Billy Horschel Interview | The Smylie Show, 8/8/24

And we're going to take this thing all the way to the top. Now Hang in there it is. 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 am still locked away in my in-laws basement bar here in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. I am Charlie Hume. He's, of course, Smiley Kaufman. Back at home. And we're ready to rip into the PGA tour. Fedex Cup playoffs. Fired up to be on location the next couple of weeks with the show. Smiley. And we're going to kick that whole stretch off by having on a man who is currently 27th in the Fedex Cup standings and in the field this week at the Wyndham Championship, currently, the last odds I checked where he was tied for the second shortest odds. So a guy that we that, the oddsmakers really love this week, Billy Horschel. So excited to get to that conversation. And you going in depth with Billy Ho. But first, as always, we got to say a few words of thanks to our sponsor, wear SPF, and I'm just going to open up a little bit of show and tell here, smiley, because it ties into our theme this last month of, you know, it's been really hot. And Durham, North Carolina and spoiler alert I came to, Pennsylvania in August and it's still really hot and so and going out and playing golf, you know, I need to kind of have like a travel bag for my sunscreen. So I got my little Dumbarnie links bag they gave out for free when I was in Scotland. And, and you know, that's where I've been keeping my, my wear SPF sunscreen. So, you know, I got the little, little performance spray, which is it's been a little light right now. I think I might need to reload on that soon. That's been fantastic for that's I do arms and legs with that. I think I do have a discount code and little essential wear SPF for the face, so I and then of course you can't go without the lip balm. Like, you know, your lips can get burned to your huge lip balm. Yeah. Big lip balm. Guy A little weird when I'm a lip balm guy in the middle of the show. That's neither here nor there. I probably don't need it as much inside as I do need it outside on the course. So I would say all great products that are worth using on the golf course. And I don't need to talk about this any further or give you the discount code because as we've mentioned in previous weeks, we have all that preloaded ready to rock. Via Justin Thomas. Maybe the best ad we're ever going to have on the show. So I'm going to kick it right now to JT and listen up to make sure he gives you the discount code. You need to go get yourself some wear SPF sunscreen. Hi, I'm Justin Thomas and you're listening to the smiley Show presented by wear SPF. I'm doing this read because smiley is really bad at these. So I'm here to tell you that you can go right now to wear spf.com and buy one product with half off the second by using code smiley 50. That's s m y l I e five zero. Block the sun, not your drives like the high. Your king smiley Kaufman. Use wear SPF like I do and enjoy the rest of the smiley show. Well said. Bye, JT. So the code that's right there. Smiley face. So good. So good, just gets better every time we listen to it. That's that's the way you can get some sunscreen, so let's get right to it, smiley, you and Billy Ho and just tell us a little bit about what you're most looking forward to in this interview with Billy. Well, Billy's so thoughtful, right? Like he when he speaks, I listen, I just think he's he's so, you know, just when a topic is, is brought up or whether it's in a after after a round, you know, he, he, he gives every question thought. And I really felt like that shine in this interview, there wasn't, you know, a question I feel like he didn't just absolutely nail the answer to. So, you know, we talk of course, golf. We talk a little West Ham, if you're a West Ham or a soccer fan. Premier League, we talk a little of that, we also talk about something that you and I have spoken a lot about, which is the PGA tour, and just the way the model is now with the signature events to distribute distribution and its points list. So, that was super interesting hearing Billy's take on it for a guy who's been on on the tour for quite some time, but, yeah, overall, just I think the highlights though, was the Open Championship. You know, being there first hand and getting to watch his round on Saturday and getting an opportunity to hear, you know, just about the entire week in totality, I really felt like that was the highlight of the episode. But I'm not going to be the one to tell you what my favorite part is. Why don't you listen for yourself and see what's your favorite part was lots to get to. We will not make you wait any longer. Here is Smiley's conversation with Billy Horschel. All right, well, I welcome you back to the Smiley show. Very pumped to have Billy Horschel joining us here today. Billy, I know you're in North Carolina for the Wyndham Championship. It's supposed to just absolutely rain the next couple of days, which is such a bummer because I hear the course is, pretty firm and fast. Yeah this is a really fun course to play. I know the scoring, you know, is really low here. 18 and 20 on the parties, usually the winning score. But, you have to hit the fairways, if you missed the fairways, the rough is nasty. It's tough to control the ball into the green if you missed a fairway. So yeah, it's a little disappointing that it looks like we didn't get pounded with some rain here, starting tomorrow afternoon, and Thursday and Friday. So we'll see. Hopefully it's not as bad as they say, but, it doesn't look good as a bummer, right? It's such a bummer. It's such a good event. I know it's one you've had a lot of success in as well. So might may just be a little bit more of a shootout and ball in hand. Yeah, it's going to be a shootout. I mean, listen, if we get 3 to 5 to possibly eight inches as a calling, it's going to be a shootout. And yeah, ball in hand, I guess the only good thing is we always get good lies and you see some great golf shots. Well, we're definitely going to be watching. We're going to be tuning into Billy Horschel making a bunch of birdies in North Carolina. And for most of the people that are watching and listening, they just saw you have just an incredible Open Championship. We're going to go in depth into that here. A little later in the episode, but I think the best way to kind of get started off is actually a best of. I have three best ofs that I'm going to ask you that, just kind of get us warmed up here going, Billy. And the first one is the best four to football game that you've ever been to was when and where, well, it's going to be in Gainesville swamps. Unbelievable play. I thought you might just say, you kno, that time I went to Death Valley, I thought there was a chance he might go there, but. No, you know, I haven't, it's the one thing I want to do. I haven't been to any other stadium in the SEC. So. Really. Yeah, I haven't, I just haven't made a concerted effort to get it done. But, I think, here we're doing next couple of