Slip Under the Covers with us while we talk about Wyndham Clark beating Scottie Scheffler at The CJ CUP Byron Nelson.
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Transcript
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ MY GOD Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to Under the Covers, a golf podcast where you deep dive each week into the latest PGA tour winners bag. We are your hosts. My name is Dominic, and we have Kevin with us. How are we doing down there in Saint Louis?
Kevin Spisak: doing great dominic a great memorial day weekend i don't think quite as good as ⁓ mats but where ⁓ we're having fun not excited to go back to work but
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I feel that. And Matthew, how are you doing? What's going on? Dom, I'm good. ⁓ I'm excited to give my on-the-ground takes ⁓ for TPC, Craig, Craig Ranch, CJ Cup, bibigo Byron Nelson, Championship. I think that's all the sponsors. ⁓ I get a look at the locker room to make sure the lockers were okay, but I'm assuming that they're all gonna be intact this week since Wyndham Clark.
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: Let's hope so. That was actually I believe it was like his first public acknowledgement of that happening. Did he talk about it after? I didn't hear. Yeah, he had a very quick comment in his postgame interview. ⁓ and I wish I had it up here so I can read it. But it was essentially like, Yeah, you know, ⁓ what happened last year, that was that wasn't my best, and ⁓ I got a good team and thanks to my sponsors for not dropping me. So it's like it wasn't really an apology or acknowledging that he, you know, should be accountable for busting up a locker at Oakmont, but he was, you know.
Kevin Spisak: I didn't hear that either.
Dominic Colangelo: He still has money, so I guess that's a plus. I think I saw the f the funny thing I saw this weekend was somebody I've right after everyone was like, The worst guy you know just won a PGA tour event. That one was
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ He actually that's that was kind of the common theme in ⁓ full swing, wasn't it? That he's kind of going through some struggles with ⁓ like anger management and certain things. Yeah, no, for sure. And it's not to make joke of it, but like also like he he's done other things. Like I think he did one where he hit a sign and it almost hit somebody. ⁓ if you like it it seems like you if you're gonna be mad on the golf course, you can totally be mad on the golf course. I think it's actually good to be mad on the golf course in some aspects, but just don't get the fans involved in in it. And then also I remember that. Don't do it to one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. That's probably that's probably not the smartest move in the ⁓ smartest move in the book. Where they're clearly gonna have more tournaments and that he is physically banned for the rest of his life. Wow. It's gotta be like Max Homa. Well I forget which tournament that was, but he it was right after the Masters, talked about Sergio smashing on the T box. And then he did a very respectful thing. He threw his club into the woods onto the ground where there's nobody around. Yeah, that's right. It was RBC. Right, exactly. So Yeah. I think it was RBC. Well, speaking of Wyndham, let's let's get right into it. So Wyndham Clark is the winner at the CJ Cup at Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch. It is his fourth career win. It is his last win since Pebble Beach in twenty twenty four. So kind of a long span of a little bit of struggles here and there. ⁓ I had to get a fact check real quick before we started recording. Wyndham only had two top tens in the last three years, which is a rough stretch of of golf, but ⁓ he won this tournament in style, I would say. ⁓ he ended up so opening round of 66, 63, 65, and then a dazzling 60 for a total of 30 under on it on that last day. Just a ridiculous round. ⁓ some some stats I'm gonna throw at you. So this is the lowest round for a winner since Chris Godderup. He has done it twice this year at the Sunny Open and the Phoenix Open. Wyndham also broke an all time record for the lowest round by a winner on the tour since 2020 when Morokawa shot six under ⁓ in the PGA championship. So ⁓ really just kind of uncharacteristic of Wyndham right now, but cool because he beat some very big names. Kevin, do you have any thoughts on that?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Um, this tournament was kind of just like what we said in our preview that it was super low scoring. The course redesign didn't do anything. Um, I think Matt had some commentary on that, but you know, Scotty was 31 under last year. Uh, I down 30 this year, you know, uh, uh, see who, uh, had a 65, you know, He's leading, shoots a 65 and loses. That just speaks to how low the players can go on this course.
Dominic Colangelo: yeah, I mean the courses like this was my first time on property at TPC Craig Ranch. ⁓ I know. ⁓ It seems it ⁓ didn't do much. Basically, it got one stroke harder from last year. I think 31 won last year, now 31 this year. So, and two guys almost broke 60. So it can't be that hard, but We did get some rain earlier in the week. I'll preface it. With there was there were some massive rainstorms that came through, so it probably was a little soft, but I don't know. It it doesn't scream cool golf course to me. It was very just like your normal run of the mill T P C golf course. ⁓ it has a it's big, it can it has a lot of infrastructure. And yeah, I mean, it's the most it feels like the least like cool Dallas course. Like there's a lot of cool courses in Dallas. This feels like probably the it feels like it's just the easy checkbox, right? It's the one that's the easy button for the PGA tour and whoever runs the Dallas tournament. Just let's spin a tournament up. This one's the the quickest one to do. There's no there's no thinking involved and And I think that kind of is the same as the course. There's no thinking involved. It's just hit it as far as you can, hit it on the green, make putt. Putts don't really feel like they break very much. I don't know. Just wasn't didn't ⁓ didn't get my ⁓ golf juices flowing when I was out there. I was also slamming hot hot soup dumplings, so that's part ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Yeah
Dominic Colangelo: All that BB Go. And I know it was BB Go because it was on every single T box and every single camera angle you could possibly imagine. They really wanted you to know that they're sponsoring this tournament. For every every food place had a regular one where you could get like a hot dog and like a hamburger or whatever and then you could get like a Korean Korean chicken or soup dumplings or wontons or ramen or kimchi or like whatever you so I had my my stomach was ⁓ was was a was was f trying to figure out what I was doing to it yesterday 'cause I would have a hot dog and then I would have like four soup dumplings and then I'd have a Michelab Ultra and
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: It's like ninety eight degrees and your body's like, What are you doing? Wasn't Yeah. Yeah. So what is it about ⁓ 'cause this is going on in golf Twitter right now. ⁓ we could push this to later so we get back to Wyndham Clark, but I am curious. So there's it's hard to please golf fans, it seems like. Where it seems like nobody likes any golf tournament because there's always something to say about it where it's, you know, it's too hard, so make it easier. And then it's too easy, and then there's too bunch of a scoreboard, and then This guy blew everything out of the water so he's not like this is so boring to watch now. Like what is it about a golf tournament and what do people actually want to see? I guess is a better question. It's hard to know.
Kevin Spisak: Is the question in regards to in person or on TV?
Dominic Colangelo: I wanna say TV because I'm I'm assuming most of these Twitter personalities are watching from like not from Dallas. So there's on TV watching and and it seems like every tournament there's something negative to say. There's not too much positives that come from it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I don't really know because like you said, it's every single week. You know, they weren't happy when, uh, the PJ championship was, you know, 22 players were within four shots of the lead. You also don't like when someone just like runs away with it. Cause then it's super boring. You know, I don't know. I think people just like to complain online.
