Live from St Jude's Championship + FedEx Playoffs | The Smylie Show

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 to another special edition of the Smiley Show, one that we are very excited about. First and foremost. Oh, yeah. This is not a green screen. This. It's not a green screen. This is not a this is not we're not we're not wearing like green suits. And it's all filled in CGI in the back end. I mean, we're together in the same place, which always we enjoy from a show perspective, show quality, perspective, I think. Let's see, we get the next couple weeks. But is this best show background today of the year, very well. Could be very well. Could be. This is you know, we're very lucky that we're here on Monday in Memphis at the first Fedex Cup playoff event. And if you remember last year in Memphis, how hot it was. Dude, it's 74 degrees, right now. I mean just the absolute perfect. Some would call it golf weather. I would call it the perfect podcast weather because this is absolutely great for us. We could have been dying right here out in the heat. But this is off to a good start here in Memphis. This is an outdoor podcasters dream. If it was last year, I think we would have had to wear like full khaki outfits on Lucas Glover umbrella. Umbrella hats, maybe a full Canadian tuxedo. Just to really give you the full sweat effect of the of the outdoors. But the only thing we're missing, Charlie, is just a big plate of barbecue right here. Oh, because what time is it right now? We're recording almost 2:00. You haven't eaten lunch? If you had some ribs right here. Very hungry. Could go for some ribs. I also got a hot tip on here from your buddy, Alex Sullivan. Oh, gosh. Jerry. Snow cones, wedding cake supreme. Do you know about this? I don't know about this. Sounds amazing. I did not think Alex would make it on the podcast today, so that, reverse cash, that ticket. That's. That's big. Yeah. So, you know, as mentioned, we're here. This is the 18th green at TPC Southwind. We're on site, this week and the next two weeks in both Denver and Atlanta for the rest of the Fedex Cup playoffs. So fired up for that. We got a great guest joining us today, Nick Dunlap, our third recurring guest on the show. So looking forward to chatting with Nick about what a wild year it's been. His sort of path to, you know, making it to the Fedex Cup playoffs after winning an event as an amateur, and lots to dig into today. But the place we got to kind of start is recapping the last regular season event of the year, the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield, in Greensboro. And boy, what a wild week start to finish. But we had like a biblical flood sort of scenario happening with that hurricane to start the week, play delayed until Friday morning, 18 Friday, 18, Saturday with a few left over. And then for some, Luke Clanton played 39 holes on Sunday. Insane. We're 39. We're going to unpack so much of that. But I think where we got to start right is the ride guys. The ride guys, we finally got it done. The ride guys got it done technically. Like we didn't get it done because, you know, as as most of you know that follow the show. We give, one and done picks every single week. We also give three suggestions from Charlie and I. So we have a total of eight players that we suggest. And as I was going through with my chicken scratch notes and trying to figure out who I want to suggest, I knew I wanted to take Billy Horschel. He had a nice week finishing top ten, and I had Aaron Rye penciled in, but I had just picked him so many times and suggested him so many weeks in a row. I felt like, you know what? I need to find another guy. And so I saw the chicken scratch off of rice. If we need to show and check the notes, I can definitely bring that up. If there's some haters in the chat that say I didn't actually want to pick rye, but I mean, I have a time stamped screenshot, but text I sent to my buddies where we kind of make some gambling picks each week, and I said, I think I had like two guys that maybe did not play well. But Aaron Rice, my third and final answer guys are going to drive the ball straight. It's going to be ball in hand. You know, great ball striker. And he did not place that bet. So Andrew Yarborough you owe you know owe me some money. Maybe a nice dinner maybe put my kids through college. That would have been the big ticket. But I mean for rye is a season where he's played phenomenally well, especially in the summer. Been a phenomenal ball striker. You know what? That's an understatement. Yeah, it really is somehow still an understatement with how well he's played is I mean, just kind of taking stock of the ways he's improved because he's always been a good ball striker, but really just making some some clutch putts down the stretch. I know he's not like the greatest putter on tour, but just making putts when he needs to. It's been a huge improvement and now rolling with some momentum into the Fedex Cup playoffs. Like what are you seeing from him this year that has really kind of taken him to the next level. The reason why early in the year that I started to do more recon on Aaron Rye was because I had an opportunity to watch him at the Sony Open this year, and I got moved to his group on a Thursday or Friday. He was playing with Austin Eckroat, so two players that have had nice years. They were both feeding off each other, playing well that day and for whatever reason, it was a shot on the second hole and the wind had just kicked up. A storm was kind of brewing and Aaron Ryan laid back on this second hole and pulled. I thought it was probably a four iron. Hit this up and really the second hole at Sony you're hitting three iron, nine iron into this hole or three wood wedge. And so he's hitting iron off the tee and then hitting four iron into the screen, which nobody ever is hitting four iron into the screen. And he hits this absolute stripe right at the hole. And I was like man what what am I? Am I missing something here? Like, that was just absolutely great. And he hit it well the rest of the day, and should have had a better week if it didn't put it well. And that's when I started noticing the trend of Aaron Rye, which is okay. He makes a ton of cuts. He tries to get himself in contention, but the putter always seems to kind of hold him back. So I think as the year went on, the big, big breakthrough