A week of extremes: Tiger Woods' new low and Gary Woodland's inspiring comeback

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Hello and welcome into this edition.

We've got your podcast with Rex and Lab.

Well folks, before we get into one of the most inspirational stories

of the decade in Gary Woodland

before we unveil our top 10 favorites for the Masters.

We first need to discuss by far the newsiest story of the year.

And Rex, that was at about 2 p.m.

Eastern time on Friday Tiger Woods

being involved in a roll over crash near his home

in Jupiter, Florida.

Afterward, he was arrested on the suspicion

of driving under the influence Tiger was uninjured

but the legal issues are just beginning.

And Rex was a reaction to this news break late last week.

Unfortunately, it was deja vu.

I think it would probably be deja vu

for everyone else who were in the golf industry

and have been through this now for the fourth time.

This is the fourth time.

He's been in what would be considered

a major auto accident.

This time there weren't no injuries,

not just to Tiger Woods,

but there was another car,

another person involved with this.

And there was luckily no injuries.

And that's sort of the standard where the law

kind of walks in here.

What happened was awful.

And I'm sure there's going to be an investigation.

And this report hasn't come out yet,

but because there was no injuries,

I think that's going to lead to any major legal problems.

I've spoke to multiple lawyers who say in the state of Florida,

depending on how this plays out.

The first time around in 2017,

it was a little bit different incident.

There was not an accident involving another car.

But Tiger was found to sleep in his car

by the Jupiter Police Department.

He was initially charged with a DUI.

That was negotiated down to reckless driving

because of a DUI diversion program.

It doesn't seem like he can do that this time around.

That's for first timers.

I think 2017 would have been considered first timers,

but they're going to try to negotiate it down.

But at worst, it loses license for six months to a year

and it'll pay a fine and it'll have to do community service.

That's the legal part of it.

It's the personal part of it.

I think that we have so many questions

and absolutely no answers.

I mean, first and foremost, it's sad to see.

It's disappointing to see.

It's a situation that I think is deserving

of empathy in some regard.

And yet I also think it's deserving of scorn.

I mean, it's the second time that Tiger has been suspected

of DUI.

It's the fourth driving related incident

in which he's put others at risk.

At this point, you'd like to see some sort of responsibility

or accountability when it comes to this particular scenario.

This was at 2 p.m. Rex.

It's about the time when school gets out.

There's spring break.

Visitors down in South Florida.

It's a few miles from his home.

He was dressed clearly in golf clothes.

And yet he was driving so recklessly

that he flipped on a two-lane road

and the sheriff who spoke there in Martin County said

it could have ended much differently

if there was oncoming traffic going in the other direction.

So it was incredibly dangerous.

Just as it was incredibly dangerous in 2021

when he was driving twice the legal limit,

drove off a cliff and said later

that he was lucky to be alive

and lucky he did not lose his leg because of amputation.

So obviously we still need to wait

for the legal process to play out.

But there's some pretty serious undertones here

that some significant issues need to be addressed.

Well, and that's a really good place to start

because I think you put a pin in exactly where I feel like

everyone is now a few days later.

You've had a chance to digest this.

And I think the golf media has really come under scrutiny

at least on social media

with the way they've covered their story

and as a reporter, you as well,

who have covered Tiger Woods throughout his career.

This will be the fourth time.

I'm covering a car crash that involves Tiger Woods.

I don't think this is a matter of being critical

or not being critical.

I think from most of the golf media's perspective,

I would point out Doug Ferguson from the AP,

does a brilliant job.

Bob Herrick with SI does a brilliant job.

Joel Beale's story on golf.js.com was really good.

I think all of the traditional golf media

did a good job of just reporting the facts

because the other side of it,

you don't know the human side of it

because the conversation that we had on pregame

on Saturday afternoon was essentially

about what does this mean for Tiger going forward

just professionally.

Again, take the personal side out of it.

You look at everything he is involved with right now.

And I would argue and I don't think this is hyperbolic.

He is the most important person

at least when it comes to professional golf

because he is the chairman of the Future Competition Committee

and it's a member of both boards for the PGA tour.

It's essentially crafting alongside CEO Brian Rott.

Exactly what the PGA tour is going to look like.

And I think now that he's in a position

where you don't know how involved he's going to be

in these conversations.

If you're Brian Rott,

you have kind of committed yourself to Tiger Woods.

You've depended on Tiger Woods to be your voice in the room

in a very important loud voice.

And the people are going to listen to what Tiger says

the other half of it is,

the PGA of America is still waiting.

Let's see who's going to be the next rider cup captain

next year.

It was a soft deadline at the end of this month.

So there's so many different elements

to this, so many different layers.

Yeah, I think that's why it's so captivating.

That's why it's so compelling

because of this moment in time from a golf perspective.

Here you have Tiger Woods

who is still the most high-profile player

who even at the age of 50

and even though he is no longer competitively relevant,

I would argue is as high-profile as ever.

You mentioned the masters.

He's supposed to be helping unveil the new look patch

on Sunday before the masters.

He's already said, he said at TGL,

that he's going to be in a gust of regardless.

First of the patch, as well as the champions dinner.

All of that wrecks,

at least as we sit here at this point,

we're recording this on Sunday evening,

it does seem highly unlikely

because that would cause a significant distraction

to the tournament that Tiger and his family hold so dear.

President Trump has already said

that Tiger Woods is not going to be playing in the masters.

Take that for what it's worth as well.

We have not heard anything publicly,

again, recording this on Sunday night

from Tiger or Tiger's team.

You mentioned the future competitions committee

and the soft deadline there.

You mentioned the PJ of America and the soft deadline there.

It certainly seems like Tiger needs

to take some time for himself

and figure out whatever demons.

And so I keep coming back to this point

over the past couple of days

what I'm thinking about this latest arrest for Tiger.

And it seems like his main job

over the past couple of years,

certainly since 2021,

his main job has been to rehab his body.

He'll have an injury set back.

He'll ramp up.

He'll feel discomfort and pain.

And it's just this vicious cycle

over and over and over again.

And I think it's admirable

that he keeps trying to come back.