Dominic Colangelo: I I think that's it. I think Kevin hit it on the head. I think it doesn't mat it doesn't matter what we get, they're always gonna complain about scoring or or whatever. Like you have Joseph Lasagna and and the fried egg guys and the no laying up guys. Like they have their whole things and and I e in s in some ways I subscribe to that thought. more I just think it's funny that they spent twenty five million on the renovation to make it harder. It wasn't any harder. Yeah. I think the g the the door pros are so good that they're just gonna they're gonna tear up anything if it's soft, ⁓ out there. It it doesn't matter what the golf course is. So Mm-hmm. When when the cut line is what what was it like negative it was like eight under, I wanna say, six hundred. That's wild. That is a wild tournament. ⁓ speaking of no laying up, and then we'll get to Windham's ⁓ bag, but ⁓ they had a very interesting take on golf now, where ⁓ there's old golf and new golf is what Sally was saying. So it used to be a very week to week event and each week you say, All right, how are these guys gonna do with this course or what are they gonna do in this weather conditions, whatever? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ but with FedEx Cup points and world ranking points and everything, there's like an end goal. So it's almost like a league now where, you know, TPC Craig Ranch, it's almost like the thirty-seventh game of one sixty-two in a baseball season. Like it's it's not as exciting, I guess people don't think. So and it's not one of the more important events like a major. So people just don't watch it enough, I guess, or maybe they don't put enough effort into it. So it's a very interesting way to look at golf now, where it's it's more of a league and more continuous and people don't really necessarily feel like they need to watch these middle tournaments. I don't know if y'all have noticed that boy yet. It was a perfect Dallas. You're you're right. It it there is. There's so many that it doesn't need to be the hardest thing you can play every week. But it was the perfect Dallas social event. Being a Dallasite now, it's everything in Dallas is about social events and kind of like a not a party, I would say, but that that's more what it was, right? This is never going to be what the Masters was. The Masters is more about The golf course, the history, the the the the the prestige, like this is ⁓ made for viewing, made for a social event where a bunch of people that don't know anything about golf go and have, you know, ten beers and watch Scotty hit two shots and say they went to the Byron Nelson that day. That that's what this that's what this tournament is made for, and it's and it does that perfectly. Very well said, Matt. ⁓ speaking of Scotty, he didn't have a five all tournament. Not not like a bogey. Not a bogey or a double. He didn't have a five. So he didn't even par any of the par fives until like, what was it? Like the I don't know. It was way into the fourth round. That's bonkers. Insane. So back to Windham. We gotta talk about him. I feel like he's probably not. Sick. our favorite golfer of all time, but he won a golf tournament that's very hard to do and he beat Scotty Scheffler. So it's gonna be very fun to to go into it. Kevin, let us know what's under the covers.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. So, ⁓ yeah. And like you said, he did win a golf tournament. Anytime you shoot 60 anywhere, that's pretty notable accomplishment. So his, ⁓ Wyndham is a equipment free agent, right? Matt, I believe we've read that he's had like five or so different drivers this year. He's currently playing the tailor-made QI 4d core model, the 10.5 degree loft and a brand new shaft first week on tour first.
Dominic Colangelo: Incredible. Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: went on tour. So Project X Titan Yellow 60TX. So the Titan, they had the Titan Black as the original one. I guess it's a, you know, follow up to the very popular Hazardous line. But the Titan Yellow being brand new, it is a counterbalance shaft. So that would be kind of similar to what Matt Fitzpatrick is playing with this Tensei Orange. Um, you know, this being project X version, so low launch, low spin, um, and it's supposed to be a pretty soft in your hands. like the handle was a little more, uh, flexible. So that would give you like a little bit more soft feel on the club face, but then, uh, also give you the low launch, low spin, like characteristics that, uh, tour players are looking for. So you get a pretty responsive feel. Um, you know, with the counterbalance design. that'll make the head feel lighter in your hands. know, Wyndham's playing the 60TX, so one of the lighter options, just so he can just absolutely haul off and just crank, you know, his driver as hard as he can. And, you know, with this shaft, he's looking for like really aggressive stability, if that makes any sense. So kind of a fun model, ⁓ fun shaft to learn about. I knew about the original Titan. I thought it was a typo when I was reading that it was the yellow. ⁓ but yeah, first week on tour and it gets the dub.
Dominic Colangelo: When you said original Titan, I thought you were gonna make reference to the submarine. I'm glad I'm glad you didn't. But
Kevin Spisak: Is that the submersible? I didn't even know that's what it's called. Or it's been long enough I forgot. Nice, nice.
Dominic Colangelo: The Titan the Titan stuff. Yeah. Yeah, pretty forgettable. Yeah, I think notice notably, ⁓ yeah, so his titles deal ended after last year. And I wonder if the whole locker room thing was a reason that Titus was like, meh and kinda like he's now just out on his own. I wonder if nobody would pick him up. Wondering if was him or if that was the manufacturer. Like if he just was kinda ⁓ not self deprecating, what word am I looking for? Where he's like punishing himself, where he's like, I gotta figure some stuff out, let me take a break a little bit, you know. A lot of sports psychology talk from Windham, so who knows what's going on in that head.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, new episode called Under the Head. Three wood, ⁓ TaylorMadeQI 4D Tour, 15 degrees, ⁓ sticking with Project X with the hazardous smoke black, 80TX, so pretty stout boy. A little launch low spin there. And then interesting switch to the five wood. He's got the ping G440 Max, and then he goes back to the new Titan black. counterbalanced in the ⁓ driver, but not in the three wood or five wood, but some pretty stout boys in those wood shafts. The Ping G440, close to my heart. I got the seven wood in the bag, got the driver in the bag. ⁓ I think Ping makes just the most forgiving woods there is, but excited to talk all things Ping at all times.
Dominic Colangelo: Can you ⁓ do me a favor? And I feel like you've explained this before, but just as a refresher, what exactly does counterbalancing do? Like when you have a counterbalance shaft, like what is the reason for having that?
Kevin Spisak: Yep. So the, put weight in the handle of the club and then that affects like the, the swing weight of the entire club. ⁓ so, you know, in this case he wants like a total weight. ⁓ you know, that's like a normal, I don't want to say swing weight because that's its own thing, but he wants the total weight of the club to be something specific and then he wants it to feel lighter in his hands. So it's like, ⁓ you know, picture if you're holding like an iron and you hold it at the grip end, you know, it feels pretty heavy because a lot of the weights in the head. Then if you flip it around and you hold the head, it feels like, you know, you're swinging like a dry noodle. Like it's, it's so light. So that, that would be like an extremely exaggerated version of, you know, adding some weight into your hands. It just makes it feel lighter, even though you can keep the same overall weight. Does that make sense?
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, it does. Okay. That helps a ton. Thank you.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so if it feels lighter, you can really go after it. You can haul off on it, swing very aggressively.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. And he he swings really hard at the golf ball. Can confirm. ⁓ it's pretty impressive. Much. Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Mm hmm. Yeah, if if you had like you could have a really light club with a really heavy swing weight and just be like absolutely exhausted if you're trying to swing aggressively time after time after time.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. But ⁓ let's hear about those irons.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, irons he's still rocking the title is ⁓ in his long irons got T 200s for four and five T 100s six through nine. Here's our extra stout boys again, dynamic gold X sevens ⁓ in the shafts. So aggressive swinger stout boys across all of the shafts so far, pretty consistent bag. You know, we've We've said like last week, Aaron Rye's bag was kind of all over the place. We've had other guys that had, you know, kind of thought provoking things for why are they trying to do something? It didn't seem consistent. ⁓ Wendham's bag seems pretty straightforward so far, just some mixed brands. um, wedges, think Matt may have some commentary here, but, uh, title spoke keys, SM 11s, uh, 44 degree, 50 degree, 54 and 60. He's got the, uh, true temper dynamic gold X sevens in the 44. And then he goes down, uh, quite, quite a few steps softer, uh, go into the S 400s, you know, but still quite a stiff shaft for us normal people, um, in the rest of his wedges.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, couple notes here. So this is I feel like this is the first person we've seen with the forty-four degree wedge. ⁓ so v the forty-four is new from Vokey. So essentially
Kevin Spisak: Well, Aaron Rye had the 45 that has been to a 44, right? Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: The forty okay. So yeah, it was ⁓ the forty-four is like that that's exactly my point. So when you bend a forty five degree wedge or a forty six degree wedge down, you you basically increase I guess what they were saying is you increase the potential for digging, like the wedge will dig easier into the ground. So a lot of pros like to have a Vokey wedge or a or a wedge instead of a pigeon wedge. ⁓ because they can use it around the green. It's a little bit more versatile, ⁓ things of that nature. And so they specifically came out with a 44 degree Vogue wedge because pitching wedges are are going down in loft over time. ⁓ and so they basically that's their lowest loft of that's the specific reason why they came out with that. So it's cool that he has that in there. ⁓ he's got the wedgeworks L grind, which I think we talked about ⁓ recently on the pod. Not a lot of L grinds out there, which is cool. ⁓ as for his stamping, pretty pretty bland. ⁓ just has WC ⁓ stamped on all his wedges, and then he has the the true lofts ⁓ actually stamped on there as well. So ⁓ not too bad, but you know, could could do I feel like he could have some do some cool stuff with his names, with his with Windham or something. I feel like there's some there's some there's definitely some some content out there for that.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, definitely. And then his putter is exactly the putter I want Dominic to purchase. Maybe without being featured on the lead tape Chronicles, but the putter itself, I would love Dominic to have. He's got the Ping Scottsdale Tech Alley Blue Onset putter. So again, the theory is it's a lower torque design, not zero torque. And it's center shafted.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: But the shaft is on set, so it's back from the face. And the thought is that you're dragging the CG behind the shaft. There's no plumber's neck or bend in the shaft or anything. So the shaft axis would go straight in line, like in plane with where the CG is. And then you got the big head, so high MOI design for off-center hits. Dominic, I'm just waiting for you to purchase one. feel like we said in the past, if that putter got a win, you would go and buy one. But I think we may have been talking about Tony Fee now, but I think this should count too.
