April 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Golf expert Whit Watson joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the big win for Rory McIlroy yesterday at The Masters, the historic impact of the final round, what this means for Rory going forward and the career slam, plus the possible next winners.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us right now on the radio show. He has
kind of become our go to golf guy. He says, yes, Dick,
but everybody else says hell no. You can find his
stuff at Witwatson dot com. He's doing a podcast for iHeart.
He's based in Florida. He's all over the place. He's
covered Masters, PGA Championships, US opens opens our friend Wit
(00:21):
Watson joining us and Wit as we sit here on
this Monday afternoon after the Masters yesterday, what's at top
of mind? After what we saw from Rory and company
yesterday in Georgia. I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That tournament was won and lost by three different people,
five different times in the last what ninety minutes of
coverage yesterday? What an afternoon that was?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
No, it felt like and there's a lot of people
that are wondering, was that the greatest Masters of all time?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Right?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I mean recentcy bias obviously comes into play. But as
you kind of look back, and maybe this is a
question that we should ask you in five, ten, fifteen,
twenty years from now, as you sit here on this
Monday morning, does that feel like that was the greatest
thing you ever saw at Augusta National.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It was one of the greatest that I've ever seen.
I was lucky enough to cover it for about ten
years for Westwood one, and so I was there when
Adam Scott won in the Rain, which was pretty incredible,
the first Australian player. And then I was there when
Tiger won in twenty nineteen and that was otherworldly, and
that the noise that day was just I've never heard
(01:28):
anything like it. I've heard comparison to two of Nicholas's masters,
the one that was fifty years ago, and the reason
why they put the pin on sixteen where they put
it was to replicate the way the whole looked that
day fifty years ago when Nicholas made Birdy at sixteen,
and of course the win when he was forty six
years old in the eighties. So I think that's I mean,
(01:48):
there's your top four or five, right, I mean, it's
in the conversation for sheer entertainment value and because of
the expectations on Rory, it was just everybody in the
world expected him to win a Green jacket at some
point in his career and they knew the window was closing.
And for that, I think that's why it's going to
be so unforgettable.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, you talked about the memory of Jack fifty years
putting the pin where it is.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Where does the plaque go for Rory?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Does it go on the shot from on fifteen, the
shot on seventeen, the shot that got him to four
feet on the in the playoff hall. I mean, what's
going to be the most memorable shot that we see
over and over again from Rory McElroy twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I think the one that you're going to see because
of the circumstance is going to be the shot on
fifteen on Sunday, And if if the tournament had ended
Saturday night, it would have been the same shot on
the same hole when he made the eagle put on Sunday,
because he had already spit a bit, because you know,
as I've said to you guys before, with Rory, it's
like watching a NASCAR race at Talladega. You're waiting for
(02:51):
the big one, and he had already had the big one.
He'd had the you know, the double out of the gate,
he'd already dropped a couple of shots. You can tell
he was wobbly. Did a come back with that shot
on fifteen on Sunday? Didn't make the eagle putt. If
he does, we're not having this conversation. But I think
under the circumstance, yeah, that's where the platt goes. The
shot at seventeen was magnificent, but the shot at fifteen
(03:15):
I think jolted him back away. It put him back
on the rails, and I think that's where that's where
the plaque could go if I were in charge.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, I'm just wondering Whiting again with Watson, with us
talking about an incredible master Sunday in Augusta yesterday, the
wedge on eighteen into the bunker, how much did that,
in some kind of weird way, help him on his
web shot on the first playoff hole, meaning he was
almost in the look go back and watch the video.
He's a bit closer I think on a playoff hole
(03:44):
than he was on eighteen, obviously, But how much do
you think that miss on eighteen actually helped him with
that second shot in the playoff hole.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I think that's exactly right. I think that he may
need to still, even with the green jacket, may want
to go back and do a little bit of work
on the wedge game between now and the rest of
this year. That shot at eighteen in regulation was inexcusable.
