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A limited number of ETFs are subject to a transaction-based service fee at $100. You can see full list at Fidelity.com/commissions. Fidelity broker services LLC, member NYSE SIPC. [MUSIC PLAYING] [INTERPOSING VOICES] Smiley Kaufman for $61. Wow. I'm Smiley Kaufman, and this is The Smiley Show. Welcome back to another episode of The Smiley Show. I'm Charlie Hume. He is, of course, Smiley Kaufman, who is just back from a little event at Troubadour National. We're going to dig into later in the episode. Smiley, give us some opening thoughts. Let's break tradition here. How you doing? Good, man. Had a great weekend. Actually, weekend would be super chill. The event was on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The pictures? Pictures. I don't know if the pictures were super chill, but they were so-- That's what I was getting to. The weekend here in Birmingham is super chill because of how much fun Nashville was. I mean, just the best time for the Justin Thomas Foundation event that he put on at Troubadour. So I mean, for those that have been there, they know how great of a place Troubadour is and just had such a group of guys that showed up, played some golf, actually didn't play too bad. But yeah, I can give you the full rundown if you want to get right into it. Well, here's what I was going to say. First of all, love to hear that you're playing well, because you and I are headed off to Tobacco Road in a few days here to shoot our first piece of fall golf content for our YouTube that we're thrilled about. So that bodes well for us putting a good score together as we kind of get back into the swing of things. Our first on course shoots is Pebble Beach back in February, whenever that was, beginning of the year. We got a ton of golf for a fall weekend. We had a wild finish at the Irish Open, heartbreak for Rory McElroy, once again. We have Team USA reclaiming the Solheim Cup, a thriller of a finish there as well. We have Pat Gazire, just won the pro-court championship, a huge turnaround from where he ended up last fall in a 2023 outside of top 25, so super cool for him. And also a bunch of Presidents Cup guys to talk about who played in this field as well as it kind of tuned up for that competition. We've got the Liv Chicago individual championship, John Ram winning their implications for who's staying, who's going next season. We have, of course, the aforementioned Justin Thomas Foundation in a troubadour. We have a TikTok I saw of James Addiction getting into a fight on the stage. And we have the North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback situation. So for the first time on The Smiley Show, we were gonna spin the wheel, the rundown wheel. We're gonna see where it lands, okay? So here we go. Let's go. What do you know, land it on UNC quarterback situation. I don't control these things, it lands where it lands, so we just gotta run with this. Smiley, do you have any thoughts on North Carolina's quarterback situation before I dive in? - Well, I saw the Max Johnson's gonna be returning for 2025, so I got really excited for you in that regard. But yeah, no, nothing to say, 'cause I don't know who the quarterbacks are. - We have a quarterback, Smiley. We have a QB one. We played North Carolina Central, don't look up what conference they're in or what their win-loss record is. Just know that it's a very tough regional game, a lot of passion on the line. Jacobi Criswell, he's back in the saddle. Did you say Criswell or Cris for sure? - It's a Criswell guy. - Yeah, Jacobi Criswell. Narrowly lost the quarterback competition to Drake May, transferred to Arkansas, had maybe he transferred back and he was the third stringer coming out of camp and had maybe the best excuse of all time. This is a quote from him. He said, "Criswell said he lost 15 pounds since returning to UNC and that he's willing to lose more if the team needs him to." He said he had to gain weight to play in Arkansas's offense. So he'd begin the process of shedding that weight after coming back to North Carolina. I also had to gain a lot of weight just in case Arkansas needed me to chip in for their offense. So same page there, Jacobi, but he came in. We had a rough start to the game. I'm not writing off Connor Harold, but wasn't what we wanted to see in the absence of Max Johnson. Jacobi was running the offense. He was looking good out there. So I think at this point, Smiley, it's CFP or Bus. I think we're in the playoff. Dude, you're going to be in the Mayo Bowl. And it's like, I need to get this. You're going to be probably playing South Carolina again. It's going to be a rematch every year with your honest, South Carolina. Mayo Bowl. Mayo Bowl. It's, you know, I love Duke's Mayo. I love the occasional visit to Charlotte. Please for the love of God. Can we play in just a different bowl? Just I just, I'm done with Mayo and the Bank of America Stadium. I really, I really would love to avoid that fate. What are your boys? Yeah, how about your boys? Listen, being an LSU fan, you go, you have tons of highs and lows with any sport that you follow with LSU. In this, in this game, you get South Carolina was probably the most highs and lows of any LSU game that I've experienced outside of any big game where you already have that heightened sense of just the swings, right? And it was just, it was wild. I can't believe we won. We definitely had some calls to go our way for sure, but I thought the refs were just atrocious in general. But it's hard to win on the road. So good, good for our guys not to be in that conversation with Florida, Florida State is just, just full, like hit the panic button. So what's funny? It's funny that like winning can be contagious. And I think we got two way ups coming up with UCLA in South Alabama. I'm hoping that heading into a bio, we can somehow get a team together to go and try to beat Ole Miss and Hall, which hopefully I'll be there for. Dude, what is happening to Florida State? You know, they just hit their season win total under in the fall. Is they really in week three, week three, oh and three? I just, I can't fathom that, I guess I need to watch more of their games. Maybe I don't because it sounds brutal, but like is DJ you this bad? What, I can't fathom, I can't believe this played Memphis. Like, was that scheduled after Norville? What do you think went to, surely it was? No, no, no, 'cause Norville's in his like fourth or fifth year at this point. Sometimes this thing gets scheduled way in advance, right? Like it could be eight to nine years, right? Where these games are scheduled way out. But is Memphis at home really that tough of a game? Like are we so, I'm just saying, I just think it's interesting that like Norville lost to the team that he left. And I didn't know that Memphis said, you know what? Maybe when the contract thing was going up, they said, you know what, you can go, but you have to play us in X-year. Could be? I don't know. Yeah, VCU is that way with Will Wade when he left to get LSU. But so if maybe if Norville was under contract with Memphis into the job, that could have been a caveat. They're past panic button. They're just like, they're restart the game button. Like just get me out of here. I just, I need to not be playing football anymore. That's a real shocker. But listen, that's actually, here's my nice little segues. Because you know, college football tailgating, by the way, I made your snacks again this weekend. Made the Southern Shark cutery. Did you make the right way? I used the remainder of what I had left over. So it's the wrong way, the wrong way. But everyone loved them. This is going to be my new like go to, I need like a go to tailgate move. I didn't really have one other than just kind of bringing, you know, happy to add seltzers in a cooler. Like that's pretty generic as far as that goes. Other guys, grilling stuff, bringing, you know, chicken fingers, whatever. So this is my go to thing now. I'm the Southern Shark cutery guy. And my buddy, Rob Christensen, tells me he's got a place, he's got a Publix, I'm actually risking at this point of putting too many people on this. We're going to beat me to get the Kanekka. He's like, there's a Publix and Kerry. You got a call ahead. The Kanekka sells out less than 24 hours. See, that's what I'm telling you, man. Is that Kanekka? It's crazy. It's like good. It's apparently it's like the highest demand thing that they carry. I didn't know anything about it before. So he said, next time we're going to do it, where he's going to bring the grill, we're going to grill the Kanekka, take it right off the grill, slice it up, go hot Kanekka on the, if you have no idea what we're talking about, this was towards the end of Smiley's mailbag last week. We also post on our social media of a tail, Smiley's favorite tailgate snack that's like a cracker, pimento cheese, Kanekka sausage, which I'm told, Smiley's told us is an Alabama delicacy and then a wickel on top. And it is so good. Try it out, try it out. So anyway, I got lost in the mailbag there a little bit, but the place I was trying to take us was-- - You got lost in the wickel jar there, buddy. - I got lost in the wickel jar. I got lost in Kanekka land. I was attempting to take us from there to your weekend in Nashville, because that felt like college football, tailgate-esque type of fun. And I, for one, I got one picture that I'm not going to scribe, I'll let you describe everything that happened this weekend, but that was enough for me to know that I needed to know about this weekend. - Oh yeah, I got rid of it when I said two minutes. (laughs) - I got a great pick on Friday morning, but yeah, just dial me in here on, dial me in here on the weekend in Nashville at Troubadour for JT's foundation. - The week, end of the week. - End of the week. - End of the week in Nashville. So we leave Wednesday morning and get there, I'd say just after lunch, and we had golf schedule that afternoon, had no idea who I was going to be playing with. Called one of my buddies who's good friends with Justin Thomas, played golf with him in Alabama, Willie Sowers, lives in Nashville, and he used to work for Discovery Land, so he was the guy to be like, "Hey, you want to go play?" And luckily, he was like, "Yeah, let's go do it." So Willie and I meet out there. So I show up, I have lunch with Sam Burns and his wife and then Franti and I, and then Jill, Justin's wife. So we all have lunch. There was a big group of like eight guys out there playing on the golf course, and that's where Willie went straight to go out to play with that group, which was like Luke Bryan, was in