Dominic Colangelo: I was gonna say it was definitely if Tony Finao wins with it, then I will.
Kevin Spisak: And and Tony Tony Tony played sick this week. He had a top 10, didn't he?
Dominic Colangelo: Which is a safe bet right now. I did I saw Tony Finale. Yeah. He he was. The comment I got from from a guy I was with who who ⁓ he's not much of a golfer. he was a f he was a funny guy though, and he goes, Man, Tony Finale's arms goes goes down to his knees. That guy has some levers. I was like Yeah, that's why he hits it so damn far. ⁓ yeah?
Kevin Spisak: What? He was putting back to normal, right? Ha ha ha.
Dominic Colangelo: Dude, he's so lanky. Like every time he moves, it's like the ⁓ like a puppet without a string, like kind of just kind of drags along, but he's so swaggy at the same time. It's crazy. He's a big dude.
Kevin Spisak: That's funny.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. And he was and he was playing with Blades Brown, who's this little nineteen year old child.
Kevin Spisak: Hm.
Dominic Colangelo: I always like watching the ⁓ the handshakes afterwards. So, you know, the the classic is the the half dap. But then so him and I love it, but I wish everyone else was on the same page. There's so many times when I have no idea what somebody wants to shake. So I'm like, I kinda go lower just to shake hands, like put her there, pal. But then everyone they slip it in and I I never know if you go full or or if you just do the Yeah. I'm all about the half depth. No, yeah. This one, like, it's hard to read, but I was watching Blades go up to Tony Finow he has some, you know, he's 19. He just got temporary ⁓ tour status. He's pumped, and then he goes up, does the half dap, and then like slightly leans in, and Tony Finow doesn't move at all. He stays back and he basically holds him in. He holds him where he is and doesn't let him come in for the hug. And then same thing with his caddy, he's just like he kind of stays back and is like. Yeah, I'm not I'm not doing the full hug. Let's get off the green.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. So Fina was T6. So I feel like this counts. You got the win for the Ping Ale Blut onset and then Fina being top six. It's like basically like Tony Fina one.
Dominic Colangelo: I think we should get Ping to send us one. We can make that happen. I ⁓ man, that'd be so sick. I have so many ping putters, but this one's way cooler, so I want
Kevin Spisak: All right.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Anything else on on a huendum?
Kevin Spisak: How about just last thing, his ball, he plays the Pro V1 X. We have not had too many people be winners and play the X. know, lots of Pro V1. We've got the left dash. You got the double dot. But yeah, Pro V1 X for window.
Dominic Colangelo: I just picked up a box of left dashes today. I'm I'm I'm doing some I'm doing some internal testing for for my trip to Scotland. So we'll see. Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic Colangelo: Nice. That'll be fun. That'll be fun. So that's it for Windham. ⁓ but as for the tournament, the the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch, sponsored by BB Go. So many names. ⁓ what the one name that I like calling it is the Slump Buster. There was a lot of low scores this week, ⁓ including ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Ooh, I like it. You
Dominic Colangelo: Siwoo Kim scaring the ⁓ the Jim Furick record. ⁓ I played a little game on Friday evening. It was take a sip of beer every time they mentioned the number 58, and I blacked out. I woke up in the neighbor's yard. It was it was too many times. Just ridiculous. I know it's it's it's a point of you're supposed to talk about it, but man, they really hammered it home. And it was almost it was borderline announcer jinx, the amount of times they were mentioning it. He had four holes and they're like, ⁓ he's on fifty-eight watch. I'm like, what are we doing here? It's crazy.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: I couldn't believe I mean he absolutely just nuked that six iron from from he was what? He had like two ten and he just blasts six iron over the green. He must have had so much adrenaline. Yeah. Like I but but then again, like I feel like if he pulled seven iron and he h he he didn't hit it well or he went sh the like he was short, they would have blasted them for it for him like so it was kind of a no win situation there. Just juice. I could see that too. It was And then th the way they were talking about him on seventeen, ⁓ I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was like a one ninety shot. So he had a six iron and the announcers were s basically saying how weird it was that he had a six iron. 'Cause I think Scotty had a seven and then ⁓ or whoever hit before him had an eight. It was really interesting. And then he hits a six iron to like fifteen feet. I'm like, maybe we should trust the guy who's At a 59 right now. Like he there's like, I don't think that's a good idea. It's like I think he's I think he knows a little bit better than we do. But ⁓ it was it was a fun, I mean, interesting tournament. I don't really know if I had fun watching it or if I didn't. It's kind of hard to tell, but I think the biggest takeaway, Keith Mitchell's only thirty four years old. I thought he was fifty five. Yeah. Somebody commented at the tournament, they were like, That guy's wearing like all cotton and cashmere and I like, Well yeah, that's cashmere Keith and like it was it was hot out there and he's still like he i it's either a bit or he really likes it. Like I I like I like it's cool, but like man, I wouldn't you couldn't catch me wearing a cotton shirt out there, ⁓ on Sunday. It was hot. So He's he's swaggy. I'll give it to him. But like for some reason in my head I had maybe he's just been around a while. I don't really know, but I had in my head that he's been he's one of those like older guys who sticks around forever. But then I looked him up, he's only thirty four. Like what the heck? Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: That's crazy, he seems way older. Was he like sweaty when you saw him? ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I mean sweaty and it didn't look comfortable and he's playing with Brooks Kepka and ⁓ I mean Brooks is wearing Nike stuff, which is whatever, but like I mean at least Brooks looked comfortable out there. I don't know. I just like I I get the whole Twitter golf thing of like you should wear cotton all the time and like but like if it's over ninety, I I I don't I don't agree. So I would I would rather go a Nike shirt or something. ⁓ Yeah, the ⁓ yeah, low scoring bomber's paradise. Matt, you were there. Do you have any other ⁓ any other news for us from from Boots on the ground? I mean like I said before, I think well, I think the biggest thing we gotta hit on is is Blaze Brown. I know you touched on it with his new with PGA Tour membership. That's massive. Blaze Brown is nineteen years old. That's bananas. ⁓ he's so good. He's really calm. Like he doesn't look I mean he okay, he looks a nineteen for sure, but he doesn't like It's crazy. act like he's 19 year old 19 out there, like he's acting like he's just a regular tour guy out there. So good for him. ⁓ couple quick points. Yeah, very hot. ⁓ it was a big party scene. 17 was bonkers and BB go everywhere. I mean I it like I said the food the food was ⁓ definitely not right for the temperature out there. But I I loved it. I I It's cool to not just eat like a f a fifteen dollar hot dog. Like I can eat a fifteen dollar plate of noodles, I guess. ⁓ I don't know. And I it just it was it was it was so different than anything I'd ever been to before. ⁓ so I I actually I actually found I enjoyed myself out there. ⁓ to be fair. I mean my biggest takeaways are from the day from the week was s I feel like I'm grouping now in this group of best players on tour that just don't win. Si Wu Kim. I feel like he's up in the lead every week and just doesn't win. Ludwig and Sung J ⁓ I don't like I I f I can't I I don't think they've ever won. And I feel like they are all like, wow, these guys are so good. It's like, okay, it's time for you guys to win something. I agree with that. ⁓ I think this tournament in particular is a little biased because of the the sponsor. I think it was a little bit of a of a fix. You gotta have the Koreans up on top. They're all sponsored by CGA. Yeah. There w there was a big I mean, so so for anybody that doesn't know, North Dallas, Carrollton, Plano, McKinney has a huge Korean population. and that is ⁓ so Siwoo Kim, Sung Jae ⁓ I don't know if Sung Jay, ⁓ but a lot of those players live in that area, like right next to that golf course. ⁓ so I will say it actually does Although it's probably weird that like that that sponsor and those tur those those events are in Dallas, it actually doesn't it actually makes sense because that's like a big part of that community. ⁓ honestly, we've had some awesome dinners around that area. There's some really good restaurants in that in that space. ⁓ so I love living near it. I mean it's cool because I get to you know, you get you get really authentic Korean, Japanese food, whatever. Yeah, yes. Whatever you're looking for and it's all within fifteen minutes of my house, which I'm a big fan of, so yeah. That'd be really nice. And 'cause don't they like Scotty and is it Scotty and Siwoo or Scotty and Sun Jay that play all the time? Scotty and Siwoo. They always play money games, yeah. They're they're big in the money game area. So Okay. I wanna know the stats on those money games. That'd be interesting. Yeah, you can get some people talking about it in the Dallas golf scene. I think and and I know Romo gets Tony Romo gets involved in in those games. Like there's a certain crew that follows those games around. And like I guess what I've heard is that they go between Trinity Forest, Merido, TBC Craig Ranch, Royal Oaks. They kind of travel around the the Metroplex essentially. ⁓ like every day is like a different spot and they'll go play a different course and like a different money game or whatever. But kind of like Siwoo, you have Speath involved, Tony Romo, like they're all kind of a crew that kind of travels around, which is honestly sick. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I would pay to watch that. I guess I already do, technically. But yeah, we we kind of front loaded a lot of our Byron Nelson recap. ⁓ is there anything else? If not, we can go right into golf news. Yeah. I feel like if we're gonna get rid of a a Texas tournament, this is the one they're they they're gonna get rid of. This or T P C San Antonio. I think if if my power rankings go probably Colonial, Houston T P C San Antonio T P C Craig Ranch. What do you think, Kevin?