years. My, my kids are into it and especially my little boy, he loves it. So we're trying to go to some away games, I would say the loudest swamp ever was, was 2006, against South Carolina, where he had blocked a last minute field goal, I think it was Jarvis Moss blocked it, and the stadium went berserk. I mean, so loud. And when they say, you know, you hear people say, well, the stadium shakes, you know, here. Oh yeah. The stadium was shaking, I can guarantee you the swamp was literally shaking. I mean, where were we standing? You could feel like this. This swamp was shaking. So that's that's one of the best ones, I would say the best game. I probably went to, Auburn came to town. This is 2019. They were fourth ranked in the in the in the country. I can't remember if we were ranked or not, but we absolutely destroyed them. I think we were up 21. Nothing real quick in the game. And that was an awesome game to be a part of. Yeah, I know, Florida's probably in this zone right now where they they need a big year, but man, that schedule is just absolutely brutal. And it's a shame too, that LSU and Florida, you know, we're so used to playing each other year in and year out. And now with Oklahoma and Texas and them splitting the divisions and going to just one big division, we don't play you guys anymore. I was looking forward to that game because it was always nuts. Every single year. It was and, you know, it was it was different, with like the LSU rivalry versus, like a Georgia rivalry or Florida State or even Tennessee. I felt like we there was a little more respect between the LSU Tigers and the Florida Gators amongst the fans a little bit, obviousl, yeah, we could get a little spicy towards each other, but it was just it was just a it was always I felt like a little more respectful compared to like, we absolutely hate Georgia, we hate Tennessee and we hate Florida State. And when I tell people like, who do you, you know, who's the team that you guys hate the most, you know, they think we're going to say Georgia or Tennessee or LSU. I'm like, no, we hate Florida State. I mean, the two teams that we want to beat every year, every year is Florida State and Georgia. And so yeah, we're going to miss that that LSU rivalry. We got a tough schedule. No doubt about it. I think it's the toughest schedule in the last decade plus in college football. I think all the betting, all the bookies average at four and a half wins. I'm taking the over and I'm very confident in the over. I'm very confident that I think we're going to be a 500 team, if not better. I think we're we're sort of getting a little disrespected right now. And listen, I, I am biased. I am a University of Florida, you know, alum played golf there and everything. But I'm a realist. And I would tell you if I think we're going to have a bad year, I'm not afraid to admit if we're going to suck or not. But I think this year with what we got coming back and Graham Mertz and what he did last year at quarterback and. Right, right. If the defense can play a little bit better, which I think we got, we brought in a lot better defensive coaches to help with that. I think we're going to surprise some people. So. Hopefully they learned their lesson. Hey, this ain't the NBA bro. You don't have six fouls and they will check you on this stuff. And Brooks has a reputation coming into this. You can tell the refs are watching him and they were on him all the time. This was 1012 years ago. Canada playing Ge with that type of lead that they had. They probably would have mentally crumbled and lost that game to Greece by like 3 or 4 points in the final minute of that ball game. Sports rage late night only on sports grid. What is the ceiling for this kid? Natalie's got the money, and we saw something. Click with him. What is the. What is the ceiling for a Jordan love in this green Bay team? Deepest cash target group in the National Football League. Two stud tight ends. They're legit. Five deep at receiver, seven bonafide pass targets. Fields. Come on, man, they're this guy could be a stud. Top five quarterback game time decisions only on sports grid. They say the under has the correct juice to the six and a half win total for the New York Giants. It's a losing season. It's a bad season in the greater New York area. Is Brian Daboll. And is Joe Shane back next year as a Giants fan, what are you looking forward to? Absolutely nothing. You're hoping like the Yankees make a long enough run so you can forget about the Giants. The early line only on sports grid. If the US gets to a bad start and they're down or close, I'm a double down on the second quarter because I know that that's when Steve Kerr is going to want to either a if it's close, like, you know, open it up. If they're losing, you got to get the lead because you don't want teams like it was in South Sudan. They believe that they can win betting above the rim only on sports grid. You know, it's August when we're we're all talking about the four letter word, which is hope. You know, it's the hope that, you know, maybe this is the year that you know that all the experts are wrong and that and that your team goes out and has a big year. So now that we don't play you guys, best of luck. I'm so used to just, you know, forwarding us had the best rivalry. So, look forward to seeing how Billy Napier and the team do so. Yeah, it's just right around the corner. And, two more best of I got for you, Billy, best advice that you would give to young dads? I know you mentioned your kids a minute ago, talking about going to some games. What would be some advice you'd give to a young dad that's just getting started, starting their family? Oh, man, you can give a ton of advice. I think, obviously, just be really supportive of your kids, supportive of what they want to do, but also let them figure things out. Let them, you know, if things get hard for them, you know, they have to figure out how to, to deal with that, how they're going to overcome that, how they're going to, get through that hard times. I mean, it's easy for us as adults to show to sort of show them the way and, and make things that are hard for them easier. But I think that doesn't help them later in life. So I think for me, it's being very supportive of my kids and letting them, figure out how to get through some hard times, but at the same time, giving them support to, to be successful, in whatever endeavor they get into. You know, that kind of leads me right into my last best of question. And it's the advice that you would give to a junior golfer and that and that because, you know, you got to figure it out at some point in this game and, and you never really figure it out. Whether you're an eight time PGA tour like Billy Horschel or one time winner like myself or a junior golfer who's got all the information in the world, and they watch these best players on TV and, you know, it's tough because there is more information out there now, from coaches and what they see on TV. What advice would you give a junior golfer coming up right now, well, there's