The four stallions of the PGA Tour: Scottie. Rory. Cam. Fitz. BIG GAP. Everyone else. Scott and Joe debate the rankings, including why Cam Young's penalty-on-himself + 13-foot par save on No. 2 at Doral might be the most telling moment in golf this year. Get the full Cadillac recap. Then, it's on to the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, where Scottie's out, Rory's the lock, and Harris English is the sleeper of the week. Tune in to learn exactly who we're backing and why. Follow the show on YouTube @nostrokes Follow Scott on X @kitun Follow Joe on Instagram @venmojoe
Alright, Joe episode six back. Look you looking fresh speaking of fresh. Look at the face like you engulfed in abandoned dunes. Look at you the band in no strokes tourney.
Venmo Joe (00:16.703)
Little, little wind burn, little wind burn. Not much sun, not much sun in abandoned dunes, but man, what an awesome, awesome experience. I kind of compared it to, you know, it's like Disney World, but for four year old guys that, you know, just want to go golfing, right? Like the serve, they've thought of everything to just accommodate golfers, right?
Scott Kitun (00:22.382)
I'd say so.
Venmo Joe (00:45.919)
free shuttles everywhere, right? Like super flexible as far as like coordinating tee times if we needed to move anything, like, cause we, we would play 13, we would play 18 in the morning and then, you know, we didn't really want to sit around much. wanted to grab a quick bite and just keep playing, move the tee times around. was, it was awesome, right? I can talk golf a lot better than I can play golf, but I did,
Did flush a lot of shots, didn't score fantastically, but you know, I also hadn't played outside since October and just jumped right into 72 holes at banded dunes. That's, you know, that's kind of... I did break the 90 abandoned dunes and it was foggiest conditions I've ever played in. So if you went like you needed to have...
Scott Kitun (01:25.422)
You said you broke 90 though, right? You break 90s. We're not the breaking 80, but break 90s.
Venmo Joe (01:41.499)
a caddy there. had caddies help with carrying the bags, but it was more about like just aim points, right? Because I would say the first like nine holes at Band of Dunes, you were like, where are we going? Right? So you were just trusting them on, hey, here's the line and try to execute the shot. So we got to play all five of the courses. Band of Dunes was phenomenal. Band of Trails.
one of the prettiest tracks that I've ever been on. On trails, you actually jump into a pickup truck after 13 and they drive you up to the tee box on 14 and you just play one of the coolest golf holes in the country, right? Super elevated, just such a pretty golf shot. So trails was fantastic. Pacific dunes was unbelievable.
Sheep Ranch was wide open and that was like the only time on the trip we got sun. So we had a blast out at Sheep Ranch and then Old MacDonald was the first course we played when we got there Friday and that ate our lunch pretty good because that was the one round that we didn't have a caddy. So, you know, first experience playing on the resort and not really having a whole clue where we're going. We actually played the same hole twice at some point in time and
walked an additional mile because we had no idea where we were going. Nothing to do with that or the 3.30 a.m. wake up call on Friday morning to get to the airport. So, you know, by the time we hit the back nine on Old MacDonald on Friday afternoon, we were pretty spent. But yet can't recommend it enough. Unbelievable amenities there. Awesome food.
Scott Kitun (03:07.31)
I'm sure alcohol had nothing to do with that.
Venmo Joe (03:30.592)
They had a fantastic late night bar called the Bunker Bar, which was in the main clubhouse at Band of Dunes. It's like a cigar bar, pool table. Everyone, everyone just talking about, know, everyone was in a great mood, right? Everyone's there playing golf and hanging out with their buddies, right? So, you know, you know, when you get to the Bunker Bar, you can start exaggerating a little bit about some of the shots that you hit earlier that day, right?
Scott Kitun (03:46.722)
How could you not? What is there to be upset about?
Venmo Joe (03:57.802)
Cause no one was watching you, right? So you can be like, yeah, was driving the ball 300 yards. It was fast. was, yeah, hitting it to two feet. It was unbelievable. Yeah.
Scott Kitun (04:01.816)
Two feet. Yes.
Shot 95 though, couldn't putt for shit today. Hit some of the best shots of my life. man.
Venmo Joe (04:12.595)
Well, you know me, right? I can flush shots once you get me to the green. And a lot of those greens were super tricky. Like, just hemorrhaging strokes at that point. But awesome, awesome time.
Scott Kitun (04:24.066)
Yeah, I mean, you're not alone. Was this your first Michael Kaiser experience, Michael Kaiser course? have you, yeah, so the, me and the boys are back to Sand Valley, I think next year. I've been on a hiatus. I did like Sand Valley four years in a row. I was the first tee off of the Lido, which to me is like my favorite course I've played so far. And I think everything I've heard about band and just makes that like nothing compared to that.
