A new champion is crowned. Scott and Joe break down the major championship nobody predicted — Aaron "Two Gloves" Rai going six under through eight holes on Sunday to separate from a field that stayed bunched all week, why the broadcast spent more time talking about Smalley's mom and head covers than the actual race, the James Harden of golf, and a quick look ahead to this week's Byron Nelson. Follow the guys X @kitun Instagram @kitun, @venmojoe. Subscribe at nostrokes.co.
Scott Kitun (00:01.854)
All right, Joe, another episode of No Strokes is here and I got the Aaron Rye edition. Customs, customs, baby.
Venmo Joe (00:10.03)
man, you look good in those. I think you're gonna have to adapt to those. Yeah.
Scott Kitun (00:15.56)
These are my all-weather. I'm invested in, I'm usually a, don't take this the wrong way. I'm a little tee guy. I'm a little tee guy. I don't have the castle tees. My very first set of clubs were this like oversized titanium-y Tommy Armor. I forget what they were called, but they were like this big expensive set that I bought. I made my dad buy me in San Diego when I was like in sophomore year high school.
Venmo Joe (00:22.552)
Ha ha ha!
Scott Kitun (00:44.006)
and made me put headcovers on them. And I was like, there's no fucking way I'm wearing headcovers. He was like, I didn't spend $1,100 on culture. Very first tournament. He was standing there watching us play. And some kid came up and was like, who's the fucking, won't say the word here, but you can imagine what it were, the word was with headcovers on their fucking irons. And my dad walks over while I'm on the green and he just starts taking the fucking head cover. I shit you not.
Venmo Joe (01:09.304)
HAHAHAHA
Scott Kitun (01:13.33)
Hole three at Glendale Lakes. There's a pile of obviously this is about 30 years ago now But if you were to go back and hold three at Glendale Lakes, it's just a pile of fucking head covers sitting next to the green But apparently you can
Venmo Joe (01:23.662)
Dude, you would have kept those head covers on, who knows? Maybe we're talking about you winning the PGA Championship.
Scott Kitun (01:33.19)
Yeah, well here's the problem though. I am a person that you know and you play with me. I wear no gloves. So my alignment, Listen, we'll start right there. He won, he deserves it. I'm very happy for him. We talked about this actually last week about how random guys do win the PGA championship more often than any other major. I am very happy for him. There are some people on Twitter who are
Venmo Joe (01:41.55)
Yeah, you're the exact opposite of Mr. Ray.
Scott Kitun (02:03.206)
eviscerating the gloves and the cry like just making him out to be a joke and whatever. He doesn't deserve that. He earned this. And really he did earn it because there was a period of time where everyone got back in it at six and then he turned the fucking gas on and know Eagle and birdie and he takes it. He earned it. But I have to say and this is we'll get into the experience of watching this and the gambling and all this. But I am a person. This is the same basketball last night watching the Spurs win. I'm chair for the Spurs Wemby his
He's just a fucking killer. I love it. And I know that Aaron is a grinder and I appreciate that. But there is something same thing with Alex. There's something about these guys that I just personally did not do not identify with. And in the case of Aaron I don't identify him with to the point where literally I wear no gloves. He wears two gloves. can't be friends. We can't be in the same room. I just there's something about that that while I'm really happy for him and it just shows how broad the game of golf is it kind of ruined it for me. I like
I don't really have a guy. I don't give a shit what that guy's gonna say. I probably never see him again. I don't know. I or maybe we will. I don't know. You tell me it just didn't do it for me. I guess.
Venmo Joe (03:08.974)
Yeah, mean, here's the thing. You and I are guys that watch the tour week in and week out. I think you and I have made fun of the dual gloves and the iron head covers three, four years ago. What you saw on Sunday was like.
Scott Kitun (03:24.848)
Ironically, I almost put him in my pool in your pool I almost picked him because it was like the he was like 6600 or something yet and I picked Molly instead but which also almost worked out
Venmo Joe (03:30.318)
It's cheap!
Well, I mean, yeah, yeah. So I think you were dead on. If you had both those in the lineup, I would have been, Venmo Joe would have been sending you some money today.
Scott Kitun (03:40.646)
I did. And I had Kitayama was another one.
I had to pick between one of them and Kiteyama. took Burns instead of Kiteyama. And Burns did fine.
