Max Homa's spare forewood because ⁓ he had a three wood that cracked on Wednesday night and then the equipment manufacturing truck had already left the tournament grounds. So Homa just let him have his extra forewood and he used it for the tournament.
Matthew Zampello: I don't think, did Homa play very well? I don't think he played, ended up doing very well. He missed the cut. Yeah, you're right, he did miss the
Dominic Colangelo: I think he missed the cut.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I don't recall seeing him on the covers like once. But he probably was just not when I was watching.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. I hope he figures it out soon. I like Homo.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I like him with two. He has an and since he went to Cobra I feel like has not been good, but
Kevin Spisak: No. You guys homosexuals.
Dominic Colangelo: We're, ⁓ we're parverts.
Matthew Zampello: I love, I think Homer's a good dude. He hits pull cuts and I'm part of the pull cut family. He's a big pull cutter. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Heck yeah. Italian stallion.
Matthew Zampello: pull cuts. That would be a good hoagie name for a sandwich to pull instead of cold cuts, pull cuts. Dom. Yeah, trade glades. Let's put that one in the old memory bank,
Dominic Colangelo: So. Ooh, trademark that now. That's great. I like that. Is there any more golf news that we got guys?
Matthew Zampello: I have anything. think that's it. I think this is going to be a pretty quiet week down in the big D at the CJ Cup. We can get into some preview. All right. Short preview this week. The CJ Cup at Byron Nelson or the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. The name has been Chopped Screw. I feel like it just goes to the AT &T Byron Nelson. It's been the Dallas something. It's been at
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, let's hear it.
Matthew Zampello: been at Trinity Forest, it's been at Las Calinas Country Club, it's now at TPC Craig Ranch ⁓ in McKinney, Texas. ⁓ who? ⁓ It's a this is this is known to be one of the courses that the tour absolutely just tears apart. The guys shoot 2530 under this week. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Who?
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha.
Matthew Zampello: So last year, Lanny Watkins came in and did an entire redesign. A couple news and notes. TPC Craig Ranch. I have to stop myself from saying Craig James. Physically, it's hard to stop myself. Lanny Watkins came in and did a redesign. The course is owned by Invited. Do you guys know what Invited is? Invited is ⁓ formerly Club Corp, if you've heard Club Corp before. ⁓ Club Corp is a network of clubs, private clubs, just a true, true bottom of the ocean organization, terrible, terrible organization. They ruin clubs. are out of Dallas. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ okay.
Matthew Zampello: The chief executive officer has some good quotes here. ⁓ His name is David Pillsbury. Can't make that one up. ⁓ He went through this whole thing where he says, you know, this renovation could have cost us 12 million, but we spent 25 million on this renovation. just idiotic things. ⁓ To wrap this whole tournament up,
Dominic Colangelo: Ew.
Matthew Zampello: This tournament stinks. It stinks. They think they're gonna get one of the bigger tournaments starting in 2027. They're not. And I will be attending on Sunday and I'll report back how much it does stink.
Dominic Colangelo: Love it. I do have a question for you. And I feel like any tournament that's hosted in Texas gets a lot of hate. And especially from you, or at least the ones in Dallas. Like you really hate TBC Frisco. Not a fan at all. So like, what is it about these Dallas courses that like makes you cringe so much whenever they play there?
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ I don't hate the colonial tournament. I think the colonial tournament is great. I think that one's a good golf course. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: not biased at all.
Kevin Spisak: hate Memorial Park.
Matthew Zampello: I don't mind Memorial Park. Memorial Park's fine.
Kevin Spisak: That's not what you said before.
Matthew Zampello: I think there's a lot of great courses in Dallas. I think the problem with Dallas is they're visiting Dallas in the wrong time of the year. They need to be visiting Dallas in March. or they need to wait until October. October is our prime time of golf. Like that is that is the best time to visit Dallas, Texas. ⁓ And the problem is, is they come in May and in May it's raining and hailing and there's thunderstorms and it can be hot, it can whatever. So it's just bad timing. They they've just really like this this tournament. Went to Trinity Forest. Trinity Forest is a cool golf course. If you don't know about it, it's a core Crenshaw. It's like linksy feel. It's really cool. And all the PGA Tour players just were like, we hate it. It sucks. Like blah, blah, blah, blah. And they bodied them to get rid of it. And so now it's at, we're going to go make a zillion birdies TPC Craig Ranch. ⁓ Just, you know, it's just a pitch and putt. So I don't know. just, anything with TPC, anything with Club Corp, take it away. It's stuck. It stinks.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Scotty won last year at 31 under, so big numbers.