for him was at the Rocket Mortgage. He had just gone and met with John Graham, got some work done with his putting and on greens that are Pomona that were bumpy. Maybe not the best putting surface that guys have for making tons of putts on the year. Aaron Rye goes and just starts hooping and he started making putt after putt at Rocket Mortgage. And then really through the rest of the summer, the John Deere was another week. He played really well, really just any week in the summer you turn on the TV and Aaron Rye was on the front page of the leaderboard. So it wasn't surprising to see him win because it felt like he had played well enough throughout the year to have already won, and I thought the best thing that I heard on the broadcast was from Trevor Immelman, he said. The ball striking stats. When you talk about strokes gain, he said he named three players. He said, you know, this is not surprising. These three guys are tee to green. The best players. You got Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy. He said number four on that list Aaron right. Wow. He is he talking about metrics there or eye test for metrics. Metrics Yeah I mean it's not a shot. You know it's facts. Straight hashtag facts. The I know we're a year away like we're still waiting for a Presidents Cup to happen here about a month and a half, but just really doing the long preview. I was thinking about that. He's a because you just don't know. I mean, who knows what's going to happen between now and then? It seems like obviously guys on the team, Rory said as much out loud that he wants Jon Rahm to be there. I'm assuming he feels similarly about Tyrrell Hatton, but, you know, depending on how that whole thing shakes out and you know how they're going to tabulate world ranking points for the Liv guys and what picks are going to use. He could very easily I mean, he could qualify for the thing. Oh, 100%. Aaron Wright could easily qualify for the Ryder Cup. I think that Luke Donald is I think you got to give give him, you know, all all the credit where credit's due when it comes to picking a team because I thought you know, beginning of the year and halfway through the year, I thought the Europeans were going to be, you know, really lacking depth on that team. But that team really started, started to round into form, as we got approached to the Ryder Cup, had a bunch of youth on that team. So we'll see who ends up making that roster of how much of that team will stay intact from from the Ryder Cup in Rome, but man, Aaron Wright just seems like he would be a really nice fit for a day of alternate shot. How do you think two gloves, iron covers and deliberate pace of play are going to do in Bethpage? They've got to go. It's going to go over well with that crowd. I think, you know, I had spoken to Keegan just briefly, just about, him getting picked and we were talking just about the logistics of the Ryder Cup as far as, you know, how much beer is being served, because I was like, man, are they are they serving liquor out there? I was like, I think just in the suites, because if they gave liquor to the crowd, I think you would have an issue. So we were already talking about this in advance of how crazy New York crowd is going to be for the Ryder Cup. I'm sure Keegan's got to be thrilled for the atmosphere. He's about to walk into as a captain, which is going to be super cool, second item I have on this list here, smiley just says Coach Chaos. Wait, did you spell chaos with a K, too? I should have, that's a big miss. I'll make that correction. Like, you know, we're you're having to put a lot of faith and trust in us. We're telling you that we we're picking Aaron Rye on on notes you can't see or text that we send, but I have coach Chaos here. What's the make of. Because I actually saw an interview this morning. My granddad sent me where Kutcher was explaining a little bit more of his side of things. And so, because I'm the first inclination, I have is like, dude, the tour bent over backwards to get this thing done on time. Russell Wilson, listed as quarterback, one on, of course, every team's got to put out these dopey unofficial depth charts before their preseason games, Wilson listed as one. But fields is going to start the preseason opener against the Texans. I still think they're going to start, Wilson, but I you know, if they start fields, so be it. Like I'm not going to lose any sleep over it I know this I think they're both talented. Farrell coast to coast only on sports gri. What is the ceiling for this kid? Natalie's got the mone, 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 ie 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. 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. Let's go. Welcome to the Liv Golf team championship. The golf has been mesmerizing. They are the Liv golf team champions. Team golf is back. Oh, yes. Are you ready? Let's go. Swat champions do. That would have been the big ticket. But I mean, for Rye is a season where he's played phenomenally well, especially in the summer. It's been a phenomenal ball striker. You know what? That's an understatement. Yeah. It really is somehow still an understatement with how well he's played. I mean, just kind of taking stock of the ways he's improved because he's always been a good ball striker, but really just making some some clutch putts down the stretch. I know he's not like the greatest putter on tour, but just making putts when he needs to. It's been a huge improvement and now rolling with some momentum into the Fedex Cup playoffs. Like what are you seeing from him this year that has really kind of taken him to the next level. The reason why early in the year that I started to do more recon on air and Rye was because I had an opportunity to watch him at the Sony Open this year, and I got moved to his group on a Thursday or Friday. He was playing with Austin Eckroat, so two players that have had nice years, they were both feeding off each other, playing well that day and for whatever reason, it was a shot on the second hole and the wind had just kicked up. A storm was kind of brewing, and Aaron Ryan laid back on this second hole and pulled. I thought it was probably a four iron hit this up. And really the second hole at Sony, you're hitting three iron, nine iron into this hole or three wood wedge. And so he's hitting iron off the tee and