And he keeps trying to play competitive golf.

But eventually don't you just want to take yourself

off the hamster wheel for a while

and just see if there's improvement in your body

and your overall quality of life,

the one common denominator,

what has happened over this past decade

and why he continues to have to medicate

with pain medications.

He is in pain from trying to play competitive golf.

And so that's sort of where my head

is a couple days removed from this.

It's just don't you just want to take a step back

at this point and just feel a little bit better.

I know your body's been ravaged.

I know it's been a really difficult 15,

16 years with the number of surgeries,

not more than a dozen.

Just get off the hamster wheel

and see if you can see improvement at this point.

I spoke with quite a few players

and people in the game.

And there was an enormous amount of empathy

of what you're addressing right now

because it is empathy.

I don't think there ever has been a golfer

who's endured as much as Tiger Woods has

and to your point,

someone who continually tries to overcome

those setbacks time and time again,

whatever it is he's dealing with in his life.

The one thing that I heard from everyone

I spoke to within the golf community was

you just want to see him get better as a person.

Like even if you're Brian Rolab

or even if you're the CEO of the PGA Tour

and you're kind of depending on him.

Right now you have to be thinking to yourself

that whatever it is you need to do,

please step away and do that

because that's the human thing to do.

And I think he has been through this before.

In 2017 I mentioned the diversion program

that included some counseling for whatever it is

that he was probably dealing with.

And there was some drug tests

that came out of that particular DUI arrest

and the investigation that had a lot of things in his blood

that made it pretty clear

that he was dealing with different types of pains

and different types of medication.

I'm not saying that's the case this time around.

But if it is, you know how to get better.

And I think that's the part that hurts the most

because it does seem like he had turned

such an incredible corner.

Maybe not as a competitor.

And we had no idea you and I went back and forth

on Wednesday's pod about what they expect.

If he did play the master's,

so he didn't see anything on Tuesday night.

This is just one way or the other.

He was going to play or not play.

But just from where he was with the PGA Tour

taking this leadership position.

He had become the counselor.

He had become the ambassador

that everyone anticipated that he would become later and live.

The idea that he was at least mulling the idea

of taking on that cap and see for next year's Ryder Cup.

All of those things I think indicated

that he was going down such a good path.

His son had just committed the Florida State.

His daughter is in college.

There were so many good things in his life

that he didn't have to depend on golf anymore.

I think that's why it hurts so much.

Yeah, and I think there's certainly a sad irony

to the timing of this Friday arrest.

Friday was the same day that TJ also

that nearly one million people tuned in last week

to see him hit four total golf shots

for the first time in a year,

proving that he's still the needle in golf,

proving that he can single-handedly power TGL's ratings.

It was the same day on Friday

that he met the registration deadline

for the US senior open later this year.

That was the same week that we,

that you and I certainly on this podcast

continue to speculate about the possible master's appearance.

Even though he is openly admitting

that he still has good days and bad days

during which even just moving around

and doing the simple basic tasks

is really, really difficult.

But I think Friday showed

this is not necessarily just a physical battle

that Tigers waging with his body,

but also with his mind.

Rex switching gears

and what can only be described

as a much needed palette cleanser

for the week that was in golf.

But Gary Woodland is the winner

of the Houston Open GW's first victory

since the 2019 US Open.

But in my opinion, Rex,

that's sort of just reducing history to a news peg.

This one goes so much deeper than that

with the 2023 brain surgery

and all the complications that follow, doesn't it?

It was quite the sentimental Sunday

across golf, even in the DP World Tour.

But yeah, I think Gary is a pretty amazing story

everything that he's gone through.

And just the fact that he was able to put himself

into contention, you and I were texting

early on Sunday morning about his chances

and he finished a little shaky on Saturday afternoon.

I think both you and I had question marks.

It's just not that he won.

It's the way he did.

It was such an impressive performance.

And I'm not saying that you really

had a significant role in this because you just

was all about Gary Woodland and what he has done.

However, I can't help but note, Rex, that 21 days ago,

you sat down with Gary Woodland in the clubhouse

at TBC Sawgrass ahead of the players' championship

and had a really raw emotional 10 to 15 minute interview

that Gary Woodland said this past week

took 1,000 pounds off his back.

That interview that you did that aired on live

from the players' championship on Monday night

now has 1.2 million views.

When you think back, and again, that was 21 days ago,

three weeks ago.

How did that interview even come about

in sitting down with GW?

He reached out to us, the golf channel,

through his manager, Mark Steinberg.

I think the conversation started that he just wanted

to talk about where he was health wise.

And I think you and I both, and there's probably

quite a few of us in the media that can,

a test to this, that even since the surgery,

which was two and a half years ago, the brain surgery,

there was still something that wasn't quite right.

Because every time I would talk to Gary,

it was always, at the end, when the recorder was turned off,

I would ask him, how are you feeling?

It was always not great.

You know, struggling with some medication,

struggling to get this right,

whatever the case may be.

So I kind of had an idea what was going on,

but it wasn't until he actually showed up that morning.

It was Monday morning of players' championship

that Mark Steinberg walked up, talked to Andrew Bradley

and I, our producer, and it kind of pulled just to the side

and sort of just outlined generally what Gary wanted

to talk about, and he goes, whatever you want to ask.

Just ask him, you know, nothing's off limits.

He wants to sit down.

And I said this before, and I can actually sit down

and feel a little bit better.

I don't have empathy.

I just mentioned everybody in the golf world

who does have empathy.

My wife claims that I do not have empathy.

You do, however.

And the second I sat down to do this interview,

and Gary and I spoke briefly before we actually sat down.

Before the cameras even came on,

I felt a motion starting to well up in my eyes

and I wanted to stop immediately and text you.

It's like you wouldn't make it through.

I may, I may community cry.

If anyone, if anyone else is crying, I'm just a puddle.

I've done it in countless interviews.

Thank God I'm never on camera for them.

Yes.

And it was tough and it was very honest.

And you asked how it got started.

He knew that he needed to get this off his chest.

I think it is amazing that someone is so connected

to themselves that he realized that after all of this time,

not wanting anyone to know what he was dealing with,

wanting to put the brave face on,

wanting to pretend like everything was okay.

