Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme are entering unprecedented terrority with a fourth one-and-done winner pick in just seven events, after Akshay Bhatia beat Denny McCarthy in a playoff at the Valero Texas Open. Smylie and Charlie discuss the pick, relive the best moments from "Fridays with Smylie" featuring both Akshay and Rory McIlroy, and do a "CSI: TPC: San Antonio" investigation of Jordan Spieth's adventure on the 18th hole.
The Smylie Show
The Heater Continues! Another one-and-done pick hits after a playoff finish at the Valero Texas Open
[MUSIC PLAYING] Dude, that smiley coffin for 61. Wow. I'm smiley coffin, and this is the smiley show. Welcome back to the smiley show. And I mean, smiley, is picking what are supposed to be hard? What does high score mean? Did we break it? I thought you were in trouble there for a minute. I was thinking, man, this was a lock. With actually getting the win being six up after nine holes. And turn out, we ended up having one of the best Sundays of the year. We would have never expected it after what Denny McCarthy did on that back nine. All right, let's stop there first and explain the audio quality. You are in Dallas Lovefield Airport right now and root from the Valero Texas Open to Augusta, Georgia for the Masters, where we're both going to be live and in person this week. We have a show at T-Bone Steakhouse late night on Tuesday that we're super pumped about. We'll tell you about later on the show. You were fresh off that golf course. I'm fresh off the course of Palmetto in Aiken, South Carolina, played a delightful little round at Kevin Kister's Home Club to warm up for the week here in Augusta, and was watching the coverage. You were, of course, in the booth this week for Golf Channel, for NBC Sports, alongside Dan Hicks. And we were listening to your call on 18 as Denny McCarthy makes that birdie putt to send it to 20 under. And Oxhay answers to send this to a playoff. I mean, how electric was that back 928 from Denny McCarthy in a tournament where we were like, this thing's put away. Like, let's go ahead and book it. Oxhay won the tournament. Yeah, it was over. We were all, especially after Oxhay made a bounce back birdie at number 11. I mean, he got it back to five then. And we're thinking, you know, this thing is over. Because going into the day, when he got off to such a hot, sturdy birdie, one birdie, birdie, two birdie, four. And so we're like just trying to come up with every single piece of info we have on Oxhay Batilla. Because we're thinking we're going to have a lot of field time of selling Oxhay Batilla, which is great. Like, he's an incredible player. But also, we were just prepared for a blowout. And it was a blowout. And then all of a sudden, Denny McCarthy said, hold on. I'm here, and it started with this big pun on 12. And then an incredible iron shot on 13. And then do the chip in at 15, which is insane. Incredible birdie at 16, easy birdie at 17. And I mean, like, seven birdies in a row, like all that was insane. But I never would have pictured that the playoff could be as nuts as it possibly was. Like, we had the speed drama on 18 the day before, which was just absurd. And then we have on 18, like, when we go to commercial, we find out that Oxhay had asked one of the rules officials for his PT guy to come out. We're like, what in the world? What are you talking about? Like, we didn't see anything that-- because in our brains, we're like, what happened? And we find out it's a shoulder. And we were, like, kind of speculating that he'd do it on the fist bump, which is a tough scene, by the way. Yes. Yeah, I mean, I'll just kind of finish up through the playoff though. I mean, it was a layup. I like layups for both guys. And 100 yards, I really thought Denny was going to stuff in there to, like, a foot. I could not believe the result when he hit that golf shot. I mean, it just-- it wasn't a hard shot, but pressure, I guess. That's the only thing you could kind of wink it to. But then you also say, well, we had pressure over the last two hours and made ape out of the last night birdies in a row. So you're like, he was able to handle that pressure, just a lapse of concentration and or just golf. I don't know. And then we have Oxhay, who says, you know what? I saw him hit in the water. But you know what? I'm going to go get taped up and ice myself before hitting an 85 yard shot. And I'm just like, what is going on? You're not going to-- your shoulder isn't going to hurt that bad on this 85 yard shot to where you don't need to ice yourself. And he goes and gets taped up and then hits the shot. And he flushes it, obviously. Hits it a quarter feet and has a kid three-putt to win the golf tournament. Just insane, dude. Like, what a ridiculous golf tournament. That was so perplexing to me, because if you think about it, he only had one-- after watching Denny hit it in the water, he really only has one full swing left that isn't even a full swing. It's just probably a little abbreviated way swing. He was over. He was just hitting out there. Just hit a little chill. Hit a long chip with a long come up there and just do putter. You're good. And that blew my mind. And yeah, I mean, kind of to your