Time to cuddle. The full group is back as Matt caps off his dream trip to Scotland
Viktor Hovland beats Scottie Scheffler in a playoff at the Travelers Championship with a new driver!
Matt shares his takes on Brian Rolapp's 2028 PGA Tour Schedule plus a recent golf ball change.
Dominic goes to the KPMG Womens PGA Championship at Hazeltine
Kevin continues to hate Patrick Reed (why?)
Who is worse? PReed, Wyndham, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, or Matt? The boys discuss
PING we would love a sponsor
Transcript
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic: Welcome back, Norwegian listeners. We know you're out there to under the covers.
Kevin Spisak: Kinda scared for what my face looked like during that.
Chief Wedge Officer: We are We are huge in Norway.
Dominic: Yeah, don't watch. Yeah, don't don't watch us there. But we had to shout out the Norwegian listeners, the Norway fans, because Victor Hovland is a champion once again. welcome to Under the Covers. We are your hosts. My name is Dominic, and we have a full cast today. What is going on, Matthew?
Chief Wedge Officer: Man, it's been a minute. I freaking missed you guys. Let me tell you what. I if I don't get a little Dom and Kev in my life every week, it's not a good week. I can tell you that much. it I'm doing good. I am fresh off my two week adventure in Scotland. jet lag is behind me. I had more Guinnesses than I can count and five five too many fish and chips. that's all they eat over there. So I'm I'm tired of the fish and chips. I will not have any more. But the Guinness was good. And the golf of
Dominic: That's all that really matters. And the golf was better. I love it. how we doing, Kev? We see you over there.
Kevin Spisak: Good. There's no way you actually missed us. You were having the time of your life. It sounds like it was an incredible trip.
Chief Wedge Officer: It was it was an incredible trip. But we'll we'll get on more on that later. I think we have some we we have we have some good ideas to how to how to recap that trip 'cause definitely once in a lifetime.
Dominic: yeah. Yeah, Matt was out there on the first T at St Andrews and he's just like, Man, if I was only podcasting with Kevin and Dominic
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. What what day was Scotland playing in the World Cup where you go and bonkers there?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, we were there for the Morocco game and we were there for the Brazil game and they lost both of but it was very good vibes. Very cool. very cool. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic: Beautiful. So I think it's time to get into our boy Victor. what a win for this guy. He he takes down the king, Scotty Chef, in a playoff. so they they were battling all weekend. they both almost had a fifty nine, which is very fun. and then ended up tying it up on eighteen, forcing a playoff, and ended up it was a very fast playoff on Monday morning, which I almost missed it, which is hilarious, but we'll we'll get into that a little bit. So Victor started off pretty hot. 65, like I said, almost had a fifty nine. ended up with a sixty one, bogeying eighteen, sixty-four, and then a final round of sixty nine, where him and Scotty were both at twenty one under. the Norwegian doing his best Rocky impression, just kept getting punched by Scotty, but just never went away. It was it was very fun to watch. and then Them playing together both days was also awesome, going back and forth the whole time. just two Titans just battling the entire weekend. Victor dropping a couple shots on Sunday, he bogeyed ten when Scotty birdied. but then he just clawed his way back. He had three birdies in a row and like I said, forced that playoff. So huge for Norway, huge for Norwegian listeners, second Norwegian win since starting the podcast. Coincidence? I think not.
Chief Wedge Officer: Christopher Ritan, right? Was the other one? That's right. Yeah.
Dominic: Heck yeah, man. It's fun. So yeah, that playoff was I don't know how much y'all got to watch, but man, they just stuck so close. They both had very similar putts. the announcers are saying that they moved the hole, I think it was like six inches over. Yeah. Because I mean, I guess it's just they're wanting to clean up the hole, I think is what they're saying. What what was that?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, six inches, yeah. Yeah, they had so much rain, you know, over the weekend and that specifically that day that the hole was looking a little saggy. So they wanted a nice crisp hole for Scotty and Victor. Only only needed it once.
Dominic: There go. And got it. Yeah. And he used every inch of that because he really snuck it in the side door there. Yeah. And then Scotty Scotty lipped out. He had the same putt twice. He could have won it on eighteen and then lipped out there too. Well, actually no. He blew a by on Sunday, but then lipped out on Monday. Either way, we love Victor on this podcast. Super happy for him. Matt, have any thoughts about the tournament so far?
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Lipped that in.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Slipped in that bad boy.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, I mean I feel like Victor Hovlin wins the most random events. Like if you saw the stuff on the range, if you if you don't follow Luke Kerr Dernine or something on on X, he's he's like a golf digest, kind of like range junkie almost you'd call it. and he's really into like golfing stuff. Like Victor was like trying to find it on he missed the cut at
Dominic: Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: the US Open and he was like on the range Saturday and Sunday of the US Open trying to find it. and like going through everything and like just all these different things. A couple weeks ago he had that picture of him with floaties on, if you remember that, trying to hit balls on the range. Like the dude is a mental head case, but when he finds it, he like plays really well. But I feel like he's he's one or the other. Like he's he's either there or he's missing the cut or something. and then my take on like the whole people that are like What's wrong with Scotty? He can't win anymore. The dude finishes like top five in every tournament he plays in. There's nothing wrong with Scotty. He just it's it is hard to win on the PGA tour. Like it's the same like Tiger thing. Like people were like, like what's wrong with Tiger? He's not winning. It's like, no, it's just because they've set a different standard now. Like, yeah. It's just, it's crazy for the people that I hear, like, what's wrong with Scotty? That's like, that's the dumbest, that's the dumbest question I've heard.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he's still number one in the FedEx Cup.
Dominic: Yeah. I love that you said that 'cause it it needed to be said because he is unreal. Like like you said, he he's almost like he's having a Nellie quarter year of last year. She just never won, but that that doesn't mean she's bad. Doesn't mean she's in a slump. It's just hard to win golf tournaments.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: Kevin, what you got?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Victor Hoblin's one of my favorite golfers, you know, out there right now. I love watching him. I just I love the recoil on on his follow through. even though it's bad for me to do. ping guy, huge ping fan. So, yeah, I love everything about Victor Hoblin's clubs. you know, we'll we'll get into his clubs here in a moment. But you you asked, you know, he was trying trying to find it, you know, and what did he find? He found a new driver. So we'll we'll talk about that. But yeah, Victor was having a great time with the Norway fans after he won, doing the row that we just did here on the pod. And you know, three time rider cupper, like you said, he he either wins or is is playing really well, like you know, he's won the tour championship and you know, or he's missing cuts and he's nowhere to be found. so he's made a heck of a living. you know, eight eight career wins on the tour. He doesn't sound like he's from another country, he has like zero accent, you know, but love loves the homeland.
Chief Wedge Officer: The man The man still lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma, so Yeah.
Dominic: gonna say he he's kinda averaged out his his accent.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: someone I I also on on the travelers, people like have a give a ton of hate to TPC River Highlands, the golf course that they play. And like, yeah, I get it. It's like whatever, not the best golf course in the world. But like every year we seem to get somebody coming down a stretch where it's like super tight and they have to play 17 and 18 or 16, 17, 18 well. And it always is like either has a playoff or it's like a someone wins at the very end and like I'm all for it. I love I l I actually like to tune in for this tournament 'cause it always produces good drama, like right at the end. Every year.
Dominic: I didn't know that people didn't like the course, but I actually I wanted to kind of reprimand Kevin and I. We didn't mention one time Jim Furick's fifty eight. I don't know how. That that never came up, but I was I was like, wow, what a miss that we had. 'Cause you're right. They it it has I think they I think they showed a graphic. I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure somebody else had a fifty eight or had a they broke sixty that same weekend.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, he got hot.
