Scott and Joe break down Wyndham Clark's closing 60 at TPC Craig Ranch, Blades Brown locking up special temp membership at 19, the birth of a new segment — "Fakers or Makers" — built off Scott's undefeated cut-line picks and a deep-dive zero torch putter rabbit hole nobody asked for. Follow the guys X @kitun, Instagram @kitun and @venmojoe. Subscribe at nostrokespod.com.
Scott Kitun (00:03.798)
Hey Joe, welcome back to No Strokes. We're still on.
Venmo Joe (00:06.852)
What's up, Scotty? What's up, birthday boy?
Scott Kitun (00:11.054)
А невей форті твою соям.
Venmo Joe (00:13.626)
God you look good man. mu must be all must be all those day trips to LA, right where you're just up for twenty four hours. That's what's keeping you young, bud.
Scott Kitun (00:15.362)
Thank you. I appreciate that. I feel good.
Scott Kitun (00:20.942)
I mean, you can't you can't be a creator and not be in and out of LA, you know, gotta keep it real. That's that's how we roll here.
Venmo Joe (00:26.84)
Yeah, baby. Are you are you gonna are you gonna get another lift in at Venice Beach?
Scott Kitun (00:32.632)
Fuck yeah. Yeah. This well I'm a
Venmo Joe (00:34.544)
I think the I think the No Strokes audience needs to see that.
Scott Kitun (00:38.958)
We'll keep the shirt on for now. no, this is gonna be a fun event. It's it's press published, which for those who do listen to like YouTuber type people, Column and Samir have been around forever. at the event, the TBPN guys who just sold to OpenAI, David Dobrik's gonna be here with us. some people have positive, some people have negative thoughts on that. Try guys are gonna be there.
several of the golf creators that we've talked to about coming on this show are gonna be there. There's only 500 people got accepted to to go to this thing, and they made the massive mistake of allowing me in there, which I'll be talking about no strokes golf, and I'll be pitching my new creator fun like a shill that I am. So I'm excited about it. It's it's a quick, quick day in and out, and back to the course.
Venmo Joe (01:06.872)
Nice.
Venmo Joe (01:13.381)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (01:20.898)
Love it. What what what go what golf creators? Any anyone of note that you want to shout out?
Scott Kitun (01:28.782)
yeah, who did we just I don't wanna blow too much time on it, but where was where are you, creator I just looked at?
She what was this dude's name?
I wanna give them a shout-out, so I'm gonna scroll, and you guys are all just gonna have to wait patiently as I scroll, scroll, scroll to the bottom. it was one of it's one of those dudes, there's a couple guys actually, so I don't know why I'm not just naming the other ones. I like this story. It's a bunch of kind of a hot theme right now in creator golf is the zero to pro. So all of these dudes who are basically like, I've been successful at this, maybe I'm an athlete, maybe I'm an entrepreneur, or I'm whatever. I played, you know, maybe I played in high school or something. And
They're literally learning the game like fresh and trying to get to scratch. this particular dude's name, I wanna shout him out here. I'm getting close. I know it. I know it. I know it.
Scott Kitun (02:29.218)
You you regretting asking me about this 'cause now I gotta scroll now I'm committed.
Venmo Joe (02:32.057)
Thought you had yeah, you're you're really working for this one.
Scott Kitun (02:34.742)
I used to have a good memory and I was just talking about them two seconds ago. Doesn't matter. We'll we'll skip for now, but I'll post it on on the Twitters. It'll be an excuse for me to say go to at Katoon and follow us on the Twitters. anyway, there's there's 500 people here. There's a handful of creators in golf, many of which I'm sure people follow and know. This dude had like 380,000 followers, so he's not a nobody. Either way, it's gonna be a lot of fun. I think one of the cool parts about this is I am learning as I'm going to these events that the number of golf creators.
is just it's every day there is another person who shows up on here who's like massive golf you know golf interested golf sicko golf course analyst you know on and on and on so golf is definitely something that is is hot as shit right now on YouTube which is not a huge surprise I suppose given given all the stuff we talk about.
Venmo Joe (03:24.111)
It's not slowing down, man. And it's it's amazing the the groups that have a million views on a video like twenty four hours in. Like crazy.
Scott Kitun (03:33.25)
Yep. And I got it. Jerome Ruffin. That's the one I was thinking of. Jerome Ruffin. Check him out on YouTube. Come on, yeah, well
Venmo Joe (03:37.591)
All right, Jerome, come on no strokes, man. We really worked to get your name on here, so get on no strokes.
Scott Kitun (03:43.809)
I will be telling him forcefully with a seven iron under the chin tomorrow. He's coming on. speaking of seven iron under the chin, it kind of felt that way on Sunday. watching watching the tournament, we I feel like we did a again, this is like three or four weeks in a row or four out of five weeks that we've had coming into Sunday, at least four of our six picks be in the hunt to land where we said they're gonna land. And we had Cootie today.
Venmo Joe (03:47.266)
Love it.
Scott Kitun (04:12.61)
We had the one that I missed was was Brennan. That was the one that I I kinda had picked and thought was gonna do something and didn't
Venmo Joe (04:19.012)
I was pretty I was pretty high on him too. I think a lot of guys were. I like yeah, that was disappointing.