The one on thirteen was baffling, and nobody, Dottie Pepper
was speechless. Nobody could understand how he could miss that
(04:15):
target twenty yards right with a wedge in his hand
after going three wood seven iron to lay up at
that par five. So yeah, I think that it put
him in a good frame of mind to have even
a little bit less in in the playoff. And that
was a brilliant shot. He hit a lot of brilliant
shots shot seventy three, But it turns out winning majors
(04:36):
is hard, and he hit the right shots when he
had to, and that was certainly one of them in
that playoff.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I'm fascinated to see what Rory does the rest of
this year. Do you think that win relaxes him? He
coasts a little bit, doesn't win another major this season?
Or is because the monkey's off his back? Does he
just go nuts for the next eighteen months and win
like three.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That's such a great question, and I ask somebody smarter
than me. This morning on the radio. I talked to
Todd Lewis of Golf Channel. He was there, you know,
got a chance to interview Rory excuse me afterwards, and
he believes it will. He does. He thinks that McElroy
is now completely free to just go out there and
play golf. And the best part about it, guys, is
(05:19):
that nobody ever gets to ask him that question again.
He never has to answer that question for the rest
of his life. And that you know, you could tell
when we made the putt in the playoff. Yes, it
was victory. It was elation. It was also released. You
could physically see something lead his body, that primal scream
(05:39):
staring into the grass on eighteen and screaming into the grass.
That was like the spirit leaving his body, you know, forever.
And he even said, I get to come back here
for the rest of my life and that's wonderful, you know,
And that I think. Could he win another major? Yeah,
of course he could. He owns or they played wells Fargo.
When I'm playing a PGA, what I think in North
Carolina this year, it's I'll come back to Quillli thank you.
(06:03):
He owns that place. And you know he's got he
had success at Open Championships in the past. He's been
knocking on doors. So is he gonna win one more,
two more. I'm not going to go that far if
the odds favor no, But is he going to free up?
Is he going to play? Relax? Absolutely? On?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
How much does this with Watson again? Is with us
on the show? And I think they?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I mean, yesterday's tournament was one of those things that
kind of transcends golf, right, Like the wife is not
really a big fan, but even she wants to know
what the hell is going on?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Did he win?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Did he lose and he choke?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
How much do you honestly believe that this has been
weighing on him for the last eleven years as he's
been chasing this sucker.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Oh he said it out loud. I mean, he was
pretty honest about it afterwards, saying that this is, you know,
something that's definitely been weighing on me. And his best
friend Shane Lowry said, Yeah, he talks about it all
the time. It's all he ever talked about, I mean,
and and he's reminded of it every week. The first
thing he said when he sat down first press conference
(07:06):
at Augusta National was so, what are we going to
talk about next year? Like he'd put it on the table.
You know, you guys don't get to ask you this
question ever again. Yeah, he was very much aware of it,
and he's still out there winning other tournaments, big events.
But it wasn't just getting through at the Masters, it
was winning another major. I mean, who would have imagined
he'd go eleven years without winning a major after winning
(07:29):
four and a two year span, three year span. So yeah,
there was a lot, a lot of weight leaving him
at Augusta National on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
If this is it for Justin Rose, competing legitimately competing
in a major championship.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
What's his legacy?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Mike got two Masters playoff losses in the span of
eight years.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. I thought Trevor Ibelman had a really good line,
and the broadcast on Sunday was phenomenal. And I'm biased
because I'm friends with a lot of those guys in
the truck, but they had a great, great broadcast, and
I thought Trevor made a really good point. He said,
if Justin Rose wins yesterday, that cements him in the
World Golf Hall of Fame. That's two majors, including a Master's.
(08:12):
That's a gold medal plus the Ryder Cups, plus plus
he's in the Hall of Fame. Now, he may still
have a Hall of Fame career. I don't know. I
don't know what one major and a whole bunch of
Ryder Cup success and a gold medal gets you. I
think he is energized. He will be energized by that performance.
