That's Too Bad

Matthew Walaszek (00:06)
Riverside.

This is Wally Walsack and you are listening or watching the That's Too Bad podcast. Last time we talked, we were predicting the PGA Championship. I know it's been a while since I've been able to record. So let's do just a quick recap and then we'll start diving into this stuff. PGA Championship, a little over a month ago now. Zander Schauffele gets the monkey off his back. Plays extremely well on Sunday, even with a red hot.

Bryson DeChambeau and Victor Hovland, Oberg, Thomas Detrie, et cetera. Finally gets that monkey off his back, especially from the week prior when he fell short to Rory on the Sunday final round and gets his first major. So hats off to his Andrew Schauffele. Controversy, sadness at the PGA Championship. We'll also circle back to with Scottie Scheffler.

getting arrested, making his tea time barely, et cetera. The unfortunate volunteer that passed away during that whole, which caused kind of the conflict down there, not the sky's Scheffler conflict, but why the cops were down there and all that with the traffic. Thoughts and prayers obviously to the family out there. And then another sad news was Grayson Murray.

PGA Pro, passing away about a week or two after the PGA Championship. A guy that has struggled over the last few years, if not longer, with anxiety, mental illness, stuff that was pretty well known on tour, the stuff he was battling. And, you know, unfortunately,

It took his life, not something that the golf world and anybody wanted to see. It really shook up the golf world, especially the tournament. I believe it was after the PGA championship. A lot of the golfers, guys that knew him very well, even the guys that really didn't know him too well, but knew of him. It really shook up the golf community as a whole. So it was very sad to see. Rest in peace, Grayson Murray.

thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family especially, not something that you ever want to bring up on a podcast, social media, or et cetera.

we just finished the us open and one of the, I would put them up there right now as one of the most dominant golfers next to Scottie Shuffler at least in 2024. And that's Bryson DeChambeau gets the win, gets the win in fashion too down to the last hole. I'm thinking this is going to a playoff with Rory. I did not expect Rory McIlroy to miss a short putt and DeChambeau.

gets out of the bunker, or first gets out of the crap off to the left, gets out of the bunker, gets his putt in, wins the US Open.

And then, you know, if you're on social media, you saw Charlie Hall, not even controversy, just sparking a lot of funny drama with a cigarette in her hand or in her mouth, signing autographs. 2024, I guess, if you don't have a e -cig or some type of jewel or something like that. And I guess old school cigarette throws people off nowadays.

And then something else pretty funny if you follow the Champions Tour, Boo Weekly will get into it, renting a U -Haul, driving from Michigan, I think he was driving to Iowa for this next tournament, and then finish fishing on the course after I believe it was a practice round. So let's circle back, let's get back into the PGA Championship. Xander Schauffele, like I said, wins his first major, finally closes out on a Sunday.

something that I think is really, it's really hovered over his head over his, you know, his career so far. I mean, he's, he's won at the Olympics. He's won a lot of different tournaments. He's been on Ryder cup teams, president cup teams, et cetera. The one thing that's been off his resume, obviously is winning a major. This guy's played extremely well in majors in the past, and he's a great golfer from T to T to green.

has always struggled finishing it on a Sunday. We've seen him, I think, numerous times over the last three, four, five years. He has held a lead in a major at some point, whether it's through one round, two rounds or three rounds going into the last day. And...

finally gets that off his back, off his resume is I can't close out the tournament. Someone that just I think represents golf in all fashions and anything really well. You never hear too much of him off the course. If you follow, watch him on different YouTube channels and stuff like that, it seems like he's a funny guy, great guy to watch and follow tournament to tournament. It was good to see him finally win.

I know people on social media and etc were not too thrilled with how the PGA championship overalls I think scoring was. I mean we saw PGA, I mean it was I think record -breaking scoring for the PGA championship. I mean Shawfleet edges out D 'Chambeau with a total minus 21, D 'Chambeau 20, Hovland 18. I mean it's

For a lot of people, I heard major championship golf should not be that high of scoring. I disagree. I was listening to the Subpar podcast a few weeks ago and I kind of agreed that it's not a, I don't think it matters what the number on the scorecard is. I think major golf needs to be competitive down to the,

the last day, really, if you can get it down to the last shot. We didn't see that the Masters. Scotty did what Scotty did and blew the field out right away on a very tough four day course at Augusto. There was really no competition. I mean, Scotty kind of went into Sunday, we all know, and just played lights out. I mean, no one was going to catch him.