Scott Kitun (04:24.834)
But yeah, in general, I mean, we can talk about, we will clearly talk about Wyndham. we can talk about Scotty again. It's like you're not winning, and so you want to take like the flame away, and we're gonna do a little mid mid-season recap here and we can reassess where Scotty falls. I I don't know. I mean, it kind of reminds me of the David Duvall Tiger Woods, where like you're not and and I don't mean because he's going against the Tiger, he's not, he is Tiger, but like you're not winning him, but you're second or third every freaking week.
All season. So it's like kinda like it's not perfect, but it's kinda hard to like shit on the guy and and take him down a notch like you have a different winner every week. What do you want? I mean he takes second or third every week. Didn't shoot sixty on Sunday.
Venmo Joe (05:03.076)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (05:06.924)
Yeah, I mean I yeah, I just he just remains highly consistent. I just I think you're seeing a product of there's a lot of really good golfers and like Scotty was on an all time heater for twenty four months where if he was in contention he was converting those more times than not into wins and you know, this time he's just putting he continues to put himself into contention. He just you know, he he's getting he's getting beat by the better guy on on that given day or that given weekend.
I think the only interesting call out here is that like his losses this year when he's when he's really been in contention and finished second has really been to that tier that you and I talked about a couple of weeks ago, right? Finishing second to Rory at Augusta, finishing second to to Cam Young at Durrell, finishing, you know, close to close to the top when Fitz has won a couple of different times. And like this was the first one where it's like it wasn't one of those top five or top ten guys that
defended him off, but all it took was, you know, a guy to go unconscious and shoot a sixty to to create some separation between between himself and Scotty. So I they
Scott Kitun (06:17.666)
Yeah, well look, we can we could we let's talk I want to talk about the the storylines of this tournament, but I do wanna quickly recap where we where we got it right and where we got it wrong. you know, I I had made the pick as this was a gamblers pick. This wasn't what I thought was the actual outcome, but Max Garrison was Grisman was someone who we were hot on. He did finish well, he did play well, just didn't win it. Cootie did play well. I had him as a top five pick.
Venmo Joe (06:44.4)
Spoil spoiler, I like Ma spoiler, I like Max this week too.
Scott Kitun (06:48.734)
what's not what's not to like. we missed on Hogard as a top pick. We missed on Brennan. You had a couple picks. The one that we did make and get was my guy Lee making the cut. I was I was proud of that. My guy Lee made the cut. That was my big pick. So I overall we didn't we didn't win, but I mean like I which is in the game this is all that matters, right? Is that we have the money. Like we want to win obviously every week we give you guys picks and hope that you can do something with it.
Venmo Joe (07:01.486)
Yeah, that would hell yeah. Yeah, we've
Scott Kitun (07:17.314)
But I I look at at this and I go back, I'm looking at it right now, literally. We have only one week since we started this show. It's nine episodes, two for the Masters, so you know, eight, eight tournaments. We have only had one week on Sunday where we did not have at least half of our picks still alive. We've won three weeks. We've won a pick every week.
Venmo Joe (07:39.706)
Yeah, we've had we we we've won we've won we we've won some picks and and if you're not gonna win with us you're at least gonna get a Sunday sweat, right? Which is you know, you're getting you're getting entertainment out of your ticket regardless. But you know
Scott Kitun (07:52.15)
I I'm gonna I'm gonna human AI, Joe. I'm human AI right now.
Taking in all the data and processing it. Don't listen to any picks that I give you except for who will and will not make the cut. And if I tell you that there's a who will make and who will not make parlay, listen to me. If you listen to nothing else, listen to me. I am looking at my numbers. I am up forty eight hundred dollars this season. Only make the cut, miss the cut.
Venmo Joe (08:28.634)
Well yeah, and your big your bit your your bit your your big one was was the Bryson, right? 'Cause that you were getting very, very, very favorable odds there. Yeah. Yeah, man. But that still counts.
Scott Kitun (08:28.77)
Real real talk. Real talk.
Scott Kitun (08:35.502)
Okay, so that might been fifty percent of the cash flow, okay? That was fifty percent, but I but I'm undefeated on my miss and make the cut picks. So so for whatever that's worth, folks.
Venmo Joe (08:43.194)
Well th I think that well, now you've you've introduced a new segment 'cause we need a a make and miss pick every week now.
Scott Kitun (08:50.36)
Fake it fakers or makers? That's my I've been trying to to find a way to get that fucking segment that I bought the domain for in 2013.
Venmo Joe (08:53.125)
No.
Venmo Joe (08:56.728)
You've got it. We've j we we have just stumbled upon it. Thank you, Bryson DeChambeau, for for leading us here.
Scott Kitun (09:00.974)
All right.
All right. Well this is so now the pressure's on because I got some I got some goodies for this tournament coming up. But let's go back in time. Let's let's talk about the storylines. You lead us off here. Wyndham Clark. I know he's one of your favorite players. Let's talk about let's talk about Wyndham. Let's talk about Wyndham for a minute here and and just the general. I think the experience of the tournament I thought was enjoyable. Let it run.
Venmo Joe (09:16.364)
yeah.