He finally reached an epiphany that this is exhausted.

This is taking more away from me than it's giving me.

I might as well just let it out in the world

because I'll be honest with you.

Before we actually started the interview,

I leaned over and asked him, are you sure you want to do this?

There aren't many times in my career

when I've asked someone you sure this is something

you want to do because the questions

we're not going to stop.

I wasn't going to be the last one asking the questions.

Now fast forward 21 days.

And it is pretty amazing.

And he played well just not this week.

But even at Valspar, he played pretty well.

And what this was able to get off his chest,

what he was able to do through his bravery.

And now I do think this is brave.

I don't say that very often when it comes to anything other than

being in the military.

But this I felt like was very brave.

And you could see it did lift off his shoulders.

And it was an amazing thing that he did.

And just for some additional context,

this is related to Gary Woodland's 2023 brain surgery

in which he had a tumor that was pushing on a part of his brain

that really controls the fear responses in a person.

So he was experiencing fight or flight.

He was experiencing that feelings that he was under siege.

He thought that he was falling.

He thought that he was dying.

He had the surgery to remove it.

And again, he's tried over the past couple years

to sort of get over that and you know,

redevelop some of those feelings while also fighting off,

you know, what he is calling post-traumatic stress disorder

from that procedure, which again,

the coin to doctors is very, very common.

Unfortunately, Gary just so happens to be competing

on the most difficult tour in the world,

fighting for his competitive livelihood

each time he teased it up with a lot of other sensors

and a lot of other things that he is dealing with.

My initial reaction to that interview was the same as yours.

This is so incredibly brave.

This is so courageous.

Here's a guy who is so tough.

He's so macho.

He's one of the alphas on the PJ tour

and yet he's so vulnerable and open in that moment.

And some of the anecdotes that he shared with you

during that interview really, really resonated

such as the Pro Court Championship last fall,

which is sort of the tune up for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Almost everyone was there.

He said he was so spooked, Gary Woodland was

by a walking score who had come up behind him

that he was crying and sobbing in the fairway.

He was ducking onto the ropes and going in the bathroom

to cry.

He was leaving in his car as soon as possible

just so he could get away because he was scared.

And he told you, Rex, that doctors said,

look, Gary, there's one way that you can start

to feel better about this.

That's to remove yourself from a situation.

That's to stop playing competitive golf

with all the stressors and sort of the stimuli

that you're experiencing on a weekly basis.

And he said, I don't care how hard it is.

I'm going to play.

It's just an incredible triumph and resilience

that he has shown competing on the PGA Tour,

not just this year, in the past couple years

before this diagnosis was made public.

And just because he won the Houston Open

doesn't mean he's fixed.

It just is proof that he's not broken.

There are a couple of things that I discovered

after that interview.

I didn't even know this,

but there's no cure for PTSD because you can't

get rid of the memories.

And it's the memories that cause the stress, the disorder.

You talked about the hyper-vigilant moments

that he would have.

The PGA Tour actually came up with new security

protocols for Gary because of this,

trying to not control the crowd.

Like, don't trust me.

They're not yelling at people to get out of Gary's way.

That's not what they're doing.

What you can't have is someone who was a walking score

that just walked up behind him

just in the normal circumstances.

We see it every single day on the PGA Tour.

He actually said he had one of those hyper-vigilant moments

on Friday and Houston.

And that he was able to sort of ground himself

because he had a scatty butchie there.

He had security there.

These protocols are in place where you don't let it

get to the point where it was before.

You don't let it get to the point where you have to run

into an outlet, a port of John, and start crying

because you can't control yourself.

I can't imagine how difficult it is to do that in public

under that microscope on the PGA Tour.

Like, we can sit and talk about all of the amazing things

he did over the last four days in Houston.

And I do want to touch on.

I mean, from a golf perspective, it was amazing.

But just the fact that you're dealing with these things

and those crowds were pretty massive.

And you're also having to sort of sympathize.

I will say I had met Gary's dad a few times before.

I had never met his mother.

And it was in front of the TPC clubhouse

after he was on the Friday afternoon.

At the players, a lady stopped me and introduced yourself

and it was Gary's mom.

And his dad eventually walked up.

His dad, nor I, couldn't really say much

because we were uncontrollably crying.

But she was very sweet about it.

And I was pretty blown away with some of the things

that she said about how difficult it was,

when I had both fathers, how difficult this would be

to watch a child go through something like this.

And even they said they don't know where this courage comes from

because that took a lot, not to sit in front of the cameras.

That's not what I'm talking about.

It takes a lot for him to do his Joe's profession day in and day out.

I mean, professional golf might be the most mental sport

on the planet with all the downtime between shots,

all the thinking, all the people, all of the wondering,

all the wishing.

I mean, you're only hitting what, 65 to 72 shots

during a four and a half hour span.

I mean, there's a lot of downtime and a lot of time

to get stuck in your own head.

It's like the worst possible scenario

if you were afflicted with this PTSD as Gary Woodland was.

I think it was therapeutic for him to share it.

I think it's important for golf fans and sports fans

and just regular citizens to hear that these professional athletes

are human as well, that they're more than just scores

on a scorecard as well.

I think it was huge, a rallying cry.

And again, it's not going to quote, unquote fix the issues

that he was dealing with.

But understanding that he was not alone,

understanding that he had so many people in his corner,

understanding that he could have this entire community rally

around him and provide sort of a comfort

and supporting atmosphere for Gary to compete in.

That's all he could ask for at this point

in his PG tour career.

And I don't think it's any coincidence though, Rex,

that three weeks after making that public admission

and doing so in such an open, honest, transparent

and emotional way that he's already starting

to see the payoffs physically.

And I don't think you can dismiss the support

that he has received.

I walked a little bit with him on Friday morning

at the players' championship.

And it's clear that everyone, if you weren't a fan

of Gary Woodland before, you probably should have been

or you were because he's one of the most popular players

on the PG tour.

You certainly are now.

And I think you cannot dismiss what that energy means.

And he's getting it everywhere.

