January 29, 2020 • 29 mins
Marc Leishman's victory at Torrey Pines was overshadowed by the horrific helicopter crash that took the life of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi and 7 other beautiful souls. We discuss all of that...it's effect on the golf tournament/the world...and the tributes we will see this week at the Waste Management and in the weeks to come. We talk about Matt Wolff and if he is in fact making a caddie change. What is this Premiere Golf League we've heard about? And we're already looking at the 2020 Olympics! Here we go...we are PLAYING THROUGH!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Uh, do you mind? We're uh, We're playing Through. Here's
Froggy and Lacker. It is another edition of the Playing
Through podcast. It's Froggy from Elvis to Random the Morning Show,
along with Ryan Whacker from Golf Digest. Hit us anytime
on social media at playing Through Podcast on Instagram, or
at Froggy Radio and at Brian Whacker one. I don't
(00:25):
really know what else to say other than, Wow, what
a weekend in sports we had. I know we had
a lot going on in the golf world, but I
feel like, even though this podcast is generally about golf,
we talk about sports, we talk about all kinds of stuff.
To not start off and talk about what happened on
Sunday morning in Calabasas, California, we would be remissing our duties.
(00:47):
And I'm Whacker. I know you are a huge Lakers fan.
I know Kobe Bryant one of your favorite athletes. You
and I were texting back and forth on Sunday, and
still even now, three or four days later, it's still
just doesn't seem real. Would you agree? It doesn't. It's
it's surreal and every time you sort of get on
(01:07):
with your day at least for me and sort of
do things, and then you know, you come across another tribute,
another moment, another situation we'reliving it. It it hits you again.
And you know, I'm hearing Arizona at the for the
Waste Management Phoenix open and I was on the driving
range yesterday, ran into Justin Thomas. You know, like so
(01:29):
many other people. JT is a huge fan of Kobe,
and you know, he said, it'll just it hit him hard,
like he's still shaking up about it. And you know,
he's got some nice tributes we can we'll talk about
that and and some things he's going to do this
week to honor Kobe, and it's still jarring. And then
as you know, the details emerge of what happened, it's, uh,
(01:52):
it's it's tough. You feel bad for the whole Bryant
family of course, the seven other people who perish in
that accident, and um, yeah, it's just it's it's hard, man,
It's just you feel bad from the standpoint of you know,
Kobe was on the second act of his his life,
his career that was just getting started. There's sort of
(02:13):
Kobe the basketball icon, and then there's Kobe the dad.
You know, the suddenness of it, the shock. It's it's
gonna be a long time, I think before people get
over over and you feel for obviously Kobe's wife, his kids,
and the other families of course who lost loved ones
as well. So it's it's it's tough to even talk
(02:35):
about it, really is, you know. You see all the
stories that are coming out now, and this always seems
to happen when somebody passes away. There's a story here
I want to read you. It's a little long, it's
a little winded, and it's a story that I've seen
now all over the place, and so I don't know
if it's urban legend, I don't know. Whatever it is,
I want it to be true, and so that's why
I want to share it. This is from somebody who
(02:55):
had a child that was sick and in a hospital
in Phoenix, and it says the pediatric cardiologist that they
worked with wanted to get an autograph for a little boy,
and a little boy's name was Kobe. He was five
years old. He was a dying patient. So they reached
out through the Phoenix Suns and made a request, thinking
that there was absolutely no way anything would happen. The
(03:17):
Lakers were coming to play the Phoenix Suns later that week.
A day later, they received a phone call that said,
not only will Kobe do it, but he said he
read the story about your little boy. He was floored.
He wants to meet him. So the next day, with
the support of the family, a limo brought Kobe to
the office. Under the cloak of secrecy and the security
ORPR were informed. They snuck up a back stairwell to
(03:41):
the little boy's room in the cardiac I see you.
For the better part of an hour, they played basketball,
passing it back and forth, with little Kobe laughing, his
suite Mama smiling and laughing. Several autographed items were left,
many photos were taken. The machines keeping him alive were dinging,
whirling and alarming, and his doc was grinning from ear
to ear as Tom and I stood nearby watching the
(04:01):
unbelievable scene unfold before us. When they got back into
the limo, Kobe turned to this person and said, what
can I do to help. If it's a financial thing,
I can take care of that. They said it was
not a financial thing. The little boy had a heart defect,
and unfortunately, three or four days later. The little boy
passed away. Three weeks later, the mom got a letter
(04:25):
and describing the power in those moments. She said that
they were the only photos that she had of her
little boy smiling. And according to Kobe's pr people, he
did this all over the place. He would do this
all the time. This is the kind of person that
Kobe was. And they said that he and his daughter
had been to communion, had been to church just before
(04:46):
getting on the helicopter that Sunday morning. You could see
all the images now that you see coming out. Kobe
had really immersed himself into being a family man and
being a great father. I see the trending hashtag girl
dad all over Instagram and all over Twitter. Now, he
really had immersed himself in his daughter's basketball career. She
(05:08):
was very good. They were going to Mama Academy. He
had just trademarked the term Mamba Sita because he was
Mamba and he had trade mark Mambasita for her. And
the Yukon colleges where she was supposed to go to college.
I mean, it really was on a fast track of
she was headed down that road of greatness as well.
And to have it all just ripped away. I don't
(05:29):
know if you've seen the deal last night on the
NBA on T n T. Shaquille O'Neil last night just
completely destroyed him. Wade telling stories about how hard Kobe worked,
even on the road. He would go in opposing team's
gyms and shoot after the game until two or three
o'clock in the morning to to to to work on
(05:50):
his game. And I mean, just so many stories come
out now, and it's so unfortunate that they come out
now after Kobe has passed away. But I mean, Pete
can look at it however you want to look at it.
But the truth is, no matter how much money you have,
no matter how much fame you have, life is so
fragile and can be snatched away in a matter of moments.
(06:12):
And it just we have to stop living for the weekend,
have to stop living for the next vacation or living
for the next event, and just live for today. Yeah,
I mean, well said, and and I would implore it.
You know. I rewatched Kobe Bryant's Muse the other day,
and which I had seen before, but for some reason,
(06:33):
probably just because I was I was sitting on an
airplane and really had nowhere else to go. I watched
it all the way through the closing credits and um
and and before that, actually, there was middle aged, older
gentleman sitting next to me and you could see that
I was watching this, and you could you could see
(06:53):
him tearing up watching it and anyway, so that that
gives you an idea of just uh, sort of the
transcendent you know, power. And then he sort of started
asking me questions about Kobe and so forth. But you
watch I would employ anybody who haven't seen it watch it.