Venmo Joe (09:21.208)
Listen, listen, you get like you you give him fl you give him flowers. we we talked about T P C Craig Ranch last week that it was gonna be an absolute birdie fast. We were interested to see how the twenty five million dollar renovations help defend the course against the pros. Well, Scotty went thirty one under last year and Wyndham Clark went thirty under this year. So
Twenty five million dollars to to get the winning score down by a stroke. So, you know, really good investment there by the PGA tour. I dude, Wyndham was fun to watch on Sunday. Like that dude, he went fricking unconscious. the putter was nuts, right? And you know, i it it's not rocket science to say we've said this over and over again, like we can give you the analytics on
Scott Kitun (10:00.61)
That putter was nuts.
Venmo Joe (10:11.79)
you know, shots gained approach and driving and who's really good around the green and you know who really excels in the proximity from 125 to 150 or 150 to 200. It's always gonna be hard to predict who just gets really hot with the flat stick. Wind got really hot with the flat stick. I mean he was just making bomb after bomb. and then he saw the confidence and and then he just started sticking shot. I mean his his closing shot on eighteen was unbelievable to two feet.
I think the door was already closed there. I think he was already up two on Siwoo, but like to really close the door there. I give him props. still don't love Wyndham, right? I mean I I don't know if you caught it in his post post win interview when he said, yo, hey Windham, how you gonna celebrate? And he said that him and his buddies were gonna go open up he was gonna open up some grapes. That was that was how he was gonna celebrate.
Scott Kitun (10:55.042)
Don't love Wyndham?
He's it's a fucking twat.
Venmo Joe (11:08.366)
And we're also like forgetting that he just trashed the locker room at Oakmont last year. Like I mean, yes, the guy the guy got some the guy got some good edits on full swing a couple of years ago because, you know, he lost his mom, which you know really sad and he went and saw a sports psychologist that helped. he's turned pretty unlikable, I think, since he won the US Open at LA Country Club and he's been pretty irrelevant since then.
Scott Kitun (11:15.574)
It's a shit bag.
Scott Kitun (11:31.736)
Huh?
Venmo Joe (11:35.577)
I don't I think this was a flash in the pan. I don't think you could take much from what happened at at TPC Craig Ranch just because it's such a different you're not gonna see minus thirty win any other week of the year, so it's hard to say, hey, this is gonna translate somewhere. I think it was an outlier. but you know, good to good to see someone that was kind of off the radar come from nowhere on the weekend and and win a golf tournament. We just didn't have them on our ticket.
Scott Kitun (12:05.378)
He's one of these guys that you need in golf. We've always had these guys in golf. He's a major winner who will pop up every once in a while and win a tournament. He's got game when he's hot and all things are clicking. He's he can be elite as a player. His skills at all at max power can be major champion elite. Some guys don't have that gear. We've talked about that several times now on the show that you could have elite-looking parts of your game. He has the full bag when it's elite.
He also happens to be a full douchebag. He's just one of those guys. Like, and and I don't, you know, like the story about the mom thing is real. He's compelling. You I honestly you need these kind of guys. I think this is like the exact opposite of Aaron Rye. We talked about last week of Aaron Ryan, it's like the whole tour waited out by the tent to high-five this guy with his gloves on because he's so freaking likable. He's such a good dude, he's such a hard worker, and you're just like, I I fucking love this guy.
Venmo Joe (12:38.636)
Ha ha ha.
Scott Kitun (13:04.546)
He's boring. He's not my kind of guy, as we talked about, but he's you need golf needs winners where people are like, you know what?
That guy. And also you need winners. We had we've had it for a long time. We had Sergio in the Tiger era, we had Zach Johnson. We've had these dudes just like we have we talk about all the time, our boy Patty at at Patrick Reed. We're just like, I I am hate watching this. You just you make me want to go fucking nuts. I wanna talk about Blades Brown a little bit. I wanna talk about Siwoo not getting it done after kind of having control the whole time because it seems to be a theme.
Venmo Joe (13:32.986)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (13:43.32)
But I do need to do, maybe this will be a future sponsor segment. I want to do a quick stop and pause for all my gearheads and club nerds. I tried so hard to figure out what the hell putter Windham was using that on my birthday of Memorial Day, I spent an hour and a half walking around PGA Superstore fucking around with putters. And as a result, not only do I obviously know and everyone knows now what's in the bag, but I can give you a little bit of update on what it's like and how it how it used it, because I used it.
Venmo Joe (13:56.229)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (14:12.844)
and compared it to a bunch of other Zero Torque putters. And so I'm and I even bought one. So I'm here, I'm here to to to give people the sit rap. So if you're curious
Venmo Joe (14:18.224)
Of course you did.
Hey, you know you create you created a wedge fund, not a putting fund. So now you're just pulling from the wedge fund to to buy a putter.
Scott Kitun (14:26.636)
Yeah. I gotta borrow. We we're gonna borrow against the wedge fund for the putter. And I didn't buy the the one that he got, by the way. I forget the exact name, but it's a ping, which surprised me. It's ping's version of of the of the Zero Torque, which obviously I don't need to go into everyone I think has heard of Zero Torque at this point. I pulled it out, I lined it up with the s the Tailor-Made Spider Zero Torque, which I did end up buying. I already own
Venmo Joe (14:52.282)
Like that.
Scott Kitun (14:52.96)
And have been a been a lab golfer for since it came out. I mean, literally the first one. I am terrible at putting, so that's if this doesn't make sense to anyone, you know, whatever. I've only had two putters in my entire life prior to this. And that is the the epic Scotty Cameron from Tiger winning 97 Masters. That was my high school putter. And then after that, the Yamata Blade, which is my putter forever. I can't make a putt for shit, but I have great putters.