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ I really liked the Valero Texas open San Antonio. ⁓ I've been to, so I've been to colonial to see the Charles Schwab and I've been to, ⁓ TPC San Antonio to see the Valero. And, ⁓ I probably like colonial a little bit better, but TPC San Antonio is just like such a cool venue. Like with the resort. ⁓ yeah, I mean, this, this honestly felt like the most like. I don't want say like irrelevant, but like the irrelevant event on the PGA Tour season so far. I feel like that might be a little too intense, but you know, I feel like we kind of had some buzz with some earlier signature events, you know, the majors. And this was like really the first event of the year with like very minimal buzz. The course that's not like super notable or memorable to that many people, you know, the fan excitement didn't seem like that crazy, know, the players just tear it up. You know, I was going to make a joke when we first started about like, all right, now we got done with the most important event of the year, you know, and move on to something else. But like, it's like, that's just not even a funny joke, because it's like just too irrelevant.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. I I just don't think I just don't think there's room in the schedule for four Texas tournaments. One's gonna get get got and I think it's gonna be When
Kevin Spisak: Sorry CJ. I'd be pretty disappointed if it was one of the others.
Dominic Colangelo: 'Cause I think Colonial serves the D FW market. Like if you really want to go to a golf tournament, you live in Dallas, you could drive over to Fort Worth for the day. Like it's not it's not that bad. Yeah. And it's it's a shot shaper course. Like you have to be accurate. It's not just how far can you hit it too. So like I think it that adds a little element to it. ⁓ everyone keeps saying how easy Craig Ranch is, but like T P C San Antonio, it it at least has the the hills on the edge of the rough. So if you do hit a bad one, you're really you're not rewarded. You're not you're in trouble if you don't hit a good shot. So like maybe just 'cause it's a tad harder, I would say ⁓ San Antonio, but it's kind of a tough choice. I mean, would y'all say with T BC Craig Ranch, is that kind of just prove how good these pros are? Where you know, there there's all the talk of twenty five million of not making it harder or whatever. It's just kind of a normal ⁓ course that you can play. Does that kind of show what all these YouTube people are like? ⁓ what what if a pro plays this course? Like now you see it. They go thirty one under in four days.
Kevin Spisak: I think that's like two parts, like you said, how good they are. And then it also like emphasizes like how immensely hard it is to like design a difficult golf course, like, and the importance of like golf course architecture and like why the people who are really good at it are like famous, like golf household names.
Dominic Colangelo: really the only way that again I go back to like the the only way you guys get they get pros uncomfortable is wind and long thick rough where they lose control. Because with wind they lose control and with long thick rough they lose control. And here the rough wasn't that thick and there was basically no wind all weekend. So they're gonna tear it apart. And the course is Zoija grass, which is like a really nice grass. It basically makes the ball sit up really nice. ⁓ Dom, if you remember, Buffalo Buffalo Ridge is was Zoja and and Paines Valley was Soja. Zoisia. ⁓ so that's a very nice grass to play on if that was ⁓ it's just it's just makes it easier. It's not Dallas is usually Bermuda, but Mm-hmm. When you have that much money you can you can grow anything.
Kevin Spisak: pretty my neighbor's grass is zoysia and it turns so much more yellow than my grass so it looks far worse.
Dominic Colangelo: If if you're wondering how how fluffy it is, go look at Scotty's shot on seventeen in the last round. There's I thought it was for sure gonna go out, but it's somehow stuck in that in that nice flush or lush rough. And he was able to get up and down for par. Yeah, yeah. What else what else we got going on in the golf world, Matt? Well, ⁓ this was I think ⁓ about a week ago now. TailorMade announced going to a two-year release cycle with Driver. ⁓ so this leaves Callaway as the only major manufacturer still on a yearly release cycle with Driver. ⁓ pretty big news, especially because they're a public company. So that's a lot of why these companies release drivers every year. ⁓ is to for shareholders and for earnings and all because you know, usually when you release a new driver you get a bump in earnings. ⁓ so I don't know, Kevin, what do you think? I think this is I think this is pretty pretty big news in the equipment world.
Kevin Spisak: Probably the biggest because of we've seen a marketing giant, TaylorMade is. And I would wonder if this is to try to get them elevated in terms of notoriety of their equipment in the long run. if you buy the TaylorMade driver now, it loses its resale value in a year. you know, where title stuff like really doesn't lose its value for like a while. And it's like pretty desirable for, you know, many years into the future. Um, you know, and you don't feel like you're just getting, you know, with titles, you don't feel like you're getting, you know, the new pair of shoes every single year. Um, you know, I'd be curious if that was the thought process or if it's like, on the money side, like investing just into R &D like that much if they've like toned it back. It wasn't it like two or three years ago when TaylorMade got sold?
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, they've been sold a couple of times now. they were pr they were part of some Korean private equity and I think they've been transferred down to other private equity ⁓ companies. So
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, they've just always felt like this marketing giant. Calloway has the cheesy marketing. And then TaylorMade just has bought so many players. But if the Qi4D fairway woods are as good as these tour pros are showing, that could really follow along with why come out with something if you just made the best.
Dominic Colangelo: Right. And I think a lot of it too gets into like Scotty doesn't want to change I it feels like they almost the the the the tour guys don't even want to change drivers every year at this point, right? It's like they get so comfortable with it and then it's bad PR that Scotty's playing the old driver for them.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I'd be very curious also to know like what, what big of a flop the QI 35 was, you know, for their like business, you know, tour players like very clearly didn't like it. Um, you know, the normal golfer, recreational golfers like the QI 35, but the tour players didn't, um, you know, and if they did the two year cycle and they went from the QI 10 to the QI 4D, then like perfect. It's like the QI 35 never happened.