two pieces of advice I would give for junior golfers. I think the first one is that they have an excellent opportunity to network with individuals in the business world by playing in these junior AMS that they play in the ajga, by playing at an AMS that they play in, in college, and then if they decide to turn pro, playing in pro AMS, make sure that these people that you play with, you create a relationship with because you never know, at some point in life how they can influence your, your path in this world, whether it be sponsoring you someway as a professional golfer or if golf doesn't, ultimately come to fruition, you know, reaching out to these people that you've had a relationship with, they can open up a door to a new path in life. And that being the business world in some areas, that you have an interest in. So making sure that you treat people the right way, making sure that you network and you create these relationships of successful business, men and women that you come across is vital to being to having a, you know, giving yourself the best opportunity to succeed in this world. Now, when it comes to golf, I would say work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard. You cannot work hard enough. I don't care what anyone says. If you think you're working hard, I guarantee you there's a whole bunch of other. There's more players, more. There's other men, other women that are working harder than you, I know it's a it's a, tough thing to do, and it takes a lot of sacrifice and it takes a lot of time. Golf is probably the one sport compared to other sport that takes more time than any other. Any others because of the amount of time you have to spend on each aspect of the game and everything, but to give yourself the best chance of succeeding. Make sure you're working as hard as you possibly can. And you're, you know, you're flipping over every stone possible. You're not leaving any stone left unturned, because at the end of the day, whether you make it or you don't make it, you want to be able to look in the mirror and say, hey, listen, I gave it everything that I possibly could, and I'm I can hold my head up high that, you know, I did everything I could to be successful, whether it worked out or it didn't work out. And the answer sometimes is always in the dirt. And really good hard work. And Billy, actually, you know, you turned you turned pro in in oh nine. You get your card in ten through Q-School. And I met you in 2015 kind of in the fall when I'm coming out. So I've had a chance to kind of observe you and kind of your work ethic, watch what you do in the gym, how hard you work on the golf course, your preparation. From from the my lens at least, is I think that you're one of the hardest workers on the tour. I'm sure that's something you pride yourself on as well. Was that something that came natural to you even in junior golf? And, when you turned pro, or did you learn that once you got out on tour, it's like, man, I got to keep working hard to stay out here for, you know, you've been out there for however many years now. I can't even do the math, which is a great it's a great sign for somebody who's had a great career. Yeah. I've always been a hard worker. It was instilled in me by my parents were we are we are blue collar to the tee. My parents, my dad worked construction for 50 years, my mom, you know, I can never know exactly what she did, but, she did some buying and selling for companies, and, neither of my parents had a college degree, my mom actually went back when she was in her early 50s and got a degree, but. Yeah I the hard work portion has always been instilled in me. I mean, I got dropped off at the golf course, during the summers at 7 a.m, and I got picked up, you know, 7 p.m. You know, it was just the way it was, yeah. So I was always at the golf course. Always worked hard, like I said, I mean, I my, I've worked many other construction jobs with my dad having to wake up at 4:00 in the morning, be leave the house at five, be on the job site at six. Once sun's up, we're working from sunup to sundown, you know, did that, several times growing up for, you know, seven, ten plus days. So working, you know, 12, 14, 15, 16 hours a day at a job site when my dad is nothing unusual, nothing that, that I not I'm used to that. And so I carried that into golf because I didn't want to go work construction. If I'm going to spend 16 hours, doing something, I'd rather do it on the golf course instead of working at some job site. You know, being a grunt guy. And so, so, yeah, I, I've always had it. I love working at the game. I love it. And I think when you love something and you're really passionate about it, you don't mind putting in the hours like you enjoy it. And it's not always enjoyable. But for the most part, it is enjoyable because you're seeing, you know, the benefits of getting better. You're seeing, you know, the success of the hard work come to fruition at some point in time down that roa. Yeah, I think if you asked Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele about the money that they've made this year from how well they've played, I think they would their answer would be I don't, I don't really care. Like yeah, it's nice. But you know what. What we look to as athletes is to put a plan in place, go out, work your tail at it and to be able to execute it throughout the week. And then at the end of the week, it's a bonus. It's like, great. This is you know, this is the goal I set out. And I was able to stick to my plan and work harder than everybody else. And that is the fun of being a professional athlete. Try and set the stage for what should be a great year of NFL action. There's a handful of teams that potentially can compete for a Super Bowl championship. Confusion and uncertainty this year, more than some in the past, this team looks like it's ready to make a move, but we just don't know if it's bad or good this year. J.J. McCarthy is eventually going to take over, but it's like it's a no lose situation for them. I mean, they suck. They were seven only on Sports Grid. Hopefully they learned their lesson. Hey, this ain't the NBA bro. You don't have six fouls and they will check you on this stuff. And Brooks has a reputation coming into this. You can tell the refs are watching him and they were on him all the time. This was 1012 years ago Canada playing Greece with that type of lead that they had, they probably would have mentally crumbled and lost that game to Greece by like 3 or 4 points in the final minute of that ballgame. Sports rage late night only on sports grid. They say the under has the correct juice to the six and a half win total for the New York Giants. It's a losing season. It's a bad season in the greater New York area is Brian Daboll. And is Joe Shane back next year? As a Giants fan, what are you looking forward to? Absolutely nothing. You're hoping likee Yankees make a long enough run so you can forget about the Giants the early line only on sports grid. The bottom of this field is a bunch of guys, quite