It's it's a terrific piece of filmmaking. It's real, it's genuine,
(07:15):
there's authenticity to it. Kobe addresses a lot of the
flaws and mistakes he's made in his life and so forth,
and I think it's it's well done. But I would
suggest anybody that does watch it to watch it all
the way through the closing credits, because, um, it's almost spooky.
There's there's these incredible images and cuts of Kobe at
(07:37):
home with his family's wife, his kids, and um and
the Beyontly song XO playing over that. It's powerful imagery.
Looking back at it now, you know, given the events
of Sunday, So yeah, I'm sure we'll see tributes all
week here a Phoenix Open. I'm fairly certain we're going
(07:57):
to see tributes at the Genesis Invitational next month in
l A, about twenty or so miles from where the
crash occurred and sort of in between where the crash
occurred and where Lakers play at Staples Center, so we'll
see some tributes there. Of course, Tiger woos this tournament. Tiger,
you know, we'll get into this as well. He was
you know, we talked about in the opening he found
(08:19):
out on Sunday when he walked off the golf course. Um, yes,
I want to get into that, and that it happened
in the middle of the golf tournament on Sunday, the
Farmer's Insurance Open underway, fourth round, playing golf, and the
story starts to break. TMZ breaks it. You start seeing
it on a couple of the news outlets, and then
all the major's break at Fox, NBC, ABC, ESPN. Everybody's
(08:42):
got it out and it starts breaking, and so you
start wondering, when is Tiger going to know? Because Tiger
and Colby our friends, So when is Tiger going to
find out obviously not going to pull his phone out
in the middle of the round. But people start talking,
there's chatter going around. I'm sure, Joey Lacavenue, you start wondering,
and Tiger did not. He kind of in the middle
(09:02):
of the round, did not play that well, and so
there was speculation that maybe he did know in the
middle of the round and that's why his mind wasn't there.
And I know that you have spoken to some other
tour players and some guys did find out in the
middle of the round. And we found out later that
Tiger was not told until walking off the tea going
to the scoring center. Uh, Tiger was told by Joey Lecava.
(09:23):
There's video of it. You hear Tiger say excuse me.
That is when they believe Tiger was told. And then
he spoke to a man of Balleonis on television after
and you could see that he was a man that
had just found out and was in shock. You can
talk about this as well, that Tiger had heard people
say do it from Momba, do it from Momba on
the golf course and it didn't really make sense to
him as to why, and it made sense later, but
(09:45):
some players found out in the middle of the round. Correct, Yeah,
some players figured it out. Some players asked about it.
You had, for example, waiting at the key box for
the green and clear had heard, you know, the fans
and so forth, so he pulled out his phone and
checked see what they were talking about. So he found
(10:06):
out towards the end of his round. Um, other players
similarly found out. And these guys, like the rest of us,
you know, they're they're huge fans and and they're human too.
So a lot of them at families, a lot of
them have little kids, a lot of them travel you know,
by by small private planes. So the parallels, you know,
(10:26):
can can hit home for these guys. And it's just
human all right. I mean it's you talked about it before,
right the second act of Kobe is how close he
was as a family. Just the impact. I mean, we
we've seen other celebrities, athletes, et cetera, die tragically. Um,
I'm not sure in my lifetime I've seen this kind
(10:47):
of out point of emotion tributes, et cetera. Maybe maybe
maybe a JFK Jr. Maybe a Princess Diana. I think
the closest thing in the sports world I remember is
I remember watching the days on a i've hundred when
Deal Earnhart Senior in the final turn and he died
while performing his sort. Yeah, and so that to me,
(11:09):
that's the one that sticks out as that was the
last time we saw something like this. Kobe didn't don
the basketball court, but still to lose a sports figure,
so suddenly, I the last time I remember something like
this to me was Dale Earnhardt Senior at the day.
And look, let's face it, I mean, um, you know,
the worldwide impact of um, it just wasn't on the
(11:32):
same level. No disrespect obviously, it's it's a still terrible thing,
but it was. And to your point, it was racing.
M We've seen other fatalities in racing. I think this
just just the suddenness of it, the shock of it,
the you know, just the craziness of it. I mean,
this is a guy who commuted in a helicopter for
years back and forth to practice and so forth, and
(11:53):
and you know, now we're finding out that maybe weather
played the factor, and uh and the fine terms of
the fog and so forth. Who knows, But obviously it's
terrible loss. And in here in the golf world, Uh,
you know we're going to continue to see I think tributes.
You're gonna see it a couple of ways this week.
As I mentioned just Thomas, He's got um a couple
(12:15):
of wedges that are stamped with some tributes to Kobe Bryant.
He's got eighty one on one wedge for of course
D one points that Kobe Bryant scored second most and
THENBA history against the Toronto Raptors back in two thousand six.
He's got black Mama stamped on another. He's got Mama
Mentality stamped on long. He's got Kobe Bean Bryant stamped
(12:38):
on a wedge, so really cool stuff there. He's got
a very cool putter head cover that is in purple
and gold, and he's got ripped Kobe and ripped GG
written on it. He's also going to be wearing a
Kobe Bryant Lower Marion High School basketball jersey when he
(13:00):
plays the program today on Wednesday on the sixteenth hole
at TPC Scottsdale. And and I believe he may have
another jersey too with him for during the week once
the tournament starts as well, so we'll see that. We'll
see John Ram and Matthew Wolf. I believe are going
to play with some golf balls that with the numbers
(13:21):
twenty four on them Curtacy, a tailor made. I believe
they will have them in time for play when they
tee off on Thursday. As a tribute, of course, we
John Rob for people who haven't seen that he was
also big. Kobe Bryant fan posted a emotional tribute on
his Instagram on Sunday night after his runner up finish
(13:41):
at the Farmer's Insurance Open. And then we'll see Tony
fen now perhaps do something this week or maybe in
l A next month when they play Riviera. So I
think we're going to continue to see these tributes. Uh,
not just in the golf world, of course, but but everywhere.
