Fresh off the course at PGA National and on the road to Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Smylie Kaufman throws in some earbuds to recap the Cognizant Classic with Charlie Hulme. Smylie walked with the latest first-time winner on the PGA Tour - Austin Eckroat - as he finished his final round, and gives some insight into the potential Eckroat has to become a star. While the "Smylie Bump" did not propel Shane Lowry to victory, SK and CH discuss whether his fourth-place finish following Jake Knapp's win should be a recruiting tool to get more Tour pros on the pod. Finally, in recapping Anthony Kim's debut on LIV, Charlie declares his allegiance to the "Wild Cards" as Smylie attempts to recruit AK to the Cleeks.
The Smylie Show
The Smylie Bump continues + Cleeks vs Wild Cards???
[MUSIC PLAYING] Hang in there. That's Smiley Kaufman for '61. Wow. I'm Smiley Kaufman, and this is The Smiley Show. All right, we begin another episode of The Smiley Show today with the hardest working man in showbiz on the road. Fresh off the course at PGA National, headed over to Bay Hill to get prepping for the Arnold Palmer Invitational that's coming up this weekend. Smiley has his earbuds in, eyes on the road, of course. But as such, no YouTube episode this week. None of our budding swing notes segment, unfortunately. We will get back to Smiley correcting your swings next week, I guess, weather delay permitting, of course, the API. Let's hope we don't have another one of those. But, Smiley, you're on the road. How's the traffic thus far? Any good road trip snacks we have along with us? Oh good, I just got some Jimmy John's after Austin Eck wrote at the end of his round yesterday on Saturday that an interview with him and I said, what are you going to do tonight? So I'm going to go to Jimmy John's to get some dinner. I was like, sweet. And so it was kind of already on my brain to get some Jimmy John's and why not do that after watching Austin Eck or just absolutely demolish the bear trap. So it's just, I don't know, felt like the right decision. Love it. Little free promo for JJ is there. I'm a big beach club guy. Beach club, no cucumbers and no tomatoes. Cut that thing in half. Solid vinegar chips. Can't beat it. Undefeated lunch sandwich. You're trying to get out in the course. I think you're on to something there. I mean, on the top three, I would go the country club, the Italian nightclub and the beach club and the top three with the Billy club being a close fourth. Wow, I love it. Look, this is all, this is like, this is just organic promo for JJ's here. This is just, we just legitimately love. Jimmy John, if anyone from Jimmy John's is hearing this, please reach out. We'd love to, we'd love to do some, they do some sort of collaboration here on the show as we eat your beach club, Italian club, Billy club nightclub sandwiches. So well, that's, you know, all good. It's obviously that JJ's paid off for Austin Eckroat and getting the win and hopefully paying off for you here as you travel. But Austin's win, of course. The year of the long shot does continue. He entered the week plus 10,000 to win or 101, for those of us who struggle with the odds math, leaves as yet another first time winner on the PGA Tour this season. So as you mentioned, you walked with him. Today as he finished out that final round, just what were your impressions of his game and what he did well to win today? It's, I mean, Charlie, it was really freaking impressive. You know, there wasn't a ton of land. The greens were soft. Fairways, not bouncing as much. The roughs not up. So, you know, the Honda Classic or the Cognizic Classic and the Palm Beach is, excuse me, you know, it's, it was, it was definitely ginnable, dude. But he ended on the string, man. Like he hit more than 80% of his fairways, 80% of his greens. And when you do that at a golf course like that and you, and you take the trouble out of play by just continuing to do yourself birdie looks, he just made the game look so easy. And even today, like I was just looking for any type of nerves with this ball striking because all week, he's gotten up on the tee and just absolutely ripped and everything with like no worry in the world about where the golf ball was going. And I would say like in 11 holes that I watched today, literally his golf ball felt like it curved a total of like 10 feet. It was just, it was the most absurd thing I've ever seen, just how much control he had of his golf ball. Really the whole week, but especially on a, on a Monday finish, just so impressive. You know, he's a player that was a heck of a player coming out of Oklahoma State, hadn't gotten his first win yet, has put himself in contention at Bayern last year, Sony this year, but I would say the one part of his game that just continued to improve on would be the putter. But the ball striking is just, the ball striking is unreal. Kind of to that point, this is a stat from Matt Gannon, who's at Matt Underscore, Gannon Underscore on X. It's not often golfers post the best Iron Week of their career and top that the following week, but Echrode in fact did that. He, he gained 5.3 strokes in approach at the Mexico Open. And this week it was 6.2 strokes gained approach, just incredible iron play for Austin. He kind of just talking about his ceiling and where he could end up. So I went to the Walker Cup in 2021 at Seminole and watched Austin in that first Sunday singles match, absolutely dismantle Mark Power 7 and 6 as that first match. I was like, oh, like this, you know, these are all young guys, but want to keep an eye on this guy, he can be really good. You mentioned at your favorite golf course in the world last year, almost won the Byron Nelson, Jason Day got it done, of course there, shout out to TPC Craig Ridge. But, you know, are we doing Austin, a little bit of a disservice here, lumping him into that long shot category? I mean, he's 25 years old, went to Oklahoma State, you know, was watching golf channel this morning and looking at a picture of him standing next to Victor Havel and holding their national championship trophies. What's his ceiling in your opinion? - You know, I think it was probably priced, right? I think he's, you know, he went out there and proved that he's better than whatever his odds show that it was and the game kind of backed that up and kind of to your general timeline of when you went and watched Austin at the Walker Cup, I actually played with Austin in his first USO, I say it was his first try, it probably wasn't. It was his first try as a professional for the USO. But him and I were paired together in Dallas for sectionals and it was funny because it was the first time he was using his caddy that he's still using now, Stone, Coburn. I couldn't pronounce his last name correct all day. I think it's Coburn. Anyways, we're talking about that on the 11th hole today and I asked Stone, I was like, were you caddy for Austin that day? He's like, yeah. And he said to me that, dude, we were so pumped to be playing with you as, you know, as somebody who's one on two or at the time and I wasn't playing any good. But it was just funny where we are in our careers and the fact that at that time, you know, I was somebody who had had some success on tour. It was in a slump at the time and we got an up and coming college kid who's excited to play with me in that sex show qualifying. And all I was thinking on the next screen was, man, have things turned. Things have totally got a bit of a, little bit of a switcheroo, if you will, that I was excited to be out there watching Austin Echro. So I, you know, I had my buddy, Caddy, and for me that day, Andrew Grisiglio, who I played most of my golf, played back home. - AV? - Yeah, and AV. - AV was Caddy. And Austin actually said he made it through in a nine-for-one playoff at that sectional. - Wow. - And I had just nearly missed out as well. So it was, even to that day when I played with him, who looked very similar to where it is now, he's a fast, quick player. The game comes very natural to him. You know, when you play with guys that, they put the T in the ground, they don't have to make any like mechanical swings. They just get up there and like rip it. They just naturally have good mechanics. And, you know what, to me that, that's the one thing I see in Austin's game that, you know, if he can just continue to play with that confidence and not overthink this crazy game, you know, he's got all the ability to prove himself even more at some of these big events coming up. - Yeah, it's so, it is funny kind of looking back on that, 'cause you never know who's gonna pan out. Like at that, on that Walker Cup team, you know, Davis Thompson played on that Walker Cup team. We've seen him come close a couple of different times, you know, to winning. Cole Hammer was on that team, maybe hasn't got off to the exactly the professional start. He would have liked to, but still had a ton of potential played well that week. You know, Pearson Kootie was on that team. And you can, you know, watch them play. And of course, they all look incredibly talented, but you just never know how the breaks are gonna fall