Venmo Joe (04:30.835)
Yes, yes.
Scott Kitun (04:51.104)
It is on our to do list. I'm glad that you got to get out there and experience it while you were at
Venmo Joe (04:55.689)
Yeah, but that means when we when you and I get to go, I got our itinerary plan for us, right? So we got that to look forward to.
Scott Kitun (05:04.224)
Right, I mean, I trust you more than I trust almost anyone else when it comes to that.
Venmo Joe (05:09.855)
So yeah, was absolutely. But yeah, wonderful, wonderful time.
Scott Kitun (05:11.854)
You know, you know what's up. You know how it rolls. Well, I won't expect a ton out of you on today's show to recap the Cadillac because I think you had better shit to do. But I will lean on you when it comes to setting up the truest. I have to say, before we get into that, though, I was perusing Twitter X as I do and stumbled upon this.
post, which is kind of funny because it's like if you were to culminate the last three or four episodes we've talked about, there seems to be this theme of like, you know, Rory, we counted him. We didn't think he was going to be able to pull off a tiger. He pulls it off. Scotty, Scotty, Scotty, Scotty. He's always the winner. It's always Scotty and then somebody else. But he hasn't won. He's taken second every time, which in a weird way is almost as impressive as if he had won one and then did five and 10 and top 15s or whatever.
It's like, but then, it's not though, right? Cause he didn't win and you're the primitive favorite every time. And then there's these little stretches of Fitzpatrick, like just unfucking beatable and yet beatable. Like he's, he's, he's like right on the line of like this could have gone, all of the wins could have gone another way in one hole or another. And then there's Cam Young who came up short at the Masters, but when he wins,
He doesn't just win. He kicks your fucking wheels off. And so the tweet I saw was like, we got to rank the four stallions. And I saw Scotty one Rory to I think in the picture that are posted, I saw it might have been fits three cam four cam three fits four. And I thought, and then you get a five. We'll leave five five is a blank. And I thought, you know, we should talk about it because I think that there is a little a little debate like who is the best golfer.
on tour right now. And that question, Joe, can be brought to you in a couple of ways. You could look at points and FedEx and say it's Scotty and you could look at Rory and say he won the Masters and completed the Grand Slam. And he's probably going to kick the hell out of Quail today or this week because he's won there four times, a couple of tied for twos. He's got the course record. He basically owns it. But it's not like your traditional like, you know, I'm not actually looking. I know we can, but I'm not actually looking for him to like
Venmo Joe (07:11.902)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (07:33.518)
run off a bunch of majors here necessarily. And then you see Cam and you're like, well, that shit looked unbeatable. And we'll get into when we talk about the recap here, we'll get into number, whole number two. That stands out as something that for me was kind of eye opening. But and then there's Fitz who I feel like is just like a ho hum like, yeah, I've won three, got my brother a card for two years, and then he takes the top 10. So like, holy shit. So anyway, if you look at that list, what is your natural gut ranking and why?
Venmo Joe (08:04.709)
It I think there's a distinction right between best and hottest golfer right now. Scotty Scotty is still the best golfer on the planet. It just I think you and I probably need to recalibrate on him a little bit just because I think we went into this year being like you. We've just seen it for the last three years, right? Like we're. Yeah, and he came in. Yeah, he won the American Express, right? So I think the expectation was, well, he's going to do what he's done in 2020.
Scott Kitun (08:23.95)
Yeah, well then he won. I mean, he came into the year that way. He won right away.
Venmo Joe (08:33.983)
in 2025 and just like every tournament that he's in. He's kind of, we expected him to do what Cam Young did, which is kind of run away with it, which is he did a lot in 25. So I do think it's still Scotty. Rory's obviously number two. He's got to be right. I mean, he's won the only major of the year, won the players and the masters last year, won an away Ryder Cup. Like you can't, you can't slot him down.
And then I probably do agree, like if you're just looking at like form and who is best positioned to have a Scotty like year, it looks a lot like, yeah. I mean, it looks, would put Cam Young over Fitz, right? Because Cam Young beat him head to head at the players. Cam Young, dude, the way he's rolling the rock right now, like,
Scott Kitun (09:12.844)
Right now, I'm not even going a year, right now, right now, you've got a tournament this week and every week will reset.
Venmo Joe (09:32.04)
It makes him, it makes him unbeatable, right? Because he, he's so good off of the tee, right? We talked about that last week and we, you know, we discounted him to win. but we were, we were saying he's going to be in the top five because he's lethal with the driver. We were looking at total driving as the, as the stat going into the tournament last week that came through, but.