Dominic: 'Cause they're saying there's only been a few times when two people have broken fifty. I mean broken sixty. So like Scotty and Victor almost did it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, I think it was might have been J T, I feel like. Maybe he shot fifty nine there. I can't remember, but yeah, there was definitely that week it was like super soft and it was like a dart fest, but
Dominic: Yeah. 'Cause actually I think you're right, 'cause he was in the clubhouse and he had a fifty nine and then Jim Fuhrick followed up with a fifty eight. So he's like, All right, cool. Well never mind then
Kevin Spisak: Does that does that fifty eight count since it's a par seventy?
Dominic: yeah. It's under sixty. That is a good question though. Should it be fourteen under or twelve under?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I think like yet nobody I I don't know, nobody's ever shot it just means there's less par five for you to make birdies on.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Maybe they should go play a par sixty seven. I know.
Chief Wedge Officer: I played I played a couple of par six par sixty sevens in Scotland.
Dominic: Is is Kevin a little salty about Jeff Ferrick fifty eight?
Kevin Spisak: No, no, no, not at all. I'm just I'm just pushing buttons. Jim Pyrrhic's awesome.
Dominic: Yeah. Yeah, sure. Alright, let's get back on track. What'd you say, Matt?
Chief Wedge Officer: Don't talk about a rider cup like that. Don't talk about a rider cup captain like that. I feel like they're I well, I feel like he's kind of a sacrificial lamb 'cause we're gonna get our we're gonna get dog walked in Ireland, but that's another whole conversation that we can get in.
Dominic: Yeah. He's gonna be so good. Yeah, we we can talk about that later. So Kevin, before we get off topic again, l let us know what what does Victor have under the covers?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, for sure. So like I said, he was he was trying to find it and he found a brand new driver. So he played with it last week in Canada and then he didn't even travel to Canada with his G425 that he had been playing with for years. used to have that driver as well. so he's got the same driver as me, G four forty LST nine degree, with Fujikura Ventis Black TR Bellicor Plus 6X. So stout boy. That thing is stiffer, you know, stiffer than Dom on a Friday night. But he he had been playing was it the Fujikura Speeder for like for years and years with his G425. But you know he found that he was like overspinning the 440. And so He he he never switched away from his 425 because of that. Like he was he's overspinning it, launching it too high, and overspinning it. So apparently ping, you know, was really messing around with a lot of hot melt in the club head to keep the you know get the CG move more forward. So it's it's already the LST, already the low spin head, then get the CG even further forward and make us a lighter weight in the back of the club. so really trying to move that CG forward. you know, he's just hitting absolute bombs, you know, and he's got a more stout shaft than the one he had before. So all the way around, he's trying to reduce spin on his drives and it has really worked in Canada and this week.
Dominic: Interest okay, so he used to play the G four twenty five, you said, right? And then all of those little all those little tweaks, were those specifically for Victor, or is that the difference between the four forty and the four twenty five?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Ever since it came out. No, for Victor specifically. he he had been testing out the four forty, but was just overspinning it. so they were trying to give him some different configurations, you know, he's working with ping, and then they finally found the one that worked for him, and he's played it the last two weeks and has drove the ball very well.
Chief Wedge Officer: But this is different than this is not the Ping G four forty K, which is the n the new driver that Ping released.
Kevin Spisak: Nope. Yep, he had also tested out that one as well. but yeah, this is the LST.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: Do you know the difference between the four forty and four twenty five? Like, do you know what they changed about it? Is it just like the normal driver kind of progression where they changed the s the shape and all this stuff?
Chief Wedge Officer: Interesting.
Kevin Spisak: yeah, some advancements in the top, like the carbon fly wrap. So so there's more carbon in this model. their you know, one of their talking points to the 440 is like spin consistency. So getting consistent spin numbers across the face of the club. so they were asking Victor about it, and he said with his 425. You know, if he hit one on the toe, you know, the spin would drop like a ton. And then on the heel, the spin would go like way up. And like it it it was a huge range. But even with that, he was still hitting the 425 just better than any of Ping's newer stuff. And then now with his new 440, he said like across the face, his spin will be like somewhere in the two thousands, where like before it could like balloon up higher.
Dominic: Dang.
Kevin Spisak: so he he said he's getting more spin consistency across the phase.
Dominic: Matt, have you tried any pings? Any ping drivers?
Chief Wedge Officer: I used to have the ping for four the G man, what was it? G forty? G G four hundred, that gold one. That was a GO driver. That one was really good back in the day. Had that with a D model whiteboard back in the day. Great driver. Loved every second of it. I I tend to feel ping drivers, the heads feel heavy. I don't know why.
Kevin Spisak: Four hundred.
Chief Wedge Officer: They just feel a little heavier to me than like the title of drivers. And I feel like the footprint is always bigger, in my opinion, for some reason. But otherwise, Ping makes awesome, awesome drivers. And I think they were the the first ones to kind of go on the two-year release cycle. And now every major manufacturer is kind of moving to the two-year release cycle. So something to that for sure.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Thank God.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that's huge that Taylor Meade's doing that now, but it seems like they really figured out something with the QI four D. So it's like, why why do they need anything new? speaking of the Qi four D, we've got another entry onto the club tracker for a QI four D fairway wood. so his his only non ping club of the bag, Victor's playing the QI four D fifteen degree, with
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: With Ventus Black 7X. so that I think the QI4D fairway woods are gonna like far surpass the spider for this year. We started off this year so strong on spiders like winning every tournament. And then now it seems like every tournament is tailor-made QI4D fairway woods. It's insane. And and like all these guys who aren't tailor-made.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: players are using this in the using this fairway wing. That's it's nuts. then so then we go back to ping G440 on a three hybrid with a graphite design tour 80 Di hybrid 85X. So really high launch low spin common theme here across all of the shafts so far is is the low spin. I'm trying to keep those spin numbers down. High swing speed of course. And then his irons are pretty sweet. so he followed similar to his driver being you know considered ancient in current times. His irons are even older, so ping i210s and four through nine iron. Those came out in 2018, if you were wondering. Ping has released lots of irons since then, but but Victor cannot get these out of the bag. and you know, as far as PJ Tour players go, these are kind of like thicker sold, you know, more of a cavity design than you see most of the guys have. Like we'll see some CBs, you know, but they're still, you know, mostly like blade-like. But yeah, these are are real like players distance looking irons, you know, compared to the rest of the tour.
Chief Wedge Officer: Kevin, have you played do you play you don't play pink irons, do you?
Kevin Spisak: No, I've got Mazunos.
Chief Wedge Officer: If I have never looked at a ping iron on the ground and be like, man, that looks good. I I I know you love ping, but man their irons look like trash.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I think the blueprints look cool. I think those look have a pretty traditional look. But a lot of their irons have a really thick top line. Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. It just
Dominic: Is that what you don't like about it? The top line?
Chief Wedge Officer: they've Yeah, they've never sat well to me. They look again, like Kevin, yeah. They look chunky. I've always thought they looked chunky, and that's probably the top line. and I've never liked that piece that they mill out on the hossle. That always feels weird to me. I don't know. Just the whole I there there's two types of people in this world. There's people that love ping irons and there's people that can't hit ping irons, and I'm in the bucket that can't get thing irons. They look but but the people that do love swear by and they say they're like the best things that you know, ever f hit this planet.
Kevin Spisak: I've never I've never had ping irons. while I'm a huge like ping woods fan. I'm I'm a huge ping fan in general. there's really no RAM or reason why I haven't ever had any, just you know, cost and opportunity I guess to buy new clubs. you know, but I I don't know. I don't think I would have any issue playing them.
Dominic: I used to play these Copperhead pings. I don't know if you ever s if you ever saw them.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: I
Kevin Spisak: Weren't weren't they the ping zings?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: Hold on. Here's a five iron.
Kevin Spisak: What? Okay, yeah, those things are so heavy. Yeah, I I played seven holes with those with Dom. I played right handed and I think I did alright playing with your irons.
