Swing It & Ding It: Episode 217

Joined by Johnny Wunder- Directory of Equipment at Golf.com. Aberg wins the Genesis, The Tea with D, The Course of Course presented by The Penn Club on 2nd for the Mexico Open and See The Line.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by Comcast Business. Whatever
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
I just got to get out there and swing and
ding it.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, you know, just guess it's going to go out
there and try to swing it and ding it.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
All right, Welcome in to swing it and ding it.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
We are sponsored by Comcast Business, introducing Ultimate Speeds from Business,
the fastest Internet plans yet from Comcast Business, Powering Possibilities.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
This has Moose along.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
With May's and Matthews and we welcome in one of
the best names in golf with one of the best
names in golf, Johnny Wonder.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Welcome to swing it and ding it.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Johnny, thanks for having me. It's an honor of one
of my writers, Jack Kirsh, I think is friends with
one of you guys, so he's all jack up that
I was coming on a Philadelphia show. So uh happy
to be here.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
So you uh you made quite a quite a change recently.
You know, I love talking to people who who do
this and in my business in media, Harry's been in it.
You know, the stuff that the people that Danielle deals
with on a day to day basis. Right, It's like
sometimes we have to make a leap, right, and and
it's it's it's easy to leap from something bad to

(01:27):
something good, but I think it's harder to leap from
something good to something better maybe or just as good.
So so talk about We'll start there with what you're
doing now, and then we'll kind of go backwards.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, so I you know, I where do I start?
I mean, the new position. I'm not the director of
equipment for golf dot com, which is obviously a very
very big platform, and you know it's a different you know,
I'll get into the callaway gig here in a second.
But like, you know, I went from living on a
really fun island with you know, no oversight and kind

(02:00):
of you know, do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted,
and to go into actually having to manage people and
manage a business. And you know, you know, I'm dealing
with set of just one club company, I'm dealing with
you know, twenty or twenty five plus all the apparel
companies and then you know, it's a whole nother ballgame.
And I was used to it because I was coming
from WRX before at Callaway, so I'm used to the

(02:24):
media space and how that works politically in business wise.
But you know, coming out of such a calaway just
blissful haze into like I would call the real world.
It's been fun. I mean, but you know, at this point,
I'm forty eight, like I was looking for a new
I'm very ambitious. You know, my ego is probably a

(02:45):
little too large for my liking. But you know, I like,
I want to do big things. And somebody hands me
a whole platform and says, hey, it's not working correctly
and we want you to burn it down and build
a new one. A guy like me is like, awesome,
let's go, like, give me a bunch of way and
the ability to sprint as fast as I can. And
now you're speaking my language, so they so here. I

(03:06):
am like, it's uh, I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
I can't hear your day masisious? Got how I jump
in and then we'll go back.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Daniel all right, Well, I mean, you know, speaking of
the golf, dot com coming from Callaway. What what is
the thing that you're trying to accomplish now that you're
at golf dot com and a free agent again.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, the the biggest thing is and I have to
you know, I have to show love and a lot
of gratitude to the editorial part of media. Right Like
it's it's been kind of like the load bearing wall
of golf media. You know, the art of the writers.
And I'm a writer obviously and I do a lot
of that, but that's not my high level of expertise.

(03:51):
But you guys, I'd say the best example right now
would be like what we saw in the political landscape
over the last six to nine months, how new media
kind of took over and the ability to write an article.
And you know, not to say that people are ignoring it,
but it's just not how media moves around anymore. And
golf dot com is a traditional media space, but they're

(04:15):
what they're wanting is to modernize it and make it
more social media. Have a bigger audience on YouTube, and
so the plans to that are literally just to you know,
to make it way more creator driven, way more. You know,
you're gonna get used to seeing a lot of faces
as opposed to a lot of names attached to an article.

(04:37):
So you know, I look at it like I always
look at through the lens of my kids. I have
an eight year old and a twelve year old. How
are they going to consume? You know, if I had
to start them off today or am I going to
turn them to to get information on golf stuff? And
a lot of it's going to be YouTube and Instagram,
and that's where the world's going. And you know, the

(04:58):
sleeker and faster and and better you can do it,
you're gonna win. And golf dot COM's demos are very interesting,
you know, the dot Com part of the whole equation.
You know, it's still guys my age, maybe skewing a
little bit older, that still read articles. But you know,
obviously we're you know, I'm forty eight, I'm I'm not
a kid anymore. And my demographics starting to go that way.

(05:20):
And now I have to satisfy everybody that's in a
demo beneath me, and that's all Instagram, x TikTok YouTube.
So hopefully, if I do my job in the next
year to eighteen months, you'll see golf dot com not
as a dot com, but as a media platform that
you go to where you can pick out a person

(05:41):
and go, I like Dylan's videos, or I like Johnny's videos,
or I like this person's videos. And that's how I'm
ingesting my content. And that's eighty percent of how you're
getting your content from golf dot com is through fast
moving media that you can see and watch and you know,
you can get a thousand word article in a ninety
second video.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
D we still don't have We still don't have your volume,
so sor right, Well, we'll mess around with it and
see I don't know if you're goingna hop off and
hop back in.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
But Johnny, go back to the callaway days.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I feel like, you know, probably most of our people listening,
that's that's where they really know you from, because you know,
in the beginning of very broadcast, the guys love bringing
up your name and talking to you and and talking
about about equipment and what these players were using.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
So just talk about like your time there and what
that was like.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, it's funny, like you know, I kind of have
to go back to the beginning of where I started
in the golf business, Like you know, twenty eighteen, like this,
literally this time of the year, February of twenty eighteen,
I was nobody in the golf space, like I didn't.
I wasn't. I was a you know, a featured civilian
writer for w r X and already maybe five to

(06:55):
ten articles just for fun and for free. And I
was in the film business and I had just I
had made a movie a couple, you know, a year
and a half prior, and I was a partner in
a film company. But the film business goes up and
down financially, and I had two young children, and I
had a girl at a family support and I was like,
I can't sustain. I have like two months of savings left,

(07:15):
and this thing's going to go south fast. And that
was like, you know, it's a snowy day like it
is today. And I just sat down and I wrote
WORX and our you know, an email saying that your
website sucks. You guys need video, you don't do any
social media, Like I'm the guy you need to hire me,
and kind of just bullyed my way in there. And
my job there was to produce video content. It wasn't

(07:36):
to be on camera. I wasn't to write articles. It
was literally going to come in, I'm going to produce
the content, shoots and start to build a video platform form.
And within like a month, they were kind of like, well,
you know more than we do about equipment, and you're
ten times better on camera than everybody else's, so why
don't we just make you the face of this thing?
And they just kind of shoved me out into the fold.

(07:58):
So I kind of became the middle person between the
club companies and the website because at that point, everybody
wanted new media, so I'm selling what they want. So
you know, I did that at a pretty high level
as a director of concert for two and a half years,
you know, almost three years. And you know, during COVID,
I really got into the tour space. I had a

(08:19):
podcast called The Gear Dive that I would have tour
reps on and players and you know, you name it.
There were you know, I had couples on them. I
mean it was it was I could. I got so
many stories about that pod. Some of the craziest happened
on the podcast. But I really got ingrained in the
tour truck ecosystem, like in year two, and you know,
the club company started taking a look at me that

(08:41):
way of like, Okay, this is a guy that really
understands tour, he understands fitting, he understands how to produce
a video and podcast. And at the end of twenty twenty,
Taylor Made Callaway, Cobra, p XG, and one other I
think a PGA tour all called literally in the same
two weeks, Wow to pull me out of WRX and
go do be Johnny Wonder, but just be specifically for

(09:03):
that entity. Right. So at the time Callaway my old boss,
they got to hired. He's a guy named Jeff Newbart
who's now the executive producer of all the TJIL media
that you see, so like you watch it on television
and Jeff's the one that's in the control room making
it all happen. So it was kind of funny once
they figured out that Taylor Made was in the running

(09:24):
for the to get me, they got Callowie got really
aggressive and you know, I'm not going to go to
the whole story, but it was really funny twenty four
hours about how he finally got me to sign. And
the nice thing that they did for me from day
one is they put me out in front so it's like, Okay,
we're going to put you in front of Phil Michelson.
We're going to put you in front of rom Like

(09:47):
We're just you're going like, you're gonna do your thing.
We're not going to put any governor on you. Just
go or you're gonna make a ton of videos. We're
going to create a website with your name on it,
and you're going to travel the tour in the world
and just be wonder for Callaway and go nuts. And
they gave me carte blanche to kind of do whatever
I wanted. And that obviously morphed over the course. You know,

(10:07):
it shifted and changed as it went on, but you know,
by the end of it, you know, they changed my
professional life. I mean, you know, if I do that
at any other company, I don't think I have the
opportunity to do what I'm doing now because there would
have been a lot of red tape and a lot
of I don't want to say control, but like site oversight.

