Olympic Best Bets + Smylie's Golf Trip with Justin Thomas & Jordan Spieth | The Smylie Show, 8/1/24

take this thing all the way to the top. Now Hang in there. It is Smylie Kaufman for 61. Wow I'm Smylie Kaufman and this is the Smiley show. Welcome back to another episode of the Smiley Show. And boy do we have an episode that I've been looking forward to for a considerable amount of time today. Smiley I'm of course, Charlie Hume. He is Smiley Kaufman, but the stars of today's episode. Well, smiley, you're a star. I'm not going to belittle you here, but we have. We have Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth joining us today to break down the golf trip you were just on in Ireland, which is going to be phenomenal. And we are presented today by wear SPF. Phenomenal sunscreen partner a phenomenal skincare partner. As we've noted several times before on the show. Here's the thing about this smiley. And feel free to chime in here if you'd like to. I don't think anything that we're going to say right now is going to be better than the wear SPF. Read that Justin Thomas is going to do on the back end of his interview. So do we need to say anything else here? Nothing needs to be said. All I will say is use the code. Smiley 50. Smiley five zero for a buy one. Get the second one half off and just stick around. At the end of the JT interview, because that's going to be the best version of this read anyway. So well said. With with that said, let's dig right in. Smiley All right. We're we're back with a special guest, Justin Thomas. Thank you for joining. Just had a fantastic four days with you over in Ireland. We made it. It was a great trip, and we're going to recap a little bit of the trip. But before we get there, I think as you know, we just recently partnered with wear SPF and you helped launch the company, the sunscreen brand, and you have such a great story. So I'd love for you to kind of tell us a little bit more about your experiences with, melanoma, skin cancer, just your, your whole upbringing and, and skincare and, and just how it led you to wear SPF. Yeah, it was, it was definitely a wild, wild experience. I've Fortunately, my parents have always pushed me going to the dermatologist and getting checked, which, you know, when you're in high school and college, like, that's the last thing you want to do. You're like, I don't like I'm fine, whatever. And, you know, you always think everything's fine. And I've probably had five, six, seven moles taken off. I had one of them that. Really? Wow. Yeah, just random. I mean, like, it's little things, you know, like, have one taken off, like, here and, like, one of my foot, one on. I had one that was cancerous on my back. I think it was middle school. But it wasn't anything major, but yeah, I was 20, 19, I went and I just had a tiny mole on the back of my on my left calf that I thought kind of looked weird and had the dermatologist check it out. And he agreed. And cut it off. And, and I think it was like a day or so later, you know, getting a text message from your doctor at 930 at night saying, please call me is generally not a good thing. No, so he explained to me and he's like, you got melanoma and this is what now what? We have to do. And you know, it was it what? I was 20, 26 and I, I didn't know anything about it. I knew that melanoma was cancerous, but like, I didn't know how the severity of it, right. But he basically told me I had to go back in, had to get it, you know, removed. When it's melanoma, they have to cut down to the fat to, to do it. I mean, they call it a surgery. It's not like it took, you know, ten minutes or whatever I was in. They just numb it and but it's a nice little chunk and I get a huge, huge scar on my, on my leg. But he, my doctor said I was probably 3 or 4 months away from being a patient in the hospital. So when you're 26 years old and you hear that, it's eye opening. And, we were very fortunate to make a great opportunity and try to kind of drive a message home because of it. And and wear SPF and kind of getting people of all ages, especially athletes, spending time out in the sun a lot like, like we do, you know, to make sure it's not a, you know, you're not you're not too cool to wear sunscreen kind of thing. And you know, I'm I was firsthand experience of being pretty scared as a, as someone in their mid to late 20s, about getting skin cancer. So we've been able to do a lot of good with it and kind of spread, spread the love. Yeah, and rightfully so. And how did you get set up with where SPF was it just a like, hey, I want to get involved. And next thing you know, you're, you're you're the face of the whole thing. It was. Yeah. I mean, you know how it goes sometimes it's like we're very fortunate to meet a lot of people through through golf. And whether it be Pro-ams or friends of friends, however it may be and, I mean, I put something out after the fact of, of getting, you know, the, the melanoma removed just for the sake of kind of like, hey, you know, reminding everybody to go get checked and, you know, make sure you're looking after yourself, spending time in the sun type thing. And then I think when some dermatologists had seen that and some other people that were involved in different brands saw that, and then someone had reached out to my, my agent, who's a friend of our, and then that just kind of got the ball rolling of like, how can we turn this into something that is you know, a message and really, is able to kind of speak to people through and it's a very obvious story. It's not just like a brand that just happened. It's like, look, we're we want to do this to, to make sure that everybody, you know, is going to get checked and wear, wear SPF. And, so the same kind of thing doesn't happen to them. And I can tell you this when, when you and I were, let's say, ten, 11, 12 years old, Greenville, Mississippi, 110 degrees out for junior golf. You know, we finished the day we go to the pool. I don't know if we were putting on sunscreen, so I'm just going to go ahead and say at an early age, we probably could have gotten off to better starts. It's never too early to start wearing sunscreen. I know plenty of college athletes. A very large percentage of them don't wear sunscreen. There's hydration benefits as well, and there's no easy way to, you know, to make the segue from from sunscreen to Ireland because most of the time in Ireland, you know, we're talking about rain. We're talking about wind. But Justin, we showed up to about as good of weather in Ireland to where actually you needed some sunscreen. It's a shame that the guys didn't have to play in harder weather. It it is and I honestly it's I