Dominic Colangelo: Right.
Kevin Spisak: And then maybe they could see all that investment they put in. They could have saved a whole bunch of money, capitalize on more sales on the QI 10, and then keep moving on.
Dominic Colangelo: Right. That's why I've always looked up to Ping so much because Ping's still a private company, ⁓ privately held. So it's like when they they would be like, Well, we just we don't have a good enough driver to release yet and they didn't they didn't feel like they had to because they they didn't answer to the market or they didn't answer to shareholders or anything. They just they they when they feel like they made good enough progress on R and D, they created a new driver, which I loved. ⁓ so it's cool to ⁓ yeah, it's probably a combination of a bunch of things, but
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: Big definitely big news. Taylor Maid is probably Taylor Maid and Callaway were obviously the two the two giants in the driver game. Apple, take notes.
Kevin Spisak: Yep. I agree with, you know, with Ping. Um, and, they also don't really put like the year on, you know, in their names marketing wise, where like Titleist has done in 915, 917, you know, they've put something that kind of signifies the year, which even though they're on the two year cycle, it kind of makes you feel like you're buying, you know, yesterday's newspaper. If you're, you know, looking to get something at a good deal.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Or they used to have like, you know, like the Taylor made R seven. You know, like it they were up in numbers or ⁓ six, things like that. Now it's just like, let's let's confuse everybody and make it seem like it's the best product out there. Cause wasn't the QI thirty five all they really added was like simulator dots, and that was just kind of it. Like that was like the biggest difference of the Q I ten.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, they claimed it was like one of the best like fitting drivers out there. You know, and they changed a little bit of the carbon, changed the paint scheme. You know, otherwise pretty not notable. There we go. I used to have that one.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Taylor made R five ten. Pretty nuts. This is an old one. Aye.
Kevin Spisak: I snapped mine at a driving range.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. I just have this line around I just have this line around back here. You can find all sorts of shit back here. Six five. Think my cousin has one of those. I
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, if you're not watching on the video, Matt showed his very vintage TaylorMade R510.
Dominic Colangelo: Think my the cous I just played with my cousin this weekend and I'm pretty sure he has one of those. That's awesome. ⁓ I want to get you guys' take. I'm in the market for golf shoes right now, and I feel like the golf shoe market is just terrible right now. They're either crazy expensive or they look like trash. I've always been so I was a historic ⁓ Footjoy Dry Joy and then went to the Foot Joy what was it called? The the ones that were the SL SL pros for a while. Those were like my go tos. And I just feel like there's nothing that speaks to me right now. So if you're a golf shoe manufacturer, we need you guys to step it up a little bit. ⁓ in in my opinion. ⁓ I don't know. I I guess I'm gonna try some foot joy foot joy premieres. I think that's where my mind's going.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I really like my premieres. Had some G4s in the past. really like it. Got the trainer ones. Got two pairs of those. And then also the Gallivanters. Those were comfortable. It took a while to break in the heel. Those ripped up my heel when I first started wearing them. I don't know. I like the golf shoe market right now. I feel like there's a lot of good stuff. There's some more comfortable, classy-looking options compared to... before you'd have ones that were as comfortable as dress shoes if you wanted that look. Yeah, I think now you've got a good mix.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, 'cause I'm worried about the premieres with walking. I walk a lot and then being comfortable. But people do say that they're comfortable golf shoes, so
Kevin Spisak: . Yeah, I'm pretty sure the premieres are what Tiger switched into before Sunday Red came out with. You know, and it was like big news that he wasn't wearing Nikes. Didn't he? Didn't you wear the footwear premieres because they were like more stable for all the surgeries he's had. So it's good enough for Tiger. It's good enough for us, right?
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yeah, very comfortable.
Dominic Colangelo: I've had the Galavanters as well. Those are probably the most comfortable that I've had, but I haven't really ventured out with brands. Like I I do need to try Foot Joys eventually. ⁓ currently have the Puma I think it's pronounced Avant. Avant. And those are doing me well. I've had ⁓ for a couple of years now. ⁓ I double sock when I play. So I think my my heels are kind of taking a beating these days. So I might I might be in the market here pretty soon, but ⁓ Yeah, I need to try the the f the premieres because I've I've heard nothing but good things about those. I don't really know if I enjoy the athletic shoe golf version. Like the ⁓ What are those Nikes? The Air Maxes. I can't I almost forgot the name of those. I think they look awesome. I love Air Maxes normally, but as a golf shoe, I don't know if it makes sense because like the heel is massive. Like you're Yeah, exactly. So it like do they shorten it for a golf shoe so you're closer to the ground? Like, are you literally losing or you know, needing to bend over a little bit more because you're right there? Like it's it's super interesting with the athletic shoe golf combo.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it's like you're wearing high heels.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ but like you know, it obviously looks sick. Like when someone has Jordan golf shoes, that's really cool. But yeah, walking is is a different animal when you're talking about all these things. I think ⁓ Live still exists. ⁓ we are have or I think they're having a tournament somewhat soon in Korea. ⁓ not sponsored by BB Go, but ⁓ the Korean the Korean Live Tournament. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: in North Korea.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, we're going to Pon Poign Yang or whatever. They're look that's the new Piff. ⁓ that's the new the new sponsor for that's the new backer for Liv is is the north the and John Rom can't get out of his tournament and he's gonna he's gonna
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha ha. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: He's the new president over there.
Kevin Spisak: Kim Jong is gonna shoot an 18 and the first ever live live North Korea
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Legion forty three is gonna change to North Korean golf club. ⁓ similar to OKG C but different. both places you don't want to live. I guess that's the theme. Oklahoma and North Korea, but ⁓ slightly different. ⁓ Danny Lee is no longer a part of the Korean golf club, if if you cared about I know Same, same.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. What? ⁓ damn it. You just ruined my night. I can't I can't speak to a why or how, but he's no longer a part of the Korean golf club. And I think I saw something funny where the four aces even commented on the post from Liv and said, Is this even allowed? Like nobody knows what the f is going on at Liv. taking notes from Dennis Rodman. Like, let's just go to North Korea. ⁓ man. I actually I did want to ask y'all. I and Matt, I know your answer because you said it on here before, but you think Liv is gonna turn into Maxi Golf of Happy Gilmore too. ⁓ I'm I'm thinking, Kevin, I want your take and I'll give you some time to think about it. He's he put himself on mute, he's laughing too much. Yeah. So I think Live, you know, they're only asking for what, three hundred fifty million. I say only, but like that seems like a lot for they value themselves at five billion. I feel like they're going to lose all of their star players 'cause they can't pay them. And then they're just gonna basically get absorbed by the PGA and then turn into the exhibition format, kinda like TGL where it's you know, Monday, Tuesday. It's just gonna essentially be what Greg Norman wanted in the very beginning, and it's just gonna be owned by PGA. That's my prediction. I I want it to have I want it to be Maxi Golf where they're doing the surgery to be able to turn more. Kevin, do you have do you have any predictions on what Liv's gonna turn into?
Kevin Spisak: no, I think your, your maxi golf is the perfect correlation there. ⁓ you know, in all honesty, I just, want it to, go away and just go back to the PGA tour. It's like the PIF, you know, has already gotten involved in the PGA tour when they did that. Like, you know, we thought the merger was happening and the for-profit thing changed. And so it's like the PIF got what they wanted. You know, they got to be involved in golf. You know, now they don't really have a use for live. I guess, you know, there could be more to it that I just don't know about. But, ⁓ you know, it, if, if became somewhat of like, ⁓ a minor league, like the corn fairy tour, but just like with a little more publicity than cool. But yeah, I don't know that we have like a need for that right now. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe live just becomes, yeah, like a organized YouTube golf, you know, sort of tour, but.
Dominic Colangelo: Ooh.
Kevin Spisak: Who knows?
Dominic Colangelo: I wonder if they're gonna they're gonna I maybe the Savannah bananas will buy Liv.
Kevin Spisak: That'd be a perfect match, perfect match.
Dominic Colangelo: And make it banana banana ball but gall. Yeah. They're on ESPN now. That's huge. They can afford it.