frankly, that aren't on the tour, aren't on the DP tour, aren't on the Korn Ferry Tour. You know, the top 25 or so in this field. I mean, you've got Rory, you've got Lowry, you've got Scheffler. You know, all four Americans, Minwoo Lee and Jason Day, and you go to Mido Pereira and Joaquin Niemann out of Chile. So, you know, it really is pretty deep in game. Live Prime time only on Sports Grid. You know, I've obviously people have been, you know congratulating me on a great week for, for the last couple of weeks. And I've been discussing it with them and, and I've told them I said I was disappointed when I walked off the golf course because I didn't win, but I played exactly the way I wanted. Yes, I missed a little short putt at eight. Yes. I didn't hit a good iron shot at ten, but I hit some really quality shots. I just didn't make enough putts. Zander played an unbelievable round the golf. I, I held my own. I felt comfortable in the situation. The situation never took, you know, took over me at all. And I felt really good. And I was, even though I finished second, even though I was disappointed, I didn't win. And, you know, it's something I've always wanted to do is win a major, and you never know how many opportunities you're going to get. You got to take advantage of the ones you do, I was still very happy with, with my entire week and it sort of, you know, gives you that little kick of extra confidence. It gives you that little kick to continue to work harder. And you carry that little high for a little for a little while because you're like, man, I know I was so close. I just want to get back in that arena as quickly as I can. It's a shame that it's nine months away. Back to the next major championship for you. I imagine that's for at your stage of the career. You just want as many at bats at major championships as you can get, especially, you know, coming off an Open championship where you finish T-2 and luckily for me, Billy, I had the best seat in the house on Saturday. You know, getting to watch the group of the day. Like, you know, I go out there and I get the Billy Horschel Justin Rose pairing and I go, you know, I'd actually gone out a little earlier. I think I was with Sam Burns and, and Jordan's group, and I'm out there watching them, the rain wasn't there yet, and I'm watching these guys make birdies. And I'm thinking to myself, it's like, God, there's these guys right now in this wave. Are able to really play themselves into the golf tournament because of the projected forecast that we had. And so I finished their group. I go get some lunch and I head to the range, and while I'm heading to the range, it's raining and it's and it's raining pretty good. So I go and watch yours and Justin Rose's warm up, and I'm thinking to myself, I was like, man, this is like, I think this is the widest it's going to be all day. And this is kind of brutal. I mean, what was your mindset when you got on the range? You're warming up and you have to just get so mentally prepared for just absolute open championship type weather. Yeah. Listen, I think as any professional golfer, we don't mind playing in rain and the wind and the cold like it's flying, but we want to warm up in good condition. We don't want to warm up in the rain like it's. It's like if it's windy, it's cold, it's fine. But when it's raining it's just like, gosh, it's you don't I mean, for me, I don't know what other guys are like, but I don't I don't swing the same way when it's raining, like, I'm a I'm just always like it's little half swings, three quarter swings. I'm not swinging full out because I want to control the golf ball. And so you're not really you're just warming up in the rain. It's just never fun. And so I knew it was going to be a brutal day of golf. I knew, going out was going to be really tough because that wind was coming from the southwest. And I knew when we, when we actually know mine, it was coming. It was coming from the northwest. So I knew going out the wind was going to be down and it was going to be helping. And we got to take advantage of some of the holes early, because I knew when we turn, it was supposed to pick up and get a little worse. And, you know, we didn't know what to expect. And so you know, I went out and I got off to a really good start. You know, I was four under, I think after seven holes or something. Birdied you, birdied five, which I felt like it was a it was probably the easiest pen they had all week there. But still you and Justin both made twos there. And that's when I was like, okay, this this group is about to get it going here. Yeah. And so yeah, it was it was it was tough. And then when we turned around, I think ten wasn't that big of a deal because we hit, we I hit driver, Rosie hit three wood and the ball didn't go very far in number ten. But I didn't like hit it full out. And so I was like okay, no big deal. And I hit a, I hit I got to 11 and I was lucky enough. On Tuesday I teed off really early on Tuesday, I went off at 650 and I played the first nine holes in no win. And when I got to the backside, that North Wind came in. So I had a really good nine holes of prepping for, you know, at least the win. And you know, the lines. And so I hit my tee shot at 11 and I pushed it a little bit, cut it a little bit more than I wanted. I thought, no big deal. You know, I think I thought it was in the fairway. And then when I got up there and I was when I saw I was only three yards away from the gorse and I was like, Holy smokes! And I saw roses and he's hitting two iron in the green. And obviously I played it safe and just laid up with a five iron. I was like, wow. And then we get to number 13 and we hit that tee shot and I was like, this is going to be this is going to be some fun golf coming in. And, yeah, listen, it was it was one heck of a day. And I think in those conditions when you play an Open Championship and, and I've been fortunate enough, to play in the Dunhill the last 3 or 4 years and play at least one round, like that every every day, or at least one round every year. In that tournament and conditions like that. So you understand after playing that what you can and can't do, you know, physically, mentally and everything and, and know you just have to bunt the ball, keep the ball in play, not do anything stupid. You got to rely on your short game, make some putts because you know it's going to be a tough day. You know you're going to be you know, bogeys are going to happen and you're just really trying to limit the damage you can. And I did a really good job, the entire day, the only thing I was, I was frustrated with when I walked off that golf course was that a bogey at 18 after being in the middle of the fairway, and so that was the only thing that I was disappointed with, but it was still a great round of golf and some really tough conditions. What has happened, what has transpired here at the first Bank center here in Denver, Colorado? It wasn't just a big night of fights. It was a big night of memorable moments. Conor McGregor with us here in Denver, Colorado. The left hand from Rockhold. Right hand right back from Rick Perry. And right now three. And oh and back to see could I get a face off with Conor McGregor man I mean that's it's an incredible setup here. Incredible matchmaking incredible storytelling. All you had to come here all these fighters that step in here a warriors and all have my respect and I'm into this game. Yeah we'll be into this. Yeah And we are live here in the Maverik Center here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Folks. What a night. It is going to be historic indeed for BKFC 56. Whoever's the king of violence right here, this is going to be a great fight. Murray, on the ground for that right hand from my day job. Who's the king of my life? I air combat fighting in its purest form. Bare knuckle fighting in the city of Angels. 