that group, I think. And a bunch of other people too, but eventually, we texted Willie, he was like, "We're teeing off at two o'clock, come on." And so we had nine. Nine guys at two o'clock, and it was Sam and I, and it was Willie and his brother Doug, and Doug and I rode in the same cart, and we had, let's see, one of Sam's buddies Walker, we had Mike Thomas playing, which was great. Then we had Victor Havelin there out of nowhere. He was getting worked on with Joe Mayo. So Victor's there, and so. - Is he there in a foundation capacity? - No, he was just there, he was just there getting worked on with Joe Mayo. Like he showed up on the tee right as, like there's 15 golf carts on this first tee, and Victor shows up, I'm like, "Vent, come on buddy, let's go tee it up." And so Victor's now playing, and Morgan Wallman's playing. So like, I mean, we just have this like great crew with, and then, and Cole Swindell. So we gotta have like two country guys going at each other, right? - Yeah. - So what we decided to do, 'cause the first hole, we're like, okay, five V4 scramble with one ball, and then we realized, okay, we're gonna party every single hole doing this, and not everybody's gonna get to play. So we decided to do, pick your best two golf balls, and then you can assign three to, so the five-man team could assign three to one of those golf balls on two to the other, or the four-man team, which was me, Victor, Mike Thomas, and Willie Sauer's brother, Doug. So it was us four versus the other five, and we had a great match. Actually, we played automatic one downs. So it was, I mean, it was, luckily it got, we had five bets at the end. Somehow we ended up scratch. I was a scorecard guy, so like, I'm a big, like, call it even at the end anyway, so I was the perfect, keeping the scorecard guy for this situation. But just had a great time playing golf on that day. At one point, I think this was the highlight of that day, right? So any time you get like a country music station going, like on Spotify, and once you get past like your songs that maybe you'd already clicked, it just basically goes into a Morgan Wallen playlist. And so at one point, you know, you got all the cards, like in their, you know, you got kind of golf carts everywhere in the fairways, right? 'Cause you got four different golf balls you're playing, and Doug looked at me, he's like, I think I just, I think I hear five different cards playing a different Morgan Wallen song right now. - And Morgan Wallen's in one of those cards. - And he's in one of those cards. It's like, this is hilarious. And by the way, I gotta give a shout out to Wallen. His game has gotten much better. Since the last time I played with him. - What's, what's he, like his handicap roughly, like if you had a guess. - We played him as a 10. - Okay. - So he could get it around. - And this was just the front nine. So this is the front nine. And now we go to the back where I would say, like so the back nine, it was golden Tate showed up on the night toll, and he joined us on the back. So it was golden, it was golden, and cold. Cold, cold window and golden, and Wallen and I. And I believe, I think Cole and I played golden and Morgan. That's right. That sounds right. - Okay. - And we we whooped up on them. And then Ricky showed up. So now Ricky Fowers here on. - Sure. - The same time that Cole Swindell leaves. So now we get a new game. So Ricky was. - Is this still a back now? - This is like the middle of the back. - This is like the 15th hole. - Okay, all right. - So now we're on 15. - Cole leaves Ricky's in on the 15th. Got it, okay. That little four hole bet, myself and Swindell won. And then Cole leaves. So now Ricky and I can't be on the same team. So we have to, we flip T's for partners then. And I believe it was golden and I played Morgan and Ricky, which we won. - So great day at the office for you. - Yeah. - Just clean it up. - I played well, I could not believe it. I had all the, all the bad thoughts heading on that three hour drive up to Nashville. And just really, with Joe Mayo behind all these people on these T boxes and I really brought my stuff. I was surprised, surprised myself. - What was driving accuracy good? Like where we? - I went back like that night and I was telling Fran and I was like, I don't think I missed a fairway. So. - Hold on a second. - I drove it great, dude. I didn't miss a fairway, I don't think. - That's it. - Like if we're, if we have no Hi-Oz, I didn't know where they were. - I didn't know where they were there. - I did not know how I wanted to, but the next morning and we go out. So Wednesday night was chill, Thursday morning, we push it up 'cause of the hurricane. And so Thursday morning we go out. - And is this the official foundation? - This is the official foundation of that. - God, okay. - I'll give you the guys that were, that were playing, let's see. - It was, I got it right here. Here we go. It was, Fran, you just sent me a picture of everybody. - I mean, do you want me to, do you want me to read the names on the picture? I'm looking at it right now that you texted me? - Yeah, go ahead. - 'Cause I got, I got, I'm looking at it. Nick Dunlap, Scotty Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Tom Kim, Smiley Kaufman, Sam Burns, Ricky Fowler and Jason Duffner. That's a, that's a good looking photo right there. - And the other celebrities that played in the deal that day were Cole Swindell and Kane Brown. - Okay. - He was a guy. - Yeah, yeah. - He was, I don't think I'm missing another guy, but that was the group. And basically it was just a typical prime. You played nine holes with one group, played nine holes with another group. The funny part about just the golf that day in general was I show up kind of weight to my tee on like number 12. And you know, when you show up after a day where you just hit everything great and then you have this kind of sketchy range session, then you start to wonder, what happened yesterday? How did I kind of piece this thing together and am I ready for Pro Am Golf? Like am I ready to be the pro? And I get up there, all the guys have already hit and just, it was the first, it wasn't a high-up but it definitely was one that was caught near the heel and was heading that way. Get to the next par three. And I'm like, okay, surely like that was just a fluke. And then I high-aw seven-armed, like just a similar type shot just happened to be with the seven-armed. And so I get to the next tee. And like my group's a little quiet at this point, they're like, holy crap, this guy's totally doesn't have it right now. (laughing) Get to this par five and all the trouble's right. And I get up there and hit driver down the right side of the fairway and hit two iron, like trouble all left and hit it on this like platform to green. And I was like, okay, we're good. And I played good the rest of the way. - Just need to get it settled down a little bit. That's, you know, that's how that won't go sometimes. Good for you. 'Cause I mean, a lesser moral would have just like melted down and I'm like, okay, let's back it in. Let's hit a lot of two irons on the tee the rest of the day. - Yeah, so the moral, why are we talking about the pro? I'm like, why does anybody care? And it's, and the reason why you should care is that I was a part of a winning pro M team. Tom Kim was the other pro. And it was funny that they had two teams that were tied. It was Tom and I versus, I don't know who the other two pros were. Fact of the matter was they couldn't figure out how to decide the playoff. So what they ultimately decided to do was to pick one person from each team to do flip cup. So I was like, guys, guys, you can't have me do this, right? Because it's not fair. So you gotta make sure you get an am to do this, but I'm happy to explain to everybody in the crowd or the players that are going how it should be done. So of course I get up there to do my spiel. Unfortunately didn't do a one flipper. I think it was like a three or four. So honestly, that's a tough scene. If you're gonna go up there and be like the frat guy, it's like, oh, I played last weekend, which I haven't played in three years, but got up there and thought I'd be able to handle that challenge and unfortunately didn't like three or four. But my guy won and they go through the trophy presentation and they're like, and for the pros, Tom Kim and Smiley Kaufman, you win a 12 year old bottle of Pappy. And I was like, oh, okay. Well, this was worth the trip. And in these pictures, which I love these so much, like Tom Kim is holding this bottle of Pappy like it's the claret junk. Like he is elated to a wholeness in all his pictures. Everybody was so mad 'cause I'm like 99% sure Tom Kim doesn't drink. So all the guys that are better just like, this is ridiculous. Good paper. You do not go sell this. So is it correct? Is the last time that you have played Flip Cup against Sydney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins? Yeah, that's the last time I played Flip Cup. It's amazing. So you're just a high stakes Flip Cup guy. Yeah. Well, I mean, technically like I didn't, I would just maybe I just rise to the occasion when shorts are on. And I feel like that would have been the case. But anyways, so the-- It sounds like an amazing weekend. Do the program, it keeps getting better. Just sounds incredible. We're not to the good part. So we have more, there's more. Oh yeah, we're not to the good part. Okay, so please. So we go to a place called Chiefs. Eric Church's place, big bars, like a six story deal. That's where the whole foundation event was. We do this Q&A on stage, which was incredible. Jason Kennedy did the Q&A. We had all of the golfers up on stage. And unfortunately, there was one seat that was like a stool. And then that's where, like I was the last guy on the stage. It was like, of course guys, like the players sit here and anyways, I'm on this little small stool. And the highlights from that Q&A, Jason Duffer was sitting right next to Nick Dunlap. And Nick the entire time, it was funny because the question that Jason asked to whoever-- I can't remember who he even asked it to-- was like, how have your significant others had an impact on your career and how you're able to handle things on and off the course? And somehow it turned into Duffer asking Nick how long he's been dating his girlfriend. And are you going to get engaged this weekend in front of like 1,000 people, right? Was she there? Like, yeah, oh yeah, she's in the crowd. Oh, you love you. Like Nick is just like, beat red. And he's just like, dude, not right now. And Scotty's all weekend, too, was-- I mean, because Nick is 