Venmo Joe (15:22.158)
You do really have good potters. You really
Scott Kitun (15:22.614)
I then got the lab. dude, I there's there's a couple thousand bucks of putter standing right there. So I went to lab because Zero Torque did make a difference to me, and I want to make sure people know if you if you if you're a putter who's inconsistent, you pull and push, it really does make a difference. So the putter that I currently have is a is a counterbalanced OZ1 with an insert, which is a lab kind of the half moon shape. I really like the putter, but it comes off hot and they feel kind of strange. So the reason people are looking at these OEMs.
Venmo Joe (15:29.284)
Ha ha
Scott Kitun (15:52.448)
Is because they they get a they steal a little bit like Scotty Cameron has one now, and obviously Odyssey has a jailbreak. They steal the the lab golf theory and they put it into the traditional putters. Well, let me tell you, none of them pass the lab golf zero torque. They're all just like adjacent, they're they're zero-ish torque, which in my opinion is just a waste of fucking time. You might as well use whatever putter you're using. The putter that he used is the first one that I've seen that literally.
Like a pendulum. No movement. That's not a lab. The only thing, and this is something that's important, I think, for the common golfer, the putter head is this fucking big. The sweet spot is the size of a ball. If you're not a very, very good putter, the MOI was brutal. If you're a really good putter stroke to begin with, and you've got the pendulum swing and you can hit it on the dime every time, then you got then the putt feels like a point and shoot putter.
Venmo Joe (16:25.562)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (16:40.208)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (16:43.748)
You're hit you're hitting the sweet spot. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.
Scott Kitun (16:50.774)
So, like if you're one of those who's like a good consistent ball striker, you're just not a great putter, I highly recommend checking out Ping and the putter that that Wyndham used to win this tournament. If not, the one that I saw that I used and I bought, I'm not necessarily gonna take the lab out of the bag, but it was compelling enough, was the spider. The stability was like it was on rails. I got a counterbalance 36, and the the pure roll insert on it is incredible. It it keeps the ball on the roll perfectly.
Much better than anything I I've ever tried. And so, as you know, Scottie Cameron, Rory, Harmon, they all use spiders. Harmon actually uses this zero torque one. So, this is Taylor Made's zero torque stab. It was very close in that it also had almost no movement as far as the pendulum zero torqueness of it. But that's my sit rep. I got I gave everyone I several hundred putts with each one of them. In the end, the lab was the best performer for me, short, medium, and long. The best short putts, which is where you make and score.
For me was the spider and the the if you could hit it on the screws, the most laser pointer putter I've ever seen was the one that Wyndham used to win this tournament. but you really have to have a good stroke. And that I do not. Yeah. So free advice.
Venmo Joe (18:02.99)
You gotta be that consistent with it, yeah. Do they do they give you like the at Golf Galaxy, is it like actual like they're videotaping your putting stroke and giving you all the data? Or were you just like on their putting green and they're messing around?
Scott Kitun (18:16.46)
You can I was I was dicking around with the putting green on my own. I went to P I went to both, but I went to PGA Superstore because they do actually have the you can get fitted for the lab there. I've done that before. there's nothing quite like in person, so you can do video, whatever, but Golf Galaxy, if you set up an appointment, I'm sure you could you could do the same thing and I think people should do it. I think the one thing about like about putters
Particularly the zero balance is it has a lot to do with lie angle. There's a lot like if you pick a long putter, a lot of these putters are counterbalance for people, or the long putters, sweepers. All of it comes into math. You really need like normal putters, it's it's a 35, it's a 34, grab it off the rack, 69 degree, who gives a shit. Lab is the only group that still everything is completely custom and tailored to you. And I think that's why I probably won't end up taking the lab out of my bag.
There's just something about that stell that that spider that is like taking in a decade's worth of spider technology and their pure roll face and mashing it with what lab does really, really well. Will it beat it? Time will tell. You'll find out in the next couple podcasts as I got my golf trip coming up. We'll give it a run. But I just thought I would share it with people because one of the biggest conversations on the on the tournament, literally all week, was this dude's putting and what the hell putter is he using? And so when I found it, I was like,
Venmo Joe (19:39.383)
Exactly. I lo I love that you just went and found that. Yeah, that's great. That is that is true golf sicko behavior right there. Hey, hey yeah, I was gonna say, hey, honey, what do you wanna do for your birthday? I'm just gonna go disappear into golf galaxy and PGA superstore for a couple hours. I'll see you later. And Jen's and Jen and Jen's gotta be like, Does Jen realize that you have a putting addiction? Like does she like, wait, you're gonna go get a new putter? What about the
Scott Kitun (19:40.972)
I expected it to be big. yeah. So
Yeah. On my birthday, on fucking Memorial Day.