80s remaining round number one with both hands up. What is it? We've got the biggest announcement in the BKFC history. We're about to make. So let's make that announcement. What's up? Knuckle mania? The notorious Conor McGregor here, ladies and gentlemen, the huge announcement that I have for you today, Conor McGregor, myself and McGregor Sports and Entertainment is now an owner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. Welcome to the big leagues, David Feldman. Baby. We did it. He's now an owner of BKFC with us. And we're going to take this thing all the way to the top. Now. By my just lens that day, it was one of the more impressive rounds I've ever witnessed. You know, I thought the front nine. I know you said that there was an opportunity for some scoring there. I still felt like it was was was hard just with the conditions. I know the conditions were favorable, but still, you went out and just absolutely just you hit every single fairway and every single green on the front side, which is exactly what the game plan called for. And up until that point in the week, I mean, you're weeding, you're weeding the field and fairways hit, greens hit, you're just absolutely destroying this golf course by putting the ball in the fairway and voiding the bunkers. And then we turn around and go to that back nine. And it was it. It was so opposite of the front of fairways and greens. It didn't matter. I mean, you were hitting fairways, but it was just a green zone. But it did. But I mean you could barely even get to him. I mean you're hitting three woods. There was six par fives on the back nine. Right. Like and so you said. So you had about 4060 yards on a couple holes where you're trying to get up and down. You get it up and down. Of course, on both of them. And I'm just sitting there watching. I'm like, if this is literally like, I don't even know if Billy knows he's or Justin. No, they're playing in an open right now because it looks like they're just in their own world, out chipping and putting and just enjoying just playing in the elements. And that's what it looked like from my perspective. Yeah. It was. And listen, I mean, it was you know, you knew you were in obviously Open Championship but like it was it was enjoyable. And I obviously when you're playing well in those conditions it makes it more enjoyable. There's no doubt about it. But I don't know what it was. Obviously Rosie's a really good friend. She's a really good friend, future caddie for me for a few years, of course, but it was just one of those things where it just that day I was just really excited about playing golf, and I was excited about, you know, when I made the turn to play in conditions like that. And like I said, I think because I've played in conditions like that a little bit more often, most guys. And Rosie has too, obviously being a European Tour player and everything, he's playing these conditions quite a bit too. You just sort of enjoy it and you understand that this, the golf you're going to play is not pretty. Golf It's just about getting the ball in the hole, with the least amount of shots possible. You're not going to hit pretty golf shots. You're not going to the swing's not going to feel pretty. Nothing's going to feel pretty. But what's pretty is when you walk off the green and you made a par on a really tough, you know, like on 15, you make par on 15. Like that was a really good par there. Oh my God was it ever I mean I was I was audibly laughing at Rosie the entire day or at least the back nine because every single shot he got over, he got frustrated with the bill of his cap. So he then he kept on moving it and then he would turn it around. And you the entire day you're like, I'm back, retired. I'm not dealing with it. And Rosie kept on getting annoyed. He's like this raindrop. And then and then it's his grips. And it was just every single shot he had to back off to get his grips, and it was the whole back nine. And I don't know how many towels they went through, but I went through a lot. Yeah. I mean it had to be 8 or 9. It was up there. Yeah. I love Fooch and this and he's he's going to give me some stick if he hears this, but he doesn't. And he's caddie for me too. So I know this. He doesn't really do a good job of keeping the towels dry. Let's just say that so he's got always have a lot of towels. I mean when caddie for me, you know, I remember opening up the bag one day. He had like five towels in there and we knew it was going to rain. Why do you have five towels? And like, now I know. I mean, obviously I figured out why because, you know, he's caddie for me. He doesn't really do a good job keeping the towels dry. Like, I think I went through 2 or 3 towels, but but yeah, they were, they were struggling a little bit over there. But yeah, it was funny. It was funny. The best thing about it, I see Mark Blackburn left at the 14th green and he's got seven towels in his hand that he's about to hand to them to the guys to, to get some clean towels. And I was like my goodness, this is this is just comical. We were walking down 11 fairway and I saw Fooch talking to I don't know if it was a rules official or one of the, you know, walkers with us and I'm like, okay, what's that all about? And then we walk off number 12 tee and the guy's like, okay, we got towels coming out. And then on 13, you know, and on 12 green, there's a bag of towels that comes out and she's like, this is just a disgrace that they didn't have any towels on number ten with all the rain. They should have had towels out there. And the little player at Villa Tint out there with towels. And so I just started laughing. I was like, I said, that's funny. It's just that big. So I love the way you kind of approach the round, which is very blue collar, which is you know what, rain jacket. I'm good. I'm just going to get wet. I'm going to be cold and I'm just going to deal with it. But you kind of mentioned you know, swinging in rain jackets. You never swing like yourself when it's raining. And it's cold and it's windy and you just bunt it around. And that's literally I'm watching, you know, when I stand 50 yards out in front, these shots that you hit, they just go like boo. They just kind of bunted