20, right? Like, he's not even 21. So we want him to get these big axes on his hand. And we're all like trying to make sure that everybody knows, like, hey, y'all need to take a look at this guy. Like, he's not 21, you know? So that was a big, that was a big, funny moment the entire weekend was with Nick at the bar. Like, I just thought Dopner just-- He's so good. He should be a comedian. The guy is the funniest man, driest, like humor ever. Just so, so funny. And he was a star of that Kistor story at Zurich. I mean, that just cracks me up. It just went up. Well, it was Kiz and Brown, the one group. He's a part of the entire time. What are you going to do now? That's tough, man. He was so funny. So we get back home, right? So we have a good time, right? I think we leave like 10 p.m. Everybody gets back on the bus. Of course, I got the music going. So everybody has a good time. We come back, you know, play a couple drinking games here and there, you know, nothing out of the ordinary. What are we playing? Not Flip Cup. We'll just keep it up to your imagination. That's fine, that's fine, that's fine. And all you need to know is that after all the events, you know, guys that are up just still just hanging out, Golden Tate and I decided to go and play Pickleball very late in the evening against Sam Burns and Scotty Sheffler. If we played for two hours. OK, all right. Amazing. So same team scene entire time. So Golden is really, really good at Pickleball. He has like his own Pickleball paddle coming out. We talked about this like on the course, like going, we need to play Pickleball. So it was kind of like a seed was planted. And I think Golden like just kept bringing it up. Like let's go play Pickleball, let's go play Pickleball. And so eventually it was just, there were four guys left and like, OK, let's go play Pickleball. And Scotty and Sam were like psychotic competitors, right? Like I would say got him more so than like at that point, like Sam and I just picture us as the two guys that just wanted to fake injuries. Like we just wanted to go down and just say, ah, cramp, you know, just something to get us out of having to exercise because we were we were both pretty tired. You know, he's obviously got a four month old who's hadn't been sleeping as well that week. So he's already kind of tired. But what when I went up here and played because this hurricane is like still kind of like the remnants are still there. So we got a 25 mile an hour, 30 mile an hour crosswind off of the left and playing Pickleball and probably played seven games and this is like this is in a night now, right? Like we're talking about like our life. We had golf carts on the court lighting up the court. Like this is late. Wait, late late late. We played two hours pickleball and a 25 mile for our hurricane. Yeah, it's amazing. It's just amazing. And so we get, you know, we get to play in Pickleball and you know, I have a good serve. And that was something that like I was able to hang on to for a bit. And then I really started to struggle with just getting returns back and it was it was just mainly because the ball was moving so much. I I had started to realize that that Scotty may be the best pickleball player on tour and and potentially good enough to turn pro. And I don't I don't say that lightly because he's the best pickleball player I've ever played against. And after after Sam and I bowed out because we played however many games and I don't know who I would say that it was fairly even between the games. Maybe maybe once maybe they won one more. Maybe we won one more. I'm not really sure because it was much more of a gambling deal than it was a like a series deal. It was like, hey, we're playing this game for us. So that was that was much more of the pickleball. And then Sam and I stopped playing in the golden Scotty played and hopefully we get golden on on the pot here. Pretty soon. I'll let him. I'll let him tell this the story of of them to play because I don't want to give away the good stuff. Are you do you hit the serve in the air or do you let it bounce off the ground and hit it? It hit in the air. Do you hit it off the ground? Apparently you can do that. You can bounce it and not the ground. Yeah, hit on the air. No, you got hit out of the air. Okay. All right. This is always kind of like that was like kind of a question. You know, like first time you, you know, you just picked up the game of golf and you said, what time we shooting today? Like that was kind of like your pickleball. Like what time we shoot today? Like you get some, you get some guys out there that'll do the little, the little, I mean, I'm not getting up to pick a ball. I played, you know, like these social leagues in our club and we tried to play a league locally here and quickly realized like we were way out of our depth. So I'm not like a pickleball harder. I'm just curious. I want to, you know, unpack the mechanics of your serve and see how you're getting on against these boys. But Scotty being incredible pickleball doesn't shock me. He's probably, I mean, I'd be hard pressed to, what sport is he not better than everyone else on tour? Dude, it basketballs like he's out there hooping. The whole drive home, I just kept thinking to myself. It's like, all right. So like I know Scotty's really good at golf and he's the best in the planet at it. But I think I know why. And it was just how good of an athlete it is. Like the touch that he had on this court, like it's the same touch that he has with his wedges, how competitive he is and then the, how he mentally had me in a, in a blender in this game. I got him just like just the mind games of like balls being in or out. Just like, I was like, I had enough of these bad calls 'cause Sam like, I got, we got Sam and I got in the cart after we played. I was like, Sam, like if it was close, were you calling it in or calling out? I was like, oh, I was calling it everything out. I was like, Sam, what the hell, man? (both laughing) And it just was, it was very competitive. And then once like, once the competitive juice ran out of me, I was like, can we just, can we just fake injuries? - This is amazing. And then golden and Scotty just continue to play pickleball. - Yeah, they played a couple more games, Sam and I watch and then we go home, slept a fair amount of hours, not many and then, yeah, drove home and Ben just kind of taken it easy this weekend. - Yeah, nice and light. - One would hope, golly, that's amazing. I really, we really need to get golden on. I want the full unpack on this. I wish we had footage of this, like the video Scotty floating around, playing pick up basketball in the Pine Valley shirt. Like this could do numbers on the internet. If we only have the content available. - We do have, we do have videos, but you will not see them. (both laughing) - That's fair enough, that's fair enough. We'll just leave the rest of the imagination. We'll, dang, okay, that's an amazing week, heading into the weekend. ⪠You spent a over here ⪠- Now at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible trade-ins. All on America's largest 5G network. - Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account. $5 more per line without auto pay, plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phone to be a 24-monthly bill credits for well-qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire accounts to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement too. Bill credits end if you pay off devices early. ctmobile.com. - Hey Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month? - With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. - Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. - You got this. - Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? - You will find them, where you left them. - Investing involves risk including risk of loss. Fidelity brokerage services LLC member NYSE SIPC. - And I hope we're feeling a little better now. I hope we got some sleep. - Oh yeah, yeah. - Yeah, shout out to Justin and Jill and his entire family and team, just put on a tremendous event, you know, Eric Church and Cole Swindell played at the concert that night to do a treat to get front row seats for that. And just to get to hang with such a cool group of guys was a lot of fun. - That is exceptional. All right, so we're gonna work on Golden. We're gonna get the full Scotty Pickle Report. We'll paint a vivid picture. Okay, I'm not gonna use the wheel this time round. I'm gonna let you decide where we wanna go next. You wanna do... - I mean, I watched the Irish Open today, so I kinda wanna go there. - Let's play, 'cause that, okay, let's just start with this and Irish Open before we get to the finish, 'cause the finish was unreal. But how amazing is it seeing Royal County down on television? I know it doesn't like fully do it justice, but just seeing a professional event at Royal County down is just, I love that so much. - It's incredible, right? I just try to think about, I think a lot of people love watching the masters because of the visuals and just that late light at the end of the day, watching guys come down the stretch and just think to yourself, man, I would love to stand on these grounds and just have an opportunity to see and what this place really looks like in person. And I got all of those feels watching Royal County down. I just pictured myself being there wanting to play this golf course. And it's number one on my list of golf courses that I wanna play, and for all of you that are listening, we're watching that have played. Yeah, please tell me how great it was and how jealous I should be of you, because it really did look incredible. Some of the images I saw this week of Rory playing, you know, very, very close to home. I grew up in an hour away, according to what they said on the coverage. So yeah, just had a blast watching it. - We talk a lot on the show about just the realities of professional golf. There's of course the pie in the sky scenario where we get to play all the places we want to and money's not an object. And then there are, of course, certain reasons why we have to go to certain places, not necessarily that they're bad venues, just that they are, you know, there's money behind it, there's sponsorship interests, there are things like that that necessitate certain tournaments being in certain places and certain venues being used. I think it's so cool when you have an opportunity to go to a place like Royal County down, where it feels like none of that's attached. It's just a pure form of golf. It's just a place that is, you know, understand why we can't do it every single time, but this venue is