Guy that no one we didn't talk about Justin Rose
(08:34):
coming into this event, forty four years old. Nice player,
but no one thought he was going to contend. There's
a couple of guys that were up there. Nobody thought
Patrick Reid was going to do anything, you know. I mean,
Deshamba was the one guy from Live that we all
assumed would play well, and he did. And then Patrick
Reid sneaks up there with a sixty nine sixty nine
weekend and this is in the top five. So yeah,
(08:57):
I think Rose was just one more guy that had
the right game at the right time.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well Watson again from Witwatson dot Com is with us
on the radios here does a podcast for iHeart and
we talked about this just a couple of minutes ago,
that something like this kind of kind of transcends golf,
and I mean, look, you start thinking about the first
Grand Slam winners since Tiger Woods did it, and what
I think two thousand, we've waited twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
There was a thirty year.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Weight I think between Nicholas and Tiger, thirty four year
weight between Nicholas and Tiger. This is something that only
two people have done in the last sixty years. I mean,
it's more rare than a triple crown in horse racing
or somebody walking on the moon, for God's sake?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
So how how special is this? Put this in kind
of like non golf terms.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
If you can win for all the all the football
fans and basketball fans and baseball fans out there, how
impactful is this what he just did yesterday?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well, I put it this way. The game of golf is, however,
many hundred years old, and professional golf has been played,
you know since the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds.
There are six people in the history of Earth that
have completed a career Grand Slam, and Rory McElroy just
did it. And I will again give credit to my
friend Todd Lewis, And it's highly unlikely that anybody else
(10:13):
will ever do it because the competition is so much
better now there are so many good players who hit
the gym because of Tiger Woods. Look at Oberg, Look
big Oberg. I mean guys like that. It's just you
can't you can't guarantee you're going to keep beating all
of those players at all four of those specific weeks
(10:33):
over a period of time. The competition is much better.
So it's a rarity. I like the comparison to a
triple crown, although really that's one year. You know, the
one horse has one good year to do it over
the course of a career at four events that have
nothing to do with each other, right AUGUSTA National has
(10:54):
nothing to do with an Open Championship, which looks nothing
like a PGA championship. The field change. You got a
hot player coming in on a given week, it's monumental.
And you know, he already had a World Golf Hall
of Fame career if he had never won the Masters,
and now, like I said, he's going to be one
of six ever to have accomplished that feat.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Well with for my money, the foremost talented golfers in
the world were one through four with about five holes
left to play, and that's Rory, Scotty Bryson and Ludvig
Rory has his green jacket.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Scott, he's got a couple of green jackets.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Ludvigor Bryson, who wins the green jacket first.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I'll give it to a great question man. I had
I had Oberg as we had discussed, and I calculated
by the way he finished solo seventh, which I think
paid him about seven hundred thousand dollars had he finished
in up near that. Basically, he spent about one point
five million dollars over the last two holes by going
bogey triple bogie in seventeen and eighteen. But he's also
(11:58):
twenty something and doesn't have any tissue yet, so he's
got bounced back ability. I would give it to Deshambo
as of those two more likely to break through first,
just because of the experience factor. He's still got a
you know, a little bit of concern when he comes
to the greens. But the ball striking for Deshambo, you know,
he just made a couple of bad swings. Other than that,
(12:20):
I mean sixty eight sixty nine, sixty eight sixty nine
the first three days. I don't think anybody else was
in the sixties for the first three rounds. This year,
so correct, he's playing some pretty good golf seventy five
on Sunday notwithstanding.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Right well with Watson with us again wrapping up from
Witwatson dot Com after an incredible Master Sunday yesterday out Augusta.
I remember just talking a couple of years ago, but hey,
you know, golf's gonta eventually turn the page from Tiger Woods, right,
They just got to move on. They got to find
their brand new stars, their own storylines, and you know,
Scottie Scheffler. We thought maybe Jordan Spieth at one point
(12:54):
was going to be that guy, and that hasn't happened obviously.
But have they now officially turned the corner. They may
never get back.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Ratings wise to where they were with him. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I mean, obviously gambling going mainstream is changing everything, but
what do you think about the state of golf and
not just PGA, but also live post Tiger Woods after
all the drama we've seen from guys like Rory.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, I don't think to your point, we're never going
to get back to Tiger Woods era ratings and energy
surrounding golf because he was a once in a lifetime
player and the competition wasn't as good or as plentiful.