Scott Kitun (19:58.85)
Jen took the kids to the pool and I went to the
Scott Kitun (20:06.486)
No, she doesn't even know I have a podcast. She doesn't care. She doesn't care. Although I'm I'm gone tomorrow, and so I had to tell her, like, hey, well, while I was there, I might have actually bought this putter, so it's gonna be shipped and needed to take it. She was like, and that that completely made sense. There was it did it's not a surprise in my house that there's a putter showing up. But I I mean this and we'll go on. I I really, really doubt that this spider is going to enter my bag, but it
Venmo Joe (20:20.088)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (20:32.342)
I have not done a side by side by side of putters in forever. And so I just I wanted just like just to add to this, Scotty Cameron's putters, which they do not claim to be zero torque, they're like simply something, really pieces of shit. Really. It's hard for me to say a Scotty Cameron's piece of shit. It was a piece of shit. I think that if you're a Bettinardi person, I also tested theirs out the anecdote, and they got the new Hexa Experimental Anecdote number seven. Really, really nice putter. The the feel is incredible.
Venmo Joe (20:44.101)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (21:00.532)
Something about Beton Arties for me just never I I wanna love it 'cause it's a Chicago company.
Venmo Joe (21:03.45)
You know that you know that's why I got in my bag, man. So be be tread carefully here. Tread carefully here.
Scott Kitun (21:06.934)
I know it is. And I know. Did you know that this piece of trillium was made by Bet Bob Barton Bet and Nardy? He made these four Scotty Cameron putters. So this one is an original. That's Betinardi. That was printed here in Chicago. I wanna love it, but it just didn't feel great.
Venmo Joe (21:15.768)
I did not know that. I did that's awesome.
Venmo Joe (21:23.738)
Yeah, they're dude, there's st there's their studio in O like if you gone to Betonardi studio in Oakbrook, it's on it's it's unbelievable. Like the
Scott Kitun (21:28.106)
Sick. yeah, sick. I want to become a Bettinardi guy so bad, and I just for whatever reason they don't quite work for me. and then what was the other ones? I used like ever rolls, I tried all of them. It's the first time I've ever taken like 10 putters, like a real golf nerd, and like spent an hour just hitting balls, same same putt, roll, roll, roll, and in the end.
I do think zero torque's a real thing. I think if you don't have full, real, actual zero torque, you're just fucking around. You might as well stick with whatever you got. But Tailor made spider and lab still to me not close. I I think it's one two and then if you have a great stroke, like I said, the ping is cool, but if you don't anywho.
Venmo Joe (21:58.886)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (22:10.82)
So, yeah. Tread cautiously. Well, that was gone. I love that, man. I love that. I mean you think about it, right? Like for for our audience, where are you going to gain strokes? Putting. That's where you're going to gain. Like, if you can if you can go from eliminating three putts altogether and introducing four or five holes where you can one putt, right? Like where you're making
Scott Kitun (22:12.994)
Back to golf. Tread cautiously. Back to golf.
Scott Kitun (22:19.586)
What golf nerds do.
Scott Kitun (22:26.003)
putting, yeah.
Venmo Joe (22:40.474)
fifteen to twenty footers, like that that's where you're gonna shave strokes off in your game, right? It's it's short game and it's putting, right? It's it's chipping around the green and it's what you do when you're on the green. Right? That that's where you're gonna that's where you're gonna take meaningful strokes out of your game. So I think, you know, doing that experiment and really figuring out which putter works for you is a valuable valuable time spent for anyone that is
that is into their golf game and wanting to continue to get better.
Scott Kitun (23:12.052)
I I concur. I concur. Well, putting a bow on last week as we walk into this next week, which again, you know, we talked about last week field not being great. This week is gonna take that to a whole new level. I just want to call a quick shout out to our guy, not our guy, I don't even know if I like him yet. Blades Brown. Rolls himself to a tide for thirteen, makes a special temporary PGA tour membership. Kid's what, nineteen years old? His name is Blades. He plays golf. What the fuck?
Venmo Joe (23:37.53)
Yeah. I mean it's the great it's one of the greatest golf names that you could have. I mean, it's fantastic.
Scott Kitun (23:43.478)
I am rooting for him to not be a tool and to be good just because of this name and how great it would be. He's off to a hell of a start. I mean, he he had multiple holes. And it's hard, like this sounds kind of cheap because the course played so easily for so many people, except for apparently Jordan Speith, in the afternoon. It he had a couple holes where he could have literally gone out of top. He I think he needed to be in 21st place.
He could have easily fallen out of that and he got his shit together, made a couple of pars and a couple birdies in the end to hold on to it. And I think it's kind of cool. And I think it goes back to the the storyline, the through line that we've been talking about for since pretty much day one of the podcast is the depth and the stories that are in the PGA today. The Alex Fitzpatrick's and now the blades brown, and we're gonna have a couple of these howl and that the other kid that just won three straight national titles. We have a couple of young Bucks coming up who are like
They're coming in and they're not giving a fuck. Like you used to watch the young guys come up and miss the cut, miss the cut, miss the cut, and like, ooh, next big thing, but he's still missing these dudes are like fucking placing on the PGA tour and they're 19 years old. It's phenomenal.
Venmo Joe (24:51.364)
Yeah. I mean, and that's like the one thing PGA is been really good at the last couple of years, and that's why they were able to sustain the you know, the live threat. They create stars every year, right? There are just new stars that kind of get plugged into the ecosystem and then to your point, don't seem to be afraid of the moment, right? And all of a sudden it's like they're just in the mix, and they've got game for days and it's it's someone new.
Scott Kitun (25:13.964)
No.