exceptional. And this finish was exceptional today. I mean, I can't believe yet again, we're looking at a Rory McElroy national open heartbreak, but Rasmus Hoigard finishes birdie, birdie, birdie to get this thing one. And on the other hand, Rory goes bogey, birdie, bogey, and narrowly misses an eagle putt, makes birdie misses a playoff by shot. So we were watching this text together. I mean, I just, the three putt for me on 17th Rory, I just, I don't know how that happens like that. - Well, gosh, let's just kind of take in just, can we compare this to anything else? Like does it feel like the US Open? Does it feel like the Open Championship in St. Andrews? And just kind of compare, you know, what was today like as far as like closing a golf tournament? And was it as excruciating as some of those felt like they were? And today it just felt like to me, you know, when he had a two shot lead with six holes to go, and you look down the board and you're starting to think yourself, it's like, man, I just don't see a world in which Rory doesn't win this golf tournament. And, you know, the Open Championship at St. Andrews, I would say that, you know, the potter, you know, he just wasn't hitting it close enough, and then the potter just went cold on him. And when we talk about the US Open, you know, even speaking with Rory after, it seemed like he got a little caught up too much in the moment, lost focus on 16, and they got too much into what Bryson was doing, and just kind of threw him a little bit out of rhythm. And with this one, you know, when I talk about how hard it is to win golf tournaments, now when you're in a situation with a two shot lead, it just seemed like so much had to go wrong if in less Rory played poorly. And in this position, I would say that he missed two shots, right, like the 15th hole, he had a second shot there that I felt like he had plenty of room to the left. I know miss shots happened, but it just seemed like that was the one place that you couldn't hit it. Ends up making a bogey there. It seemed like that was an avoidable bogey. So there's one shot, 16 hits an incredible three went on that par four, drivable, and puts himself in a great position to make a birdie, and then goes to 17 where that second shot was given guys problems the entire day, and this is where I'll bring in rasmus, right? So he was having a day in which everything was going right. Everything was going right. You know, the stuff that happens to guys on like Thursday morning, starting the tournament, they shoot 64, and everything went right. His happened to be on a Sunday afternoon within a couple of shots of the lead. And where it really was, it was on the 14th hole for rasmus. On the same, on the same hole where Rory flags an iron shot comes up like 25 feet short on this par three 14th hole, rasmus pushes it right into, I would call their primary rough, bounces out of it and inside of 10 feet makes a birdie, and then now gets to 16, makes a birdie on that hole. So like you got a little bit of a lucky bounce and a fortunate break. And so now he's getting, you know, he's in that position now where he's got an opportunity to win. Can you put the pressure on and post the score? Gets up and down out of the bunker on 16. 17 hits a very poor shot into the left bunker that seemed like Hoigard said later. He said, I thought it was going to plug. I get up there, it was on enough of an up slope and hits just the most darling bunker shot you've ever seen. Goes in the middle of the flag stick. I took a screenshot and you could even see the ball from behind the view of the bunker, because this ball is literally in the middle of the stick. And so that was, that was, it turned out that to be the difference in the golf tournament, right? So Rory plays I think the 17th hole, the smart way. You know, this pin is tucked back in this small, small, narrow area. And it really takes a shot that if you're going to get it back there, you got to be very brave because, you know, missing in that left bunker, most of the time is bogey. So you got to play short. So the difference is, is Hoigard gets it in this bunker, finds an okay lie, makes birdie, and then Rory from 30 feet, puts it off the green, misses an eight footer, and now has to make an ego on 18, which it was a valiant effort. I mean, to drive it in that small small area like he did, hits an eight iron up there into that front left hole in case it was so hard to get it close and gives himself an opportunity to make a putt, hit a good putt. And, and you just leave yourself like, I can't imagine when Rory saw what Hoigard did on how he made his birdies. He's just got to think to himself, you know what, yes, I can look back at those two shots and I probably could have done better. And he should expect that from himself because that's what you have to do to close tournaments. And in this, unfortunately, in this situation, I will say, I feel like Hoigard had a bit of luck on his side and Rory just wasn't able to do the, the simple things on, I wouldn't call it the iron shot on 15, a simple shot, but something that I would say he regularly would be controlling his golf ball into an area, it's where he would make a par there. But, I don't know, Charlie just leaves me in his, like, I see the comparisons now on online. It's a, man, this reminds me a lot of Greg Norman during his prime. I didn't watch Greg Norman growing up as a kid. So it's hard for me to, to put that in perspective of, is it, is it similar? But I know Rory, he's won a ton of times. He knows how to win golf tournaments. So I don't have an issue with it. It just seems like it's a much more of a recency thing. - Yeah, it is interesting where you open your sort of thoughts on this comparing it to the 2022 Open Championship and the 2024 US Open. 'Cause if you think about it, there is elements of both in it. It's, you know, not to say that Cam Smith got lucky in St. Andrews in 2022. I mean, he made a very legit charge from behind to win it, but you had that, that sort of angle of Raspis Boygard finishing with three straight birdies to kind of, you know, slingshot himself around Rory. And then you had the, you know, in the same way that, that at the US Open, you know, that 16th hole where he leaves that pup behind the hole and has a comeback or that's, you know, a tricky one, the way he putted 17 to just, you know, I know he wanted to make a run at it up the hill to give himself a chance to make a birdie and really kind of extend that lead and win and style. But just to leave it where he did, eight feet coming back is just, you know, it's inexcusable. And so it's, it's a tough, tough loss. And I just, I wonder, is it, it's an interesting one because it's a full season event. It's an off season event, so to speak. So I think in most people's minds, you'd say, is it really that big of a deal? But obviously this one is, is maybe the nearest and dearest to Rory's heart 'cause it's his national Open. - Yeah, it is. It would be like you going to play the Wyndham Championship, me playing the Zurich Classic. It's, it's the event that you wanna win the most. It's where, where you grew up, right? Like this is the tournament, the venue too. Like, you know, this is, when Royal County Down shows up, you're like, man, that would be a really cool place to win. And unfortunately, for Rory, he wasn't able to get it done, but he had to just love, you know, as a, as a viewer, just having a golf course as good as this. - Oh, so good. - With, you know, Rory needing to make an ego on the last hole. You know, I would have loved to see Rory coming down 18 with the two shot lead and get to, you know, hear the fans with the support behind him, not to say that they weren't supporting him all week, but man, it was, it was really cool just to watch the fans circle in behind him on 18 and watch him hit that putt because you know, they wanted that ball to go in just as badly as Rory did. - Oh, without a doubt. And, and it's, you know, Roy will be back. I think he's had an interesting offseason where he's been asked about number of events he wants to play. It looks like he's gonna cut his schedule down. You know, still question marks as to where the next major is gonna be, what it's gonna look like. And just his career in general. I mean, I just think it's been a lot of, you know, I, I, it'll be, I don't think, even though this one is important to him because of that connection to your point, you know, this is, this is the one that's at home. You know, I think the ones that'll still burn, like nothing's gonna burn like a chance to add to his major count this year at the US Open. And maybe, you know, now that he's kind of past that, I'll just be very interested to see the way he opens up this year and how he plays early on in 2025. - Yeah, totally. And, you know, he's bit, he's still vocal about the world tour and wanting to get a deal done. So that's one thing to monitor to with him as well as, is like, does he ever get to a point in all of this where he just gets so tired of the PGA tour and nothing getting done and then just deciding, you know what, like I don't think he'd ever go to live. Like it would, it would shock me, but that would be something just in my mind. It's like things would have to go terribly wrong, but he just hasn't stopped talking about it. So I keep thinking that it's not over in his brain about wanting to get this done because I don't, I don't know exactly, you know, what his next, where he sees himself over the next five to 10 years for his playing career on how many events he wants to play because to your point, that's something that he talked about, that maybe he needs to cut down on his schedule just a bit. - Yeah, I think the thing for him that's tougher than others who have made the leap is exemptions. If it's, if to him it's important to continue playing in major championships, you know, a move that, while smiling gathers himself after a long poll on his Stanley Cup, are we all the way back? You know, that's, you know, that hydration's important. You just gotta be careful with it. - A fight, I'm fighting for my life every now and now. - A fight for his life. (both laughing) I guess on Rory, that's the difference for me. It's like, Ron wins a major, has exemptions for the next, you know, five years at least, lifetime and most, and can go and feel a little more comfortable. You know, Brooks Capco, similar situation, even like a Cam Smith win in the Open Championship. But I just-- - You're saying exemptions for Rory, I mean, yeah, I guess. Like some of these exemptions run out for him. 