It doesn't matter if he's typed 51st on the Thursday afternoon

or if he's trying to win on Sunday afternoon in Houston.

He's getting that support.

I thought it was great what Bones McKay said

during the telecast is they were finishing up.

Bones, who has been on tour forever,

says he has never seen two playing partners,

literally hang back and start cheering

as the winner was walking up to the 18th green.

That's tough for a guy like Minnull Lee

and Nikolai Korgart who both had a chance

to win that tournament early on Sunday

before things got out of control.

But they were cheering as loud as anyone.

I think that's an indication of not just who Gary is

a person, but how people are getting behind him

because they understand how difficult this must be.

I mean, one of the scenes of the year is Minnull Lee

hanging back, whooping up the crowd,

trying to get them to make even more noise

for what obviously will go down as boy.

I mean, the story of 2026.

It's hard to imagine as we sit here on March 30th

that this one is going to be topped.

Gary Woodland is the winner.

Let's actually talk about his golf race

because as you mentioned, it was sublime.

He had 2100 par, one by five shots

over Nikolai Korgart, all four rounds

in the 60s, 65, 67 weekend

for a player who had not been in this position

all that often since he won that U.S. Open

at Pebble Beach back in 2019.

I can't get over the fact Rex at the age of 41.

He's faster than ever.

He's Gary Woodland, leading the PGA Tour

in driving distance, leading the PGA Tour in ball speed.

He was absolutely ripping the golf ball.

196 mile ball speed.

And look, Memorial Park was wide open.

There was very little rough.

Gary Woodland has wanted to get back

to sort of this aggressive mentality.

That's one of the things that his swing coach,

Randy Smith, who he reconnected with a couple years ago,

wanted to get back to as well.

He said, stop being soft.

Go at the ball aggressively.

That's when you played your best golf.

That's why you'd won four times in the PGA Tour previously.

Memorial Park is obviously an ideal set up for that

in the pound that it everywhere.

But there's been some other tweaks in his game

that has him playing.

I would argue as good as ever.

He went back to his irons, made a choice to go back

to a stiffer shaft in his irons,

helped promote a more consistent ball flight.

T-14 of the Valspar Championship

showed that he's on the right path there.

Made some putting tweaks with his coach Phil Kenyon

as well, noticed that he was aiming left,

was pushing his puts, got his alignment set up

a little bit more neutral.

You saw what happened.

He led the field and putting in Houston.

It's amazing to say, Rex, at this age,

with all that he's battling demon wise,

with all the scar tissue that he's accumulated,

the span that he has gone from again,

playing major championship winning golf,

Gary will then have 41 statistically, physically,

technically looks as good as ever.

The demons that he's battling both on and off the golf course.

I mean, that is one story that I don't think

I can really compare it to anything else

in golf, certainly not at the moment.

But you sort of skip past the idea

that I would argue that 99% of the players

on the PGA tour now, I would qualify as athletes.

You see now, if you're not an athlete,

if you're not training, if you're not working hard,

you're gonna get left behind really quickly

because everyone's younger, everyone's stronger,

everyone's bigger, faster, stronger.

In this particular case,

he's an elite athlete among athletes.

He actually did things in college

that, well, you're the best athlete at golf channel.

But he actually did things in college.

He played Kansas, Kansas,

Kansas could have used him this year.

They could have used him.

They needed a point guard badly.

And so to get back to the things

that was a great story about how he reunited

with Randy Smith.

And it was really Gary's wife who convinced him

that you have to go back.

Like they split.

It was a little bit of a weird situation.

His Gary Woodland moved on from his management team

and Blake Smith, who is Randy Smith's son.

He hadn't got his agent as well.

And Scottie's agent and Brooks agent as well.

Hey, he decided he just needed something else.

And in that move, he decided he wanted

to do a wholesale change.

So that's why he and Randy split.

You and I both have a tremendous amount of respect

for Randy.

I can't imagine why anyone would leave him

because I don't know anyone is more enjoyable

to be around on a range than Randy Smith.

And so the fact that he went back

and the fact that Randy was able to convince him

that just you're Gary Woodland.

Look at yourself in the mirror.

You are who you are.

Your DNA is set.

You're a big, strong athlete.

Do what you do best.

And the ball striking was great.

It was third in the week.

Stroke's game, TD Green.

That was impressive, but it was his body.

And he switched putters, actually,

at the players' championship, went back

to an older putter.

Not only did he lead the field in the Stroke's game putting.

He led the person who was second on that list

by almost a full stroke.

That is a good omen for him going forward.

And we can sit here and break it down.

And he played nine numbers, five through nine

and four under to sort of separate himself from the pack

and give him.

So I think that cushioned.

He probably needed on the back nine if we're being honest.

But I think it was the 14 footer on one.

Very rarely on a Sunday afternoon.

Do you see a guy make a 14 footer for one for par

and give you a little fist pop?

I mean, there's a huge,

there's a huge swing on the seventh hole as well.

Gary Woodland making about a 20, 25 footer for birdie.

Niklai Hogard missing in the one spot.

You couldn't on the par three.

That was short and left.

End of leaving in the bunker walking

out with double three shot swing

gave Gary Woodland a huge lead,

leading by as many as six or seven on the back.

Now I was able to choose quite comfortably to the win.

Again, first and swing 19.

He's in the masters now next week.

He's around 60th in the world ranking a spot.

He hadn't been for three or four years as well.

Absolutely unbelievable story.

Again, outside of Gary Woodland winning in Houston.

Anything else, Rex?

It stood out to you in the penultimate event

for the years first major.

Gary Woodland loss or gets in the masters,

which is really cool.

Another layer to that story that we didn't even touch on.

And you mentioned this,

but I think it's worth three iterating.

I don't know that there's another course

on the PGA tour schedule that favors the bomber

more so than more.

Men will be.

Men will be Niklai Hogard and Gary Woodland

all had 190 plus ball speeds in the same group.

I'm not sure I've ever seen that before.

Jay nap had the round of the day.

Of course.

Jay's nap coming up to me again.

Another bomber out there.

It should not be a huge surprise.