(10:29):
And they were adamant about like just go do you
if you if you hit a wall, we'll either knock
it down and we'll tell you to go different direction,
but just go. And they they did me a humongous
favor and like, you know, when I'm sixty five or seventy,
if people say, like, what was your pivot point in
your career, it was Callaway, like they they gave me

(10:51):
wings to fly man like and and it's been. It
was an unbelievable ride working for Nick mackinaw and Chip.
And you know, the cool thing about my job there
was I kind of sat in between marketing and tour.
So I had two I don't want to say I
served two masters, but I had two families. I had
my marketing family and then I had my tour family.

(11:13):
And you know, from day one, they you know, the
first month, they were kind of like who the hell
is this schmuck like on the truck taking videos, like
what the hell's going on here? And after a month,
you know, they became all my brothers, you know, I
just I'm talking about the plane staff and the truck guys.
I mean, it just became my family away from home.
And like it was hard leaving, very hard, very hard

(11:37):
to say. It took me like a month and a
half to finally jump. Like there was some tears and
they were like it was hard. I mean, that was
that is my family. It was very, very challenging, but
ultimately for my family and where I want to go,
going to golf dot Com was the right situation. So
so here I am.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Well, since you're now a free agent, what's the coolest
piece of gear that you've got to try?

Speaker 5 (12:09):
So far?

Speaker 2 (12:10):
So far? Like I've tried, I'll just kind of go
through it. I've tried so far quickly. I mean, I've
tried all the pings. I went to Ping, and you know,
obviously the nice thing in my function is, you know,
when I go to these places, now I know all
the reps, you know, so you know, I kind of
get my own spot, and you know, it's it's been
pretty cool. So I went to Ping when I was
in Arizona a couple of weeks ago for the waste management.

(12:31):
I went there. I'm really close rock Commedia. It's like
one of my best friends. So he's a big Ping guy.
So we went together and we just kind of sat
in the He's so I'll tell you an interesting story
about him here in a second. But he we just
went and my buddy Kenton is the tour fitter for Ping,
and he, you know, he came with this track man
and a bunch of clubs, and very impressed with their driver.

(12:54):
Their irons are you know, it's all new to me
right Like, I'm been in the Callaway vacuum the whole time,
so very impress with the ping stuff. Stricks Ons built
me a set of irons that I was, you know,
dying to hit, and I loved their z x I
seven irons are amazing. Tried Cleveland Wedges for the first
time in five years, which obviously the Cleveland Wedges. They're brilliant,

(13:15):
Tailor made fairy woods, which is kind of sacrilegious coming
from Callaway. Everybody's freaked out when I started hitting Tailor
Before a Callaway, all I played was Taylor Made like
that was I was, you know, that was my I
just hit their stuff the best, So that was fun
for me to go back and re experience some old feels,
some stuff that I was used to. I'm trying the
lab and still digging into the lab golf thing right now.

(13:37):
Sam sent me some putter, so I'm trying to figure
that whole thing out. But you know, the next sixty
to ninety days for me, a lot of it's just
testing stuff, like just refamiliarizing myself with all this stuff,
I mean case, it's it's a lot of stuff. And
you know, I'm trying to limit the amount of intake
I take because when I found when everybody found out
I was eaven Callaway, the boxes just started showing up

(13:57):
at my house like crazy. So I you know, I
still have free proms sitting in my office that I
haven't even touched yet. So you know, I'm getting to it,
slowly but surely. But so far to the cool thing.
I'm very so far, very impressed with the pin stuff,
Like it's very very interesting. Their driver, their lst driver.
Now it's not the fastest I'll tell I'll say that

(14:18):
right now, like the Callaway driver that I've been playing,
it's like two miles an hour faster. But Ping is
known for their stability and their driver or even their
low spin one just it just it just it's a
brick house man. He just goes out in front of
you all day long. And so now I'm, you know,
forty eight, I'm like, do I want to hit a
bunch of fairways or do I want to hit nukes? Like?
Where am I?

Speaker 5 (14:40):
So?

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, it's it's been fun.

Speaker 6 (14:44):
We were talking a lot about like your inside on
golf equipment you work with, you know pretty closely with
a few tour players too. Who do you think or
who have you seen that's like the most dialed in
when it comes to their equipment.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Well, there's different there's different levels of it. So they
you have your geared dorks on. And if I'm speaking
specifically to like the people that I interact with, like
if I'm gonna take the callaway staff, Max Grazerman is
an absolute geared dork. Aha is a geared dork. So
like they're pretty dialed in, but they're also seekers, so
they're always trying to you know, if something's not flying

(15:18):
right in a certain tournament, you know, sure enough, I'll
get a text from maxic what do you think about this?
Or what do you think about that?

Speaker 7 (15:25):
I usually say their.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Seekers, but that's the that's their way in. Like so
like Charles Hall the third, for example, has been a
dear friend of mine for years and he probably ruined himself.
You know, he probably should have twenty wins and a
couple of majors at this point, but he is such
a seeker and he'd be the first person to tell
you that he probably went down five or six too
many rabbit holes to be successful. But that's his that's

(15:47):
his uh, that's what he enjoys doing. Like that's his
path to golf is the seeking so and I I
can relate to that on multiple levels. Like he's just
you know in aucuhay you know, actually is a happy
medium of the two Max Max is almost Charles Hall
lovel like he loves a good rabbit hole. But then

(16:09):
you take the flip side of that and you get
somebody like like Xander or rom that know their equipment well,
but they don't once it works, they don't want to
look at anything else, so they get they get emotionally
attached to to something. So whereas maxl you know, Max

(16:30):
an Ox will try anything once uh. If Rombo has
something in its bag that works, it better. If you're
gonna bring him a club like it, you better guarantee
that it's going to be better than what he's got
because you're gonna get two swings out of it, and
he's gonna fling it back if he doesn't like it.
So Xander's kind of the same way, like you know,

(16:51):
Burns is like that, like they just you know, some
guys are hard switchers. They just don't like switching equipment.
So I'm more and endeared like the guys that I'm
friends with on tour that I really love to interact with,
the Brysons and the Tommy Fleetwoods and the Max Grazerman's
and Charles Howell's like guys like that because they're such
club idiots that they you know, we could sit there

(17:13):
and talk about a seven iron bounce for an hour
and a half and it's like, you know, when you
were a kid, it's like talking about you know, Indiana
Jones the Last Crusade for the first time. You're just
nerd it out.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
I mean, and I always wonder too, Johnny, like how
those contracts work, right, Maybe you can give us some
insight in that, right, Like like someone like that, right
who loves what they have, But then a new new
driver comes out and you want them to use it,
Like are they are they obligated to use that or
or they're no.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I mean, there's a there's a nice balance to it,
like you know, like I'll use I'll use Rombo for example,
like and like when he was a full callaway staffer,
like before they live craziness the the way that it
works for him, is you know I think he I
think I don't know the mechanics of the whole deal.
But like, just like as an arbitrary example, he's like

(18:03):
a fourteen club callaway player and the ball. So you know,
if you're going to spend that much money, you're getting
a full a full bag. The great thing for that
was he doesn't like having a ton of options, like
he just wants to find something that works and works.
So like if he had a great driving year, like

(18:24):
for example, like the epic speed year when he won
in the US Open that year, coming off of that year,
he drove the piss out of it for a year,
like and he played the same driver the whole year,
so which is rare, Like usually they crack a face
or whatever. So like when you know, by the time
you got to September October with his driver, it was
hot as hell. Like if they would have tested it,
I guarantee it would have been on the razor's edge

(18:45):
of not passing. But as a fitter, you know that
that's going to be a challenge. The only thing you
have working for you at that point is his driver
is going to break. So so if he would have
started the year in twenty twenty two and said, like,
I don't really like this driver, or they would have
probably worked with him to get it. The new one
is close to it's humanly possible over the course of

(19:05):
two or three months to get him into the new driver.
Did he have to play it?