'Cause the last time he had won a major war was it 10 years ago, is that? - Exactly, 2014, so it's, PGA, I think PGA is, if I have a, sorry, PGA is 10, U.S. Opens 10, and-- - Well, his world ranking would keep him in. You would imagine for two years. - Sure. - Give or take, masters, he would get a special invite, you would have to imagine. - Or would he, I mean, maybe-- - Yeah, dude, stop. - I mean, but do you think, I guess, I guess-- - I'm not saying based on playing there at all. Like, I think it's undoubtedly-- - Well, we're too far down the hypothetical tree with this, that I don't even think we need to go there. - It's awesome. - I just wanted just to say that, you know what, I just read the tea leaves and all this stuff, right? And he just seems to me like a guy that once it gets something done, and I don't know if it'll get done for next year. - For sure. - Boy, and I think to his credit, I mean, like, I think it's for any international player that decides to go play on live, like, I may not agree with it, but I understand it, because they want a more international experience. And I can't, you know, I can't fault them for that. That is something that lives doing that's worth, you know, trying to incorporate into any sort of tour, make it global, if you're really trying to grow the game. So, does that feel like a, do you want to segue into live Chicago and a vigil championship off that? - I think so, let's do it. - All right, let's do it, let's do it. We're just live producing this thing today. So, John Rom-- - Good news, by the way. - Okay, tell me. - Colton Tate is good to record, so we should have a goal to take your feeds this week. So, that'll be nice. - Live update on the pod, so that means you guys have some Scotty Schaffler pickleball stories to look forward to. So, do not miss that one, that's going to be electric. So, well, fantastic, so bump it over to live now. We got John Rom, John Rom wins this individual championship his second win in his last three events, which this is a sort of an interesting one to discuss, 'cause really, I think as recently as post-open championship, where he did finish top 10, he finished tied for seventh, but looking back at his major record this year, where he had to withdraw from the US Open, misses the cut of the PGA, finishes tied for 45th at the Masters, we were asking questions as to, you know, how does he feel about this year? If his goal was to go over and play well, live, I, you know, I knew he was near the top of the individual standings at that point, but, you know, maybe hadn't won yet. And just saying, can he consider this a success? And then really ripped off a huge close of the season. He made $38.2 million this year, 34.7 as an individual. It's a shout out to our guy, Sean, Sean Lowery, bringing in the live stats and information, which by the way, teeed up with Sean Lowery out of Treyburn this last week. - I don't know if it's just you. Like, I just don't care like how much money they've made. That's like, if there's one thing about any of this, it's about more money that they're making. None of that is a victory. - Well, it's more so just an illustration of this, you know, what it is silly money. It's hard to even like, you know, compare that to, is that good? Is that bad? It's a lot. - Well, let's just compare it to like the NFL, dude. I mean, even what Scotty made this year, I think what the Saudis have done is totally inflate the golf market because it's not sustainable. But you know, this, this with golf model is if, if they did not have the, I mean, everybody knows this, if they didn't have Saudi backed PIF on all this, that none of this would be even possible. It's, it's make believe we'd still be on the PGA tour. And that's where I just get still just so annoyed by just, when I hear what these players will say about, you know, we need to get back together and this and that. It's like, dude, like you have hit the absolute lottery because it's just, it's just fairytale land. - Yeah, it's, I mean, you're not going to get a disagreement for me on any of that. I think it's, I think the thing that's probably most frustrating from a viewer perspective or a fan perspective is that we're at this sort of impasse between two sides that are both doing something that feels unsustainable, but unwilling to try to kind of find some way to kind of make it work. And because it's just, I think in the absence of trying to find something that makes it work, the future's not going to be great for ProGolf. Like there just has to be a way to kind of get this thing. And I don't know who caves first on that and who has the longer lead because you look at the PIF and seemingly having, you know, as much money as they want to given their reserves, but how much of that is actually being set aside and going into this live product, you know, it's anyone's guess. And then on the, on the, on the tour side, it's like you had this, the scoop of investors that's injected a ton of cash. And we're talking about ways we're going to innovate. And a lot of that's been done. You know, we're kind of trying out new products. You know, I love that, you know, in addition to the TGL and things like that, we're also trying things out like the creator classic to lean into some of these younger demos, you know, and probably doing more of that in the future, like at least we're trying some stuff there. But I don't think that money's endless either. And so it's just when do we run out on either side and whose hand is kind of forced to come to the table and bring it back together? Because I can you have two products like this forever? I don't think so. - Well, I would probably argue that, that still I feel like Liv is in a better position because I think money still wins and most, most everything, right? Money will always win. And I think both sides need each other, but I think the tour, long-term needs, needs players, top level players that draw more eyeballs and more viewers. And I think that's to me where I think the tour kind of has to probably concede first in all this. - Yeah, it's, you know, I tend to agree with that. And this has taken us a little bit away from the topic itself, which is kind of attempting to recap, you know, the lip, but I think it's all part of the conversation. So just to quickly run through it, 'cause it's worth mentioning, you got Ron finishes first in the individual standings, Joaquin Neiman second. How about Sergio Garcia? - I had a good year. - Had a really good year. Some interesting kind of notables in here. You got, you know, Tyrell Hatton fourth, Brooks Kepka fifth, Cam Smith seventh, Bryson eighth, Taylor Gucci, you're after kind of playing credible finishes 10th. DJ down to 14th, where it gets kind of interesting is, there's this sort of, there are these three zones, right? So this lock zone ends at 24 players. All those guys are safe, they're separate next year. Then there's an open zone where if you're not a captain and you finish between 25th and 48th, you could be traded, you could be replaced on your team. So, you know, names in that list that are interesting, you're Peter U lines in there, Graham McDowell, Thomas Peters, Charles Howell the third, I'm naming all the non captains, 'cause the captains are of course safe in that zone. Caleb Sarat in his first year over finishes in that zone, Harold Varn to the third, Mito Pereira. The drop zone is highly intriguing because you have, you know, there are a number of names where, you know, the Vincent brothers are getting relegated, Brandon Grace, another name worth noting in there after playing kind of well early on it live. Bubba Watson will in fact, despite being the captain of the range goats, will be relegated. And so, is this sort of, is this it for Bubba? I know he's kind of made waves in the past of saying, I'll just do the team ownership thing, but if he can't play on live, and he can't get his status back on tour, unless he kind of tries to qualify through this international series, re-qualify back in, which I don't think he'd do, this is kind of it, right? - I don't know, I still am trying to figure how this whole thing works. I guess Bubba could get re-signed by somebody. - But he's his own captain. It's like, it's such a strange thing. It's like he, I guess theoretically owns the franchise, but to me, it would, it would probably, he would get into the TV side would be my guess. He'll probably be in some way, shape, or form involved with live telecast, whether it's an analyst or an on course guy, I don't know. That to me is probably the route he's gonna go, which is, which is wild, right? Like kind of interesting, right? - Yeah, he just didn't seem like, to me, of all of the guys that are getting older, to be the guy that wants to quit and loses his game, the fastest. Does that make sense? - 100%. - Yeah, we've had the link, creativity, he seemed to me like a player that would age more like a fine wine, I guess, with this game. - Well, yeah, I mean, he's 45 years old, which isn't young, but it's younger than Phil Mickelson, and that's a guy who I thought was gonna hang him up, you know, and Mickelson has still made his own sort of waves about considering retirement, if he's not playing well, he finished 46 this year, so he was just three spots above that drop zone where, I guess, technically the way they've written it, even as a captain this year, he could have been relegated and booted off his team. So, maybe see both those guys, yeah. - I mean, Phil, Phil being involved with the VOC broadcast, it's, if live is able to get a really good TV deal with Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson on the, I think that starts to elevate what they're doing. To me, in my mind, it's just a general person that follows golf and knows, you know, just a bit about the TV business, right? Like Phil was, he was always supposed to retire and be an analyst on the PGA tour, right? And now I feel like, if anything, Phil's got the sync started, he's gonna make sure he's gonna finish it, so. Without a doubt, I mean, I think this, you know, for both Bubba and Phil, it's like, that's kind of your only play, right? Like, you don't really have anywhere else to go. You're not gonna get welcomed back in a different golf setting to be playing or commentating. So, it's just, all your chips are in on live, and you're either, you know, if you're not gonna be playing, you can hop up in the booth with them, and that's kind of, that's kind of their option. So, it's interesting. - The only other interesting thing I would say about it all is who's gonna be the first player to come back in this, and whether it's a Brooks Capka, whoever it is. I just, I'm interested to see, you know, 'cause it's eventually gonna happen, right? Like, there's