Don't Campbell did the redesign,

but he had Berks Keppka standing next to him

as a consultant during that process.

So I think they decided what was going to be important here.

You love to see this event have this type of finish

because it seems like every Sunday night

we're having this conversation

about what separates this particular event

from events x, y and z going into the future schedule.

Why should Houston be among the chosen

that are going to be that tier one

and maybe another event next week

the Texas Open is not.

It helps to have stories like this.

It also helps to be on what I would call as a fast track.

It's usually hard and fast and firm and bouncy.

I think that golf course has matured

since Tom Doke did the redesign

and you get the players at the PGA tour lights

and they're standing on tees

and they are just hammering the golf ball.

That's entertaining.

I mean, this remind me of the old golf club of Houston,

right, which always served as the lead in event

to the masters and they tried to have a reasonable fact

similarly for what that golf course was going to be

the following week at August the National.

So players loved tuning up namely Phil Meckleson

just to sort of get a test run and look,

it's never going to be perfect.

You're never going to be able to sort of mimic

the tournament speeds that you have at August the National

but they sure tried.

They tried to get them fast.

They tried to get them rolling.

They tried to mow from green to tea just as they do.

They tried to very to chop down the rough

just as they did as Memorial Park.

I'd actually love to see the schedule flipped.

Have San Antonio's the penultimate event

have Houston.

This is going to be set up like this.

Would love to see it as a lead in event

to the masters actually think it get an even stronger field.

Speaking of the field at the masters and August the National

we do not have a show next week during live from the masters

and so Rex and I'll be doing our top 10 favorites.

Who fills on our list and more importantly,

who is left out?

Find out coming up next.

All right, Rexie and to be fair,

these masters rankings may be subject to change

based on what happens this week in San Antonio.

But let's run through our favorites for August the National.

We're going to ping pong this back and forth

in reverse order.

You can start with your number 10 favorite

for next week's masters.

I got to be honest with you.

This was fun.

This was a great solid hour of sitting down.

Exercise on the plane flying up to Stanford.

That's exactly like that.

That's right.

The people sitting next to me weren't interested at all

but I'm telling you right now

that Delta flight went a lot faster.

Otherwise, I'm going to start with two OLIs

which you don't know what that is

because you don't want the Dan Levitard show outside looking in.

My two OLIs are Brooks Kepka.

He leads the PGA tour right now in Stroke's Kane approach.

And we all know Augusta is the second shot golf course.

He's also played pretty well there and the past.

He's on the outside of my top 10 simply

because he really hasn't been Brooks for a long time.

Certainly since he's come back to the PGA tour.

So I would have liked to have seen more from him

but I'm not going to be surprised

if he has a good week.

And this one pained me to no end.

Zander Shaflik.

He's just still a little off.

I don't know what it is.

He's not inside my top 10.

He's just outside my top 10.

I think he shows flashes the last few weeks specifically

of being that guy that you would anticipate

is going to compete for Major's time in time again.

But it still feels like something is off.

But my number 10 is.

Can I can I can I just add Rex and I also had Brooks Kepka

as as as winning an Ali of this is a player who I

don't know what just an outside looking at.

It's not an award outside looking at just a delegation.

I definitely would have had him in my top 10

if not for what he did in Houston

where he was the odd makers favorite after Sky Shaflik

withdrew because of family reasons.

All he did was nearly finished last in the field

lost Stroke's game across the board.

I know he was leading in Stroke's game approach

heading in the Houston open.

Those stats have not updated.

He will not be leading after what he did

over those two rounds at Memorial Park.

Very disappointing.

His goal Brooks Kepka said was he wanted to make sure

that he was in contention on the back down on Sunday.

That's the one thing he has not done in 2026.

Didn't get it done in Houston.

Not playing this week in San Antonio.

I couldn't put him in my top 10 either.

So please continue with number 10.

Who said is Ludwig Oberg?

Ludwig Oberg.

He was runner up at Augusta National in 2024.

I think you and I both were stunned by what happened

on Sunday at the player's championship.

It seemed like that event was his to win.

But we've seen that a lot on the PGA tour specifically

in Florida.

His game is still solid from A to Z.

He still does all of the things you need to do well

at Augusta National.

He hits the ball a mile.

He strikes his irons very, very crisply.

He can control his iron plate specifically.

His wedges when you look at what he does

between a hundred and a hundred and fifty yards.

It's pretty your work not mine.

Sublime.

And if you look at his last two starts, that T3.

I know it's painful.

It comes with an asterisk because of what happened

at the player's championship,

but he also finished time for fifth at Bay Hill

the week before that.

He's playing well.

There's no reason why he shouldn't contend at the master's.

I know you had Xander Shoffley winning an Ali.

I will put him however, just on the inside of my top 10.

I'm phone up the X and I'm going with Xander Shoffley here

as my number 10 master's favorite four really strong rounds

that I can point to a team.

You saw yesterday in the players championship as well

as a final round at the Valspark championship

in which he struck his irons very, very well.

Have me feeling even if it's not the perfect Xander Shoffley

that we saw when two major championships in 2024,

he's close.

He just hasn't put it all together.

And even though 2025 was an off year by his standards,

all he did in three of the four major championships

was finish 12th or better.

He knows how to play golf's toughest test.

He knows how to play a gust of national.

Has had a couple of good finishes there as well.

I like Xander Shoffley.

I think he should be in the top 10 favorites.

Even if again, he's not as sharp as he was a couple of years ago.

I'll go first with my number nine master's favorite.

And for me, that is Kalen Mora Kawa.

Who if I'm looking at my top 10 is the biggest question mark

for me based on just strictly what we saw at the players' championship.

Where he was the better's favorite.

He was the most bet player in the field of TVG sawgrass.

All he played was one whole before we're drawing

because of a lower back issue.

He has not played over the past couple weeks,

but he is in the field this week at the Valero's Texas Open.

I would have put Kalen Mora Kawa higher in my list had I known

that he was going to be a full health.

And in the same form that we saw late in the West Coast swing

as well as early on in the Florida swing playing.

Arguably the best golf of his career,

three straight top seven finishes and signature events

on the PD Tour as well prior to that WD.