Dominic: Yeah, they really are. Matt, you haven't played golf with Kevin before? He is annoyingly good right handed. He's he's what they call amphibious. It's ridiculous.
Chief Wedge Officer: That is not Really? Hmm. Amphibious.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic: So I don't even know it's backwards, but it's one S T or first Pink Karsten. The my grandpa loved these grips and he said, and it still has his name on here, he said, I'm giving you these, never change these grips. Because at the time this was fifteen years ago, they were twenty years old, so they have to be over thirty now, but
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic: They are still in perfect shape. He's like, they made these grips and they're so good that they don't deteriorate. So then they stopped making them because they wanted people to buy more grips. It's like these have been used, they've been hand me down by brother to brother, cousin to cousin, and the grips are still so sticky. Like I can play with no gloves. It's so fun.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. That's awesome. Back when American manufacturing was good. Just kidding. so iron shafts, KBS Tour V120X. So some stout boys there, heavy shafts. then on his wedges, we go to the ping s two five nine fifty degree fifty-six, and then the ping glide two point zero sixty degree.
Dominic: But anyways. All right, continue.
Kevin Spisak: Then on those he he's got the dynamic gold S400. So we've seen those come up a time or two. you know, in people's wedge shafts.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, he he's kind of the show boy for the commercials for the ping wedges if you watch a lot of golf channel. So it makes sense that he's playing those wedges. Pretty standard stuff. I think I think Ping's trying to make a bigger splash in the wedge world. kind of a weird weird thing when they're trying to make a splash and they're trying to get people there and they charge like twenty dollars more than the standard Vokies. you're not gonna get a lot of people jumping from Vokies if you're just charging more for something that they've never played. So I don't know. Doesn't
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I found they've got a lot of different grind options now. you know, similar. I think they're trying to kind of be like Vokey. The I don't necessarily like love the marketing around some of their wedges where they seem a little gimmicky, like It it this is dumb and this is just like a me thing, but like calling it, you know, the the sixty, like the ping glide, it just like sounds like an infomercial type of wedge, you know? Or like they've got like the the bunker with with no E. Yeah. Right, right, right. you know, but but I think I think they are pretty quality wedges though. you know whatever.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: The chipper.
Dominic: It's like a beginner set of club.
Kevin Spisak: Then I think
Dominic: I was gonna say, real quick before you go to putter, looking at them, Matt, you could have a good market for these ping clubs 'cause they have a very open spot to have a nice stamp.
Chief Wedge Officer: yeah, I know I they d they do I I will credit them. They give a lot of space for creativity.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Very true, very true. Then his putter is by far the coolest part of his bag. He's been using this putter for quite a while. I texted Dom. If he wins, I would buy his putter as soon as Dom buys Windham's putter that he promised all of us he would buy. Ping PLD DS72. It's got the the long red wind grip on it.
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: bronze finish the alignment line on the flange and top line I just I love looking at this puttern I want one so bad I've I've been wanting it for a while but I love my answer D PLD so can't stray away from that but I do really want this
Chief Wedge Officer: I tried this when I was going through my putter woes, did not like it.
Kevin Spisak: What didn't you like?
Dominic: really?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, didn't like the feel. I don't know. Was weird.
Kevin Spisak: the in the the PLD or did you try like which model?
Chief Wedge Officer: The hobby model or whatever it was. Yeah. Didn't didn't but no, they don't I don't think they offer it with that i his exact alarm.
Kevin Spisak: really? Okay. With with that same alignment line? I think they did briefly, like after you won the tour championship.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay, yeah. I couldn't I couldn't find it. But yeah, I don't know. Just didn't didn't sit right with me. But looks like a sick putter.
Dominic: Matt, because you've had some experience stamping putters, so like this alignment line, could you in theory just stamp your own and then paint it? Or is it like is it kind of mess with the the technology?
Chief Wedge Officer: No, like it's like mill. Yeah, it's milled. You have to like mill. It's part of the mill.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. You would get like you'd get like buildup of material on the edges if you did it that way. 'Cause that material's gotta go somewhere.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. You would need a mill
Dominic: okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: You would need a milling machine.
Dominic: Okay, gotcha. Yeah, it's I would love to try that one out. Ping, please listen. Hit us up.
Kevin Spisak: Yes. Yeah. Definitely, definitely. and then his ball we're back to the old trusty Pro B One. so we had a brief run of Pro V One X's, but back to the Pro V One. So fun bag with ping stuff. I love you, Victor. I hope you're listening. You're my boy.
Dominic: Row.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Chief Wedge Officer: He's i I think that the theme of his bag is swing really hard at the golf ball. That's that is the overall overarching theme. He just swings really hard at it and his bag makes sense. Low spin, heavy, stiff shafts. Like he's not he's not he's not like a tempo guy.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Right. And you know, so he's got the Ventus black shaft I didn't mention, you know, in the driver. It's also tipped an inch. So that thing is so stiff. We would not be able to hang with that.
Dominic: It is. Jeez, dude. Yeah, I mean, I think
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: that's probably
Chief Wedge Officer: Well he's had the driver woes too.
Dominic: That's probably why he's so like streaky. Like he's very streaky, we've said before, on here. And like, is that just kind of common theme for people who swing out of their shoes every time? Like, Bryson's pretty streaky these days too. I mean, he's been just bad with his wedges, but like is that kind of a a thing with like hard swingers? Is it's once you lose something you lose it for a little bit?
Kevin Spisak: Until until the last two weeks.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I feel like Victor is very like Rory in the fact that his swing is really good, but his swing requires a lot of of him to get in the right positions. And if he's out of position, it's gonna be way off. Right? Like so, like Rory, if he's not dropping the club in the slot super low and coming from the inside, like he's not gonna hit it well. and like
Dominic: Mm.
Chief Wedge Officer: Same with Victor. Like Victor kind of looks like he's coming over the top, but he actually like really shallows it out at the bottom and then like and swings at it. And so if he's just not in the right positions, I think it's really off where somebody like I don't know, let's just call it like Adam Scott, who has a very picturesque swing, he like is more consistent because like his swing doesn't have a lot of moving parts to like get out of sync on. Whereas like Victor's and Rory's are like it's either in sync or it's really out of sync. But when it's in sync, they win.
Dominic: Okay. I like that. That's cool.
Chief Wedge Officer: So that's my personal
Dominic: No, I agree.
Kevin Spisak: His his strokes gain driving for this week is plus nine point eight in distance, plus nine percent in accuracy. So good good week for ping drivers.
Chief Wedge Officer: Damn. It's good stuff.
Dominic: Yeah, so Fun tournament. I feel like like we already kind of talked about the ending. and we'll we'll get into Colin Morokawa a little bit later because of certain somebody chose him for one of dungeons. But I do want to shout him out because he was nine back going into Sunday and ended up third place. He he had the same as Victor, ended up he had nine birdies on Sunday to get all the way up there, and a little he had a slight chance of ending up the playoffs. So there's that hilarious shot of him doing practice swings inside 'cause it was raining. I don't know if you saw that one.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: That was great. But yeah, some other good players like Sam Burns did really well. I mean, our one and dunes were awesome. Sam Burns, Shane Lowry came out of nowhere, I feel like. just a a pretty good leaderboard. I feel like like you said, Matt, it kind of just produces pretty low scores and kind of fun fun days.
Chief Wedge Officer: Hell yeah. Yeah. Every once in a while you get like a weird winner there. Like I think we got Tim Tim Heron one year. We got Kramer Hickcock. He's like some guy from back in the day. like you get some weird winners, but you also get like really good winners. Like remember Speath hold out the bunker shot there on eighteen and like all that sort of stuff. So I I think Travelers is gonna get the the premier PJ tour event for sure.
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: or one of these new champions tour events or whatever it's called.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. Signature event right this year and so Victor got some serious FedEx cup points. this had to have been the most like convenient tour stop of the entire season going from Shinnecock over to Cromwell, Connecticut, like it's just a little ferry boat ride. Yeah.