Venmo Joe (03:51.823)
So like with, yeah, for instance, all right. With Ry, right, this was his introduction to the public this weekend, right? Like he took the lead on Saturday. So all of a sudden he's getting a bunch of TV coverage. And then the last two hours were basically him because all of a sudden he took a tournament that looked like it could be any guy. Like there was 15 guys that could have won it. And then all of a sudden he.
caught fired it was like shit Aaron Rye is gonna win this tournament and that's that's all we got right was the backstory on him which you and I knew yeah I don't relate with him but I I think he's a I think he's a good winner right like everyone came out on the on the tour and said how great of a guy is he's a grinder he's a guy that doesn't have the most talent and sometimes when you see the guy that doesn't have the most talent but just
grinded his ass off and you know, he's rewarded with one of those just like spectacular moments on a back nine of a major. It's a pretty cool story. He's the one guy that was able to separate himself the whole tournament, right? I think we all kept waiting for that, right? Like the leaderboard just kept being bunched up and no one could get beyond a certain number, right? Like I think when we saw Thursday, you and I had talked about last week.
you know, the goal for the players were to be minus four every day because everyone thought this was going to be a birdie fest at aeronomic. Um, the superintendents in the PGA tour of America were like, no, fuck you guys. Like we've, hear all the shit talk. We're going to give you as possible whole locations. And then, you know, they got the benefit of the wind howling, but you did see minus four be the lead on Thursday. And then it just stayed there. It stayed there Friday.
It stayed there Saturday, right? Like everyone was bunched up at four. You got Smalley at six under going into Saturday, but no one, and still two shots going into Sunday with all those guys chasing Smalley. You didn't feel like there was separation. And then finally Aaron Ry got it, right? Like he Eagles, he Eagles nine, he birdies 11, he birdies 13, birdies 15.
Venmo Joe (06:07.95)
birdie, or not birdies 15, par 15, which is really a birdie, because that was a 550 yard par four, birdie 16, and then makes the bomb on 17. And you're like, finally someone separated from the field. To me, it just felt a little anti-climatic because you just thought that there was going to be these fireworks on the back nine where you had like three or four guys dueling. it just, it didn't materialize.
right? Like Aaron Rye went and won the golf tournament. So you got to give him credit for that. you and I backing Ludwig were obviously disappointed. That guy was just stuck in new, like it's like you look at him and he's like a Porsche, but he gets stuck in neutral and it's like, you might as well be driving a fricking beat up for tourists. Like it just, he is one of the most frustrating golfers to have money on. And I'm sure we're going to get into that, but yeah, good for Aaron Rye, man.
He went and it, no one gave it to him. He went and slammed the door six under through eight holes is absurd when you think about the leader going into Sunday with six under through 54 holes. So for him to go nuclear six under through eight holes, most of that happening on the more challenging back nine, like all the kudos to him.
Scott Kitun (07:21.586)
I agreed. You know, the prick in me always likes a fun punching bag or just like an epic story. That's just how I, kind of how I am. I was geared up. I'm not gonna lie. I was geared up for Alec, Alec Smalley to win because I wanted to see what he and mama would do. I was in fucking disbelief. I started throwing. my God.
Venmo Joe (07:45.581)
What would I I don't even know what his story was because I refuse to I refuse to go down the Alex Molly path because I all I saw was people trying to say on Saturday night that he beat Scottie Scheffler in like the quarterfinals of the NCAA. Yeah, and I'm like, why are we pushing this? Why are we pushing this agenda that this guy is like not going to fold?
Scott Kitun (07:59.134)
sophomore year of college or whatever, yeah, in a match play.
Well, let's unpack that actually. I'm gonna tell two stories at the same time, because that's the kind of podcaster I am. One, they're telling you that story because, and I'm sure you noticed this, they tried to jam down your throat that Scottie Scheffler is still gonna win this tournament every minute until like the last four holes of televised golf. They spent at least 45 % of all camera time on Scheffler. And like, no, if he just makes this one.
Venmo Joe (08:27.438)
for sure.
Scott Kitun (08:34.3)
That's okay. He's fine. If he just makes this one, if he just makes it like they were jamming down your throat. So the build up they were and like the end that's a whole nother part, which I'm going to get into in part two of this. But like they so they wanted the narrative. The only person they could tie the narrative to happen to have the lead and that's Alex smally who happened to play for Duke and happen to play against Scotty and happen to beat Scotty when Scotty was a mere mortal. Although right now arguably mortal again, but that was the narrative they wanted to happen.