point with Denny. And you were saying on the broadcast, I mean, it looked like we were going to have-- that he was going to be the one putting the pressure on Oxhay, because we thought we have no idea what's happening with the shoulder and the decision to ice himself all added to the drama of the finish there, which was awesome stuff leading to a master's week. Oxhay plays himself into the master's for the first time, which is kind of wild. I was wondering and looking at that playoff record, because they displayed that as they headed to that first playoff hole, sudden death, where Oxhay was one and no, and Denny is 0-1. But not sure if the stats there really tell the full picture, right? Because Oxhay, I believe, beat Patrick Rogers in that opposite field event last year. And it was Denny who, of course, famously went up against Victor Hovland rounding into form last year at the Memorial. But here we come down the stretch. And even though of very different situations, Denny continuing in a higher-profile tournament, it did look like maybe the pressure gets to him there, and he doesn't hit the shot. I mean, now it's just perplexing. It was, dude. I mean, it's a 100-yard shot, and I said this on there. Like, if he had 100 golf balls, I mean, I think he gets one in the water. Like, I think he gets one shot like that, and it just happened to be that one. So yeah, it's got to be really hard for Denny because he's good enough to win on the PGA Tour. It just hadn't happened yet. It's-- somebody had to lose this week, and the most ridiculous stat I've ever read my entire life, I tweeted it. I don't want to-- if you're able to pull it up on Twitter, I would love for you to read it out, because it's the most insane stat of how much strokes gain both of these two guys had this week. Like, I think they would have won 167 events. Correct. This is from @rigrungood on Twitter. Day McCarthy and @AkshayBatiya both gained 21.15 strokes to the field, which would have been good enough to win each of the last 167 PGA Tour events, including majors. And as you put it on Twitter as well, it's a real shame that one of those guys had to lose. And it was tough from a-- it was also tough. Let's really kind of turn this back and focus on ourselves because that's the most important part of yours. It was tough to see a friend of the pod and a deer one and Denny McCarthy lose. I mean, he was great to come on and give us some really cool stuff about the process of putting. I mean, that's one. If you're trying to kind of figure out some stuff on the green, going back and listening to that podcast or watching, it would be a really good one because he gave you some really good stuff there. So tough to see a friend of the pod go down. But perhaps a future a new friend of the pod here in Akshay with Tia, especially after hitting our fourth out of seven one and done picks. And also, the Fridays with Smiley Bump. We got our first win. And 10 years. I mean, some might say, hey, you were riding the front runner there after getting him on a Friday. You're watching two rounds. I've never had a five-shot lead, so good on me. I saw you trying to derail my one and done train by asking him, hey, do you have any trouble sleeping? Are you-- Look, it's kind of hard to interview a guy with a five-shot lead. I think I brought up-- the Masters has got to be on your mind. What are you doing to not think about that? The Roy interview was way easier to do than I'll change just because, were we had so much been Akshay? We had so much that he had on his mind that it's like, how do I tip toe around things? But you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, well, and I want to give back to the Roy interview because, boy, do we have a highlight in the middle of that one. But first, I have to just briefly-- I have to give you-- this is a little segment we're calling-- good news and bad news, OK? So I'm going to start with the good news. Is Corey Connors got you 30.25 FedEx Cup points this week and the one had done? The bad news is you're now 1,100 points behind. In my seven-week-- With the win. With the win. With the win. With the win, Stephen Yeager. Is there any points I have? You have 885 points. And I have 1,992. Dude, through seven weeks, that's a-- that's really good, like-- Yes. You're just on it. You're having a-- you're having quite the run right now. I'll have to give you credit. Let me say it this way, Smiley. If you were a player on the PGA tour that had made seven starts this season, you'd be 10th in the FedEx Cup. Are you done, Scotty? And I'd still be second behind Scotty. Which is yet another-- That puts things in perspective. It really, it really, really does. You know, if you were questioning Scotty's brilliance in any way, shape, or form, please don't. Because he's a robot. He's a golf robot. This is what I wanted to kind of get to from the Royal Interview as well. We're going to kind of ping-pong around here. Because this is basically going to be our big Valero Texas Open recap before we do a live show kind of previewing the Masters from T-Bone Steakhouse, as mentioned. Now, bear with me here. I'm going to try to share my screen. We're working on one screen this week here as we are in different places. But