Dominic: Across the pond, as some might say.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Be I'd be curious how most of them got there. It'd be cool if they took a parry. Don't forget it.
Dominic: Across the Long Island Sound.
Chief Wedge Officer: Talibogies.
Dominic: Shout out Trivia. I was I was listening at the towards the end there. I thought Kisner, I thought he was really gonna jinx Scotty. so Scotty blew his his birdie putt past and he has like a a comebacker uphill. So then Kisner, where it's if he misses it, tournament's over and Victor wins. He said right before he started his putt, he said, Scotty hasn't three putted in seventy three holes. And I was like, Whoa, really going for it? And then a huge fist bump by Scotty. So that was a lot of fun. So Dominic's dumb question corner. is it based by tournament or how do they decide when it's a single playoff hole versus like I've seen a tournament do like a three playoff hole kind of thing.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, his bump. So on the PGA tour it's sudden death. Always. so like but the but they might say we're just gonna play 18 over and over again. But some tournaments might go, we're gonna go play 16, 17, and 18, but it's sudden death. So even if you win on 16 tournaments over.
Dominic: Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: But the open championship is a three hole aggregate playoff. So you're correct what you're thinking that if you get it to a playoff in the in the open, you you have to go play all three holes and the winner after all three holes is the open champion.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Isn't the PGA championship kinda like that? I think that maybe that changed recently, like where they became that way, but it that's how like Justin Thomas won.
Chief Wedge Officer: I PGA as well, yeah. Correct. And fun fact, US Open used to be a h whole eighteen hole playoff on Monday. Entire eighteen.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I wish it was still like that. That was awesome.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, Tiger beat Rocco Mediate. Shout out Rocco.
Dominic: Wasn't that the nine and nine or nine and eight?
Chief Wedge Officer: No, that was that was the match play tournament. This is when I Rocco Media actually took Tiger down to the end.
Dominic: I do remember that 'cause that was when it was
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: That was when Tiger is broke his knee.
Kevin Spisak: Like yeah. Tiger is like wincing after every swing, like climbing up that hill. Yeah.
Dominic: When it was raining. Yeah, okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic: Ridiculous.
Kevin Spisak: we'd we'd be missing a big part of the tournament if we didn't talk about Matt's boy Wyndham having another good performance. He is on his game.
Chief Wedge Officer: Dude. Scar. He might he might be one of the best players like best players in the world, worst human beings. We'll see. C B D.
Kevin Spisak: Is is he gaining any sort of traction in Matt Fandom? How could it be worse?
Chief Wedge Officer: No, dude, he's getting he's it's worse. It's worse. I have some unreleased files that I cannot release, but but maybe, maybe, maybe in our maybe 40 years from now, we'll have to release the wit the Windham files, as I call no, he's he's just you know, I've had some run-ins and he's just a bad guy. and you know, the whole the whole
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Oakmont thing, I'm sorry, blah blah blah. But I will say two US opens at LACC and Shinnnecock pretty legit. I mean those are two those are two sick places. I mean he he basically says like I've won I'm b he's basically like an honorary member at LACC and Shinnnecock, but he can't step on the premises at Oakmont. It's a pretty sick sick thing to have.
Dominic: That is pretty cool. I was so last week we we had a pretty big segment on Windham and I'm curious what you think. 'Cause I was basically saying everyone deserves the right to a second chance. If they mess up, you can't be confined by one mistake. But like it if even if even if you take out the Oakmon stuff, he still stinks. And I feel like you'd agree with me.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay. Yeah. Well yeah, 'cause he does like well I'm gonna open up some grape. Like he says dumb stuff and like he just he's he like I don't know. I mean his whole his whole vibe is off to me. Did you see the comments of like he like said this is good birth control or something when he was at the when he was at the par three contest at August National?
Dominic: I do remember that. Just some weird comments.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Like yeah, like like he just I feel like he he's one of those guys that just like says what's on his mind and doesn't think doesn't think like huh like does this sound would this be good for my PR? Like like he needs a walking got PR guy that that he's like, hey I'm about to say this and then he's like maybe let's say this a different way
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Isn't that that's like how he was doing that interview and talked about like Baker, Baker Mayfield or his girlfriend cheated on him with Baker and like he's looking at the PR guy, he's like, I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say it. Okay, okay. All right, I'm gonna say it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic: He tweeted it out. my gosh. That was too funny. That's that would suck.
Chief Wedge Officer: So So yeah, Wyndham you know, I think Wyndham's gonna be on the Ryder Cup, Wyndham's gonna be on President's Cup. I mean, he's gonna be on every cup team. Like, we have to learn. Someone I I heard something where like we should just put Wyndham and Patrick Reed in the same group, and it's just like the fuck you Europe group. Like everybody hates him. They're walking down the fairway getting like stuff thrown at them. And it's just like the bad boys of like golf, like just absolutely getting getting got.
Kevin Spisak: For the millionth time, how can you love Patrick Reed and hate Wyndham? It makes no sense. Patrick Reed is so much worse than Windom. Okay.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: I'm a man. Patrick Reed is an American hero, Kevin, and I won't
Dominic: my gosh. That's that's the thing. Patrick Reed, he doesn't say stupid things in the media. He's
Chief Wedge Officer: Well, never
Kevin Spisak: What?
Dominic: I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Chief Wedge Officer: Remember when he said and remember when he said I'm a top five player in the world? That's that was a long time ago. That was a really long time.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, and when he said that he quoted his junior golf resume. Get the fuck out.
Chief Wedge Officer: And then and then remember he like they always ask him I think the only song he plays when he warms up is Imagined Dragons or something. Like it's that god, what's that famous Imagine Dragon song? Radioactive. That's the only song he listens to when he when he warms up is Radio
Kevin Spisak: Radioactive.
Dominic: Imagine dragging these nuts across your face?
Kevin Spisak: Well, that that ruined that song for me. Not that it was like my favorite song ever, but now it's now it's ruined.
Dominic: So speaking of people in the media and needing a PR guy, should we talk about Rory and how back and forth he is? Like speci like with the schedule that was released, he was like, it's just a glorified corn corn fairy tour. And then when the news came out, he's like, Yeah, this is great. I love it. It's gonna be awesome. Like I'm so excited. It's like what do you Yeah, it's like, what do you actually think?
Kevin Spisak: Seems to kinda flip flop on a lot of topics.
Chief Wedge Officer: He's in his he's in his like what is he? He's almost forty. Like he's in his kind of midlife crisis phase, I feel like. Just he's just trying to think. I also think he's basically like F you to the PGA tour because he basically was telling him like you guys should do this from the start, and they were like, No, we're not gonna listen and then basically now they're doing I think everything he tried to tell them to do in the beginning. And he's like, You guys are stupid, I'm done with this. I'm just gonna play golf where I'm.
Dominic: That's fair. Yeah. Which is fair.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. While he has flip flopped on some topics, you know, he was like the person with all the weight of the PGA tour on his shoulders during all all the live stuff at the beginning. And then when they make the agreement, you know, with the PIF and all that, it was just like a big middle finger to him. You know, so now it's just speak freely, who cares? Like if you change your mind later, who cares? Whatever.
Dominic: Yeah. People forget.
Chief Wedge Officer: And then Sir Nick Faldo is like he's like the goofiest goober. Like nobody knows where Rory is. And like he goes live on Instagram and Rory's and him are playing at like Royal County Down or something in Northern Ireland. And like Rory was probably like, that's probably not the best PR, but whatever. So
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I think he's already.
Chief Wedge Officer: but yeah we can get into some John Deere Classic. You guys have anything else on on TPC River Highlands, The Travelers?
Dominic: Nothing for me.