then hitting four iron into the screen, which nobody ever is hitting four iron into the screen. And he hits this absolute stripe right at the hole. And I was like man what what am I what am I missing? Something here like that was just absolutely great. And he hit it. Well, the rest of the day, and should have had a better week if it didn't put it well. And that's when I started noticing the trend of Aaron Rye, which is okay. He makes a ton of cuts. He tries to get himself in contention, but the putter always seems to kind of hold him back. So I think as the year went on, the big, big breakthrough for him was at the Rocket Mortgage. He had just gone and met with John Graham, got some work done with his putting and on greens that are Pomona that were bumpy, maybe not the best putting surface that guys have for making tons of putts on the year. Aaron Rye goes and just starts hooping and he started making putt after putt at Rocket Mortgage. And then really through the rest of the summer, the John Deere was another week. He played really well. Really just any week in the summer you turn on the TV and Aaron Rye was on the front page of the leaderboard, so it wasn't surprising to see him win because it felt like he had played well enough throughout the year to have already won. And I thought the best thing that I heard on the broadcast was from Trevor Immelman, he said. The ball striking stats when you talk about strokes gain, he said he named three players. He said you know, this is not surprising. These three guys are tee to green the best players. You got Scottie Scheffler Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy. He said number four on that list Aaron right. Wow he is he talking about metrics there or eye test for metrics. Metrics. Yeah I mean it's not a shot you know it's facts straight hashtag facts. The I know we're a year away like we're still waiting for a Presidents Cup to happen here about a month and a half, but just really doing the long preview, talking about that. He's a because you just don't know. I mean, who knows what's going to happen between now and then? It seems like obviously guys on the team Rory said as much out loud that he wants Jon Rahm to be there. I'm assuming he feels similarly about Tyrrell Hatton, but you know, depending on how that whole thing shakes out and, you know how they're going to tabulate world ranking points for the Liv guys and what picks are going to use. He could very easily I mean, he could qualify for the thing. Oh, 100%. Aaron Wright could easily qualify for the Ryder Cup. I think that, Luke Donald is, I think you got to give give him, you know, all all the credit where credit's due when it comes to picking a team because I thought, you know, beginning of the year and halfway through the year, I thought the Europeans were going to be, you know, really lacking depth on that team. But that team really started, started to round into form, as we got approached to the Ryder Cup, had a bunch of youth on that team. So we'll see who ends up making that roster of how much of that team will stay intact from from the Ryder Cup in Rome. But man, Aaron Rai just seems like he would be a really nice fit for a day of alternate shot. How do you think two gloves iron covers and deliberate pace of play are going to do in Bethpage? They've got to go. It's going to go over well with that crowd. I think, you know, I had spoken to Keegan just briefly just about him getting picked and we were talking just about the logistics of the Ryder Cup as far as, you know, how much beer is being served, because I was like, man, are they are they serving liquor out there? I was like, I think just in the suites, because if they gave liquor to the crowd, I think you would have an issue. So we were already talking about this in advance of how crazy New York crowd is going to be for the Ryder Cup. I'm sure Keegan's got to be thrilled for the atmosphere he's about to walk into as a captain, which is going to be super cool. Second item I have on this list here, smiley just says Couch Chaos. Wait did you spell chaos with a K too? I should have, that's a big miss. I'll make that correction. Like, you know, we're you're having to put a lot of faith and trust in us. We're telling you that we we're picking Aaron Rye on on notes. You can't see or text that we send, but I have couch chaos here. What to make of. Because I actually saw an interview this morning. My granddad sent me where Kutcher was explaining a little bit more of his side of things. And so, because I'm the first inclination I have is like, dude, the tour bent over backwards to get this thing done on time with a hurricane, tropical storm, whatever it was coming in to get the 18 1836 finish. And you were the last guy that needed to finish it up so that everyone could get done and move on to Memphis for the guys that were going there. And those guys could leave anyway. It didn't really affect the outcome of the tournament, but you know, your first inclination is like, come on buddy, just finished the hole now. He said. A little bit of it wasn't explained to him that Rye had birdied ahead, and he thought Zimmerman still had a real legit chance to go to a playoff or win the tournament. He thought they were going to have to come back on Monday anyway, and so, you know, I don't know if that makes it any better in your opinion, but just your reaction to the way that Kuchar decided to finish Sunday and a little bit on Monday as well. Well, I think the big argument made by a lot of fans and media was that there wasn't necessarily anything on the line, from their perspective now, I think Matt Kuchar would offer the opposite of that is that he's 46 years old. You know, from where he stood going from 12th place to 22nd place. Yeah. Maybe not. The money is not a big issue, because $50,000 would have been the difference. So let's say he makes a double, then probably closer to $75,000 difference. But, you know, I always give the benefit of the doubt to the player whether they feel like they should finish, they have the right to if they're not, if they're told, hey, you don't have to play because of, of sunlight. I think you should always give that to the player. I think what's in question now is just the history, right? I think people just have had issues with things that Matt has done over the years, whether it's the caddie in Mexico, is kind of the top of line thing that people think of. But, you know, if you replace Matt Kuchar with another player, I think maybe the conversation is a little different. To. 