Dominic Colangelo: 31! ⁓ my god. ⁓ that's ridiculous.
Matthew Zampello: So I'm not a fan. But that's the preview. There's nothing else I have to say except don't tune in.
Dominic Colangelo: Love that. Just listen to Under the Covers next week.
Kevin Spisak: You guys ready for some trivia?
Matthew Zampello: Let's hit it.
Dominic Colangelo: Let's do it.
Kevin Spisak: So our old boy, old boy Byron, by CJ Cup, Byron Nelson. The trivia question is around Byron Nelson. So he set a PGA Tour record in beautiful 1945 by winning how many tournaments in a row? And then bonus point question, how many tournaments did he win in that season? As always, anyone gets it right, the other two chug a beer. Gotta get it exact.
Dominic Colangelo: there's no plus minus.
Kevin Spisak: Nope. PGA Tour record.
Matthew Zampello: He won 10 tournaments in a row. and he won a record 20 times that season.
Dominic Colangelo: Is it a record for the amount of wins he had that season too?
Kevin Spisak: I don't think so. ⁓ Let's confirm there.
Matthew Zampello: I was reading a book about him, ⁓ The Match, which if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's great book. But they were talking about this and I can't remember.
Kevin Spisak: It is, yeah, both our record here.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay. Go on, man.
Matthew Zampello: I would highly recommend it, but they talk about this run he went on of wins, but I just can't.
Dominic Colangelo: I was gonna go under you. For some reason, 14 is in my head. At first I was gonna say seven, I'm gonna double it. 14 in a row, that seems like so many. But then the record for the wins. No flip that. Seven is my answer for the inner row. 14 is total for the season.
Kevin Spisak: Well, neither of you got it. The answer is 11 in a row. Matt was off by one, and he won 18 events that season.
Matthew Zampello: us.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang!
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ yeah. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Whoa. Good for him.
Kevin Spisak: So he owned a beautiful 1945. It's not like anything else was going on in the world at that time.
Dominic Colangelo: Definitely not. So is that still the record?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yep. Still the record.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang, okay.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, because that was when Ben Hogan, believe he that was kind of like when he got in his car crash, like Ben Hogan really wasn't around. And that was like so Byron tore up the tour.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, the second most wins in a single season is 13 with Ben Hogan. 11, Sam Snead. 10, Ben Hogan.
Dominic Colangelo: What was Tiger's most in one season? Does anyone know?
Kevin Spisak: like eight or nine or Yeah, Tiger One, nine times in 2000.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, it wasn't as... Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ wow. Dang, I thought he'd be closer. That's still a ton, but I thought they'd be closer.
Kevin Spisak: and then. And then Tiger won eight times in a season, two other times.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, that makes more sense. All right, well, no beer chug, but I think we can get into one and done. So right now we are currently around a halfway point for the rest of the season. We started at week seven and then from there there's 28 tournaments left. So now we're right at that 14 mark. So I think next week we're gonna do a little halfway recap. Best finishes, worst finishes, average, how many players of our choices have missed cuts. If you have any ideas for us, Just throw it in the comments and we can kind of use it for next week. It'd be kind of fun to see what people come up with if you're listening. But going into this recent week at the PGA Championship, our choices. Matt went with Scottie Scheffler, thoroughbred. Kevin went with Ludwig Oberg, and I went with John Rahm. So our finishing numbers, Scottie Scheffler was at T14. And for majors, we always double it. So that gives Matt 28 points. And then Ludwig was at T4 giving Kevin eight. And then John Rahm, classic John Rahm. He went with ⁓ T2 giving me four points. He got the almost grand slam because he's been in the top two of every major so far.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: So our total points for one and done's that leaves Matt at 629. Kevin, you're at 434 and Dominic is at 243. So with that, Matt, give us your choice for the one and done at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Matthew Zampello: TPC Craig James. you know ⁓ Chandler Phillips I already picked him this season can't pick him again unfortunately. Who?