If you're a Scotty fan, that's great. If you're a fan of just golf in general, at least my perspective, you don't really want to see that. You want to see it come down to the end. Going into Sunday, you were basically just now playing for second, third, et cetera. We already knew who won. We already knew the green jacket, who was getting sized up for. But then you get to this PGA championship and La Jolla is not a, is not a,

easy course by any means, even though the scoring might not depict that. it's hosted several tournaments in a Ryder Cup in the past. They made it definitely easier, certain holes easier on certain days. Like on 18, they were baiting players to go for on a par four, kind of an island green. And only I think one really attempted it and he got it. Everybody else played safe. And I think everybody fan wise hated that.

hit the iron up the middle, get on the green, and where the pin location was in relation to the ridge, it was a relatively easier birdie on the scorecard. I thought there was a chance Dee Shambot was gonna go for it. When you're chasing Shawfleet and you wanna get as many, if you wanna claw back the score a little bit as quickly as possible, I thought that was the route he was gonna go.

He's probably the only one that I was very shocked that didn't do it. just because he probably would have hit like a six iron the way he hits, his irons and driver and solid driver was going to be, I think too much for him. But getting back to my point, it's the PGA championship was excited because I was sitting in a living room with people I know that love golf and we were watching it down to the last hole.

to see who was going to, if Shafal was going to hold it off or is he, if you remember that last putt, there was the camera angle. I thought he was going to lip it out. It dropped in. We almost, we almost could have gone to a playoff. D 'Chambeau was right there. It was cool watching D 'Chambeau and Victor Hovland's group in general. They were feeding off one another. Hovland bombs a drive. D 'Chambeau did the same. One of them drains a long putt. The other one wanted, you know, would do it too. It, it,

and they weren't even the final two groups. I believe they were the third or fourth group before the final group finished. And that's what major golf should be. It should be down to the wire relative to the score, whether the final score was plus two or minus 32. If second, third, going down through the top, at least the top 10,

If everybody is within a shot or two of pushing that to a playoff or potentially winning, that's what I think major golf is. And that's what we saw there. And then we saw just recently at the US Open, we saw a lot of guys in contention going into Sunday. The course at Pinehurst played extremely difficult. Those turtle back greens really was difficult to hold stuff, especially on longer shots.

You had like a four, four iron, three wood in, the par five, six, everything, even wedges were rolling off. Some of the quickest greens, I think the pros are going to see all the season. Different US Open as far as it played extremely difficult, but we didn't, Pinehurst doesn't have a lot of rough. They have a lot of waste bunkers, but a lot of just random, I was calling it fescue, but it really just looks like weeds plopped at different little areas in the waste bunkers.

that makes it extremely difficult. We saw a lot of guys get their ball stuck right behind it and it's punching out and you know, now you're saving par bogey. That US Open though, the way how difficult it played was pretty typical of a US Open, which the pedigree has always been one of the more tough, or one of the tougher majors in professional golf. All four are definitely tough.

But if you're going to stack them one on top of the other, I would put US Open as the number one, is the toughest major course condition wise when they're playing. But we saw guys going out there. We saw them attack and we saw guys take chances and some it paid off and some didn't. Matthew Pavon, the Frenchman, day two or one or two.