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, both talking about playing Keyonte George Taeler Hendrix, Isaiah Collard and rookie Cody Williams. Rookie Bryce Santiago, second year maybe keeping Walker Kessler. That means either Danny Ainge thinks that they're going to be a different team in 3 to 4 years or he's going to wait one year and he's going to trade Lauri Markkanen and he's going to get the farm betting above the rim. Only on sports grid, say the under has the correct juice. 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 maka 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. The he's trying to win a golf tournament on Sunday. Kutcher wasn't in it. So he has a different perspective that maybe Max Bazerman did. And maybe it was a veteran move of like, hey, you know what? Every shot does count. And hey, let's say it comes down for Matt Kutcher in the Fedex Cup fall. Let's say he doesn't make a cut and it comes down to one shot. And that's a good point. And he keeps his card for the top 125 because he he didn't make the jump from I think it was 113 to 103. So he made a ten spot jump. So he's got you know 17 or let's see that was not good math. He's got about 20 not a 2020. Never been 22 spots of comfort that took me way too long. This is the I haven't taken math since LSU, freshman year, so I didn't think much of it there either. No. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. But if it comes down to one shot, which we've seen a lot of times, it has. I mean, I that's something I hadn't even thought about until right now is we're so focused on Wyndham being that 70 hard cut line that you say, well, wait a second, a lot of these guys have to go and play the whole fall to finish top 125 and keep their playing status that way. So that's a fair point. I mean, I think that yeah, I mean, the optics aren't good on it either. Matt Kuchar doesn't have the internet or doesn't care about the internet. And in either case, congrats to him. Because like this thing just it's like a walking meme. It's yeah, all the past stuff. It's just it's if you just take away what you set up the whole conversation with, which was it was a very challenging week for the superintendent, the, the whole staff at Sedgefield just to get this golf course playable. I mean, there were holes out there that I sent pictures of. The seventh hole looked like the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass. It was an island green and same with the hole Ford at six, where the whole fairway was covered with water. So to make this golf course playable and actually finishing on Sunday was an incredible feat. Now the tournament didn't finish on Sunday. They finished on Monday because the future, but I think it's something that was obviously just made an event that much crazier because the chaos that you we talked about with Max, excuse me, with Matt Kuchar also, we talked just briefly about Max, but that was the story of the day, which was a four shot lead with Max Bazerman. Well, and let's get right into that because it looked like he he holed out was at 13 or 14 for, for eagle 21 under 13. And at that point you're thinking four shot lead. I think we're still at 17 at that point. And you're thinking this thing is done. And I was, you know, flying here to Memphis. So I was like trying to catch up and get like the, the weird thing on the plane where you're not going to pay for the internet, but you get the iMessage. So I'm getting updates for you and jacks. You're like, this thing's getting crazy. Like how you hit a four shot lead, and so, you know, when Kuchar talked a little bit about that, where does he does he four putt. You know if it's if it's lighter outside I don't know. I mean it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback on that now. But we do know is this is that and this is you know twice now where he's handled defeat exceptionally well. And clearly he's got the game to win on tour. You know. And so I think that you know however it shakes out he made it here this week. He's in this field. Yes. He's got an opportunity to make some noise in the Fedex Cup playoffs and get himself into signature events next year. Yes, Max Greisman, I thought he handled yesterday with tremendous class. You know, it was not easy, to be in the arena like that and, and handle the adversity. He could have easily shown a bunch of emotion. There's, you know, he didn't have to do the interview after the round with Amanda Balionis. He could have said, you know what? I'm good. I'm out of here. And he had every right to say, you know what? I don't want to talk to the media after something that maybe has, a former player, you can consider to be, you know, embarrassing that you didn't get the job done. You know, I thought he held his head high, you know, tremendously to where he was very poised in his conversation. I think he acknowledged the mistake that he made, which was on the 14th hole. You know, bad drives happen, and we don't like hard pass on golf courses because. No, for somebody who tends to be a little off with the driver, that cart path has a magnet for my golf balls. Yes, his ball hits the cart path goes OB at 14. So that happens right? Like he makes one poor swing. But where he compounded his errors was he hits it in the left rough next. And there's a cross bunker on the 14th hole. So if you did watch it bear with me. But if you didn't he had an opportunity to either take on this cross bunker and push it up short of the green to where he had an opportunity to get up and down and make a six. But instead he tried to challenge it because he didn't want to make a bigger number. The rough was just sinking to the bottom, hits it into this bunker and, unfortunately ends up chunking it out, chipping up, not getting up and down and making an eight. He acknowledged his mistake. I should have wedged it short of the bunker. Had a good opportunity to get up and down. He just holed out on the previous hole with a wedge and making an eagle. So who's to say he wouldn't get up and down for a double bogey? So there's two shots there and then quickly on 16 you know you talk about the four putt. Would it have happened if it wouldn't have been you know as late in the day I think that's part you know it's tough to read Greens late in the day. 