Um you for for whom else, how long? And they're
(14:01):
well deserved. Yeah, we're seeing it in the NBA. You
see guys riding on their shoes, and I'm guessing that
you're going to see, uh, some shoes. I reached out
to the gentleman we spoke to last week, Roly from
Nomad Customs, and he has made some Lakers shoes and
whatnot and is working with some guys on putting together
some custom shoes as well. So I think we're, like
(14:22):
you said, we're gonna see some stuff this week. I
know next week to see a T and T Pebble
Beach pro am, which is also in California. And then
once again, like you had already mentioned, UH, Tiger's tournament
in very close and proximity to both the crash site
and to where Kobe played. So these tributes will not
just happened this week at the waste management. They'll probably
(14:43):
be a lot of them because it's still fresh on
the mind. And I know the sixteenth hole is a
much more lax uh in an environment, and so you're
probably gonna see a lot of stuff there with the
jerseys and whatnot. But I think this is something that
will continue on, and rightfully so, because Kobe was you're
really hearing all the story now. Richard Sherman, who's playing
in the Super Bowl this weekend for the San Francisco
(15:04):
forty Niners, said that when he tore his achilles that
Kobe was a huge presence in helping him recover. After
Kobe had been through the same thing. You find out
all these stories now, and so we will be seeing
so much of this UH this week at the Waste Management.
There's some other changes going on in the golf world
this week at the Waste Management. Matthew Wolf, I know
(15:25):
you said he's going to play a ball with twenty
four on it courtesy of Taylor Made. I noticed on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday watching a telecast that his caddy was
not the guy that had been caddying for him since
he won last year. It was, in fact Keith Sabarbarrow
from Taylor Made. Do you know anything about that whacker? Well,
(15:46):
other than it's fairly early in Matthew Wolf's career and
he's already seened caddies. Now what twice? Um? Have Jp
Fitzgerald on the bag briefly? Of course, JP was longtime
taddy for Lorrie mac or the look. We see this
all the time, guys changing caddies. Interesting though, that this
early in Wolf's career that you know, we're seeing already
(16:10):
a couple of changes in terms of the caddy. So um,
but this is not uncommon. You will see guys make changes.
Is it uncommon this early in the year to make
a change like that? Like, is that something you do
in the off season? Usually it really depends. You know,
you stay, you stick around the game long enough, and
you see guys make changes. How you see guys make
(16:31):
changes in the middle of a tournament sometimes, so we've
seen it happen in the middle of a round a
caddy get fired. So really, UM not much surprised at
me in that aspect, but it is certainly a little
bit different, I would say, to see a player change
caddy this early into yeah, you know I've seen. Also,
(16:52):
I was reading an article about J. P. Fitzgerald that
he had suggested after caddying for a couple of rounds.
He suggested that wolf change in ches, uh make a
driver or three would change, or some type of face
angle change or something, whether it was loft or something,
and that that's why they split. So sometimes maybe a
caddy has maybe a little bit too much input. The
(17:13):
caddy that he had he had won with the first
time they went out, it's when he won the three
m last year. But then I guess things that's in
soured and now so he Keith had caddied for him
last week. Not sure if he'll be on the back
this week or if he's found the new caddy. I
guess we'll find out when we've seen that on Thursday.
Any other news you got for the waste management, I
know you're out there and you've been on the range
(17:33):
and seeing what's going on. Any other news you've got
going out this week, Well, there'll be plenty happening, of course,
um as I mentioned that there's will be a lot
around Kobe Bryant tributes this week. But we also had
some reaction of course to the Premier Golf League, and
that is exactly so so essentially that the easiest way
(17:55):
I could describe it to you would be, you know, look,
we all remember the usfl um taking on the NFL,
and this this would be similar. Now that said, this
is something that's I think a long shot at best
in terms of actually coming to fruition. Um it's effectively
another tour that would emerge and challenge, you know, the
(18:17):
PGA Tour from the standpoint of trying to lure the
top names in the sport with guaranteed money. There's a
team ownership aspect to it. There's fewer events, bigger purses
for every event, ten million dollar persons for each event,
and so forth, and all sorts of financial incentives. But
(18:39):
the problem is of course he's got to land those
big stars and and that's a big gask. Now that said,
I you know, I have a chance to talk to
some players about it this week. Guaranteenis after the after
the news broke last week in San Diego. I think,
if anything, it could serve as a catalyst for change
(19:00):
on the PGA Tour, because, let's face it, the model
for the tour has been, you know, the status quo
has been this way for a long time. We've seen
sponsors come and go. You know, you wonder how long
the current format or structure, how viable that is in
the long term. Look, it's worked beautifully to this point.
These guys have made a lot of money. The tour
(19:20):
has raised a lot of money for charities. They've announced
a huge, you know, another huge year in terms of
yesterday announced they've given three billion dollars to charity, over
a hundred million from the players stays here in Northeast
Florida where I am in Jacksonville, the Pontovidra area, so
they do a lot of charity work. However, this league
(19:42):
shows up and all of a sudden, maybe it does
lend itself to some changes happening on the door because
let's remember, let's um, you know, the tour works for
the players. It's not the other way around like it
is most leads. So this is a player driven sport
and they've got most of the power, you know. That
said they obviously there's the history of the game with
the major championships. There are, um, you know, other elements
(20:06):
to this where for example, when you play in the
PGA Tour, if you remember, you have to get a
release from the tour if you want to play an
event that runs concurrent to your home tour, so the
tour has to allow you. Now their cases. Certainly if
you're a European tour and a TG to remember, that's different.
But if you were to play a non sanctioned event,
(20:30):
let's say in Turkey, like we had in Turkey a
few years ago, we saw players, you know, get releases
from the tour to be allowed to do that. In
the tour limits in their regulations how many releases they
grant players. There are exceptions, of course, but it effectively
makes it difficult. And in an email to players on Monday,
(20:50):
the commissioner made all of these points clear look um,
Starting with look, if you know, players are going to
have to decide if they want to play on the
PGA Tour or if this should come to fruition whether
they wanted to play there, And they are not opposed
to putting in more regulations to make it effectively more
difficult for players to play a different tour or play
(21:11):
that tour in specific. So yeah, I mean, I see
where the tour has got to protect themselves, sure, of course.
So at the end of the day, though I think
this is a lot of bluster. It's actually been talked
about for a few years. I don't think it ever
really amounts to I certainly don't think we'll get to
the point where we have this existence of another league.
(21:31):
We've seen it fail in other sports. You look at
football trying with the USFL trying to take on the NFL.
Different circumstances and variables, of course, but look, the golf
calendar is already crowded as it is. The PGA Tour
has proven to be a massively powerful tour um, but
I could see this being the driving force for creating
(21:53):
a more global tour, maybe the PGA Tour one day
buying the European Tour in in um having a more
global schedule like we see in tennis, for example. So
I could see that something along those lines happening, but
in this perhaps it maybe it's the catalyst to getting
that done. So who knows a lot to play out,
but it's certainly been talked about by the players and
(22:16):
been a hot topic behind closed doors. Yeah, I mean,
speaking like you said, the calendar is so crowded, there
really is no downtime for the PGA Tour, whereas the NFL.