Draining a couple different Eagles, which the way the greens were playing all weekend, all four days, Eagles, I mean, if you got an eagle, that was a blessing. Because guys were struggling to birdie. Tony Finau played extremely well. I thought he had a chance. One hole on Saturday really cost him where he went from putting off the green, rolled into a bunker, chipping out of the bunker, rolled across.

a hole that if he would have had par might have contended for the final group going into Sunday. If not, he would have been at least in the second, second last group. He had a bigger slope to climb Sunday and he did just, it wasn't enough. Finished in the top five though. It's good to see Fienao's putting is a lot better and more consistent early this year, different grips, toe up, toe down. He was doing a lot of funky things. He was doing the,

Brandt Snedeker little punch putter style instead of just doing a nice simple smooth stride through it. Tony played extremely well all four days. I really thought we were gonna see potentially him, but the way D 'Chambeau and Mack Hora played, I think those two wanted to make a statement say, well, we know Rory's trying to make a statement in when.

a major that he hasn't done in 10 years. D. Shambow is out here, I think just living his best life. Patrick Cantley was up there. Like I said, Finau. I heard on a podcast, Russell Henley, someone was taking Russell Henley as a sleeper pick. Key finish in the top 10. Shafly was up there too. Ludwig Olberg.

played well going in until towards the end of Saturday and beginning of Sunday. Still finished T12, good for him. The guys who play in the first rookie year have been playing outstanding golf all year in the majors and not the majors. And again, this fell under the category of what a major I think should be, not related to the exact score, but.

Overall, if we go down the line here, DeChambeau finished the tournament minus six, McElroy minus five, we know the controversy, we'll get into that in a minute. Patrick Hanley -Fiena tied for third at both minus four, Pavon minus three. We're at five and everybody's within one so far. And you just go down the line really through anybody that finished even plus one, I mean realistically, I thought they had a chance.

going into Sunday. There was a large group that you played well, you shoot low, you can contend with McElroy, Cantley, DeChambeau, et cetera. And there were not a lot of low scores in the Sunday final round. In fact, a lot of guys finishing plus one and even. Guys that played better Sunday,

It just wasn't enough shooting two, three under, were Finau, Russell Henley, Shawfleet, Sam Burns, and Tommy Fleetwood that I can see right now in like the top 20. Other than that, it was a lot of plus ones, plus twos as you go down further, Tom Kim, Terrell Haddon did not have good days, plus six, plus seven. This course definitely beat a lot of guys up.

But getting back to my point, this is what major golf was. It came down to literally the final hole and really the final shots. So let's get into that. McElroy is in the group, second to last group in front of DeChambeau. McElroy at one point for like 10, 12 minutes took the lead by one. Why? Because DeChambeau a couple holes prior missed a short putt that I believe he should have made. So now Rory's up one.

DeChambeau comes back, ties it up. We're going into 18. I'm thinking this is gonna go to a playoff. If you know me, I want playoffs in major golf. It just builds the excitement. It'll be fun to see whose nerves are not gonna take over and who will come out victorious here. We're going into 18. Minus six for both of them. So I'm thinking this is easy. This.

down the middle, get on the green, two putt, let's go to a playoff. McElroy did that except the second putt within I think four feet, if not less, and he lifted out. And he did it one other time earlier in the round, something very out of characteristic for him, and it cost him the tournament, it really did. Do I think if he goes to a playoff, he automatically is gonna win?

beat Bryson? No, I think Bryson was it played so strong for four days especially that Sunday even though he finished plus one for the day. I still think Bryson might have I think he had about the upper hand there. So here comes now Bryson he knows he's got to get a par or better to win. Off the tee goes way left and he sat on this for a while not knowing what to do.

He had a tree limb behind him. He's got the ball behind like a little bit of a weed or something in the waste bunker. He's not got great footing. Right off the bat, I'm thinking, well, Roy bogeys. This guy's about to bogey too. He kept going back to his caddy trying to figure, just saying, I'm not comfortable with this. Wondering, we're gonna run out of daylight suit.

because he won't swing a club. It felt like in watching it on TV, he was trying to think of something of how can, you know, with the, maybe I'm over thinking this, but I thought at one point he was delaying this for so long, not because he didn't want to hit it. The guy's strong enough, he could have blasted right through everything that was in front of him. I'm wondering if he was trying to find any type of loophole in the rules or anything that says, hey, I want to know if I could get a free drop.