mean it was it was wild like I, I was not expecting it. And I'm with you like I, I didn't want it was like somewhere between what we had and like, Saturday afternoon at the open, like, I didn't want that that wouldn't have been fun. That was too much like, just like it would have been nice, you know, watching the guys looking at us, like, can I get a can I get the seven iron there from like 150? And you like, go for it bud. Do you. You give it a try. So yeah, that would have been nice if we could have had some of that. Oh gosh. I mean, you know, we've been talking about doing, whether it's a golf trip, I mean, it's kind of a bit, you know, this doing a golf trip in Ireland for, I'd say maybe 3 or 4 years. You know, I just started randomly, just always poking it in. It's like, oh, no, wait, this is our next trip. And then all of a sudden, I don't know who it was, who I was talking to. We're like, wait, we're actually, let's try to do this after the open. Yeah, I know I'm with you. I think we honestly have so many of those going, so many of these like kind of like not like fake trips really of you know what. We're, we're going to do this and, and everybody obviously is at a very different point in our lives than we were ten years ago where, life doesn't allow us to take, you know, 6 or 7 trips a year. But, and then all of a sudden, yeah, it just kind of did it came to fruition. It was like, wait, this okay, this is real. Yeah, we can do this. And next thing you know, we had a squad. I was shocked, like, even me, of how smoothly everything went. Just shocked. Everything was from start to finish. We didn't have any hiccups, which for us that was a huge win. It was. And I don't this is like a backhanded compliment. It especially with you, especially with you setting it all up like we were, not that we were expecting it to fail, but it wouldn't surprise us if like one day we got to the course and we're like, yeah, we don't have you guys anywhere. And we're like, well, yeah, we're like, Smiley's like, sorry, I called the wrong place or something, but yeah, man, you, That was impressive. You you crushed it. We definitely had you to thank, but I, I'm sure all of our reactions were the same. And we saw this Greyhound bus that was driving the 12 of us, or 13 of us around everywhere. It was unbelievable. I mean, just the time on the bus, the golf courses. And I just want to get your overall highlights. I mean, we played four great golf courses, the European Club, we played the Island Club, Portmarnock, which is apparently getting an open championship. So you, you, we, we kind of got to look at it and then county, county load is how they, the caddies pronounce it to me. But I was pronouncing it loth. So yeah, there's, there's an Irish version, an American version, how you say it. But I just want to hear your highlights of golf courses and just anything that comes to mind from the trip. Yeah, they were all different. Or amazing for different reasons. I mean, I think you know, the views at a place like, like European club and the Island club were just unbelievable. I think the, you know, how they kind of incorporated the water into some of the holes and, you know, a little bit of elevation change and. That race for the Cy Young pretty much as equally compelling and intriguing as the race for the wild card spots in the National League. And also, keep in mind, skiing doesn't pitch the entire season, so his ERA gets affected much, much more if he has a poor outin. And let's just say Chris Sale or Zach Wheeler, that's been there all season long. This will be a fun one to watch it play out. But the big loser last night were the Phillies and Zach Wheeler. The early line only on sports grid. Where are you at in terms of a starting lineup? What do you want to see from team USA? I think he'll get guys involved in the nurture lock down defender at the point guard. The point of attack righ. I do like Curry. I would then go with an I like an over booker. I think if you look at the way the Canada game was, they look kind of slow starting and then they kind of got rolling game time decisions only on sports grid. The silver and the bronze. I give you Canada, France, Germany, Serbia and Australia, Germany, more so than Canada. I think that their talent. It's a little more tiered. You know what Dennis Schroder is capable of? Franz Wagner, another player. Daniel Tyson steps up and Mo Wagner as well. They're built to really take advantage of the mistakes that team USA makes. And they can make the effort plays 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 adding it up and he's like, this is wrong. I looked back from number 13 and I'm likem missing $140 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. I forgot, honestly, how different links golf is in Ireland versus Scotland, how it's while the course is still pretty flat, there's just you kind of play between the dunes and I mean I was I think we, we were all telling the guys like the fescue the of the courses we played was 100% thicker than the open. I mean, the fescue with the European club was a joke like I, I lost an infinite amount of golf balls, like we were playing the, you know, we were playing the tees up with the, with all the guys and, I mean, I'm sorry I didn't go on a trip to Ireland to hit four iron off the tee. So Jordan and I are like trying to thread the needle here on like a couple of yard wide fairway. And you know, I hit a couple in the stuff and, they were fair enough. Fair enough. They were hard to find. But yeah, it was just fun being able to play that much. Links golf not in competition to where I felt like I could kind of have some fun and, you know, hit some, hit some different clubs and some different shots. And, I was probably really annoying. Annoying to caddy for because, you know, I was hitting like eight irons from 90 yards and stuff, like running it up the whole way. But I'm like, we can't do this in the state. So I'm trying to take advantage of it. Well, you always said you've loved playing links golf and it's so fun to hit play all these different shots. You have so many different options. And it felt like every single day that you were there, you leaned more and more into exactly what you're talking about. By by County Louth, you were you were just hitting just the most absurd shots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That you hit the nail on the head like it was. I mean, obviously it was. I would never do a golf trip after this Scottish or a tournament in a major, except for over there like I, there's a lot of places in the States I love, and I would be honored to go play. But after like a major, that's just that's