Venmo Joe (08:39.406)
You
Scott Kitun (09:03.23)
The part that was hard, I mean this with, actually I don't even mean this with respect, but I do to any listener who's a dork, Alex Moll is a fucking dork. And that's totally fine. I like Brooks Koepka, call me a fucking bro. I like Pop the Collar, I like Koepka. I like guys who have a little bit of, yeah, totally, absolute fucking hard-o.
Venmo Joe (09:19.64)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (09:25.518)
Yeah, you are a hard-o. You are a hard-o, Scott, so that would make sense.
Scott Kitun (09:32.838)
I like guys who have a certain swagger and this is not nothing personal. I'm sure he's a really good kid or whatever. He's rich now, richer now. Also crazy that he's like 210th all time money list with 10 million in career earnings and he's never won a tournament tour. That's insane. His backstory is that he's like his mom is a chemistry professor. It's like Ivy League school. I think maybe at Stanford or wherever it was. He ends up going to Duke. He's a dork. He plays golf.
He wears fucking sleeves under his shirts. He talks like a dork and his mom follows him and he goes to every tournament with mom. And she's doing all the recording because no one's recording his game. And then she analyzes and the two nerds sit there and eat, know, fucking crackers and talk about his. It's just weird. You're grown up. You're fucking grown up kid. And I know that the funny thing is I'm to get attacked on Twitter. Well, probably not because it's all bro hard. I was on Twitter. If I posted this anywhere but Twitter.
Venmo Joe (10:10.295)
I saw that she tracks all his shots. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Scott Kitun (10:31.75)
I will get roasted because this is what golf dads do. And I'm only getting saying this because it's a golf mom and it's weird and I'm calling him a dork. But no, no professional 29 plus year old golfer making millions of dollars at this point has mom following him around or dad for that matter. It was a weird narrative and he was kind of goofy about it. And it just, I had a lot of money on the line for him to win. And it takes a hell of a lot for me to be like,
kind of don't you know, like he there's there's something there and it just it drove me fucking crazy and the funniest part of it of all is that he doesn't win so I don't get the money and then the only person who would beat him would be a guy who wears two fucking gloves and head cover. It's like you can't make this shit up. Like I was I was just having myself a day all that aside. I do think it's great for them. I think it's great for the game that there's this kind of diversity.
Venmo Joe (11:17.314)
Hehehehehe
Scott Kitun (11:27.216)
and that players like this can come in a tournament and we'll talk about the putting thing in a second here. But like the last thing I have on the rye and I think it's really interesting is this is what I was watching at least. I saw this is the grinder, right? Like this is the one thing that there is to admire about him. There was a little bit of ass kicker mentality that he kind of quiet, quiet assassin that it seemed to me and I think the commentators talked about this when he made a turn, maybe it was like on 10 or 11.
What is it 12? Whatever hole you can see the scoreboard clearly. And they kept talking about like everyone can see very plainly scoreboard. So he turns a corner and it's almost like he looked up and he was like, I kind of expected the Scotties, the Rory's, the Ludvigs, all these guys to like turn it on hard and go for it. And I see early on, Smalley goes back two strokes with the double and he's thinking these guys are gonna turn it on.
They're fucking unbelievable. They're gonna shoot 63, 64, and I'm gonna, you know, do well and in place, but that's it. And when he turns a corner and sees that none of them are turning it on, he's like, holy shit. Like, I could do it. And he fucking did it. That part's incredible.
Venmo Joe (12:35.554)
Yeah, his tournament.
And I will say what was super impressive about him is that when he got in the lead, dude, he did not miss a shot. Literally did not miss a shot. Like you kept waiting for, all right, when is he going to have a leaky drive or when is he going to air mail something over the green and put himself in a stressful position? The only stressful position he put himself in, he had like a 10 footer. This is where it turned for you and I is holding Ludwig tickets.
Scott Kitun (12:47.836)
No. No.
Venmo Joe (13:07.758)
They're playing together, right? They're the third to last group. Hole 10, Ry has just eagled, so he's at five under. Ludwig had birdied nine, so he's at four under, right? Between those two guys, right? Anyone's tournament. On 10, Ry's got like a 10 footer for par, nails it, right? Nails the whole back nine. Dead center, Ludwig misses a three footer, and it's like, all right, see you Ludwig.
Scott Kitun (13:29.522)
Yep. Dead center. Center a cup.
Venmo Joe (13:37.071)
Um, and then Rye goes to the next hole, has a great drive, sticks it to four feet birdies, right? And he's off to the races, right? And then like, again, after that, you're just waiting for, well, surely the back night's tough. Like he's gonna, he's gonna stumble somewhere. He just never did. I got to give him a ton of credit for that. He just kept hitting unbelievable golf shots. Like, um, hole 13, that drivable par four where you saw before Rye went there.