Now you can stream anything. I can go watch cricket
from India on my laptop right now, more eyeballs watching
more stuff, and golf is fighting for attention no matter
(13:41):
who is leading it. But the depth of talent has
never been better right now, those names you just mentioned,
and I'm talking about pro golf, you know, across both
Live and the PGA Tour. I mean, this leaderboard was
a great example. The depth of talent has never been better,
and more young players are coming up, more guys doing
it the way Tiger did it, the way they see
(14:01):
Rory doing it, the way they say lud big Oldberg
doing it, and you know, following him from Europe to
a US college and trying to make it on the
PGA Tour. So you know, golf, yes, they're still struggling
for eyeballs. They still have to resolve the situation with Live.
It's not good for the game in my opinion, that
we're only going to see the best players in the
world four times a year together. And that's if those
(14:23):
guys continue to qualify for majors. I mean, obviously the
Masters Champions and Live can come back every year. But
guys like Dustin Johnson, you know, those exemptions are running out.
They won their majors too long ago and some of
those are now running out and you're not going to
see them. So I'd like to see some some resolution.
It doesn't sound like it, you know. The last news
(14:44):
we heard was that the tour Flatley turned down a
one point five billion dollar offer from the PIF because
the PIF wanted y'all seer Aldramayan to be the co
chair of PGA Tour Enterprises, and the tour said nope.
So you know the was we're not any closer, But
luckily Rory's win sort of allowed us to forget about
(15:07):
that for a while. No one's talking about that today
because we're talking about what happened on the golf course.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah, no question. What's wit Watson great stuff?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Find out everything he's doing at witwatson dot com podcast link.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
It's all up there.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
He's working for iHeart, So we're basically co workers for
crying out Loud, which means we just don't have to
pay him big money to come on this radio station
like we do other guys that work outside the iHeart family. Wait,
you're the man, great stuff, and I'm sure we'll talk
very soon.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Man. Appreciate you ou all right, cheers, talk to you
guys soon.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Man wit Watson again with us recapping what was this
an incredible dramatic day at Augusta National yesterday. I got
a lot more to get to, as a matter of fact,
including Teresa Walker from the AP in Nashville, where I'm
not sure how much talk there is about the Titans
number one draft pick, considering all the drama happening in
Knoxville with a Tennessee quarterback. Good lord, that's coming up
(15:57):
about six' ten tonight right. Here ninety three THREE k
J R F.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
M
Joining us right now on the radio show. He has
kind of become our go to golf guy. He says, yes, Dick,
but everybody else says hell no. You can find his
stuff at Witwatson dot com. He's doing a podcast for iHeart.
He's based in Florida. He's all over the place. He's
covered Masters, PGA Championships, US opens opens our friend Wit
(00:21):
Watson joining us and Wit as we sit here on
this Monday afternoon after the Masters yesterday, what's at top
of mind? After what we saw from Rory and company
yesterday in Georgia. I tell you what.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
That tournament was won and lost by three different people,
five different times in the last what ninety minutes of
coverage yesterday? What an afternoon that was?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
No, it felt like and there's a lot of people
that are wondering, was that the greatest Masters of all time?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Right?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I mean recentcy bias obviously comes into play. But as
you kind of look back, and maybe this is a
question that we should ask you in five, ten, fifteen,
twenty years from now, as you sit here on this
Monday morning, does that feel like that was the greatest
thing you ever saw at Augusta National.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It was one of the greatest that I've ever seen.
I was lucky enough to cover it for about ten
years for Westwood one, and so I was there when
Adam Scott won in the Rain, which was pretty incredible,
the first Australian player. And then I was there when
Tiger won in twenty nineteen and that was otherworldly, and
that the noise that day was just I've never heard
(01:28):
anything like it. I've heard comparison to two of Nicholas's masters,
the one that was fifty years ago, and the reason
why they put the pin on sixteen where they put
it was to replicate the way the whole looked that
day fifty years ago when Nicholas made Birdy at sixteen,
and of course the win when he was forty six
years old in the eighties. So I think that's I mean,
(01:48):
there's your top four or five, right, I mean, it's
in the conversation for sheer entertainment value and because of
the expectations on Rory, it was just everybody in the
world expected him to win a Green jacket at some
point in his career and they knew the window was closing.