Venmo Joe (25:21.468)
and you know, they they grew up in the social media world, so like you've got some sort they've got some sort of notoriety usually when they arrive and like that that's been the beauty of the PGA model the last couple of years. Like we we've even forgotten about like guys like Luke Clanton who last year were almost winning golf tournaments, like he's still around. Like there's just so much young talent in the game that is gonna be really, really fun to watch over the next couple of years.
Scott Kitun (25:36.973)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (25:47.538)
I I totally agree. I actually think, despite my foreshadowing of this week field coming up at the Colonial, I'm excited to watch this week's golf tournament. I don't know why. I mean, I'm gonna miss the first day or two while I'm while I'm in the little event series here in LA, but I am excited for what I think is like it is a shitty field because it doesn't have the top guys. But it's not a sh it's like a thick field in that you've got like
You know, Ricky Fowler is playing awesome. JT is playing awesome. Akshay is playing well. Finao is making his way back to the run, which by the way, he's my my course horse for this week. Dude, I I don't don't don't get me wrong, I don't want to bet on Final for nothing, but I'm just telling you, he's just had such great success there. And he seems to be more I seem to see his name up. He doesn't stick around, but he's he has his blips and moments. There are real players. Henley, we've talked about, you know.
Venmo Joe (26:19.833)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (26:26.686)
I know. Yeah, yeah.
Venmo Joe (26:40.91)
He seems like he's he's he's stabili he stabilized it a little bit. We're not letting our listeners touch Russell.
Scott Kitun (26:48.246)
No, correct. Yeah. That's that's
Venmo Joe (26:49.066)
dude, I'm with you. Like I you know, like I I am I'm pumped for this tournament. it's a huge field. I think we got a hundred and thirty-three guys, right? Like, you know, it's not the signature f event bullshit where it's no cut. Like I love like to your wedge fund point, having a cut in a tournament is what the PGA tour should be, right? So this is a really quality golf course that
Scott Kitun (27:11.373)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (27:14.84)
A 79th installment of this event dating back to 1946. it's been on the tour that long because it works, right? Like you're not gonna see someone go minus 30 this week, thank God. like you've got a really quality field. Yes, it's missing the star power at top. It's a little weird that you know, like Scotty and Jordan decided to play TPC Craig Ranch versus like Colonial since the Colonial has been a mainstay.
Scott Kitun (27:42.53)
First time in their careers.
Venmo Joe (27:44.473)
Right? Like it's just weird that they're I you know, this is just part of the the tour schedule not making a whole lot of sense and you're making the Dallas guys choose between two Dallas events. Like I I think we need one Dallas event. I don't think we need two and it should be at the colonial. but yeah, I'm it I'm excited. I think it's it it's an awesome course. Everyone is gonna enjoy if you haven't watched it on TV before, it's it's awesome, right?
Scott Kitun (27:59.404)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (28:11.396)
kind of a classic tree lined positional golf course on the PGA tour. So it's gonna be you're gonna have to drive accurately and like we always talk about, you're gonna have to you're gonna have to be dialed in with your approach play.
Scott Kitun (28:25.642)
Every every course now is designed around approach play because of how far guys are hitting it. I I actually really like this course, but also a couple of courses we have coming up. Shinnikok is another one of them, where like you may be able to hit far, but it's the opposite of where everyone else is banging off the T, wherever it lands, then it's like gotta be a really good second shot. Like if you hit it not accurately off the T, you will have problem. You have an actual problem.
It's not a course where where you can just be bombing. So like my hope is that it doesn't turn into a it seems like a lot of these courses they sol they try to solve for one thing and then it turns into a putting contest. We've talked about that the last week. Like I I like courses where you you are forced to play to your strengths or away from your weaknesses. As opposed to just like we get pet, you know, like in some courses, it's like here's the three holes, the rest were in cruise control. This is like every hole.
Venmo Joe (28:54.607)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (29:21.765)
Yeah.
Scott Kitun (29:23.33)
depending on how you play, your skill set can be I I think reachable and scorable for half the field and the other half it could be like you legit could see half the field as a birdie on twelve and half the field has a bogey on twelve. It's like just the way it is.
Venmo Joe (29:37.253)
Yeah, it's gonna be g I mean it's not it's not super long, right? Which which is nice, it's seventy two hundred yards. It's a par seventy. it's only two par fives. The fairways are third most narrow on tour, right? Twenty seven yards on average, which means it's very difficult to gain strokes off the T. And then to your point there is a pent there, yeah, there's a Bermuda rough, so that's gonna give players some challenge.
And it's really going to be about how aggressive do you want to be on the T, knowing how narrow the fairways are, because there is going to be a huge benefit to being closer to the green, because these are smaller square foot greens. So huge bonus to be able to control the spin with a wedge in your hand versus playing farther back. And if you're playing out of the out of the rough, you're not going to be able to control that spin. So I think, yeah, the stats you're going to want to look at is driving accuracy and then
Scott Kitun (30:18.573)
Right.
Venmo Joe (30:35.886)
Shots gained approach one hundred and twenty five to like a hundred and fifty, one hundred and seventy five yards. That that's where the winner's gonna come from.