Scott Kitun (14:04.392)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (14:06.222)
Rory had his worst swing, worst swing of the day, right? Got stuck, pushed it way right, bogeyed right. Like that, that's a, that was Rory's tournament right there. gets up, hits it into the bunker, another kind of stressful spot for him. And he hits it to six, like that was a very hard bunker shot. It was like a 35 yard bunker shot and sticks it to six feet, nails the pot, goes to 14, which was a super hard par three, hits the green like.
ho-hum par. Like it was just so impressive that like when he got in the driver's seat and to your point, he looked at the leaderboard, he knew when he was in the driver's seat and to see him not falter and just close that was cool, right? Like that was cool. Like all the other stuff, like the double gloves, the covers, I know there's good reason for it. Like we're not into that, but like the fact that he went and won a major.
Scott Kitun (14:50.844)
I agree.
Scott Kitun (14:57.192)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (15:02.23)
no one gave it to him. wasn't like everyone was shitting down their leg and it was just like, yeah, the guy that finished even par for the day one, was no, was the guy that went out there and won it and hit like pressure golf shot after pressure golf shot. And that's what he did.
Scott Kitun (15:18.906)
I agree. think, you know, narrative around the tournament itself, you know, for better or worse, it got a lot of comments around it being basically a long putting contest and it didn't. Some people love the scoring and some people like the defending par. I personally like it. I think it's a mix up. I liked it every three or four tournaments a year. It's like actually really tough. And I also like when it's a rat race, but one of the biggest problems and this continues to be something I gripe about.
every show from a media coverage perspective. Golf, the golfers, they gave us the fucking show, man. They gave us the goods. The way that it was packaged and presented didn't give us the goods. Because they spent so much time on Smollie's mum and on fucking Two Gloves McGee, instead of...
Venmo Joe (16:06.74)
Is Smalley English or what's the...
Scott Kitun (16:09.872)
No, no, but Immelman, Immelman and another guy kept going. What? What? When he wins, it's going to be a great thing for mom. It was like one of the guys on there, whoever's got the accent that he kept saying it. And all I heard in my ear, the whole tournament was mom, mom. And I was like, what the fuck is it? was anyway.
Venmo Joe (16:18.882)
You
Venmo Joe (16:26.51)
Alright, I thought you were confusing Eric Rye, who's actually English, so that's why I was like... Got it.
Scott Kitun (16:30.59)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, his mom his mom and it was like driving me nuts. The point here is these guys if I went back and looked after like I didn't pick small and completely randomly and I'm not going to pretend I'm familiar with this game all the way but I had seen him doing top 15 top 21 26 22 he's been floating around and he was a course horse on a course like this a place that he could play well. That's why I picked him and he was cheap and you know at that price to me had been playing well.
There's plenty of dialogue interviews, commentary for the last day, the last two hours that you could have given to make me as a viewer feel like Smalley does belong in this kind like, now that we're here with three holes left, it's a race. All shits even everyone's, you know, the big dogs didn't do what they're supposed to what they could do or should do. Like it's on. They could have done that for Ry. They could have done that for Smalley. They could have done it for a lot of guys. And instead they focused on these stupid
hacky stories that now I'm turning into a podcast talking about. like I felt like I was waiting for Aaron to falter. I was looking at Smalley and going, well, he's come back now twice. He's got himself back in it. You know, if he makes one birdie here at the end and Aaron falters back and, know, maybe Ludwig and John Rahm, that's a different story. Maybe he makes it. He had good, you know, good hands all day. I was waiting for a fall back instead of a go to.
And that's the part that I think got me. And so, you know, in general, I would have liked to see a little bit more out of that. In general, I just feel like it was a tournament that could have been juiced better.
Venmo Joe (18:08.94)
Yeah, I agree. But I mean, I think that's what the broadcast wanted too, right? I mean, think that's why they kept showing Rom, they kept showing Rory. To your point, they kept showing Scottie. I mean, I don't know how they thought Scottie was going to win going into Sunday when he missed eight putts within five feet on Saturday. Like, it was bad.
Scott Kitun (18:28.414)
Couldn't make putts.