Dude, Scotty played with him three out of the four rounds and he said, he's like, dude, it looked like he just was never going to miss a pot. Like he just was holding everything. Um, so I agree with him at three. Um, I put Xander at four over fits. Um, we're listen, here's the context was Xander. He won two majors in 2024. He got hurt. Like he is coming into form though. Right? Like he hasn't.
Scott Kitun (10:23.138)
Yeah, he looks good. He just hasn't won. He looks good though.
Venmo Joe (10:23.433)
quite been in contention. He hasn't. Yeah, he hasn't quite been in contention, but like if I'm looking at Fitz versus Xander, yes, Fitz is playing is like quote unquote hotter right now because he's won three in a row, but I still think Xander is more dangerous. I think Xander is a more complete player. The thing that still scares me a little bit about Fitzpatrick and we haven't seen it quite as much when he's won obviously, but like.
there's still something a little off with his putting, right? Where he misses a lot of inside six to 10 foot putts where those other guys that we're listing are much less prone to miss those putts. So like that's kind of the glaring weakness I still see with Fitz, even though he's gotten over the finish line a couple of different times. But that's what prevented him from winning the players, right? He just couldn't make those.
you know, eight to 10 footers when he had to have them and Cam Young was able to do that. And I've got more trust that Xander would be able to do that as well. So that's the, that's my top five. What were you, what's your opinion on the list?
Scott Kitun (11:28.152)
Yeah, I mean...
I feel like, I mean you know I love me some Xander. We all play the Callaway TCB Irons together. We're in the family, you know. I love Xander. I think that, speaking of Fitz and the five minutes he spent at Northwestern here, I'm repping him. He, I think he's a better player.
Venmo Joe (11:50.016)
Was he just there for one year? Did he play one full season? Got it. Got it. Love that.
Scott Kitun (11:54.274)
Yeah, he was one year, one year and think a half a year of classes. Loved Pilates, went to the James Allen Center and did Pilates a lot. don't know, that's a fun fact. I think he's a better player. think that he, I'm weird. I see, there's stuff when I look at a golfer that I'm, know, obviously the putting, putting, I would make the argument that's why I have Cam not on Scottie's level because I need to see a continued.
Venmo Joe (12:06.394)
Hahaha
Venmo Joe (12:22.271)
Yeah, of course.
Scott Kitun (12:22.612)
History of the putting like this you can't put less is like a guy who gets on a heater and makes every three and You're like and then the next game he doesn't make any three. He's like well fuck It's like Sam Burns shit the bed because he couldn't put like there is a consistent amount of like
Venmo Joe (12:33.023)
Well, and you gotta see Cam Young win a major, right? Like that's the one missing piece.
Scott Kitun (12:38.05)
I need to see a major, is where. So I'm not doing body of work. I'm doing right now who I'm afraid of. And I'm going to start at the top. I'm putting Roy at the top because we're already one of masters. He he won't. Not just one. He back to back the masters. The first time since Tiger and also completed the Grand Slam and also looked like he is not fucking around. But like he won a major. So I'm putting him at number one right now. The thing about Scottie Scheffler is
You know, we didn't we said Cam would be great last week. We didn't say I didn't count on him lapping the field. No one does like you can't ever count on someone lapping the field. If you made Scotty just play Thursday the way he plays Friday, not even his best round, just whatever his second worst round of the week is. Almost all the tournaments that we're talking about, Scotty would have done Cam Young. He's in contention plus or minus two strokes, one strokes, three strokes on Sunday. Every tournament with like above par Thursdays.
So if you gave him like just 69s on all the Thursdays, he's like five and two. It's insane. So I think he's playing his ceiling and his floor. Any day when you tee up, Scottie Shuffler is the guy who every single part of his game there's a little bit that might be off this day. Wedges are better. He chunks a wedge this day, but he's making putts out of his mind. He isn't making putt, but he's driving the ball like crazy. He has the perfect combo.
Venmo Joe (13:47.572)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (14:06.456)
where if I had to pick anyone to die right now, life on the line, I'm gonna go him. Who I'm most afraid of right now, literally, and I give the ranking to because of this year's production, Rory McIlroy. When I see the play that I saw from Cam Young this week, where the fucking dude calls a stroke penalty on himself, which like no one saw, I've watched the replay 50 times, I don't even see the ball move. Scottie Scheffler was like, dude, I wouldn't have called that.
Venmo Joe (14:30.355)
Me either.
Scott Kitun (14:33.524)
And I literally just a quick you know sidebar here. I put 500 contracts at 23 cents on Scottie Shelfler to win. But when we did our podcast last week exactly the moment I'm watching TV and he calls the penalty on himself I thought to myself if he missed it if he fucks this up and bogeys this tournament on if he makes par this shit is over. And I had to make a guess in my head.