Scott Kitun (30:42.412)
I mean, I'm gonna call it right now, but everyone's Instagram feed is gonna be just absolutely filled to the gills with baby driver ads after this week. You're gonna see everybody's baby driver. Mini drivers are out out in abundance this week. yeah, well look, that that plays to the strengths of a handful of guys that are playing well. One of them I mentioned, Ricky Fowler. Defending champ is Ben Griffin, oddly enough, there's not a ton of love on him right now. So I don't know if that's because of the fit or what the deal is, but
Venmo Joe (30:52.056)
the mini driver? Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Kitun (31:12.352)
Not not catching as much as you would think. Let's talk a little bit about who you think has a legitimate shot here. I'm gonna force you to put Ludwig back in play. You have no choice. You have to play Ludwig. You said you're gonna stick it until he wins.
Venmo Joe (31:20.619)
Hmm.
Venmo Joe (31:24.164)
Well, I I I I have to play Ludwig because we saw what happened when I ditched Maddie Fitz, right? Which is that he Maddie Fitz finally started to win. So yes, Ludwig is is gonna be part of the card. I do I hate the fact that he's like ten to one, right? I think that that's absolutely ludicrous for a guy that has proven that he can't he hasn't he's he hasn't won a lot, right? So like the fact that you're in a hundred and thirty three
Scott Kitun (31:51.117)
No.
Venmo Joe (31:53.969)
person field and your ten to one is a little nuts, but we're we're we're gonna keep with him. I like the guy you mentioned. Yeah, Ricky I think is getting a lot of love, rightfully so. He's 23 to one. That's ridiculous. I I'm gonna stay away from him on that. I do like JT a lot. Same odds, 23 to one. I think there's there's so much more upside with JT than with Ricky. I I'm very surprised that they're they're trading at the same
Last time we saw Justin Thomas, he was in the the clubhouse with the lead for a couple of hours at the PGA championship, and had one of the lowest rounds of the whole tournament at Ironamick, right? He's clearly figured it out. He's true, true, but I think I think I think he's just hot and you're gonna have to you're gonna have to go you're gonna go I'm going off of just the recent trend versus versus course history.
Scott Kitun (32:34.464)
Right. He hasn't played super well here though. That's the only thing you'd throw at him. A couple miscuts.
Venmo Joe (32:51.182)
Going further, I I want to give you, I know you shouted out, Finao. I I said earlier on, I do like Max Gracerman on this. Like he was around in the tournament. I think that was a guy that we we both called, and I we stick with him here. His stats last week were insane. he didn't get as hot with the putter as some of the other guys. That's why you didn't see him go completely nuclear. Number one.
Shots gained off the T last week. Number 15 in shots again approach. So the two things that we just talked about, right? Like who's feeling it off the T and who's who's hitting it well from an approach standpoint. Max is I just think he's gonna get that first win here sooner rather than later. At fifty-two to one on DraftKings, I think that that's huge value. I like Matt McCarty.
Not to win, but I would probably say like top ten, five to one. He's a guy that everyone was hot on going into the PGA championship because he had been playing unbelievably well, a string of of top tens and top twenties. Didn't have as best at Ironomic. I think Ironomic's an outlier, right? That that was a like we talked about, glorified putting contest. The guy's been playing really good golf. You can get him five to one at top ten. If you want to sprinkle to win sixty-two to one, I think is is really good odds.
Scott Kitun (33:45.997)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (34:15.278)
And then I gave you this guy last week. He did make the cut. he didn't he didn't contend to the level that I thought, but I I I'm gonna keep going back to this guy. Mark Hubbard at 175 to one. The guy's approach shots are really, really, really good. Like he his proximity last week at Craig at T P C Craig Ranch was fantastic. Didn't have the putter going, but when he putts well, he gets really hot.
I'm gonna ride him a l I'm gonna ride him again from a long shot perspective. Just a little bit of sprinkle, more value in like the top top twenty, top forty range for Hubbard, but if you can get a guy that I think can contend at a hundred and seventy five to one, I'm gonna put him on the card.
Scott Kitun (35:00.662)
I like it. I'm I'm of course hanging out here in my in my makes the cut wins places parlay. So here's one that you probably haven't thought of. You got Harry Hall. He's got top tens in two of the last three years. You've got Riley making the cut, and I like F now at least being in the top twenty, top ten would be my like stretcher. So I would say like if I was
Venmo Joe (35:06.862)
Yeah, let's hear it.
Venmo Joe (35:27.906)
Okay. So the official official make the cut is Riley or Hall? Or both?
Scott Kitun (35:34.759)
man, so Riley's the liner. if I was gonna parlay, I would put together a top 20 for Final and a Riley and Harry Hall make the cut.
Venmo Joe (35:45.296)
Alright, done.
Scott Kitun (35:47.074)
That's the parlay. That's the parlay.
Venmo Joe (35:48.632)
I'll ride with you. Do we have anyone to miss the cut? Is there anyone that's like high up on the board, one of the favorites that you just think is is due for kind of a clunker of a week?
Scott Kitun (35:58.296)
Well, McIntyre Bobby Mac's playing like shit. He's just kind of a mental issue right now. He's he's aggressive and yet not.
Scott Kitun (36:09.97)
do we think Russell Henley's playing well enough? Like does he is he someone you could you could fade? I may not say not make the cut, but I could fade him.