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 wasa big night of memorable moments. Conor McGregor wins us here in Denver, Colorado. The left hand from Rockhold. Right hand right back from Rick Perry and 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 are 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 began see 56. Whoever's the king of violence right here. This is going to be a great fight. Murray on the top. Control right hand from the very gentleman who's the king of my night. I am come back fighting in its purest form. Bare knuckle fighting in the city of angels. 80s remaining round number one. 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. Live here. It's a really fun conversation. Nick joins us to talk about everything from recapping his entire year to setting goals for next year, maybe a little bit of football in there, just a little. Just a little bit of football. But, yeah, we won't waste any more of your time. We're going to get right to that conversation right here on the 18th at TPC South Wind with Nick Dunlap. All right. We are back on the Smiley Show. And as promised, a special guest live here at the 18th green at TPC South one. We have Nick Dunlap who is currently 67th in the Fedex Cup. He's 42nd in the world. And you might be looking at that and saying, where is the discrepancy there? Well, if you would have earned 500 points for winning the American Express, he'd be about 35th in the Fedex Cup standings. So yeah, he he is where he is. You made the playoffs in your first years of pro. I mean, a pretty incredible timeline, first thing we got to congratulate you on, though, is you're now the third recurring guest on the smiley show. Congrats. It's you. It's Justin Thomas, and it's Jordan Spieth. So number three, baby Company. In addition to everything else you've done you've got that as well I appreciate that. Might be my might be my biggest honor I'll tell you what Nick I mean I really am impressed though with you know, just the stats that Charlie just told us about. You know, you being 67th in the Fedex Cup, I think is such a great accomplishment. Right? You know, starting the year with zero points right after you win the Amex, I think it was going to be a heavy climb. Just to get to this point. You have to be very proud of being here at Southwick. Yeah. I mean, even after Amex, like you said, I played poorly at Pebble, played poorly at Genesis, didn't have a good Florida swing. So after I think it's the players is the last. No no no it's I didn't play Valspar but players the last of Florida swing I played I had like 25 points or something so that the goal of mine was to make the playoffs. And obviously now I have to rewrite some of those goals. But but no, happy to be here. Understandably so. And Nick, I mean you win in the Amex. So all of a sudden you got to make life life decisions. You got to decide, do I want to go back to college? Do I want to go and accept the PGA tour membership? So I know that was a difficult decision, but it kind of an easy one after when it all gets said and done to chase the childhood dream that, you know, you had. Yeah, we almost saw it last week or last last couple weeks with Luke, but, yeah, you know, college is was a big dream of mine. And playing for Coach Seawell and playing at Alabama. But my end dream was to play on the PGA tour and be out here and play against the best players in the world. So as much as it kind of sucked to, to forego that, it was an easy but but difficult decision to do that. But, you know, happy, happy to be here. I mean, the, the consolation prize was to turn pro. So it was pretty good. Nick, I saw you in Pebble right after the Amex win and just you were talking about the whirlwind week that was and trying to make that decision. Also, this is a complete aside, but I saw your name joining the show today and I was like, man, those sand dabs we had that night are really good. Like I could really go for some sand dabs now. So that's that's has nothing to do with anything. We're discussing here. But just figured I'd mention but just that that week and that process you're going through, in this first year as a pro on tour, you've obviously played high leverage golf, competitive golf for your entire life. So a lot of this has to feel, you know, not entirely unfamiliar what in this year has been the most maybe unexpected adjustment you've made to life as a PGA tour pro? The amount of golf you play, I think I think smiley can attest to that. I play so much golf. I mean, I like it's what August and I'm already like, man, I'm looking forward to a break. I mean, it's not it's getting used to a schedule out here. You know, I'm so used to practicing at home for a week. You got to figure out time to practice, but not wear yourself out. When you got three and four weeks in a row on the road. And there's a couple parts of my game I wanted to see get better and one of them is driving the golf ball and one of them is chipping. I feel like I'm getting slowly, slowly progressing in those categories, I think in amateur golf it doesn't. You don't get as penalized hitting it offline. And, you know, you can kind of play from out of the rough. And here it's it seems like every week it's like, all right, if you're out of the rough, you're not really going to score that goal. I mean, you can figure out a way to get it around, but you're not going to contend, so I think that was something that I really needed to get better. And how much of that, you know, you're talking about? Obviously a lot of on the court stuff. Was there an off the course adjustment process where you have to build like a team around you? There's all sorts of things you have to think about that are beyond just trying to get the ball in a hole for four days of the week. Yeah. I've had to deal with a couple of challenges. I didn't think I'd have to deal with, but, yeah, it's. I didn't realize how many different parts there was to professional golf. I didn't realize that, like you said, you have to form this team around you that can handle all your stuff. Going outside of golf that, you know, you may not have to spend energy on. And, you know, the less amount of time you can do that, the more amount of time you can spend doing time what you love to do. And that's playing golf. So