Do I think it's going to make a par and over? And I said, yes, he's going to make the par and this is going to be done. I went on Robin Hood and I sold all of my Scotty position at 16.5 cents. So I netted back about 240 bucks. I lost about 250 bucks, but that's better than losing 500 bucks. Right. So I found a nice escape on that. And of course he goes on, makes the putt, slam dunks it. And I really didn't think there was a moment the rest of the round.
that I thought there was. mean, not just because there's six strokes. I thought he was going to win the day and he pretty much did. Low on the group. I thought he was going to win the day regardless of what happened. And there's something that clicked. I don't know if it's the going to church on Sunday mornings with the family and whatever, which to be honest, I kind of laugh at, but that's just because I'm a prick. Whatever it is, this dude right now, he looks like a man on a fucking mission. And you don't mess with dudes like that.
Venmo Joe (15:50.161)
It's working.
Scott Kitun (15:58.624)
And so like I put him in third strongly.
Venmo Joe (16:00.192)
Well, and now what you've seen from him, Like, let's not forget, before Scotty won in Phoenix in 2022, everyone was like, when is this guy going to win? Right? And then he wins, he closes in a big tournament, and then the floodgates open. Like, let's not forget, Cam had that same commentary about him last year, right? And the year before, he was always...
Scott Kitun (16:27.128)
Yeah, everybody does. Until they win, everyone gets the same treatment.
Venmo Joe (16:28.703)
He was always, he was always, yeah, but you know, those guys were always in the top five, top 10 cam, very similar trajectory to Scottie. And now you're finally seeing him where it's like, all right, he got that, that one, the one he won last year, wasn't a big tournament, right? I think it was in July, like not a strong field, but he got the win. Now he's got the players under his belt. He's got a win at the blue monster. Like I think he's going to rip off a couple more wins this year, no doubt.
Scott Kitun (16:56.034)
Yeah, so putting a quirk on it, it's a quality, similar to Rory, it's the quality of wins. You could argue a number of wins per tournaments played, position per tournaments played. He's on the same level heater as Fitzie is. The only difference of Fitzie is that he had the brother story, which is cool, and the brother did well last week as well. As I was saying in the beginning of this, I'm a feel golfer. I look at golfers when I make these bets. We have the dash. We look at all these analytics and make our decisions. I look at players, and there's two things that I see.
I see the look on Cam's face when he looks at it, he kind of steps away, looks at his guy and he's like, fuck it, calls him over, stroke, makes a putt, mean he doesn't even like flinch, he's just like going about it. And I look at Fitz and there's a couple of times where Rory hit some shots two weeks ago and he's just got this look on his face and I'm like, that's a real guy. He views himself as the same level of player as what he just saw Rory do.
He looked at him like a peer and in my mind when you're confidence level, there's a big difference between guys like Min Woo Lee. I love Min Woo Lee. He's funny and he's affable and he does all these funny shit things. But I can tell when he's on the tee box, he kind of shrinks when a big dog comes up. And when I see a guy like Fitz laugh at something Rory does, I see a guy who views himself as a peer. And that to me scary because now it's like, shit, you're on that platitude. Cam plays head to head with Scotty Scheffler.
He's got the lead, you know, whatever. That doesn't mean shit when you're out there and he's looking at Scotty and they're laughing. It looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger and and know, Carl Weathers. I thought they're going to do one of these things at the end of the round like the respect level that Scotty showed him. was like, holy shit. If Scotty thinks you're there and you think you're there, then you're fucking there. And so for me, that's a list. Everyone else is is below it. Xander's amazing, but he's on that line. Fleetwood needs to learn how to win golf tournaments for real.
Venmo Joe (18:37.332)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (18:43.391)
That's good point. That's a good point.
Scott Kitun (18:51.502)
That's on the line. You you could go down the line. Your Seawood Kim, I think, is also in that same place. Those are all guys that I would put top tens and top fifteens and I wouldn't think twice. They're not guys who I feel like when I put the bet in on Wednesday night for a win or an alt win that I feel like they may not even make the fucking cut. I don't think I think they may not make top five. And that's like the worst case scenario for me. The other guys like legit might not make the cut or not going to make top 20. That's possible.
And so that's kind of how I view it. The rest the gap is I think fairly sizable. I would have put Cam in that little mid tier him and him and Fitz he kind of climb and clawing up with Xander clawing up until last week. Now I think Cam is here and Fitzpatrick he can show up and do some damage and then I will put him right there locked in at four. Right now he's above in my mind Xander but the one
Zander wins this week and I'm like, you guys are all in the same platitude again. So deal is still open. We, yeah.