So I like Kalen Mora Kawa and I will be eager to move him up

if we see a clean bill of health for Kalen Mora Kawa

and it looks like his game is fit.

I mean, in an alternate universe Kalen Mora Kawa

should be in a top five given what he does.

Well, wait, absolutely.

Well, what he's been able to do this year on the PGA

to already have in one that injury in my mind

is way too big of a question mark down.

So that's why he didn't make it into my top 10.

Another rally, my god or or my OLI's.

No, he didn't even make it into the OLI simply

because we don't know we haven't seen him.

It was such a fluke injury.

Anyone who just watched that video is still probably

shaking their head trying to figure out how an elite athlete

and he is an elite athlete hurt himself just doing the simplest

of things just taking a practice wing.

My number nine is going to be Tommy Fleetwood.

He has been solid this year.

He has a solid record at Augusta National Golf Club.

You could say that about everything he does in his life.

There are no ups and downs in Tommy Fleetwood's life.

Everything is at such a high standard.

He's number one strobe's game around the green.

We know how important a short game is at Augusta National.

He is fifth strobe's game to the green.

It seems like those two things would complement each other well.

And a major championship is the logical next step for him.

Having gotten that first PGA tour victory late last year

at the tour championship,

feels like he is finally ready to break through.

Tommy, Tommy, however, has never sniffed content at the master's

just one career top 10 and nine tries.

He has not.

My number eight is going to be Matthew Fitzpatrick for a couple

of different things.

Really, we did not compare lists.

You were very worried about that.

I didn't want to compare lists.

I wanted those supposed to be surprised.

I think he's doing everything you need to do play well

at the master's.

If you look at it statistically, strobe's games approach

he's seventh.

I think the win at Valskbar was a huge bump for him.

The second place at the player's championship

I think was a huge step forward for him as well.

I don't know that he has everything, the complete bad

to win at Augusta National, especially.

He hits a funny long enough now.

We've all talked about how he's picked up distance.

But when we get to the top of these lists,

those are tough players to overcome.

But I like him at number eight.

He's another player who like Tommy Fleetwood

does not have a great record around Augusta National as well.

But I would argue he's a more well-rounded player

than at any point in his career.

He's hitting that bullet driver.

His iron play has never been better.

He's got that cross-handed shipping motion dialed in.

And even though he's a little bit of a streaky putter,

he's certainly been good over his past couple of starts.

I mostly attribute though that why I'm so bullish

I'm at Fitzpatrick this year is the iron play

and what he's figured out with Mark Blackburn,

his swing coach and that respect as well

is absolutely knocking down the flags.

If you saw that the player's championship

where he finished one shot shy of Cam Young

and obviously we saw that on the weekend

at the Valskbar Championship where he was near flawless.

My number seven, I'm curious to see what you think

about this one.

It's a little bit off the board, although

in my opinion, not really Justin Rose,

45-year-old who has the third most strokes gained

of any non-winner at the Masters.

The reason why I like Justin Rose

and have him on number seven on my list.

He knows how to play this golf course.

He knows how to peek for the biggest events.

He has been a little bit streaky.

It certainly has been up and down his performance in 2026,

but that's to be expected of a player of his vintage.

It's not about playing week to week excellent golf.

It's about sort of understanding your game

and understanding how to peek at the biggest events.

Justin Rose won at Torrey Pines earlier this year

and what was arguably the most impressive performance

of his career.

You know, we did last year coming within

mere millimeters of winning the Masters,

the long-awaited green jacket

that has sort of looted him to this point in his career.

I like Justin Rose at my number seven.

I'm going to go with Patrick Green at number seven.

And what you think about that one too

is it too high?

You don't like it?

It's too high.

I don't have Patrick Green spoiler in my top 10.

Oh wow.

I do think the forecast if we're going deep on this.

And again, we're about 10, 11 days out

and we're looking at the long-range forecast.

It's supposed to be dry and it is supposed to be warm.

If those conditions hold out

and we get a little bit firmer, a little bit faster,

I certainly like Patrick Green more in those conditions

than I would if it's a long-slow slog.

Certainly he's not going to be up there

if it's a bomber's contest.

I get what you're saying.

But I think there was a moment in time

when he won essentially two consecutive,

they weren't consecutive.

But he won twice on the DP World Tour earlier this year

where you can make an argument.

He was the hottest player on the planet

after leaving Lippgaugh.

He's won on this golf course before.

I think there's a level of confidence there.

And it seems to be he's back to being Pete Reed,

whatever it is, that means that there is that swagger,

there is that confidence, there is that element

that made him someone to watch when you showed up

at these major championships.

That hasn't been there in the last few years.

He was seven at number six.

And I know this was going to surprise you

as Rory McAroy.

And I just think everything about Rory coming into this week

being the defending champion, hosting the Ditter,

all of the attention, all of the accolades,

all of the memories that have come flooding back.

We know Rory is a very emotional person

and that sometimes he's able to feed on those

emotions and I think this week,

he's going to get a little overwhelmed by it all.

And you look at what he's done on the golf course this year.

He hasn't been awful.

It's not as though he has always huge question marks

around his game, but he hasn't been Rory.

He hasn't been the player that you anticipate.

We'll be coming into the Masters is one of your top two

three favorites.

Yeah, we're probably going to start picking knits

at this point in the proceedings.

I have Ludwig Oberg.

This is where I slotted him at number six.

He's had chances to win at Augustine National each

of the past two years despite very limited course knowledge

at Augustine National.

I think my bigger concern with Ludwig Oberg is,

is there any scar tissue from what happened

and what unfolded on the back then in particular

at the players championship?

He was still had firm control of that golf tournament

when he stood over his second shot on 11

and then pitting that high spirally little fade

into the water went six six and all of a sudden

he had virtually no chance to win the golf tournament anymore.

He is playing this week in San Antonio just like

calmorecawa.

I could see myself talking myself more into Ludwig Oberg

or if there's a little bit of a hangover,

maybe being a little bit softer on him as well.

For number five,

this is where I have Cam Young slotted the players champion

who outdulled Ludwig Oberg to win that golf tournament.