Speaker 7 (19:08):
No?

Speaker 2 (19:09):
But are they going to continue? What what? A lot
of these contracts we'll kind of say I'm paraphrasing, but
it's like best efforts for new product, right, but if
you can't if you can't get it over the finish line,
you can't get to the finish line, like we're not
going to the Callaway is never going to sacrifice a
player's performance just to get him into the new driver.

(19:30):
And most companies kind of operate the same way. Taylor
made that way, Tylus is that way that just kind of.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
They just put the new head cover on it on
the old drive.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
And to be honest, like you know, in my opinion,
I can say this now, it really helps if you
get lucky like we did with for example, with Paradigm,
like you know, Callaway came out of I think we
won the first five events in a row or six
events in a row. And Romo just went on an
absolute heater that helped, right, Like that really really helped
that that driver was doing so well.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
But did it?

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Did it you know, put Callaway financially in sales on
the like full tilt, like dominating the whole year. No,
I mean it helps, but you know, yeah, most of
the most of the thing behind a tour player these
days is brand awareness. That's where they really come into

(20:26):
play where some of these guys really help and I
could say that with Callaway staff where they really helped
us with a golf ball. So Rambo's first year is
the first year that Callaway had a real golf ball,
meaning like the my golf spice stuff was behind them.
They'd invested a bunch of stuff in their golf ball platform.
They brought an Eric Loper from Taylor Maid who had

(20:49):
just come off of making Taylor Made's best ball, which
is a TP five nineteen. So they took it very seriously.
By the time that Chromesoft X ball came out that
Rombo won with we had a golf ball and the
fact that he was winning with it, and then Xander
won the gold medal, I mean, all of a sudden,
the golf ball sales really had an uptick because the
consumer can see that Titles isn't the only show in town.

(21:13):
So that's when Calway really started to see And I
think I think I probably helped that. I was doing
a ton of golf ball content. I like to think,
I'll pat myself on the back. I think I helped
sell some golf balls, but that one I can make
a one to one correlation between tour success and sales,
like in a real uptick in sales, but a lot

(21:36):
of it when it comes to tour presence and sales.
There's not a lot of golfers anymore that move that
sell golf clubs. You know, Arnold Palmer and like Phil
sold golf clubs. Tigers sort of sold golf clubs a
little bit, like obviously Scotty Cameron Putters like he built
that business on his back. You know, there's certain guys

(21:58):
unicorns that'll come around if they're using it, you know,
people will buy it. But these days, you know, because
of people like me and because of some of the
stuff that's out there in the media right right now,
people are pretty savvy. Now they're not just buying a
piece of equipment because somebody has it. They they want
to know if it's any good for them. So I

(22:19):
hope I answered your question.

Speaker 7 (22:20):
Sorry, yeah, no, no, that's great.

Speaker 6 (22:22):
I need to rewind a little bit though, because I
love a good story. I know, you know you say seekers,
the tinkers, whatever you mentioned, like you know, the driver
face was about to cave in. Give us like a
story about one of the guys who, like you had
to have like extra driver heads, you know, in their
bag in case they smashed, or like they had to
have like you just knew to prep the truck for

(22:43):
that week. Like, give us like your best equipment story.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, I'm not going to name I'm not going to
name the player because I will sure I absolutely love
this player, but I'm not going to name his name.
But he's not American, I'll say that. And he is
a President's cover. But he is a beautiful human being,
but he has moments of temper. So I've had two

(23:11):
instances on the truck where I've shown up on a
Monday and they are building a complete new set for
this player because he parking lotted his whole bag and
left it there, and you know, we had to kind
of put him on a callaway. You know, he kind
of put him in the penalty box, like you know,
this happens again. You owe the truck x amount of dollars,

(23:32):
or you own a case of wine or something like.
But if you met this person and you hung out
with him, he's like, there's no way this guy gets
this hot. But he does. Like he he's just got
one percent of his personality that things aren't going right,
he'll turn into a demon and all of a sudden,
clubs start flying and you know it's a it's a

(23:53):
whole thing. But like that to me was always funny.
And you know, this particular player, Calloway has a set
up irons that are made by a Japanese forging house
and they're they're total tour one offs. They're beautiful. I mean,
they're just absolutely stunning irons. But there's not a lot
of sets going around and to get your hands on them,
even for a tour player, like it's a special thing.

(24:14):
It's like, you know you have that like one leather
jacket in your closet. It's like you kind of we
only wear specially. It's like one of the it's like
a set of irons like that, and we're at the
players championship last year and I saw that he had
those in the bag and I was like, before you
snap these over your knee, call me because I'm gonna
take them from you, Like, do not break these? Yeah, can't,

(24:34):
he can't break them. And he's like, okay, deal, And
I shook his hand, like if you if you're if
you're gonna break these, dude, I'm like, you better call me.
If you don't, I'm coming after you. But like funny
stories like that, Like, but we don't have the tour truck.
Is the you know, the Callaboy trailer for example, there's
so our reps. I have to say, our reps. The
reps on that truck them want my reps anymore. They're

(24:57):
so attuned to what theoretically could happen in the future
that they have backups. You know, they'll they'll send backup
irons to a player's house, you know, two months before
they need them. You know, we have backup at least
one or two sets of backup wedges on the truck.
So if a player needs a new wedge, they just
go to the grab bag, grab their wedges, and they're gone.

(25:19):
So you don't see a lot of that. So much anymore.
It's not so much like we have to keep this.
You know, the only time you'll ever see that is
if the players going to go off to Europe for
three or four weeks. But then we have the same
ecosystem in the UK as well, so like you know,
it's rinse and repeat once they get across the Atlantic,
like it's you know, we have the guys that the
callaway truck guys in UK are phenomenals, so they're just

(25:39):
as teed up as the US guys are tremendous.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
So what's the hottest new piece of equipment and why
is it? The mini driver?

Speaker 2 (25:48):
You know what, you're right the idea of the mini driver, right,
they would say, I would say, center shafted putters and
the mini driver are kind of like the widget of
the day right now, Like everybody's got the mini driver,
and you know, I saw we made one for phil
a prototype in late twenty twenty one, and I hated

(26:10):
mini drivers. I hated them because at the time they
either spun too much and they were like just a
really big three wood that didn't go as far, or
they didn't spin at all, and you were getting driver
numbers out of a club that just didn't go as far,
like you couldn't control it. Now, the one that they
made for Phil was very phil because Phil hits up

(26:31):
on it and what I mean by that like angle
of attacks way up. So he he hit this thing
and hit it straight up in the air and it
didn't have any spin and spill. Phil is very much
ball go far player, Like if you see something going far,
he thinks it's the greatest thing. Ever. So when Callaways
started prototyping these new ones, I was like, this is stupid.
Why are we getting into this game? Taylor made has one?

(26:54):
It's fine, why are we doing this? And they just
kept telling me like, just wait and see what we
do this one. And I finally hit it and it
was long and it's spun like you know, it's spun
in a good window, and it was the practicality of it.
All of a sudden, it's started to make perfect sense.
And then little by little over the last six months,

(27:15):
you know, Xander's got one in his bag, and you know, uh,
trying to think who else on our staff Max Grazerman
had there's a ton of guys, see who Kim has one?
Like they all now all they start to see now
now Cobra has one, PXG has one, Taylor Made has one.
Titleist has theirs, but they didn't go all the way
with the idea. Callaway has theirs and they look great

(27:35):
and they all do what they're supposed to do. So
like it's if you want to know the reasoning behind
why somebody would switch into a mini driver. Either you
are an absolute idiot with a driver and you can't
hit it, or you're so fast that you don't need
a three wo anymore and having a second spinny tea
option makes a lot of sense. That's that's w takes
advantage of a mini driver.