a lot. And so the interest level in golf in general wasn't maybe as high as it would be if I went next week or right now, but it was still because of playing those courses that, you know, we're never going to play unless we're there, I kept the interest level up and but yeah, it definitely was something where I just, you know, between looking for golf balls for the guys from time to time, maybe a couple of myself, it was just like, you know, I'm, I just I just don't really feel like hitting a nine iron from 150 yards. Like, just give me a six iron, like, let's just see what I can do. I don't know, it was because it was like, I remember at county level, I think it was like the sixth hole. It's like this par three, and you come up to watch us on the tee and it's, I mean, it's like an 8 or 7 iron, I think is what I was pulling. You're like, yeah, I hit five iron. I was like, where? And you're like trying to run it up through the bunkers and just playing all these absurd shots. So to your point, these caddies are probably like, we have Justin Thomas here and he's just won't stop playing these ridiculous shots because I'm sure they all want you to shoot nothing. Pars three bogeys and a birdie pretty much. But hey shout out to the caddies though right? Like caddies over there or just I think we don't underappreciate how much caddies can make a golf trip really sing. And we had I think the probably the my favorite day with caddies was at the Island Club. I think the Island Club caddies made our experience just go from already like a sick golf course. With the dunes that you describe. We're playing all these fun shots, but they had just as much fun as we did, which I think made that rounds very enjoyable. Yeah, I agree, they they can totally change the vibe and just the energy of the group. I mean, after, you know, a bit of a late night on Monday night and then going into a 7 a.m. wake up call, which upset of the year, all of us being on that bus ride by the way, I would have put the house on somebody missing that bus ride. But we all get there and you know, we're we're not exactly moving quickly. And the caddies really brought us back to life. And I mean, we got to a point on the back nine where I think, yeah, one of our buddies caddies, he just he took the bib off and he was just like, you. Just you take it. He's like, I just, I can't even I can't even help. Like you. Let's switch. Like I'll play you caddie kind of thing and. Oh, God. It's, the accent that they give it with makes it even funnier and more entertaining. Oh, man. It's just so many great memories from this trip. I mean, so many things we can't even talk about all of these funny bits that we had during the trip. But there's a couple things I want to talk about. Three. Three of my favorite highlights. The eagle putt at 16. Most nervous you've been, this is at Portmarnock right after I whooped a 40 footer when we're playing a Wolf Hammer game. Wow. Yeah, yeah, that was that was people don't forget I don't forget. Yeah. Oh, I think I think we should go back to the second shot because, Oh, God. That's right. I forgot about this. Yeah Like, I was kind of waiting for you to hit and then I looked behind humblebrag. Hit it quite a bit past Miley, but I turned back and Smiley's over his shot, and then completely stops. He has, like, an iron in his hand and he's like, I back. I just went out. Like he's like, my bad. He's like, give me the give me the three wood and his caddie. He's like, what the hell's going on? So he like takes the three wood and he's trying to. And then he's kind of like trying to move and stretch out a little bit. And I'm looking at this. I'm like, what is going on? And then you kind of get over it again and you're like, all right, no, I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, give me the iron. And I'm like, what is going on? And then you get the iron back, you hit it to like 40 or 50ft. I hit one in there. Yeah like 12. And then we hammer and then you whoop it. Just natural form and people forget that we almost had to take you off the course in a stretcher 15 minutes prior. And then. Yeah. And then fortunately, we accepted the hammer and I made the putt. But it was it made for a good story nonetheless. It was the best. Was like Jordan trying to do math right next to me, trying to figure out, okay, the hole started at X, it doubled here. It doubled there. Now if you now you made it so it tripled. So this putt was worth X. And then we did that for your entire routine. And we never settled in on how much that putt was going to be worth if you missed it. Luckily for your sake, you made it. And then of course, actually for the first time, Jordan was not good with the scorecard. Normally he he was he was talking. He was he was chirping too much. He kept I've never heard him. I mean, it's probably my fault. I've, I've kind of made his head big in that department. I've talked about it a couple times of how good he is at keeping score, you know, through however many units are on the line, however many people, however many cocktails like it's a perfect scorecard 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 adding it up and he's like, this is wrong. And then again I'm like, this is way off. And I don't know if you remember, we were walking up. I think like 18 and we turn around and Jordan is sitting like Indian style in the fairway with the scorecard like this, like trying to figure it all out. I don't think he ever did because he never he never told me. I was like, just just tell me how much I owe, I don't care. Trip was just a big wash. It was it was worth it. And we were. We early celebrated his birthday at dinner. That night, and I think this is the most upset with you. You've been with me for a very long time because I, I, you know, I tapped the waiter. It's like, hey, we got a birthday this week. Can we bring a cake out to celebrate? And they're like, what's his name? I was like, Jordan. And you're like, no, it's Justin. And you were so upset that I was so adamant that we must sing to Jordan and not Justin. Yeah, yeah, I know, I, I thought you'd be all over that, and I think I even said it first. I was like, I'm gonna get. I think that sounds right. Yeah, you did say it first. I say it first. Smile. You'd be like, oh yeah, no, it's Justin. And I'm like, It's Justin. And he's like, no, it's not, it's Jordan. Like, dude, what's wrong with you? Like, I don't know what got into me. Recently I feel like I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not making bad swings. I don't feel like I'm making terrible decisions. Just had got a little bit of a streak of bad luck on par fives, didn't birdie any of them