Venmo Joe (18:34.54)
I mean, in looking back on it, mean, one thing, right? All the, all the procrastinator, the, you know, the guys that were previewing the tournament for aeronomic, we all got it wrong, right? We all thought it was going to be a birdie fast. but once you knew how the course kind of shaped up, what you saw was like what we always talk about. The approach shots were everything, right? Especially with where they were putting these whole locations, like on the spine of the greens and like.
just on the green. I mean, it was so hard where you could hit it, you know, three feet left or three feet right, and it would, it would roll 30, 40 feet away. So you just had to be super precise. I think Rory was wrong when he said it was just a, you know, bomb it and, you know, figure it out from there. That, that clearly wasn't what the course called for. I will say, I think golden opportunity missed for, for both Ram, Rory and Ludwig, right? Like,
I don't know. just think one of those guys has got to take over on Sunday. Like you've got to be the guy that takes control over that tournament on the front nine, not on the back nine, right? Like, cause I think if, if someone goes out there and gets to seven under eight under on that front nine and the front nine there was gettable, right? I mean, that that's where you saw the scoring whole one was birdieable. Whole two was birdieable. Nine was the par five was gettable in two.
Like there was just shots to be made. think if one of like if Ludwig, Rom, Rory, one of those guys gets to seven or eight under and then like the Aaron Ryes and Maddie Schmitz and Alex Smalley's of the world look at the leaderboard, they're like, all right, that's the guy that's gonna win the tournament. And it does change the narrative and it just, no one went and grabbed it until Aaron Rye kind of like fell into that Eagle on hole nine. But you know, it...
Scott Kitun (20:18.28)
changes the narrative.
Scott Kitun (20:29.648)
And see, I don't think he fell into that joke. That's the part I'm saying. I think he was waiting for...
Venmo Joe (20:32.846)
Well, dude, you make a 40 footer though, there's luck involved there. Did he hit two great shots to have a 40 footer for Eagle? Of course. But if you make a 40 foot bomb for Eagle, there's some luck involved in that.
Scott Kitun (20:39.4)
Well, yes. Yes.
Scott Kitun (20:45.832)
But you saw multiple guys, Spieth included, you saw multiple guys, Spieth included before he kind of fell off. He didn't fall off that much, but fall off, lay up. You saw multiple guys like not go for it and be in a situation where it was like, maybe I make a birdie, I probably make a birdie, but I don't make a bogey. like he...
Venmo Joe (21:02.358)
Yeah, no, gets credit. He gets credit for he gets credit for going for it. It just I don't know.
Scott Kitun (21:06.118)
He kept putting himself in a position where if things broke well, he could win. And the other guys, I just, I think this is also, know, the parody part of golf is great. We've got all these great players. The thing that we're missing, and this is also, I think, why the TV experience, media experience has been lackluster is we don't, even Scotty, when he was winning all the time, we would say he was boring when he was just beating people. And I'm not challenging the man's competitiveness at all.
But we don't have guys out there who are like dogs. Like Rory to me didn't seem that passionate about this. He seemed sort of like, well, you know, I played like shit this day. I played great this day.
Venmo Joe (21:41.231)
Rory was like his Sunday round was infuriating. Like he, I texted this to you. it was, it was just like the, yeah, no, for sure. I mean, but the Rory round, we've seen it before, right? It was at St. Andrew's in 2022 at the, at the open when he was winning, going into the final round. And he just kept giving himself 30 foot birdie putts all day and just missing short.
Scott Kitun (21:46.588)
Right, but I, so was Ludwig.
Venmo Joe (22:07.694)
Like he was just, he was just stuck in neutral. then the opportunities where you had to make birdies on aeronomic, which were few and far between hole nine, he, he pars or he part after a 380 yard drive, right? 180 yards into the green with a seven iron, he pars that par five and then hole 13, the drivable par four, which we talked about, he got stuck. He bogies, um, frustrating if you had him and then Ludwig.
Good God, man. That guy was the betting favorite numerous times over the weekend. That was the guy you and I both gave out last week. He birdies hole two. It looks like he's going to be off to the races. And then he just made some of the dumbest mistakes I've ever seen on a Sunday in a major, right? Like airmailing the green on several shots where like, hey, a par is a good score at aeronomic. And he kept introducing bogey after bogey.
and it was pretty infuriating. And then, you know, he needs to figure out his putter, right? I don't know if it's going to a mallet. I don't know what, if it's talking to Brad Faxon, like Rory did, but like his putting is a real, real problem. And like, is it just a problem with the top guys? I mean, Scottie's struggling. Cam is struggling, which you called out, like, hey, this is going to be a thing. Guess what? It's a thing. Like he's got a thing within five feet now.