Chief Wedge Officer: All right. TPC Deer Run, the John Deere Classic. has anybody else been to Malene, Illinois or the Quad Cities? Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Whole bunch of times. Yeah. I've been to that tournament I think four four if not five times.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay. So I I've been there once. I played there for a golf tournament in college. I was surprised by how the town is all John Deere. There's nothing else in the town. Like everybody works for John Deere. It's like it's it's crazy how centralized John Deere is to that tournament. But I will say, they everybody says that this is one of the best run events on the PGA tour. Which I thought is i it's always really cool. People seem to love it. they call it people call it the fifth major, the John Deere Classic. it never gets the best field in golf, I will say. but usually you get some fun some fun winners and Jordan Speith is back this year 'cause he might be on the glorified Corn Ferry tour. coming soon. So I think he's getting used to his new travel schedule, but
Dominic: Love it.
Kevin Spisak: He's a former John Deere Classic winner.
Chief Wedge Officer: Especially if he starts if he puts a lab into play. That'll be that'll be great. Like if if Yeah. Yeah. so yeah, I I'm I love the John Deere Classic. I definitely will tune in on Sunday. it's not one of those ones I'd tune in on like, you know, thir Saturday. Like I'm not gonna make time for it, but love the John Deere Classic, all good vibes. Kevin, you've been there a couple of times as as a as watching it.
Dominic: That'd be insane.
Kevin Spisak: That would be wild. And we'll we'll pick up on that news more than a or sooner than a year.
Dominic: Ha ha.
Chief Wedge Officer: the only thing I remember from playing it is the flies there are atrocious.
Kevin Spisak: I don't remember that.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay. I don't know why. That's a lot I I knew it was a couple days that we were there. It was lot of flies. So otherwise cool cool spot. yeah, excited for the excited for the week.
Dominic: Was it just the day, maybe, or what? GS.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. We were there a number of times to follow someone specific and you know walked the course, you know, sometimes two days, sometimes four days, depending on how you did. the course is deceptively hilly. you know, I wear an Apple Watch and the first time I went there, it kept like dinging me all day, being like, Looks like you're working out. Would you like to record a workout? Damn, I'm just walking, chill out, Apple Watch. It but it's it's a lot of elevation changes. You'd think like all right, western Illinois, getting close to Iowa, it's gotta just be like flat farmland. It's like, no, there is a lot of slopes. there's you know, part three that is like a major valley. You know, the the players get to walk across this like beautiful bridge that goes across, but all the spectators gotta go down this like forty-five degree incline and then back up.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: My wife's like eighty five year old grandpa walked it for like four days. It was incredible to see him just hoofing it. Yeah, he walked seven miles a day. Nuts. but the Quad Cities are they are way nicer than you would think. Like like you said, everyone works for John Deere. But like you'd think like Davenport, Iowa it's the middle of nowhere, Maline, Illinois, middle of nowhere. But like it's a nice town. There's some some nice breweries, nice restaurants. would never live there, but I I I do enjoy a visit. They've got this I can't remember the name of the brewery. I I could if I saw it I'd recognize it. But they have this like blueberry ale that is fantastic. you know, not not too strong on the fruit forwardness, but very good blueberry, you know, the the tournaments always like right around July 4th, so it's always scorching hot. You know, you're sweating your nuts off, walking the course all day and then you go have a refreshing blueberry ale, it's good.
Dominic: Really?
Chief Wedge Officer: This was the now that I I remember this was the course that I my only time I've ever broken a club during a tournament and I broke my putter. I was like I used to do this thing where I like smack my putter against my like foot after I like missed a putt, and I did it and the putter just snapped.
Dominic: Service?
Kevin Spisak: How did that happen? Like the shaft broke or it popped off the shaft?
Chief Wedge Officer: It like the shaft was like bent backwards essentially. I just putted with my wedge for the rest of the time rest of the tournament. Rest of the day. I actually putted pretty well. It wasn't bad. Yeah. It wasn't bad. Yeah.
Dominic: What do you do with that?
Kevin Spisak: There you
Dominic: And how did that go for you? You gotta get it close and you're good.
Kevin Spisak: So you're saying putters are overrated.
Chief Wedge Officer: Hunters are overrated for sure.
Dominic: Yeah, nobody cares about butter.
Chief Wedge Officer: So But otherwise
Kevin Spisak: I've been wasting so much time.
Chief Wedge Officer: yeah, that's all I got. John Deere Classic, very excited to be fun week.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Have you seen the giant tractor that they have that hits the giant ball into the giant hole? It's pretty sick.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yes. This was also the w the famous video where the boat backfired and when Zach was putting it's like a famous video 'cause it backfired and he goes, I'm so scared And even like Go look up that video if you if you have it. It's like the funniest video. He like freaks out on putting green.
Dominic: I love that.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Wait, what? Gotta I gotta see that.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that's the that's the Mississippi River, right? yeah, there's like boaters down below. They can't see anything. Like they are so far below like where the golf course is, but they're just like hanging out there having a good time and inevitably someone's gonna make some noise.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Dominic: Matt, I think it's time let's let's get your take. we we talked about it l last week, the the new tour championship schedule. So I'm curious your thoughts if you wanted to add anything.
Chief Wedge Officer: So Yeah, I'll do some quick points. so it sounds like they're just gonna ax the champions tour, because they can't have the championship tour and then the champions tour. That that doesn't or they're gonna change they're gonna rebrand the champions tour. So that sounds like it's gonna be Yeah. I love, love, love the the no sponsor exemptions. so Tony Fienau, get out, Jordan Speed out, Brant Snedeker out.
Dominic: Gold and black filler.
Chief Wedge Officer: Web Simpson out. Like all you all these all these little boys, like get out. that's that's big thumbs up to Brian Rolap there. match play in the tour championship. Awesome. Love that. I think that would be turn appointment viewing. can't wait for that. somehow they got out of the I guess what's his name? the old PG Tor CEO or or commissioner, what was his name? He's so forgettable and and dumb, I forget his name.
Dominic: Paul.
Kevin Spisak: Let last name start with the right?
Chief Wedge Officer: I don't know, whatever. I know, we should know this. But he I guess he had signed a deal with East Lake that the tournament that the tour championship would be hosted at Jay Monahan. He would be he would be the tour championship would be at East Lake forever. That was like the contract. Like he signed a contract that said like we'll never ever leave East Lake. But it sounds like
Dominic: We should know this. Monhe.
Kevin Spisak: Jay Monahan, yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: They got out of that contract somehow, because they stupidly said, yeah, we're gonna go to try to go to Pine Valley and Cypress Point and Seminole. which if you're in the private club, top one hundred world, kind of thing, like these clubs do not like to be in media drops that they're not that they that they don't know about, number one. so that was who whoever did that at the tour.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: was very stupid. and they're probably fired at this point. but
Dominic: Or do you think like real quick, do you think they knew about it and we just don't know about it yet? Because like that would be a pretty big name drop.
Chief Wedge Officer: Well well no, because Maverick McNeely, who's on the PJ Tour players board, basically came out and said, No, we haven't started negotiations with them. Like yeah, we we hope to, but basically no negotiations have started. I will not believe Pine Valley is going to host a PJ Tour event until I see it on the schedule. That's my only that's my thoughts there. But the general gist of everything is a plus.
Dominic: Chinese. Yeah. Did you did you Did you happen to catch Dan Rappaport's clip where he was talking about this? Cause he had a pretty interesting point saying, like, all these clubs, they have more than enough money. So, like, why would they want this exposure? Because a lot of courses they they host events so they get more members or like they attract these like really rich and like prominent members, but
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: These are like the most private clubs in the country. Why would they want more people to see like what they're what they have going on? Like it's very interesting.
Kevin Spisak: I think it's
Chief Wedge Officer: Exactly.