for those guys once they get to the professional level. And who's gonna have the hot week and convert into a win. And here's, you know, Austin coming off that team, notching his first professional win, not a rookie, but still his first pro win and looking like, you know, this guy's limit for this guy, he can keep playing the way he does. So I thought that was, you know, cool, cool to see. That leads us right into kind of our next topic because it has been an interesting year on tour. I mean, the list of the first time winners on tour this season is now Nick Dunlap, Matthew Pavon, Jake Knapp, and Austin Echrode. And then if you add to that list, other winners this season, Chris Kirk, Grayson Murray, Wyndham Clark, Nick Taylor, and Hideki Matsuyama, it's that sort of we haven't had enough big names when drum beat that just keeps growing louder and louder by critics of the tour. And it feels like we talk about this every single week. So I'm just curious to take your temperature now as to where you stand on that whole debate after seeing yet another guy who wasn't necessarily a household name, at least yet, get it done this week in Palm Beach. - Yeah, I think we're kind of due for some titans to go head to head, you know, whether it's Bay Hill or the players where we got four of the top players in the world that are battling each other for, you know, two of the most historic events that we have on tour. I think that's kind of what the tour would be cheering for. And I think the, I know NBC would be cheering for it too. But, you know, I think we're a little bit due for it, but hey, man, if guys go out in like an Austin Echrode or even mentioned like a Davis Thompson, these middle-aged kind of young American guys that are still proving themselves to, you know, where they're at in this game. I mean, I would say that the European kind of age in that mid-20s has outperformed those Americans to this point. So it was good to get a guy like Austin Echrode and Jake Knapp to get some wins because, you know, we've lost, we've lost a good a bit of our guys that are not from the U.S. that have gone to the live golf tour. So you kind of have to make your own stars in this. And yeah, I'm excited about the next couple of weeks too. - Well, it's interesting you point that out in terms of age because I think that's of all the first-time winners that I've just noted on tour. Okay, so Nick Dunlap was, of course, 20. He was planning on being in college maybe for another half year, at least maybe a year and a half, depending on how things shook out with PGA Tour, you accelerated wins and of course, makes the decision to turn pro. But Matthew Bavan is, you know, coming out the DP World Tour, but a 31-year-old rookie. And Jake Knapp's 29-year-old rookie, as we've discussed, Osinek wrote is not a rookie, but 25 years old. And it's just sort of an interesting reminder there that, you know, maybe not to write off guys early on, you know, it just, some guys are gonna kind of take some time to kind of find their groove. And when they do, when they show up, a guy like Jake Knapp, I mean, we're talking about him with, that he's got all the potential of the world. I mean, we'll see how it kind of pans out, but I mean, he played well again this week and he gets a win under his belt and it does wonders for his confidence. And, you know, so I wonder if there are other guys like that, you know, maybe, maybe not top of mind right now for you, but just, it just is an interesting trend to me to see guys that are, you look at an age and say, "Ah, maybe they're getting a little older, "maybe there's younger blood coming up," but no, they can still go out there and get it done and have a chance to kind of blossom into a stellar career on the PGA Tour. - Yeah, of course, and you kind of mentioned Jake Knapp. I think this was a big week for him, the fact that he played with Rory McRoy the first three days. And, you know, for a lot of guys coming off a win at a less than stellar field at the Mexico Open to go straight into one of the more daunting golf courses that they play on the PGA Tour at PGA National. And really, you know, step up to the plate and play some great golf and have an opportunity to, you know, post a number and potentially find his way to a playoff, if it weren't for an echo, kind of make it to Bernie sound the stretch. I mean, I think that's a tell a little bit about Jake Knapp. First off, to not be as nervous and to play well, but also this two different styles of golf courses that he played at, Mexico Open being a bomber's pair of nice that plays well into his hands. And then going to a PGA National Golf course, that's much more of a bottleneck golf course where you're not hitting as many drivers. You got to put the ball in play. You have to have a lot of control with your iron game with cross wins and be really nice from that eight iron range. And dude, just another good week for him, that I mean, I wouldn't be surprised to see him play well next week at a Bay Hill either. - You noted this, you know, briefly, but to expand a little bit on, you know, where we're going next, you know, Bay Hill and Sawgrass, do you think that, I guess it's tough to say because, you know, PGA National is a tough venue. And we saw Austin Echo win. And we saw some names and contention like Shane Lowry, but, you know, there weren't necessarily a ton of household names near the top of the leaderboard. - Do you think that changes as we kind of go to Bay Hill and Sawgrass? And if so, who do you think kind of rises to the top these next few weeks? - Typically Bay Hill. So this is one weird thing about Bay Hill. And I guess haunted too. And I'll kind of get to your question here in one second. But the Honda was always such a great feel. And the reason why was because where it was scheduled on the calendar, you would get a lot of the European tumor players coming to play the Honda Classic. And you would have kind of all, you know, Tiger would play. So that feel would be so great then you go to Bay Hill. And it had this like European tumor feel that always had kind of a, not a mini Ryder Cup, but you always seem to have an American star and European star playing well in this event. And as we kind of get to this event, that's kind of how it's always gone. You've had big top players play well here with Rory, Tiger. Victor Hoven played really nicely here last year. Scottie Scheff more won the event, but he didn't do anything special to winning. Kind of just had other guys not doing anything special down the stretch. And as we kind of talk about the players, that's a week where you kind of see some wacky leaderboards at the players. So I wouldn't be surprised to see, you know, not a top name win at the players. But I do expect next week to see one of the top 10 players in the world win at Bay Hill. - Just talking about tough courses in general. - Yeah, so you had some observations earlier in the week out of PJ National. This was Thursday morning where it was early on, you had already 27 guys under par and you listed a few reasons why. So the 10th of four, there was a lot of talk about the 10th being converted from a par four to a par five. You noted that the primary rough was very short compared to years past. And then also it felt like in your opinion, the fairway cut around the greens looked a little longer, although officials are saying, hey, it's the same length. And then with the rain, with the weather, the course playing a little bit softer. Some wins came in over the weekend, but you said, hey, wouldn't surprise me to see the winner in the high teens. And there was Austin Echo at 17 under. So a good call there. But, you know, as you kind of finished your tweet with, it's come a long way since even par, will get you a top 10 at formerly the Honda Classic. Now the cognizant classic. And so there was a lot on social media this past week in the way of people complaining about these changes catering too much to tour pros complaining about how hard it is. And look, I mean, I think that's that's fair. And one sense of the fan should have a voice and an opinion in all this. But looking at the kind of the totality of why this was done and trying to get bigger names into this event, you know, at least more so than there have been in past years. Can you just explain why those changes were necessary to kind of pull the field heading to Bay Hill next, heading to Sawgrass, you know, in two weeks. And if you feel like it was fair to make those changes and if that was a sort of a success story for you coming out of this week. - Well, the only thing I'll add to that tweet was, you know, we didn't necessarily get the win that you can get here down in Jupiter. For the most part, it was only a one club win throughout the week. I'd say Friday got pretty gusty at times where it was in that 20 mile an hour range, which is what we typically expect in the afternoons. And we only got that one day. So I would say that would be the only thing that was missing to maybe keep the scores a little less high. But answer my question real quick. What was the top 10 this week? Was it 10 under? 