gonna be a player that goes back through the process of whoever it might be, and whether it's Hudson Swafford who is a player that, you know, he used to be on the PGA tours one a couple times. He's not gonna get re-signed at live. He was on, he was a guy not even on a team this year, played very poorly, shockingly bad, considering, like, I know Hudson and how good of a player he is. I don't know if he's got an injury or just doesn't wanna play, but that's, I know how golf is. It's hard for me to, I know how hard this game can be. So, hopefully he can be the first player to kind of work his way back on tour. - Yeah, it will be interesting, 'cause obviously the, he's on the wild card side of things where, you know, his best-case scenario with live is asking to come back again and play as a wild card, and potentially, you know, billing for teams who need a spot start for guys who are, you know, injured or have to withdraw for whatever reason. Anthony Kim, also in that similar wild card situation this last year, but I'm interested in, like, the name you started with Brooks Kepka, guys like that, who had a contract signed and are, you know, nearing the end of that contract, let's say, and deciding whether they wanna re-up and stay with live, or whether they wanna kind of, by some way, shape or form, re-enter the ecosystem to come back and play on tour, and that's one that, to your point, yeah. - It should happen sooner rather than later. - The only thing, I know I said, I don't care about the money they make, but the only thing I would be interested in, just so that it's easier to follow from our perspective, is that when we look at this, like when we look at their standings, I wish we could see how many years they were signed on with this team, and if they wanna put how much they're making too great, they don't have to, but it would be cool, I think, from my side of things, it's like, how many year deal do you have with this team? That, to me, is like, I would be interested to see if, you know, Harold Varner has, like, one year left on his deal with whoever the heck team is on. - Four aces. - The four aces. - Yeah, I've got a note here from Sean who says, "Ironheads and the four aces need to rebuild." So take that for what it's worth, rebuilding year for both of them. Well, so, and I actually think, I don't think they have a contract with a set team. Like, I think it's a contract with a league, because I think that's how you arrive at the spot where, if you end up in that open zone, you know, you could-- - I think you have a contract with the team. - I do. - I do, I do, I do. - I think you get signed to the team. I could be wrong, though. - But I think it's, I really do think there's more flexibility and movement outside of the captains-- - I think that you sign with both. Like, you're signing with LiveGolf. - Yeah. - You like to, I'm sure that's a whole 'nother thing, but then you get pursued by these different captains. Like, or for instance, the trade that they did with Taylor Gucci and Matthew Wolf. - Right. - Like, you got traded to this team, and there's a contract just like, I think. Like, you were talking to the wrong guy if you wanted to understand-- - I would be interested, I would be more interested in that stuff if we actually knew what the heck was going on. Like, there's just no-- - Right. - It just seems like, oh yeah. You can just trade whoever, it's just, it's hard to think. - You spent it over here! - Now at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us in four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible trade-ins, all on America's largest 5G network. - Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount, using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without auto pay, plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phones will be at 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling the entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement too. Bill credits end if you pay off devices early. CTMobile.com. - Hey, fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month? - With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. - Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. - You got this. - Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? - You will find them, where you left them. - Investing involves risk, including risk of loss, Fidelity, brokerage services, LLC, member NYSE, SIPC. - You're out. - And that's, I think, and I don't want to critique without knowing if there's been more public disclosure on this, but I think that was part of the critique of the whole Matthew Wolf or just some of the trades that happened last year, is just that it was so clearly just orchestrated. Yeah, one side of just trying to make certain people happy. And I think, look, there's a part of it that's difficult. You're a startup. You have to create some degree of flexibility so that if you get something going and it's clearly not working, it's not like this ironclad thing that can't be changed. You need to be able to be fluid enough to fix it so that the league and the team's working the best way. It's just that it's gonna look a little rinky dink while you try to kind of get the thing up to speed. And I think that, you know. - I did hear that that trade with Matthew Wolf and Taylor Gucci, 'cause at the time, right, Matthew was, wherever he was on the points list, I don't know if, I don't think he had quite as nearly as good as yours, he had this year, but Taylor Gucci was having that crazy good year. So it would be weird, like, you'd have to trade a lot, right? Like, you have to pay a lot of money. And I did hear that Brooks paid, he was, I said, I'll pay whatever. Like, get, go, shoe, and fade. - Wow. - For Taylor. So I think there was cash considerations. - There was large cash considerations. - That's what we need to know. We need that to be reported. We're gonna care so much more. - It's been so long since I heard whatever the number was, I wish I remembered, but it was like a seven-figure type. - Wow, breaking news, smiley coffin, breaking news right here on The Smiley Show. - That breaking news, and you could put that in the category of, he thinks he remembers it was X. - Yes, that's like, it's like a lower third graphic. And the first line says breaking news, cash considerations were part of the deal to bring Taylor Gucci to smash. And the second line is he thinks, smiley coffin, thinks he remembers someone telling him this at some point. It's a wordy graphic. We'll let our graphics team figure that one out. - That feels like enough lib, discussion, speculation, obviously not a strong point. We're running out of things on our rundown checklist. You wanna talk a little Solheim Cup before you finish up with some PGA Tour? - Yeah. - I love this. I'm gonna start first with making this all about myself, which is usually a good topic is it, if you're gonna try to be in media and host a podcast, things like that, make it all about yourself. That's a really good play. As someone who's on the cusp of becoming a girl dad, I was watching this over the weekend. I was like, I'm really bummed my daughter's not here now. So we could like sit on a couch and watch this 'cause there are all these little girls that were with their dads, their moms who had little American flag-based pain or room for the Euros as well, a little flag. Just all, I just thought it was really cool to see the way in which there have been a lot of efforts, especially in the States, but just with all these major women's professional leagues to support it more, get more eyeballs on it. Some of those things kind of feel like, let's call it like half-assed attempts or just stuff that where the substance doesn't match. This event itself was easy to root for. It was easy to get up for. Another was some hiccups on site, like getting people there via buses or whatever. But then once the things started, there was intrigue all week and long and then came down to a great Sunday single session where Liliabu stuffs a wedge on 18 to make birdie and win the thing for Americans. And so there was my very self-absorbed observation on this thing, but I'm excited to watch future iterations of the Solheim Cup with my daughter. There you go, there's my entry point. - Yeah, and the U.S. gets the cup back. They had one since 2017. So that was cool to see the United States side win on home soil. And actually where they played the event, it used to be the beginning or the original site, I should say, for the President's Cup. - Yes, so they've hosted a number of President's Cup there. - Yeah, so that the golf course I enjoyed, it was cool, I assume that's a lake or a river right there. - Yes. - It's a big whatever it is. So that was a cool backdrop. So I enjoyed watching it. It was really nice and appealing to the eye. I loved, I guess like to your point, it seemed like the first day was a bit of a miss with the transportation that to me is-- - Did you look into that at all? - It's just my least favorite thing in the world. Like I hate parking and big parking lots away from wherever I'm trying to go and then hopping on a bus. But that already is of things I don't like to do. It's so far down the list of enjoyable things I've experienced in my life. And so when you throw that on top with like really terrible logistics with it, that's just really, really poor form from, I guess it's the LPGA that's running the thing. So-- - Yeah, the commissioner kind of took responsibility for that. - Just can't that, that just can't happen. - I mean, I understand that yeah, that sometimes it takes a bit to get in and that's what I was talking about. I told enjoy getting on buses, but it's part of the deal. And sometimes you just, you know, it's gonna take 30 or so minutes with that whole process, but it shouldn't take multiple hours. And I think that's what was going on. But yeah, for what I watched, I watched a lot of the golf today, that shot that she hit on 18. - Oh my God. - She just birdied on 17 'cause she was two down. - Yes. - Makes birdie on 17 and then makes birdie on 18. I thought that clutch gene was amazing. And yeah, Charlie Hole, you know, winning six and four. And I saw a tweet that Charlie Hole winning six and four. The cigarette in her mouth. And then I could see there was a picture of Nelly Court and showing Charlie Hole that graphic that was posted. And so that to me was, that was awesome. I just like, that was behind the scene, something that we shouldn't have seen. But yeah, no, overall I was, I enjoyed watching and I liked the venue and I was happy to see United States get the job done. - Yeah, it was an