Venmo Joe (19:52.094)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's a great point on the Cam Scotty thing, right? Because Scotty talked glowingly about Cam, right? And Scotty's not going to... Scotty's not... Yeah, very respectfully, right? Loves his game. Just talked about the amount of high quality golf shots that he hit. And yeah, he had a lead on Sunday, but he built that lead playing with Scotty rounds one and two, right? So it's like...
Scott Kitun (20:03.244)
Yeah, respectfully.
Venmo Joe (20:20.467)
He was going toe to toe with the number one player in the world and building that lead, right? So he is not afraid of the moment. You saw that in the Ryder Cup. He was the best American at the Ryder Cup. Like the guy likes the big moments. And I think it's just a matter of time before he gets another really, really big one.
Scott Kitun (20:39.446)
I think it's common. think you the pressure test, the ultimate pressure test is to be one or two strokes up, preferably up on a Scheffler chasing you or a Rory chasing you and hold on to it and fend them off and win. The closest thing you're going to get to that, I don't care how many strokes is different, is a situation where could easily have made a bogey or a double and then start a one, two, three bogey holes in a row. And all of sudden this thing is a three stroke lead. And then you melt down. I just I saw a guy who wasn't wasn't going to screw around who could
who was not afraid of anything anymore. It doesn't mean he's going to putt like this forever. And I don't think he has the ceiling of Scottie Schaeffler, but I think that he can do shit like this when the timing is right. I just, all I would caution anyone who's on the, you know, the Scottie Schaeffler is not their train. It's like legit, like I said at the top, you give him like an average Scottie Thursday and not what he's been playing. And he looks like Cam almost every week we've played here. He's winning half these tournaments.
I want to go over our scorecard Joe and then we're going to hop into truest. We did not predict Ken Young obviously. We did say a top fiver level player just couldn't hard to predict a guy is going to lap the field. We did call Scottie Schaeffer I picked him to win obviously he did not win so we lose but we called him as the winner. He was it was him and and Cam and a couple of guys floating around there. See who Kim was another person I called out on our last show and said if there's somebody who could float around top five top 10.
It would be Siwoo. You called out Adam Scott as someone who's going to be around in this tournament. He did that. Min Woo Lee we just missed on. That was our top 10 pick. That was your luck I think. He just missed it but like. God damn. was like there was a couple times I thought he could eke into seven. Finished 15. He just a couple holes and honestly the lap the field part didn't help because it created a vacuum of ties at the top which pushed him down.
Venmo Joe (22:18.193)
It was,
Scott Kitun (22:35.116)
Russell Henley we just fucking totally missed. We called him as a value pick on the board. I think he might have been a top 20 pick for us. He tied it 47th which again with the congestion at the top he's really like 35th or whatever in the range. We didn't blow it but we just missed it. The two that we really can talk about. Well hold on let's say kudos first. We called Justin Rose. Called that shit all day long.
Venmo Joe (22:35.507)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (22:59.593)
We call it the fade. I think his first hole with the new irons, he doubled. And I was like, all right, at least we're on the right track for that projection. That might just be it. That might just be it. I'm team Rose. I'm still team Rose. as we talked about, that decision is mind boggling. And you were right on with Batia, by the way.
Scott Kitun (23:09.794)
You think it's because the golf clubs are made by a car manufacturer? No coincidence.
It might have a play.
Yes.
Scott Kitun (23:26.499)
He, yeah.
Venmo Joe (23:29.023)
I think I'm finally off my fellow lefty. So what happened to him? Obviously I was playing on Sunday, he skyrocketed up the leaderboard on Saturday and then just what, had the worst round of the field on Sunday?
Scott Kitun (23:29.986)
That was the other one.
Scott Kitun (23:36.866)
Sundays, man.
Scott Kitun (23:43.594)
Yeah. Yeah, he had like what usually he had like a Min Woo Sunday round. Really? It was like a bunch of doubles like the the scorecard was crooked. He shit. I think he had one hole that was like a full on blow up hole on the front side. I saw him in the list and I saw him off the list and then I was like, OK, well, that's over. So I kind of left. He just he just didn't. He just had a rough rough day at the office, which obviously we're prone to do. I told you before he's got game for days. It's just
There's certain it depends on who he's playing with and how the flow is going as to whether or not he's gonna be able to play Well, I just haven't seen to me his Sunday, you know in victory Sunday comes from holding on not clawing back. So Didn't love it where we really screwed the pooch Joe was your call Sam Burns my call Victor Hovland Hovland's now on Hovland Hovland, whatever who gives a fuck Hovland is now on my fade list Gold jacket green jacket who gives a shit
Venmo Joe (24:31.273)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (24:37.545)
Gold jacket, green jacket. Yeah. You know, like we talked about having last week, I love the guy, I can't quit him, but like, I think I'm willing him to like be better than he is right now. Like it's just not, there's something off. I think the driver is a big issue for him, right? And if we're on.