Anyway, he didn't. He never even called the official or so. He ended up punching out and he got it all the way to the bunker. And I can't remember or not, but in my opinion, the bunker was, I think the best spot for him. It was about a 50 yard bunker shot, but the bunkers, he was able to probably spin the ball a lot more, at least get it to stop, especially on these, these greens that were not really holding too much, even from.

chipping we saw Tiger Woods during practice or you know during his warm -up routine he was practicing bump and runs with probably seven maybe six five iron I don't know he was not trying to loft it with wedges and spin it that way and here comes D Chambeau he's in the bunker okay now you got to get on in one putt or otherwise we got the bogey that we want and we're going to a playoff and probably one of the best

Bunker shots we'll see this year from 50 yards out and just throws it right there, gets it to stop within about two, three feet, rolls it right in. And here we are, Bryson Deschambault is our 2024 US Open Championship. I'm happy to see Bryson win. Some people I know are probably upset.

a live guy won, not a PGA guy. I don't look at it that way. This guy has been nothing but good for golf, especially this year. His demeanor, the last few years he's been extremely about getting buff, a guy that looks like he could have played in the NFL, trying to out drive everybody. For the last two years I was criticizing him.

Cause he was, I thought he was focusing on the wrong things in golf. I thought he was focusing on the right things to be a long drive contest winner, but not a PGA live professional golf golfer. Reason being is I've always thought his wedges were subpar at best. He always made everything up. He's one of the better putters in the world. Obviously he's the longest, one of the longest hitters in the world, at least on tour.

and that comes along with you know your four and five irons up to seven iron because a seven iron probably goes about 250. But when he would get within about a hundred yards I always thought his wedge game was his kryptonite for a while. I don't think that too much anymore. I've seen all the majors he's been within the top five PJ championship runner -up and now he's a winner and he had to do it with

some different wedge shots too throughout the tournament. Obviously a great putter even though he missed maybe a short one they're going to miss him eventually. They're not always going to be perfect. D 'Chambeau though what he has done this year kind of he has been all about the fan base. He when you watch him on TV you see he is interacting during rounds before rounds and after rounds. PGA championship if anybody remembers he tried to throw a ball to a

kid, some random older guy snagged it like it was a foul ball at a at a Cubs game. And he started walking and D. Shambow stopped right going to the tee and yelled at that guy, got, I believe, an official or a police officer involved and said, that's for this kid. Get get back over here and made him get that ball back in the middle of the round. The stuff he's focused on.

for, because he's one of these guys that if you follow him on social media, follow him on YouTube, he's all about expanding the game of golf. Not just within the professional level, not just within to feed into his pocket. He is very big on getting anybody and anybody on a golf course, whatever it is, driving range, putting green, par three, play nine, play 18, whatever the case is, he is all about it.

And you see it the entire time. You saw after he won, all the people he's talking to and high -five and shaking hands with, all the people he mentioned in his speech after he had won, to all the people that he went into with the fans of the US Open Cup, all these fans are touching it and having a blast. He's made time for everybody.

He even circles back at middle of the night when he's probably either had one too many or wants to continue partying and celebrating. Golf channel Johnson Wagner's trying to replicate the bunker shot and he goes and he watches and he teaches him how to hit a bunker. The guy is just all about.

you know, being with everybody in golf. A very selfless guy right now at golf. Very good to see too, because this is not something we've really seen in the last couple of years, especially with the live in the PGA debacle. We've seen a lot of selfish comments made about other people, why people, you know, decisions and everything else. It's been so two sided, so down the middle, so dramatic.

with the live in the PGA, so many different comments and controversies and a lot of hostility towards one another. And then you got a guy over here, Bryson, who went to live, but he has really never been bad -mouthed. I mean, we know he's had the Brooks -Kepko drama, but this is a guy that,

has just, like I said, especially this year has just been extremely good for golf. I'm happy he won. The way he's been playing all year, you knew what was gonna happen. Let's see what he's gonna do at the British Open here at, I believe it was at Royal Troon or whatever, yeah, Royal Troon. Of course, I wonder how much he's gonna tear that place up, excuse me, with his length. Of course that.