So now this year, you know, the XFL tried years
ago to go against the NFL and it did not work.
They folded. Now they have started back up again and
they will start the week after the Super Bowl. So
(22:36):
what they're trying to do is when the Super Bowl ends,
the XFL has decided, hey, let's give the American public.
Let's continue to give them football for a longer period
of time, and so to run from the beginning of
February through the end of April. And so I think
they're they're trying to say, hey, instead of going against
the NFL, let's extend the NFL. And so there really
(22:58):
is no opportunity to do that on the PGA Tour, because,
let's be honest, it feels like the PGA Tour season
really doesn't end. There's really not a spot for them
to jump in and UM, kind of build that bridge
between the two seasons because it's a wrap around now,
so there really isn't a spot. But if it does
cause change, and if it causes the beneficial for both
the players and the fans, I think something like this
(23:20):
is all good. And speaking of no breaks in the schedule,
we're onto another week. Obviously, I'm hearing phoenix. As you mentioned,
the wasted or wasted management as open as I like
to call it, for all this stuff that has absolutely
nothing to do with golf that goes down this week.
It's really golf's biggest party atmosphere and it's the most
(23:41):
attended golf tournament of the year. Correct, Yes, yeah, by far.
It's It's not close. It's a huge party. It's got
a huge population here. You've got it's a it's a
college uh town or college area. Got a huge school
in Arizona State nearby, so um, you get a ton
of people here were all familiar with. That is of
course the sixteen hole in the stadium there. You know. Look,
(24:03):
I in my opinion, I think it's it's getting to
the point where it's gone a little too far, I
think with some of this, with some of the behavior
we see in the stands. But um, look at the
end of the day, it's it's a huge event, hugely
a tendant event, makes a ton of money, so that's
not changing anytime soon. And Ricky Fowler is our defending
(24:24):
champion this week. I know he's there. What are some
other some of the other biggest names in the field.
I know, Uh, some guys tend to skip this event,
whether they don't like the golf course and they just
they need to need a week in between or whatever
it is. Um, what are some of the big names
you know? Or guys are just they're simply tired of it.
Pat Perez is not in the field, for example, because
you know, I think he reached the point where he's
(24:44):
just sick of what goes on in the stands here
and trying to play a golf tournament. So some guys
don't play it for that reason. But we do have
a few big names here, as you mentioned Ricky, He's
got Kerry Woodland in the field. John rob of course,
he's got a chance to become number one the world.
He's in the field coming off that runner up finish
(25:04):
in Tory Pines, so Jordan's speed in the field. He
going the other way of course, now outside the top
fifty in the world for the first time and I
think seven years. So um, it'll be interesting to see
how he gets he goes this week and where he
goes from here. We're often running with golf's biggest party
again this week here in Phoenix we are. And also
(25:26):
everybody had mentioned real quick before we let you go,
I know you've got some stuff to do there in Phoenix.
I know this year's points system. They said that even
though Tiger didn't win Tory Pines, he finished in ninth
place and he would have finished a little higher had
that ball stayed in the hole that popped out of
the hole on number two on Sunday. How about that? Amazing?
(25:48):
Is that unbelievable Bryson and his physics on that one.
So Olympic points are really counting towards the whole season,
so they're trying to qualify for the Olympics. But just
yesterday some guys don't seem Tie has really appeared to
be all in when it comes to the Olympics, but
some guys don't seem to be all in. Yeah, And
I think we've seen this since golf has been reintroduced
(26:09):
back into the Olympics four years ago. So we've seen
it with guys like Adam Scott, Rory McElroy, who has
since sort of changed his feelings on it. Um. I
think once he saw what the experiences like for other people,
some people that, as you mentioned, have been all in
from the beginning. We've seen it with Tiger being all
(26:30):
in on it. We saw Ricky Fowler of course, all
in on it, Patrick Read of course, others. So I
think it's just, you know, look, golf is not a
Olympic sport typically, at least not something most of these
guys think of in terms of importance. You've got the
major championships, You've got even World Golf Championships, or a
few other events places like the Memorial or bay Hill
(26:54):
or Genesis or the players of course, Um, so you
where did it fit in that in that realm, in
that world. So I think a lot of guys just
don't know how to feel about it because it's not
something that has been drilled into them for so long,
you know, it's they were when they were kids that
you weren't making a pot to win an Olympic gold medal.
You were making a put to win the Masters or
(27:16):
the Open. So I think it's hard for them to
wrap their head around it. I think some guys have
come around, of course, because they did see the experiences
that Justin Rose and Ricky Faller and Hendrick Stenson and
others have had in the Olympics. So some guys have
changed his mind. But as you mentioned Brooks in Dustin
this week playing in saud Arabia, you know they they
(27:37):
founded Luke warm on on maybe the idea of it.
So look, I think it's that could certainly evolve and
change over over the next time a few weeks months,
But some guys are going to be on board with
it and some guys are not. Let me go over
the top ten Olympic point golf rankings very very very early.
My might add number ten is Adam Scott at nine,
(27:58):
who stays in at eight, would at seven, rows a
Tiger at six your top five or Dustin Johnson, Justin
Thomas john Rom at three, Rory at number two, and
Brooks Kepta currently at number one. In your Tokyo Olympic
Golf rankings, So I mean it'll be something to follow
as the year goes on. Yeah, up to four guys
(28:20):
from the East Country. So um, it'd be interesting to
see where Tiger sits because a lot of those names
you mentioned, you know, there's a lot of Americans there.
It will be interesting to see. If it were today,
it would be Brooks, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, and Tiger
Woods would be the top four Americans because uh, four
of the top six are Americans. The only ones that
(28:41):
aren't are Rory and Johnny Ram are the only ones
that it's not, so the top four Americans would get in.