'Cause I mean, 10 under could, I mean, that used to be a win in past years. - The top 10 was, well, I'll say, so the split was T9s were 12 under and T16s were-- - Well, on your-- - T16s were 11 under. - 10 under-- - Wow. - 10 under would have gotten you a whopping T21 this week. - Wow. And that's just crazy to me. - That's wild. - That's just absurd for this event. So I'll tell you the reason why. So, you know, that whole area, obviously, is a hotbed for so many different professional golfers. And the PGA Tour now runs this event ever since the hot, ever since the Honda got out. So the PGA Tour is, I guess, maybe they contribute the most money to the event. Maybe is how that works. So they have control a little bit of how the setup's gonna be. I imagine Cognizant is the title sponsor, but it's not like Honda Classic, I'm sure Honda had a much bigger fee that they had to pay, is the way I understand it. And the Tour decided, hey, let's make this a little bit more user friendly. Let's try to attract a couple more names here in the future, because we want guys to be able to show up here and not wear themselves out. The golf course is hard enough as it is. Let's give them a free Verde on the 10th hole. And if we get the win that we'd only have, it's still gonna be a challenge. You're still gonna have to play well. It just won't be that crazy, you know, chip out rough that you see in years past where if you missed the fairway on the 11th hole, to the right, you're not trying to hit it on the green there, you lay it up to the left and then hit a ledge on the green. So all week, you know, guys, when they missed that fairway, now they're hitting, you know, nine irons on the green to a soft green. It's just, it's just a different experience than what we've seen at the Honda Classic. I'm gonna keep calling it that 'cause I, luckily I didn't have to call it the Cognizant all week or I would have called it the Honda. (laughing) - Yeah, it's, I was very, very strange, especially today, I mean, multiple times this week, but especially today, I think I forget what toll it was that I was watching Jake Knapp put on and the water behind him was just, it was like looking at a sheet of glass, just not even a ripple on the whole thing this morning. And that was kind of multiple times this weekend. I mean, look, having played a fair amount of golf in that area, you know, with family down there, it's the defense system for a lot of these courses is the wind and you just kind of expect it as such a consistent feature. So when you don't have it, yeah, the scoring's there for the taking. And so I think the tour was a little unlucky in that sense where maybe they made some of these changes to make it a little bit easier, expecting there to be more wind, but then, you know, when you get both no wind and also rain the softens up the course, you know, it looks a lot worse than it is. And so, you know, I don't know how it plays in, in, you know, future years, but I will say that seeing guys like Rory and Ricky in the field has to be a win for the tour, you know, and if this was part of their decision-making model to get down here is, oh, it won't be me up as much. And maybe I'll kind of carry a little bit of confidence into the rest of the floor swing. I think it's just something it feels like you kind of have to do. So now also on the subject of PGA tour decision-making, another one of your tweets this weekend, this is on Sunday morning. Very surprised groups weren't sent out this morning. I'll split tees and threesomes. Now looking at a Monday finish, and of course that prediction proved to be correct. So any insight as to what happened there? Why we didn't try to do threesomes split tees on Sunday to get the thing in? - I don't know, man. I do know this and you would be looking at me right now on a computer with my headphones and a good mic. I wouldn't be driving from-- - We'd be looking at swim videos right now. - Come on now, man. (laughing) - Gosh, it just didn't make any sense 'cause at the beginning of the week, we were told by the PGA tour staff that a Sunday, we're gonna have to get a little bit lucky on the weather. So this is on Wednesday at our production meeting. So we kind of know in all week that we look really good until we get to Sunday, we're gonna have to dive some afternoon thunderstorms. And Saturday, we go through threesomes. I was like, oh, that's kind of weird. I kind of thought we might go twosomes on Saturday. And then in the middle of the day on Saturday, they say, hey, we're gonna go twosomes tomorrow. And I started thinking, I was like, man, they're taking a bit of a risk here or that the weather forecast is improved. But then when I looked at it, there was the same forecast that we had at the beginning of the week, which was more than a 50% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. And I wonder if this was kind of the decision behind all of this, Charlie, was that the West Coast was a mess. Like we had really only one Sunday finish over there on the West Coast and that was at Riviera. And sure, you could have turned the TV off 30 minutes before the end of the broadcast 'cause Hideki had that thing locked up, you know, Pebble Beach, that finish being on a Saturday. San Diego also finishing on a Saturday to not interfere with football. You know, we got lucky in Phoenix that we finished on Sunday, but really it was a messy week there with the, you know, starts and stops that we experienced all week. And, you know, we kind of get the Mexico, that was a really clean week, but it wasn't the field that everybody was looking for. And then you get to the East Coast and you get to the Cognizant where you have Rory in the field and some decent storylines on Sunday. And you have to wonder, do you think they took a little bit of a gamble, hoping that it's gonna be better from a ratings perspective? The tour thinks, you know what? Let's take the gamble with two sums. Let's try for a Sunday finish because you know the ratings are gonna be in the can if you gotta finish on a Monday. So I wonder, or a take delay finish on a Sunday if we would have played in the morning. So I wonder if that was behind the decision. Let's just kind of roll the dice a little bit. - Yeah, that's an interesting thought because, and you really have to kind of dive into the numbers of, you know, what, you know, looking at all the various scenarios we've seen with weather related on the tour in the past, let's say, five, 10 years and how they correlated with CV ratings because my mind immediately went to the rocket mortgage this last year that was moved up for weather and Ricky Fowler wins. Now, he wins in that earlier time slot and, man, I had a heck of a time trying to find the thing. I had to download like the, I thought it was the Paramount Plus app but it was the CBS Sports app and, you know, trying to find it was tough. But, you know, once I got there, I was watching live golf on a Sunday and watching Ricky Fowler win for the first time in a number of years. And I thought that viewing experience was a lot better than, you know, the kind of stop and start action on Sunday, the final group going off at 5.10 PM Eastern. And then, you know, a Monday finish that, look, if you're a golf hardo and if your job is golf and you can sit in front of a TV from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., you know, and do that, you know, then it works for you, but most people are at work and they're not going to catch the end of this thing. And so I just, definitely a dice roll and definitely a gamble. But, you know, I, I, shoot, I mean, I guess, I guess, if either way, the finish is going to end up on golf channel. Maybe it's kind of six and a half dozen in the other, you know, if it's, if it's, if you're going to do it on Sunday early or Monday early. But I just felt like, especially with the signature event, this upcoming week. And then the thing that, you know, we haven't talked about yet, but a lot of people were talking about on social and definitely was top of mind, you know, for me as well, is you got a lot of guys in that field who really, really wanted to finish Sunday so they could get over to Seminole and play in the pro member of the day. Now, I know that's none of the tourist business. It does not matter to them. They're trying to run event here, but I think you could have made some guys happier if they went off, you know, split tees three, some Sunday got the thing in and then got over comfortably so they could play on Monday at Seminole. I don't know. - Yeah, I was surprised this morning when I got on headset and that I heard that Luke wasn't joining us Monday morning. He's playing in the Seminole pro member. I was like, I was like, I didn't know that was an option today. - Well, did you see, this is actually on PGA to radio on Michael Breed's show that Bob Ford, or not, I'm sorry, not a Michael Breed's show. On Taylor Zarser's show, the starter, where Bob Ford, the longtime head golf professional, Seminole had kind of phoned in to talk about the event and said that Eric Van Royen was playing that morning in the event. And if we reach a scenario where Eric was going to need to go play in a