00:00joining us now from augusta gary williams host of five clubs golf it can be seen on golf channel
00:05eight to nine a.m it's available wherever you get your podcasts as well as on youtube and other
00:09socials an homage to the five founding clubs that eventually formed the usga in 1894 good morning
00:16gary how are you oh my boy uh you know to hear you uh go through the various um arteries
00:26that
00:26that will ultimately get you into the river of the masters um just think about just think about
00:33even though the game has gotten appreciably younger um for most people you know what they'll do they'll
00:39just watch live from until it's on a platform that they have a remote that they can just hit and
00:45go
00:45there it is well we're late right about that we are lazy we want the easiest quickest thing but i
00:51mean
00:51the masters app as you know gary is a magical it's i mean and they were out in front of
00:57this
00:58well ahead of time they could easily charge monies for people to have access to the app but they're
01:04like no that's not what we do so no you're absolutely right they are look you're a techie you always
01:12have
01:12been um i'm not but what i know is when something works um there's nothing like it and it is
01:20i've
01:21never had a glitch i've never had anything that i went god this is you know this is challenging
01:27no it's it they are they're so far ahead on a lot of things um and and that particular delivery
01:35has been unbelievable from the from the moment it was created all right let me zoom out gary and talk
01:41about this year's tournament the 90th edition of this wonderful tradition unlike any other and that
01:46is i've struggled personally trying to figure out okay what am i holding on to here what's the angle
01:52what's the hook on this year's tournament and it kind of dawned on me that for the first time in
01:56a long
01:56time there wasn't that one guy that we're all like is this the year so and so finally wins because
02:04rory got it off his to-do list last year what do you think is the hook or the big
02:10storyline this year
02:12yeah no i i think that that's that's certainly part of it look if if if people want to to
02:18look
02:18at someone like tommy fleetwood and say you know it's about time i don't necessarily buy into that
02:24i think he's a wonderful player if he wins a major i won't be a bit surprised if he never
02:29wins a major
02:30i won't be a bit surprised really um he's a terrific player he's not a generational talent
02:36generational talents i earmark majors for he's he's not that so to to to the other part of what
02:42you said about not a guy because sheffler and again this is all relative he's had this modest
02:51ebb uh in terms of his performance if anybody else in that drawer included came into this masters
02:57with a win multiple top fives and his worst result was a top 20 top 25 worst you'd say
03:05he's in the best form of anybody but it's sheffler so there's a little pause for him there's a little
03:11pause for rory because of what happened at bay hill and i thought he was his iron play was so
03:16good on
03:16the west coast i'm like okay okay he could he could he could do this back-to-back thing if
03:21he can get
03:21past the emotional component i have a top line of about six guys that i think for various reasons
03:28bryson rom sheffler um rory zander and cam young that's my six-pack who i put on the same top
03:37line
03:37what do you think about uh over oberg though he seems to be a guy who can he's been playing
03:43three
03:43days very well in the tournament then one day does it uh it does he have a chance yeah brian
03:49that's a
03:49problem in a competition that requires four rounds um and in particular and here's the thing about him
03:56there are very few great players regardless of generation because you know most of us have been
04:02alive long enough uh to not remember moments of jack gacking and tiger not doing the same they all
04:10have these these these elements of scar tissue and now lou big oberg you know has one in particular
04:16at the players he's 26 years old he's played here twice he's played exceptionally well he's got to get
04:22through this vortex now of of being out being able to figure out you know how to be level and
04:28oriented
04:29in the last nine holes of these big events i i would put him that's why brian i would put
04:34him
04:34just below those other six but he is he's got the chops man and it's just a matter of time
04:42um where you know he's going to get over the line when it comes to to to these events and
04:48look there
04:48there are four of them they're elusive it ain't easy um and it wouldn't surprise me if it was this
04:54week but i would still put him in on that second tier gary you said you're not a techie so
04:59this one
05:00is probably a bad question to ask uh young ryan our producer asked me about actually it was walker he
05:06said what's the deal with this 3d printed five iron yeah that bryson has and i'm like confidently
05:15saying well what he does is is he's 3d prints it and then i get a little bit into it
05:20and now i'm
05:21lost now i'm googling i'm trying to watch youtube videos on this like it is kind of wild what you're
05:29able to do now do you know anything about this 3d printed five iron here's what i know it's conforming
05:38um and that's the end of my story okay well so here's the question you know you know how the
05:44usga is they make these clubs go through all kinds of tests they run it through the iron byron robot
05:50tester they measure it with all kinds of things how do you do that for a single club that is
05:55a one of
05:56one yeah that he cooked up at someone's lab yeah it would be it would be no different than driver
06:02testing and so you know the idea that that you know again here is the other part of this
06:09this is not something that on off weeks this this you know this club is being sent there these clubs
06:15these guys are tested every week during during regular pga tour events it it's it's supposed to
06:22be kind of random it's kind of like drug testing right uh in other sports so you know like for
06:27instance
06:27you go back to the pga last year in charlotte uh rory rory had a non-conforming driver yeah uh
06:34because he had he had he had hit it out of form he had made it non-conforming because the
06:40attrition
06:40of hitting a club out of the center of the face as these aliens do repeatedly is going to make