at the open. Didn't birdie any of them today. It's just, you know, I didn't feel like I did anything terribly wrong. Right, but that's just golf. It happens. What's done is done. And this week is the most important week of the year. Right now. We landed pin high. He's going to be off over the pin position and leave himself a tough putt there. That should bite. Now He didn't like it by the looks of it. But he'll love it when he sees it. Just get this before that bunker put himself in a good position. Just a tiny little baby fade. Ideally placed to tie the lead at 16. He's played well, isn't he? Jon Rahm and OMG what a championship Sunday we just witnessed. When I selfishly you you always want to get get that done. But you don't want to see a teammate and a good friend. You know missing a putt for that happen. For m. The Liv Golf League delivers every single event, doesn't it? I mean, what an incredible finish there. You know what Tyrrell Hatton I feel for him. He's been playing beautiful golf in fact since Miami. He's been the best player in our league. Based on the strokes gained metric. I'm really happy that I had my first Liv golf win. Now that Kelly and the kids are watching, just knowing that I'm bringing the trophy home for them, it feels good to say that it's coming home. It was out of character and I apologize because typically I'm all in for a very goofy bits that we think are funny that nobody else thinks is funny. That's normally right in character with me. And for whatever reason, I was I was not having any of that funny business. Maybe, maybe you read the room and understood that the entire staff was probably fed up with. That's probably a good thing of us that rode in there in our golf clothes after 36 holes, and we just needed to see ourselves out. Yeah, I mean, we were trying to you wanted to be continued to be some silly gooses, and that just was not going to continue to happen. All right. I got two more for you on the way out. Favorite hole on the entire trip? Favorite hole? Yeah. Wow, you're putting me on the spot right here. This is a tough one. That one hole at the Island Club was pretty cool. It was, like, supposed to be, like, the most narrow fairway. The one that you striped. And I think you told all of Ireland about you. Hit it in the. Yes, I think it's the. Oh, gosh, I want to say it's 12, 13, 13, 13. I think 13 hole, 13 hole at the Island Club. I think the fairway is eight yards wide, give or take. Yeah Yeah it was it was tight. The and lucky hit the fairway. Club had some really really cool holes like very non linksy but like super scenic like I, I feel like I could kind of pick one from each that just were awesome. But the one of the super, super narrow fairway I think like we said at 12 or 13, something like that. Was it, Island Club was sweet. Do you hit the fairway? I did, did you? I did well, how about that reverse cash. Lucky hitting the fairway. I know that. Yeah he was due. It's what he said on the tee. At least. All right. We're having Jordan on Tamara Johnson. So, you get to give me a question to ask Jordan on the pod when I record with him? You got anything that comes to mind, I think you should ask him, if he. You know, if the if he felt like he got a perfect line from the caddies each time on the course, I think that would be a pretty fair question to ask. I think. Don't need a lupine grower in this. No, no, no, don't bring growler. He doesn't need to end up in the wrong when he wasn't even there. Just just, you know, just curious, just, you know, I'm I don't know. Oh, God. There's no better feeling than, you know, walking down the fairway, watching Jordan looking like he's talking to Michael Growler, who just happens to be a local caddy, just like, are you sure that was the line to the wind switch? He just classic Jordan stuff and, it was not good over there. Be like, why? Why would you think that's good over there? We've never played here before. I don't know, we're gonna. I'll ask him it tomorrow. And, and luckily for you, on the way out, Justin, you get to do your first podcast. Read Yeah. And first off, are you nervous? And number two, do you have all the materials in front of you, I do, yes. Yes So, yeah, this is you know, for wear SPF, we know that you I think we could sense how tough this was for you to do and execute. And I honestly was getting a little uncomfortable for yo, listening to you try to figure out how you were going to tie this in. So, Yeah, you know what? I took it on on the on the chin and I'm going to do it. So here's my first give. I want to hear an Emmy performance. So let's lean in here. All right I'm gonna I'm reading it. I didn't memorize it the first time I've seen it. Thank you. Please. 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. LIE50. Block the sun, not your drives like the high. Your king Miley Kaufman use wear SPF like I do and enjoy the rest of the smiley show. I mean, round of applause. Look at you. The okay, the end. I think that was added recently. I didn't see that I was out the sun. The High King God. That's beautiful. I'm wondering why I got two versions here, and, that's that's poetic. I read the second. That might as well be a haiku. That is. That is beautiful. Yeah I, yeah, listening to you try to understand what smiley 50 and then you're like, so it's your product and the you get one and I'm like, it's yeah, it's half 50 half. Yeah. Half off. It's this is the same guy that just went to the dealership realizing that his car was in four wheel drive and not two wheel drive. So, are there I have strengths, I have weaknesses, luckily, you can carry me in this situation. Good job. Charlie, on on giving that read over to JT. He crushed it. Justin, thank you for hopping on. What a trip in Ireland, awesome messages with wear, SPF and we look forward to watching you crush it in the playoffs. And I'm looking forward to watching you not play links golf on modern golf courses. Yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to run it through that Bermuda rough in Memphis quite as easy, so I'm going to probably just see pin hit pin. Love it. All right, buddy, thank you again. All right. Thanks y'all. What has happened? What has transpired here at the first Bank center here n Denver, Colorado? It wasn't just a big night of fights. It was a big night of memorable moments. Conor McGregor wins a scare in Denver, Colorado. A left hand from rifle, right hand right back from Mike Perry. And now three and oh in KFC. Can I get a face off with Conor McGregor? Bam Thanks. It's an incredible set up here. Incredible match making incredible storytelling. All you had to come here all these fighters that step in here one year and all my respect. And I mean to this game. Yeah we'd be into this. Yeah And we are live here in the Maverik Center here in Salt Lake City Utah. What a night. It is going to be historic indeed for me. Gassy 56. Whoever's the king of violence right here, this is going to be a great fight. Early on the. Right hand from my great Uncle John. Who's the king of my life, I am come back fighting in its purest form. Bare knuckle fighting in the city of angels. 