playoff, they were just going to go pull them off the course and drive them on over 15 minutes away and get them over to PGA National to play in a playoff. So it's really interesting stuff. But it's like, people can make jokes about him poo poo and I get it. So it's like, it's this elite event that's not on TV and it's for a select few, but it matters to a lot of these guys. And I think the guys that missed that are probably a little bummed, Austin Eckrope was supposed to play in the pro member. Sure, he would have loved going back to a place where he won the Walker Cup in 2021 and been able to play there. So I mean, either way, he's happy. He's a lady he won, but maybe for the guys, you know, Shane Lowry, I believe, I gotta, I have to look at this year's field list, but longtime partner of Ed Hurley, would have loved to have been over doing that this morning, I think, and instead of, you know, finishing up the cognizant classic, but look, that's how it goes. But I just, I thought the whole, the whole decision making on that thing was interesting to me as you noted. Yeah, I mean, it's a bummer for some of those guys. I mean, they're never gonna lose sleep ever not having to play around a golf after playing a week. So I think it's more the members that, that are probably get a little bit more bummed and disappointed. But man, we were so close, so, so close. So close. From the Jake Nap, then Shane Lowry, Dubb. I mean, it was, it was teed up. Really great. And we would add all types of pros calling the Smiley Show Hotline, trying to get an interview, because for just a minute there, we couldn't miss. Well, I mean, and I think, listen, it's not that the Smiley bump is not in effect. I mean, cause Shane Lowry still finishes T four at 13 under. If you go down this leaderboard, past, past Friends of the Pod on the show, Eric Van Roy and T two, Minwoo Lee, T two, Jake Nap, T four. I mean, there is definitely a bump that is in effect after you join this esteemed podcast. So for any tour pros out there listening, please join the show and watch, you know, go out and play good golf in the weeks that ensue. But yeah, man, I felt for Shane. I mean, last night I, you know, hopped on and had all the clips edited out and was ready to kind of repeat the, the Jake Nap successive last week of, you know, wouldn't you know it? We got another win for the Smiley Show. But I mean, curious to what your, I know you were, you were walking with Austin all day, but just from what I saw on the broadcast, it looked like a guy that, hey, sometimes you just show up with a golf course and you just don't have it. And he was just making a lot of mistakes as Shane Lowry does not make normally, just on a pro shots with wedges and chipping. And, you know, I'm sure he'd be the first to tell you that. But, you know, played, played great all week, still finished his T four. But as he said here on the podcast this last week, you know, this is a stretch that he now has grown to love. And this week in particular is one that he loves since it's close to home. So it was, it was definitely a bomb that he couldn't get it done this week. - Yeah. And I think I attributed it a little bit more to just the starting stop of yesterday thinking this is one of my T times going to be big rain delay. And then it's like, oh, we're definitely not playing golf today. And then it's like, oh, wait, I'm playing off at five o'clock. And, you know, Austin Necro and I think handled that the best. He looked really good in those first seven holes late last night and really sloppy conditions. And then Shane Lowry went the other way, just didn't play as well, didn't look sharp, never got comfortable with the green speeds. And then also the wet conditions. And then right from the get go today, he really needed to make some early birdies and, you know, made some early bogeys. And at that point, he was, he was too far back and really needed some mistakes from Necro. - Yeah. Well, listen, just saying, anyone out there listening that the door is open, the invite is open, come on the pod. Smiley will, you know, pass off some of the good vibes and then you'll go out there and we'll guarantee you a top 10, you know, maybe even a top five and for some lucky few, you'll be coming home with a trophy. So, so, so we have that. And also we cannot wrap our cognizant coverage without discussing the happy hour Fridays with Smiley coverage that will extend through the rest of this, the swing for NBC. So I just had a couple observations here. First one is really glad to see on Twitter that the Southern Swoop made it into the cartoon rendering of Smiley. You know, that would have been a tough omission. And I also love seeing on the broadcast that the bear trap club snap got some additional run after seeing it appear on the pod with Shane Lowry this last week. - Yeah, no, that's definitely really good that my highlight real continues to roll. You know, Sony, my highlights, nothing from the course, just in the ocean. And then again, at the Honda, it, you know, a ball, of course, not ever making it on land. So then that kind of sums up my PG tour career. It seems like it's, I have all these highlights and all these random things. And I had to beg your alligators 'cause we're heading into Smiley Alligator Week, you know? - You know, goodness, I was actually wondering today, I had another alligator moment at Honda on the 16th hole today. I'm walking close to the water and it wasn't an alligator. It was a four and a half foot snake and I jumped out of my shoes. It was right in front of Ekra. So I guarantee you that the TV guy, or our cameraman behind the 16, was probably walking with Ekra there. I don't know if he was zoomed out enough for him to see me jump and literally, literally crap my pants. It was, I lost it. It was not a good situation. - We need that footage, you know, I mean, I guess you are an NBC golf channel employee. I beg as an outsider, please send us that footage because we would love to add it to the Smiley Alligator. It's a very diverse and robust reel at this point. - Well, Goldschmidt was really fun. Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals, potential Hall of Famer, future Hall of Famer, guys just nice as he could possibly be for coming in and joining for about an hour and a half. It's not easy calling something that's, you know, not your sport and I thought you did a great job, you know, being a baseball guy and not necessarily like in a week golfer. He's like a 12 handicap. So it's not easy to go in there and hear all the things in your ear, like you do in a golf broadcast. But I thought he was awesome for Friday afternoon, you know, for, you know, just adding a little bit, something different to the coverage and a little bit more juice on a Friday. I thought it went great. Some great parallels between these two games, between baseball and golf that I thought he was, shed some fantastic light on and not surprising to understand why he's been so good at baseball, but like such a good dude though. - I know the Cardinals, they're spring training facilities in Jupiter. Is that why he's around down there? - Yeah. - Yeah, makes a ton of sense. Once watched, Albert Poole has played with that facility. - Yeah. - Back carpenter was sitting there right behind just watching him go and then all the guys on the team knew that he was going in as well. And I guess all they do is watch our golf in the clubhouse is what he was telling me. I guess when he's in control of the TV, that's all they watch is golf. - Amazing. - Every pro athlete wants to be a pro and something other than the sport you're playing. - I mean, golly, that's got to be a pitcher's dream. Having a spring training location either in South Florida or in Arizona, just, you know, don't hand me a bat. - Yeah, and so the season starts. And when we get there on button, 'cause I'm working on the golf swing for the entirety of spring training. - Where do you think the worst spring training location is for the MLB? - Well, isn't it, isn't it all Florida and there's not a Bureau beach? Well, but Arizona though, you can play golf in Arizona, right? I mean, that's a hotbed, Scottsdale? - Yeah, very beach is one of that. - That's actually good. Well, I think they moved though. - Oh, really? I think they were always in there. - I think they were always in there. - Let's see here. We're going to look at a list of Major League baseballs. We're really going to just go-- - I think the Braves are going to go to Dando. - That, I guess that could go either way. I guess you get more whether it's less warm than-- - Oh, it looks like a lot of Phoenix. - I would much rather be in Jupiter than Orlando. - Agreed. Jupiter's got to be the best. Like, I got, okay, there are, I guess the Azer and Mesa, Arizona. I don't know if there's a ton of good golf or Mesa. That's a good Arizona geography question that I am-- - Are they leaders in the glove house right now? - To answer a moment, but I can do some quick-- Mesa is, oh, it's just outside of Phoenix. It's just outside of Phoenix. Gosh, shame on me for not knowing my Phoenix GR. - I was about to say, you know there's somebody in Mesa, Arizona