And for that, I think that's why it's going to
be so unforgettable.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, you talked about the memory of Jack fifty years
putting the pin where it is.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Where does the plaque go for Rory?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Does it go on the shot from on fifteen, the
shot on seventeen, the shot that got him to four
feet on the in the playoff hall. I mean, what's
going to be the most memorable shot that we see
over and over again from Rory McElroy twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I think the one that you're going to see because
of the circumstance is going to be the shot on
fifteen on Sunday, And if if the tournament had ended
Saturday night, it would have been the same shot on
the same hole when he made the eagle put on Sunday,
because he had already spit a bit, because you know,
as I've said to you guys before, with Rory, it's
like watching a NASCAR race at Talladega. You're waiting for
(02:51):
the big one, and he had already had the big one.
He'd had the you know, the double out of the gate,
he'd already dropped a couple of shots. You can tell
he was wobbly. Did a come back with that shot
on fifteen on Sunday? Didn't make the eagle putt. If
he does, we're not having this conversation. But I think
under the circumstance, yeah, that's where the platt goes. The
shot at seventeen was magnificent, but the shot at fifteen
(03:15):
I think jolted him back away. It put him back
on the rails, and I think that's where that's where
the plaque could go if I were in charge.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, I'm just wondering Whiting again with Watson, with us
talking about an incredible master Sunday in Augusta yesterday, the
wedge on eighteen into the bunker, how much did that,
in some kind of weird way, help him on his
web shot on the first playoff hole, meaning he was
almost in the look go back and watch the video.
He's a bit closer I think on a playoff hole
(03:44):
than he was on eighteen, obviously, But how much do
you think that miss on eighteen actually helped him with
that second shot in the playoff hole.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I think that's exactly right. I think that he may
need to still, even with the green jacket, may want
to go back and do a little bit of work
on the wedge game between now and the rest of
this year. That shot at eighteen in regulation was inexcusable.
The one on thirteen was baffling, and nobody, Dottie Pepper
was speechless. Nobody could understand how he could miss that
(04:15):
target twenty yards right with a wedge in his hand
after going three wood seven iron to lay up at
that par five. So yeah, I think that it put
him in a good frame of mind to have even
a little bit less in in the playoff. And that
was a brilliant shot. He hit a lot of brilliant
shots shot seventy three, But it turns out winning majors
(04:36):
is hard, and he hit the right shots when he
had to, and that was certainly one of them in
that playoff.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I'm fascinated to see what Rory does the rest of
this year. Do you think that win relaxes him? He
coasts a little bit, doesn't win another major this season?
Or is because the monkey's off his back? Does he
just go nuts for the next eighteen months and win
like three.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That's such a great question, and I ask somebody smarter
than me. This morning on the radio. I talked to
Todd Lewis of Golf Channel. He was there, you know,
got a chance to interview Rory excuse me afterwards, and
he believes it will. He does. He thinks that McElroy
is now completely free to just go out there and
play golf. And the best part about it, guys, is
(05:19):
that nobody ever gets to ask him that question again.
He never has to answer that question for the rest
of his life. And that you know, you could tell
when we made the putt in the playoff. Yes, it
was victory. It was elation. It was also released. You
could physically see something lead his body, that primal scream
(05:39):
staring into the grass on eighteen and screaming into the grass.
That was like the spirit leaving his body, you know, forever.
And he even said, I get to come back here
for the rest of my life and that's wonderful, you know,
And that I think. Could he win another major? Yeah,
of course he could. He owns or they played wells Fargo.
When I'm playing a PGA, what I think in North
Carolina this year, it's I'll come back to Quillli thank you.
(06:03):
He owns that place. And you know he's got he
had success at Open Championships in the past. He's been
knocking on doors. So is he gonna win one more,
two more. I'm not going to go that far if
the odds favor no, But is he going to free up?
Is he going to play? Relax? Absolutely? On?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
How much does this with Watson again? Is with us
on the show? And I think they?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I mean, yesterday's tournament was one of those things that
kind of transcends golf, right, Like the wife is not
really a big fan, but even she wants to know
what the hell is going on?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Did he win?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Did he lose and he choke?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
How much do you honestly believe that this has been
weighing on him for the last eleven years as he's
been chasing this sucker.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Oh he said it out loud. I mean, he was
pretty honest about it afterwards, saying that this is, you know,
something that's definitely been weighing on me. And his best
friend Shane Lowry said, Yeah, he talks about it all
the time. It's all he ever talked about, I mean,
and and he's reminded of it every week. The first
thing he said when he sat down first press conference
(07:06):
at Augusta National was so, what are we going to
talk about next year? Like he'd put it on the table.
