The Open Championship week is discussed, focusing on the victory of Ryan Fox and his unconventional playing style. The conversation also delves into the topic of armlock putting and the equipment used by professional golfers. The conversation covers a range of topics including Bryson's controversial actions, TIO rules, Sam Burns' performance, and TV coverage issues. The hosts express frustration with the commercial breaks and lack of insightful commentary in golf coverage. The conversation covers a range of topics including the 3M Open, the Asian Tour, and the future of the Live golf tour. It also includes a trivia segment and one and done picks for the 3M Open.
Takeaways
- Unconventional playing styles can lead to major victories.
- Armlock putting and the equipment used by professional golfers can significantly impact performance. Bryson's controversial actions at the tournament sparked discussion and criticism.
- The TIO rules and their impact on the game were a point of interest.
- Sam Burns' performance and his struggles to maintain leads in majors were highlighted.
- The hosts expressed frustration with the commercial breaks and lack of insightful commentary in golf coverage. 3M Open: The tournament field and predictions for the 3M Open.
- Asian Tour: Changes in the partnership and its impact on the Live golf tour.
- Future of Live Golf Tour: Speculation about the future of the Live golf tour and its potential demise.
- Trivia and One and Done Picks: A fun trivia segment and one and done picks for the 3M Open.
Chapters
- 00:00 Equipment and Armlock Putting
- 28:34 Bryson's Controversy
- 30:03 TIO Rules and Impact
- 32:25 Sam Burns' Struggles
- 53:00 TV Coverage Frustrations
- 01:06:29 Trivia and One and Done Picks for the 3M Open
Transcript
Dominic: Straight down the middle Straight down the middle It's been a week and a half and that's still in my head, but that's perfectly fine because it's open championship week. We are your hosts. My name is Dominic. Matt, How are you doing?
Chief Wedge Officer: What else the truck saying?
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Chief Wedge Officer: Dom, I'm doing great. what a great weekend. Saturday and Sunday were great golf watching days. And Friday afternoon was the cherry on top with Bryce and Duchembeau. Just fantastic, fantastic scenes all around.
Dominic: Just r the the the term absolute cinema gets thrown around, but that actually was it was meant for the big screen. We also have Kevin with us. What's going on, Kev?
Kevin Spisak: Yo. Just living the dream. Had a weekend in Philly with the fam and guess I watched, you know, a whole bunch of golf during that. And yeah, I I feel like I watched very little of Ryan Fox until the very end. So was was not glued to his round all four days, but very happy for him otherwise.
Chief Wedge Officer: Watch out Kevin Kevin Kisner's gonna come for come for you if you keep
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Man. Yeah, the the Ryan Fox story is a big one right now and it's very fun to to pay attention to. so yeah, Ryan Fox, our champion golfer of the year, wins the the open championship at Royal Burkdale. so just kind of going through his round, started off with an even seventy-two and then got better and better. So sixty-eight had the course record tied up at a 62 on Saturday. And then the closing round of 68, we all saw that awesome birdie putt on eighteen. I feel like that's just the best way to win too is with a birdie putt at the end. Rather than like Chris Godderup was he found out he won when he's on the driving range, getting ready to like practice for a playoff. But really cool ending for Ryan Fox. Ended at 10 under, which if you remember from last week, Matt called the winning score perfectly. So that was really cool. And you called Cam Young doing really well, even though you didn't pick him in anywhere. But you I'm giving you your flowers because that was an excellent pick.
Chief Wedge Officer: Thank you. Yeah, he's he's like one he just he just shows up in like every major, it feels like, right now. Like it's just it doesn't matter what major it is, he's right there.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. Yeah, the polar opposite of Sam Burns. Well we'll get to that. so Ryan Fox, he's the only person besides Xander Shoffley to have a sixty two and also win a major. Xander did it in twenty twenty four PGA championship. Ryan Fox, he birdied four out of the last six holes, which is unreal, to secure that win. He had two really bad breaks on fifteen and seventeen. really good drives, it just barely snuck into the bunker. ended up with a bogey on fifteen and then a par on the par five seventeen. but still came in with a W. like we said, that it was what, like a fifteen foot putt Birdie snuck in the side door. Just incredible situation. very different kind of swing on this guy. the funniest tweet I saw about his his swing was this dude swings like Captain Underpants and he just won a major.
Chief Wedge Officer: He he has a caddy swing. Like he has like he has ever a swing that I feel like you have if you're like the caddy master that is also like a stick at the country club and like you get you go out and play golf every night at like five PM after you get done catting and you just go out and make like you shoot four under on nine holes like it's nobody's business. But you have like a soup yeah, you have like a super super goofy swing.
Dominic: You know the course perfectly. I like that. I like that. I think the golf world can all learn a lot from Ryan Fox in these last this last round. I guess he's kinda always like this, but unconventional swing shoots a sixty two and a major and he plays so dang fast. Like that's the the talk of the town right now is how fast he actually plays. he said, and I quote if I sit there any longer, bad thought bad thoughts will come to my head. So like he chooses a shot, he has a confident stroke, and it works. Like everyone can hit a good shot. But everyone gets in their own head all the time. So it's just like choose your shot, have a good shot, have a good stroke, and you'll be good. but first time to ever do this, he was T fifty two on Saturday and ended up winning. First time in major history a comeback of that that magnitude has happened. there's so many firsts going on with Ryan Fox. He's late to the game when he started his golf journey. I think someone said he started when he was wasn't he like thirty when he started playing?
Chief Wedge Officer: No, he was like seventeen, I think. Thirty was like thirty was like nine years ago.
Dominic: Okay, still. That's pretty late in his years. We'll just say 30 Yeah. Took took him nine years
Kevin Spisak: Thirty would be wild. I got time. I got time.
Dominic: to win a major. Yeah, I didn't even think about that, but still insane. He was the best putter by far in this tournament, all weekend. He gained almost nine strokes on the field putting. Bonker's stat there. he also tied Scotty for the most approach shots within twenty feet. So if you're T one in approach shots and you're the best putting in the field. You're gonna win. You're gonna win. yeah. The so the streak the streak continues. It was another first time winner for the open. Massive news. Just a lot, a lot of fun storylines going around about Ryan Fox. Matt, what do you have to say about this guy?
Chief Wedge Officer: You're gonna win. Simple as that. I think my favorite story was he put the open championship trophy in I think he was in economy on the way home on British Airways. I think I saw those pictures. flying back to the United States. So congrats. you know, hey, economy on British Airways might be better than first class on on American. So who knows? no, I mean he's just a super cool guy. Seems like he's a really nice dude.
Dominic: Did he really?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Chief Wedge Officer: Everybody seems to love him. I think I saw somebody say that he looks like he is can bench press 300 pounds but also drink 15 beers on Saturday night. and that was the favorite thing I I heard. Because it looks like he's super strong, but you know, just likes to slam a couple.
Dominic: yeah. His back has to be strong after that swing 'cause that's bonkers.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he's he's got the dad bod strength.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. He's definitely got dad bot vibes. other cool thing I know about Ryan Fox is he's a member at Terra Edy, which is a sick golf course in New Zealand. only like the it has two courses in the top one hundred in the world. and only like the, you know, most famous people in New Zealand are members out there. So his his dad obviously as we heard a bunch of times is like a super famous rugby player also. Like like almost like more famous than he is.
Dominic: Okay.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. And wasn't his grandpa like a world famous cricket player or something?
Chief Wedge Officer: Any zone.
Dominic: Didn't know that.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, exactly. He comes from a sports athletes family, which is which is cool. makes sense why he can he can hang with the best of but yeah, just a just a good win all around. I love when when guys come out of nowhere and and win majors. I think it's fun. Makes it for makes for a fun week.
Dominic: He's the I guess it golf hasn't been in the Olympics too long, but he's the only New Zealander to play in all three. Which is kinda cool. I think he has a does he have a bronze medal? Did he medal?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. That might've been Rory Sabatini.