out there. I'm like, well, at least he's keeping it in front of him because that's what you have to do on this back nine. Exactly. And you know, it wasn't raining hard enough for me to keep the jacket on all the time. It was just one of those, you know, at times it got it hard. It rained hard. So I kept it on a few holes, the swing. But the other time it's just like, man, it just it's not. I'm just going to take the jacket off and I'm going to swing without it because I'm just going to make better swings and the ball is going to go a little bit further without me having the rain jacket on, because I put the rain jacket on. It's going to go even shorter, with everything. So yeah, I just I was, you know, I got the idea because I've never seen a PGA tour player do it. A male golfer do it. But I've got the idea because I watched enough golf, I'm a golf fanatic, so I watch a lot of golf. And so I've seen these LPGA girls, whether it was rainy or whether it's cold, like they have this one jacket that they put on and when they go to hit, they take it off and then they put it, they put that jacket back on and I'm like, and I'm thinking myself, I'm going to do that today because that's that's what I want to do and I don't care. And, and people were like, man, you didn't wear a jacket at all. I said, no, I was taking on and off. So people thought, some people thought I didn't wear a jacket. All I said, no, I had a jacket on. I said, it just was. It was raining too hard for me not to, you know, not to have a jacket on in between shots, because then I would have just got drenched with it. The shirt would have just been soaking wet by, you know, within a hole and a half. I was a I mean, it was a lot for me as an on course commentator to keep up with the script. It was just there was a lot going on that day. It was. And if you finish out the day, it was it was fun to watch and then Sunday, of course, you, you know, everything just kind of ended up where you're now. You're in the final group and you have a lead. So tell me about your mindset going into Sunday, because I felt like the most difficult thing about the week at Troon was not really knowing what exactly a good score was going to be in your pocket. You're exactly right. And that's the Open Championship for you. Depending on, you know, when you tee off and the conditions, you know, even par one under was a really good score. And then other times if their conditions were favorable like you could shoot five six under par or it could be the opposite way, like playing Saturday, you know, two three over par even though that's, you know, you hate shooting that high, it's still a possibility. And that's not actually a bad score. So, yeah, I felt good on Sunday, I woke up, I was, I felt relaxed, I was, you know, just chatting away with my team. Todd Anderson and Mark Horton was there. We had a buddy up from London, George Jennings, hanging out with us all week. And so, yeah, it was fun that morning. I felt relaxed and comfortable and I wasn't nervous at all. And usually sometimes when that happens, when I get on the first tee, I start feeling the nerves. And I didn't I didn't feel any nerves. I felt comfortable, I was, I felt relaxed, I was excited about, you know, what was going on that day. And I think I think for me and I talked about it, you know, in interviews Saturday night, I, I'm different. I want to address the situation. I can't sort of not think about winning the open Championship. And I cannot just sort of, you know, plug it off to the side. And I think, that's helpful for sure. Yeah, it's helpful for me. And I remember Shane Lowry talking about it, I think Saturday night, you know, when he had the chance, when he was leading the Open Championship at Portrush, he talked about, you know, envisioning himself winning the Open Championship and just you know, what that would mean and feel like I think he talked about that with his team. And you know I did something very similar to that. And, a lot of times when I'm nervous, or at least in that stage when you're playing really well and you're up near a lead, the reason I'm nervous is because obviously I could play well, I could be I could play bad, but I'm I'm nervous because if I play bad, I'm worried that people who don't know me don't care about me. You know, they're going to say that, on social media, like, oh, you, you know, you suck. Whatever. We know what you know. You know, social media, we all know social media. You know what? Those, you know, trolls do on on social media. And I'm like, why am I if that's the reason I'm nervous and I shouldn't be nervous because they have no importance in my life and they couldn't even come close to doing what I do on the golf course. So at that point I was like, man, that's the only reason I'm nervous. I'm not worried about playing bad. I know I'm going to play well, and I know the people that care about me and love me, they're going to still care about me and love me. You know, whether I win this or not, they're not. It's not going to change anything. And so I was like, man, I'm only nervous because I'm worried that if I don't play well, people are going to, you know, say things about me that just aren't true. And, and, and, and so that was it. And when I realized I was like, yeah, let's just go enjoy it. Like there's, you know, you're going to play well. So let's not worry about what someone says that has no importance in your life whatsoever. He's blocked well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York D has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. It just goes to show you how special this guy is, and I can't figure out why he doesn't cut through like the Tiger Woods of the world in that kind of dominant fashion. In years past. He stepped up to the tee box on the 14th hole, and he was 60 to 1 to win that golf tournament. You know, he was trailing by six shots and he comes out on top. Newswire only on sports grid. One of the things I did notice and I caught on to this while I was out there, and I know you're a West Ham guy and I kept on hearing like, come on, irons. And I was like, what are the people saying? But yeah, like, you're you're kind of like the European of, of the Americans for us. Like you're, you're like our, our spy. Right. Like you're the guy that we send out there and you kind of are the middle ground for us with these European fans or I guess the English, soccer fans, I should say. Yeah. I've got a very good relationship with the UK fans. They've, they've been really great to me, you know, it started back in 2019. When is that? Wentworth played? When I played Wentworth, I just enjoyed it over there a lot, and they embraced me and then obviously a couple years later I won the BMW PGA in 21, I rocked the West Ham bag at the Open Championship in 21 for the first time. And then that opened up an entire new like door for them. And me, because I was supporting a club that's a very blue collar club. That's not one of the top clubs in the country or in the Premier League. And, I and then I at the same