that's been a little you know, I've had to play a role in who I select and on what parts they're going to help with. So that's been a little a little difficult. But I always thought, you know, with this PGA tour university, which hopefully we get to talk about that. But yeah I thought, I thought I would have some time and you know I'd have two, three, four months and I'm going to be able to plan this out and have time before I turn professional. I didn't think I'd have 4 to 8 hours. So it was, that part was a little challenging. But yeah. Do you think learning on the fly has been beneficial or do you, do you wish you had more time to plan out, just like, am I ready? You know, just all the steps that you take. You know, you talked about the driving, the chipping. Do you feel like learning on the fly, on the golf course against the best players in the world has been more helpful for you long term? Yeah, I think it's hard to see it sometimes. Especially I heard the margins are so small. As you know, it's like, I feel like there's a lot of weeks you're at 2 or 3 under and you're like, man, like I'm two good swings away from being in 10th and two good swings away from going home. So it's we're two bad swings away from going home, but it's, Yeah, it's taught me a lot about, not necessarily letting the result dictate how you're feeling, I think even last week, like, I felt like I played some, some good golf. I got one bad break and made triple and one sloppy three putt, and those are my only two over par holes. And I just didn't really make any putts. And I ended up missing the cut. So it's like so gross. Yeah. It's like the results bad. But I didn't feel like I played that poorly. So it was, trying to progress that way. But yeah, I think it's tough in the moment to be like, yeah, this is you know, this is easy. But I think two years down the road looking at it, I'm going to be in a much better position than where I would have been staying in college and trying to get better that way. So and as rookies, I think preparation is something that, you know, we all know that PGA tour players do like that's something that I think is assumed by fans that these everybody does work hard. But there's certain categories that that guys are in that you're, you know, guys that are the better players that have been out here a while. They get the pro-am slots, they get the good times. But for you all year you've been learning new golf courses. Not in the Pro-ams and you're traveling to new cities. You're don't know where the locker rooms, even today, had no idea where the 18th green. I didn't know where it was. Every week is a new experience for yo. How difficult has that been? How excited are you for next year to finally know where you're going? Yeah Yeah, very. And the golf courses, like it's funny you know, a lot of the time it's either Sunday evening or Mondays when I travel, it's like, all right, well if you count up all the Mondays, like a lot of these veterans get out here Tuesday, it's like if you count up all the Mondays that you're, you know, using throughout the year, like, that's a lot of days. You could you could spend, you know, resting whether it's practicing at home, whatever that is. And I remember coming from Reno, I was, we, you know, we missed all day Monday, Monday was washed because the flights delta was all messed up. Oh, that was a crazy deal. Had to fly out. Didn't get in till like, 6:00 on Tuesday. And then I was the second to last pro tee time and I was third off in the morning on Thursday. So it was like, what would that pro-am tee time have been? That's like a four. No, it was later than that. It was later. It was almost five. It was like five there. We didn't get off the golf course to almost like didn't leave until nine. And then you're teeing off. And then we teed off at like 714 or something on Thursday. Oh man. So that was, but yeah, I mean you kind of get thrown into the deep end a little bit and you learn from it and you learn how Hunter is really good at it. But I'm not that great at learning courses on the fly and learning, you know, whether you look at it once or you don't get to look at it, I'm, I'm getting a lot better at that. I used to, in college, you look at it 1 or 2 times and you have coaches telling you where to go. So it's, that's been a little bit different. And, Charlie, I saw Nick Dunlap in the airport. This was leaving the Travelers Championship. He was heading to Detroit. I was heading home, and I look over there and he's got about five bags. He's checking, and he looks over at me and says, hey, where are you heading? I'm like, I'm going home. He's like, all right, never mind, because the lady behind the desk at Delta is about to just basically just like, hand me all your credit cards. I'm about to absolutely take you behind the woodshed. Yeah. So what was the total on the bag? There it was. I think it was almost like 300 bucks for. I mean, you have, like two extra bags plus like your overweight bags and. Yeah, it was a mess. 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 protoco. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York T 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. Let's go. Welcome to the Liv Golf Team Championship. The golf has been mesmerizing. They are the Liv golf team champions. Team golf is back. Oh, yes. Are you ready? Let's go. That's what champions do. Fun new trick on this this week. All right, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to start Nick Dunlap Media LLC. All right. You get these media baggage credentials and they charge you like half of the of the baggage price. When you go past the allotment. Like they're going to charge me 125 a bag. Yeah. It's ridiculous. I had all these media badges. They charged me 75. So I think I think really the play for you is you just get a bunch of. Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean, we can save some costs here. Have you heard about Hoka. Oh, yeah. The massive bins. So Hoka do that is a guy that travels week to week out on tour. And you can buy a bin and you could store things that you would already need out on tour. So shoes people put their clothes in there. Just regular golf clothes. And I had a band for the years I was out here and just would make sounds amazing travel so much simpler if we're making five bags, I'm like, oh, poor guy. And the tough part is like one of my bags is like half of it's all my fishing stuff. Like I have my fishing pole. I hold my extra crap in there. So it'd be nice if I could just. You got to have that delivered. No, no. What's what's the best fishing stop? You've had tour stop wise this season. You found, like, any new ones where you haven't gone before. I guarantee you, this is a good one. This is probably. I didn't think would be my guess. Oh, I didn't get to fish because we got in super late on Tuesday. Played, players to be a good one. Players was a good one. I can't remember where we were. It was up in, I fished in Rhode Island. It was only a couple of weeks ago. Was it the travelers? Maybe. It might have been the travelers. The whole season runs together. All runs together. How many times have you woken up this year in a hotel and have no idea. I know you're. Yeah. No idea where you're at. Like I'm in. Where am I? Yeah. It's hard enough to keep the schedule straight as it is, but then to do it off of fishing stops makes it. Yeah, it makes it even harder. I think it was travelers. Travelers? I went and fished the coast for a little bit. And that was. Did you? Yeah, it was really pretty. It was a lot of fun. So you kind of noted this a little bit. And hidden underneath that table over there is a gasoline tank for Smiley's Flamethrowers of takes on the PGA tour. You topic so I'm really excited to get into those. But all right let's hear it. Just curious your opinions on obviously what you did, what you were leading into. You win. You had the decision to go pro off of that. So it was simpler for you. But what we're seeing from from Luke Clanton and others, you know, guys who are very obviously tour caliber pros. I mean, Luke's had three top ten finishes this year, two of them top fives and where he currently I think he's I think he's at 13 points currently. Yeah. Of the 20 he needs I mean do you think we've been kicking around some ideas. Do you think the system should be adjusted or do you think it's fair how it is. I don't want to I don't want to be too harsh. It did. It did give me the platform to go out. And that's the reason I got the. Start was because I pitched that PGA tour. You. And for one I think it's the whole idea of it's unbelievable. Like it's giving us an easy way to get to the PGA tour. And I wouldn't say easy, but it's giving us a way to get to the PGA tour pathway right. Yeah. And whether that's Korn Ferry, whether that's Canada it gives us we don't have to go to Q-School, which is great, something that. Yes. Yeah Q-School is not fun. Yeah. Not great Bob. And hopefully I don't have to go to Q school, but I do think maybe the points there's a way to because I was talking, there's going to be a time where these high end college players don't play college events. They're just going to chase the PGA tour starts, which I was on that track. I probably would have done the same thing. It's like, I think it's some may question it. I think it's a lot easier to come out here and make a cut and get a point than it is to go and try to win the, the Western and, and get two interesting like it doesn't. Yeah. You know I think or especially if you are a high end player if you can get these spots off sponsor's exemptions. I think it is the way to go. Like you know, you go in, you go and win the US and well that's three points. Like I think you know you might can attest to this. I think it's easier to make three cuts out here than it is to win the United States. Amateur. Yeah I think yeah 100%. So I would do the exact same thing. Now I don't know if there's a way to elevate that whether like you said, you I mean top ten I think should be more than one extra point, so I think if you, you know, gave two points, like an extra point on top of that, I think, you know, Luke would probably already be there and we're with you on this. I mean, the system in general, we support the PGA tour. You we think it's a great pathway for college guys to go play well, earn their way on. But with the way things have changed in the professional golf landscape, we just think maybe just a reexamination of somebody who's like, well, maybe we need to look at, hey, a top five might be worth, a couple more points, when you look at it against hey, what else are they comparing the points to? But we'll get off that subject because we don't want to get you in trouble, and we don't want to get in trouble either, like all of us to leave this set, not being in trouble, but one of the one of the questions I had cooked up here is that, you know, when you win the Amex, now you're in a category where you're playing with other winners, you're playing with top tour talent and when it happened to me, I, I embraced the opportunity when I played with these players to try to pick their brains a little bit, just about anything, whether it's, hey, this is what what did you do down the stretch? Did you do X? And I'm just curious, was there any advice that you picked up on from a certain player this year that stands out that you've been able to implement throughout the year, or maybe something that you're going to use in years to come? Yeah, that's a really good question. I don't know if anybody's asked me that. That was a good question, I would probably say Will Zalatoris. Honestly, I played a practice round with him, with the players and how I don't think it was necessarily what I asked him. I think it was watching him and how he prepared for that tournament. It was very structured Scottie's very similar in that he's like, I think Teddy helps him a lot wit, you know, where to chip from. They have they have the app or something where you can see stats from years previous and where to, you know, it might be the percentage of making a birdie may be better from the right rough and the left rough. So you're aimed another four yards right or whatever that is. So like you feel like they had a plan when they showed up in practice, 100% were like 100. Where for a rookie showing up, you're just like, well I hate rounds. Anyway, let me learn the holes. You know? But these guys are already looking at hole locations pins on Sunday and where to chip and putt from. Yeah. So I think, you know Will had a very good because I hated practice rounds in college. I hate him here. It's I just don't like practice rounds. But seeing how he prepared and you know, there may be a couple