long courses where you can't, it's just not, you know, bomb it and figure it out. Like if there's, if there's water, if there's trouble, if you're missing your mark, like he, in his current form, I think we, we've got to be careful with him. I still really like Sam Burns. I don't know what happened on Thursday. Like he was just bad. And then he like just tail of, you know, four different rounds and then he comes out on fire on Friday, right? I don't know what was going on with him. He's missing a lot of putts right now.
Like shorties like short putts like I think he on Sunday He had and you would know better than me because you were probably watching it live. I was just tracking it in between My my batilla like round that day, but I think he had the par 510 I think he had like a four-footer for birdie that he bogeyed like he three putted from four feet which You know, I can't continue to say he's the best the best putter in the world if he's doing that type of stuff. So
Something to keep an eye on when we're talking burns here in the near future. He's got to get that figured out. He's got to get the driver figured out.
Scott Kitun (26:10.582)
Yeah, I felt bad. used my one and done on Hovland. I was like, man, I hope I didn't screw up by not picking Burns. And then I watched him both burn and I was like, boy, which I guess, you know, I'm an egotistical person, so I take pride in anything I can get my hands on. We did say if there was something was going to go wrong with them, it would be that they didn't like there's a missing piece. And for Burns, it was the putter. And for Hovland, it was that he just like was inconsistent. And if you look at the rounds, it was like
He had flashes and then not a lot of them, but he was he was like minus three at one point. And then all of sudden I looked and he's plus two and he was minus one again and then he's plus three and he was minus one again and he's fucking even. was like, what is going on? so like he just couldn't put it together, which which roller coaster Hovland is I think the new nickname for me with him. One more segment here. Yeah.
Venmo Joe (26:50.983)
Rollercoaster, rollercoaster round.
Venmo Joe (26:59.133)
You know what he does a lot, this is what leads to the... Dude, the guy double bogeys at least once around. For a guy that's as world-class as him, he kind of makes trouble out of nowhere. Even when he does have the drive figured out. He had something on Thursday where he just blasted a drive. You're like, all right, birdie opportunity for Hovland.
Scott Kitun (27:06.829)
Yes.
Venmo Joe (27:24.325)
Overshoots the green and all of a sudden he turned a birdie opportunity into a double like that if you're trying to compete with those top four guys that we We talked about at the start of the show you can't like double bogeys gotta gotta leave and he's just he can't he can't avoid him,
Scott Kitun (27:43.864)
I mean, it's like Tiger and Jack have always said, no doubles and no threesomes.
Scott Kitun (27:52.243)
in trouble every time the wives aren't watching.
Venmo Joe (27:53.383)
I don't know if Tiger always abided by that, yeah, guess. Do as I say, not what I do.
Scott Kitun (27:58.368)
He was a much better golfer when he was having threesomes.
Scott Kitun (28:03.682)
We're talking about playing in threesomes, guys. Get your mind out of the gutter here. I'm not talking about Perkins. Come on now. Playing in threesomes, Joe. Playing in threesomes.
Venmo Joe (28:10.064)
you... Sure, sure.
Scott Kitun (28:14.136)
Come on big dog. All right. Another segment I want to get to then we're going to we're going to hand it away to Truist and Joe here. One topic that caught a little play and I just want to put like I want to shoot a bullet in it and then I'm just going to let it go and pay no mind. There was a lot of chatter. You were not seeing this I would assume because you were busy enjoying band and there was a lot of chatter throughout the tournament on Twitter in particular about like Doral sucks this tournament sucks and all these kind of things. We've talked about this I feel like every week.
Half of the story is how awesome the PGA Tour is now and all the opportunities. Breaking news, John Rahm today signs with DP World Tour so he can look like the most miserable son of a bitch out there again. But he will be at the open. There's all these good things. Yeah.
Venmo Joe (28:57.011)
Dude, just an aside on Rom. Every time he's in a press conference now, seems like he's always less happy than the last time you heard him talk. He's got a terrible poker face. The guy just seems miserable. It's hard to feel bad for him because no one put a gun to his head and he took the $500 million. But man, what a shitty career decision.
Scott Kitun (29:15.693)
I mean...