Kevin Spisak: I think it's also like a trophy thing though for these clubs. Like they get to say that they hosted the tour championship this year and this year. And it's it's not necessarily like they need the marketing or advertising, but they want the possession. You know, it's like a like a rich guy owning like that extra watch. Like he doesn't need it. He's got 30 watches, you know, but like that next one is the I need that big one, you know.
Dominic: That's true.
Chief Wedge Officer: But I and I think that with match play it is possible because what what the what Pine Valley does not want is they do not want the tour guys coming there and then being like, Rory shot twenty seven under in four days and one and he made Pine Valley look like with match play, no score technically score doesn't matter, right? Nobody really knows what anybody shot. And course records don't count in match play. so I think that they they actually do have that gives them the ability because like Cypress Point is not long enough for the P the the PJ Tour today. Like even Pine Valley, I've never played it, but I'm assuming they don't have any more space to like like Rory hitting it three forty out there is not is gonna be is gonna he's gonna not to say he would tear apart that golf course, but he would shoot pretty good under par there if he's playing well. Like the winner's going to. So I definitely could see it happening, but it's gonna take a lot of negotiation.
Dominic: If I had Rory's length, who knows?
Chief Wedge Officer: Also, who whose choice was it to trout Tiger Woods out there? That's the first public appearance he made after coming at getting out of rehab. Whose dumb idea was that?
Dominic: Michael Black That was weird. That made no sense.
Chief Wedge Officer: Like everybody's just gonna ask Tiger Woods how was rehab?
Dominic: Yeah. It I feel like there's a there's a time and a place and like there's probably a different time for that.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Speaking of Tiger, you know, Phil's been through a little bit of some scandals and it's like the two of them were the you know, the peak of our childhood, you know, like the whole generation of us growing up, it was like Tiger and Phil, Tiger and Phil. And both of them have some like real messed up allegations.
Chief Wedge Officer: I saw something.
Dominic: Maybe we shouldn't idolize golfers.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: I I saw something funny and it was like, Can you believe Grant Hovart made a living out of accepting five hundred dollars to ride around at the cart while Foo Mendelson was going? Hmm.
Dominic: you ever see Tosh point like Daniel Tosh, his stand-up? If you ever watched that TV show back in the day. He had a pretty funny joke where he it was talking about Michael Phelps smoking weed and getting like banned or whatever, like after he was winning all these things. So he's like, I think your first issue is idolizing a swimmer. Why are you doing that?
Chief Wedge Officer: Back in back in.
Kevin Spisak: It's hilarious.
Chief Wedge Officer: You know, I I will say like one of the things I think I wrote about in my newsletter was like we gave like Dustin Johnson a ton of stuff a ton of shit about like how he was like he got caught up in like some drugs and stuff, allegedly, back in like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. Like it kinda makes Dustin Johnson come out looking like you know, flowers. Like he like I mean like yeah, fine, like smoke a little pot, like like you know, like if you're an athlete, like whatever, but like at least you're not doing what Phil's doing.
Dominic: I guess we do we know what he's doing? No we know a little bit. Allegedly. Is he doing drugs too, or is he just touching people?
Chief Wedge Officer: Allegedly. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Allegedly.
Chief Wedge Officer: Who, Dustin or Phil? you didn't see the articles? dumb. You're gonna your eyes are gonna you're I can't believe you haven't seen the articles.
Dominic: Phil.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, just over the weekend. Yeah.
Dominic: Yeah? Okay. No, I didn't read I didn't look into it. 'Cause I know there was like the alleged like two weeks ago there was someone at the club who had like reported some inappropriate touching, right?
Chief Wedge Officer: All Here's what here's what here's what we're gonna do, Dom. We're gonna go on to the next golf news. I want you to read through the article and then you can provide a live reaction of your thoughts on Look up look up look up Alan Shipnuck Phil article from this week.
Dominic: Okay, go for it. Okay.
Kevin Spisak: Ellen Shipnik's got it out for Phil.
Chief Wedge Officer: He does.
Dominic: All right, so y'all y'all move on.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay. So new Shrix on drivers, Kevin. You know the name of I don't even know the name of them
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, the Strickson RKT z XI RKT. I I saw someone call it Rocket online. I don't know if that's what Strickson's going for, but could be makes sense.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay. Interesting. Yeah, I mean Shirks on drivers, they're they're they they definitely price less than all the big drivers and they're probably just as good quality. So probably good good good to try.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Dom's Dom's playing Srixan driver and three wood. I've got and seven wood. I've got the five wood. Srixan makes a very quality club. I th I mean Dunlap Sports has like totally replaced anything quality that Cleveland golf had has gone into Srixan for sure.
Dominic: And several wood.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: The RKT, you know, they they appeared on the USGA conforming list and it's like somewhat unclear if this is gonna be like a product that comes out or if it's gonna be like a tour specific, like Hadeki has played like the these two six two models of different Srixan drivers in the past. And I don't necessar I don't know what those that means, but they come up on the US GA conforming list every time.
Chief Wedge Officer: Based on Hideki's putter collection, I'm sure he has a custom driver as well that they built.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, there's like these codes on all these drivers for
Dominic: Ew Dude.
Chief Wedge Officer: What?
Dominic: No shot.
Chief Wedge Officer: I guess you just got to the interesting parts, huh?
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic: Sorry, that's gross.
Chief Wedge Officer: I have started playing the Pro B1 X left dash and it has I mean, I I'm I'm hitting the ball ten yards further off the T, five yards longer with each iron. haven't seen a loss and spin really around the green. So big fan of the left dash. It was a good test in Scotland of the left dash. I was a big fan.
Kevin Spisak: Perfect place to test it.
Chief Wedge Officer: So, before Dom gets done, I'm looking we're watching the Mexico game right now. Why do all the FIFA ref World Cup refs look like huge nerds? That's my question. Everyone in the refs looks like freaking nerds.
Kevin Spisak: 'cause their glasses and the they've got the the ref cam now and the body cam and microphone and battery packs and they're just loaded up with all this gear now.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Yeah. All right, Dom, you can unpack your take and then you can talk to us about going to your first major championship.
Dominic: so I saw like random pictures on Twitter of like comparing Ashley Perez with like what she really looks like, and I kind of just skimmed past it because I was like, this is super random, but now it makes a lot of sense because she's very much in the news. Holy shit, dude. I haven't I got like not even a third of the way through. But Phil, what are we doing, dog? my god.
Chief Wedge Officer: Like what are we
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: like what are we doing? Like
Dominic: That's horrible. Yeah, I don't even know what to say to that. Like, invite them to the villa and they're just like, hey, by the way, this is what I'm working with.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: Bonkers.
Kevin Spisak: This is just like another example of like person who is on top of the world and us like normies down below we're like looking up at like, if I was that, you know, rich and famous, I would never do stuff like that. And like you wonder like what is going through these people's heads, like when you have everything, you can do anything, you know. Is this like what kind of fix they're getting? Like living on the edge of it all collapsing.
Chief Wedge Officer: It's it just I think it is. I think it's just he has he needs the action.
Kevin Spisak: Or do or do you just think you're that invincible that no one could take you down and you could do whatever you want?
Dominic: It's gotta be that one. But also like respectfully, he's like the original frumpy Matt Fitzpatrick. What what is he showing her that Like what is he doing where he's like, hey, check out this mid body
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Or both. wait, way from here. Way from here. Yeah. He makes Matt Fitzpa Matt Fitzpatrick look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Dominic: It's all those gummies. All those health gummies that he's taken. but anyways, switching topics. We'll get out. We'll get off of this. yeah, I went to Hazeltine this weekend, on Saturday and got to watch some of the LPGA major and it was a lot of fun. I've never seen Hazleten in person before. So that was exciting in itself. I actually played I walked eighteen before, like early in the morning.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: And then I went over to Hazeltine. So I think I had like thirty thousand steps that day. So that was a lot of fun. My my dogs were barking. but followed Nelly for four to five holes. and then we ended up we sat on the ninth green and watched a few people come in and we saw I actually don't know how to pronounce is it Ryu or is it Rue, the one who won.