time, like, I'm supporting West Ham, but I'm supporting like the, the sport that they founded, you know, they, they founded soccer, they invented soccer. And so or football and so they wanted so just embracing, you know, realizing, hey, here's an American who loves football. He supports West Ham like this is really cool. And they've been great. Not just the West Ham fans but also the supporters of other clubs and everything. I get so many messages on on social media, they're like, hey Billy, we're really big fan of yours, the only thing we don't like is that you're a West Ham fan. You know, we're a Spurs fan or a Blues fan or a Reds fan or whatever it may be. Liverpool fan. I mean, you know, it's one of those things where, they really embrace me and taking them, and taking me under their wing. I've been very appreciative of that. And I've showed that to them. And I think obviously that's where our relationship has, has grown. And listen, it's awesome. I get questions all the time about the Ryder Cup and everything. And they're like, hey, do you have any English blood in you? Is there any way you can be part of the European Ryder Cup team, and they're like, we would love to have you. But listen, it's awesome. I love it over there. I love playing, I love the culture. I love, you know, spending the time over there, you know, outside of golf, I probably make 3 to 5 trips over to the UK, to London, a lot of times the hang out with friends and to go to some West Ham, games. So yeah, it's been really cool. And like you said. Yeah, they say, come on, you irons or up the hammers are the two things they say. And then the be serenaded with the song that we're, synonymous with with, forever blowing bubbles. That's another thing that's really cool. And I mean, listen, they sung that on number 12 on Saturday when I walked up to the green, someone started singing it. Everyone started singing around the green. And listen, I've had that happen many a time. But right then and there at the Open Championship special, it was special. And I literally got goosebumps. I just, I it's one of the, you know, coolest moments that I've had in my career, man, that's too cool. And I from doing some research just on West Ham before, talking with you, Billy, I guess green Street Hooligans is kind of how you became acquainted with, the West Ham's football club. So now, you know, not that I get very much time to watch movies or anything, but I got to do a little recon and watch green Street Hooligans because, hey, maybe I'm going to be a West Ham guy. Hey, listen, it's a great movie. I love it. It's I'm not one of those guys that or those people that, really care about the plot and the storylines and everything. And I think it's a cool storyline, I just like to watch an enjoyable movie, and it's an enjoyable movie to watch. And Charlie Hunnam was the first time that I've ever seen him as an actor, and now I'm a massive Charlie Hunnam fan. Whatever movie he's in or anything like, I love watching him as an actor, and then Elijah Wood was in it, so listen, I think it's a really cool movie. Like I said, that's how I got into being a West Ham fan watching in 2006, in college and I was absolutely hooked for so fact that the movie's not even about football. It's about the firms and supporters of the club and the fighting aspect, the hooliganism behind, the clubs. Like all I thought about, man, I would love to be, you know, part of one of these, I think it was ICF or IFC. I think it was ICF, was what the firm was in West Ham, and I was like, man, I want to just be part of this firm. I want to go, you know, just fight guys before games and everything or anywhere else. Like, that's. I just wanted to be a hooligan and fight people. Like, I just thought, listen, I thought it was a cool thing, but then you come to find out that it was a real thing back in the da, in the Premier League in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, and then people died, you know, in these, in these, fights that these clubs, these firms, supporters of the clubs that they check this out, check it out. It's a real deal. And it was a real, real thing. So, yeah, like I said, I love it. I'm happy to be part of the West Ham family. They've taken me in as their own, and it's just been really cool. Okay, who wins a trophy first? Florida football or West Ham and let's say the FA Cup or, maybe we're fortunate enough we were good enough to win a your Europa Conference League two years ago, which is another competition. But it's like the lowest of the three. It's a trophy competition. Hey it's the questions. And who wins a trophy next. Is it CCP next? Is it SEC championship for Ford or is it does West Ham find a trophy before Ford? I think the betting odds would probably say maybe. Gosh, I don't know. You tell me. I don't know what the betting odds would say. I would say. Right now with with the group of players we've put together over the last, couple months in the summer transfer window for West Ham, I would think that we have a good chance over the next couple of years of winning a trophy, whether it be FA, caribou. I mean, Premier League is tough to win, but we can get ourselves back into the Europa League, well League Cup competition. Yeah. You know, you got you know, you got champions, you got Europa, you got your Europa League and got Europa Conference. So I would think West Ham right now with the group of squad, we put together, I think the new manager, was fortunate enough to be around the team this past week down in Tampa when they were playing some of their preseason stuff. Oh great, his, his style of play and everything's going to be really entertaining for us. But I think, I think West Ham, has the better chance. Right now just because you got new players coming in every couple of years at Florida, it's a college team. You get them for two, three, four years and they're gone, you know? So it's tougher to predict. But, I don't think Florida is too far behind. I think whether this year is going to be tough, obviously Graham Mertz is going to I think have a great year, but we've got a lot of great young talent and DJ lag and some other players. He looks good, Wilson. He looks good. Yeah, and first guy off the bus quarterback type of guy. Exactly. And, I think Billy Napier and his staff's putting together a really good recruiting class over this past year. And in the couple of years to come. So, I mean, it's head to head, but I'm going to say West Ham probably gets it done because there's more opportunities to win a trophy than than Florida. SEC is brutal, too, so we'll have to see. All right. I'm gonna keep my eye on that one. Let's hopefully then take hopefully like we're not talking about this in 20 years now that we have a trophy. Exactly. If the US gets to a bad start and they're down or close, I'm a double down on the second quarter because I know that that's when Steve Kerr is going to want to either a if it's close, like, you know, open it up. If they're losing, you got to get the lead because you don't want teams like it