80s We've got the biggest announcement in the BKFC history. We're about to make some. 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. There you have it, JT on Ireland and Smiley, I you know, as promised, we no longer have to do wear SPF reads or when we do, it's just going to be as simple as listening to Justin Thomas because it's a great knocked out of the park. It was great, man. Did you like that little, that little block, son? Yeah, that was good. Little hijacking there. Yeah. You know, listen, I was a journalism major. No big deal, man. That was a little bi. It was good. That's that's. No that was a ton of fun to listen to. And get that recap. And the fun continues because now we're headed over to, Jordan Spieth. What do you, what are we dialing in for? Jordan. Here. You know what? I'm I'm excited to ask him a couple questions. He he's a golf savant himself, so I know he'll have some opinions on the course. And he loves talking golf as well. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Definitely got to throw that question that JT, wanted me to ask him. So I'll throw that in there as well. But Jordan always so great to talk to you. So this will be fun. Well, you really hate to hear it. I mean, on this show we've documented what a good scorecard keeper he is. And now ask him. Gotta ask him about it. We gotta press him on that. We gotta figure that out. So let's get to it. Jordan Spieth and Smiley on the Ireland golf trip. Like we promised our guests that we have here as we speak Jordan Spieth man we just had quite the little run the last week or so. You know going to the Open Championship, going on a little trip to Ireland. We just had JT on to recap it. And guess what. It's your turn. What was what was the highlights for you, the news and notes from that whole week. I'm assuming you just mean the Ireland trip. Yeah. Let's go Ireland. Why don't we just do Ireland? Well, you know, I think, as as, like, for what we do, we don't really ever get to go on a golf trip with our buddies, right? Like, you know, that's what now our buddies want to do is go on golf trips and, travel around and do that. So to be able to go over to Ireland and do that, it was pretty epic. I mean, to be honest, I was like plenty fine with not playing golf for like 3 or 4 days after playing like 90 holes two weeks in a row in Scotland and, and, but then all we got out there and, you know, it was like the first it was like it was like Christmas morning at the European Club until until you saw the fescue on the first hole. And then he thought, man, this is, this is thicker than it was, at Troon. So, we actually have to we actually have to focus today in order to not lose golf balls. But it was, man. It was amazing. I mean, I think like I think, I hadn't played the island, I hadn't played European or island club. European club was probably like one of the most beautiful golf courses I've ever been on, and then the Island Club was, was one of the, one of the coolest ones that reminded me of a couple of the courses I've played on the West Coast, where it's kind of a tale of two nines, and that was cool. So he almost got two courses in one. So yeah, there was we there was definitely a lot of searching for golf balls, so I spent probably half the time searching for golf balls, but the other, the other half was really fun. Yeah. We had a great time, and when we showed up to the European club, the boys were ready to get some fresh air. After an hour long bus ride. And we get to the first tee and, you know, you, myself and, and JT, you know, we'd been talking for so long about just wanting to get some crazy weather, and, you know, you're. I guarantee you, if you would have showed up that day and there was, you know, it's 55 degrees, it's blowing 30 and it's raining like you talked about how much golf you'd play. You'd probably been like, you know what, I'll watch. I'll sit this one out. Sit in the, clubhouse and wait till you guys get in. But it was like 75 degrees. No wind and sunny and no clouds. So we got pretty lucky with the weather, too. Well, I think also, you know, as you started to mention that I thought you were going to go into the first tee shot hit from the group, which was your tee shot on one. And, you know, I tried to introduce you like they introduced us at the Open Championship and, you know, the owner of the club is out there and, you know, there's a small, small crowd on the tee and there's a lot of pressure on that shot. And you just put driver off the deck and you shipped one right down the right side of the fairway. And, you know, I mean, I think without that shot, I don't think we would have had a good time. I think really that's a good point because you hit that shot. You know, it really got everyone okay, we can do this. And, yes. And, and then everyone hit their first shots and then they said, never mind, we can't do this. It's the anti-air. And Charlie and I were talking about it early in the episode, but you know how upset I get with you when you have a driver off the deck yardage and I'm following your group, and I. I let everybody know. It's like, guys drive off, the deck's got to be coming and then when you don't do it, I'm so upset. You know how how much it means to me for you to rip that driver head cover off and hit that thing off the deck, so just know how important it is for a guy watching. Well, you know what? I figured out? I've actually hit, probably more driver off the decks this year than the rest of the years combined. Just randomly, the fun one is when you hit it off the tee, and then you just never put it back in the bag. You just carry a driver without the head cover down the fairway. And you know that you're going to hit it again like I played the first two rounds of the open and our whole group on Friday when it started to blow. Just hit driver. Driver on both the par fives on the front nine. So we all just walked off the tee with drivers. And there was just no other club you could use on the next shot because it's blowing straight in off the right. You need it low and cutting and you're off like a upslope. It's like, I mean, you hit any other club, it's just never going to come out of the sky. So it was just it was