Tiger would get in as of today. But we've got
a lot of golf to be played between now and
when they do determine and they close down and set
the Olympic field. So Whacker, enjoy your weekend at the
Wasted Management. I'm sure you're going to see probably some
(29:02):
things you shouldn't see. It a golf course, is my guess. Well,
I'll be one of the few people that's not waste
right right everything? Yeah, yeah, lots of good stuff on
six team. I'm sure talk to the security guards. I
know you're writing another article for a Golf Digest. You
could always read Whackers articles in Golf Digest magazine or
(29:23):
at golf Digest dot com. We will be back next
week after the waste management will be back and we
will preview the A T and T Pebble Beach ProAm,
which tends to be kind of a more laid back
Lacks event. And we will be another week out from
Tiger and the Genesis, which I'm guessing, as we said earlier,
you'll see a lot more Kobe tributes. Enjoy your weekend
(29:45):
in uh Scottsdale and try not to imbibe like the
locals there with
Uh, do you mind? We're uh, We're playing Through. Here's
Froggy and Lacker. It is another edition of the Playing
Through podcast. It's Froggy from Elvis to Random the Morning Show,
along with Ryan Whacker from Golf Digest. Hit us anytime
on social media at playing Through Podcast on Instagram, or
at Froggy Radio and at Brian Whacker one. I don't
(00:25):
really know what else to say other than, Wow, what
a weekend in sports we had. I know we had
a lot going on in the golf world, but I
feel like, even though this podcast is generally about golf,
we talk about sports, we talk about all kinds of stuff.
To not start off and talk about what happened on
Sunday morning in Calabasas, California, we would be remissing our duties.
(00:47):
And I'm Whacker. I know you are a huge Lakers fan.
I know Kobe Bryant one of your favorite athletes. You
and I were texting back and forth on Sunday, and
still even now, three or four days later, it's still
just doesn't seem real. Would you agree? It doesn't. It's
it's surreal and every time you sort of get on
(01:07):
with your day at least for me and sort of
do things, and then you know, you come across another tribute,
another moment, another situation we'reliving it. It it hits you again.
And you know, I'm hearing Arizona at the for the
Waste Management Phoenix open and I was on the driving
range yesterday, ran into Justin Thomas. You know, like so
(01:29):
many other people. JT is a huge fan of Kobe,
and you know, he said, it'll just it hit him hard,
like he's still shaking up about it. And you know,
he's got some nice tributes we can we'll talk about
that and and some things he's going to do this
week to honor Kobe, and it's still jarring. And then
as you know, the details emerge of what happened, it's, uh,
(01:52):
it's it's tough. You feel bad for the whole Bryant
family of course, the seven other people who perish in
that accident, and um, yeah, it's just it's it's hard, man,
It's just you feel bad from the standpoint of you know,
Kobe was on the second act of his his life,
his career that was just getting started. There's sort of
(02:13):
Kobe the basketball icon, and then there's Kobe the dad.
You know, the suddenness of it, the shock. It's it's
gonna be a long time, I think before people get
over over and you feel for obviously Kobe's wife, his kids,
and the other families of course who lost loved ones
as well. So it's it's it's tough to even talk
(02:35):
about it, really is, you know. You see all the
stories that are coming out now, and this always seems
to happen when somebody passes away. There's a story here
I want to read you. It's a little long, it's
a little winded, and it's a story that I've seen
now all over the place, and so I don't know
if it's urban legend, I don't know. Whatever it is,
I want it to be true, and so that's why
I want to share it. This is from somebody who
(02:55):
had a child that was sick and in a hospital
in Phoenix, and it says the pediatric cardiologist that they
worked with wanted to get an autograph for a little boy,
and a little boy's name was Kobe. He was five
years old. He was a dying patient. So they reached
out through the Phoenix Suns and made a request, thinking
that there was absolutely no way anything would happen. The
(03:17):
Lakers were coming to play the Phoenix Suns later that week.
A day later, they received a phone call that said,
not only will Kobe do it, but he said he
read the story about your little boy. He was floored.
He wants to meet him. So the next day, with
the support of the family, a limo brought Kobe to
the office. Under the cloak of secrecy and the security
ORPR were informed. They snuck up a back stairwell to
(03:41):
the little boy's room in the cardiac I see you.
For the better part of an hour, they played basketball,
passing it back and forth, with little Kobe laughing, his
suite Mama smiling and laughing. Several autographed items were left,
many photos were taken. The machines keeping him alive were dinging,
whirling and alarming, and his doc was grinning from ear
to ear as Tom and I stood nearby watching the
(04:01):
unbelievable scene unfold before us. When they got back into
the limo, Kobe turned to this person and said, what
can I do to help. If it's a financial thing,
I can take care of that. They said it was
not a financial thing. The little boy had a heart defect,
and unfortunately, three or four days later. The little boy
passed away. Three weeks later, the mom got a letter
(04:25):
and describing the power in those moments. She said that
they were the only photos that she had of her
little boy smiling. And according to Kobe's pr people, he
did this all over the place. He would do this
all the time. This is the kind of person that
Kobe was. And they said that he and his daughter
had been to communion, had been to church just before
(04:46):
getting on the helicopter that Sunday morning. You could see
all the images now that you see coming out. Kobe
had really immersed himself into being a family man and
being a great father. I see the trending hashtag girl
dad all over Instagram and all over Twitter. Now, he
really had immersed himself in his daughter's basketball career. She
(05:08):
was very good. They were going to Mama Academy. He
had just trademarked the term Mamba Sita because he was
Mamba and he had trade mark Mambasita for her. And
the Yukon colleges where she was supposed to go to college.
I mean, it really was on a fast track of
she was headed down that road of greatness as well.
And to have it all just ripped away. I don't
(05:29):
know if you've seen the deal last night on the
NBA on T n T. Shaquille O'Neil last night just
completely destroyed him. Wade telling stories about how hard Kobe worked,
even on the road. He would go in opposing team's
gyms and shoot after the game until two or three
o'clock in the morning to to to to work on
(05:50):
his game. And I mean, just so many stories come
out now, and it's so unfortunate that they come out
now after Kobe has passed away. But I mean, Pete
can look at it however you want to look at it.
But the truth is, no matter how much money you have,
no matter how much fame you have, life is so
fragile and can be snatched away in a matter of moments.
(06:12):
And it just we have to stop living for the weekend,
have to stop living for the next vacation or living
for the next event, and just live for today. Yeah,
I mean, well said, and and I would implore it.
You know. I rewatched Kobe Bryant's Muse the other day,
and which I had seen before, but for some reason,
(06:33):
probably just because I was I was sitting on an
airplane and really had nowhere else to go. I watched
it all the way through the closing credits and um
and and before that, actually, there was middle aged, older
gentleman sitting next to me and you could see that
I was watching this, and you could you could see
(06:53):
him tearing up watching it and anyway, so that that
gives you an idea of just uh, sort of the
transcendent you know, power. And then he sort of started
asking me questions about Kobe and so forth. But you
watch I would employ anybody who haven't seen it watch it.
It's it's a terrific piece of filmmaking. It's real, it's genuine,
(07:15):
there's authenticity to it. Kobe addresses a lot of the
flaws and mistakes he's made in his life and so forth,
and I think it's it's well done. But I would
suggest anybody that does watch it to watch it all
the way through the closing credits, because, um, it's almost spooky.