Chief Wedge Officer: It's a great question. So So Young So Young Roo is that is that
Dominic: I think it's r I think it's rude. Yeah, I think it's rude. Anyways, so she had a very good birdie putt on nine and it went completely 360 around the hole and we were like right there. So I want to go back and see if we can see us on the on the broadcast. But it was it was a really fun fun to watch them. the the chatter that Nellie Corda plays fast is an understatement. I I was blown away. So we're like this one in particular, we're on a par three.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ooh.
Dominic: girl in front of her Davidson hits it and like everyone's looking and as soon as it lands I turn back and Nelly already has the ball down and she's doing her practice swing and is like getting set to hit it. Like she really doesn't give any time. Like she she waits for the person to hit it and let them get out of the way and she's already putting the ball down and getting ready. Like she really does not waste any time. It's pretty impressive. Yeah. But it's I think
Chief Wedge Officer: Nice.
Dominic: Think we can all benefit from doing something like that so we don't really have to overthink what we're doing, but really fun. the KPMG Women's PGA Championship is the full name. I do think they can work on their logo.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay.
Dominic: It's kinda like it's like block letters KPMG, you know? But like I think they can do a little bit better. But overall, very fun tournament. it was like ninety-two degrees, which in Minnesota is like a heat stroke. Which is hilarious. It's like a heat advisory, everyone gets warnings, which like we need that same energy when it's a polar freeze for the Texans.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay.
Dominic: And everyone up here makes fun of people for being so cold, I'm like, Y'all do the same thing
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. what did you think about I feel like everybody is 'cause that's your first LPG tournament, right? Or no?
Dominic: Mm-hmm. It is.
Chief Wedge Officer: N what do you think it's just everybody there? I feel like every LPGA has just like great tempo. That's what I think about when I like they all just swing it with great tempo.
Dominic: It's unreal. I mean, you've said it to me so many times, but like, if you watch, if you copy anybody swing, it's someone on the LPGA. It's always so silky. They use every bit of technology that they can because they're so good at striking the ball. another thing I noticed too is the fans are way more respectful. Like, nobody's yelling mashed potatoes, nobody's yelling get in the bunker, nobody's chanting USA. Which is so I still think that's the dumbest chant possible at a golf outing, but like nobody's nobody's being obnoxious at an LPGA tournament.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. That makes sense.
Kevin Spisak: Isn't it ironic that we went from talking about Phil Mickelson to the KPMG EJ Championship when that was like his sponsor for his entire career? Yeah.
Dominic: Was it really?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, he was big G
Dominic: Interesting, interesting. We'll we'll skip past it. It was a fun day.
Kevin Spisak: Not intentional.
Chief Wedge Officer: Well, I'm glad you missed your first major, and your first L P G tournament. I I I never whenever the L P Ga is in town, I I I never try I try to I try to go. It's always a it's always like one thing that I always try to do 'cause it's it's always a good time.
Dominic: And it's probably one of the few chances I get to go to Hazeltine. And I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, either in twenty seven or twenty eight, the US Open's gonna be at Interlocken up here. So I'm for sure gonna go to that, 'cause that'll be fun to see.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ryder Cup's coming back to Hazeltine in a couple of years too.
Dominic: It is. I signed up and they're announcing this week two random winners to get two tickets. So we'll see if I get those.
Chief Wedge Officer: You know, so that's the whole thing is that it's a little bit of a s a little bit of an insider baseball, with the way that PG of America works, but the reason why Hazel Teen is hosting a women's PGA championship is because they host their they got the deal for the Ryder Cup, and part of getting the deal for the Ryder Cup is like you have to host a women's PGA.
Dominic: A major or just any tournament?
Chief Wedge Officer: A w a women's PGA championship because like not that it's like this is a good thing, but like it's hard for them to secure venues, good venues for the women's PGA championship, 'cause like that's not bringing in a ton of money for the club. so what they do is they say, Hey, if you want this Ryder Cup, that's great, which will bring in millions and millions of dollars for the club and whatever, but you also have to host this this women's PGA championship if you want the rider. Yeah.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: Little bit of a yeah.
Dominic: That makes a lot of sense.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. It's kind of a interesting little tidbit that that not a lot of people know about that how the PJ of America works in the backroom deals. So
Dominic: Right. Mm-hmm. I we we get a lot of talk from the male golfers on what they think about the course. I'm super curious what the women think about Hazeltine. 'Cause like I haven't really done much research on the course. Like it it looks like it's in great shape most of the time. Like it's the layout's pretty fun. But I'm curious like what they think of the tournament 'cause I know I wanna say Sunday had a rain delay and it pushed it out a a lot. And there was a big conundrum of do they still get their five hour media window? so that was interesting. But then when they got back, Nellie she had a a few birdies here and there, but like she really dropped off towards the end. And I'm curious if like if that was just her playing issue. I mean her putting was kind of rough all tournament, like she was kinda saying that in the press presses, but I'm curious if something went weird for her
Chief Wedge Officer: yeah.
Dominic: Because of the rain or because of the course or something, I don't know.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Hm. Well, cool. one and done?
Dominic: Yeah. Let's do it. So you weren't here. we decided to do what you did for me a few weeks ago where we kind of chose for you. And funny enough, whenever you chose for me and I chose for you ended the same result. T twenty two.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: You were way nicer to me though. You gave me Shane Lowry. I I gave you Matt Couture. Those aren't the same.
Dominic: It's you know, Matt, it's because I'm such a nice guy and you're a bad guy. So that's it's pretty much the only reason. Just kidding. Just kidding. so yeah, Shane Lowry, T twenty two. and then I had Sam Burns, the hot hand. He finished T twelve. And then our boy Kev. Just I feel like the pick was a little bit out of nowhere. Like he's been kind of injured this year a little bit back and forth.
Chief Wedge Officer: That's right. Right. Yeah.
Dominic: But he chose Kalamarokawa and he absolutely smashed it. He ended up third place for the tournament.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it seemed like Colin was kinda coming into form at the US Open. you know, was figuring it out. once he had that wedge switch like he like we talked about last week. so I felt like, you know, going from Shinnecock, brutal, difficult golf course, and then over to TBC River Highlands, it would make a lot of sense to ride the hot hand and it, you know, worked out. Closing the gap on you, Dom. Just one bad week for you and I'm right there.
Dominic: I know. I'm not excited for it. Well let me let me go through the scores real quick. So with Shane Lowry being dead T twenty two, that brings Matt to nine thirty seven.
Kevin Spisak: It's funny every week.
Dominic: And then with with Kevin's Kalamarakawa pick at T three, that brings him to six four. And then Sam Burns at twelve brings me to five fifty. So fifty-four points away for Kevin, and I feel like he's gonna get it.
Kevin Spisak: And we've got nine tournaments left. So Matt is three hundred thirty-three more than me.
Chief Wedge Officer: That's better than I thought.
Kevin Spisak: And with nine tournaments, you need some good performances and you need me and Dom to really mess up.
Dominic: It's still triple digits.
Chief Wedge Officer: Hey. Anything?
Dominic: Well that's that's a thing though. And so I'm not sure if you saw the sheet yet, Matt, but Patrick Reed was eighty second and because we double majors, I had one sixty four last week.
Chief Wedge Officer: Mm.
Dominic: Yeah, dude. So that's the worst score out of anybody every single week of the year. Pretty wild. Thanks a lot, P Reed. Appreciate it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Brought you with I like it. We got one more major too, so you know, you never know.
Dominic: That's not good for me. So but anyways, Matt, take us through who are you choosing for your one and done?