amazing. I've never like it's very rare to have two guys in a group hit driver off the deck, let alone three to it like consecutive holes. It was like number four and six. It's like, what'd you hit on the front? What'd you hit on the front nine? Well, I hit four iron off the tees. Except for the par fives. We just started hitting driver everywhere. It just was wild. Yeah, that front nine was interesting. Especially the way that wind direction was. But I was actually, because I was in that first group, you know, we had 13 guys playing. So we had four go out. So we got nine back there on the tee at European Club in day one, and I was told the story and I would like for you to tell it because I just want the image and the pictures. From your perspective of James talking about how his knee was hurting and that AV put him through, put him through, I guess, something to help fix his knee. What happened? That's right. Yeah. James. Well, luckily we were in cards because I think you know, James's knee was really busted up, but AV luckily had he had kind of a he had a great fix, you know, he's he's a, he's a jack of all trades. I mean, the guy can do everything and, you know, so I think we had a trainer in the group, in Joe Russo, but I think what the trust level that James has with AV, you know, I think that really stepped in there. And not to mention, I think Joe was in your group already, so he was gone. And, so AV put him through like a he kind of told him to go on his back, took him through a couple legitimate things, and then told him to roll over on his stomach and then bend his knees and then just start kicking his feet back and forth and, and, you know, given, you know, we're in front of this is these are these people's first impression of us. And he's now on his stomach kicking his feet back and forth, doing, you know, like from Zoolander. And I mean, he's not a small person, right. And so it's it. And then he finally realized that he was getting messed with. And, all of a sudden then he had to go tee off. He was in the second group heading off, and, boy, that was that was a good bet. His knee got fixed. You know that was it's been a shame for him to hit a first tee box, first tee shot in his knee and not be loosened up. So thank goodness he threw it absolutely. Oh man. So many like stories from the week that that just come to mind. But from JT and I talking you know we got to play together at Portmarnock with your brother Stephen and, and your buddy Austin, who's considered my friend as well. But you know, we've bragged on you quite you know pretty well about how good you are at keeping a scorecard, but I would say this was a D minus effort from you for our Wolf Hammer game out there. You were all over the place. What happened? Yeah, I lost it. Was it really like, I would say, you know, it's a it's a random skill of mine. It's really more of, like a character flaw. Like, I just can't have anyone else keep it. Or if they do, I have to keep it, too. And I'm very. I take a lot of pride in my ability to, whether it's a AC, DC game on the bus ride or, keeping everybody's kind of blackjack numbers to, you know, keeping Wolf numbers on a scorecard. And I just completely lost it after I after number 11, like, we made the turn and, you know, I looked back from number 13 and I'm like, I'm missing $140 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. And so now I've now I'm walking down a hole. And I mean I just didn't even play a hole because I'm trying to figure out these numbers now. We never got we never got there. We never figured it out. And that was that was pretty consistent with the other two days as well. 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 ball game. Sports rage late night only on sports grid. 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. That race for the Cy Young pretty much as equally compelling and intriguing as the race for the wild card spots in the National League. And also, keep in mind this team doesn't pitch the entire season, so his ERA gets affected much, much more if he has a poor outing than, let's just say, Chris Sale or Zack Wheeler. That's been there all season long. This would be a fun one to watch and play out, but the big loser last night were the Phillies and Zack Wheeler. The early line only on sports grid. Their coach has a personality that is New York City tough, grinding, defensive, no holds barred. We muck this game up and we make you play it our way. And Tibbs has been rewarded. And he should be rewarded for what he's done. With the Knicks betting above the rim only on sports grid. Guys Justin about the 16th hole. And he kind of described the story. My back going out. And they ended up hitting a five iron onto the green. And you and I were on the same, Wolf Hammer team for that hole. I hope that 40 footer for eagle and then you and I are just giggling, trying to do the math of what Justin was putting for. And you, we still had no idea what the value was on the putt, but do you are you able to like, figure it out now? Like, do you have a general idea of what what the putt was worth? I think one of us had it at like 8120, and the other had it at like 800, 1200. So we were close like it was somewhere in between, just missing a zero because, you know, he they hammered when he, he almost made it for a two and, you know, it was blind shot. And we get up there and he looks close. He they hammered us already. And then you went and drained that snake. It would have gone in, you know, a thimble. I mean, it was right in the middle. Perfect speed. May have may have gone 18in past from about 45ft. And those are the ones where you just you're walking it in and you're just screaming, hammer back because it's a 16th hole. So you're it's our 69th hole of the day. Shout out. And, so that's not true. It's a 70th hole today. And so yeah, we were we were struggling there and in our, in us trying to figure it out. Justin went and made it right in the dead center on top of you from about 15ft, and that was nice because it at least took the pressure off of trying to figure out exactly what it was for. Yeah, because now then you would have actually had to figure out all the math of the scorecard. Yeah, it would have been significant kind of a wash. Yeah, it would have been significant enough that that someone was going to have to pay somebody. Yeah, yeah. Yes, luckily, except my brother just kept saying every time he went down, he'd just be like, nope, I'm not paying kind of a good like I'm just going to start using that. Yep. He's, he's he's the king of it, man. He's he he makes me laugh more than any human in this world. Your brother Stephen. And, I guess Portmarnock, let's