right now yelling at us right now. It's like, it's outside of Phoenix, you idiot. (both laughing) - To you, good sir, Madam, who listens to this podcast in Mesa. We're deeply sorry. And please let us know on social media, all the good golf courses one can play in Mesa, Arizona. Tell us why we're wrong. - There you go. - Yeah, but if I have my choice, put me in Cardinals pre-training in Jupiter. That's about as good as it gets if I'm trying to play golf. So, that wraps us, I think, on the, oh, I had to have one question. Did you, on the Shane Larry topic, did you feel any guilt at all seeing his ball go in the water on 15 on a Sunday after watching that, like even just a little bit? (both laughing) He said he was gonna be thinking about it, which is why I was like, oh! You know, he most improved anyway. I mean, he went from you idiot to get lucky, get so lucky. So, he's improved his vocabulary since the last time out. - You know, he came up to me on 17 on Friday and he stopped one in there like seven feet. And after he hit the shot, I'm like on the ladies' tees up far, about 50 yards up in front of him to the left. And him and I made eye contact after he hit and put his club in the bag and he just had this big smile on and he pointed at me and he just like got to give me these fist bumps. Like, I did it and then he got, and then he said what's up over at our set. He was like, dude, it was all I could think about when I saw you before I hit. And so, I feel bad because on 17 or at least 15 today, I wasn't with him to where it was awkward. But yeah, I mean, it's a hard shot. It's not a fun shot. - Yeah. - Yeah, I hate that we have highlight Reels going for Shane and 15. - Yeah, well, you know, that's how it goes sometimes. And you're part of the highlight reel. So, that's just, you know, this is golf. So, look, we have to, we're obligated to go from this cognizant, from the PGA tour to live because there were a number of storylines that we probably should touch on here on the pod, however briefly. So, the much anticipated Anthony Kim return to professional golf, it's in the books and it went just about the way you called it on the show, the way you expected this would go. Shot 76, 76 and 74 to finish 16 over, which was 11 shots clear of Hudson Swaffer for DFL honors. Smiley, I have some stats for you. - Please. - Courtesy of Adam Woodard at Golf Week. This was the sixth worst finished in lives, young history. One of those was Martin Kimer, 17 over at Bedminster in 2023. Lee Westwood was also on that list, 20 over also at Bedminster. The other three are courtesy of my favorite Kim to ever play on live, Siwan. Siwan hit a 17 over, a 19 and a 23 all last year and root to playing his way off the tour. So, AK, not great, but still has ways to go if he wants to kind of get on that, the top side of that list. So, first round begins with a top second shot on his first hole. Greg Norman said later that he got droned, which I guess drones weren't a thing when AK was last playing and something you have to kind of get used to and it was a little spooked there on that shot. He had a shank that made its way on a social media later that day. Did you catch any highlights at all of Anthony Kim's play this week on live? Yeah, I would wake up and just watch some highlights. The shank was so crisp. It was one of the crisper shanks I've ever seen. And that was, I mean, you couldn't dial it up a shank better than that one. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was definitely, I had a nice little sound to it as someone who was recently shanked a ball on video and is not looking forward to that, making its way to the public. Feel for the man. You know, I guess where I netted out on this was the same questions I had last week on the pod, which is, so the coverage of Anthony Kim as soon as he started playing bad, you know, obviously kind of went in a lighter direction. We didn't see as much of him playing. And the question I still have is like, if you're going to bring in a guy to generate buzz, but then you're not going to capitalize on the buzz, you know, what is it that we're trying to do here? I like, you know, I guess you could be protecting him if you think he's going to start playing better in the future, but I didn't see a lot this week that, you know, that made me think he's going to get much better than maybe like tour average out there. No, I didn't see in that way, but I also didn't watch enough for me to like, give you too much besides I'm just looking at his scores. You know, I think, I think this could be a really big signing for my colleagues, if they happen to get Anthony Kim. Yeah, the type of form that he's in right now, that is the kind of guy that is sliding quite nicely as the floor man for my colleagues. Thoughts on that? Well, I mean, this is, I forget if we said this on the pod last week or if this is just a side conversation we had, but I think that I am, you're a cleeks guy, I'm going to become a wild cards guy. Like I did you see Anthony Kim's hat? I was like, this might be the first piece of live merchandise that I want to own. I had a little, well, it's like a little playing card with an A and a K on it. And I kind of want to go all in on the wild cards, you know? Like, sign me up for, for AK Hudson Swofford and Wade Ormsby or whoever it is that's on that list. Lori Cantor, whoever fills that field out like this is, this is the scrubs GC idea that we've been workshopping of, you know, get the Monday qualifiers together. If they all win, or if they finish top three, they get to play the next week. If they win, they're an official team. I'll live for the rest of the year. - It would be awesome. - So I'm a, I think I'm a wild cards guy now. So I guess in response to you, it's, it would be a tough loss for my wild cards if you ended up on your cleeks. So let's hope you space player. - Oh gosh, man. All right, so I mean, being serious now about Anthony, I don't know because first off, like, I was very kind of taken back of like what he looks like now, you know, just looks like he's been through a lot, man. And like his face didn't look anything near like what it used to look like. You could tell that he's had a long journey to get to this point. So for the fact that he's even playing now after kind of all that he's apparently been through, you know, I think you'd mentioned that he might tell a story, which to me, like seems weird, like when you want to tell the story and then, and then have him play to kind of get shed some light on, hey, he shot this this week, but he's been through this. We're just speculating kind of all the things that Anthony Kim's had to kind of get past. But, you know, with that being said, I don't really expect him to be beating Bryson, Joaquin Neiman, John Rob, Tyrohat. He's not gonna be beating those guys, right? Like I think a good week for him would be middle of the pack, right? Like I think that would be an awesome week for Anthony Kim throughout the year. - I 100% agree. And that's why it's, you know, this is very cynical, but if part of the play for Liv is to get eyeballs on the product, you're never gonna have more interest than the first time out. You know, and so if you kind of burn that on an event that was on at 3 a.m. on the East Coast and, you know, midnight on the West Coast, and then he goes out and he plays like he did, it's, you know, if someone tells me there's gonna be a car crashed, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go try to watch a car crash. That's human nature. But if I wake up and it's like, hey, a car crashed, you know, do you wanna watch it again? Ah, I don't know, man. Maybe I'll see some highlights and just kind of keep it moving. But, you know, my interest factor definitely went down a lot after seeing him shoot 76 on Fridays. It was just like, that's just kind of where he's at right now. And I think that, you know, best case for him, who knows? I mean, you know, good on him if he kind of figures it out and starts playing a lot better. But best case right now, it does kind of feel like shooting right around, even par, finishing kind of middle of the pack, depending on the course difficulty. And not much better than that. And I just don't know how compelling of a draw that is for a league that is actively trying to pull audiences and get more eyeballs on it. So, you know, I don't know. I mean, he said, using his own word series, he said, I played like ass this week, but he said, look, I'm encouraged, by the way, I'm hitting the ball, and I just kind of need to improve on my focus on certain shots. And so not to compare, you know, career achievements or playing ability right now, but it kind of reminds me in some ways of where we're at with Tiger right now, where, you know, there's a talented player in there, but if you don't play a ton, you're just going to kind of lose some of your, not only your, your, you know, physical or technical edge, but you're going to lose some of that mental edge of, you know, you were down at the hero talking about some of the decisions that Tiger made down there, wondering if he would have made that if he was kind of fully