Kevin Spisak: What would be, you know how like in Banana Ball, if a fan catches a foul ball it's an out. What would be like the golf version of that?
Dominic Colangelo: Instead of getting a signed glove, you carry their bag, finish the whole.
Kevin Spisak: That'd be cool.
Dominic Colangelo: If ⁓ if so if a f if a fan catches a a ball, it's an out. I think if Sergio hits a fair way, it he gets minus one stroke. If he can if he can find a fair way. I I think ⁓ I don't know. It's just it's so it could be a banana ball. That's like yeah, that's th that might not be too far fetched in the near future. There there's time limits on your shots. That could be interesting. Dude, I love the YouTube golf take. That could be really interesting. 'Cause I mean they had was that one that ⁓ Brian Bros got cancelled for or not canceled but ⁓ manned for Yeah. Love that. It was like their their yeah, their pre round stuff or whatever that they do. But that was a that was a live sanctioned YouTube channel thing, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. That could be the winner. Turning into YouTube golf. I like that.
Kevin Spisak: I mean, don't you think like really quick, if they did do something like that and they did YouTube live, don't you think that would get more viewers than airing on the CW? Like, doesn't that just seem like common sense?
Dominic Colangelo: And younger viewers Yeah, younger viewers too. And it's yeah, you just put it up there. It's just like for whoever will watch it. Yeah. That'd be crazy. There is some issues with YouTube streaming, so I wonder how like how well it could do. You know, cause it's probably way cheaper than going to a cable provider. Their whole first year they were on on YouTube only.
Kevin Spisak: YouTube's
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ they were? I thought I mean I guess I thought it was their website. Was their website through YouTube? Yeah, like you could that was where you watched the first year of live. Live dot com, not YouTube. Yeah, it was I was not watching it on YouTube. Yeah. ⁓ Still, I think it can happen. I like it. Well, Matt, I know you have some history here. Take us through ⁓ the Colonial, the Charles Schwab tournament at Colonial. Yeah, I I have a soft spot for Colonial. ⁓ I love this course. I love I've played Colonial maybe a hundred times now. ⁓ it's a really cool event. ⁓ I've played it maybe ten times since the renovation. ⁓ so way more before the renovation. It is just a it's a great tournament. It it's in the heart of Fort Worth. it's in the heart of the town, like They do a great job with the tournament setup. It's really big in the veteran space. one of the famous, famous stories I have is is there was like ⁓ some veterans that wanted to hit some golf balls on the range and get a lesson from one of the one of the pros out there. And like somebody, some like security guy was like, Who are you guys? Like, who who are are we allowing these guys to hit hit on the range? And somebody was like, Yeah, this is Charles Schwab that wants them to hit on the range. Like it's fine. Like, they can do whatever they want. ⁓ So like it's just I don't know. They do a good job there. I hope they get a signature event in the future, but it's gonna be tough. There's a lot of tournaments out there and Colonial, but Colonial is a shopmaker's course. You have to be able to hit your you have to be able to shape it off the T. It doesn't it doesn't reward just one one way of ⁓ of shot shape. You gotta be able to draw it. You gotta be able to fade it. ⁓ you gotta hit great shots into the greens. The greens are really tough now with the redo. And putting, you know, my my advice if you ever get to play Colonial is just hit it. It's they're mostly straight. They actually are a lot of straight putts. They're almost freakishly straight, I feel like. Interesting. Yeah. Like they look they look like they curve but they're straight, or what do you mean? Yeah, it's almost like they look like they're gonna move a lot, but they're I would if you're if you're when in doubt, just hit it straight and and you'll you have a good chance. But they're fast, so you gotta be careful. They're they're definitely hard greens to put on. Like it. And it's w what is the actual and I'm probably gonna botch this, but it's the last tournament on tour that is run by its members, right? Yeah, so this one is still run where the where the tournament is run by a lot of the members. The tournament committee, ⁓ a lot of the staff is is mostly members. ⁓ i it's a weird way that the tour kind of does it. The tour really comes in and takes over, ⁓ like T B C Craig Ranch and does that whole thing. Colonial the the membership, the ⁓ and and the staff that that work for the Charles Schwab Challenge still still do most of the work. at Colonial and and the setup and ⁓ all that stuff. So it's just a really cool hometown event. ⁓ I think it's like one of the longest running courses that they've had for for this long on tour that has stayed at the same course for for however many years. So it is the longest now.
Kevin Spisak: It is the longest. That was almost the trivia question for the week. Yeah, it's the longest tournament on the tour ⁓ to be played at its original venue.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, and and ⁓ it's just a cool vibe there. They they got they got good vibes ⁓ at Colonial. So I just wish it would be a little bit early in the year 'cause I feel like it pops around April, late April, early May, and I feel like it's just a teensy bit too hot ⁓ where they can't get the greens like super dialed like they want ⁓ But beggars can't be choosers, I guess.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I can speak to that. went and saw ⁓ this event in 2019 and man, it was hot. It was like 95 degrees every day. I would love this to be a signature event earlier in the season when we had that run of like every tournament was a signature event. I think this one's like way cooler than some of the ones that we, you know, we didn't even know were signature events. ⁓ Yeah, I thought everything about Colonial was cool. Course is cool. The walk is It's a little bit of a tough walk, but not obscene or anything. Some different holes, different layouts where you can see multiple holes. There's some holes where OB on a side with some of the woods. I think it's a cool spectator course.
Dominic Colangelo: My if you ever go, my always spot is like kind of fifteen green, sixteen T box, sixteen green, seventeen. There's just a big collection of holes right around there and then you kinda see eighteen fairway. That kind of wraps wraps in front of that. It's like that's like the best little area to catch as much golf as you possibly can, in my opinion, 'cause you can see three or four holes at one time.
Kevin Spisak: Is it is it 10 that has the bridge over the creek? It's kind of a dogleg, right? All the players usually tee off with like long iron or like a shorter fairway would. Yeah, it's probably like the coolest non-made shot like I've ever seen in golf. The guy we are following, he's in the trees on the right. He you know, he's so the view is like he's got this window.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: where he's got to keep it low so he doesn't hit any trees, keep it high so he doesn't hit the bridge, and there's no way to stop it. So he just hits a laser beam straight into the bunker, gets a nice lie, and gets up and down for par. It was awesome. Just seeing the flight control to be able to hit that shot in the woods was so cool.
Dominic Colangelo: Right. Yeah. Yeah, there's you have to hit a lot of shots. You to ⁓ you you if you miss the fairways out there, you gotta shape it around trees. That's like the hardest part is it it's not that you can it's not like you can't hit the greens from the from the rough. It's just usually from the rough you have to hit you have to shape it around a tree also, which is borderline impossible.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Alright you guys.
Dominic Colangelo: But I I that's all I got. I think let's let's let's hit that trivia. I'm upset that that wasn't the question. ⁓ but but I but I'm I'm pumped for some colonial questions 'cause I I feel like I'm you're gonna have to stump the stump the jump.
Kevin Spisak: This is a tough one because I knew you would know so much about Kelowna. You're always the one to nail me every week. I guess Dom's kind of lucked into a few and nailed me too.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, this it's never on purpose.
Kevin Spisak: where you physically like know these really obscure answers. So I wanted to use that one. I was looking around to be like, you know, what else is like Charles Schwab's, you know, involvement in golf? Charles Schwab has been the ⁓ investment firm at the PGA tour since 1997. I thought that was kind of interesting. Again, Colonial being longest held, what's, you know, the original name. Didn't want to go with any of those. ⁓ but something I found interesting that thought was a perfect trivia question is that the trail swap challenge is one of only five invitationals on the PGA tour. Can you name the other five?
Dominic Colangelo: Okay.
Kevin Spisak: just because Matt just isn't a nerd about this stuff.
Dominic Colangelo: I invitationals. So invitational in the name or invitational?