just talk a little bit about this golf course. You've played it before, but there's rumors that they may get an open championship. Just what was your impressions of that golf course as we, I've already kind of discussed the European and Island club. Yeah, I think European and Island Club were, were, you know, incredibly unique. And Portmarnock is, is more like proper standard links. You don't have anything that's, kind of odd or wild that sticks out in a way. It's also it was the closest to, to Dublin, so I think that would be incredible for if the infrastructure is there, which I guess they're figuring out that it can be, you know, what a what a scene that could be because I think about, you know, I think about that Adare Manor Pro-Am and who showed up like the crowds that showed up there, you know, and oh, really. And I mean, it was it was unbelievable. And I think the whole I mean, the Portrush Open was amazing. But then you throw one like right there where you're within a half hour of Dublin. What a scene that'll be. And then, not to mention, you know, you could have carnage off that first tee, you know. Yeah I mean, once you do the first hole, you put it on the ground and you hit a little butter cut driver off the deck, and then you hit a nine iron to about nine iron a foot and a half, and you walk up and you pick it up and that's, that's the smiley Kaufman route. It will be one. You hit a two iron on the next hole about six yards left. Well we're still on number one after number one. You kind of ease into the course a little bit, but, you know, it's all about the conditions. So it's a it's a it's a cool golf course. You know that wind picked up for us on that back nine. It showed its teeth a little bit. And the bunkers are just kind of like at Troon. It's like they're so annoyingly placed right where you're going to drive the ball. So, you know, mix and match of being able to make eagle but bogey on the same hole which when you guys made eagle, I think I'm still playing that hole right now, I still think I don't think I finished it, was that the hole word bounce through the gorse or like we, we acted like it bounced through the gorse. Yes. I also I also shanked, like three bunker shots in a row on the same hole. So I'm still. I'm. Yeah, I would have struggled to get in on single digits, but you guys made it look pretty easy because I think this is the same hole. And I asked JT, I said, hey, give me one question to ask Jordan. And besides, besides us discussing the happy birthday celebration, by the way, happy late birthday and not singing it to Justin. And instead I was adamant about singing it to you. Besides that, he he wanted me to ask you, did you get any poor lines, during the during the trip from any caddies like, did you feel like you needed to talk to any of your caddies? Like maybe Mikey walking down the fairway? I'm really not sure, but did any come to your mind? I we, I'm pretty sure any shot that went offline, I was if you asked me, I'd have been like, yeah, that's going offline. You you need to ask, old Mikey Growler because JT took a hilarious video of it looked exactly like you normally look walking down the fairway with Mikey where you're talking about whether it's a line or I can't believe it went this far. Just talking about the shot you hit prior and you're talking with a one of the caddies. That that we had with you and Justin's taking a video of you just talking about how it looks like you're just bending his ear about the wine that you chose, and he sent the video to growler, so he needs to check that one out. I would say I was, I went into it very much like I'm just going to try to have fun. So these guys have fun. So it may have, looks may have been deceiving there, but, it was a chance I didn't like? I thought I could carry this bunker. Turns out it was a hoax. It was a looks is deceiving thing. And especially as we got later in the day, you just started hitting these chippy drivers that were like, 60%. But actually, it was kind of sick, like these. This is a shot that I think is like a third or fourth gear that you can kind of seed out there on some holes that, at golf courses that have fast and firm fairways and just chase it down. Yeah. You know, I'm thinking, you know, they come out at about 1000 spin at about 140 ball speed. And they just kind o, you know, they're not going to get hit by any wind. And, if they start straight they're going to be fine, I really they came about because I just completely ran out of gas. I was like, you know what? We're, we're done here. It's we're done here. This was great. This was great. Guys, let's go to dinner. All right. Got a couple more for you. All right. Give me an MVP for the trip. I didn't ask JT this, but you got to give me your MVP. Oh, man, it could be your brother. It's a stacked MVP list, and I. I feel like he was the favorite at, in my opinion, probably the leader in the vote. So yeah, not surprising. He said. I think I think, I think lucky may have been MVP. You know, not only it's not only kind of the performance that he put on the extra gear he had, the hours he put in. But also it's really the attention to detail, the team camaraderie. I mean he was he was lining up guys putts for them for a 7 or 8 when he had still had one for like a six or a seven next to it. I mean, he really wanted guys to get in the house. He didn't care how long it took you know, he was he was embracing the time. He knew he was going to put in long hours. So it didn't. If he was at the golf course or he was somewhere else, it didn't matter to him, I think if you had to say, like, you know, who got the most out of that, out of this trip, it would be hard to say. Anyone else. I think he was the favorite going in. And everybody likes a good upset, but, man, it was it was like it was kind of like Scheffler at the Masters this year, you know, it's like, well, you kind of know what's going to happen. Recently I feel like I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not making bad swings. I don't feel like I'm making terrible decisions and just had got a little bit of a streak of bad luck on par fives, didn't birdie any of them at the open. Didn't birdie any of them today. It's just, you know, I didn't feel like I did anything terribly wrong. Right. But that's just golf. It happens. What's done is done. And this week is the most important week of the year, right now. We landed pin high. He's going to be off over the pin position and leave himself a tough putt there. That should bite. Now he didn't like it by the looks of it, but he'll love it when he sees it. He's got this before that bunker put himself in a good position. Just