Chief Wedge Officer: man, I I thought long and hard about this for the last two minutes. so I'm excited to tell you where I went. you know, went through the list. Lot of names I don't recognize on this list. but I am going with somebody that's been hot lately and I think he can win here. And because the John Deere Classic is a big jumping off point for people. People get their first win here a lot. I feel like this guy's been knocking on the door. Eric Cole, been on the leaderboard. Could might be coming here, you know, feeling a little confident with some, you know, some tadpoles in the water here at at at T C D a run. And he's kind of, you know, one of the big kangaroos out there hanging around. So going with Eric Cole.
Dominic: It's a great pick.
Chief Wedge Officer: I know, I I'm I'm I'm confident.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. It's it's a good pick for you, but I'm gonna go in a different direction. another guy who's been playing pretty hot. yeah, he's been pretty solid all season. Official world golf rank twenty-five. I'm gonna go Jacob Bridgeman.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ooh. Haven't seen his name pop up in a while.
Dominic: I like it. That's solid.
Kevin Spisak: Good season for old Jacob.
Dominic: It's a good pick. It's good pick. I'm gonna go. I was a
Chief Wedge Officer: Matt Coot. You can't pick him.
Dominic: yeah, that's true. You already got it. So I was gonna go with Cashmere Keith, because he's been kinda hot lately. But I do enjoy this guy better. I'm gonna choose Ben Griffin.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ooh, that's a good thing. Another good pick.
Dominic: They've both been playing well, but I feel like there's really no rhyme or reason. I just kinda I wanna see Ben Ben do well. And he's he he's been playing pretty well this week too. I mean this year.
Chief Wedge Officer: Good to Harry Higgs back on the PJ tour. Saw his name pop up on the list.
Dominic: Saw some buttons get get opened.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I like it.
Kevin Spisak: Maybe you guys ready for some for some trivia?
Dominic: Let's see, let's see. Yes.
Chief Wedge Officer: Do it.
Kevin Spisak: So, John Deere Classic. We're talking about some women's golfers with KPMG, Women's PG Championship. the John Deere Classic has hosted Michelle Wii twice. woman in the tournament 2005 and 2006. So, Michelle Wee set the record. She's played in a whole bunch of PJ Tour events. I think she played in seven or eight. She set the record for a woman s like low individual round in a PJ tour event with a sixty-eight. She did it twice. What event was that? Please don't know it, man. How? How do you know this? How do you possibly know this?
Chief Wedge Officer: Sony O Why. It's cause she's from Hawaii and she played in her hometown event. Come on, baby. Gotta be better than that.
Kevin Spisak: I'm speechless.
Chief Wedge Officer: Kevin Kevin, I'm an encyclopedia.
Dominic: my gosh. He pulled out the Ted Mosby.
Kevin Spisak: It's insane. Damn, what what would you have guessed?
Dominic: I was gonna think it was a trick question to be John Deere.
Kevin Spisak: That would be good.
Dominic: I I wouldn't really have like a solid guess. So that's hilarious. So
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I thought the Sony Open was just so like random in comparison to the John Deere Classic. Like they they have nothing to do with each other. They could not be further apart than any other course on the PGA tour. I mean, like, obviously Hawaii w has that common with most events, but still.
Chief Wedge Officer: Kevin, I here I have a I have a trivia question I'll throw back to you on the same topic. And if you get it right, you can delete your chug.
Kevin Spisak: All but Dam's tell us a check.
Dominic: If he gets it right, you send it to me.
Chief Wedge Officer: What what tournament did Annika Sornstan first play as a woman on the on the that played on the PGA tour?
Kevin Spisak: It's up on my screen. So that's not a I I can't answer that. I've got the the list.
Dominic: Wow. Hey Golf is a gentleman's game and Kevin is the poster boy. Look at you. What is it?
Chief Wedge Officer: Well, you're you're a gentleman.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. All right, Dom. Well Dom, why don't you answer?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, you can delete your truck, Dom, if you get it right.
Dominic: Well like is there like certain tournaments where this is popular?
Kevin Spisak: There when when she played, there was like a whole bunch of PGA Tour players who are making some like pretty outlandish comments about it.
Dominic: Was it recently? I feel like I remember hearing stories about it. Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: No, I'm
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, she's been retired for a long time.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, back in like nineties.
Kevin Spisak: It it wasn't in the nineties, early two thousand. Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: It was early two thousands.
Dominic: I was gonna yeah, I think it's early two thousand.
Kevin Spisak: She she went. So since I have it up on the screen, she was the first woman to play in a PGH tour event since 1952. And then so big gap.
Dominic: I actually think it was it was in that book we read, Kevin. I think she shouted her out there.
Kevin Spisak: It was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Yeah. Be a player. Skip a
Dominic: Yeah. Which read that book if you can. That's a great book.
Kevin Spisak: I need to read it again. I'm in a terrible spot.
Dominic: Hmm. Would it be
Kevin Spisak: Five, four, three, two, one.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: Arnold Palmer? Damn it. Wait, really? That's fun. Actually
Chief Wedge Officer: Colonial. Yeah. Yeah. There's a bunch of pictures there's a bunch of pictures up in the clubhouse of her.
Dominic: That's another topic that I was gonna ask you about is like so the thought of the new PGA tour schedule is gonna be the like the Champions League or the Champions Tour is like those I would say smaller tournaments, like those more like, you know Colonial's probably gonna be in that champions tour. I mean sorry,
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Call it
Dominic: Why am I blinking? What are they called? Yeah, the Charles Wob.
Kevin Spisak: Charles Swatt.
Chief Wedge Officer: the other tour that they have? The peasants tour?
Dominic: Yeah, what's the B tour? Why am I blanking? Challengers, thank you. So like is that gonna be a huge switch for Charles Schwab? Or will that be fine?
Chief Wedge Officer: The challenger. Yeah. For sure. I have no idea what's gonna happen. I I know that they're not gonna like that. so yeah, I don't I don't know what's gonna happen there. Be wild. Yeah. The mules.
Dominic: Yeah. That'd be interesting.
Kevin Spisak: They gotta keep they gotta keep that one going in longest running.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I mean maybe they will get a challenge or a champions. I don't know. Maybe they'll figure out a way, but who knows? Charles Schwab's a big sponsor, so he does have some pull.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right, we got anything else, guys?
Kevin Spisak: We have to chug a beer.
Chief Wedge Officer: You guys since we started like we can we can I'll we can retroactively go back and if you want to postpone it. Alright, get it.
Dominic: I thought you forget. Okay. Kevin, what do you have?
Kevin Spisak: Peruge, St. Louis's finest advisor select.
Dominic: I wish they sold that up here. I have another Anheuser Busch premium. They're so good.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ooh, gone.
Kevin Spisak: Wait, down. Count to like eight and then start. See if you could beat me.
Chief Wedge Officer: Years.
Dominic: Okay. Matt, count us down.
Kevin Spisak: Here we're ready, set. I'll okay. I'll just I'll start, then you count. Ready? Go.
Chief Wedge Officer: One. Okay.
Dominic: Okay. One.
Chief Wedge Officer: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Dominic: Come on, Gavit. Jeez.
Chief Wedge Officer: He's he's an animal.
Dominic: That was rough.
Kevin Spisak: All right. I think that's the handicap I needed.
Dominic: Just a cool eight seconds.
Kevin Spisak: Whew Yeah.
Dominic: That was pretty close. That was pretty close. Matt, I didn't send you
Kevin Spisak: It's probably like the eighteen strokes Matt would give me if we were playing.
Dominic: In our in our group chat, I challenge someone to drink two beers in the time that I drank two beers in the time they drank one. I'll have to send you the video. It's very fun. But anyways, all right. I believe that's it. Am I missing something?
Chief Wedge Officer: No
Dominic: Beautiful. Well, thanks for listening. Follow us on our on all the socials. Spotify, Apple, YouTube, under at Under the Covers Golf. Twitter's at Under the Call under the Covers G. But yeah. Excited for the John Deere Classic. Kevin, you want to send us off?
Kevin Spisak: Thanks.