was in South Sudan. They believe that they can win betting above the rim only on sports grid. What is the ceiling for this kid? Natalie's got the money, and we saw something click with him. What is the. What is the ceiling for a Jordan love in this green Bay team. Deepest cast, target group in the national football League. Two stud tight ends. They're legit. Five deep at receiver, seven bonafide pass targets. Fields. Come on, man. There. This guy could be a stud. Top five quarterback. Game time decisions only on sports grid. It just goes to show you how special this guy is. And I can't figure out why he doesn't cut through like the Tiger Woods of the world in that kind of dominant fashion. In years past, he stepped up to the tee box on the 14th hole and he was 60 to 1 to win that golf tournament. You know, he was trailing by six shots and he comes out on top. Newswire only on sports grid. However many units are on the line. However, many people, however many cocktails like it's a perfect score card and he was someone questionable in one hole. He was like, well, one thing I never get wrong is the scorecard. And then we're on like 13 and he's added up and he's like, this is wron. I looked back from number 13 and I'm like, I'm missing $0 somewhere. I don't know where I'm missing it. And I'm looking back and I'm like, no, yeah, it doesn't match up on 11. And I got to track it back to like number seven, only on sports Grid. Well, as you mentioned on the front end of this smiley, really fun conversation with Billy Wide ranging. Definitely a thoughtful guy. And cool to hear his reflections on a number. Yeah, give him the Gator chomp, and then I'll give him the chomp. I'll give him the chomp. Give him the I mean, I can't believe I'm a Tottenham supporter, so it's hard to do this, but I'll give you a little little ions here for all the West hammers out there blowing bubbles. If you're not watching, it's just basically you're putting your your fists on your opposite shoulder and it's just an X. I think that's what it is. So if you're a West Ham supporter, you know, already know what we're talking about. And if you're not you can just skip right over this and join us as we head to the chop. Do the chop. Do the chop, and head right in with us as we make our one and done picks for the Wyndham Championship this week. Which leads me to my pick for the week. And we've said this a couple times, like, sometimes it's just it's just an obvious pick and it's the one that's right there at the top of the, you know, the odds board that right at the top of the data golf predictive chart, I've not used them yet and wouldn't have done this year. So this is where I'm going to use him. Sungjae Im who comes in ninth in the Fedex Cup, his last four starts T3, T12, T4 and T7. And really if you kind of go back and for the most of the golf he's played this entire year, other than missed cuts at the US open and the PGA, he's played fantastic. The entire way, this is where I'm going to contradict myself a little bit, because I just talked to you about how I love Davis Thompson at Pinehurst, and on this Bermuda Greens, and he had a missed cut there. But I guess, you know, we very recently detailed a 66 that was shot on a Donald Ross course and softer wet conditions. You know, and that this is the time this is the time of the year for scoring. So I'm just going to say here is that while Sungjae did obviously did not play great at Pinehurst number two, like this course being a lot softer after all this rain, I think maybe helps him out a little bit. And so here I'm just counting on him hitting a lot of fairways, having ball in hand, throwing some darts and making a ton of birdies and just continuing the run of form. He's been on of late, and so I'm rolling with Sungjae and this week, at the Wyndham, you know, part of me thinks that because of the conditions it, it actually would make, a better chance for maybe a long shot to win this week. But when I just look at just kind of how guys typically, their state of mind and actually winning the golf tournament, I think you often see that guys that have nothing to lose, meaning, like their, their, their job is secure. They don't have anything to worry about when it comes to the playoffs. That's where I kind of settle in. On Billy Horschel I know we just talked to him, but he's in a position right now that he can number one, if he goes out and wins, you know that that helps him, to potentially make the Presidents Cup team. He's already inside the top 30, sitting at 27, he's had six top 11 since 2016 at the Wyndham. So it's a golf course. He obviously likes and feels comfortable with. And I feel like it's, you know, if we get down to Sunday and it's a bunch of leaderboard with a lot of guys, I think when other guys are worried about, you know, getting into the top 70, or let's say a couple of those guys are, in the mix. Give me the guy that has nothing to lose and that his job is secure and that really it's just anything that he does just kind of bonus. So give me Billy Horschel for those reasons. And, honestly, I just kind of want the smiley show bump. Is that too, too much to ask? It's never too much to ask. We got to keep the smiley show bump going. Would be great if we doubled up on the one and done here with the smiley show bump. So I mean, that's best case scenario. I believe that is all we have for today's show. Smiley. Unless you have any sort of final thoughts for the people, I think really what we got to tee up is the fact that you and I are going to be together in person for our next golly, next three weeks. We're going to have shows together for this. Really excited, I think, you know, we're talking about, you know, going to Memphis and then, I'm really excited about Denver. Everybody just says that place is just incredible. Castle Pines and then, I've. I've never been to Eastlake in my life. So seeing a new golf course, the Andrew Green, restoration from a Donald Donald Ross original, I'm really excited to see that golf course. From my understanding of people that have been around it. They've said the golf course is much harder. We'll have to see, I bet there's going to be a little bit more firmness to it, but I'm, I'm interested to see why they said that it might be 4 or 5 shots harder. So I'm really interested to see, what that golf course looks like. And of course, doing, our, our typical preview and recap pods that, that I think most of most of you have become accustomed to listening to. And we're excited to bring that content to you over the playoffs. Yeah. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube, the YouTube channel. If you are not already. And following the social accounts, we're gonna have a lot of cool content coming there as we're on site at all three Fedex Cup playoff events. So looking forward to that, if you're on the East Coast in the path of the hurricane, stay safe. Stay dry. And yeah, we'll look forward to talking to you next. Live from TPC Southwind in Memphis, appreciate you watching, listening. And we'll talk to you soon.