Dominic: I think you're right.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: man, but Ryan Fox, Kevin, let us know what does he have under the covers?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, fun bag. excited to talk about his putter. But as usual, we'll start with the long club. So driver, strixon, zxi, rkt, are they pronouncing it like rocket now? yeah, LS Plus. So this would be one of the brand new models just came out a couple weeks ago. Ventus TR Black Velicore Plus 6TX. That's a mouthful. But
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Think so.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so the TR, you know, would be a more stout version of yeah, the other Ventus options, and and the black, so real stiff shaft, six TX, so a little bit lighter weight than we've seen some other guys have, but you know, he's very stiff and he we can see he hauls off on that driver ten and a half degrees, three wood, consistent with the the shaft, just with the standard Bentis black Velcor Plus eight X. fifteen degrees on the ZXI rocket. and then goes straight into a three iron at least for this week. You know, we saw a lot of people playing longer irons for the open or Scottish Open with the ZXI five, three iron, like their utility club. Then ZXI five, four, and five iron, ZXI seven, yep. huh.
Dominic: Wait, can I stop you here real quick? 'Cause I have a question about this three wood. So typically we see and we've talked about this a little bit before, so it might be repeating, but usually driver three wood, five wood or seven wood, whatever, and it's six TX, seven T X, then eight T X. Like he has the eight T X immediately. Like what what is the thought there? Is it just because he swings so hard he needs More weight and stronger shaft.
Kevin Spisak: be like control thing. you know, we've seen some people have like the seven X in their driver and then eight X in their three wood. you know, it'd be that's just, you know, how it how it's fit for him that he probably wants a little more juice on his driver and a little more control on the three wood. You know, he's, you know, not really trying to get every single yard possible out of his three wood and, you know, spray it all over the place. you know, with with how he swings, it's it's pretty darn aggressive. So I think that eight X, you know, fits pretty well. I'm surprised his driver isn't the seven TX, but the you know the the TR black Velicor Plus six TX, you know, s stout enough to handle his aggressive swing. but yeah, I I would have expected the seven.
Dominic: Mm. Okay, gotcha. So you're you were on the the four and five iron before I interrupted you.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, all good. ZXI5, 4-5 iron, ZXI 7, 6 through pitching wedge. So cavity style irons throughout. not necessarily like the real butter knife blades that some other players play, but the Srixon irons, you know, I think are super underrated. You know, people don't really know how good of a club Srixon makes nowadays. and I I think the ZXI5s and ZXI 7s are like two of the best irons like out there. Played played book.
Chief Wedge Officer: They have the right, the triple cut sole. So they like have almost like it's like the it's like bounce on the sole of the irons, essentially, like you would have on your wedges. Supposedly it makes it glide through the turf like insanely good.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. yeah, the the ZX, the former model, like the ZX7s, I think really picked up a lot of speed. And then the ZXI7s have really like, you know, added onto that. And Srixan has, you know, showed that they, you know, can make really quality clubs. shafts, he's got the Ventus blue HB Velcor Plus 10X on that three like utility iron. And then dynamic gold X100s four through pitching wedge. so still pretty stout there. We've seen more stout on some other bags, but also in addition to the lead tape chronicles, as he's got some lead tape on those irons as well. And then some wedges we haven't seen a ton of, but still still good ones. Cleveland RTZ, 50 degree, 56 degree, and 60 degree. So low bounce, six degrees of bounce on his 60 degree. We talked about that before the tournament. That on the hard hard turf, a lot of the players will be playing low bounce wedges. and then he's got the X100 on his 50, and then drops down to a softer S400 on the 56 and 60.
Chief Wedge Officer: Right.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Matt, any thoughts on the the RTZ wedges?
Chief Wedge Officer: I just love like for all my Vokey fanboyness, I love that Cleveland just makes it simple. They're like high, mid, low bounce. Just like and but obviously they're like custom made for him, and they'll grind him and stuff, but it does make shopping for wedges a little bit simpler. And I think the RTZ line has picked up some steam recently. I think Cleveland went really downhill, it feels like maybe like five years ago and it feels like they've picked back up on their wedge game. So big big fan of those.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I feel like outside of well, I don't know, there's been a lot of new additions into the wedge game. Like Taylor Maid wasn't the biggest, you know, wedge company, like you said, number of years ago, and they've really like increased their presence. And same with Ping. I feel like Cleveland's kind of always been there, is almost like a little bit forgotten right now. you know, but Cleveland and Strixon being a part of Dunlap Sports seems like yeah, they've just really put all of their, you know, I guess marketing, branding, technology into the Strix Online, you know, and Cleveland really only has has the wedges left. Everything else is kind of like a bargain shoppers new golfer club. so yeah, I I think pretty decent wedges. lots of people swear by them. you know I I talked a few weeks ago about my struggles with them with the grinds and left the availability, but can save that for another time. Yes.
Dominic: I digress. Yeah, I used to I used to play the RTX for a while and the RTZs it's the same thing as just the newer version, right? Or is there a difference?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean th s the tweaks throughout the years. This would be the newer model of that, yeah.
Dominic: Hmm. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, I know the the zip core. I used somebody's wedges one time and it was like it made me want to buy some. Because I never I never generate enough spin, I feel like, to rip it back. And with those I was. So I don't know if that's just speaking to the the used Vokies that I bought a couple years ago or what that is, but I l I love Cleveland wedges. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah sharp sharpen those grooves down. So then his putter is sick. It's wild. It's like really wild. So his putter is from 2023. The ping answer 2D. So the D is like a wider soled putter. So almost like a mid-mallet blade, still mostly a blade. it's like the
Dominic: yeah.
Kevin Spisak: the mainline ping, so it's not a milled putter. So you know, a little uncommon for the guys who can put with anything they want or have anything custom built they want. You know, he's using like the mainline putter from a few years ago. I I can't remember exactly, but so there is the ping answer D, which I believe was built for like Bubba Watson. And then the 2D was built for Tony Fino, you know, back when they came out with it. So they they were playing blades. What's that?
Chief Wedge Officer: His Historically great putter Tony Fina.
Kevin Spisak: Yes. Yes. yeah, they both were playing blades at the time, wanted a wider blade, a little f more forgiveness, you know, longer alignment line, yada yada. the the two D would have more of like a blocky look compared to the D. if you look at like the kind of rolling edges on the flange, the D would be kind of more flowy and smoother where the Answer 2D is just a bigger version of the answer two. but the part where it gets really fun is on the specs. So 40 inches long. And he plays a KBS C taper 130 black eight iron shaft in the putter. so that would be a pretty darn stiff shaft in the putter, which is kind of like a new craze that people are doing with graphite putter shafts or You know, the Odyssey Stroke Lab, there's the B G T
Dominic: Wait wait wait. He has an eight iron shaft? Whoa. I thought you for some reason I thought you're talking about the grip. The shaft is an eight iron shaft. That's crazy.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. No. Shaft is an eight iron shaft. So someone once told me that your off the rack putter, you know, stock odyssey, whatever putter generally just follows like a normal eight iron shaft stiffness. So like all the craze about adding or you know, the KBS GPS, BGT stability shafts, Fuji Kura has one. What's that? Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: All the LA golf stuff. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Those shafts are stiffer than like an eight-iron shaft nowadays. And the thought is that you know you could be one percent more accurate with a stiffer shaft and reduce torque, you know, on miss hits. So it's like over a round, maybe that doesn't save you, you know, a whole bunch of strokes, but maybe over the course of a season it saves you, you know, a handful of strokes. so that's been the way that people have moved.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: I can't really say I've ever seen someone use like what's been conventionally marketed as an eight-iron shaft. particularly, you know, 130 gram KVS C taper, you know, 40 inches abnormal. and then he's got it at six and a half degrees loft, wild. and he could and he does that to account for how much he does a forward press.
Dominic: Forty inches. That's insane. Mm.
Kevin Spisak: So in in the way that he likes to align his wrists and everything, he's got six and a half degrees left to go with that forward press. and then he's got a 17 inch super stroke tour one point zero piece. So it's like the press grip on on the thing. So really wild butter all across the board. He clearly owned everyone with it. So maybe we'll see some more craze like, you know, everyone ran to the store to buy Wyndham's putter a few weeks ago. Maybe everyone's gonna run to play it against sports and see if they can find this 2023 putter still floating around. Or maybe there's some on eBay. Get it bent to six and a half degrees.