I looked up a couple days ago and it only plays about 7 ,100 yards on a nice windy day in good old England. I'm sure he's going to be trying to get a lot of rollout drivers and stuff like that. But we'll kind of go into that. Royal Trune has always played favorable towards the scorecards, meaning we've seen a lot of low scores over four day periods. But we'll get into that. So, you know.

to wrap that part up, good for Bryson DeChambeau, happy again to see him win. Rory's gonna eventually win. I think everybody is getting extremely impatient because it's been 10 years, but Rory is right there. Again, something that you don't think he would do, miss a four -foot putt. We've seen Tiger Woods do it, we've seen Phil Mickelson do it, we've seen all these great golfers. It's gonna happen.

You just don't think it's gonna happen at that point, but hopefully he's got a short memory, he moves on and he's got one more major left and he's got the Olympics and we'll see what he can do to wrap going into the FedEx playoffs. Roy's been playing extremely well this year, so he's right there. But there's just a lot of good golfers out there, whatever.

Only thing I didn't like was the way he handled that after the US Open. I get it. You miss a four foot putt to go to a playoff that potentially cost you to win your fifth major, first one in 10 years. It doesn't sit well. I get it. He stormed out. I mean, he didn't do any media. He didn't go up to Bryson afterwards, didn't congratulate him, did nothing.

grabbed his shit, walked out as fast as he probably walked into the place thinking, hey, I'm in a good spot to witness. He apologized, social media and stuff like that, and the media the next day or two days later, whatever it was, you know, I get it, he explained himself, it wasn't the right thing to do, it was just the heat of the moment, whatever. And Bryson's not salty about it from what we've seen either. I just, you know,

Hopefully that's not going to be a trend in professional golf because there's just no place for that. You know, Bryson didn't do anything to Rory for him to lose. Rory did it to himself because it's a one man sport technically. You know, he's got to just accept that. But again, I think Rory will bounce back and we'll see what happens at Royal Troon in a few weeks. And yeah.

We'll go off from there. So let's, you know, I mentioned the Olympics. The Olympics are around the corner and I'm not going to get too much into this one. I don't, I haven't looked at what formats and stuff is it. I just want to talk about real quickly. I think it's kind of BS how this is being handled with the golf rankings. A lot of great golfers are being left out, especially like we've just been talking about. Bryson DeChambeau is not even on here. The official golf rank.

Unfortunately, ever since the split between the PGA and the LIV, the official golf rankings has just been kind of, I don't know, in my opinion, it's kind of a disgrace the way it's being handled. I get it, LIV with three rounds of golf and this and that, they claim that it doesn't fit the PGA. There's probably a way, I don't know. I'm not too happy about it. We're not gonna see.

the best golf, all the best golfers represent their countries. We're going to see a great chunk of the best golfers. Guys like Bryson DeChambeau, Thomas Peters is not on this list because he doesn't, you know, I don't think he plays in the DP World Tour. I think he's strictly live. I haven't even gone through the entire list yet, but I know there's a bunch of guys on live that are not on here. It's just unfortunate that again, this is just the status and where we're at.

in professional golf, especially now with the Olympics. These guys want to go represent their country and they're not going to have that chance. It's unfortunate. I'm not happy to hear, to see that. No one cares what I say though, so nothing's probably going to change. I do hope though that the official golf rankings eventually do change because to leave off great golfers in their prime,

to not let them represent their country is complete bullshit in my opinion. All right, so we've talked about the two majors, my opinion on the Olympics. Couple just funny story, social media posts and stuff like that that let's just circle back to. Kind of comical, first is Charlie Hall, one of the better LPGA players out there.

She's on all the social media documenting, she practices so much golf from working out to at the range to practice routes, et cetera. But what's comical is she gets caught on someone's smartphone, iPhone, whatever, signing autographs and she's got a cigarette hanging from her mouth. Someone told me that,

They heard her in an interview that she does the cigarettes because if she had a Juul or e -cigarette, whatever, in her pocket, she would be smoking that left and right until there's no more, until all the pod runs out. I guess cigarettes she smokes at a slower pace. I don't know. It's just funny that people were shocked that a female golfer could smoke a cigarette while signing autographs.