I want to share something with you and get your reacts to it. So here is an excerpt of Friday's with Smiley, the addition in which Rory McElroy joined you. Here we go. Let's see what we're looking at here, Roars. Yeah, so that's just wind. That's probably a left-to-right-- oh, we will be next to you. Oh, man, I'd like to say-- Jimmy Walker, obviously, we're cutting over to him on the eighth hole. And I see like he's not under par. And so I'm thinking this is-- it was a weird cut-in, because I think it was the first golf that we had shown with Rory to where he's going to call us some golf on another hole. And I thought, if anything, we would be going to watch Max Homa's group. Like, hey, what's cut-over to where Max is and what's called a shot on his hole. And when we flip over there, I hear like in my ear, it's like, hey, we're going to go eight. Like, hey, we're going to go eight. We've got to get there. And so I didn't know if I was expecting that. I was maybe expecting like a brutal lip out. But that was awesome. Like, that was awesome. Well, and so I have a statement for you and a question for you. My statement for you is, do you remember from the Windom Clark interview when he talked about doing the same thing with the lab putter? And it's the way that that shaft inserts into the head. But you can't unshat. It's like once you break it, it's broken. So the first thing I thought as soon as you popped, it was that interview you did with Windom where like, oh, yeah, don't do that to a lab putter. That's not ever going to end well with that type of putter. Second is, do you know what type of club he putted with the rest of the round? I couldn't figure out if he would, do you know if he started on the front of the back? Because if he started on the front, he could have had at least nine holes, nine plus holes of putting with a wedge. - That's a good question. If I could go look at the stats and be able to figure out pretty quickly though. If he's yelling a 50 footer and had like 16 feet per par or something like that, then you have to figure that he had 11 more holes left to go. - I mean, just truly amazing stuff. Like those moments, I love that. I love the drive chip and pot highlight from Akshay. Any other kind of things you want to hit on in terms of that Friday with Smiley's thing. 'Cause if I'm correct, that's kind of the end of the NBC run of those kind of Friday hits for now, right? - We shall see. - We shall see. - If you're listening to the podcast now watching on YouTube, first of all, go to YouTube, like, subscribe, things of nature, second. Smiley just took a very pregnant pause there. - I don't have an answer for you, but I also, I don't know, we'll see. - Stay tuned, watch the space. - So I'll say that Rory was really good, awesome that he sent us some videos for us to, like, diagnose us. - That was so cool. - We kind of brought the Smiley show to the set that day to kind of get a little gawk nerdy. And it just helped, I think anybody that was watching, it's like cool to see what he's working on and him explain it. And I'm trying to think what else was Rory that was really fun. We just had a, we had a really good back and forth and happy that he did it. But also, Akshay, I remember just thinking after that, just like, dude, this guy is like super confident. I think, I think that was the one thing my takeaway with him is I've known Akshay a while, like, I've gotten to know him better. Over the last six months, I'd say, I understand him better. I really am just so impressed at how good he is at golf. But it takes a certain type of person to be a 17-year-old turn pro and not go to college and get to this point. I already have two wins under his belt. I just don't think we're giving him enough credit for how good he is. He's all that, man. And I haven't really put him in that pedestal of a guy that could be on a president's cup team this year. Just, I haven't mentally gotten that far with Akshay. But there's no doubt, I think it's just that he's just so young and he's still growing, he's still maturing. And I think we saw this week, a dude, that's starting to put all the pieces together with his team. This guy's going to have a top caddy at some point. He's had so many different caddies. His caddy just left him to go to Caleb's Ross back on the live golf tour. So, you know, I think for him, just being able to play on the PGA Tour full-time this year, you're starting to see what he can do. You know, I think him winning this week and that big putty hit on 18. Dude, that's two putts now. He's hit in big moments on the 18th green. Did the Barracuda. He made like a 10 to 15 footer to win that event. So, it's impressive. He's got some stones, man. Dude, I mean, that's switched to that broomstick, that jailbird broomstick. Fusing the two hottest putting trends of the last year into one and finding some success there has been super cool. So, yeah, I mean, I think that that's an interesting one. A number of things in there that I kind of would want to unpack. One is on the caddy side. I mean, is this a guy, are we too early to kind of, you know, speculate as to whether Bones is trying to pick up a bag or go back to broadcast and pick your bones? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. That's a tough speculation to make on what Bones is going to do. I think I'd be surprised if Bones would be caddy next week for whether Doc Share or not, because this guy is like loyal to Justin Sub and just won this week. So, it'll be interesting to see if you actually has. I don't know. Do you think he takes it in Augusta National caddy? Like, I mean, is like local knowledge the most valuable thing he can have this week when he's done zero prep for the Masters because he wasn't in until he won? If I were him, I would just get you on the bag. I mean, you literally can't miss. So, just get Charlotte there in his bag. I'd be happy to do it. For those of us watching on YouTube, we noticed you've now relocated. You were at your gate. You were a mere minutes, maybe even moments away from boarding and flying onto the next destination. So, we're going to keep the rest of this quick. I just wanted to show you one more clip. This is a segment that I am calling. CSI, TPC, San Antonio. So, without further ado, let's take a listen. Okay. All right. I'm at the scene of the crime here at the 18 pole. This should look familiar. I think it's located in the divot. Do you want to speak? Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. I mean, look at that clubhouse. Isn't that kind of bad break, though? Because if it was maybe even just a step further back in this area, he's got a clear shot at the green. Tough break, but the content was fantastic. Yeah. Look at that. The content. I mean, that's something you can say about almost any Jordan speed around. The content is always fantastic. Yeah. I love that. For me, I was like, oh, wow. So, you see the highlights and you see the absurdity of as you put it so on the broadcast. He hits it up on the roof and it runs down. It's like going in a gutter and you're like, is this going to come out like some sort of, you know, Roomb Goldberg machine or whatever it's called and then pop out through his grandstand coming the other side? But to see it from that angle of a professional golfer, you know, let alone one is a multi major winner standing around the bottom and be like, yeah, I think I'm just going to whack it over the top of that clubhouse. I mean, it's just, it's the Jordan speed experience and it never fails to deliver. I mean, dude, it was just so insane. Like the speed stuff on 18. I mean, you saw it right there. I think he's, he almost outsmarted himself a little bit there, but it was almost like the most brilliant move of all time that would have been like, oh, my God, nobody else would have thought about doing that. And he was just one bad break away from it being like a brilliant move. And that's kind of like the, the, the line he drew there, which was just so close to being hilariously amazing, but also turn into a bit of a disaster. This is rapidly turning into maybe one of my favorite podcasts. We were filmed because you were walking to another game where they relocated you your phones almost out of battery. We're getting a tour of Dallas Lovefield airport behind you. We got to get you out here just really quickly. I just have two quick things. One is everybody please tune in on a Wednesday morning. You're going to get a podcast and, and a YouTube episode that is going to be a tape show from T-bone steakhouse in Augusta, Georgia, which is absolutely iconic. And as part of that episode, you're going to get some pics for the masters. I know that's why like probably most of you are now tailing those pics. Honestly, smiley. It's too much pressure. I don't know if I want to make pics anymore. Like I can only go down for me. I mean, Scottie. So I'd be able to see you go with. Yeah, I mean, you're going with Scottie. So at least the show's covered because he's absolutely going to win. But just any quick thoughts for you hop on the plane about the T-bone show because man, I cannot wait for this one. Yeah, I'm excited. I think just kind of getting in depth of, of the field and kind of like who I'm, who were like and who were, who were not like and for Augusta, you know, at this point the weather on Tuesday will have a general idea what the weather will be for Thursday through Sunday. And kind of, I'm going to do a little dive into the live guys and try to figure out who's playing good over there because I haven't got a chance to watch anything. But also too, like I'm kind of excited to see just in, in total like, you know, the ratings and stuff with TV have just been down. What is it going to be for the Masters? You know, is it where are we going to land on? Like, is it getting the guys back? Is that going to be the thing that we realize, okay, this we have the guys back and the ratings go up? I don't know if that's the case, but that's a totally different conversation, but the TV runs staying just in general. Yeah. It's going to be electric. Cannot wait. Maybe some new segments, some new bits. Yeah. Maybe, you know, we'll keep it fun. But you get out of here, go catch your flight. I appreciate you taking time to join from Dallas Lovefield and for everyone else. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. I'll see you on Wednesday for our Big Masters preview episode. See you. (upbeat music)