Scott Kitun (29:26.242)
I mean, you he's a family man now, but you know, like the great Walter Hagen said, more threesomes, more threesomes. So he'd be happier. Anyway, stuck on, stuck on the same gag. Yeah, I'm going back to the well. No, but you know what? So the storyline was that. And I just like the PGA tours never, and other than Peak Tiger, it's never been in a better position. The fact that these guys are all floating around having to go play DP World Tour and they'll be on Ryder and it'll make Ryder Cup even more fun.
Venmo Joe (29:36.061)
You're just going back to the well.
Scott Kitun (29:56.426)
They'll make their way back. They'll be in all the majors. This is gonna make its way back to the way it used to be and whether they play PG or DP, I don't give a shit. They can come on tour the old-fashioned way. They'll be on DP. They'll earn their way back on. Everyone will just ignore it and we've talked about this too much. But I do think that the topic of Doral sucked. It was like a dude blew away the field. You can't predict it. Everyone else played in like, if you just said you're gonna be at 12 under on the tournament, you'd take it all day long.
Venmo Joe (30:19.699)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (30:25.474)
The only reason it didn't work is because somebody shot 19 under. And yeah, if for three days you're chasing a six stroke lead, the tournament's not great. So like, don't, I feel like all of that was like, I don't know what that was. Maybe it was because of the Trump thing. There were some people shitting on it, but Twitter is like a Trump place. I don't know. I just think that people. Yeah.
Venmo Joe (30:42.611)
Probably.
Venmo Joe (30:46.527)
Listen, listen, we talked about it last week. I think the Durell is awesome. I'm happy it was back on the schedule. You had talked about the renovations that the Durell went under in 2014, and then they had the tournament from 14 to 16, where the average winning score was 800. So that course plays really, really tough.
Like we've talked about, can just went nuclear, right? Like it is what it is. I don't think it should be, a damning statement on the course. think it's just, you know, once in a while you're going to get a guy that's just, you know, unconscious and he's got every facet of his game working and that's what you had here. So yeah, it was a runaway, not as entertaining, but like I thought the blue monster was, was awesome. I I only got to watch it on Thursday, other than highlights throughout the weekend, but it.
I thought it looked great.
Scott Kitun (31:42.606)
I don't know what the complaining was. think if we're going to go back to it, and I'm not going to waste time on this podcast, we've talked a bunch about this, it is a scarcity thing. It is too many signature events in a row. I did a little back and napkin math where basically I removed about 30 % of the signature course events and looked at the 700 million or whatever the contract was for media rights and just assumed that the other remaining signature events got to be a 10 to 15 % boost in viewership.
It comes to a total value loss of like between one and three percent loss capital wise for the PGA Tour and a net gain on the overall experience. To me, what we need to figure out is how do we shrink that and expand the other digital products like TGL? We've talked about the match. What I'm going to do is make it simple for people here because listening to this without reading it is hard. We are going live, as I mentioned last week, with our newsletter. We've got a new domain, NoStrokes.co.
For more of a deep dive on media and golf, I'm going to add this to the newsletter every week. I'm going to spend a little bit of time on a segment I call Good, Bad and Ugly. We're going to talk about the freshly launched Grant Horvat and Bryan Brothers, Wesley Brothers golf tour, your golf tour launch. And I'm going to put that in context of TGL, the match, and in general, this concept of like, if we shrunk signature courses and looked at this as more of a fan experience and made money in different ways, which we're entering.
a new world of media where money is made in different ways. And a lot of this, is thanks to Bryce Deshambault, which we've talked about also on this show. anyway, if you want to learn more about that or interested in that, hop over to no strokes dot co subscribe to the newsletter.
Venmo Joe (33:18.495)
I didn't buy it.
Venmo Joe (33:23.827)
By the way, speaking of the tour that the Brian Bros and Grant are launching, did you watch the qualifier that they did? like they had eight of the top YouTube golf content creators have a qualifier for one flight, which is the, you know, the other tournament that's going on this weekend in Myrtle beach. That was an awesome watch. Like that was what I was watching on the plane. That was what I was watching on the plane going out to bandit and
Scott Kitun (33:47.086)
It was great.
Venmo Joe (33:53.012)
Man like that, that when they got down to four guys, right? Cuz the first round they did the match play and then they went to the four guys that won the matches like Horvat versus Ryan Ruffles was highly entertaining. they've got some things working there.
Scott Kitun (34:06.466)
Dude, that's what I'm talking about. They can trim down the dead time. There's not as many players. You throw this on a Thursday, Friday, or Friday, Saturday in between big tournaments. I think PG needs to embrace some of that stuff and learn that's the stuff from Liv that you got free. But anyway, for that, it will be newsletter. We'll talk about this stuff, obviously, ongoing on the podcast. But let us finish strong, Joe. We are going to go to the truest championship. It starts on Thursday. There is no Scotty. There is no problem.