It was like, it blew up social media and I didn't understand it. I even remember listening to a podcast and I forgot the golfer that was on the podcast, but he said, he goes, if you guys think Charlie Hall smoking a cigarette is wild, then it would just blow your mind to see what 99 % of the rest of the professional golfers, both men and women are doing while they're practicing.

or even on the course. I mean, we've known John Daly is a big cigarette smoker. We've seen Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, they're big dippers. I mean, cigarettes have been around for a very long time. So like again, I'm just, the fact that, I don't know if it's maybe because she was smoking while signing autographs. I don't know. We've seen John Daly do it. He's golfing with a cigarette in his mouth.

chugging a Diet Coke. Wadetton doesn't freak people out. I don't know. It was funny though. Her interview after the round was pretty comical because I don't think she played too well. And yet I think she had more attention on her than the actual leader of the tournament. And she said it was kind of funny too that people are coming up to her.

handing her, trying to give her like little notes and all this stuff. She go, I'm not even doing well. And yeah, and she just flat out just to go, yeah, I smoke a cigarette here and there. Well, you know, it's just funny and interesting how that all sparked. My other favorite story that I saw was, or I was watching it on a PGA championship tours, Instagram, they interviewed Boo Weekly, who,

leaving, I believe it was the state of Michigan from a tournament and him and his wife could not get a rental car to save their life. Rental car completely out of everything. Had to make the drive from Michigan to Iowa. And he said that his wife suggested, why don't we go to U -Haul and he rented one of those big ass trucks for golf clubs and probably some duffel bags, drove it to Iowa like it was a rental. And,

dropped it off at U -Haul, made the tournament. And what was funny was he was telling this story while he's fishing on the course probably after the practice round. One of the most ingenious things I think I've ever heard of, if you're at a place, runs out of rental cars, see if there's a U -Haul right there and just go rent the truck. I bet it's cheaper. That was hilarious. I've never ever contemplated that. I've never heard anybody ever mention.

or contemplate why don't you just go to U -Haul and rent the car, rent the truck, if you get off a plane and they're out of rental cars. That is definitely one of the more interesting things I've ever seen or heard. Kudos to his wife for being smart. So okay, so we've talked about the PGA Championship, the US Open, the second, and the third majors.

in the PGA tour. If you live in Illinois.

Southwest Suburb, you know that there's a fifth major out there. This week, Ziegfeld -Troy Golf, part three, family golf course, I used to work for them on the grounds crew, driving range, mini golf course, ZTO 2024, it's kicking off tomorrow, practice round, kicking off Saturday. I'll be in it, I got family and friends in this, 18 -hole Saturday, 18 -hole Sunday.

all for the straw hat. If you're from Illinois, the name is Ziegfeld, should carry some waves here. I know it does for me. Again, I grew up down the street from this part three course. I'm very close with the family. Like I said, I used to work for them. My swing coach is now there, who I haven't seen in quite a bit. So, I should let them know that the game's doing okay so far. And,

It's a great course to practice the short game. Part three, longest hold day will be probably like 140 -ish maybe. Hole number three, if you're familiar with it. Also, they did not ask me to promote this. They never need my help promoting anything. I'm doing this out of free will. It's a great tournament. It's fun.

People always dog on you, it's just a par three. Yeah, but if you can't hit wedge shots and you can't putt, don't talk to me. I mean, that's just, that's how it is. It's a great nine hole course on the other day of the week to practice your short game. You're gonna be practicing from as close as probably 45, 50 yards all the way up to like 130, 140, like I said. So ZTO should be fun.

See if we can get some videos, some pics out there, post on that's too bad podcast, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. Hopefully, hopefully I can go low guys. Yeah, that's always the goal, but last couple of years, one hole has really blew up my day and something that I think I've always, I think I've struggled with. I mean, this is going to be my 16th year, I believe playing in this in a row.