Kevin Spisak: No, as status, invitational status.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang it. Okay, I'm gonna Wait, let me do one. Well du Yeah, you do you go first. 'Cause I feel like you'll probably get more than one. 'Cause like this is that question threw me off 'cause I was gonna say the Genesis invitation. Is that one? ⁓ I guess you can't say yes yet. Okay. Okay. Lock my guess in. You're right. Okay, that's my one guess.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ I'll let you answer first. don't want to reveal until... Yeah, it's not a team game. Not a team game.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ until I go. Okay, okay. I I got it, I got it, I got it. You gotta get four. I thought you have to get four.
Kevin Spisak: No, Matt's got to them all. You already, yeah, you already have one. So that being the Charles Schwab so that you got to get like you for total for sorry, I should clarify for for total. So you already have one with Charles.
Dominic Colangelo: I gotta get all five. I'm I'm writing it down. ⁓ Arnold Palmy. Arnold Palmer. Okay. I don't feel like Deer Run is
Kevin Spisak: I think one of them is harder to get than others, but maybe not for Matt.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, I'm gonna lock in Genesis and Arnold Palmy. Matt, are like writing them down?
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: I'm thinking through stuff, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: If you want to go on like a little break that we could edit out, you could like pull up the PGA calendar. But only Dom, Matt, you can't.
Dominic Colangelo: Like look look up the PGA calendar and guess from there.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, because they're not necessarily in the name.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, cool. Okay, give me one second. I got I got my five. I'm unsure on five. I'm I'm a hundred percent sure on four out of the five. Okay. Okay, so I'll go through mine and then Matt you you come you come back with probably the more right answers. I'm keeping Arnold Palmer. I'm keeping Genesis. We see Give me RBC. Yeah. Yeah, give me the John Deere classic. For some reason that sc that screams invitational for me. Alright, you ready for mine? Charles Schwab Challenge, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial Pebble Beach.
Kevin Spisak: quite close. Dom does win because he had to get one less than you, but Pebble Beach is not an invitational. Yep, so Charles Schwab challenge, Genesis. the Genesis is kind of interesting. The name is Genesis Open, but it's also Genesis Invitational. ⁓ yeah, right. But having the open, that doesn't sound like an invitational, but.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ I was unsure on Pebble Page. ⁓ it's not? It's 'cause it used to be the LA open. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Anywho, Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, and the Memorial.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, so RBC is one.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I would have never guessed RBC. Like nothing about that says invitational to me. I knew Memorial was, yeah, it's obviously not in the name, but that's a pretty notable tournament.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Any memorials, yeah. I I got a trivia question for you guys on this one. This one's always a fun one. So Colonial almost lost the tournament around 2018 17, 2018 time. Okay. They went with a sponsor of the tournament that ended up Cool.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Sure. Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: being basically like a fake company that like went under soon after the first year of them hosting it and they signed like a long term deal. The the year after it ended up being the Fort Worth Invitational was the tournament name. What was the company that sponsored them that year?
Kevin Spisak: I know this because I was looking for trivia questions. well, I'll leave it to Dom.
Dominic Colangelo: Ha ha. Let me guess. ⁓ and you said it's like I feel like it's just another finance company, like a KPMG. They're no longer a company. No, it was Dean and DeLuca. It was a food like a food like a like a like a food company or something.
Kevin Spisak: Up-scale upscale grocery store the description
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. And they like went under like soon after and then they, you know, obviously w went filed for bankruptcy and got out of their sponsorship. But my dad has a shirt that has the Dean and DeLuca championship on it. So it's like kind of a relic of the of the time. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: That's awesome.
Dominic Colangelo: That's sweet. Okay. I am gonna get a beer with y'all, 'cause Matt has to do one, right?
Kevin Spisak: Yep, me and Matt have to do it. feel like. Yeah, Dom got it right.
Dominic Colangelo: What? All right. What you got, Kevin? Cheers.
Kevin Spisak: St. Louis' finest Budweiser select.
Dominic Colangelo: Nice. For the brand.
Kevin Spisak: pouring it into ⁓ a Cleveland Indians slash Guardians glass because the cows are dead to me and I hope James Harden is not back on the team next year.
Dominic Colangelo: I got a I don't know what type, ⁓ but some sort of red wine. So That's on great, baby. Chug it. Ooh. Ugh. Tastes chugging wine tastes terrible. Yeah, who would ever do that?
Kevin Spisak: You should you should pin the video of you choking in four seconds
Dominic Colangelo: I should do that. Okay, so while f while Kevin's finishing, I think we're gonna get into one and duns. And this one might be a little long winded because, like we said last week, we are at the midway point for the rest of the season. So I wanted to go through and give some some fun stats for us. I I used old Chatty G for some help here, and I wanted to read this interaction. So ⁓ typed in all of our one and done stats for the for the year so far with names. And here's a description that Chat GPT started with. ⁓ a few things immediately jumped out. Dominic is absolutely cooking. Kevin is the definition of volatile. Matt may Matt may have assembled the greatest miscut portfolio in modern golf history.
Kevin Spisak: What?
Dominic Colangelo: Here's More of a clo I was always a clawed guy anyway. Yeah. So this is ⁓ this is a first pass breakdown. So let me go back real quick for this week. ⁓ so this week Kevin is leading the pack. He had Scotty Scheffler, who finished third place, and then I went with Jordan Speeth, who was T nineteen. And then Matt had Rasmus Hojgaard, who was ended up at sixty-two. So once again, we all made the cut, which is massive. ⁓ pretty solid weeks, but going into the totals. So ⁓ I'm sitting at two hundred sixty-two, Kevin is at four hundred and thirty seven, and Matt is at six hundred and ninety one. So the the the things that stood out, Matt, this is what ChatGPT is telling me. Matt is currently two hundred fifty four points behind Kevin and four hundred and twenty nine points behind me. This is not a and I'm quoting, that's not a deficit, that's a competitive reconstruction project. It's good stuff. So ⁓ average finish. I'm at twenty point two. Kevin is at thirty-three point six, and Matt is at fifty-three point two. That's average finish. ⁓ the median finish is kind of interesting. So my median finish is eighteen, so two points lower. Kevin's median finish is twenty-four, so nine points lower, and then Matt's is Matt's median finish is fifty nine, so seven points higher than his average. And fine. Which is wild. So And that's okay. And that's okay. 'Cause and I have some some fun some fun stats coming later about that. So worst finish. ⁓ my worst finish is 49. And there's an asterisk because it even says not counting Dominic's finish at Zurich because my team made the cut. I got lucky though, because the cut line was like thirty five. But anyways. ⁓ Kevin's worst finish, eighty nine. Matt's is a hundred and eight. Missed cut We've had some bad picks, but we're fine. We're fine. Misscuts is interesting. Toasty, you dirty dog. That was a bold move, but I love it. Miss Cuts. Dam you Alejandro Toasty. He's in the field if anybody wants to take him. That is true. So missed cuts. Mm ⁓ Kevin and I are both at one and Matt has five. Five out of thirteen missed cuts so far.
Kevin Spisak: session.
Dominic Colangelo: Top tens. I have five. Kevin has four. Matt has two. ⁓ and then top fifties, and I wanted to shout this out, ⁓ a little humble brag. Out of thirteen events, I have twelve top fifties. Kevin's at nine, Matt is at six. ⁓ so then there's some narrative stats that that Chatty G gave. So I only have one worse finish than forty nine, which it's I think it's counting my worst finish as Missing a cut. ⁓ and then nine top twenty-fives, basically no disasters, and then one win with Cameron Young. ⁓ so my average non-major finish is 20.4. And then Kevin. ⁓ and my nickname is the spreadsheet assassin. Kevin, the boomer bust merchant. Kevin's card is hilarious. He has a second place, third place, fifth, and eighth place finish. But also 49, 65, 89, 79th. So he either contends or he detonates. Is the first. If you're if you removed your missed cuts and finishes worse than 50, Kevin's average finish is eleven. That's pretty fun. ⁓ so he's secretly elite while when not self sabotaging. And and for the listeners, I'm throwing a lot of numbers at you.
Kevin Spisak: Sounds about right.