You look at what he's done at the Masters seems to be a good fit

two top 10s and what is a still a pretty poultry

just in terms of number of appearances at Augustine National

driving as well as anyone on the planet.

You look at weighted a bay hill as well as TPC sawgrass

talking to his father David Young after the win at TPC sawgrass.

He told me his Cam Young has more of a work ability now

with his irons instead of just relying strictly on hitting

sort of a tight draw.

Now the dispersion is a little bit tighter.

He's able to work at left to right right to left.

Obviously with how precise you have to be with your irons

at Augustine National.

I think that new addition to his repertoire will serve him

quite well.

So I have Cam Young at number five.

We have another another duplicate.

I picked Cam Young as well.

Can you imagine him hitting the drive that he hit

on 18 at TPC sawgrass on Sunday.

The longest drive in the shot link era recorded history

less caught on the 18 something tells me that was also

longer in the pre shot link era as well on number eight.

It was I tend to agree with you on that front.

But it be hard to sort of feed this one into that shoot

on 18 at Augustine.

But I think it would be pretty cool to watch him the way he's

hitting the golf ball moving the ball from right to left

as always a key and he seems that seems to be what he is

most comfortable with.

And I think what he did at the players show that he's

comfortable and these but big moments now.

We talked to him afterwards.

This whole year was predicated on getting ready for the master.

Yeah, making sure his game was at the absolute best.

It could possibly be going down a magnolia lane.

No disrespect to the players, but he had his eye on that one.

And I think that's where all of this work.

Well, I think I think I think that's a great point.

What he did at the Ryder Cup in that arena.

What he did on 17 and 18 at TBC Sawgrass.

I don't think he's going to be a phase wrecks by anything

that unfolded at Gus National.

And number four, you've already thrown this one out there.

But I like Justin Rose.

He's been runner up twice.

You had him higher.

I had him higher than you.

Wow.

No, I just simply loved the way he plays this golf course

and like he's finished runner up twice here.

And if you make the cliche that he had one arm in the green jacket

and he essentially has two arms in a green jacket right now.

You're right.

Last year he missed by about a millimeter.

I just think the way he embraces the game.

He's so data driven.

And he's not going to leave any stone unturned.

I think it was last year at the Masters where they did sort

of the walkthrough of that high tech super duper trailer

that he travels with to make sure that his 40 something year-old

body is absolutely at its top shape.

And I picked him high.

And I know that's very, very high.

But I like his chances.

And I also like his motivation.

Because I do think at this point you have to start wondering

if you're Justin Rose, how many more turns am I really

going to get?

Yeah.

And he's chasing it.

Just as he's been chasing it each of the past couple of years.

I do like Justin Rose as a sneak.

I think he's like 30 to one, which is a little bit surprising.

Number four, Rex is where I have big beefy,

Bryce's into Shambos slotted coming in with a lot of confidence

to Auguste National Storylines.

Could not be better coming off back-to-back wins on live.

To me, the only reason why I don't have him,

Ier is I still have questions about his iron play.

And whether he can withstand some of the challenges

and the questions that Auguste National asks with his iron play

in particular with his short iron.

You look at the stroke scan data.

And again, it's a little bit hodgepodge

and what happens on live.

It has not been great.

Yes, the driver is back to an elite level.

Yes, he's putting very consistently.

He certainly did that in back-to-back wins.

The iron play is not quite up to snuff,

typically with what you see at Auguste National.

And the players will eventually go on to win their Roy McWay.

Much was made of the change.

He made early last year.

Remember going to that three-quarter shot,

controlling his spin a little bit better.

That was a big key to his victory.

Obviously, Scottie Schuffler has had an incredible amount

of success ever since he broke through there in 2022.

I'm still a little bit skeptical that with the short clubs

in particular, again, Bryson's going to have plenty

of short clubs with how far he hits it.

If he can get that dial to an elite level,

particularly if the greens are firmer and harder

to really control your golf ball.

So I have Bryson number four.

So this is where I landed on numbers one, two,

and three.

And I would argue that they're interchangeable.

That I could make an argument for any of these three

to be slotted into one of these areas,

but you had to.

I had to put a number next to him,

because that's the way you make me play the game.

I certainly understand what you're trying to make me do.

So number three, I'm going to go with John Rom.

I think his worst finish this year has been fifth on the live.

He has been dominant.

He won in Hong Kong earlier this season.

All the questions that we've had about John Rom

seem to be peeling away.

I think the reason he lands in three out of these top three

lists is because since he joined live golf,

he hasn't finished inside the top 10 at Augusta National.

That could easily be described the way it's just an anomaly.

It was just those years, just weren't his years

and he's going to come around.

I still believe he not only is good enough to win

at Augusta National like he's down in the past,

but he should be dominant at Augusta National.

He was the type of player the first time we saw him play.

You could imagine.

Yeah, here's a guy that's going to have multiple green jackets.

I still believe that.

But if you're in again, we're splitting.

Here's when it comes down to the last three.

He simply hasn't played well since he went to live golf.

Maybe and you brought this point up last week.

And I think it's valid going to 72 holes on live golf

might be the thing that he needs that all said now.

He gets to get extra much better run up to the masters

than he's had in previous years,

just because the prep is there.

Who'd you have two in one, Rex?

I'm going to blaze through this because you already said it.

Bryson D. Shembo, I have at number two.

Simply because he's won twice back to back

starts in his last two live events.

You look what he's done the last two years at Augusta National.

Those are his best finishes ever.

It's T6 and a T5.

And so he seems it be for someone who needs to study

and to know exactly what the test looks like.

It seems to me he's finally getting to a point where he

understands at least what the answers are going to be.

I sell this with a huge caveat on the end that as long as he

doesn't dot, dot, dot declare this to be a par 68.

As long as he doesn't dot, dot, dot,

decide that I'm going to hit my pitching wedges.

195 yards because that's cool.

That's what I think I do as long as you try to play

the golf course to some extent the way it was designed

and not get these ridiculous ideas.

I love him at number two.

And then number one seems pretty obviously at this point.

It's Scotty Sheffler.

I know Scotty hasn't been Scotty Sheffler really since

the West Coast.