Speaker 5 (27:55):
So good stuff that you brought up Live a little
while ago.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
I'd love to get your take on the current state
of the professional game and maybe where you see it
going here in the next I don't know, twelve months.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Oh, I love Live like I think Live is fantastic.
I think you know, I'll say this off the top,
Live Live is, you know, I'll go back to American politics.
Live is kind of like Trump, Like you know, it's like,
you know, very polarizing. You know, it's like the it's

(28:28):
like the media never gave it a chance, like they
were trying to suffocate it and make it disappear as
fast as it is. It is so it Live has
never seen any sunshine. They've been up against the media
storm and the PGA tour storm since it started, and
and it was a moral issue. It was like, how
dare you take this money from the with no reference
to the fact that F one is dep world tour.

(28:49):
Everybody iPhones, I mean, you name it, were surrounded by
Saudi money. It's a part of the financial ecosystem of
the whole world. And to think that that just this
little tour that's trying to you know, see some daylight
is terrible because they're taking Saudi money is so naive
and so dumb. So Live now as it stands, like

(29:10):
people will say that Live ruined professional golf. I don't
think it ruined professional golf at all. I think what
it is that exposes it exposed the weaknesses of professional golf.
And I think what we'll see in five years is
going to benefit everybody. It's going to benefit the consumer,
it's gonna benefit and it's going to take a minute
though it's a startup, so you know, I think you're

(29:36):
starting to see the pivot now with the tour and
Live coming together, Like I think that'll happen, and I
think it'll take eighteen months to two years for everybody
to absorb what's happening. But ultimately, like everybody benefited from Live,
everybody did. And the consumers might say, well, god, we
didn't because we don't want to watch professional golf. Well,
nobody was really watching professional golf before Live, Like the

(29:57):
numbers weren't like through the roof and what what Live
is done? And I'm going to go off on a
tani year, so just give me some rope. The whole
the whole golf world is learning how to survive without
tiger Woods, right, Like, so every TV deal, every ecosystem
is built around tiger Woods being tiger Woods at peak flight, right,

(30:21):
And nobody stopped to think, what are we going to
do when you know, if this is the Bible, Tiger's Jesus,
So what do you do for the last chapters? Like
who's our hero? And you you don't have him anymore?
Like he's been gone for years, and everybody, the players,
the consumer, everybody has to find that's why YouTube golf

(30:41):
is so amazing now and the good goods and the
Bobdas Sports and what Bryson's doing, it's given it. It's
creating an ecosystem for new entertaining parts of golf to
come through. And what the tour I think, whether they'll
say this out loud, is that I think they're still
really with the fact that they don't They can't depend
on Tiger fifteen sixteen weeks a year anymore. And the

(31:03):
only way they're going to get that kind of bolt
of energy is if Charlie Woods Monday's into the Cognizant
wins and then goes to Augustine wins. That's the oldest
time you're going to see the PGA Tour at Tiger
levels again. And I experienced Golf WX when I was
slow and I needed something to talk about, and I
need two hundred thousand people to read an article, I
would put Tiger Woods anything, and all of a sudden,

(31:24):
the numbers. He was that big of a needle, and
he's not that big of a needle anymore because he's
not doing with Tiger stuff anymore. So the the biggest,
the greatest thing that happened to golf in twenty nineteen,
and the worst thing that happened to golf in the
years after was Tiger winning the Masters. So what that
did was it gave the whole market hope that we
were going to get that for another five or six

(31:44):
years and without the realization that was an absolute unicorn
lightning in a bottle, one of a billion shot. And
you know, looking back, if I'm going to Monday morning
quarterback Tiger after he won the Masters, he probably should
just go, Okay, guys, I'm done, Like I just give
you this laugh bolt energy, get clever, get awesome. I'm

(32:06):
going to go to the Bahamas, and I'm going to
go drink and hang out and play golf and raise
my kids. See y, Like he would have been doing
everybody a favor by doing that, because what he would
have been well, no, I mean I understand why he
kept playing. I mean, I mean I would have kept playing.
But like, if I'm going to do we ever see
him on the Champion Store, I hope So I really

(32:27):
need too, Like the the thing that, like, looking back,
if I'm going to unfairly critique what he did, like
he could have just said, like I've done everything I
can for you, guys, like you can't depend on me anymore.
He had the cloud to say that you can't use
me anymore. I'm going to go off and I'm going
to go like, for example, I'm going to go just
work on junior golf. I'm going to go work with

(32:47):
the USGA and build up you know, do this or
go do that. But that's not realistic. It's unfair, and
I understand that. But but that's what we're seeing now
is a beautiful thing. I mean, people are taking in
golf and completely new ways, and the golf ecosystem now
gives schmucks like me a job. Like traditional golf is

(33:10):
kind of going away, and it's open doors for guys
like me to come in. I didn't go to journalism school.
I'm not like, I didn't work with the golf channels
and intern Like, I'm just in some idiot from Seattle
that knows golf equipment really well. And now I'm doing
what I'm doing, like without the shift in media and
the shift of you know, I can thank Tiger for
that too, because Tiger just drew eyeballs and you know,

(33:32):
we all benefited from what he was doing. But we
can't rely on him anymore, and the whole golf world
needs accept that. Like he's gone. He's not going back, right.

Speaker 4 (33:41):
He's a TGL.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, and he's fun to watch at TGL. But that's
how we're getting them, we're not.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
I think that I think TGL is the bridge did
a Champions Store. I think with seeing him just having
fun and being loose, I think that actually like will
open a door for him to go there.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, if he wants to grow the game, like in
the way that he's talking about the best thing that
he can you and I could say the same thing
to Phill and I'd say it to his face. The
best thing you could have done is gone full tilt
on the Champions Tour and built that tour up. Yep,
Like you want to create a new product and create
a new widget, you could have gone there and made
that like tour one b you know, because obviously the

(34:17):
the DP World Tour got decimated because of the PGA Tour.
You know, all the big purses, all the big players
came over to the States and moved to West Palm
and you know DP World tours like half of a
half of a half of a tour now ye where
you know, when I was grown up, it was legitimate.
Sometimes it was one a it was the best tour
in the world. In some cases, now it's it's you know,

(34:39):
it's not even the corn Ferry Tour anymore.

Speaker 7 (34:41):
Yeah, Jenny, I gotta ask. We ask every single guest
that's on here.

Speaker 6 (34:46):
As you said in the beginning Philly based podcast, what's
your experience with Philadelphia golf?

Speaker 7 (34:51):
The best course you've played? Hopefully you've at least played one.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
I have never I have never been to Philadelphia. Yeah,
I've been in your I have been in your airport.
I have never played golf in Philadelphia. I'm obviously going
to be there for the truest the truest.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
Yeah, yeah, there are you gonna come early to at
least get out like play, I think.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
So I don't really play when I travel for work,
like for tour events, I usually don't bring my sticks.
But like you know, with Jack Bearer and the fact
that it's Philadelphia and in the time of year it's out,
obviously Philadelphia is gonna beautiful that time of year.

Speaker 7 (35:27):
So yeah, and now you got us.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Yeah, I got you, guys, like I would love. There's
so many courses. There's so many courses in Philadelphia.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
Embarrassment is what we call it.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
All right, So all right, let's let's go the other
way with this.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Then if you if you were in for a weekend
and you could play two courses, any of them you
can have access to where you're playing.

Speaker 7 (35:47):
Do you need us?

Speaker 4 (35:49):
By the way, we count Pine Valley as a Philly courses.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, yeah, obviously Cricket Club is a big one. I'm
not I'm not a huge airport. Dory Marion would be one. Yeah,
that's one, a just because of all the US Opens
that have been played there, and it's just it's just you know,
it's it's like Oakmond or the rest of them. It's
like this one of those destination places you have to play.