There's there's these incredible images and cuts of Kobe at
(07:37):
home with his family's wife, his kids, and um and
the Beyontly song XO playing over that. It's powerful imagery.
Looking back at it now, you know, given the events
of Sunday, So yeah, I'm sure we'll see tributes all
week here a Phoenix Open. I'm fairly certain we're going
(07:57):
to see tributes at the Genesis Invitational next month in
l A, about twenty or so miles from where the
crash occurred and sort of in between where the crash
occurred and where Lakers play at Staples Center, so we'll
see some tributes there. Of course, Tiger woos this tournament. Tiger,
you know, we'll get into this as well. He was
you know, we talked about in the opening he found
(08:19):
out on Sunday when he walked off the golf course. Um, yes,
I want to get into that, and that it happened
in the middle of the golf tournament on Sunday, the
Farmer's Insurance Open underway, fourth round, playing golf, and the
story starts to break. TMZ breaks it. You start seeing
it on a couple of the news outlets, and then
all the major's break at Fox, NBC, ABC, ESPN. Everybody's
(08:42):
got it out and it starts breaking, and so you
start wondering, when is Tiger going to know? Because Tiger
and Colby our friends, So when is Tiger going to
find out obviously not going to pull his phone out
in the middle of the round. But people start talking,
there's chatter going around. I'm sure, Joey Lacavenue, you start wondering,
and Tiger did not. He kind of in the middle
(09:02):
of the round, did not play that well, and so
there was speculation that maybe he did know in the
middle of the round and that's why his mind wasn't there.
And I know that you have spoken to some other
tour players and some guys did find out in the
middle of the round. And we found out later that
Tiger was not told until walking off the tea going
to the scoring center. Uh, Tiger was told by Joey Lecava.
(09:23):
There's video of it. You hear Tiger say excuse me.
That is when they believe Tiger was told. And then
he spoke to a man of Balleonis on television after
and you could see that he was a man that
had just found out and was in shock. You can
talk about this as well, that Tiger had heard people
say do it from Momba, do it from Momba on
the golf course and it didn't really make sense to
him as to why, and it made sense later, but
(09:45):
some players found out in the middle of the round. Correct, Yeah,
some players figured it out. Some players asked about it.
You had, for example, waiting at the key box for
the green and clear had heard, you know, the fans
and so forth, so he pulled out his phone and
checked see what they were talking about. So he found
(10:06):
out towards the end of his round. Um, other players
similarly found out. And these guys, like the rest of us,
you know, they're they're huge fans and and they're human too.
So a lot of them at families, a lot of
them have little kids, a lot of them travel you know,
by by small private planes. So the parallels, you know,
(10:26):
can can hit home for these guys. And it's just
human all right. I mean it's you talked about it before,
right the second act of Kobe is how close he
was as a family. Just the impact. I mean, we
we've seen other celebrities, athletes, et cetera, die tragically. Um,
I'm not sure in my lifetime I've seen this kind
(10:47):
of out point of emotion tributes, et cetera. Maybe maybe
maybe a JFK Jr. Maybe a Princess Diana. I think
the closest thing in the sports world I remember is
I remember watching the days on a i've hundred when
Deal Earnhart Senior in the final turn and he died
while performing his sort. Yeah, and so that to me,
(11:09):
that's the one that sticks out as that was the
last time we saw something like this. Kobe didn't don
the basketball court, but still to lose a sports figure,
so suddenly, I the last time I remember something like
this to me was Dale Earnhardt Senior at the day.
And look, let's face it, I mean, um, you know,
the worldwide impact of um, it just wasn't on the
(11:32):
same level. No disrespect obviously, it's it's a still terrible thing,
but it was. And to your point, it was racing.
M We've seen other fatalities in racing. I think this
just just the suddenness of it, the shock of it,
the you know, just the craziness of it. I mean,
this is a guy who commuted in a helicopter for
years back and forth to practice and so forth, and
(11:53):
and you know, now we're finding out that maybe weather
played the factor, and uh and the fine terms of
the fog and so forth. Who knows, But obviously it's
terrible loss. And in here in the golf world, Uh,
you know we're going to continue to see I think tributes.
You're gonna see it a couple of ways this week.
As I mentioned just Thomas, He's got um a couple
(12:15):
of wedges that are stamped with some tributes to Kobe Bryant.
He's got eighty one on one wedge for of course
D one points that Kobe Bryant scored second most and
THENBA history against the Toronto Raptors back in two thousand six.
He's got black Mama stamped on another. He's got Mama
Mentality stamped on long. He's got Kobe Bean Bryant stamped
(12:38):
on a wedge, so really cool stuff there. He's got
a very cool putter head cover that is in purple
and gold, and he's got ripped Kobe and ripped GG
written on it. He's also going to be wearing a
Kobe Bryant Lower Marion High School basketball jersey when he
(13:00):
plays the program today on Wednesday on the sixteenth hole
at TPC Scottsdale. And and I believe he may have
another jersey too with him for during the week once
the tournament starts as well, so we'll see that. We'll
see John Ram and Matthew Wolf. I believe are going
to play with some golf balls that with the numbers
(13:21):
twenty four on them Curtacy, a tailor made. I believe
they will have them in time for play when they
tee off on Thursday. As a tribute, of course, we
John Rob for people who haven't seen that he was
also big. Kobe Bryant fan posted a emotional tribute on
his Instagram on Sunday night after his runner up finish
(13:41):
at the Farmer's Insurance Open. And then we'll see Tony
fen now perhaps do something this week or maybe in
l A next month when they play Riviera. So I
think we're going to continue to see these tributes. Uh,
not just in the golf world, of course, but but everywhere.
Um you for for whom else, how long? And they're
(14:01):
well deserved. Yeah, we're seeing it in the NBA. You
see guys riding on their shoes, and I'm guessing that
you're going to see, uh, some shoes. I reached out
to the gentleman we spoke to last week, Roly from
Nomad Customs, and he has made some Lakers shoes and
whatnot and is working with some guys on putting together
some custom shoes as well. So I think we're, like
(14:22):
you said, we're gonna see some stuff this week. I
know next week to see a T and T Pebble
Beach pro am, which is also in California. And then
once again, like you had already mentioned, UH, Tiger's tournament
in very close and proximity to both the crash site
and to where Kobe played. So these tributes will not
just happened this week at the waste management. They'll probably
(14:43):
be a lot of them because it's still fresh on
the mind. And I know the sixteenth hole is a
much more lax uh in an environment, and so you're
probably gonna see a lot of stuff there with the
jerseys and whatnot. But I think this is something that
will continue on, and rightfully so, because Kobe was you're
really hearing all the story now. Richard Sherman, who's playing
in the Super Bowl this weekend for the San Francisco
(15:04):
forty Niners, said that when he tore his achilles that
Kobe was a huge presence in helping him recover. After
Kobe had been through the same thing. You find out
all these stories now, and so we will be seeing
so much of this UH this week at the Waste Management.