engaged. So, so I mean, who knows? Like, we'll see where it goes from here with, with AK, and I hope he plays better for a lot of the reasons you listed of, you know, looking like he's been through a lot and just hoping for his own personal sake that he gets to a better place. Like, I thought it was really cool and uplifting hearing about the journey he's been on with his wife and his daughter and how important that is clearly to him. So, you know, let, let's hope it gets better for him, but, but you know, where we stood this week with him, you know, obviously may not start that he or Liv probably wanted. I will say for Liv's behalf that one major thing this week and that happened that was good for them and good for the future of their league was yet another win for Joaquin Neiman. And then subsequently this morning Joaquin received an invite to the PGA Championship. So, the only major in 24, 2024 that Joaquin is not in at this point is the U.S. Open. So, now, as I say that, I saw a video clip of, of, of, Joaquin with being interviewed after his win and he's asked about, you know, being the hottest player in the world right now. And, you know, does this kind of make him a favorite for the majors and walk, walko's retour was, how's that possible if I'm like 100 in the world right now? Which, I don't know. I mean, I just don't understand. It's like you're getting these invitations. It looks like they're going to continue to come. You know, I don't understand why you take that point to say that thing. But just your thoughts on Joaquin, you know, both winning, where he's out with his game right now and also getting that invite into the PGA Championship. - You know, Joaquin was one of the guys, Charlie. Like when he took the live offer and went, I was like, what is he doing? Because it just didn't make any sense not being eligible in the major championships, knowing that he was going to fall out because of the world ranking. And you would have thought that he would have continued to play on the PGA Tour to, if he wanted to eventually go, like, you know, get high enough in the world ranking or win a major. And then from there, you're like, okay, now I'm set. Now I can take my live offer, which what we've seen kind of being a qualification thing now is guys that win majors, their approach by live to try to basically sell their business to go to live. And he knew the decision and the risk of going to live is that he was not going to get points. And Joaquin is undeniably one of the top 10 most talented players in the world. And he's a young talent that, you know, when he won at the Genesis and Rive, a couple of years back, you're like, man, he's about to blow the brakes off of what we're going to look at over the next 10 years to be one of the next big names. And goes to live, plays okay for quite some time, starts to play better over the last six months to where he's now playing at a level where we kind of saw Victor Hoblin was trending to last year or heading into major championship season. You know, he's just got an invitation into the Masters, a special invite. He just got an invitation from the PGA Championship to play in Vahal in May. He's going to try to qualify for the US Open depending on his world ranking. But Charlie, I don't know, I don't understand the, I guess I understand their disappointment for not getting world ranking points as you and I both agree that the world ranking system is screwed up. Now, I don't see a benefit of complaining about, you know, already getting, excuse me, a Masters invite, a PGA Championship invite. And then it's like, can we not just be okay with getting the invites? Why do we need to continue to like, have a shouting matchup or something that you knew is going to be a problem going into live? - 100% agreed and I wonder, like, I wonder if, let's say, walk in doesn't get the Masters invite, or yeah, right? And let's say he goes out and he wins and this is what he says after. I wonder if that changes at all Augusta Nationals decision to invite him to the event. And maybe that's me projecting and, you know, assuming that Augusta National is going to be, you know, more petty than they absolutely are because they're very much the least petty in this sort of scenario as a governing body in a club that wants to have the best players in the world. And really they're about it when they talk about the world of like trying to grow the game in numerous places and make sure that, you know, walking Neiman as a South American playing globally is winning an event in Australia is represented in their field they put together. So, you know, maybe that's me projecting a little bit, but I just wonder, you know, it's similar to our reaction to Taylor Gucci's comments about the asterisk of, man, I don't think that gets you any closer to getting a masher is invite. Those are the types of things you're saying publicly. Now, maybe part of the debate to be had there is, you know, does the squeaky wheel get the grease? And for some of those guys, as much as we kind of roll our eyes at them reacting in this way to not getting world ranking points, you know, especially having known that that was going to be one of the conditions of them going is they weren't going to get world ranking points anytime soon, you know, but is this part of them saying, hey, we got to keep bringing this up if we're going to get world ranking points for our tour. And so maybe that's part of the calculus on their end, but it's just weird to me to, you know, have a guy who is standing there, who's just wanted another tournament on his tour, who is in the master's, who's in the Open Championship on the cusp of getting an invite from the PGA and he's worried about where he's at in the world rankings. You know, it's just, I don't know, it just was weird to me. - I imagine, you know, you got to thank Charlie. Like when, you know, when these guys are at dinner and breakfast and lunch and they have all these agents and they have all these executives that live, I'm sure that's a conversation that they probably have with each other daily. You know, this is something that the PGA Tour players aren't talking about, but I think it's something that when we see the videos like this, it's probably something that the broadcast team is talking about, the players are talking about constantly. And I think it just comes across the wrong way to, to, or non-fans of live or a PGA Tour player's like, you know what, like, we don't care, you know, who we don't care, but I think it's a bit of a play by the masters, you know, they've always been great about making sure, like, to get the best feeling, like you said, and growing the game with the drive, chip, and plot, but also being unique and who they invite as masters invite, special temporary and special temporary invites, special invites, special invites to the event. I mean, you've seen like Gordon Sargent last year and then, for instance, Joaquin Neiman this year, that's a South, that's a South, you know, Chile play there, you know, it's just getting different countries that are gonna be watching the telecast. So I'm, I don't know, I'm just kind of at this point where I would love to see the major championships reward good play, and Neiman has been a player that has deserved it. I think you can look at a guy like Louie Hughes-Tason that's played very well. Tabor Gooch has also played very well. I wonder with Tabor Gooch that if the majors start giving invites to young Americans, that to me is something that I think is something that won't happen because he is American. I really think it has a lot to do with that. - Yeah, I think, listen, if the masters could issue a special temporary invite to Taylor Gooch and say, here the conditions of this invite becoming not temporary is you cannot say anything about world rankings until this tournament commences that might work as a play for him. I think, I will, for all of the things I've said about Taylor Gooch in the past, however many weeks or just reacting to his comments, things like that. And we've said a lot of good things about the way he's played and to your point, he's on town alone and results alone, he probably deserves being these major fields, but of course some of the comments are a little bit absurd when you read them, take them a face value. I don't know if you saw this on Instagram 'cause this is like right in the middle of the Smiley Kaufman, like pop culture Venn diagram where there is Taylor Gooch, of course, the Taylor Gooch we're talking about right now, it spells his name T-A-L-O-R. There is a Taylor Gooch, T-A-Y-L-O-R, who is a big Swiftie, like he has like 25,000 followers on Instagram and he posts about Taylor Swift all the time and he posted a Instagram reel to say, "Hey guys, I just have to let you know." Like, please stop tweeting me about an asterisk on master's wins, like I don't know anything about this, like I'm here to talk about Taylor Swift, please leave me alone. And then our Taylor, our T-A-L-O-R Taylor reposted that and he was like, really appreciate the clarification and maybe if you could pass along some song titles to Taylor, like maybe something about the Ryder