(36:12):
Philly Cricket Club would be another one. Obviously it's not
necessarily close, but like Oakmont's one I've always wanted to play.
Uh Roco's got he's so died because he's from there,
right Yeah. He rattles off, like all these courses in
that area that I need to play, and I'm like, well, great,
why didn't you set me up.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Like Fox Chapel, Longview, Fox.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Chapel, Yeah yeah, Fox Chapel. He said, it's amazing, So
we'll have.

Speaker 7 (36:40):
To change that. You got to come out earlier.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
I mean, you're probably an hour and twenty minute flight
from Toronto. I know that the Troit flight is quick,
so not.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Even that like Toronto to Philadelphia. Actually, look so I
had to buy my tickets for Truth. It's like forty
eight minutes in the air. It's crazy. Nothing, Yeah, it's nothing.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
Play well.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
The other thing usually ask people is love.

Speaker 7 (36:57):
That you already bought your tickets for True. That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
What O the difference this is? This is like the
corporate the corporate bliss is like for Callaway. We had
a travel department, right right, So I had a I
had a one. I had Carrol, this girl named Carol
who I adore that when I was booking my flights,
I could do it the day before. She was my
But you know she's in the house and she handled
all of our travel. And there's a girl it is

(37:22):
her and a woman named Gloria Taylor, and they just
I love them to death. I would kill people for
these two women. But it was so dialed travel wise.
And now it's like now that I'm off and I'm
kind of off the tee. Now it's like now I'm
on Expedia and I kind of have to look at
the stuff and like the corporate rates aren't the same,
and it's like, oh god, this sucks, but like you know,

(37:44):
it's it's not the same, not the same animal.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Caryl and get her.

Speaker 6 (37:50):
I know, I'm coming back to Philly, but a flight
from West like PBI, from West Palm to Philly like
at Max, used to be like two hundred bucks and
now it's legit. I think I'm I'm flying back next Thursday,
and I think it's like before any upgrades, four hundred
just for a round trip flight.

Speaker 7 (38:06):
I'm like, this is silly. What is happening. I'm going
to Yeah, West Palm to Philly.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Like, hey guys for one second, yeah, yeah, of course, Sorry.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
All who do you think he was talking about?

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I was thinking Sea Woo, me too, shaking that as Yeah,
that's who.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
I was thinking. But you know, who knows it's a
great story.

Speaker 7 (38:28):
We need to hear something.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
You weren't on.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
But it's he said how he got into golf w RX.
It sounded like me getting into the radio business. I
basically told him that they're going to fail unless they
hire me, and it's kind of what he did.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
It's like Tom Brady basically right, and Pizzas being like, hey,
you gotta let me have a shot here.

Speaker 7 (38:45):
That's awesome. I can't wait to listen back.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
Yeah, that's very cool. Good.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
What a job he's got Moose. I mean he gets
to play with all the equipment.

Speaker 7 (38:54):
Box has just shown up at the house. That was
me this morning.

Speaker 6 (38:56):
We don't have to take it off for a while.
But I'm like, big package from Moose. I'm like, let's go,
we get the Philly Go.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
Johnny, We'll get you wrapped up. We know you have
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
I was just out with the with the boss of
the house.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
So I hear you.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Well, we usually ask people like who we should have
on next, but I think I think we know that answer.
I think it's Rocco, right, we might. We might need
you to throw a text out and vouch for us
with Roco.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
You know.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Well, okay, so you want to hear a funny Roco story. Yeah,
so so my gear dive podcasts that I have for
w RAX. You not have a bunch of players. And
Rocco has always been somebody I've always adored, Like I
didn't I didn't know them, And it's funny how life works.
It's so funny. So like my free closest friends that

(39:41):
are players, we're all guests in my gear Dive podcasts
is Jimmy Walker, Charles Hall, and Rocco Media. They're all
like brothers to be now, like because at this job,
like you're friends with a ton of players, but there's
still work colleagues. They're not like they're not like family friends,
like you're not calling each other on birthdays and Christmas
and stuff like. But those three, for sure, like I
talked to all of them four or five times a week.

(40:02):
So anyway, long story longer, I emailed Roco's agent and said, hey,
this is who I am and I want to have
Roco on the podcast, and I got crickets no response.
And then on his he had an Instagram at the time,
and there was an email connection on his Instagram. It
was like some random accounts. So I email It's like, hey,

(40:23):
this is who I am. I want to do this
podcast whatever Crickets. Two months later, I get an email
back from this account and it's like, sorry, we never
checked this. We were just about ready to delete this
email and it was his wife, Jess, and she's like,
Roco would definitely definitely want to do your show. Let's
let us know when this is his phone number or whatever.
So I had him on the show, and the thing
that him and I have in common is I've been
in recovery for almost eleven years and he had just

(40:45):
been recently sober. So obviously guys like him, Chris kirk
As like that. We've always connected over sobriety, so that
was always kind of an outside of golf thing that
you could connect on. So we had this great show
and really got along and we kept talking. Because once
somebody's on your podcast, you know, the text message start
going back. You kind of become friends with these people.
You know, you spend an hour and a half on

(41:06):
the phone with them and you get to know each other.
So he just became somebody, you know. He would send
me videos of him screwing around. I would post them
on the WRX social feed or whatever. So when I
got to callaway, we were talking all the time, and
I'm like, bro, you need a you need a social
like a real social media account like yours is dog crap,
Like it makes no sense. It's just a bunch of

(41:28):
pictures and it's mindless and it sucks. So let's He's like,
all right, kid, like help me. So I'm like, I'm
deleting your old account and we're starting to dow. And
I was sitting in traffic in LA sitting there. So
I literally created a Gmail account, a Gmail address. We
created a new account called Rocko Golf and that was
in like September of twenty twenty two. He started at zero.

(41:50):
I think he's got one hundred and ten thousand followers now.
So I've been running that and so if you read
the captions, you'll know it's me. So I gave him
a laundry list of what I need.

Speaker 5 (41:59):
He sends me the video.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
I post the videos, I write the caption, and he
goes in and bottles with people in the comments. And
I think he's got the second biggest account on the
Champions Tour. And it's just a sixty two year old
like Italian guy that can't hit it out of his shadow.
And we have so much fun with this thing. And
like I said, if I like Rocco, if we can

(42:23):
get this to fifty thousand followers, we're killing it. You know,
we're like one hundred and ten thousand, So.

Speaker 5 (42:28):
Like we just laugh.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
It's like this is ridiculous, like and for Waste.

Speaker 7 (42:33):
Management shooting a million this week but always great.

Speaker 6 (42:37):
That's so funny because I run facts and stuff and
everyone's always like hey, and then I'm like, no, that's
me acting like I'm a sixty two year old man.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Right, But I don't speak. I don't speak in Roco.
I speak. So my friends that didn't know it was me,
like my buddies at Calvic, some of the tour players
that follow them, We're like, do you follow Roco's account?
I'm like yeah, and like his captions sound very much
like you. And I'm like and they're like, I knew it.
So he uh. I stayed with him for a week,

(43:09):
him and his family uh from Waste Management, and we
have so much fun. We go in his garage and
nerd out. He's got a little built. I mean, it's
just it's just too two dork idiots just sitting there.
But watching golf with Rocco on TV is an out
of body experience. Like I can't tell you the language.
I'm not going to tell you who he's saying about what,
but like he goes fulled, especially on slow play, he

(43:33):
loses his mind and it is like I have a
couple of videos on my phone and him just going
like standing in front of the TV like a dog
barking at it. It is so funny. Also, yeah, he
is a He is a wild animal, that guy. Like
if you want to guess, like you want to have
some fun, Rocco. Rocco is a He is a one

(43:54):
of one human being. How gut up will?

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, Well his name has come up a few times
already and he's uh. He and I are members at
the same club here in the Philadelphia area. Jack hirsh
What have you learned thus far? Working day to day
with Jack?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
He's so.

Speaker 6 (44:16):
Mean?