Chief Wedge Officer: Do you do you guys think that the way his armlock method should be illegal?
Dominic: I'm being safe. Is he anchoring above his ova?
Chief Wedge Officer: Not the question. Should it be illegal then?
Dominic: I know where you're going with it and you're just gonna bait me into saying something bad about an a broomstick putter, so I'm not gonna answer your question.
Chief Wedge Officer: No, I'm not. I just I wanna I I genuinely I genuinely think it's anchoring to more than your I think it should just be able to be connected to your hands.
Dominic: Let me let me re watch his putter stroke.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I mean do you do you not like like Bryson's putting style then? Or what about like hasn't like Keegan Bradley done it and I mean Ke Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: No, Bryson should have to put with his hands. And Keegan Bradley used to do it. Or he still does. I think he still does it.
Kevin Spisak: He was one of the big belly putter guys way back when.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Like like I actually believe Bryson should be able to side saddle. As long as he's not touching it with anything outside of his hands.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, f I forget what was the justification for not doing that.
Chief Wedge Officer: I don't think he decides at all.
Dominic: What a side saddle.
Chief Wedge Officer: He bison putted like you'd throw a bowling ball for a while.
Dominic: yeah, where you like s your two feet are on the side but they're pointing at the hole. Gotcha.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Mm.
Dominic: Yeah, that one didn't that one get outlawed?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Thought it was just Yeah. I I wanted to ask Matt 'cause I th I thought it was just that it wasn't like how golf was intended to be played and so that's why they made him switch.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. So I don't know. I I think I think armlocking shouldn't be legal. Like I would love to armlock. I think I'd probably be a better putter if I armlocked. And I ha
Dominic: That's false. I'm no, no. I'm stopping you right there. You've tried it and you didn't like it. Don't even try that. Yeah, you did. You had a whole it was a whole like week and a half where you're like, I'm gonna arm lock.
Chief Wedge Officer: I haven't tried it. No, not not not since I was a young a young lad.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic: I will find the text and I'll throw it on the screen right now 'cause it's there.
Chief Wedge Officer: Okay, that's fine. I really I swear. I had I had a long like a a a Victor Hovlin looking grip.
Dominic: you did?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, but I didn't armlock.
Dominic: Maybe that's what I'm remembering. I could have swore you said arm lock. But anyways, I don't think it should be illegal. I mean, there's gotta be a line somewhere with some of these rules, and they're just finding that line. You know what I mean? Like, unless you make the rule where you have to put with both hands on their wrist can't even touch it. Like, they're still within the rules. I don't think it should be illegal. It's just they're finding more innovative ways to put. You still gotta hit it. You still gotta get the power right, you still gotta read the green. I don't hate it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. No.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I don't know. Don't you think if it was that great it like everyone would do it?
Dominic: That's what people say about the belly putters though. It's like that argument's a little strange to me.
Kevin Spisak: The belly putters and the broomstick putters like were huge when that was going on. Like everyone was using a belly putter because that was a very significant anchoring advantage.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. And and after they s outlawed that, Keegan's game like fell off a cliff until he found Armlock. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. And
Dominic: it did? Yeah, but like Adam Scott, who was anchoring, he got better putting.
Kevin Spisak: I wouldn't say that. I I think he kind of fell off a cliff and then he figured out how to do it without anchoring and now he's just been like okay since he used to like win a lot. When was the last time he won anything? And and he changes putters like every five days. Yeah.
Dominic: Yeah, but it was that because of his putting? Adam Scott?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, he he goes through labs like nobody's business.
Dominic: Yeah, but they're always bellied. Or they're always broomstick.
Chief Wedge Officer: Or their own chest,
Kevin Spisak: broomstick.
Chief Wedge Officer: yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, but yeah, he hasn't gotten better putting. Fa
Chief Wedge Officer: And your boy Akshay,
Dominic: I don't know.
Chief Wedge Officer: he's angering.
Dominic: Shut up, he's not anchoring. Akshay
Kevin Spisak: Fa fa fact check Adam Scott's putting stats through the years. I would bet you it's worse after the rule changes.
Dominic: can never do anything wrong. I will say I'm I'm doing the classic social media thing where I heard him say it on a YouTube video once and I'm just like taking that as gospel. I didn't even check on stats. So I could be so wrong, but that's where I'm getting my info.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: I I just I I I will here, how about this? I will go find an armlock putter and I'll test myself if I become a better putter with an armlock.
Dominic: Will you be a good like tester though? I feel like you've been having some interesting like changes. And I don't want you to mess with your putting stroke 'cause it's been working the your your claw.
Chief Wedge Officer: No. Well, I I wonder if I can become a better part of the law.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. You're gonna arm lock claw? That'd be wild.
Dominic: Well how about this? How about this? How about this? Because that'd be
Chief Wedge Officer: No.
Dominic: kinda crazy. You you can't change now because and I'll I'll say this, so for the people. We're we're playing in a member guest together, all three of us, and it's gonna be very fun. we don't want any changes going on a month before it happens.
Chief Wedge Officer: I'll I'll change after But what if what if the change wins us the member gas?
Dominic: jeez. I mean, hey, I'm gonna trust you with whatever you wanna do 'cause you're the better golfer here. So I I can't say anything about your game.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I actually have a putter that I could armlock.
Kevin Spisak: What's you gotta you gotta figure out what the loft is on it.
Chief Wedge Officer: I know, well, so I think I can go get the loft changed, but it's an old answer that was a belly putter. It was an old answer. And then I think what I'm gonna do, it's got a long shaft, so I think what I'm gonna do is bend the loft like crazy on it and make it into a belly putter and then put the long grip that I have and then it I'll make it I'll make I can literally make an arm lock putter tomorrow.
Kevin Spisak: Nice. Do it. Report back. Yeah. yeah, I I I agree. I think arm locking would make most people better. I'm surprised that more PGA players don't. You know, unlike face awareness, you know, it it really would hold the face, you know, obviously like in one spot. But I think I think there's still enough moving pieces that you can mishit an arm lock. You know, more more so than the belly part.
Dominic: That's cool. And record it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Super. for sure. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Like the belly putter, it seemed like you really couldn't miss hit. You know, fade. Yeah, this is why we do it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Sorry, I didn't get it meaning to get us off track, but I
Dominic: I think you're right actually. Like if you anchor a belly putter, it's very hard to miss hit. But without anchoring, like how Akshay does, he doesn't anchor. Then it and you can definitely miss it. I I learned that. Wait, so by going back, do belly putters have a different loft?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I don't think they did when they were like big, you know, f whatever, twelve years ago. Yeah. Be yeah, I I don't think they did because, you know, that wouldn't really change the shaft angle or anything. Where like arm locking, you're like really having a forward press sh like shaft angle. So you have to add loft to account for how much you're de lofting the butterface.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. It basically just makes it a pendulum.
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: So if you if you do it with any old putter and then you arm lock, you would then have to move your lead arm really far back. It'd be pretty hokey.
Dominic: Yeah. Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. Remember when co Kudra did the reverse arm lock? He armlocked on his right hand. Yeah, I think that was when he didn't tip El Tuken.
Kevin Spisak: yeah, and it's yeah. Sick. Didn't he he won something like that, didn't he?
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Save your caddies. Come on. so then moving along, lastly, new addition to the under the under the covers ball tracker, Strixon Z Star XV ball. So we've got a deviation away from the Pro V1 and Pro V1X that we had a a hot run of. So
Dominic: my gosh.
Kevin Spisak: Ryan Fox, that's what's under the covers. 13 clubs, Srixan, Cleveland in ball, and one club being ping. So run of ping putters looking good.
Dominic: I'm loving it. It I dude, I want one so bad. It's gonna happen. Maybe next year.
Kevin Spisak: No no. You you agreed, you agreed.
Dominic: I th I was hoping you forget. Man, this was such a fun tournament. I feel like it was a good mixture of good and bad for these players. and evil, yeah. I think
Chief Wedge Officer: And evil. I'm just kidding.