interesting mix of kind of storylines on Sunday where, you know, Nelly Court who had played great in the first few sessions got boored by Charlie Hole's six and four. - Yes, that's what happens too. Like when you're, you send your aces out like all week to get your points and then sometimes when you get to the end, you're just, I think some players are just dead. It seems like that was the case with Nelly who was just putting on a performance like you were talking about earlier in the week. - Well, and it looked like too that Rosie wins her match six and four. And at that point, the Americans are very close and so it's like, this thing's over now. And then there was a ton of intrigue coming down the stretch. Celine Boudier hit an amazing shot into 18 to win that match one up. That was a tough one. I believe she won five or final seven holes to beat Lexi Thompson. - I know, it's like the Lexi's playing. - And that's kind of it for Lexi, right? I mean, I know she's gonna play a limited sketch or going forward, but you know, you win the event, which is great, but it's kind of tough for Lexi to go out like that. - It just seems a lot like how we're kind of her career's gone, you know, just with, whenever you like, we're waiting for that story book moment with Lex. It just always seemed like it just, something went wrong. And that's not to say that she's not one of the all time great women's players, 'cause she has been. It just seems like that has been something that just has continually happened with her down the stretch in these big moments. And it was definitely much more of what you were talking about. You know, she did make five of seven buries and sometimes you can't help that when other people go out and beat you. 'Cause I watched her play on the front nine where she's making every single putt, right? Like she was doing everything you needed to do to win. And yeah, I was hoping she would have kind of her storybook ending with winning her match, winning the United States, being on the United States side. So yeah, I don't know if she'll ever get another bat being on another team or not. I think I was hearing on the broadcast that this would be your last one, but yeah, no. - It's a team win, right? Like at the end of the day, it's a team win. You win a cup, you get to celebrate. - I don't think she cares, but I think it's much, to your point, like you just, you were hoping that Lex was gonna be a point today or winning. - Well, and I think that would have been, yeah, 'cause looking at it now, 'cause Coughlin and Boo both have their matches, if she wins that match, that would have been the deciding point. That would have gotten them to 14 and a half. So I mean, look, it is what it is. They still won the cup. I have a personal request from a buddy of mine that wanted us to chime in on the music on the T's, pumping up the fans, things like that. Like, do we like this? How do we feel about the atmosphere? I'll say this from my standpoint, I don't know if you have any additional thoughts. Like I, one of my favorite golf memories is sitting on the first tee at Quill Hollow for the President's Cup two years ago. And this relative unknown had just burst on the scene a couple of months earlier, Tom Kim, pumping up the crowd during an away game and asked him to keep cheering while he hit his first tee shot in Sunday singles. Like, that to me is, I love it at these events. I think that it's cool. I really love when players lean into atmosphere like that, where we have this perception of golf that always needs to be quiet, needs to be, you know, to use the word of the moment, very demure, very understated. And it's like, no, we can do-- - Let it off, let it off. - Yeah, especially in team competitions. I think it's, I love seeing that. - Gets me excited for the President's Cup. I think once, you know, I know it's not a Ryder Cup and it's not the same, but I tell you what, when you, I really feel like Canada and just these fans are gonna be epic at this one. So we'll see. - Without a doubt. And that's a perfect segue into our final topic of the pod, which is of course, well, it's the Pro-Core Championship and a huge one for Pat and Casaire. Awesome to see him get back and win, but you know, obviously part of the discussion is gonna center on the guys who played in this event that are going to be headed to Montreal for the President's Cup. So, Patton's win, man. I mean, what are your first, I know this is a guy that you know very well. - Yeah, a long time, man. - Yeah, so your thoughts on this when your reflections on him getting it done. - Well, you know, with Patton, right? Like, he's been a player that, you know, since he graduated Auburn, he's always been, you know, at every stage, very good, right? He's a player that's tough, super competitive, hot, tempered at times, but an incredible putter, an incredible dude and just works his tail off. And I have a lot of respect for guys like that that know what they wanna do. And I think with Patton, it was summed up so well last year after he didn't get his card back, finished outside the top 125. And when I went back and listened to that, that audio, which we're about to play, I just felt like, man, it's, he had to battle this entire year when you don't know where you're gonna be playing, when you're gonna be playing and teeing it up. You know, it's not easy. And I think coming into this FedEx Cup fall at 132, you know, he's gotta find a way into the top 125 to have status for the following year. So he had to go play well. And Patton has been a player that when he gets it, when he just, when he just drives it decent, he's a good enough iron player and he's an incredible putter. And that's what happened this week is his ball striking showed up. And we saw him win this golf tournament by five shots. He's now a three time PGA Tour winner. We're gonna see him at the century later this year. And I think it'd be a good time to play that audio because it just kind of puts into perspective how, how far he's coming in a year. - Yeah. This is Patton Kazayar after finishing outside the top 125 finishing last fall's schedule and just really cool to see the difference a year may. So let's play this right now. - Since I was a kid, I mean, they asked me what I wanted to do and I was in second grade and I said I wanna be a professional golfer and I never changed my mind. So here I am. - I've tried to keep the emotions down but they're kind of coming on right now. Pretty disappointed. But my game is in the right direction. I'm playing, I'm very close playing really well. So I'm looking forward to the opportunities I'll get and I'm gonna do something good. I've always had a lot of fight in me. But this was a fight. I wouldn't necessarily say a loss 'cause I can see improvement coming on fast. Like I say, I'm looking forward to the opportunities I'll get. - So there you have it. I mean, that's Patton last year, clearly emotional, heartbroken, I'm missing out on retaining. What would have been not even full playing opportunities at top 125, but just the playing opportunities you would have had and now earns a two year exemption. And like you said, in the century in 2025. So just a super cool journey for him in any year. - Yeah, I didn't see exactly where he jumped up to the FedEx cop. I'm sure we could pull that up pretty quickly. But based on like my simple math, it was gonna be somewhere around like 69th. So he was at 132 jumps all the way to somewhere in that range. I'm sure I can live figure this out right now, but I'm working on it for you. - Basically, for all you need to know is everyone's chasing the next 10 in the fall. For those like Patton, he was just trying to get to the top 125 and everything after that was a bonus. So now he's completely changed his, he'll have new goals now, which is to now make it inside from 51 to 60, which that next 10 will then get you. He's already in century 'cause he won, but it'll give him an opportunity to get in that next 10 category, which would get him into Pebble Beach. - He jumps 62 spots from 132nd to 70th. So he was our, David Lips, he was the other big mover of the week going from 163 to 101. Patrick Fishburne jumped 20 spots to 82nd. So this is, you know, this is the story of the fall in the same way that we enjoy following tournaments like the Windham, you know, getting to that top 70. There are some cool storylines to be had here and guys like Patton, you know, now if he keeps playing well this fall, could get into that next 10 to really kind of create some bigger opportunities for himself next year. - And he's 200 points back of Minwooie, who's at that 60th number. You saw Minwooie play this week. And if you're wondering why, you know, a guy like Minwooie's playing, just remember, if you've been following the show the entire year, we've kind of documented, you know, Minwoo's lack of opportunities that he's gotten. I think last year, maybe he could have chased us a little bit more. We'll see if this is something that we'll see him play a little bit more as this fall goes on because I think last year, as we saw, Minwooie, he's a good enough player, right, Charlie? Like to make that jump into a top 30 type of player. But the issue that he's had is the opportunities to play in the signature events. He only played and I believe won maybe two last year. If that, I know it sponsors exemptions. We're not easy to get from Minwooie, but which is crazy, right? He's a popular player guy that I think we all want to see play, but good to see him out there this week, trying to play as well as Corey Connors, another president's cup player. Mackenzie Hughes had a good week as well. And Nick Taylor, as if you listened to us last week, didn't miss the cut. I always thought Nick might go out and shoot a number, but maybe Mike, we got it right on the president's cup side. He just might have yet to just to button up, Minwooie, I think the interesting part of last year was he was still kind of playing his, he had the special temp status and there were a number of different ways he could lock it up. He was further down that FedEx cup points list. And there was an entry point via that DP World Tour Top 10 that he was kind of looking at that fall schedule and trying to piece together the strategy that would get him the most playing opportunities next year, while also not having seen how this next 10 swing five thing was going to work for the first time. Now that he knows how it works, he's sitting 60th, I think his priorities definitely change, but I think that is what resulted in, yes, to your point. The only signature event he played in last year was the API, sponsored by there after playing great