Speaker 2 (44:16):
How do I say this? I see I see a
lot of myself and Jack totally different personalities obviously, Like
he's very East Coast, like Philadelphia.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
Kid, Penn State.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah, I mean he's like you know, if I he's
a Seinfeld episode. He's like Kramer George and Jerry Rapp
and like Kenny Banya wrapped into like one human being.
So the thing I love about Jack, He's obviously a
great writer. And I'm always skeptical, like somebody like me, Like,
you know, I come in a situation like this, I'm like,
did any of these guys actually know what they're doing,
Like what am I doing with here? Like I don't
even know who these people are. And I started reading

(44:52):
his articles and he is a hustler. He works his
butt off. He's an absolute writing machine, very knowledgeable. He
loves it. So my goal with him is to turn
him into my tour equipment beat writer, chasing stories down
and you know, being that person that covers the tour.

(45:14):
So I obviously don't have time to do it anymore,
but he is a very talented young kid. With him,
he's just gonna need mentoring because by the time he's
twenty something seven twenty eight years old, by the time
he's thirty five, he could be the best at what
he does as a as a as as far as
tour equipment, covering the tour from equipment standpoint, he could.

(45:38):
You know, if I have my way with him, he
will be the best of the best. And he's got
the chops to do it. And the thing I love
about him is he is a He is an entrepreneurial,
doesn't like to sit around, doesn't wait for ideas to
hit him in the forehead. He's just to go, go, go, go,
go go, And you know, at that age group. You know,
no disrespect to the other twenty five thirty year olds
out in the world. He is an old school thing

(46:00):
ging uh, workhorse like and you know, unfortunately in that
demographic you don't see a lot of that. But he
is a go get her man like that kid can
he can run and so yeah, like, if I am
my way with him, he'll be he'll be big s
H I T by the time he's thirty five, like,
he'll be he'll be the guy.

Speaker 4 (46:19):
So love it. Well, Johnny, thank you for coming on.
We're huge fans.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Of uh of obviously cough dot com a lot of
the guys over there and and happy to see you
there and thriving and excited to see what comes hopefully.
Uh maybe we could talk again around around the Truest
when you're here and and meet in person, because we'll
definitely be out there too. But congratulations on the the
new venture and continued success.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
Facts for coming on.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Man, all right, we're all going to play golf together
before the Truest, so yes, you let us go. We'll
play some golfers.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
We got a guy, we got a guy here there
that thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Well, thanks for having me on it's a great guy.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
Thanks you. All right, let's take a quick break and
we will be right back. All right, welcome back to
Swing It and Ding It the great Johnny Wonder.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
Yeah, great get moves.

Speaker 7 (47:05):
Yeah, that's awesome, great conversation.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Yeah, he's got stories, He's got stories.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
I mean, I think guys like that, they see those
guys in a different light, right like they you know,
once they're once they're out of that truck, you get
the polish version. But you see guys that are like
tinkering with their equipment or wanting stuff perfect or guy.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
I love the guys that just don't care like that.
It's so funny, how you know how different it is
out there people.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yeah, and he's describing watching golf with rock immedia. You
don't know how many times I've wished that I could
watch a tour event, like just one hour with a
tour pro.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
All Right.

Speaker 6 (47:40):
It's so funny you say that, because the moment he
said that, I'm like, I'm going to go over with
facts like he's covering these events, but I'm like I'm
going to get there for like the AP or something
and be like I watched golf with him, but I've
never recorded it, and I was like, wait, I'm gonna
go like sit down with a glass of tequila and
just like get contact.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, Well, let's talk about
the genesis open Ludwig Oldberg. I mean, we knew this
guy was coming, yep.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
I mean he had a little setback when he lost
about fifteen pounds and he was sick at.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
The same place. But he starts the day two back
at the turn. He's bought four back of Maverick McNeely,
I think by twelve.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
Still, we didn't see a shot on TV.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
For over an hour of this guy, right, and then
you know, Maverick has eight birdies in eleven holes, so obviously, yeah,
the attentions there, right, and he needs the birdie six
foot nine putt six foot nine inch putt and.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
Gets it done. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
He said he lost ten pounds in two days, and
he had and he had the thirty six hole lead
last time he was here, gets his second PGA Tour win,
and it looks like, you know, it looks like this
guy is coming on strong and should be a force
to be reckoned with.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, And he was my alternate by the way,
So the trend continues, you know, but I was rooting
for Danielle with the one and done. With Maverick Man,
he starts it out so hot, man, making what five
six birdies in a row on the front whatever it was,
and eight under threw eleven holes and then he kind
of he made a bogey on fourteen, which totally stopped

(49:10):
his momentum. And you talk about lud Victim, and I
could watch that guy play golf all day because.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
He's just there's no bs. He just wakes up to
the ball and just hits. Oh yeah, she loves him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
I think he might have replaced Adam.

Speaker 5 (49:24):
Yeah, I think he's replaced Adam. Adam's too old for.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
But man, you know he makes that six foot nine
inch birdie putt at the last hole to avoid a playoff.
I was hoping for a playoff, exam. It was so
much good drama, you know. I mean, yet Scotty got
his nose in there too, And I think I was
more impressed with watching Scotty and way he played, because
you know, he didn't have near his A game.

Speaker 5 (49:48):
He's probably got his C game and he's just grinding
that out. Man with his short game.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
Do you see, like, do you see his grip? Do
you see like they watch him warm up. I see
him like barely hold in the club with his right hand.
I don't know if it's because of the injury, Like
something looks it looks like he had to change the
way he holds the goth club.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
And they didn't really bring it up, but I'm.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Watching him like warm up. I'm like, he's it looked
like he was barely on the club with this.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
That's like one of the biggest things he focuses on
is the grip. Apparently it looks real streme.

Speaker 4 (50:16):
It looked different to me.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
And I don't know if he's because he said he
has scar tissue built up there. But the fact that
he's still doing what he what.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
He does with a hand injury is why.

Speaker 7 (50:24):
And the fact that none of us, I mean, I
wasn't surprised. I don't know if you were. But when
you see him creepy upto latter more, you're like, okay,
ye comes. You know, You're not like, oh, like you know,
this person's part of me. You're not like, oh, this
person's making a move. You're just like, oh, it's Scotty
doing Scotty things.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Yeah, he's hitting his driver left all day. He was
in the left rough. It seemed like every hole and
he is right, yeah, exactly right. But his short game
is just unbelievable. And he's not even the greatest potter.

Speaker 5 (50:50):
We know that, yea, his short game, his chipping and
his pitching is just magical. So it was a lot
of fun. It was a good, good tournament.

Speaker 7 (50:57):
I was with you, Hair, I was, I was like,
come on, give me a off. I mean I wanted to,
you know, obviously Map because I had.

Speaker 5 (51:03):
Him, but also Danny McCarthy.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
We love Danny McCarthy and here he is. You know,
he and Rogers are both going for their first ever win.
You'd love to see that, and it's just it's it's
amazing what Sunday does.

Speaker 7 (51:15):
And Danny plays the West Coast so well.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
When does Daniel. You need to tell Danny when they
come on, they win.

Speaker 5 (51:22):
He's gonna win.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
The reason why he hasn't won is because he hasn't
come I mean as Boston like like Maverick, just tell him, dude,
you want to get your first win, come on, swinging thing.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
It's it's so simple, so simple, but it's amazing.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
What Sunday does you know? To players? You know, both
he and Rogers won under I mean they they played
good golf.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
They just couldn't put it together for a big round,
which is what it takes.

Speaker 6 (51:45):
Yeah, well Moost just shared the recipe, so it looks
like I got somewhere somewhere.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
All right.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Well, while you're working and while you're looking at recipes,
let's talk about the sea.

Speaker 7 (51:55):
Let's get into some tea.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
Well, he's hot lately, hot tea, Josh Allen t really
spilled all over the internet, and we're happy for it.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
We are?

Speaker 7 (52:06):
We like that.

Speaker 6 (52:07):
Yeah, well, let's start out light, Like I said, Golf
Digest says, the average handicapped index is for a male.

Speaker 7 (52:13):
What do you guys think it is? Average index twenty Harry.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
Ah eighteen fourteen point two.