Cup atmosphere or a song called asterisk and so I was like, "You know what, Taylor?" Like, you've been the butt of a lot of jokes those last few weeks, like, well done, well played there, buddy. That was entertaining. So I had to pass that on to you as a Swiftie golf guy. Listen, listen, I know a lot of people probably get annoyed with the comments that Taylor has made, but Taylor was a good friend of mine on tour and somebody that I played a ton of golf with growing up, he's an incredible talent. I think he was a guy that was weird, you know, when the first rumors started coming out about who was going to live golf, there was, you know, Matt's home in Taylor Gucci were really close friends and I remember a quote from Matt's talking about the conversations that Taylor and him have together about who's going, who's not going and they both sounded clueless and didn't know anything about who was going and how much they were getting paid and then it was just, it was really weird to see Taylor go because it seemed like he was really out of the loop on it all, but if there's anybody that's made more money from the switch to Tim, he's become a, he's on track to being a dang billionaire everybody said. - Right, just on play alone, I mean, you know, Taylor and I guess now Joaquin Neiman, those have been the guys that have really been, you know, played the best, you know, in the last year plus on live. So, so yeah, so that's listen, that's our live recap of sorts this week, I'm sure that'll be more story lines of crop up as we get closer to these majors and invites are given or not given. - Real quick, Charlie, on live stuff. You know, as we kind of get to the masters for the people that are like trying to find spots of like when to buy a little, when to sell high on certain players and I've kind of felt like these live golf players have been under price and most of the stuff they play in. I don't think Ram is going to be under price, but I got like Bryson probably is going to be somebody that you can look at as a player that you could probably go grab now before he wins like in a bet leading up to the masters. Same goes for Brooks Kepka. It's kind of a good time if you like any of the live golf players to look at their odds right now and say, what would they be if they're on the PGA to work? Because I think that's one of the things about these odds boards sometimes. They don't accurately price these players because they just don't know what type of form they're in and I think they expect more of the betting public to bet more on the guys they watch every week. So that's just something, something of note. - I completely agree and man, a guy that his form has dipped since winning the 2022 Open Championship, but was knocking on the door at Augusta every single year, you know, prior to leaving for live was Cam Smith. And I just wonder, you know, he has, I mean, he even showed up last year and basically said, got a little complacent this offseason. My game's not where I want it to be. And maybe didn't have the best year, you know, both on live and in terms of playing in majors, but that's a guy where I just, he plays great at that place. And you just wonder if the stars are gonna align for him to eventually win another major, but win one as a member of live at Augusta National. - I'm selling on Cam Smith. I'm selling a little bit on, I've been selling a little bit on DJ. I'm not like kind of sold on him. I think he's a guy that does better when he's playing on the PGA Tour, just with competitive-wise. I think he stays more focused, honestly. But I'm not buying Cam Smith. I'm not, I'm much, obviously, I think it's easy to say that we're higher on Joaquin Neeman. But I don't know, I just, I think Cam Smith's a guy that hasn't necessarily looked apart since he's made the jump. - Yeah, it's a completely fair statement. You just wonder if and when he's gonna get it back. Well, I hate to wrap this segment for the section of the show for numerous reasons. But the reason I hate to wrap it the most is because the next thing I have on our rundown is one-and-done recap. - Woo, Lee, how'd you gotta do? - Boy, oh boy, man, I really lived out the life motto. If you ain't first, you're last this week because I went from picking Jake Knapp to win. Successfully, last week in the Mexico Open and then took Erik Cole to the tune of a seven-over miscut and zero FedEx Cup points. So not great, Bob. - Did he finish the last or no? - He did not. I think, I wanna say Tom's D-tree finished. - Oh, he, dude, his six-pot was electric, by the way. - Yeah, that was actually, that was good stuff. That reminded me of, wasn't it, it was Ernie Els. Was that the Masters? Which one was that? - First hole of the Masters. - Oh, and Danny Lee, too, Danny Lee. - Yeah, yes, yes, that was it. Those are the two, prior to this one, those were the two legendary, I don't know, I just forgot how to putt, and I'm just gonna hit this around the hole until it goes in eventually plays. But hey, Thomas D-tree, now on the list, sign him up. His thing is, he didn't even really see all that frustrated wall was happening. Like, Ernie was giving you emotion in the midst of missing five-sillion putts, whereas Thomas is just kind of like, I don't know what's happening here. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna play hockey until this goes in the cup. - You know, Ernie, like, kind of kept his composure, was marking, and they got to a point where like, he obviously was fighting some internal demons with the putting stroke, where Danny Lee was, he hit the eject button after like the first putt. It was like, it was nothing. Like, he never set up to another one. It was just bang, bang, bang, and it was a bit of a mess. - Yeah, those are, like, I hate to pile on a guy, but they're all, I mean, it's a place that we've all been before. So it's kind of like, it's a little bit cathartic, seeing a guy go through that, who is at the top of the professional game. So, yeah, that was, so that got Thomas to 11 over. I guess, listen, if Thomas would've two putt instead of six puttted, he would've finished a tied with Eric at seven over with a group of guys who finished DFL for the tournament. So I guess I thank you to Thomas for not completely making my one and done pick look atrocious, but it was pretty atrocious. - Okay, how many points did I get? - Well, so I didn't have updated FedEx Cup points at the time of publication or the time of this research. Like, I actually still, you were saying, you were like, FedEx Cup points is gonna be easier. And then I started looking at it, and I'm like, I don't know, maybe I'm just not navigating the site correctly, but let's see here. Can I get official, can I get event rankings here? I think Chris Kirk finished T28 at nine under. So... - I still got a long way to go to catch your 500 points. - Yeah, I think, okay, it looks like he maybe got like 26.5 points for that. - 26. - I believe is what it looks like. - He has 813 FedEx Cup points and his projected total is 839.5. So I think my, I'm documented as not being a math guy, but I think that's 26.5. So that gets you to, you have 80.6 six, or 80.67 points on the season, which is just a little bit behind my 500. - Key. - But, you know, another chance to make up some ground this week, Smiley. - Yeah, I know, and it's your pick. Is it your pick horse this week? - It is my pick first this week. I, man, I'm struggling with, I'm struggling with where I wanna go with this pick. I'm trying to figure if I wanna go, if I wanna burn a big name here, or if I wanna kind of go off the beaten path as has seemed to be the right play in these last few weeks, but I think where I'm gonna end up here is, I think I'm gonna go on the top end of the board with a guy who we heard from Trevor Imelman. This has to be his year. This is a designated event, or whatever we're calling it this year, a signature event. I'm gonna go with Sandra here. I think I'm gonna go with Sandra here. - Okay. - I don't know if you like that or not. It sounds like you don't like that, but I think I'm gonna use Sandra here. - I like it, I like it, I like it, it's a good pick. - I'm also gonna burn a big card as well. I'm taking Rory. - Wow, okay. So Rory, I believe it was this 2018 champion of this event. - Yeah. - So some past precedent here. Are there other guys you like at this course, this week for people who may not have, who have already burned those two names and they're one of Duns? - I have been thinking about this for a while. I loved your whole hat in here this week, even though he's not playing. I think you would have top 10. (laughing) - I love that you didn't even put it together. You're like, "Oh, it's a good pick, it's a good pick." - I had the odds up and I was like, "God, Lee, they don't have Tyrol anywhere near the top "of the board, what are they doing? "He plays Gary every time." Oh, that's right, he's not eligible to play. - That is great. - I couldn't love Tyrol hat more this week, although he's not playing. I'm gonna pencil them for a top 10. - Okay. - I think we're gonna see the first showing from Victor this year, you know? I really think it'll be