00:00Now, let's talk about Nico a little bit, because you're looking at his, he's missed four cuts this year.
00:05Now, he did have a top 10 at the AT&T, finished tied for eighth, but I don't think many
00:10saw this coming.
00:10And he gets off to a hot start this week.
00:12He and Smotherman are the two kind of pace setters on Thursday, and just kind of stays in and around
00:16it.
00:16And then, you know, you talked about on the broadcast his putting, and we saw that come up clutch on
00:2117 with that birdie make
00:22to really kind of flip the script on Shane standing on the tee box there.
00:26You know, what does this do to kind of set up the rest of the season for you, for him?
00:31He, you know, most recently won the 2024 Baker Classic, won, you know, an opposite field event in Puerto Rico
00:37in 2023.
00:38And this event is, you know, as we mentioned, it's, you know, yeah, you don't have a Scotty Scheffler or
00:42Rory McIlroy in the field,
00:43but getting it done here, you know, with a guy who was a Ryder Cupper and Shane Lowry as your
00:48kind of main opponent,
00:49that's something for a guy like Nico.
00:51Yeah, he talked to Carl Banks after the round.
00:55You asked if I saw it coming.
00:57Well, he apparently did because he felt like there was a good chance that he could win this week.
01:00So obviously felt good about his game.
01:02I actually had an extended conversation with him earlier in the week on Monday.
01:06And some of the questions I was asking Nico, mainly about a player that had a rookie season like he
01:12did,
01:13which if you can go look at his results, he missed 23 cuts in his rookie season.
01:18He missed 12 straight at one point and he did win.
01:21He went and won in Puerto Rico.
01:23But without that win, he was going back to the Corn Fairy Tour.
01:26And what it allowed him to do was to have an additional two years to improve on his game.
01:31And that experience and and not have the pressure of losing your tour card helps a young player be able
01:38to go and play all these different PGA Tour golf courses,
01:41but also improve in areas in which he should.
01:45So when you look at his statistics, he's gradually gotten better every single year.
01:50And you've seen spurts in which his iron game has been really top end.
01:55You go back to the fall of 2024.
01:57He was the best iron player by far that fall.
02:01And he had an incredible fall, three top tens.
02:03And you said he won at the Bay Current Classic.
02:05It was a Zozo at the time.
02:08But then last season, fifth in strokes game putting.
02:11And so you see just this gradual improvement with Nico throughout his bag.
02:17But I think you go all the way back to that rookie year and just the lumps that he took.
02:21Any player that misses 23 cuts is obviously a player that is resilient.
02:27Like nobody knows what that feels like.
02:28I know what it feels like to miss 12 straight cuts.
02:30You can lose confidence quick.
02:32You can start chasing your tail.
02:34And Nico somehow was able to get through it all.
02:38And now he's a three-time PGA Tour winner.
02:40Well, and it's so interesting because there are just going to be some players that naturally,
02:44by virtue of what they do well or they don't do well, are going to be high variance guys.
02:47So you're speaking to the mentality there, which obviously is a huge, huge thing for them.
02:51And I mean, just look at this year.
02:53You know, he's got two top tens.
02:54One of those is a win and four missed cuts.
02:56What do you see when his game escapes him?
03:00You know, what is it that is?
03:02Is it just a little bit loose on the ball striking?
03:04Because the putting, as you mentioned, it looked great today.
03:07And if you finish fifth for a season long on the PGA Tour the year before, that's an indicator of,
03:12you know, real consistency with the plastic.
03:14But like, is it just it gets a little loose off the tier with the ball striking?
03:17And that's where you get these missed cuts.
03:19He reminds me a lot different games.
03:21But his mentality and his ability to close reminds me of Nick Taylor.
03:25When he gets around the lead, it just feels like he's not going to go anywhere.
03:29And anytime he's not one on the PGA Tour and come up just short, he's hit all the right shots.
03:35He's made the putts that he's needed to make.
03:37And he just looks like he's comfortable there.
03:39Some guys don't look like they're comfortable coming down the stretch.
03:42He feels like he's a flat liner and honestly plays with passion.
03:45I really love how passionate he is when he makes big putts, hits chips.
03:50Fist bump on 17 is awesome.
03:52Love that.
03:52Just Colombian flair that he has with this game that I think is what serves him well coming down the
03:58stretch.
03:59I think he wants the ball in his hands and just goes to show that, you know, it's not easy
04:05to do that.
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