You know, you guys don't get to ask you this
question ever again. Yeah, he was very much aware of it,
and he's still out there winning other tournaments, big events.
But it wasn't just getting through at the Masters, it
was winning another major. I mean, who would have imagined
he'd go eleven years without winning a major after winning
(07:29):
four and a two year span, three year span. So yeah,
there was a lot, a lot of weight leaving him
at Augusta National on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
If this is it for Justin Rose, competing legitimately competing
in a major championship.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
What's his legacy?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Mike got two Masters playoff losses in the span of
eight years.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. I thought Trevor Ibelman had a really good line,
and the broadcast on Sunday was phenomenal. And I'm biased
because I'm friends with a lot of those guys in
the truck, but they had a great, great broadcast, and
I thought Trevor made a really good point. He said,
if Justin Rose wins yesterday, that cements him in the
World Golf Hall of Fame. That's two majors, including a Master's.
(08:12):
That's a gold medal plus the Ryder Cups, plus plus
he's in the Hall of Fame. Now, he may still
have a Hall of Fame career. I don't know. I
don't know what one major and a whole bunch of
Ryder Cup success and a gold medal gets you. I
think he is energized. He will be energized by that performance.
Guy that no one we didn't talk about Justin Rose
(08:34):
coming into this event, forty four years old. Nice player,
but no one thought he was going to contend. There's
a couple of guys that were up there. Nobody thought
Patrick Reid was going to do anything, you know. I mean,
Deshamba was the one guy from Live that we all
assumed would play well, and he did. And then Patrick
Reid sneaks up there with a sixty nine sixty nine
weekend and this is in the top five. So yeah,
(08:57):
I think Rose was just one more guy that had
the right game at the right time.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well Watson again from Witwatson dot Com is with us
on the radios here does a podcast for iHeart and
we talked about this just a couple of minutes ago,
that something like this kind of kind of transcends golf,
and I mean, look, you start thinking about the first
Grand Slam winners since Tiger Woods did it, and what
I think two thousand, we've waited twenty five years.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
There was a thirty year.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Weight I think between Nicholas and Tiger, thirty four year
weight between Nicholas and Tiger. This is something that only
two people have done in the last sixty years. I mean,
it's more rare than a triple crown in horse racing
or somebody walking on the moon, for God's sake?
Speaker 4 (09:37):
So how how special is this? Put this in kind
of like non golf terms.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
If you can win for all the all the football
fans and basketball fans and baseball fans out there, how
impactful is this what he just did yesterday?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Well, I put it this way. The game of golf is, however,
many hundred years old, and professional golf has been played,
you know since the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds.
There are six people in the history of Earth that
have completed a career Grand Slam, and Rory McElroy just
did it. And I will again give credit to my
friend Todd Lewis, And it's highly unlikely that anybody else
(10:13):
will ever do it because the competition is so much
better now there are so many good players who hit
the gym because of Tiger Woods. Look at Oberg, Look
big Oberg. I mean guys like that. It's just you
can't you can't guarantee you're going to keep beating all
of those players at all four of those specific weeks
(10:33):
over a period of time. The competition is much better.
So it's a rarity. I like the comparison to a
triple crown, although really that's one year. You know, the
one horse has one good year to do it over
the course of a career at four events that have
nothing to do with each other, right AUGUSTA National has
(10:54):
nothing to do with an Open Championship, which looks nothing
like a PGA championship. The field change. You got a
hot player coming in on a given week, it's monumental.