Kevin Spisak: Who?
Matthew Zampello: I going with the other Hoygard twin that I didn't pick yet, Rassimus Hoygard. ⁓ I think he's gonna destroy this golf course.
Dominic Colangelo: Sick. Alright, alright. Kevin, who you got?
Kevin Spisak: So before I make my pick, Dom, a question for you. So when you're making your picks and you clearly see who we're going to pick, that just filters down your list so then you can just destroy us every week,
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, exactly.
Kevin Spisak: It's like amazing how we can't catch any ground on you. Like you pick John Robb who we've been like ripping for being what Matt, what did you call him? Like, ⁓ you had like a nickname for him, like a, like a backup player or something like that.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah
Matthew Zampello: I don't know, he a back- did call him a backup quarterback? Or no he's- yeah. I don't know, don't- we might have to go back and watch.
Kevin Spisak: Something like. Yeah, we'll have to go back anyways. We are ripping him saying he does not win anymore, that he wins the live tournaments that don't even matter and then comes out and gets like T2 and the PGA Championship. thought when you picked him as like, all right, we got him like this is the week to catch up. He's going to miss the cut. No, no T2. So I feel like us drafting first might be to our detriment.
Dominic Colangelo: Hahaha Whenever y'all say, ooh, bad pick, that's how know I got a winner.
Kevin Spisak: But we say that to Matt too.
Dominic Colangelo: The thing with John Rahm, like you just said, he's been winning or second place in every live tournament. So he's doing well. You know, he's not playing bad. Like he's not winning. And that's not what we're going for with one and Duns. like, you know, you kind of just look up. Actually, I won't give you my strategy, but you can't really use any live guys throughout the year. So why not use them in a major? You know, it was a little risky. but I'm glad it worked out.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Anywho. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: Alejandro Toasty is on the board if you guys want him.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yeah, he was clearly in my thought process there.
Dominic Colangelo: I knew you were gonna-
Kevin Spisak: I'm gonna go with the guy who just eats up Texas golf. This might come back to bite me. Wait, should I do it?
Matthew Zampello: Are you gonna pick who I think you're gonna pick? ⁓ no boo!
Kevin Spisak: Alright, Scotty Scheffler. I already pre-bought Rory for the US Open, so that just means for the open I'm not ⁓ using Scotty.
Dominic Colangelo: Damn, damn, damn. Okay, that's fun. I hope he goes 38 under. That'd be so sad.
Matthew Zampello: you
Kevin Spisak: He's going to withdraw for sure.
Dominic Colangelo: So I am going to go with, and I think Matt was going to guess this, I'm to go with another guy who loves Texas golf, similar to Scottie Chef. He's finished top five in the last three years at this tournament, top 10 in 2021. He missed a cut by one stroke in 2024, so we're going to ignore that. Jordan Speed.
Matthew Zampello: It's Speeeth! I knew it! I'm so happy!
Dominic Colangelo: Someone had to, you know what I mean? Let's just hope he doesn't repeat 24 a bit.
Kevin Spisak: That was my other choice.
Matthew Zampello: Kevin, we're totally making up ground this week.
Dominic Colangelo: Dude, as soon as you said Texas golf, was like, ⁓ fuck, like no way he's gonna go Scotty.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I feel like it's kind of a wasted pick but Jordan will miss the cut. Scotty's gonna win. There we go. Bing bang boom. I'm back in it.
Matthew Zampello: there.
Dominic Colangelo: This could be it, because you're what? ⁓ You're under 200 points behind me. So you're slowly catching ground. It just takes a couple.
Kevin Spisak: You Yeah. Mark this the day the CJ Cup Byron Nelson as the day that started the comeback.
Dominic Colangelo: massive news for the people. Well, beautiful. I think that's about it. PGA Championship in the books coming up on the Byron Nelson. ⁓ Like Matt said, might be a little quieter of a week, but still gonna be good. Thank you for listening. Follow us on our socials, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, the Covers Golf. ⁓ Check out our website, underthecoversgolf.com. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: I love it.
Dominic Colangelo: We'll see you next week.
Matthew Zampello: To people putting their username on TikTok, would you tell your mom that this is your username? I've seen some terrible usernames this last week. Peace.
Dominic Colangelo: Peace.