Speaker 7 (52:20):
Oh, which didn't make sense for me.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
I'm like, wait, so it's from the USGA. But I
was like, we have some friends over and I was
talking to Adam and he's like, well wait, he goes,
So I'm like average, but he goes. You know, most
guys can't they say, can't break one hundred? How does
that work? But yeah, for the female, I'm above average.
The female's twenty eight point seven. So I just thought
that was a little interesting. Put that out there, maybe
make some of our listeners feel better if they're possibly

(52:42):
above average.

Speaker 7 (52:44):
Where do you guys follow that? Are you above below average?

Speaker 5 (52:47):
I have been below average my entire life, based.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
On Harry at everything, I'm all around. I'm right around average.
I hover, I go back and forth.

Speaker 7 (52:57):
Moosey, He's like, I'm slightly alow average.

Speaker 4 (53:00):
Go below, I go above, I go way above.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Ill you, Johnny wonder about the mini driver?

Speaker 5 (53:05):
Did he convince you to get one?

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Or I'm already I'm already. I'm already.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
Oh it's already bought out.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
Okay, I.

Speaker 5 (53:14):
Want to go.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
I want to go hit some Yeah, I want to
get fitted for it. I think for me, I think
it's I think it's you could.

Speaker 5 (53:21):
Do some damage with one of those, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (53:23):
For sure.

Speaker 6 (53:24):
Magnolia Lane, aim in Corner, Green Jackets, Pimento Cheese sandwiches,
the back nine on Sunday, Dalia's full bloom. Guys, it
means one thing forty nine days away from the Masters.

Speaker 7 (53:36):
Are we getting excited for this?

Speaker 5 (53:38):
How we feeling seven weeks away? I mean, I have
a countdown clock. I've had, yeah, ever.

Speaker 6 (53:44):
Since Christmas, you know, countdown to Christmas, It's countdown to
the Masters.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
As soon as the final putt drops on Sunday, I
get the countdown for the next year, going.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
I love that.

Speaker 7 (53:55):
That's awesome.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
Well, you're talking about me getting some ga. You may
need to get a yes for us. Less than a
week until season three of Full Swing debuts, and this
season is quote promised to be packed with drama. We
have Scottie's historic run, Rory's emotional highs and lows. Harry
will love that, Bryson's rise to a fan favorite. We
have min Wu and Minji chasing Olympic history, Saheath in there, Windham,

(54:22):
Gary Woodland bouncing back from his brain tumor.

Speaker 7 (54:26):
Camillo in there.

Speaker 6 (54:27):
There's tons of topics that are all over the place.
Do you guys watch a trailer? Do you see any
of that?

Speaker 4 (54:32):
I didn't see yet. I actually had. I had a
call with Chad Mum yesterday.

Speaker 7 (54:36):
There we go see is on it?

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Well, not just that I have, I have a very
unique opportunity. You know, I am in the entertainment.

Speaker 7 (54:42):
Business, you guys, Oh yeah, above average.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
I may or may not have access to a all
time great actor who's big in the world of golf,
who has a band that I'm trying to help coordinate
with the creator classic of closing that night with that
with that band playing out at a club.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
So I'm working on some stuff.

Speaker 6 (55:02):
Chat yow all right, well maybe get them on Let's
talk season three too, So amongst other things, for the
first time in over eight years, John Rahm has dropped
out of the top fifty and official World Golf Rankings
chose the money over the rankings what some people say,
But guys, what I want to know from you is
the World Golf Ranking System broken?

Speaker 7 (55:24):
Tug R. I don't know if you guys know about this.

Speaker 6 (55:26):
But I think it's a more accurate ranking system if
we take a look at the top ten we have
in first Scottie Scheffler two, Xander three, John Rahm four,
Rory five, Colin six, Ludwig seven, Terrell Hatton eight, Can't
Lay nine Walking and ten Hadeki.

Speaker 7 (55:44):
So a little bit more accurate than if we're.

Speaker 5 (55:46):
Looking at the you know, WGR.

Speaker 7 (55:49):
Yeah, might be a little broken.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
I think the OWGR has needed fixing for quite a while.
And wait, where is Bryson on that he's not in
the top ten.

Speaker 7 (55:57):
On that other one he's not. But you know what,
I might do still have this.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
It's got to be close.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
That's weird.

Speaker 6 (56:02):
Yeah, yeah, I just I just pulled up the top ten.

Speaker 7 (56:07):
But let's see, I want to see where.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Yeah, I mean, I get how hard it is to
figure this out, but.

Speaker 7 (56:12):
There a little bit better. JT eleven, Bryson's twelve.

Speaker 6 (56:17):
Okay, yep, so eleven, JT twelve, Bryson thirteen, Tommy Brooksy is.

Speaker 7 (56:24):
I'm still scrolling yeah six eight brooks is thirty nine.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Yeah, the OWGR has needed tweaking for a while, and
the defections to Live have just put a big spotlight
on how bad it is.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
I don't know if you guys saw the tug R before,
but I was like, I came across this when I
was doing some digging, like seeing if there's any other
style ranking.

Speaker 7 (56:47):
I'm like, okay, this is.

Speaker 6 (56:49):
They are quote the most accurate rankings in advanced analytics
and golf. So I don't know if that's true or
if that's just like you know, a tagline that chat
GBT came up for.

Speaker 7 (56:57):
Them to say Johnny was mentioning it a little bit
when Harry.

Speaker 6 (57:03):
Asks, H'm about Live, but Rory thinks it's time for
everyone to move on and welcome back Live players. A
little bit of a flip flop from what we heard
from Rory in the way beginning.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
What he does.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
Yeah, Adam Scott, who's now on the tour board, he
understands why some players might still be upset and obviously
says it's complicated process with a lot of moving parts.
The tour wants reunification, but obviously it's not just their call,
so no decision is going.

Speaker 7 (57:28):
To make everybody happy.

Speaker 6 (57:29):
But we talked about it last week, saying like we
want Brooksy back, we want Bryceon back.

Speaker 7 (57:33):
Harry's opening or welcoming them with open arms.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
So yeah, the of one major championships, Rom cam Smith,
you know, I'll take Tyrrollhatton back too. There's only about six, seven,
eight the guys that we care about right on Live
that we'd really want back. Wack O'neman, you know, I mean,
you know, it's a handful of guys, right, Yeah, you.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
Know, yeah, it's probably a dozen. I would say, do.

Speaker 5 (57:58):
We really care if Taylor Goots plays another tease?

Speaker 3 (58:01):
It up again and Ian Poulter and Graham McDowell night right.

Speaker 7 (58:05):
Yeah, yeah, So let Harry choose who he wants to.
We'll get those rankings up. But it'll be good. Get us
a call.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
I'll come out with my own damn rankings.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
The Harry Mays ranking system the most accurate in the world,
all right. So we talked about that Josh Allen bit
kind of going viral, which was cool because we like
people who are just outside of pro golfers and outside
of us being you know, normal golfers, just having that sickness, right,
that's what we called it.

Speaker 7 (58:35):
I found another story that I thought was pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (58:37):
It was Michael Jordan's birthday the other day, so Michael
Jordan doesn't take losing lightly on the court or on
the course. The day before is legendary sixty three point
playoff game against the Celtics in nineteen eighty six, Jordan.

Speaker 7 (58:51):
Lost a round of golf and some cash to Dana Inge.

Speaker 6 (58:54):
According to Ange, mj walked off the course saying, tell
DJ I got something for him tomorrow. The next night,
he dropped a playoff record of sixty three points on Boston,
proving again that you know, I'll turn.

Speaker 7 (59:05):
A little loss into some motivation because I'm Michael.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Jordan Gay Dennis Johnson, the point guard for the Celtics.

Speaker 5 (59:10):
Back in the day.

Speaker 6 (59:11):
And I'm pretty sure Haro, when I was doing some
research that DJ had like five thousand or four thousand
in the first five minutes because Jordan was just.

Speaker 7 (59:19):
On him, like White on Rice. So I thought that
was pretty cool. Another just like fun little golf story.

Speaker 5 (59:26):
Jordan, how old is Mike?