Scott Kitun (23:17.662)
Dude, I...
Venmo Joe (23:35.054)
It's just bad.
Scott Kitun (23:37.95)
Scotty is not struggling with the putter. He's just not nailing putts that he usually nails. Like I don't think it's, he obviously could be better. I'm not saying that, but like these other guys, it's straight up a weakness. I mean, Brooks Koepka, if he could putt right now and have the right putter, he'd be the number one golfer on the planet based on his iron play and approach and everything else. Like he's, he's a complete player. We have a bunch of guys right now who I think are struggling with the putter. I think you see a lot of equipment changes more frequently.
Used to see guys like Scotty, know, like Scotty, like Tiger Woods and others with their Scotty Cameron for fucking 14 years at the same shit. And now it's like, he's in a mallet, he's cross-hand, he's claw hand, he's this, he's tall, he's this, he's lab, he's Cobra, he's a spider, he's an Odyssey. Like these guys are bouncing over the fucking place. And I don't believe it's about money or marketing. I think it's literally like in their head. Like I think that you're just always, we have a lot of young guys who grew up watching the game from a mechanics perspective.
They got Leadbetter Academy and all this kind of stuff when they're younger and they're tinkerers. And this is the thing that tinkerers do. I mean, so, you know, we need to see more putting. I will say this though, and I still will continue with you to drown and lose money on Ludwig. This guy, I said this to you two weeks ago, there's a fucking makeup problem. Like the putting is, if he's making putts, naturally he's gonna win, cause he's just that skilled. He's on autopilot.
It's like I said this last week, he doesn't know how to like temper. I'm going to drill it over the green. This matters. don't like he just doesn't do that. And this is not course management. This is a person who's just sort of like the smartest kid in school. He just cruises through all the tests and then he gets into real life and someone tells him the scores don't fucking matter and he can't do anything. That's that like he's got all the tools. He could be better at putting. Yes. And he will win if he's putting because everyone wins when they're But
Venmo Joe (25:02.23)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (25:31.398)
I just see a guy.
Venmo Joe (25:31.5)
Yeah, but he doesn't. But but I'm not. I'm not even talking about he needs to be like making everything. He just needs to be average and putting because he's so much like, dude, this week he was number one T to green like number one.
Scott Kitun (25:37.48)
No!
Scott Kitun (25:45.444)
I, again, I'm not there to see him practice. don't, he's incredible, but I just watch this guy and I watch how he plays and I'm thinking, I don't see you taking that extra step away glance. I don't see you zeroing in with intensity at certain times, ratcheting it up, ratcheting down. You're just like, my read on Obeg is this, both of these are really high, right?
Venmo Joe (25:49.486)
Ugh.
Venmo Joe (26:03.732)
I would agree on that.
Scott Kitun (26:12.574)
but his floor and his ceiling are like fucking like this. It's super high, but the gap between floor and ceiling are very, like they're very tight. He doesn't play terrible, but he doesn't explode through. there's just, there's a, I don't know. There's something there that just doesn't like, shit, I would take two gloves rye and his like elevate to the moment-ness and put that with Obergen, you'd probably see wins. I don't know. There's something there that just doesn't, I don't know, it's weird.
I don't know how to describe it exactly just like a weeks ago I couldn't describe.
Venmo Joe (26:43.822)
You are right. I think the thing that people love about him is kind of what you hate about him too. It's like his... Him being robotic and coming off as just super carefree and cool. When everything is going right, you love it, right? Because you're like, man, guy, everything just looks so easy. But to your point when things...
require a different level of intensity, you don't see that. Like he doesn't, he doesn't seem to zero in. goes through like, he's just kind of like up there. He does his little takeaway where he looks and then he like, he goes and it's just like, is, the strategy happening? And like, the other thing is because he burst onto the scene a little bit later, I think everyone assumes that he's like 23 years old, dude, he's 27, right? Like he's got a, like,
He's got to take advantage of these opportunities.
Scott Kitun (27:41.768)
There was a, yeah, there was a poll on the Twitters this weekend, who is the best player on tour that you believe will end their career without a major, and I selected Ober.
Venmo Joe (27:54.882)
Yeah, and that's, I mean.
Scott Kitun (27:56.114)
Just because he reminds me of he's fucking James Harden.
Venmo Joe (28:01.442)
Yeah, I hope that's not the case, but based on what we've seen, mean, it, you know, but like you said, we'll probably continue to throw money at him because he's so enticing, right? Like he's so, cause when it's on, you're like, yeah, yeah. Eventually you want him to dunk that and he needs to dunk it.