I'm going for a non -existent record at this course of playing consecutive ZTO championships. And, you know, one of the biggest things that, one of my biggest flaws here is the mental side of it. I sometimes get off to a pretty decent start. I get a lot of confidence and then one mistake happens and it completely destroys the rest of my round. If that happens, I have to learn how to figure out.

how to block that, circle back, and get back on a good spot, try to recover. And that's really, I mean, that's just golf. I mean, I played yesterday, nine holes, and first couple holes, first hole didn't go as well, played for a fade, it went left. And that's the biggest thing about golf really. It doesn't matter how far or how short you hit it.

You know, you hear all these pros talk about it's a mental battle with themselves, keeping yourself mentally strong into the round, into the tournament, not trying to get too far ahead of one another, you know, in the round itself. You know, if you get a bogey on one, it's not about trying to figure out where you're going to get the birdie on the next, you know, to offset that.

It's okay. Let's take this now shot by shot because something has gone wrong. We got to try to correct it. And I think you see that a lot in amateur golf. Some of the double bogeys and now their mentality is I got to get three birdies to go back to one under. Yeah, that's true. But you shouldn't be looking three holes ahead.

As amateur golfers, especially I mean even professional golfers. I think you hear him talk about you know if once they make that bogey once they make that that Double bogey or they make some type of air. It's literally about trying to phase that out and Move on and when you don't it just continues to unravel and we saw max home one day at the US Open this last week It might have been I don't know if it's Friday or Saturday. I mean a guy that's

usually pretty consistent off the tee in the fairway. He struggled off the tee. He didn't know if the ball was gonna go left or right. Normally, a guy that I think plays a slight left to right fade, he sets up for the fade and it draws. He sets up for a draw and it fades. It really threw him for a loop. I mean, watching him on...

T -box while I believe it was Bryson he played with that day is swinging and he's up there behind Bryson without a club in his hand and he's just trying to figure out what's going on with the hands, what's going on with the shoulders, you know, where is his arms at in relation to the swing. He almost looks clueless and not in a bad way, it was just like...

It one of those one of those rounds where he just I think he was struggling to figure out what was causing all these mistakes. That happens. That's golf. It definitely will rebound. Max Holm was a great player. So, you know, he's going to he'll figure it out whether he did it after that round at the range the next day or even the next tournament. That guy's an elite golfer. And I'm sure that's not going to be an issue for too much longer for him.

But as amateur golfers, I think what we struggle with is the ball goes one direction and then you hear the comments of, I did this, or I know what I did wrong here, or a lot of just, some of them are sometimes true and I feel like the cases, a lot of them aren't. And I think they're trying to either convince themselves that that's what caused

you know, their snafuq or whatever it is, or, you know, why they chunked a wedge or something like that. You know, and I don't know if it's a mentality thing where they just, they don't believe that they did it, or if they just truly don't know. I'm not, again, I'm not a professional golfer. I'm not a PGA pro. I'm not a coach, none of that. I don't really give out advice.

Even if someone asks, I mean, I might say one or two things, but again, take my advice with as much grain of salt as possible because I don't want to hear that I'm the cause of any issues. But a lot of it, it's different pieces. I mean, from the setup to your backswing to your downswing. And you'll see on my Instagram more that that's too bad.

podcast, Instagram. I have my own videos out there, my swing. I mean, I'm not a perfect golfer when it comes to my swing. I'm very over critical right now, especially. I am struggling to get my hips to rotate through. I've had this problem now for the last couple years. I don't know if it's relation to my stiffness in my back and my hips. I don't know if it's my mechanics. I mean, part of it is, part of it, I don't think it is. I think part of it is,

I do have stiffness in my back that I suffer from that is causing it. I do have a lot of different things and you'll see in my swing, my hips stall out, my right foot goes off, I end up rotating off the back of my heel instead of the balls of my feet and usually then kind of causes me to kind of flip my wrist under the ball a little bit. I do have a, which then it does irritate me to a degree because I,

I struggle with the lag a little bit. I struggle to flight the ball a little bit. And especially in the colder, when I live in Illinois, it gets cold out in the fall and the spring. Ball doesn't travel as far. Well, now you add in that factor, it doesn't travel at all. It's frustrating. I played yesteryear and I was tracking it on my phone. I use the Arcos. Again, that's not it. I'm not being, I'm not here to promote it based on their.

telling me to, a product I've had for quite some time. I've enjoyed having the things on my club to track my yardages to a degree. Off the tee, I was phenomenal. Putting and chipping were okay. My putting, I just lipped out a lot of putts. But again, I don't know. I don't know if I was able to get through the ball with the hips or not.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm not a perfect golfer, so don't take my advice to the letter.