Dominic: So the fans are fun. Love fans in Europe, I would just say, just grouping them all together. there's a lot of people saying that like well, no laying up specifically. They were saying that after Bryson's whole thing, and we'll get into that in a second, but like they were still cheering for him, whenever he finished, and they were confused by that. I'm like, no, that's just how people should be cheering at a golf tournament. Like, he's playing well, he's finishing his round, you give him respect, so you cheer. the best cheer I heard was after Tommy Fleetwood w finished I think his third round. they started doing in the the George Lopez intro tune and they're just like talking about another day with Tommy Fleetwood. So it was actually it was after Friday 'cause he made the cut. So it's like that's sick. I need that injected into my veins. Which speaking of, those final pairings on Friday were so fun. Which
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic: That also brings us to the Bryson news 'cause he's part of that final pairing. Matt, what what were you what was going through your head when you're watching did you watch a lot of Bryson's like full round or did you just ca catch like the drama?
Chief Wedge Officer: Well, so I was I was I was in a pool on Friday afternoon, you know, just hanging out, you know, lounging around, getting a little tan. And I I have a bunch of texts on my phone that fr from my mom, from you guys, that's like, is Bryson cheating? And I was like, What? And so I I had turned it off to go play golf, on Friday morning and then was in the pool and I just kinda didn't catch it. And so I I turn it back on and Bryson is is driving the RNA back out to the to the place to the scene of the crime. And then I'm like catching up on X and there's just so much funny stuff. Like so much funny stuff. Couldn't believe it. it was an all time day on golf Twitter. but everything he did, going back to the ball, threatening to quit it came out that he he said he was gonna call Trump.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Which so good. That's so good. That's so good. And then and then the next two days he like pretended to weed whack weeds whenever he got in the weeds or whatever or when he got it. It's so good. I just everything about it was was pure comedy. no other person could have done it like Bryson did.
Dominic: I wonder if that's real or not, 'cause that'd be ridiculous. So good. It's he's he's a content machine. We gotta give him credit for that. I was my immediate thought when that happened was like, what in the VAR is happening here? Like the I know it it's happened before, but in that moment I forgot that you can get stroked after the round is over. Like I think they kept they okay. Yeah, I know they kept referencing like tigers and stuff like that, but
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. As long as your scorecard's not signed, you can get true. Yeah.
Dominic: I was thinking, it was very similar to if y'all watch Argentina versus Egypt when they had that last goal and they just took it out for no reason. They're just like, I don't think they needed that one.
Chief Wedge Officer: So do you guys quick like do you do you think it was a penalty?
Dominic: Yeah. For sure.
Kevin Spisak: that's it's that's a real tough one. I mean he's ha how are you supposed to walk, you know, in tall grass? Like he may have done it intentionally. I think there I think it's reasonable that he didn't. I mean he's such a turdball all the time that it's like he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. And, you know, then all of his shenanigans after and like holding up the whole course, yeah
Chief Wedge Officer: He doesn't.
Kevin Spisak: The whole field is waiting to see if they'll play and they you know, waiting on their tea times. It's like he's like you said, he's a content machine and it's like he's doing it on purpose at the expense of everyone else. You know, so all of his stuff like afterwards, you know, when he's like playing up the crowd and, you know, tiptoeing through the tall grass. And it's like this is just YouTube golf. Like he's making a mockery of the open championship because the oldest major we have.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: You know, and you know, someone said it's like maybe the Trump thing isn't true or not, but like just the fact that like that is a reasonable thing that you but not it's not reasonable, but an outcome that you could get to with him just like says it all, you know, because he's just like ridiculous. Like you wouldn't be surprised if he actually did that.
Chief Wedge Officer: I think so I think the last step that he made going into the ball where he got that like I think him in the back of the weeds where he was just like trying to line it up, no penalty. But I think that last step that he took where he very clearly that like that one tiny like clump of bushes where he was like, ooh, step down on it, like that was the penalty.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Yeah. So like I was gonna say too whenever I was watching it live, you you see all like the really small stutter steps and you're like, Well that looks a little weird. but then like you said, so I even rewound it like six times. The the grass is sitting here and then his foot like wraps around it just to step on it. So like if you're not trying to mat it down, then you would just step. You wouldn't have to like go around it. But that doesn't even matter. The the rules official, the RNA, said he inadvertently improved his lie. So whether he meant to or not, it's not a matter of if he cheated or not. He did improve his lie by stepping like that.
Chief Wedge Officer: Which I think that
Kevin Spisak: Hmm.
Chief Wedge Officer: That was negotiated in the tent. I think he spent the time in the tent saying, You have to t you have to come out and say it was inadvertent.
Dominic: I could see that. Cause like here's here's what I was thinking. If let's just say it's not tall grass, it's not brush. If that's a tree or a bush, things that are in the ground that would be considered improving your lie by pulling it, right? Like it's embedded in the ground, whatever. You can't you're definitely allowed to look it behind it and get your line for your target. But if it's a tree, you're not like forcing yourself into a bush to get behind the ball. Because that would be bending these these trees and potentially breaking limbs. Like you can't have somebody moving that tree back. So like you have to treat the tall grass the same way. Like he definitely could look behind it, set up his target line, but he definitely he the club path was there. It would have hit the grass. It didn't after he moved around. So that's kinda where I'm like, he didn't he didn't do it on purpose. He might have had like a couple like, this might help a little bit. He kinda pulled a windem. on the the the US open. That was a weird one. Wyndham is Wyndham was really weird on that I think it was that eighteen or seventeen. Doesn't matter, but it was eighteen, yeah. That one was very strange. Like this one, inadvertent or not, he technically did improve his lie. Or sorry, the club path. So that's kinda where the rule states. Hilarious words by Rory too.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ooh. Deep cut. Deep cut.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, one of the before we get to Rory, just like one of the things that I think kinda you know, in support of Bryson, you know, again, whether he cheated or not intentional, unintentional, whatever, it is kinda like bullshit that the like best players in the world have the most cameras on them all the time. And like these reviews that are like coming in from callers after the fact to like
Dominic: Mm.
Kevin Spisak: call in and apply penalties. I think that's like nonsense. Like you have to apply the rules to the field all the time equally to every player. And like no, of course not. Why would I?
Chief Wedge Officer: Have you ever called in Kevin?
Dominic: Did that happen? Did that happen?
Chief Wedge Officer: I've called in I've tried to call in on Sergio.
Kevin Spisak: I would only call in on Patrick Reed, but
Dominic: Can you do that? Is that a thing?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: That literally happens. That's how a bunch of these penalties have happened. Like they get a whole bunch of calls that like people point out a rules infraction that they saw on TV and then they go back and look.
Dominic: Whoa.
Chief Wedge Officer: Lot of time. Mo Yeah. Most times it comes from like a friend that is also like will text somebody, be like, hey, I'm calling and then like they'll pick up. Like normals a lot of times some people normally can call, but like you sometimes most of them you like won't
Dominic: I know idea. Mm.
Kevin Spisak: If you if you see it on T V coverage and they couldn't spot that like live again for for all players equally, I think that's like total nonsense that that happens.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, I mean I agree.
Kevin Spisak: The T V
Dominic: It's a gentleman's game.
Kevin Spisak: the TV coverage cover you know, it covers the people in the lead and the biggest names. Like and that's it.
Chief Wedge Officer: What I what I hate is when they like the ball moved and then like they s l go down to like z millimeters on the golf ball and it's in like super slow motion and it moves like a millimeter and they're like, yep, the ball moved while he was like put his club behind it. Like that stuff to me is BS, but yeah, it's I mean, what's a catch these days in football who
Dominic: That's a good point, yeah. There it's so many things that are like it's such a hard balance because I've been part of this, my dad is heavy on this with football. It's like we have all these cameras, why don't we use them? And then we started using them in baseball with the review thing. You know what I mean? Like there's so many differences that people like and don't like.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: The the biggest thing I'm taking away from it is you can never satisfy anybody ever. So just get as close as you can. Like especially with VAR. Like that's supposed to be a good thing. Nobody likes it anymore because of how the World Cup handles stuff. So it's really weird how all these cameras are working towards these players.