06:47them
06:47non-conforming from one ball to the next he goes from conforming to non-conforming shefford by the way
06:52his he won the event his driver last year was non-conforming they're tested at majors um at all
06:59of them so it's not like you know he's skirting for a while and then oh god you know they're
07:04here
07:04here comes here come the cops no i mean you know the club's tested and it's conforming and that's
07:10what i know with respect to the to the components of the club uh and the way it's built you
07:16got me
07:16yeah not look it's a it's a it's something that you know this is kind of bryson's schtick i will
07:23say this very much bryson has reveled in being the mad scientist he does have a mongoloid set of
07:29clubs that are all one length that have super thick grips and he's learned to play with them i give
07:34him
07:34credit for that he's a guy that does it different but here's the question i want to ask you gary
07:39and
07:39this is a common question amongst my golf group chats and circles are you bryson positive bryson
07:46neutral or bryson negative as a fan yeah i'm i'm trending bryson positive where i was neutral
07:54before i wouldn't say i'm a fan boy but i don't hate necessarily who he is and what he's doing
08:01i will uh here's what i would say i'm bryson positive because he is he is genuinely interesting
08:10and i do think yeah when it when when he's off the golf course he tries too hard to be
08:16interesting
08:16your game is interesting right yeah the idea of trying to explain yourself in a way and i've i've
08:23played golf with him i actually want to pro-am with him nice um yeah and and he actually hit
08:28some shots
08:29one of uh one of my buddies who i who i invited to play in this program was left-handed
08:33and bryson hit
08:34two drivers with his club and i videotaped it if i sent it to you would say is that guy
08:40a tour player
08:40no i'm not kidding i've seen some tour guys hit drivers lefty and it blows me away i've seen
08:47it's mind-blowing do it these guys are freak athletes he is i find him the very very interesting
08:53i think he's an incredible asset because he is provocative and polarizing you take a side
09:00how many guys in this game do you pick a side on come on i mean it's just a handful
09:04at most yeah
09:06and you know given that he was right there last year and then fell apart on the final round you
09:11think he might be there again he's had a great start so far on the boom box and short circuit
09:15so there's that at least but uh yeah uh the course is going to be firm and fast they've never
09:22had it
09:22this dry for this long of a stretch down there the course looks immaculate uh it's chilly it's a
09:27little breezy going to be today what do you think the winning number is gary i'm going 11 under is
09:33as much as i think they they have something that to the point you just made is very rare here
09:40or any
09:40major championship they have total control and and this place because it's oz they have control at
09:47levels that others don't uh i'm talking about not just not just moisture but temperature as well
09:54um they literally controlling the temperature of the ground so this is this is a fascinating thing
10:01to see how much they're going to dial the knobs because if they choose to this will be the most
10:09interesting ground game masters that a lot of people have seen in their lifetimes because it's
10:15not just the contour of these greens anybody who's been here knows yes there's elevation change
10:20and it's significant what is most interesting to me about this place is that it's very rare to get a
10:27level lie anywhere other than on a team ground and if the ground game is a genuine factor and if
10:32it's
10:32bouncy the end result of shots becomes much more like what bobby jones and alistair mckenzie were
10:40envisioning not the way it necessarily could play but its presentation and that was an homage to the
10:46old course where they they weren't thinking about you know installing loba lally pines that are 50
10:51feet high uh one year they don't exist the next year they've been installed and voila um you know
10:57if he saw this place you'd say what happened they did a nursery again um so so if it's like
11:04that
11:05i will be enthralled at a level uh that i haven't been look the zach johnson year was really really
11:11dry
11:11was really really cold um and and and so that people can't you know if you can't remember that
11:17far back ground game is a factor and i think the other guys that i think is interesting is i
11:22think
11:22it eliminates guys who are not real flushers because the exacting nature of a golf course is
11:27this dry you can't wipe it around there uh and fake it in any way but i think some mid
11:34-range guys
11:35then allow themselves to be able to reach part fives and two and the shot making uh becomes a premium
11:41i'm sure you've seen this gary i don't know if brian has seen this have you seen the aldridge pot
11:48geater bladed chip on one so far today nah no i was calling you might want to you might want
11:55to
11:55avert your eyes on this but take a look at oh my god i've done that a few times
12:02gary he found himself i shouldn't see him doing stuff like i do gary oh no i mean he found
12:07himself
12:07left of number one where he couldn't put it up onto the green with a huge bunker in between
12:13he's standing where the patrons have been it is flat and matted down and tighter than a hardwood
12:20floor any butter knife did straight up for the green that is steve as you know because you love it
12:28and
12:28you play it a lot and brian i don't know how much golf you play but more than me there
12:36is in my
12:37estimation there is nothing that is more dispiriting and and creating a crisis of confidence more
12:45than blading a chip it is because then every subsequent chip because guess what our garden
12:51variety of the chops that we are we hit like four or five greens around okay so it means if
12:59it happens
12:59early guess what there's a dozen more of those to come yeah actually thinking about it all day i know
13:05that oh it's gonna be in his head god bless him good luck the old uh pot geater it could
13:10be a long
13:11run gary williams five eight to nine a.m every day on golf channel thank you my friend always a
13:19pleasure to be with you brian you guys enjoy the masters i know you will all right take care
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