But circling back to my point, as amateurs, when we have these bad moments in golf, when we have these bad shots, it's all about we need to forget about it, have short memory like Ted Lasso, we want to be a goldfish out there. And let's get to the next, let's not worry about the next hole, let's worry about the next shot. So if our next shot is par four off the tee, all right, let's focus on hitting that driver down the middle. And then let's focus on hitting that seven iron onto the green. Let's get,

Let's give ourselves a chance to burning. If not, let's at least save par. That's the mentality I think professional golfers have. And it's something that I think amateur golfers need to have. And I think it's, and it's a lot easier said than done. Trust me, I'm with you guys all. I've done it plenty of times, but it, it's definitely a big piece of the game, the mental side of it. And if you're able to battle and stay within the moment, stay positive,

Not only is your round a lot better, even if you don't score well, it's a lot better, but the score will follow, trust me. You can trust me on that. I used to be one of the most positive laid back golfers for a long time. Over the last few years, I've gotten a lot worse, not terrible. Whenever I have a bad shot, I just kind of mumble and.

grunt at myself now. I don't throw clubs. I don't, I might slam one on the ground, but I won't throw a club. I won't punch a golf bag or whatever you see. I won't break a club over my knee because I ain't paying for it. the way golf prices are, but that's the mental side of golf that everybody's battling, whether you're professional, you're an amateur. That's the biggest kicker. We battle that.

and we win that battle, everything else follows. My little, I guess, coach's corner tidbit there, nothing related to the actual golf swing itself, it's all mental. The reason I'm talking about that is, you know, like circling back to, unfortunately, Grayson Murray, a guy who struggled with mental illness over the last several years.

Something that's closer to me more than anything. It's a.

It's hard to see people that go through stuff like that. And then especially it's tough to see people like, you know, what happened to Grayson? It's very, you don't, you just hate seeing it. So let's just kind of wrap it up. You know, mental illness, whether you have it or you know somebody that has it, you know, it's,

people out there are there to help you. And it's a little difficult for me to talk about, but.

You know, I think what you hear the phrase, it's okay to not be okay. And that's true. We're no one's perfect out here. We all go through our own battles and stuff like that. And, you know, if you're going through your own battles, please, you know, reach out to people, hotlines, et cetera. And, you know, just know that there are people out there that are going to help you.

It's unfortunate what happened to Grayson Murray. Like I said, thoughts and prayers to his family and friends. It's sad to see him gone. I've seen him on TV playing, was a great player. He won this year. He was playing pretty good golf this year overall. I mean, obviously won a tournament, but overall was playing very well. Withdrew from a tournament, ended up back at his house and unfortunately, you know,

passed away and it was it was cool to see what the US Open with Pinehurst did to honor him and what some other courses have done to honor Grayson Murray and his family with the locker and different different things we've seen it's sad to see him gone off tour and no longer with with anybody here.

But yeah, if you're someone that does struggle with mental illness, you know.

Reach out.

That's a that's a you know, I am.

That's all I have for this week. A little bit of a bitter, you know, very high, very low type of episode here. Now, one that I was struggling to record, I had it written down, all this different stuff. I was delaying recording it because that part is definitely a little bit more difficult for me to talk through. But yeah.

We got, like I said, we got the British Open coming up. We got the Olympic Golfs coming up. We got the FedEx Golf. And this season has already gone through so quickly. It's already almost, you know, middle end of June, which I can't believe. I feel like we just were watching the Masters two weeks ago. So this season's flying by. I will keep you guys updated on how I do at the ZTO. See if I can get in contention this year for the straw hat.

It's gonna be a fun time. And yeah, as always, let's go low guys and girls.

Riverside.