Chief Wedge Officer: I just yeah, I mean I think it there's a reason why Mm I think Bryson has to know he's under the microscope, and I think for him to either pret either cheat or potentially try to cheat or inadvertently, like he has to be smarter than that. But I honestly I don't I don't believe he is smarter than that. Like I believe he's I believe he's surrounded his s himself with like people that are like not intelligent and he just like
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: And like 'cause they're like, dude, yeah, you you shouldn't play. Like, screw that bro, screw them. It's like no, like if you weren't playing like Grant veneers or whatever every week, you'd be you'd probably be playing much better. Like i I I'm sorry, like if you weren't playing against, you know, people on the lift, like you'd be a much better player.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah that yeah I I think that's definitely true. yeah he he needs to know the situation like where he is under the microscope and he is gonna have more you know attention but then like that also like shouldn't be the case
Dominic: I could see it just being a brain fart, for sure.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I yeah. Well, I guess on the same on the same the same thing. I guess we can talk about Scotty's drop on seventeen.
Dominic: Yeah, I was about to ask,
Kevin Spisak: yeah.
Dominic: can you explain before you go into Scotty, what is TIO?
Chief Wedge Officer: So it's an a temporary, immovable obstruction. So think of it like stands, shacks, like everything they put up for a tournament. Yeah, everything they put up for a tournament that you can't take down. That you can take down, but like is not actually part of the golf course if like the golf course were just there, right? and so it's a whole basic thing that like people like like when you hit it into like a like
Dominic: Okay. Like like merch tents and stuff.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Chief Wedge Officer: Think of an 18th. Almost every 18th hole in the PG tour has stands all around the hole, right? So there's a lot of times where like pros will just like if it's like a par five and there's stands behind the hole, they'll just h they'll they'll be like, I don't want to come up short here, so I'm just gonna h hum it long into the stands so I get a drop, and then I can try to get up and down for birdie or something like right. Like it but it's this whole thing on tour that like In theory, for us playing the same golf course, we wouldn't get TIO. Right? 'Cause there's no stance. It's almost like people say it makes the golf easier for the pros.
Dominic: Mm, okay. Kinda like whenever we say in our normal rounds we'll say like that's a gallery drop. If we had a gallery looking for a ball, you'd find it, kinda thing. Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: Right.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, but I also think like it makes complete sense because you know the course was designed in a certain fashion and it was designed to be played without stands and merge tents there. So I think you're you know you're accurately, you know, making a you know a a drop location to try to play the whole like as it was intended to be played.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. I guess I guess the Scotty thing got me because they couldn't find the golf ball. The golf ball they like they it went into the bushes behind the stands.
Kevin Spisak: Right, 'cause they marked the whole area.
Chief Wedge Officer: So they marked that whole area behind the stands as T I O. Basically if you hit it in here, you get free relief. But like they couldn't find the golf ball. So like if that if those stands weren't there, that would have been a lost ball and he would have hit it.
Kevin Spisak: Well Yeah, b well they didn't find it because they didn't want to find it. Like he could've he could have kept looking, like
Chief Wedge Officer: I know. I
Kevin Spisak: You know, that he figured out, you know, he had a better drop if he didn't find it versus if he did and it was in a bad spot. So it you know it's just like a random rule that you can like use to your advantage. You know, there's plenty of those rules that you know, like doing two drops because your one drop went on the card path or whatever, like it's just like another one of those. you know, who knows? They may have found the ball. Like
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. No, I know.
Kevin Spisak: It maybe there's no difference.
Chief Wedge Officer: I just think Scotty Scotty wasn't going to make birdie after that shot after that sh after the second shot. And I think because of the stands being there, he had an opportunity to make birdie.
Dominic: Totally.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that's fair.
Chief Wedge Officer: And I think that I guess that is where I struggle with it. whereas like with some TIO, like it they put you in if you hit it in the stands, they give you like a pretty bad lie and you have to hit a great shot from there. Like I I I don't know, like I guess I guess I have a problem with people getting on top of Bryson for what he did versus like Scotty. And I know people are getting on Scotty, but Scotty's like obviously in a different Scotty has a different cachet with him, so he's not gonna get raked over. goals for that. And and it was it was it was po it's it's not on Scotty. It's on the rules of the that the RNA put out. Whereas like Bryson's is like he made that choice. So I I get it. I guess I just don't like it. I want I want a better solution than T I O.
Dominic: So you don't think without if the grandstands weren't there, you don't think he can make Bernie?
Chief Wedge Officer: No. I think the ball was in the bushes. He would have had to take probably an unplayable or like hack it out of the bushes and then try to get up and
Dominic: Mm. That's fair. But in other situations when it's not in a bush, you just gotta hit it over the grandstands.
Chief Wedge Officer: I don't know what the solution is. I'm not I'm not I'm not the w I don't know, but I don't think it's fair I guess that's where yeah, like exactly what you said. I don't think it's fair that he probably wouldn't have made Birdie if the stands weren't there, but because the stands were there, he had the opportunity to make Birdie. I think if he would have been in a playoff, this would be a way bigger topic.
Dominic: Yeah, that's true. If he was like a little bit higher on the leaderboard.
Chief Wedge Officer: he missed by one.
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Or did he get to eight? He got to eight, I'm sorry.
Kevin Spisak: He he was
Dominic: He got the eight with a birdie though on that hole. Yeah, that one's a weird one. I I think that's happened a couple of times this year too, where like there's a TIO, I think it was John Rahm, or maybe it was last year. He like got to drop in the fairway from a T IO.
Chief Wedge Officer: The most the most famous one is do you remember the Dell match play championship at Austin Country Club? That's super quirky. There was I forgot. I'm like the encyclopedia. But so basically there was like there w they used to play this course really? There they at Austin Country Club, it's like a super quirky course. but there's one hole that's like right on the right on the water, right on the river. And it
Dominic: No.
Kevin Spisak: yeah. That was the first term I ever watched Scotty. Yeah.
Dominic: that's sick. Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: It it has like a peninsula green and there's water in front and water long. Okay? And they put stands behind the green in front of the water long.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: Okay. Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: So between the green and between the green and between the water. And so pros just ripped it into the stands all day and then got temporary that those balls would have went in the water. And then they got temporary immovable obstruction like twenty yards from the green, chipping to try to get up and down for par. And then so everybody was like, That's bullshit because like you're just hitting like that ball would have been in the water if those stands weren't there. That was like
Dominic: Mm-hmm. So essentially you're you're going for the pin, but you're missing long on purpose. Okay. Yeah, that's ridiculous. Okay. I see that.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. That was the most one I've ever I've ever seen.
Dominic: Yeah, some rules are so weird. Like you said, we don't really know the the solutions, but we can definitely talk about how weird they are. I think we should talk about Jordan Speath though. why is he changing everything, every single shot? That makes no sense. It seems like he's adjusting literally every single shot that he takes.
Chief Wedge Officer: He
Kevin Spisak: What do you mean adjusting?
Dominic: Like there's just so many things going on in his head. Like, Iron Shot goes right. He changes something. Rather than just trusting his swing and hitting like normal, like he's a good golfer. But he just feel it feels like there's so much going on in his head every single time he swings, he just can't do anything with it.
Chief Wedge Officer: He made me s it he makes me uncomfortable watching golf. It's like Jordan Speath comes on the TV, I'm like, this is gonna put a bad thought in my head.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Dominic: Ha ha ha.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. I
Dominic: Ha ha ha.
Kevin Spisak: feel like I've kinda always thought that about his swing, even when he was at the top of the world, you know, winning all these tournaments. Kinda like always thought his swing was just so abnormal. Is it like hard to watch and it was gonna like bleed over into my swing? Yeah, not not that I'm like anything special, but I just always felt that way.