Dominic Colangelo: Hopefully it's not too crazy. I feel like I'm I'm hoping to explain this well. ⁓ but Matt is the cutline terrorist. He has five missed cuts and 13 starts, averages 53, two triple digit finishes this year, yet somehow picked a winner. Matt Fitzpatrick had Rory at 19 and a major top 25 finish. This is a deeply chaotic card for Matt. Right. I you know, it was funny I was walking in to the ⁓ to the to TBT Craig Ranch and one of the featured people on like the where they put their head on like the scort on like the ping things walking by was Pearson Cootie. And ⁓ Mrs. Under the Covers goes, Didn't you pick him to win? He did terrible one day. And I said, Yeah, I did. Thank you very much for that. Thank you, Mrs. Under the Covers. Appreciate that. And you did well this week, which was very fun. It's a it's a common theme that we're all just late on our picks. ⁓ so major major picks. ⁓ our totals for the majors, Dominic, I am at twenty two, Kevin's at forty four, Matt's at seventy. So really not bad because majors are double. ⁓ so I don't think it really factored that in. But I think we've all kind of had some pretty good major ⁓ picks. ⁓ so then there's some fun awards that it gave out for us. ⁓ Kevin is most likely to say he was T four on a Friday.
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: We we need to investigate this. Matt has five missed cuts already. The I can fix him award is every Tom Kim and Victor Hovlin pick.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha ha.
Dominic Colangelo: That's good. That's good. ⁓ man, so these are these are really fun. ⁓ I can I can maybe post these ⁓ somewhere so everyone can read them, but yeah, I can do that on Twitter. So there's like it goes all the way in percentages, like made the weekend percentage, ⁓ under par human, so top twenty-five rate, ⁓ disaster rate, so si finishing sixty or more. There's some fun ones, so I'll throw them out there. ⁓ like we asked last time, throw them in in the comments if you have any ideas for some stats you want to hear. On on our Twitter. ⁓ because there I try to run I don't know if the term regression model is correct here, but I I've heard it on a TikTok before, so I thought it'd make me sound smart. But I wanted to run some models of What I've been doing is picking the the heavy hitters first. Like I'm going really heavy on like the top guys, whereas Matt, you're a ball knower. You watch so much golf, so you're kind of going with like the value picks and stuff. And then Kevin's been back and forth in a very good way. But I'm curious how that would work and how it's gonna play the rest of the year where, you know, we got thirteen more tournaments and I'm running out of guys. So this will be this will be interesting to see how this finishes. Yeah, you might have to pick Kevin Kisner this weekend. Well, I guarantee I'm not choosing Pearson Cootie or Chandler Phillips, I'll tell you that much.
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: Ayy. No, we love we love Chandler, we love those guys, but I'm not picking them for one of those. So with that, long-winded, but with that, Matt, give us your pick for Colonial, for Charles Schwab invitational. Man, a lot of different ways I can go here. I just feel like there's so many good value picks, so many things that you guys would never guess that I'd pick. ⁓ Unfortunately, I I'm gonna go with Brooks Kepka withdrew, so Dom, don't pick Brooks Kepka. Just just FY yeah. ⁓ just letting you know that. I'm going with Kevin Kiz I'm just kidding. ⁓ Sung J I'm going I saw he's playing well, ⁓ hits it good, good ball striker. I he's not gonna win, but he's gonna have a good finish. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate that. I love it. Nice pick.
Kevin Spisak: it too. For my pick, this guy I've been wanting to pick for a long time. I don't know a ton about him except for he's my new best friend and he's left-handed he's a baller putter and he's gonna win this week with Matt McCarty.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, he's a good player. I like that. 'Cause he's he's not that big of a bomber, but he can hit the ball very well. He is he does, okay. ⁓ he hits it far. He's yeah, he hits it a long way, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, his stroke scheme putting is very good.
Dominic Colangelo: You went out. Hmm, let's see. Love the pics, guys. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: you
Dominic Colangelo: I'll give you my my top three right now. I was going between Justin Thomas for the vibes. He's been playing well lately. ⁓ but I just feel like it's kinda like a Jordan Spieth where he'll play well and then he'll just blow up. ⁓ I I haven't picked Akshay yet, which is surprising because I could have swore I have already. But he's out there. But I feel like I can use him at a at a longer course. So I think my choice this week, I'm gonna go with someone that Kevin has chosen already this year. I'm gonna go with Russell Henley. Good pick. I I went down that route. Yeah, he's I think he's played here pretty well in the past. But, you know, like we've Matt talked about it a lot where it it's about shot shaping and accuracy. And I feel like that's exactly what he does. And he just kind of sneaks up the leaderboard. You don't r he doesn't really make a splash. He just kinda sneaks up there and and kills you silently. So I like Russell this week. Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Can I ask you guys something? Just kind of random thought here. I was looking at Matt McCarty's stats. There's a term for what I was doing looking at my roster, but I'll keep that to myself. Matt McCarty's proximity rating is 10th on the PGA Tour this year. So what do you think that is? It's the feet to the hole. Proximity to the hole. 10th.
Dominic Colangelo: Like it. Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: What do think that is?
Dominic Colangelo: He I would say it's like thirty two feet.
Kevin Spisak: What do you think?
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ like what is the foot number? I'll go under. So tenth? Yeah, I'll say under. Give me like twenty four. A little bit under.
Kevin Spisak: He had massive golf nerd and he's pretty spot on. It's 35 and seven inches. So that just like shows how hard golf is like 10th on the PGA Tour is still over 10 yards away. You know, proximity to the hole, like, you know, and like we're amateurs that get like pissed off, you know, if we are on the fringe, you know, on something. It's like golf is so freaking hard. I just thought that was interesting. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Peace. Yeah. Like twelve feet from the hole. Yeah, I've always it's always fascinated me, like when they talk about that stuff, how like when, you know, pros only make fifty percent of their eight footers or ten footers or something, and you feel like every time you watch a pro line up an eight foot putt a ten foot putt, they're cashing it. But mostly it's because you only see the guys that are close to the lead that are actually Yeah. shots. So I think that kind of skews what people people's perceptions a little bit. That you don't see the guys shooting, you know, couple over par. In early in the mornings and stuff. So Yeah. That was a big topic too, is what is considered a stick in in golf terms. I don't know if y'all thought about that at all. Like what do you consider a stick when someone says, ooh, that guy's a stick? Yeah, I was gonna say it. less than five handicaps. ⁓ okay. I would have said like scratch or better. Yeah, no, I guess you're right. Yeah. I think I think sc yeah, maybe you're right. A scratch is if you're not if you're scratch you can be considered a stick.
Kevin Spisak: Maybe better than a 3 handicap.
Dominic Colangelo: I almost I almost wanna say it's it's like a little vibey too where if there's just like some goober out there who's a plus four handicap and you know, I don't know, has all the gadgets and everything, you're not gonna call him a stick, you know. ⁓ If i as they're if they're winning matches, I don't care what how you do it. Yeah, that's true, 'cause you would say he he might be goofy, but he's a stick. You would still say that. So maybe that that take is wrong, but Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: say about you.
Dominic Colangelo: Me? I don't win anything. ⁓ Well beautiful. Do we have anything else, guys? No. ⁓ just ⁓ it's gonna be a fun week at Colonial. ⁓ hoping that Danny Lee recovers from not being a free golf club anymore. It's poor one out for Danny Lee. Let's go.
Kevin Spisak: Poor one out for Danny Lee.
Dominic Colangelo: You gonna go watch? I can drink myself to sleep tonight over that news. It's crazy. All right. Well, thanks for listening. Appreciate it. Follow us on our socials, Spotify, Apple, YouTube at Under the Covers Golf. ⁓ like Matt said, excited for Colonial. ⁓ hopefully, are you gonna be boots on the ground? Is there gonna be some more dumplings you're gonna eat? No, ⁓ not boots on the ground this weekend. ⁓ I got my got my share. ⁓ got some golf lined up this weekend at some at some places up in Dallas. So, you know, gotta gotta shake hands, you know, meet some babies, all that sort of stuff. Beautiful. All right. Well, thanks again. See you next week.