There's some other changes going on in the golf world
this week at the Waste Management. Matthew Wolf, I know
(15:25):
you said he's going to play a ball with twenty
four on it courtesy of Taylor Made. I noticed on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday watching a telecast that his caddy was
not the guy that had been caddying for him since
he won last year. It was, in fact Keith Sabarbarrow
from Taylor Made. Do you know anything about that whacker? Well,
(15:46):
other than it's fairly early in Matthew Wolf's career and
he's already seened caddies. Now what twice? Um? Have Jp
Fitzgerald on the bag briefly? Of course, JP was longtime
taddy for Lorrie mac or the look. We see this
all the time, guys changing caddies. Interesting though, that this
early in Wolf's career that you know, we're seeing already
(16:10):
a couple of changes in terms of the caddy. So um,
but this is not uncommon. You will see guys make changes.
Is it uncommon this early in the year to make
a change like that? Like, is that something you do
in the off season? Usually it really depends. You know,
you stay, you stick around the game long enough, and
you see guys make changes. How you see guys make
(16:31):
changes in the middle of a tournament sometimes, so we've
seen it happen in the middle of a round a
caddy get fired. So really, UM not much surprised at
me in that aspect, but it is certainly a little
bit different, I would say, to see a player change
caddy this early into yeah, you know I've seen. Also,
(16:52):
I was reading an article about J. P. Fitzgerald that
he had suggested after caddying for a couple of rounds.
He suggested that wolf change in ches, uh make a
driver or three would change, or some type of face
angle change or something, whether it was loft or something,
and that that's why they split. So sometimes maybe a
caddy has maybe a little bit too much input. The
(17:13):
caddy that he had he had won with the first
time they went out, it's when he won the three
m last year. But then I guess things that's in
soured and now so he Keith had caddied for him
last week. Not sure if he'll be on the back
this week or if he's found the new caddy. I
guess we'll find out when we've seen that on Thursday.
Any other news you got for the waste management, I
know you're out there and you've been on the range
(17:33):
and seeing what's going on. Any other news you've got
going out this week, Well, there'll be plenty happening, of course,
um as I mentioned that there's will be a lot
around Kobe Bryant tributes this week. But we also had
some reaction of course to the Premier Golf League, and
that is exactly so so essentially that the easiest way
(17:55):
I could describe it to you would be, you know, look,
we all remember the usfl um taking on the NFL,
and this this would be similar. Now that said, this
is something that's I think a long shot at best
in terms of actually coming to fruition. Um it's effectively
another tour that would emerge and challenge, you know, the
(18:17):
PGA Tour from the standpoint of trying to lure the
top names in the sport with guaranteed money. There's a
team ownership aspect to it. There's fewer events, bigger purses
for every event, ten million dollar persons for each event,
and so forth, and all sorts of financial incentives. But
(18:39):
the problem is of course he's got to land those
big stars and and that's a big gask. Now that said,
I you know, I have a chance to talk to
some players about it this week. Guaranteenis after the after
the news broke last week in San Diego. I think,
if anything, it could serve as a catalyst for change
(19:00):
on the PGA Tour, because, let's face it, the model
for the tour has been, you know, the status quo
has been this way for a long time. We've seen
sponsors come and go. You know, you wonder how long
the current format or structure, how viable that is in
the long term. Look, it's worked beautifully to this point.
These guys have made a lot of money. The tour
(19:20):
has raised a lot of money for charities. They've announced
a huge, you know, another huge year in terms of
yesterday announced they've given three billion dollars to charity, over
a hundred million from the players stays here in Northeast
Florida where I am in Jacksonville, the Pontovidra area, so
they do a lot of charity work. However, this league
(19:42):
shows up and all of a sudden, maybe it does
lend itself to some changes happening on the door because
let's remember, let's um, you know, the tour works for
the players. It's not the other way around like it
is most leads. So this is a player driven sport
and they've got most of the power, you know. That
said they obviously there's the history of the game with
the major championships. There are, um, you know, other elements
(20:06):
to this where for example, when you play in the
PGA Tour, if you remember, you have to get a
release from the tour if you want to play an
event that runs concurrent to your home tour, so the
tour has to allow you. Now their cases. Certainly if
you're a European tour and a TG to remember, that's different.
But if you were to play a non sanctioned event,
(20:30):
let's say in Turkey, like we had in Turkey a
few years ago, we saw players, you know, get releases
from the tour to be allowed to do that. In
the tour limits in their regulations how many releases they
grant players. There are exceptions, of course, but it effectively
makes it difficult. And in an email to players on Monday,
(20:50):
the commissioner made all of these points clear look um,
Starting with look, if you know, players are going to
have to decide if they want to play on the
PGA Tour or if this should come to fruition whether
they wanted to play there, And they are not opposed
to putting in more regulations to make it effectively more
difficult for players to play a different tour or play
(21:11):
that tour in specific. So yeah, I mean, I see
where the tour has got to protect themselves, sure, of course.
So at the end of the day, though I think
this is a lot of bluster. It's actually been talked
about for a few years. I don't think it ever
really amounts to I certainly don't think we'll get to
the point where we have this existence of another league.
(21:31):
We've seen it fail in other sports. You look at
football trying with the USFL trying to take on the NFL.
Different circumstances and variables, of course, but look, the golf
calendar is already crowded as it is. The PGA Tour
has proven to be a massively powerful tour um, but
I could see this being the driving force for creating
(21:53):
a more global tour, maybe the PGA Tour one day
buying the European Tour in in um having a more
global schedule like we see in tennis, for example. So
I could see that something along those lines happening, but
in this perhaps it maybe it's the catalyst to getting
that done. So who knows a lot to play out,
but it's certainly been talked about by the players and
(22:16):
been a hot topic behind closed doors. Yeah, I mean,
speaking like you said, the calendar is so crowded, there
really is no downtime for the PGA Tour, whereas the NFL.
So now this year, you know, the XFL tried years
ago to go against the NFL and it did not work.