Dominic: yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: I I think it's time for him to fire Cameron McCormick. I think it's fi time to him to er the his coach. and I think it's time to like just like completely reset and and 'cause I think this week it was like so funny here seeing like the twenty seventeen highlights of him and just like him making everybody looked at and like hitting stupid good shots and then
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: This week it's just like Ew, that doesn't look good. And then he three putts from five feet on the last hole and it's like Ahw man he missed the cut by a lot.
Dominic: Yeah. By a lot. He he was like four away from death last.
Chief Wedge Officer: He's so close.
Dominic: my goodness. There's there's somebody else we need to talk about too, and that is Sam Burns. Does he have a major problem here?
Kevin Spisak: Tough to win a golf tournament.
Dominic: It's tough to win golf tournaments. It's also tough to win majors. But there's there's a lot of examples where he has the lead and he just loses it. It's tough, man. I'm thinking he's Josh Allen. I don't know. It's a pretty good comparison.
Chief Wedge Officer: That's a good comp. it feels like this was the first one where he was like, Okay, he should win this golf tournament. Like it feels like he comes and is like on Sunday and he's like he's like close to winning and then it's like and then he kinda like lets it go. But this one was the first one where it was like, You're up by two, you should win this golf tournament and he completely I mean, he didn't play bad, but like he didn't play great either.
Dominic: Yeah, he I mean he just kind of bogeied early. it was like those first few holes and then part out the entire round. So like he part out where Ryan Fox birdied out, and that's just the biggest difference. And Cam Young had a sick round too, so like it's just it's one of those things where things just didn't go his way, I guess. It I don't really know if it's like he lost it kind of deal. but I mean, we were talking about sixty twos. He was also part of the sixty two club this week. There's three different sixty twos, and both of them are in the top three. Where where did Herbert finish?
Chief Wedge Officer: He was like top ten, I think.
Dominic: T six? Okay, cool. Yeah, I don't know, man. It's and it's it's usually in majors too. It's always majors where this happens. Which I don't really fully understand that. There I don't know if it's like something in his head that's that's not really hanging on too long, but like I said, he didn't like bogey. I don't know. I don't even know how to explain it. It's hard. I I wanna ru like I'm rooting for him. I hope he wins.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Dominic: It's just hard to explain whenever he keeps losing these these leads after fifty four.
Chief Wedge Officer: would who would you bet to win a major first? Sam Burns or Ludwig Aber?
Dominic: Sam. Law.
Kevin Spisak: the season I probably would have said Ludbig, but now probably Sandur and
Dominic: I like that.
Chief Wedge Officer: I'm gonna go Ludwig. I think Ludvig I think Ludwig's gonna figure it out and just I think Sam Burns has some major scars. Like like he it's it's getting becoming a thing where like, Sam Burns is in lead in a major again. Can he do it?
Dominic: I my lacrosse coach in high school, he would say fifty shots wins a game. So it's just like putting yourself in position, you're eventually gonna score. Sam Burns, he's putting himself in position, he's eventually gonna get a win. A major win, I think. Ludwig's been playing well though lately. Sorry to interrupt you again, Kevin.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. Look. He has. You're fine. I was just gonna throw in that Sam Burns like was positive strokes gained in like every metric, basically the whole week. If there's some up and down early on, but in the fourth round, like his sh strokes gained around the green is what killed him.
Chief Wedge Officer: Hello in.
Dominic: Interesting.
Chief Wedge Officer: keeps he keeps putting himself there. I think he's gonna be on the Ryder Cup team and the President's Cup team, but it'll be interesting to I think he played I think he had a bad showing at the last Ryder Cup if I remember.
Dominic: we did? Okay.
Kevin Spisak: Seemed like everyone did.
Dominic: Yeah. Matt, tell us your thoughts on this T V coverage.
Chief Wedge Officer: I mean, I think that's like the popular take on Twitter that like the TV coverage was bad. Like that's the that's the hot take out there. I think you hinted at it that we saw the same commercial over and over and over again this weekend. where you start to like start to like memorize them. I think Kevin Kisner tweeting at people while commentating is in my opinion it's freaking stupid, but it's objectively funny.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: that
Dominic: I think it's hilarious. He's just he's just pulling one of these. Yeah, so Ryan Fox is in a bunker again.
Chief Wedge Officer: I don't know. I it's like I don't know. It's the popular take that like the coverage is bad. I watched on NBC the whole time. and I feel like I guess maybe I just don't watch it with a ton of volume or something. Like I'm I'm always doing something else. So like the volume is super low, so I'm not getting like the the the things that other people are, maybe. I don't know. It just feels like it definitely feels like
Dominic: Mm.
Chief Wedge Officer: CBS is on a different level. Like when I watch a CBS broadcast, I get Nance, I get Immelman, I get like some like very high cachet people. And I feel like with NBC, it's just like throwing, we're throwing Kevin Kisner at the wall. I guess my point is like, how is Kevin Kisner being like, yeah, I know what he's feeling coming down the stretch of a major? I I don't I guess I don't believe that Kevin Kisner knows how that feels.
Kevin Spisak: He's got some top fives in majors, right? I mean, he come in second in the open at least once.
Dominic: Well, I I don't even think so I listened to No Laying Up and they had a pretty good take on this where the commentators aren't really giving like like thoughts. They're they're only just recapping what's happening, like on screen rather than like you know, like football commentators, they they go through what the defense is setting up like. They go through coverages, they go through what they think's gonna happen, what they should do. Whereas it seems like with what everyone's saying now, golf commentators just kind of talk about what's on screen and they don't really give any like commentary. So I think that's the issue people have. I think commercials are an issue in every sport, every show. It stinks. I think the biggest thing was the how why are there so many commercials when there's only one group going? Like Just show them walking up the fairway once. One time would be awesome. Then you can talk a little bit more. Do you don't need this like and again, this might be something we just don't understand with commercials about like TV deals and stuff. But seriously, why is it the same thour commercials all the time? Like change it up. Then I'll then I won't be so mad, I guess. But like just show them walking. It's fine. Like show the fans. Show some stats, show some replays. You don't have to have commercials every single time, every possibility. It it's really it's it's frustrating.
Kevin Spisak: If you want me to absolutely hate your product and go out of my way to make sure I never have anything to do with it, show the same commercial 8,000 times during one, you know, one thing. same with Yeah, yeah, right. Same with political candidates. Stop showing me the same commercials, you know, during election season. I I was watching on YouTube TV and like fell behind
Dominic: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: Seriously. I'm never buying IBM Watson.
Dominic: my gosh.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, at some point got busy with something and then I was like trying to catch up. I'd like watch a shot and then try to like fast forward fifteen seconds and get the next shot. And it was like that playing through commercial coverage. It happened for like twenty minutes straight, it felt like. I like couldn't fast forward fast enough or I mean far enough where I could like get to the actual coverage and see, you know, large enough like who was actually hitting a shot and what was the score and like all that.
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: It it seemed like that matched up with, you know, the World Cup with the hydration breaks and having extra, you know, commercials there is like we're just so commercialized on the coverage. It's like hurting the product for sure.
Dominic: That's like Maradona. This I think this clip was from like the nineties. I don't know exactly, but they essentially were asking him, What would you think of the USA hosting the World Cup one year? And he immediately was like, it would turn into four quarters. Like they would just need commercials everywhere. And sure enough, thirty years later it's there's four quarters, but the the what is it called again? Playthrough?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, like.
Dominic: what you're just saying?
Chief Wedge Officer: Playing through.
Dominic: So the playthrough, this is such a first world problem, but we usually have a second T V set up and it's small. So like the f with the playthrough, I don't even know what's happening. That's how like much smaller it is 'cause they they make the commercial bigger now. It used to be way smaller than the actual like product, but now the commercial's way bigger. I'm like, gosh. But yeah, like you said, it it
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, totally.
Dominic: Felt like it went on way longer than any other commercial that that last playthrough. And there was no sound either, so you had no idea what was happening. It was really weird.
Kevin Spisak: Totally. In crunch time doing that is just bonkers.