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Oh? Actually, he's the original golf cica literally got it?

Speaker 7 (59:32):
Yeah, I think he did. He just turned let's see
sixty two, sixty two.

Speaker 6 (59:37):
His birthday was on the seventeenth, so there was some
like topics trending around him.

Speaker 7 (59:41):
And then I was like, he's a golf cicle. Let's
find some stories.

Speaker 6 (59:44):
And I was like, wow, that's pretty cool, like just
you know, they played thirty six holes, I think, and
then he said, as you know, he was Denny's getting
in the car.

Speaker 7 (59:51):
He's like, yeah, I got something for DJ tomorrow. And
then just careers it sixty what a guy just casually
you know, love it.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Yeah, all right, thank you appreciate it. All right, we
uh we move on to Mexico. Harry Mexico opened just
three in the top forty. A little bit of a uh,
you know, letdown after after the past couple of weeks.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
But we're the top fifty.

Speaker 6 (01:00:13):
Harry didn't have to send me a reminder text to
get my pick in, although I did it. I like,
whatever time, either last night of this morning, so I
don't even know who I chose.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
I had to text Slash and Brace though this morning,
and Brace didn't get his in.

Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
I didn't want to be on that list. I was like,
get it together, d you don't need Harry texting you.
But honestly, I don't even know what time I did.
I don't know who I have.

Speaker 7 (01:00:32):
It was kind of a blonde Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
I tell you. Actually actually still the.

Speaker 6 (01:00:38):
Favorite, Harry always says him and palm trees are you know?

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
Ja Jake Knapp, who's the who's the winner last year?

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Defecting?

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah, he's way down the board at four thousand and
how about what's going on with that?

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
What's going on to hoyguards Rasmus is way up higher
than Nikolay.

Speaker 5 (01:00:55):
You took Nikolai?

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
I did?

Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
I had.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
I had a feeling about it.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
Played horribly the week before.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Yeah, so but yeah, Nikolai think good good spoke cares.

Speaker 5 (01:01:07):
I took Harry Hall.

Speaker 7 (01:01:09):
Oh yeah, he was trending for a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
It was hot.

Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
Yeah, what do you want to talk about the course
here in Mexico? Have you talked to us by our
friends at the Penn Club on second?

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
This is the course of course.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
I mean Ron won this tournament back in twenty twenty two,
Fenw won it in twenty three, and you mentioned Jake Knapp,
so any.

Speaker 5 (01:01:26):
Some good, good players have won on this golf course.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Greg Norman designed par seventy one seventy four hundred and
thirty six yards, a little bit different design. There's four
par fives, one on the front and three on the back,
so you get a lot of drama and a lot
of bird. He's made on the back nine on Sunday
number six, twelve, fourteen, and eighteen or par fives and
then five par threes five, nine, eleven, thirteen, and seventeen.

(01:01:50):
And there's a drivable par four which is the seventh
hole that's two hundred and ninety seven yards long and
could probably they could probably move the t's up, make
it even a little bit shorter. But past palam grass everywhere,
fairways rough, and the greens, so the ball's gonna sit
in that fairway like it's sitting on a mat.

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
And it's a second shot.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Golf course because the fairways are you know, half a
mile wide, so everybody can hit the fairway. You better
get those irons close and drop a lot of putts
because they go low to win this tournament. The ninety
three bunkers and some waste areas and lots of water
in play, and if the wind is up, it can
play havoc with these guys.

Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
So should be funds jack.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
Remember last year Jake Napp and Sammy Vallimachi were going back,
We're going at it in the final group mono Imano,
and it looked like a pillow fight for the first
twelve thirteen holes, like neither guy wanted to win the tournament.
They were making bogies and you know, pars were a
good score. They were lucky that somebody from you know,
another group didn't you know, pull up and catch them.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
But Jake Nap ended up getting the win.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
And we all heard about him being a bouncer about
six hundred times.

Speaker 7 (01:02:55):
Turning the broadcast.

Speaker 5 (01:02:57):
His big biceps and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:03:00):
Bill, like a linebacker.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so it should be fun, so great, Norman,
golf courses are usually fun.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
There's so interesting, uh when I when we see the
line here, you know, like Rogers T six last year,
decent number, Van Ryan who was T eight last year
at fifty five hundred c t pen it was a
T three last year forty five hundred, and even Gorilla
who is streaky, he was he was a T thirty
three last year, but he's eleven thousand. Like, you know,
there's some value out there for this one. I know

(01:03:28):
it's it's more of a bomber's paradise, but there's definitely
some value when you see the line.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
Yeah yeah, Oh go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (01:03:37):
No, no, go ahead because mine's unrelated.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
I took bo Hostler in a top ten at plus
three hundred Harry Hall I said, he's my one and done.

Speaker 7 (01:03:44):
He's one under right now?

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
Is he four?

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
Top ten at plus two seventy five. I took him
in a matchup over Kevin Yu and Fishburn. I liked
his game from a couple of weeks ago. I forget
it might have been at the Sony, but moves those
irons were left to right, right, the left minus one
twenty five overs Vence and I also took Thor Bijornsen
our guy, Kevin Roy and uh high Smith in top twenties.

Speaker 7 (01:04:09):
Okay, nice for Cove.

Speaker 5 (01:04:12):
Yeah, yeah, he can move it out there.

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
Oh yeah, so I missed this in the tea. I'd
taken a screenshot when I seen it a couple of
days ago. It's just justin Leonard. Couldn't be a nicer guy.
And he got his weight on the Champions Tour.

Speaker 7 (01:04:26):
I thought it was pretty gooch first one. Yeah, and
it was awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:04:29):
His wife posted a video of like him coming home
and like opening the gate and they had like a
bunch of family friends, all his kids and champagne. And
he got out and he gets a trophy out of
the back of the trunk and holds it up.

Speaker 7 (01:04:40):
And goes over to his wife. It was pretty cool.
But they shared His daily practice routine at age fifty two,
wakes up at five thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
In the morning, meditates for thirty minutes, walks his four dogs,
an hour workout, eats a late breakfast, practices.

Speaker 7 (01:04:52):
For four to five hours, then returns home.

Speaker 5 (01:04:54):
Yeah, and I was like, okay, that's.

Speaker 7 (01:04:56):
Kind of cool.

Speaker 6 (01:04:56):
But then I seen him post on his personal Instagram.
He's like, this just gives you kind of like the
run through of golf. And you know, he's not a
big social guy, he doesn't post a time, but I
thought this was kind of cool. He like made these
little graphics and like wrote what each one was, and
he goes Day one felt like I was treading water
until I birdied the last three holes. Day two one

(01:05:17):
of those when everything felt easy except number seventeen, final
round plus one through ten holes, then have to chip
out at eleven, make twelve foot for par, then birdie
five in the last eight to win, exclamation point, and
then just a photo of him with the trophy.

Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
So I love that recap. I was like, that's so good.

Speaker 6 (01:05:35):
Like I feel like it's like, you know, b when
he finishes around and calls me, it takes me through
each thing, and I'm like, justin just put that in
a bunch of photos, saying like Day one treading water,
Day two, like, so I thought that was kind of cool.
That's awesome, Like he's such a good guy and to
see him get his first win and kind of share
a little bit of the insights of what it felt
like though.

Speaker 7 (01:05:52):
That was awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:05:53):
Congrats to justin fifteen under par.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
He was four shots clear of Billy Andreid who finished
in second night.

Speaker 5 (01:05:59):
It's just first win.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
As you mentioned, Danielle, he has twelve wins on the
PGA Tour, digging onto his career because I knew he
won the Open Championship and I knew he won the Players.
He won the Players twice. Oh yeah, and the Open
Championship in his wins, so.

Speaker 6 (01:06:14):
Yeah, and he has that he has that famous yeah
that was Ryder Cop up in Brooklyne, like that chipping
yeah yeah, yeah, great.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Good, all right, good stuff, guys.

Speaker 3 (01:06:23):
Thanks again, uh to Johnny Wonder for popping on with us,
and uh we'll be back next week.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
Thanks for listening, but listen, swing it and ding it