Scott Kitun (28:03.134)
I don't know. Of course.
Scott Kitun (28:11.228)
Yes, he's around the rim every tournament. He's around the rim. He's around the rim, which is what you want to see. Well.
You would like I would like to see a put back would be nice. He could repay me on all the money that he has cost me. All right. We've got another tournament this week. It's not as exciting as obviously the PGA and other tournaments we've had this one in particular is not as exciting but it is following a major and it's following what I would call a pretty jam packed signature series up until the major. I still I'm not going to bring it up again on the show but I still meant like why are we having all these tournaments stack like this. It just seems kind of silly and
The players agree, the Dallas Buyers Club is there. Anyone who's from Texas is playing. Anyone who loves Texas is playing. Anyone whose ex-wife lives in Texas is playing. And that's it. So you've got Scottie. You've got, what is it, Siwoo? Siwoo's in this too, right? Siwoo, he's number two. Spieth, Kapka. Who else is, yeah, that's about it. The dude, the.
Venmo Joe (29:02.456)
you
Venmo Joe (29:08.558)
See Siwoo's there, Jordan's there, Kapka.
Venmo Joe (29:18.542)
Aaron rise, Aaron rise dropped out. think like, I think you like the betting favorites outside of who you just, mean, Keith Mitchell is the fifth betting favorite. If that tells you anything like cashmere, cashmere, Keith, like, um, Thor, Thor is 40 to one. He's like the seventh favorite and he just shot like 13 over the first two days at the PGA. like there's, this is what, what I would say is
Scott Kitun (29:21.106)
He took off, yeah. Yeah, he took off.
Scott Kitun (29:28.892)
Yeah, Ryu.
Scott Kitun (29:43.518)
Yeah.
Yeager's hot right now, it's hot-ish.
Venmo Joe (29:50.287)
This is where you go down the leaderboard and you just take a flyer on some guys that honestly, this is this is that tournament because it's a birdie fast. And you're just banking on the fact that Scotty doesn't care to defend his championship or his title. But like he probably could win this tournament at his sleep. But you're getting him at plus one sixty eight, which in a full field PGA Tour event.
is the I can't remember seeing worse odds than that. So I'd recommend a winner without Scotty market because there's absolutely zero value in betting him. Zero.
Scott Kitun (30:24.126)
Pearson Cootie, that's the other one I was saying.
Scott Kitun (30:36.988)
Yeah, I would not go that route. I mean, if you want to go with the stay hot crew, Pearson Cootie was hot earlier this season. He's been pretty cool lately, but he's, I believe, also one of those Texas fellows or is somehow associated Texas. Max Greer has been playing very well, played well this week. Rasmus Holgar is another one too.
Venmo Joe (30:54.19)
I do like Max. I do like Max. And you know what got Max on my mind is they kept showing Aaron Rye winning at Wyndham. I think that was two summers ago, and the guy that he beat was Max. And Grazerman has been like, I don't know, he's been sniffing a win. I really like that one. I do like Rashmas. I actually liked his brother before he dropped out. both the Hogards have...
game for days. I do like the Rasmus pick. Going further down the leaderboard, there's two guys that I like from a long shot perspective. Carl Willips is the guy that we played at Zurich that played with Thor. He's playing really well. He contended at Myrtle Beach when everyone was at Quail Hollow. That was actually the event that Aaron Rye played in too. Aaron Rye didn't even qualify for the signature event and then won the PGA.
And then I like Mark Hubbard who was actually finished second at Merle Beach. So he seems to be playing really good golf right now. Although he did get outdueled by Brent Snedeker to lose to Merle Beach, but he was there. He was there.
Scott Kitun (32:01.726)
It's me, Decker.
Scott Kitun (32:06.514)
You don't want any Gary Hugo action?
Venmo Joe (32:09.266)
dude, no, can't stand that guy, man. Cannot stand. I do like your the AI stuff that you've been doing picture wise on golfers and putting the pacifier in his mouth. so did you see he fired his caddy? So he's clearly but like he's taking no accountability for being late for that tee time and throwing throwing his caddy completely under the bus, even though he was yelling at him to get to the tee. Like grow up,
Scott Kitun (32:18.251)
dude, the fucking binky in his mouth.
Scott Kitun (32:27.432)
Gen Z, typical.
Scott Kitun (32:37.31)
Typical Gen Z-er. I wish AI would take his job too. Yeah, I'm good on that guy.