Venmo Joe (36:15.79)
Russell I Russell Russell Henley, it just he's a he's like at these type of tournaments, he's a he's a he's a he's gonna finish in the top ten, but like you're not gonna really know that he was relevant until you look at you know, it'll be like midway Sunday and you'll be like, that guy I haven't even been tracking him, but he's now somehow in the top ten. I can't for dude, he was just Aronomick was a place that he could have like so
Scott Kitun (36:20.748)
You know what, he's not that guy. He's just disappointing. He's just disappointing. He's not the guy you fade. You just
Venmo Joe (36:43.502)
gotten into contention and he just put up a stinker in two days and like he's just not a guy that's gonna win a big tournament. Can he win one of these like ho hum PGA tour events? Maybe, but I'm I'm not I'm not betting him and at twenty to one, like, hell no.
Scott Kitun (36:52.002)
I mean y honestly I
Scott Kitun (37:00.758)
Because of the odds, if you really want to put a gun to my head and make me make a a crazier, cra crazier pick, I pick Ben Griffin to not make the cut. Repeat, repeat, guys, not defending champ isn't there for Saturday. If I'm right about that, that's gonna pay out big wampum.
Venmo Joe (37:10.855)
Ooh, the defending chief.
Venmo Joe (37:15.502)
Ooh, I lo okay, that that that that's gotta I was gonna say that's gotta have some good value there.
Scott Kitun (37:21.622)
Yeah. He's got a 4% chance to win the tournament, so that that would imply a 96% chance of not winning it. It's gotta be all right.
Venmo Joe (37:23.056)
All right.
Venmo Joe (37:29.648)
I like that. Look we'll look into that. We'll we'll see what that parlay pays out. I like that.
Scott Kitun (37:33.592)
So I think that that's where I'm going with this. That's where I'm going with this. we got like two minutes here. Then I gotta turn into daddy golfer. golfer daddy, however you want to call it. This season I want to do a quick recap. We have, you know, now a minute, whatever. I in general, how would you rate the season? We're about halfway there, not including the FedEx. I I have this has been awesome. I'm not gonna lie. Like a tournament like this, I am enjoying seeing seeing
Venmo Joe (37:45.048)
Ha ha
Venmo Joe (37:56.617)
I fantastic, fantastic.
Scott Kitun (38:02.072)
Times where guys that aren't the top guys rise up and play well and it thickens the field. And yet every week it just, you know, we could bitch and moan as I have clearly a lot about the broadcast stuff. But like every week, one of the main names, Scheffler always, but Rory, Scheffler, Rom, they're in the mix every Sunday. And then it's been somebody else who sneaks up. And fortunately for us, it's been a good story for the most part for these two winners.
Venmo Joe (38:26.916)
I just say I just think that yeah, I I think the we've not gotten complacent with the storyline, which is what I've liked, right? 'Cause like at the start of the season Scotty wins Amex and you know, I don't know if you were thinking it, but I was like, Fuck, are we is this just gonna be twenty four and t Yeah. Which is a we you yeah, which like retroactively great pick at the time, terrible pick. Like I I think I made fun of you for that, but hey, you won.
Scott Kitun (38:33.624)
Yes.
Scott Kitun (38:41.698)
He was my one and done. I picked Scotty the one time he won. Insane at the time.
Venmo Joe (38:56.366)
I just think it's like I said, it hasn't been stale. You had Godd up as one a couple of times already this year. You've had Fitzpatrick win a couple of times this year. Cam Young has finally did you know, discovered his ability to close, has won two huge tournaments. We got Rory back at Augusta. Rory or Augusta had so many good storylines, right? With Rory fending off Cam Young and Justin Rose.
The players was fantastic with with the duel between Matty Fitz and and Cam Young. PGA championship delivered for the most part, right? Not the best, not the sexiest of winners, but like again, I think showing that a guy that wasn't even at the signature event before the second major of the season was able to win, like, you just never know who's gonna win week in and week out. And yes, you have Scheffler or one of the big names, like you said, is always kind of around the top, but
I've really enjoyed like kind of being surprised by some of these winners week over week. Like it's been really refreshing after what we've seen the last two years.
Scott Kitun (39:59.788)
I'm gonna give you my US open my US open tip before we leave here, the teaser. Do not pass on Brooks Kepka. He's got the Scotty Cameron fastback two back in his hands. He started making putts. He didn't make every putt. He wasn't on fire. He just made enough putts to look normal. Fucking dude was smoking for a minute. And I I think he's taking this week off after doing that and going this week, I'm gonna practice putting all week long. He's gonna be back on a Scotty Cameron fastback. That's my guy to run.
Venmo Joe (40:19.685)
Yeah.
Venmo Joe (40:25.53)
Thousand percent.
Then what is he been saying? He's like, I'm hitting the ball phenomenally. The putting has just been terrible. So if he just becomes an average putter with how he has been hitting his irons, his approach by watch out. I completely agree with ya.
Scott Kitun (40:43.096)
I'm here for it. I'm here for it. All right, my man, this has been fun. I I will will love to watch the rest of this tournament live from from home soon here and we'll we'll text and talk about it. We'll share our results next week.
Venmo Joe (40:55.268)
Can't wait, man. I have a good feeling about this one. See you guys.
Scott Kitun (40:58.732)
Me too. As always, guys, go ahead no strokespod.com. You can find our golf IQ, pick out your own winners, No Strokes Podcast, No Strokes YouTube at Katoon, at Venmo Joe, everywhere. See you later.
Venmo Joe (41:11.323)
Yeah.