Maybe make an argument since Scottsdale.

But I will still point to what he did at the American Express

to win by five strokes on a golf course that you and I probably

could have made some sort of lame week argument that

well, he doesn't like birdie fest.

Well, you only went out and one five five.

What we have seen in Florida, what we did see in Florida,

Bay Hill and the players championship, that is concerning.

Those ball striking numbers are off.

Forget about where he finished.

Everyone wants to look at where he finished in the pack.

I'm not necessarily concerned about that.

It's what his ball striking numbers were.

The thing that he's always hung that Nike had on kind

of abandoned him at a very important juncture.

I think he and Randy Smith have been digging into the Texas

dirt for the last few weeks.

And he certainly withdrew from Houston last week.

Sorry, he's had plenty of time at home.

I still think he should be the favorite.

All blaze through these as well echoing much of what you had

to say Roy McAurey was my number three favorite.

Admittedly, I would have loved to see him play again,

either this past week in Houston or this week in San Antonio.

It is going to be two fewer rounds and he played in 2020.

If I have again during the magic formula,

he finally found it after a decade and a half of searching

for the magic formula at Auguste National.

He finally found it abandoned that plan.

That didn't make a whole lot of sense to me,

but Roy and his team clearly feel pretty good

about what he has done in 2026.

John Rom to me was my number two favorite playing actually

better than anyone statistically from a Strokes game perspective

in 2026.

He's far too good of a player to be a non factor in the major

championships.

And as we talked about, the run up to the masses has been a

little smoother with the 72 holes of preparation.

And yeah, I'm with the SkyChefler is still the favorite.

And he's still the favorite, in my opinion, quite comfortably.

We have certainly more questions than usual about his ball

striking, but Auguste National is a perfect canvas for him

to paint with his skill set with his iron precision with his

short game creativity, SkyChefler.

No surprise is our number one favorite for the masters.

All right, you had questions.

We have some answers.

Voices in the crowd is coming up after this short break.

Stay with us.

All right, racks before we get out of here.

Let's tackle a couple of listener questions.

This one from Joseph Boza, who said,

what will Scotty have to do at the masters for us to push the

panic button?

I mean, Mr. Cutt, I guess would be the obvious choice because

you have to try really hard to miss the cut because it's a

short field anyway.

Would you still be panicked?

Would you still be panicked to that happen?

I don't know that I would be panicked.

I guess if he comes out and continues to struggle with his

ball striking, it's going to be worth having more and

more conversations about this.

I think you and I both have been pretty dismissive about

I need to see this over the long term.

This is such a small sample size, like what we have seen

out of Scotty Shuffler, specifically in Florida.

It's concerning, but he's still Scotty Shuffler.

I still believe he's going to find to do all the things

that he's done in the past.

How quickly we forget that Sky Shuffler was not playing his

best last year.

In fact, a danger Sunday at Augusta National and the

Masters.

He was not injured at the Masters or ever just coming back.

He was was a question he was asked on Masters Sunday.

Quote, what does it say to you that you didn't have your

best stuff, but you're still top five.

As a reminder, Scotty Shuffler went over his first eight

tournaments in 2025 and then went on a tear beginning at

the Nelson.

I don't have any panic now.

I have most likely want to have any panic after Augusta

National as well.

This one from that then dude who says TGL has a new team and

W TGL coming.

There will be a shakeup, but not enough to rejuvenate it.

Rex, that is not a question.

That is a comment.

Do you agree with it?

I mean, we did 40 minutes last week about on TGL.

So I'm not quite sure what else we could possibly say.

I think there was some big strides forward that the look took

in the year to and it was a sophomore slump.

I think on some front you pointed out correctly that the

final would tell your woods in it.

I've got a million viewers.

That's pretty good.

So if you get the stars in place and you have this technology

and you have players that have personality, I think it can

still be driven the way we thought it was going to be driven.

The problem is, is this show you had some issues with injuries?

You had some issues with the so what I felt like was a bit of

a constraint.

Maybe maybe compact is scheduled as a better way of saying this.

And you had some issues and what I think was a little player

apathy for in the second.

You know, I think the players probably didn't bring it like they

did the first year.

Yeah, we have season long data now as it relates to the ratings.

And even with the nearly one million people who tuned in for

the Tiger Field finale, it was still a down year, year over

a year, even with the extra streaming data that Nielsen now

has in 2026.

There's an audience for TGL.

No doubt, but I do think they have a lot of issues to solve with

the player rosters and the programming schedule, making sure

that people know when it's going to be on and where it's going

to be on this one.

Rex from Dancing Brave who said, Jesus, will you guys ever get

over Tiger?

Was he not paying attention to the first 12 minutes of this

particular show and then we talked about Tiger Woods.

I this is in reference clearly to the Wednesday pod and you and

I probably did go overboard.

I think I made front of you that he hit four full shots and

the TGL match and we broke down every single one of those

swings over 20 minutes.

So that was five minutes per swing.

I don't even think Brandon Chambley could do five minute

breakdowns per swing of what he did.

So it was probably a little over the top, but it's what we had

all been watching and it just wasn't him competing in TGL was

the first time he'd hit any shots really in public.

Let's let's put it that way since the 2024 open championship.

We were still having the conversation about the masters.

All of these things matter.

I mean, yes, we have gotten over Tiger from a competitive standpoint.

Last five years, he's only played 11 events.

He's never been closer than 16 shots.

As we are in the beginning of the show, he has never been

more involved than he is right now.

And that is important.

Rex, this is a bonus question from user Ryan Tyrell Lafner who

said Rex, will you finally learn how to use the teleprompter

during this week's golf today?

I'll try.

I think I probably not golf today.

But I got golf central a week.

So I think I have to use it in golf central.

All right, folks, that's right.

Yes, Rex and I are together on golf today this week.

It's going to be a lot of fun at Gus National Women's Amateur

kicking off.

Valero, Texas open and everything else happening in the world of

golf.

Hope that you'll join us.

All right, that is going to do it for this edition of golf

show podcast with Rex and Lab.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for support.

We'll see you guys to golf today.

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