the year before. So that's a nice, you kind of see this up there on some president's cup names because here's a spread of guys that played at the pro core this week that will also be showing up in Montreal. So the top end of a leaderboard, you had McKinsey Hughes finishing a tied for fourth, 13 under. So hit the gala, finished a 12 under tied for seventh in addition to Corey Connors was in that same position, 12 under T seven, then men will leave finishes at seven under tied for 32nd. And then we get to the list of guys who did not play so well, you mentioned Nick Taylor not on that team, but of course a talking point as a guy who missed out, he misses the cut Max Homa and Wyndham Clark, both missed cuts this weekend. And I think the guy that's probably worth talking about the most is the guy we had our eyes on coming into the week, just saying, hey, Max probably needs a big boost of confidence, a shot in the arm would love to see him maybe drive the ball a little bit better, a little more accurately. And you know, finishes one under after two rounds, misses the cut, where are you on Max's level of preparedness headed in the president's cup? Does this give you a ton of pause or is it just like, this is about what I was expecting. It would have been a nice upside to see him play really well this week. - No, I kind of felt like he was gonna be bad when right on the cut line. It just didn't seem like he was gonna go out and shoot bogey-free golf. It felt like he was gonna go out, have to work through some things. What's just look at his stats here at this event? He was positive off the tee. - He was. - So if you did anything right, like this was something that we wanted to go and see like how much better are we driving it right now? And he was positive off the tee. So what's just going, if that's what we're going out to accomplish, which is to be better off the tee, then, hey, would you have loved to have buried 18, which was the two shots wing for him to make the cut? Yeah, absolutely, he ends up making a bogey in a situation where it probably, you know, middle of the fairway at 18, most of the time will make a birdie, unfortunately. It wasn't able to get it done, but I think he battled back, made a couple of birdies down the stretch to try to make the cut. So with Max, I still, you know, I think he's earned, you know, obviously the right, how well he's played over the last couple international team events that I think he's gonna be mentally tough enough to go and do it. And a lot of times in these events too, Charlie, when you get in match play and you're just focusing about the focusing on the other guy, you know, you really start to open up just playing golf and getting away from golf swing and just focusing on being the other guy. And that's why you start to see guys play just such incredible golf in these formats, because they hit these great shots, because a lot of the times they're just, you know, not quite as conservative, they're maybe playing a little bit more aggressively and, you know, don't have anything as much to lose because there's not a cut they're worrying about. They're just trying to, you know, play, you know, against the other guy, whatever that is, you know, if it's aggressive that day, or they can play more conservatively because the guy's hacking it around. I mean, that's, that's another thing too, that I think Max brings, which is that, you know, is a great match play player right now. - To match play, dog, he's been the best American player, the last two competitions, you know, the last Presidents and Riders Cup, you know, was really, you know, he was the guy for both those teams, even though one of those was a losing effort. And I went to the same place you did after that first round of just, let's dig into the stats, let's see how he's driving the ball. It was interesting, so he was positive strokes came off the tee, as you mentioned, but just digging further into those stats, he was, he, exact same driving accuracy both days. His seven to 14 fairways, both days. - These are narrow, narrow, fairways. So they're firm, they're hard to hit. Just, just, they're not, they're not easy to hit, just to put that in perspective. - Sure, but I think the interesting stat that I found was in the split between the days in terms of his scoring was in that first round, he makes 15 par's, two birdies and one bogey. On Friday, he makes six birdies, six par's and six bogeys. So what, why is that interesting to me? Because that same thing you're talking about, that match play mentality of, you know, hey, the bogeys maybe don't hurt as much, like you're going out and trying to make some birdies, you know, that's where you can kind of really win these sort of matches or have a partner alongside you to kind of pick you up. So, you know, maybe playing a little more aggressive on that Friday to tune it up and miss the cup, but still make some birdies. - Yeah, the only thing I'll add to that as we head out of this deal is that you want to see six birdies. - Yes. - Anytime as a player, I felt like I was in a rut and I was just not being able to figure it out. I wanted to have the offense, like give me the birdies and let me go figure it out from there because when you're, when you feel like you can make, you know, five or six birdies around, it starts to open up your game. You start, what you realize is like, okay, I'm doing some things very well. I just got to just get a little bit better in the areas where I'm just kind of giving away shots. - Yeah, makes a ton of sense. And so that's, you know, maybe, that's your, that's your back's almost silver lining as we head up to Montreal. Any other thoughts there on? I mean, Wyndham, it looks like had that second round blew up for him in a couple spots. He had a triple on the par five fifth and then, you know, finished his bogey, double bogey to miss the cut. Any concern there at all? There were also some comments earlier in the week about talking, you know, didn't feel like he was prepared as he wanted to be going into the Ryder Cup and how that's something he's taking to his prep this time for President's Cup. You know, for him, saw a member of this team, no real questions about his standing, but did you, you know, anything there on Wyndham or other guys heading into Montreal that was sort of a fly for you? - No, I think the y'all is gonna have a heck of a President's Cup. - Yeah, I just keep getting that feeling with him. And then talking with Tom Kim, by the way, this week, he just said the golf course is pretty narrow from when they did that scouting trip. He thought it was a little soft and there was some rough out there. So that was something interesting too, just getting a sneak peek with Tom Kim and having a little conversation with him on the role of Montreal. - Yeah, over a glass of a pappy, perhaps. - That you won. - I'm not opening that, man. I'm gonna keep that. - You're gonna keep that? How long are you gonna keep that? What's your play on that? Is that just kind of sit on a shelf for a while? - Well, that's a Christmas drinker type of thing. Maybe get a drink with, you know, father-in-law, dad, brother-in-law, that type of deal. Just open it, every kind of enjoyed sipping on that deal. - Okay, all right, there you go. And for Tom Kim, it's just a really nice ornament in his house. (laughs) We are highly close to an hour and a half and we've covered a lot of golf here. Any final thoughts you wanna leave the good people with Smiley before we, I think, I think the next time you're gonna tune in to this feed is what we're gonna hear about Scottie Schaeffler playing pickleball. So that's the tease I believe you heard most of it. I mean, Goldwell just had, he'll definitely just be able to-- - Had some color. - Yes, definitely so. But I'll check your text messages, Charlie, 'cause I sent you a picture of Patton Kizire and I think you need to pull that up on the way out and I just wanna send, again, more congratulations to Patton. He's been very good to me over the years. Even times with struggle, he was always a guy that would put his arm around my shoulder and tell me how, just like we're doing right here, you can pull the camera out of your shoulders. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see Patton's sick hair. You can see my duck bill hat. But yeah, always been somebody that always looked up to the guy and he's always been a good friend of me. So, our, you know, our Francie and I love the Kizire's and we couldn't be more happy for Patton. It seems like this is the hump to get over now that he can set himself up now to be able to go and, you know, play more comfortably out on tour and hopefully build off of a great week here at this week in Napa. - What is the age difference here? 'Cause either you're pre-Grosspert or-- - I'm like 12, 13 division, he's 17, 18 division. - Oh, okay. - Would be the thing. - Much more understandable. It's like, man, this guy is, she misses calling. She should've been playing basketball, but that makes a lot more sense. - He's a big man. If you've never seen Patton in person, he's a big old boy. He looks like-- - He looks-- - He's already else next to each other. They look about the same size. - Oh, like that comp. That's good. Well, there you go. That's about a wrap for us this week. And yeah, we tease what's coming up next and then we're gonna be off to Tobacco Road to record some stuff on Wednesday that you should just make sure you subscribe to that YouTube 'cause that's gonna be some fun stuff coming soon. If we don't get rained out. You've seen that forecast? Raise some rain gloves. - Okay. Isn't that bad? - It's, well, we'll get there when we get there, but-- (laughing) We appreciate you watching and listening, as always. And we will talk to you back here very soon. - You know, I listened to this podcast. It's really cool. - All of our other brands and subscribers, I love it. Make sure you like it from scratch. - It's cool. See what you guys are doing. I know golf fans appreciate it, but we do too, so please keep it up. - For all the good people of YouTube, like and subscribe. - You guys have some good takes, so I'm happy to come on and shoot the-- (upbeat music) - Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Profolios is kinda like making a sandwich. 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In this episode of The Smylie Show, hosts Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme recap the weekend in golf, covering Rory McIlroy's heartbreak at the Irish Open, Patton Kizzire's feel-good victory at the Procore Championship, and Jon Rahm's triumph at the LIV Golf League Individual Championship. đď¸đď¸ââď¸