They folded. Now they have started back up again and
they will start the week after the Super Bowl. So
(22:36):
what they're trying to do is when the Super Bowl ends,
the XFL has decided, hey, let's give the American public.
Let's continue to give them football for a longer period
of time, and so to run from the beginning of
February through the end of April. And so I think
they're they're trying to say, hey, instead of going against
the NFL, let's extend the NFL. And so there really
(22:58):
is no opportunity to do that on the PGA Tour, because,
let's be honest, it feels like the PGA Tour season
really doesn't end. There's really not a spot for them
to jump in and UM, kind of build that bridge
between the two seasons because it's a wrap around now,
so there really isn't a spot. But if it does
cause change, and if it causes the beneficial for both
the players and the fans, I think something like this
(23:20):
is all good. And speaking of no breaks in the schedule,
we're onto another week. Obviously, I'm hearing phoenix. As you mentioned,
the wasted or wasted management as open as I like
to call it, for all this stuff that has absolutely
nothing to do with golf that goes down this week.
It's really golf's biggest party atmosphere and it's the most
(23:41):
attended golf tournament of the year. Correct, Yes, yeah, by far.
It's It's not close. It's a huge party. It's got
a huge population here. You've got it's a it's a
college uh town or college area. Got a huge school
in Arizona State nearby, so um, you get a ton
of people here were all familiar with. That is of
course the sixteen hole in the stadium there. You know. Look,
(24:03):
I in my opinion, I think it's it's getting to
the point where it's gone a little too far, I
think with some of this, with some of the behavior
we see in the stands. But um, look at the
end of the day, it's it's a huge event, hugely
a tendant event, makes a ton of money, so that's
not changing anytime soon. And Ricky Fowler is our defending
(24:24):
champion this week. I know he's there. What are some
other some of the other biggest names in the field.
I know, Uh, some guys tend to skip this event,
whether they don't like the golf course and they just
they need to need a week in between or whatever
it is. Um, what are some of the big names
you know? Or guys are just they're simply tired of it.
Pat Perez is not in the field, for example, because
you know, I think he reached the point where he's
(24:44):
just sick of what goes on in the stands here
and trying to play a golf tournament. So some guys
don't play it for that reason. But we do have
a few big names here, as you mentioned Ricky, He's
got Kerry Woodland in the field. John rob of course,
he's got a chance to become number one the world.
He's in the field coming off that runner up finish
(25:04):
in Tory Pines, so Jordan's speed in the field. He
going the other way of course, now outside the top
fifty in the world for the first time and I
think seven years. So um, it'll be interesting to see
how he gets he goes this week and where he
goes from here. We're often running with golf's biggest party
again this week here in Phoenix we are. And also
(25:26):
everybody had mentioned real quick before we let you go,
I know you've got some stuff to do there in Phoenix.
I know this year's points system. They said that even
though Tiger didn't win Tory Pines, he finished in ninth
place and he would have finished a little higher had
that ball stayed in the hole that popped out of
the hole on number two on Sunday. How about that? Amazing?
(25:48):
Is that unbelievable Bryson and his physics on that one.
So Olympic points are really counting towards the whole season,
so they're trying to qualify for the Olympics. But just
yesterday some guys don't seem Tie has really appeared to
be all in when it comes to the Olympics, but
some guys don't seem to be all in. Yeah, And
I think we've seen this since golf has been reintroduced
(26:09):
back into the Olympics four years ago. So we've seen
it with guys like Adam Scott, Rory McElroy, who has
since sort of changed his feelings on it. Um. I
think once he saw what the experiences like for other people,
some people that, as you mentioned, have been all in
from the beginning. We've seen it with Tiger being all
(26:30):
in on it. We saw Ricky Fowler of course, all
in on it, Patrick Read of course, others. So I
think it's just, you know, look, golf is not a
Olympic sport typically, at least not something most of these
guys think of in terms of importance. You've got the
major championships, You've got even World Golf Championships, or a
few other events places like the Memorial or bay Hill
(26:54):
or Genesis or the players of course, Um, so you
where did it fit in that in that realm, in
that world. So I think a lot of guys just
don't know how to feel about it because it's not
something that has been drilled into them for so long,
you know, it's they were when they were kids that
you weren't making a pot to win an Olympic gold medal.
You were making a put to win the Masters or
(27:16):
the Open. So I think it's hard for them to
wrap their head around it. I think some guys have
come around, of course, because they did see the experiences
that Justin Rose and Ricky Faller and Hendrick Stenson and
others have had in the Olympics. So some guys have
changed his mind. But as you mentioned Brooks in Dustin
this week playing in saud Arabia, you know they they
(27:37):
founded Luke warm on on maybe the idea of it.
So look, I think it's that could certainly evolve and
change over over the next time a few weeks months,
But some guys are going to be on board with
it and some guys are not. Let me go over
the top ten Olympic point golf rankings very very very early.
My might add number ten is Adam Scott at nine,
(27:58):
who stays in at eight, would at seven, rows a
Tiger at six your top five or Dustin Johnson, Justin
Thomas john Rom at three, Rory at number two, and
Brooks Kepta currently at number one. In your Tokyo Olympic
Golf rankings, So I mean it'll be something to follow
as the year goes on. Yeah, up to four guys
(28:20):
from the East Country. So um, it'd be interesting to
see where Tiger sits because a lot of those names
you mentioned, you know, there's a lot of Americans there.
It will be interesting to see. If it were today,
it would be Brooks, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, and Tiger
Woods would be the top four Americans because uh, four
of the top six are Americans. The only ones that
(28:41):
aren't are Rory and Johnny Ram are the only ones
that it's not, so the top four Americans would get in.
Tiger would get in as of today. But we've got
a lot of golf to be played between now and
when they do determine and they close down and set
the Olympic field. So Whacker, enjoy your weekend at the
Wasted Management. I'm sure you're going to see probably some
(29:02):
things you shouldn't see. It a golf course, is my guess. Well,
I'll be one of the few people that's not waste
right right everything? Yeah, yeah, lots of good stuff on
six team. I'm sure talk to the security guards. I
know you're writing another article for a Golf Digest. You
could always read Whackers articles in Golf Digest magazine or
(29:23):
at golf Digest dot com. We will be back next
week after the waste management will be back and we
will preview the A T and T Pebble Beach ProAm,
which tends to be kind of a more laid back
Lacks event. And we will be another week out from
Tiger and the Genesis, which I'm guessing, as we said earlier,
you'll see a lot more Kobe tributes. Enjoy your weekend
(29:45):
in uh Scottsdale and try not to imbibe like the
locals there with
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