Venmo Joe (32:43.444)
I did, I did, I did love that he, I did love that he missed the cut and he missed it by one shot, right? He got the two stroke because after the first round, everyone's like, my God, like he shot one under with the penalties. So he would have been in the lead at three under, like he's playing great. And then he completely shit the bed on Friday after the whole internet was talking about him for 24 hours. And that clearly got in his head. Didn't play his best golf. but never, never made.
Scott Kitun (32:49.596)
Yes, perfect.
Scott Kitun (33:08.134)
yeah.
Scott Kitun (33:11.772)
He showed up, Joe, showed up on, he showed up online trying to look for sympathy when he got the one shot loss. Like did it really deserve to not make the tournament and the entire internet exploded? You, yes, this is the greatest thing. Maybe you'll learn a lesson, kid.
Venmo Joe (33:25.206)
Well, dude, his explanation of I was late but I was on time, if you know what I mean, it's like, okay, dude, yeah.
Scott Kitun (33:29.22)
it made no sense.
Scott Kitun (33:34.694)
I don't, I don't know. And I'm a late guy. I'm fucking late. I'll be late to my own funeral, but that's stupid. This is a simple rule. It's maybe the only rule in golf that actually is written down very plainly. don't, whatever. I don't know. You know who was my pick to click here? Totally random. Ho-Tong Lee. I would just love to see him taking a piss break, a smoke break and win this tournament.
Venmo Joe (33:52.446)
I love Hotel and Leave, man.
By the way, on the two guys that I gave out, Carl Phillips is 180 to one and Hubbard is 195 to one. So if either of those guys cash, we're gonna be celebrating next week when we reconvene.
Scott Kitun (34:11.55)
I mean, just put those things in a top 10 and you're gonna make a little bit of money if they do well. I like those picks. Before we head out of this, Jordan Spieth, do you like him here? Is he just not gonna win again? We don't need to break his game down. Is he, what is going on?
Venmo Joe (34:25.486)
I like, don't like him. I don't like him for this week. He's, he's relevant again, which is fun. He's hitting the ball really well. I think we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. It's his putter, right? Which is crazy because his putter is what carried him to all his major championships. So I would, I do think there's going to be value on him at some point.
Scott Kitun (34:32.436)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (34:42.428)
this thing was the best.
Venmo Joe (34:50.828)
Like he's gonna he's gonna nearly win or win a tournament this year. I'm pretty confident in that. I would not take him when he's 17 to one like I mean he's the third favorite here. Yeah, yeah.
Scott Kitun (35:00.006)
not for gambling purposes, more just for like Jordan's speed to story. I think this is a good chance for him to place. And if he places here, in my opinion, if he places top five in this tournament, I think you're gonna see a win out of him in the next five tournaments, three tournaments. Like I feel like he just needs to see like a couple shots and he's there. All right, this week we made our picks. We'll share it on the socials. You can follow me at Katun on all my socials, VenmoJoe on Instagram.
Venmo Joe (35:15.382)
I agree. I think he's right there. I think he's right there.
Scott Kitun (35:29.394)
Good old Joe Kozeel on the Twitter. Listen to the show, subscribe. can go to nostrokes.co and subscribe to the newsletter. Go to our nostrokespod.com dashboard. We built this fancy golf IQ, which I have used now a couple of times for this, that allow you to actually ask the IQ how you should fill out your brackets, your pools, your one and dons, and it's incredible and it's getting better and better. And it's not just basic AI. We're taking all of the results that we've been doing week over week over week, and I'm feeding it to it.
So I like where we're going with it. Joe, thank you so much as always for taking the time to join us on our little podcast.
Venmo Joe (36:06.082)
Thank you, Scotty. Hey, man, congrats on the small a first round leader bet, man. We didn't even get to cover that, but that was a hell of a hit.
Scott Kitun (36:14.014)
The hit was Bryson Fade with the Alex, it paid out over a thousand bucks. Bryson Fade, Alex Fitzpatrick makes the cut. Thousand bucks. Yeah.
Venmo Joe (36:22.958)
That was a great parlay too. That was a great parlay. mean, Ed, like Bryson, never really sniffed a cup for you. So that was, I mean, it's sweat free, it's sweat free. Yeah. All right, my friend.
Scott Kitun (36:29.889)
it was safe in three holes. I was already cashing checks. man, poor Bryson. All right, take care. See ya.
Venmo Joe (36:37.358)
See ya.