Dominic: Yeah. Like give it give it five minutes. It'll be fine. So, Matt, there's some some fun news going on with the Asian tour. Why don't you get into that a little bit?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, so today, if you're kind of been watching the live drama over the last five years, so the Asian tour kind of acts as like Liv's like second tour, I guess if you will. Like there's a pathway that from the Asian tour to get to live, through like qualifying. So like the top two players on Asian tour every year qualify for live and like get a get a confirmed spot and live. but the Asian Tour announced that they've kind of ended that partnership and they're partnering with the European Tour and the PGA Tour to funnel players in. basically this means that like the top players on the Asian tour will get a PJ Tour card or a European tour card at the end of the year. so what this means is like I think this is pretty much end of live. I think John Ron was asked about it today. where he's like, Do you think Liv's gonna have a season in 2027? And he basically was like, I'm not gonna comment on things that I can't talk about. So like I think I think Liv I I think Liv is like I think Liv's a hundred percent cooked. Like I think I think my my Ripper hat is gonna be worth a lot of money one day. I'm very excited about it.
Dominic: Yeah, he's for sure being held hostage.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Yeah. Rom's being a good little boy. He's being a good little soldier.
Chief Wedge Officer: yeah. He's trying to keep his 300 mil for sure. So when and then a Canadian data company, media company is suing Liv. So Liv announced this thing where you could like go view any shot from any tournament from any player. and then they like but it was like twenty dollars a month or like something insane to pay to see
Dominic: We would too.
Chief Wedge Officer: some random persons I mean like I'm I'm trust me, I'm not looking for Martin Kimers third shot on number five at Live South Africa. I tell I just I'm not.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Tailored Gooch.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah. but I guess like they live like got no subscribers and so they ended the deal and then now that company is like suing Liv for like damages or something. It's like a whole thing. They want like they want like millions of dollars. so that's gonna be a whole nother thing. it's crazy, man. I I I I think that is going to be the story of the fall is like Live is
Dominic: Whoa.
Chief Wedge Officer: is gonna die and it's just gonna be like a slow death, but it's gonna be hilarious.
Dominic: saying it, I don't think it should go away. I think they should treat it like a T GL. It's just more practice during the season, during the during the week, and it's just a fun exhibition. You do a shotgun start on a Tuesday to kind of do a tune up. Like it'd be fun.
Chief Wedge Officer: I don't know, man. I just think they're too stubborn. I think they're gonna try to live it on and I think it's gonna die.
Dominic: Well, here's the thing. If it wasn't backed by Saudi money back in the day, three years ago, and they they presented it as a Tuesday, Monday, whatever exhibition thing, or like they had an off week and they had an exhibition shotgun start tournament with all your favorite people, would you be happy about it?
Chief Wedge Officer: It would never So
Dominic: Whoa geez, I guess I got my answer.
Chief Wedge Officer: I was trying to get to the mute.
Dominic: Moving on, jeez.
Chief Wedge Officer: Did I make a cute face?
Dominic: Yeah. my god, that was awesome.
Chief Wedge Officer: all right. I think you gotta ask I think I think you can I I you either ask that question again or we can move on.
Dominic: I think we're we should just move on. I think it's time for the let's let's get on to the three open unless you all have something else to say about the the open championship.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: No, I'm bummed that the majors are done for the year. But twenty twenty-seven looks like a pretty sick lineup with PGA Frisco being at the top of the the premier golf courses.
Dominic: Hell yeah, brother.
Chief Wedge Officer: Right in Bryson's backyard, baby. It's gonna be home game for Bryson. Think about the content.
Dominic: He's gonna hit he's gonna hit a hole in one over someone's house.
Chief Wedge Officer: It's it's literally it's probably ten minutes from the house.
Dominic: That's wild. Alright, fine, we'll go.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: dude, tickets are stupid expensive. I was so s I was very surprised by how how expensive tickets are. but I think for the 3M open, I like to call this the tape championship. since 3M is just every time I think of 3M it's just tape. but I think the big notable thing this week is it's at TPC I can't even remember the name. it's so bad. Twin Cities, that's what it is.
Dominic: Ha ha. Twin Cities.
Chief Wedge Officer: used to be a sod farm, people call it TPC sod farm. but Scotty's in the field, and he should win by a million. That's my three open take.
Dominic: I'm so mad. I'm I'm not mad the reason. I'm just mad I'm not gonna be in town to go watch. I just wanna see one day of Scotty in person. That'd be super fun. But it's gonna be very hot. I I say hot, you know, in comparison, Scotty's from Texas, he's fine. But it's like the the air quality up here is garbage right now. 'Cause it's stupid Canada. Just kidding. That's a it's a very serious matter. But there's a lot of those wildfires, but it's gonna be it's always so hot for this tournament. I went last year and was fortunate enough to be like went for work, so they had like the those little tent dealios. But even under the shade it was ridiculous. But we were just sitting there watching and like you can barely see the the tea box 'cause there's so much fog because of how gross it is outside.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: So it'd interesting to see how people kinda react and and kinda play in these conditions.
Kevin Spisak: So you're not gonna get me another corduroy three hat?
Dominic: Actually, where is that? Should I put that on?
Kevin Spisak: I should have worn mine, I didn't think about it.
Dominic: I know, what was I thinking?
Kevin Spisak: Spills over the twenty beer cans. yeah. It looks so much better on you than me.
Chief Wedge Officer: and then and then we have the live J C B this week, but again, nobody nobody's paying attention.
Dominic: My beer my beer cans fell. Who?
Chief Wedge Officer: Who? but that's all I think trivia. We gotta we gotta hit some trivia and in in our
Kevin Spisak: Yeah? Alright. You guys prepared for trivia. This is gonna be a good one. Get your beer ready.
Dominic: Yes.
Kevin Spisak: Alright, so 3M open. TPC Twin Cities. Big big tournament. Some some would say the tournament. but 2020, we had a really weird PGA season. Obviously, COVID. some events didn't happen. You know, we got a Fall Masters, yada yada. The 3M did happen. And
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: let me scroll down on my screen. Okay. So Michael Thompson was the winner of the 3M Open in 2020. Our trivia question for the week, again worth our our beer chug, is who came in second place in 2020? It's a very obscure question.
Chief Wedge Officer: my gosh. Mike I remember I remember
Kevin Spisak: But Matt's Matt's the encyclopedia. I feel like it's notable because we didn't have that many tournaments the COVID year. So we were glued when tournaments came back on.
Chief Wedge Officer: I remember Michael Thompson winning too.
Dominic: I feel like a safe bet is Tony Fee now. He always is top five in this tournament.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: And
Kevin Spisak: if if it helps, Michael Thompson finished at 19 under and this player finished at 17 under. And not a big not a big name. He has one career PJ tour victory.
Dominic: That does not help. Ooh.
Chief Wedge Officer: I tell you.
Dominic: When did when did Liv start? Three years ago? I feel like in my in my research when I was going for one and done's, Matt Wolfe's name came up. So I'll just use his name. He's pretty obscure.
Chief Wedge Officer: There is a
Kevin Spisak: He he had won the three Yeah. Twenty nineteen. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so that that was a yeah, that's a pretty good guess. Yeah, he won it the year prior. Is not him. Not that is a good guess though.
Chief Wedge Officer: He won yeah, he won it over Bryson.
Dominic: he did win. Also use that as my guess.
Chief Wedge Officer: That is a great yeah. I'll go
Dominic: Okay.
Chief Wedge Officer: I'll go one PG tour victory, one PG tour career, I'll go Victor Hofflin.
Kevin Spisak: What one PJ Tour victory? the runner up of the 2020 3M was Adam Long, St. Louis native. so since the the thing would be, you know, you know I'm in St. Louis trying to make a connection there. he is a graduate, I believe, of Francis Howell High School. yeah, it's runner up in 3M.
Chief Wedge Officer: No.
Dominic: That's fun. This hat looks ridiculous.
Chief Wedge Officer: All right.
Dominic: It doesn't fit my head, I feel like.