a tiny little baby fade. Ideally placed to tie the lead at 16. He's played well, isn't he, John Rahm and OMG what a championship Sunday we just witnessed. When I selfishly you know you always want to get get that done, but you don't want to see a teammate and a good friend. You know missing a putt for that happen for me. The Liv golf League delivers every single event, doesn't it? I mean, what an incredible finish there. You know what Tyrrell Hatton I feel for him. He's been playing beautiful golf in fact since Miami. He's been the best player in our league. Based on the strokes gained metric. I'm really happy that I had my first Liv golf win. Now that Kelly and the kids are watching, just knowing that I'm bringing the trophy home for them, it feels good to say that it's coming home. I still feel like AV is still on the back nine at the European club, playing with lucky Joe and Blake there just no. Maybe it was Miller. Actually, it was Miller in all four of them. Just I think they're still on that back nine. We I mean we had we had dinner, pints hung out, talked like for a good, you know, 45 minutes. And then we heard that they were on the 18th tee. And then we went out to watch him finish. So and I asked the question, I was like, man, what is taking them so long? I wonder what it was. And then I think it was Joe or Miller, almost hit one another and they're like, okay, that's that's, that's, that's what happened. Yeah. Avi could have an MVP two. My brother left it all on the field too. You know, he, he did. He didn't have much returning. He he may not be allowed on an American Airlines flight for the foreseeable future, he definitely left it all on the field, too. So, you know, I don't count. I don't count the trip home as part of the trip, you know? So It's hard to pick. I mean I would actually when I've described this trip smiley and this is, this is to give you credit, the to walk around with 13 Americans in the state that we were in around a city like Dublin where everywhere we walked we were probably looked at like, oh no. And logistically, how organized and how perfect everything went was such an upset and, that has a lot that has a lot to do with you. You know, Gavin was an MVP. You know, there was there was. We certainly had some locals that were that were on our side, that kind of kept us out of the way of being a problem to other people enjoying their life while we still got to do what we wanted to do. So, I mean, logistically, it was a ten out of ten, and I'm shocked because I was we were prepared for anything. Yeah, at the beginning of this episode, we thanked all those people and Alan, the other guy, you mentioned, put us on some great restaurants and wow, that Italian restaurant was probably my MVP of the food for that week. We just wined and dined like, like we never had before. And smiley, I don't know if you know this part of the story, but that that second night we ate at that Thai restaurant and we all got in there first. Everyone showed up kind of at different times. It was raining, so everyone had walked there in the rain. We all looked like a mess. We were battered, right? That was like, yes, after after the European club. And we walk in there and our side of the table, one of my buddies here and in Dallas, asked if, if they have Saki, which they had like a whole Saki list, but clearly they know why he's asking if they have Saki and he goes, let me let me check what we have. And he came back like a couple of minutes later and he goes, you know, I'm sorry, we're all out of Saki. And I mean, I lost it. This guy knew exactly what was going on. There's no chance they were out of Saki. And he's like, we are not having this. This is a nice place. And I know that you're at the middle table of this restaurant. It's already like 10 p.m. Absolutely not. And, I thought that was. I thought that was a great play by. I thought that was a great play by the staff at that restaurant, and nobody really caught it. I mean, it was great. Oh God. Man. Well, this was this was a great recap. Thank you for coming on and joining. And, where are we going to see you next, I think I'll be playing the next couple of weeks, yeah. I'm planning on playing Wyndham and, and then Saint Jude and try to get on a nice little run the, the thousand, mile an hour. The spin. What is it, the RPMs. Is that. Yeah. The little. Yeah. The little bunt that that that works at Wyndham. That little works on that. 1118 just kind of work at Saint Jude. It does not roll on the zoysia. It does not roll. And I think it'll fly ten yards in that humidity. So all right, so quick question, takeaways from 2024, I know Ritz has been touch and go, but is there anything that you just sitting here today that's just a takeaway from the year. Yeah I think. It's been a it's been an odd one. You know, I started out pretty good and then I just kind of ran into a lot of trying to trying to test, test the hand out on a lot of things throughout the swing, try to test it more and more. And, it's been kind of bugging me. So I think I'm going to have to do something about it this off season and hopefully just come back better, so it's been a bit frustrating in that way. I've never really had like an injury that's prevented me from doing anything, and so I can see why that's so frustrating to people, now. But you know, I hope I got another good 10 to 15. Years left at a really high level. And so I need to, need to make sure I'm in the right, right place, going forward to, to be at my best. So. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it's one of those where I go to a couple golf courses coming up that I've played well in the past, and you start starting getting on a little run. Better late than never. And I can certainly turn it into something great, and if not, then, you know, I'll have a little more, recovery time to, to try and get get it taken care of. Yep. All make sense. And I've been so impressed with how well you've driven the ball this year. I think you supplant your driving ability, and any other year you're having just an all time type of year. But like the hand stuff, you mentioned, I think, I think whenever you get it sorted or whenever it gets figured out, you're swinging it great. And I look forward to watching you make a bunch of birdies and hopefully watch you at some driver off the decks in the middle of the fairway, because that gets me excited. Watching you play some golf. I'm not sure. I think the first time I I'm going to see you in a fairway coming up. I'm just going to I just won't stop laughing. I mean, I just I'm gonna need a buffer round. You're gonna need to come out during a pro-am so we can get this over with.