his first event. It's like, okay, Victor's back. He's kind of rounding into form, heading into Augusta, played well here last year, played well at Sawgrass as well last year. I think you're gonna see a good week out of Victor. A little bit down the board. Like Harris English, a lot played well here last year. He actually, I think, finished in the top five, had some opportunities down the stretch. And yeah, who else you think? And I need to do a little bit more thought I'm in the car trying to think about the whole field. - You hit a lot of the big names. You know, if we're thinking about this from a one and done perspective, I don't wanna tip too much of where my picks are on the future weeks. But, you know, I'm looking at JT at 22 to one this week and saying, you know, he's due at some point, but do I wanna save him for the players since he's won there next week? You know, save him for somewhere later on the floor to swing. So that's a guy that I kind of just, you know, had in mind, I think kind of scrolling further down the list of odds here. Shane Lowery is another guy that I just can't get past the fact right here on the podcast. He talks about how much he loves this stretch of golf, even though it's tough golf. And obviously disappointed with the way he finished in his final round at the Cognizant Classic, but a guy that, you know, and maybe this is a less of a one and done play and more of an outright betting play because he's got a great upside of plus 10,000 101 odds, a guy that, you know, maybe could play well this week. Maybe that's a guy you take for a top 20 or something like that. But, I mean, those guys, and I just feel like JT posting, it's got to pop at some point. Like, I just feel like he's trending in the right direction. So those are the three that came to mind for me. I don't know how, you know, where your heads out on Justin Thomas, Shane Lowery and JT Post have any of those guys for you feel like good fits here? Yeah, no, I like all those picks. I have three other ones that I think I would go just in a different direction. I'll go, I'll go with Jordan. So, Jordan or JT, I like them both this week. If Keith Mitchell was in the field, which I know he was like right on the fence of being in with like the A on swing five or like a sponsors invite, I like him this week. I think he's trending in the right direction with the top five this week. He's kind of that time of year where he starts to play well. If he's in the field and then dude, I think Austin Eckrott's gonna have an amazing week. I really think he's gonna keep it going. I just was too impressed with how well he was playing. I think the golf course should fit his game really well. I think it'll be, you know, the way he's hitting the golf ball is what you got to do while at Bay Hill. And, you know, who says that he can't win at Bay Hill? I wouldn't be surprised if he won at the end of the week. - Yeah, it's one of those things where you just never know how a guy's gonna react coming off his first win. And I will be honest in saying that I did not know how I was gonna go for Jake Knapp this week. And then he came out and put in an amazing shift, you know, to keep that momentum going. And so, would be cool to see Austin do that, do a similar thing, win and then come back and stamp it with another good showing at the API. So, that's what we got for one of them. Hopefully we do a little bit better. I guess I'm mainly speaking for myself. I'm really hoping I have a bounce back week after the big bagel with Eric Coldus last week. But I guess that's really it for golf related topics. Where we need to head next to wrap this thing up is, you got a hot date tomorrow at The Magic Kingdom with Fran and Anna Carter. And I just wondering where are our heads at, heading into that. And if there are any like hot tips, do you want to solicit from our audience just to how to make that work best? - I think it's just surviving in advance, right? Like I just see the, it just, you know, I'm can't wait to get my big fried chicken turkey leg and get the Mickey mini ice cream little thing. Excited about Eric Carter doing like Dumbo. She can finally do like five or six rides. I think she's going to have a lot of fun. I know, I know Fran is he's excited. I'm excited to see him this afternoon. They just got down to Orlando. So yeah, man, first time taking the kid out of dizzy. It's like, wow, bikes come at you fast, right? - That is definitely a life come at you fast sort of situation. I was actually this last Saturday. I went to a Carolina basketball game with three of my good friends. We're all the same age. Like kind of mid 30s with our, you know, one to two year old sons. And I can't tell you how many people came up to us and like, are you all insane? Like what are you guys going to get a sitter or, you know, you're just, you guys are just solo dadding. And like, yeah, man, this is just, this is where we're at in life. And I can remember when we were here, you know, how many 15 years ago, you know, leaving the fraternity house to come to the game. And it was a very, very different scene then. But it is fun to have these, these sort of chapters in life like you're about to have going to Disney World with Anna Carter and just like, wow, this is, this is where we're at. And can be more excited about it. And listen, Godspeed to you, buddy. Are you going to try to, you know, grab some, grab some drinks at Epcot Center or what are we going to do for you on this park visit? - No, it's, it's, I'm just doing Magic Kingdom with them. I'm not doing any other parks. But man, yeah, like you, kind of what you were saying about going to that game or North Carolina games. That's just a different type of buzz, you know, you got some two different, two totally different buzzes, state of life, but all good things, you know, it's been, as you know, it's, it's fun watching, watching your kid grow up. And I think, especially when you watch your friends, kids being a similar age as well, it's just kind of like, wow, we're on just different schedules now. - Nothing, I, we got to the end of the day. And we started, went to this like little tailgate thing. And it was, you know, my, my son was playing catch with my, my buddy's son with a stuffed football, you know, like really full, full circle tailgate stuff. And then we were in the game and we were standing up with the crowd and he was locked in the game the entire time. And then we came home and, you know, got a little, got a little something to eat on the way home and we were just sitting there before his bedtime and I was like, man, I'm so proud of you, buddy. And it is really, I mean, at the risk of being a little bit sappy and corny, you get to these different places in life and you're like, this is, this is the greatest feeling in the world. Like all the fun that I was having when I was, you know, drinking with my buddies and going to these games, like I wouldn't trade any, I wouldn't trade this for any of that. It's just, it's just, it's really cool being a dad. And, you know, as you well know, and, you know, just time, time changes, things, you know, life changes a little bit and you move on to the next thing that's maybe more fulfilling than the thing you used to do. So I, I, and by the way, most, really, the thing I should, I should have led with is Walker is now seven and O at Carolina football basketball games. An unprecedented hot start for the kiddo. So you guys, guys, guys that know the North Carolina loses football or basketball games. You just, she's never seen it. - Wow, that is, we're gonna keep that standard before. - Yes, we most certainly will. Well, hey, anyone out there that wants to send Smiley some Magic Kingdom tips, get him in, get him in today before he heads tomorrow. And then on Wednesday, we are, we're pumped to be able to drop a conversation with Chad Mum, the head, the executive producer, the guy that put the entire Netflix full swing series together along with his team. That, of course, premieres on a Wednesday, March 6th. So we had a great chat with him sort of previewing those storylines. So yeah, come back here on Wednesday, listen to that conversation to get you ready to binge that entire season of, you know, new storylines and continued storylines. It was, we both watched it, the advanced screener and it was, it was really, really cool stuff, really a cool inside look at the tour this last year. And also has like applications on things that are happening now. It's interesting to look back and reflect on where we were and how much has changed even since then. So excited to do that on Wednesday and appreciate you watching and listening. And hopefully we'll be back here next week with Smiley in front of a computer and not on the road. So no other delays. Let's, let's hold out for it. Thanks for watching, listening. And we will, we will talk to you back here soon. The Smiley Show is part of the SiriusXM sports podcast network. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please give a five star rating and leave a review. Subscribe today wherever you stream your podcast. (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]