Chief Wedge Officer: That was that was a good one. I I actually 'cause I knew there was a year where like like Matt Wolf and Bryson were battling or Matt Wolf and Victor Hoblin were battling off and then like I think Colin and Bryson were battling off or something. I can't I can't remember. But
Dominic: Did one of them get beat?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. that year yeah i mean they didn't win the tournament but no it was michael thompson adam long emiliano grill charles how the third tony finaw alex norin my boy from last week
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah there. That was that was that was a blast in the past.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: I d I needed a tribute question I knew Matt wouldn't get, but I thought Dom might.
Chief Wedge Officer: It
Dominic: No. That'll be cool though. Alright, I think it's time for one and done's. What do we think?
Kevin Spisak: No, no. All right. All right. And that's the show. So tune in next week. Like, subscribe, follow.
Dominic: I know y'all are really excited to get into it. man, what a week. I could have used literally anybody and I would have been fine. I didn't I di I didn't even need to burn Rorya this week.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha I ha I had all the hopes in the world of closing the gap entirely this week. I thought one hundred percent I'd be I would have taken the lead in one and done this.
Chief Wedge Officer: And on Thursday you were almost right.
Dominic: Y yeah, you're in a great spot because okay, so real quick, go through the picks. I picked Rory and Kevin went Matt Fitzpatrick and then Matt went Jordan Speath, which he still has a chance to win, so we don't we don't really know yet. so Matt Fitzpatrick was even Well that's true, that's true. So
Chief Wedge Officer: Just Jordan just ran out of holes.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Matt Fitzpatrick was even after day one. Rory was like two or three over, I think is what it was. No, I'm sorry, I said that wrong. They're both even, but at one point Rory was three over. So I was just like, Well, Kevin's for sure catching me now. and then somehow at the end of the end of Friday, Rory was was he one under? And then Matt Fitz yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Bruish at yeah, two over Thursday, three under Friday. So total reversal there.
Dominic: Okay, thank you. Yeah, that was that was quite the switcheroo, but pretty ridiculous. very weird, very weird scoring. so Rory ended up finishing T forty, so it gives me eighty points since we double up on majors. Matt Fitzpatrick, after counting down, it was one hundred and sixteenth place, giving him two hundred and thirty two.
Kevin Spisak: Wait, hang on. Clarification question. When you're counting down, are you counting in ties? So then I I know, I was thinking about that before. We don't you know, other than Matt, we don't commonly have you know miss cuts. But like why why does Matt Fitzpatrick get the bottom of people who are for over?
Dominic: No. Haven't done haven't done that all year.
Chief Wedge Officer: Look, Kevin, if you live down here you got You gotta live with the consequences down here.
Kevin Spisak: What what consequences? It's it's just like whatever website put put in whatever order.
Dominic: Well, so the order that they put it in is the order of what you shoot on your last day. So like he had the s third worst score of that last day. So that's why he's so far down in the the tie of that. If we wanted to
Kevin Spisak: There's someone who shot a seventy-three who's above.
Dominic: No. Not on ESPN.
Kevin Spisak: Sloman Espen.
Dominic: I've been I've been consistent on ESPN all year. If we wanted to, we can go through and and change these up 'cause Patrick Reed might give me a better placement. Just saying. If you want it
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. This is like true karma for how much shit I gave you for that pick being the worst pick of the season and then to get more than more than that. Matt Matt then very quickly did get the worst pick of the season, so that's okay, but this is not the week that we needed that.
Dominic: And guess what?
Chief Wedge Officer: He's not Jordan's
Dominic: Ha ha
Chief Wedge Officer: not
Dominic: ha.
Chief Wedge Officer: Jordan's not done playing yet. He's still playing. He did he just he's he's just not done with his holes.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: So going into that, Jordan Spieth on our on our tracker, he finished one hundred and fifty first. So he had a total of three hundred and two, which rivals all of our picks. The best pick, the highest number of all of us, that's what you want, right? Is the high number. so that brings our totals to and this could be subject to change.
Chief Wedge Officer: Ha
Dominic: We can do some some recounts if we need. it'll be for 1387. on the year. Kevin with his one hundred and sixteenth place turning into two hundred and thirty-two makes his point totaled eight hundred and seventy-nine. And then Rory's T forty finish turning into eighty gets me into six hundred and fifty four. So we have one, two, three, four, five, six tournaments left. No more chances to double. But still plenty of opportunity for you to make up for 220 points.
Kevin Spisak: Can can we press?
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, Kevin gets to choose one tournament that's worth double before the season ends.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic: And you get you get to choose how about this? You get to choose one after we make our picks. So like you essentially you're I don't get to like know which one it is. You get to see, I hate his pick. Let me double it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I feel like every big name I picked all season long just completely screwed me. Except for Scotty getting third. That's the only one. But it was like Tommy Fleetwood, 49. Rory, 64. Matt Fitzpatrick, 232. Like and then like I picked Jordan Speath early in the season. He's eleven. Like it all the top guys just they had their worst weeks when I picked him.
Chief Wedge Officer: Didn't yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Except for Scotty. Thank you, Scotty.
Dominic: In JJ Spawn. Top five. man. This ain't no hobby, boys. You gotta get in it. All right, so Matt.
Kevin Spisak: yeah, and the the one week I picked Justin Rose too. McLaren Golf, thank you. Anyway, sorry.
Dominic: yeah. That wasn't bad. All right, Matt. Who who are you choosing for the three open at T P C Twin Cities?
Chief Wedge Officer: going with a guy that's been hot lately, Zach Blair. Seen him on a lot of lead bo leaderboards lately. Especially at these yeah, he's playing. Especially at these small little tournaments. Yeah.
Dominic: Is he playing? I like it.
Kevin Spisak: Zach Blair so hot right now.
Dominic: So hot right now. All right, Kevin, who do you got?
Kevin Spisak: Zach Belair 155 on the World Golf Ranks. Interesting. I am going to just start really just unloading the clip and just picking people who are at the top trying to catch Dom in a desperate move. So I'm going to take Dom's favorite golfer and take Corey Connors.
Dominic: Okay. A little top fifteen at the open. Tempo Town Mayor. I'm gonna go with Pearson Cootie. I'm just kidding. I'm not doing that. He actually isn't a bad he isn't a bad choice. He actually is playing well. I'm gonna go with a player who is notoriously played well at the 3M open. He won last year and it was a top ten the year before. Kurt Kidiyama.
Kevin Spisak: I thought about taking it. Yeah.
Chief Wedge Officer: He's having he's playing good. Yeah. Yep, yep. Good pick.
Dominic: If y'all would have chosen him, I would have had to choose Kashmir Keith. So I'm glad that y'all didn't go with him.
Chief Wedge Officer: Interesting field.
Dominic: I do think Scotty
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: is gonna win though.
Chief Wedge Officer: Yeah, for sure. Scotty's gonna win, no doubt. And if he doesn't, that might be his worst loss of the year. Field sucks. Hadekimatsuyama's
Dominic: Matt, can I do a side bet with you? Just because so Max Greyersman, I think he has an identical swing to you. If if he finishes would you give me top twenty, you have to chug a beer on Cam.
Chief Wedge Officer: Max Grazerman?
Dominic: Yeah. Anytime I see him in the field, I think of him.
Chief Wedge Officer: Sure. That's fine. I don't think he's been playing very well, so I'll take that bet.
Dominic: Alright, cool. If he doesn't then I'll do it.
Kevin Spisak: I gotta look up the swing now.
Dominic: The finish the finish is so similar. It's so funny. I love it.
Chief Wedge Officer: Chandler Phillips is in the field, nobody picked him.
Dominic: Is he gonna he's gonna come partner with Ariot Boots and he's gonna make some golf boots that have spikes on pretty soon.
Chief Wedge Officer: Funny dude. Alright, that's the open. Good stuff. Major season's over, but we still have President's Cup and playoffs and all that good stuff.
Dominic: Mm. Yeah, we got some fun group group events coming up. It'll be fun. I wonder if the the PGA or USGA is listening to our podcast and we'll add in a a woman into the Ryder Cup. It could be kinda cool. Just get one spot for But follow us on our socials, Spotify Apple YouTube at Under The Covers Golf. Ready for the three open. Unfortunate we won't be there being in Minnesota, but we will see you next week.
Chief Wedge Officer: Adios.