And you know, he already had a World Golf Hall
of Fame career if he had never won the Masters,
and now, like I said, he's going to be one
of six ever to have accomplished that feat.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Well with for my money, the foremost talented golfers in
the world were one through four with about five holes
left to play, and that's Rory, Scotty Bryson and Ludvig
Rory has his green jacket.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Scott, he's got a couple of green jackets.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Ludvigor Bryson, who wins the green jacket first.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I'll give it to a great question man. I had
I had Oberg as we had discussed, and I calculated
by the way he finished solo seventh, which I think
paid him about seven hundred thousand dollars had he finished
in up near that. Basically, he spent about one point
five million dollars over the last two holes by going
bogey triple bogie in seventeen and eighteen. But he's also
(11:58):
twenty something and doesn't have any tissue yet, so he's
got bounced back ability. I would give it to Deshambo
as of those two more likely to break through first,
just because of the experience factor. He's still got a
you know, a little bit of concern when he comes
to the greens. But the ball striking for Deshambo, you know,
he just made a couple of bad swings. Other than that,
(12:20):
I mean sixty eight sixty nine, sixty eight sixty nine
the first three days. I don't think anybody else was
in the sixties for the first three rounds. This year,
so correct, he's playing some pretty good golf seventy five
on Sunday notwithstanding.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Right well with Watson with us again wrapping up from
Witwatson dot Com after an incredible Master Sunday yesterday out Augusta.
I remember just talking a couple of years ago, but hey,
you know, golf's gonta eventually turn the page from Tiger Woods, right,
They just got to move on. They got to find
their brand new stars, their own storylines, and you know,
Scottie Scheffler. We thought maybe Jordan Spieth at one point
(12:54):
was going to be that guy, and that hasn't happened obviously.
But have they now officially turned the corner. They may
never get back.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Ratings wise to where they were with him. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I mean, obviously gambling going mainstream is changing everything, but
what do you think about the state of golf and
not just PGA, but also live post Tiger Woods after
all the drama we've seen from guys like Rory.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, I don't think to your point, we're never going
to get back to Tiger Woods era ratings and energy
surrounding golf because he was a once in a lifetime
player and the competition wasn't as good or as plentiful.
Now you can stream anything. I can go watch cricket
from India on my laptop right now, more eyeballs watching
more stuff, and golf is fighting for attention no matter
(13:41):
who is leading it. But the depth of talent has
never been better right now, those names you just mentioned,
and I'm talking about pro golf, you know, across both
Live and the PGA Tour. I mean, this leaderboard was
a great example. The depth of talent has never been better,
and more young players are coming up, more guys doing
it the way Tiger did it, the way they see
(14:01):
Rory doing it, the way they say lud big Oldberg
doing it, and you know, following him from Europe to
a US college and trying to make it on the
PGA Tour. So you know, golf, yes, they're still struggling
for eyeballs. They still have to resolve the situation with Live.
It's not good for the game in my opinion, that
we're only going to see the best players in the
world four times a year together. And that's if those
(14:23):
guys continue to qualify for majors. I mean, obviously the
Masters Champions and Live can come back every year. But
guys like Dustin Johnson, you know, those exemptions are running out.
They won their majors too long ago and some of
those are now running out and you're not going to
see them. So I'd like to see some some resolution.
It doesn't sound like it, you know. The last news
(14:44):
we heard was that the tour Flatley turned down a
one point five billion dollar offer from the PIF because
the PIF wanted y'all seer Aldramayan to be the co
chair of PGA Tour Enterprises, and the tour said nope.
So you know the was we're not any closer, But
luckily Rory's win sort of allowed us to forget about
(15:07):
that for a while. No one's talking about that today
because we're talking about what happened on the golf course.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah, no question. What's wit Watson great stuff?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Find out everything he's doing at witwatson dot com podcast link.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
It's all up there.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
He's working for iHeart, So we're basically co workers for
crying out Loud, which means we just don't have to
pay him big money to come on this radio station
like we do other guys that work outside the iHeart family. Wait,
you're the man, great stuff, and I'm sure we'll talk
very soon.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Man. Appreciate you ou all right, cheers, talk to you
guys soon.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Man wit Watson again with us recapping what was this
an incredible dramatic day at Augusta National yesterday. I got
a lot more to get to, as a matter of fact,
including Teresa Walker from the AP in Nashville, where I'm
not sure how much talk there is about the Titans
number one draft pick, considering all the drama happening in
Knoxville with a Tennessee quarterback. Good lord, that's coming up
(15:57):
about six' ten tonight right. Here ninety three THREE k
J R F.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
M
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.