Normally, I would want a lot more time to talk about a tournament and perhaps this is me fucking up again like we did the Masters, but I'm not gonna overthink this one Joe. Quail Hollow is Rory's course. Rory's what, plus 625 or 650 when I last saw. I mean, you've got Cam Young coming back just to tee you up and I'll let you run. You got Cam coming back. You got Xander. You got Fitzy returning. bug. You've got Siwoo. Tommy Fleetwood is always good for a not win.
Venmo Joe (34:49.009)
Yeah, moving around there.
Scott Kitun (35:05.222)
And in the big names out obviously we talked about Schaeffler's not there, Morikawa withdrew which kind of sucks, Henley's out, health, whatever he said, taking a break. Batia's still trying to find his ball on 16 and Koepka is playing in a tournament in like fucking Tampa, Florida or something. I have no idea where he's playing.
Venmo Joe (35:20.291)
Kappa is playing the secondary tournament. He's playing the Myrtle Beach tournament because that was part of his terms going back to the PGA Tour. Yeah, he's like always like the second or third alternate in these signature events and he's not getting in. So he's playing in Myrtle Beach. So I'll cook really quick here because I got to jump. But I'm going to treat Rory like we usually treat Scotty, right? Where you've said it here, right? Like four wins here, course record.
Scott Kitun (35:28.599)
Is spanking?
Venmo Joe (35:50.016)
He owns this place, obviously feels really comfortable here. I just don't know, know, the odds, the odds don't excite me and like, he could be taking this as an approach of, you know, he's just, he's tweaking things before the PGA championship. Like I think he wants to contend. I don't think he's going to be that all that upset if he doesn't win. I'm going to go win a bag. I'm going back to him.
I just think, I think we're forgetting about Ludwig a little bit because of what happened at the players. I don't know, big names usually win at Quail Hollow and I just have a vision of it being like Ludwig could have a very similar week to what Cam did last week and everyone's like, oh shit, now we've got this robot that we've got to contend with as well. I'm gonna go Xander top five. I think he's trending really, really well.
Scott Kitun (36:15.235)
Okay.
Venmo Joe (36:43.583)
Um, I'm going to go, Adam, I'm going to go back to Adam Scott for top 10. Um, you talked about it, right? His shot gained approach, right? Like he's hitting his irons unbelievably well. Um, and I really think like there is a lot of similarity between Doral and Coil Hollow where I think a lot of the guys that you saw at the top of the leaderboard, if they played last week, I think there's going to be some overlap in what you see at Coil Hollow. So I look for Adam Scott to continue his hot play.
Um, get in with the top 10. and then top 20, think we're, we're going to go George speed. You and I talked about, right? Like pure nostalgia bet, but you know, he, he just seems to be able to score. I, I like him in top 20. You have anything that you vehemently disagree with? Do I have a Patia pick from last week that you don't love here?
Scott Kitun (37:36.522)
No, no, mean, I'm staying as far away from Hovland as possible. I love Chef Shofley in there. I had him at top 20, but whatever, top 10. Cam Young, I think will play, however, I think he'll be in that room. I'm not betting against Rory McIlroy at this course. I can't do it. And I will say the one thing, and you could put this in anywhere you want, the course, right now they're dealing with basically spring drought. The course is a bomber's paradise before the drought. Balls are going to run a long way.
The guy who I'm going to put on my top 10, the sleeper pick of the week, lock it in, is Harris English. The money on him, he's got a 22 % chance of a top 10. And I think it's 16 now. It was 22 when I did this yesterday. So Harris English is my sneaky pick. The rest of the picks you got, love it. Rory, I got Rory. You got, who did you say you got? did you see? Obag, Obag. Okay. All right. Obag. All right. Well, good shit, Joe.
Venmo Joe (38:08.617)
Love it.
Venmo Joe (38:23.201)
bug, bug, bug, bug, bug. So we'll see, it's gonna be a great tournament. I I love Coil Hollow. I mean, it's, it's an awesome quarters. You know, President's Cup has been there. PGA Championship has been there. A big flyer that you can look at too. Max Homa has played really well at Coil Hollow. Like I'm I'm talking probably like top 20, top 30, but like that's a guy that,
Scott Kitun (38:32.92)
Quail is a fun watch, no question about
Scott Kitun (38:44.525)
Yes.
Venmo Joe (38:51.936)
He plays well at the courses that he likes and Riviera and Coil Hollow are the two that he's had a lot of success at. So I'd look at that too. Yep. All right. See you, bud. Bye.
Scott Kitun (38:58.606)
I would put him in a top 20, no question about it. Awesome, buddy. We'll see you.
See you.