whether it's 2 or 3 shots, a tournament where it's like there's this left pin, it's like, man, I didn't really get to look over there. Like, is that bad? Like, can I attack this pin? I don't know. And there's that little uncertainty that maybe I should play a little further. Right. And I, you know, that could be a shot or two a tournament. So just seeing the way he kind of talked about it, seeing the way he practiced, you know, where he putted from to these certain holes. It was very, very eye opening for me. Charlie are you familiar with PGA West where you won the Amex? Yes absolutely. So are you familiar with the 16th hole there? That par five with the big bunker left when you talked about a left pin that you weren't sure about? It's my rookie year on the 16th hole I was I never in the practice round went down in that bunker. I went down there and I'm hitting my second shot on Sunday. I'm like 700 playing great. Hit it down in the bunker and I get down there and I was like, Holy. Let's go. Welcome to the Liv Golf Team Championship. The golf has been mesmerizing. They are the Liv golf team champions. Team golf is back. Oh yes. Are you ready? Let's go. Swat champions do. 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 test target group in the National Football League. Two. Stud tight ends. They'e 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. 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 adding 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. It's like that and just, you know, or maybe some younger guys as well. Just a mix of guys. Give him some chance to play their way in. You know play their way into a swing five category or next ten category or whatever it is, but but I'd say overall like, you know, that's a good first year for the signature event program. The sponsors invites didn't bother me at all this year. I understand they went to, to players like Webb Simpson. I think he got one in just about every one. Like next year, Ricky's going to get an exemption into just about every one. And he did. He draws the crowd. Sure. He draws the crowd. And he's been great to a lot of these events and they want him back. So why wouldn't you want him there? And I think that, that sponsors invites or gets so debated by people and, and there's four of them, right. Like maybe there should be more. That's a debatable topic, but these they can do whatever the heck they want. And it's been a little political at times. The Pebble Beach one I thought was a little political, as it was very policy board, you know, Maverick McNealy, Peter Malnati being two picks. They were like, wait, hold on. Peter Manotti got picked over. Who? Right. Yeah, yeah, that was like that. That was one where I can understand the debate. But yeah. Well, and I think in some of those guys, you know, you got to cash in on those. Adam Scott, I believe inside the signature event list right now, you know, making the most of those event, making those, sponsor exemptions. So so, smiley, it's a big week. That's why this is a big week. This is a big, big week. And thrilled to see how it plays ou. And you know, what do we have I know you haven't had a chance to fully walk the course yet. I'd say give me your brief course notes and then you're gonna do some walking the next two days, and we're really going to dig into it. Here's what I'd love for you to share that I thought was interesting, listening to you and Nick talk about was the most crucial tee shots on this course. Yeah, like like the moments where a guy's gonna have to stand up on a tee and really make it pull a shot off and make it happen, you know, so you can kind of win this event or get yourself in contention to make it next week past that. That top 50 line, you know, TPC South Winds a golf course that, is typically stood the test of time with with the growth of the technology boom in the game of golf, you know, when we talk about, oh, we need to keep lengthening golf courses, to make it challenging for pros. Well, this golf course is really it hasn't changed anything really. Like they haven't lengthened it a ton. What they have done though, it's a strategical positional type of golf course where you got to put the ball in the fairway because the rough is a fliers Paradise, meaning it's hard to get. It's hard to get spin on the golf ball coming out of the rough. And the greens are firm. They tuck the pins. So when you have Bermuda rough and you have firm greens, that keeps the scoring. Manageable. That's kind of the two main things when it comes to, you know, keeping these guys challenged, right is, is making them hit the fairway and then firm green. So you got that out here, you can obviously take it deep out here if you're hitting fairways, but they are narrow, you've seen a lot of players that that have played well here are guys that just are able to find fairways. So as I go and check out this golf course this week, I think that'll be kind of the consensus of for what I'll try to figure out in my research is, are the fairways firm or are they soft? The ball's rolling out in the fairways because it could you know, if the fairways are soft, it brings out a lot more guys. Right. But if they're firm now you're gonna you're gonna have to really be able to manage your ball out here. Well smiley starting to get a little warm. Starting to get a little steamy. Feeling some raindrops out here, I walked 11 minutes from a Holiday Inn Express to a Starbucks this morning for a wrap that I ate at 7:30 a.m, and I'm absolutely running on fumes right now. I'm famished. Somebody feed me right now. So get some barbecue right here. Give me some barbecue. Give me a snow cone. I'll eat anything you put in front of me right now. I might eat these plants behind you, but what? The next time we'll be talking to the audience people, we're going to be indoors. And the clubhouse here at TPC South. When I've got a little sneak peek of the location, it's going to be a really, really cool setup, so looking forward to that. On Wednesday night that, that that episode will drop with another special guest, potentially a recurring guest, but until then, smiley, what do you what do you want to leave the good people with as we head out? Oh, man. Gosh, I need to come more prepared for these because I, I always give you a final thoughts to you. I feel like I can close the episode without it. What did I do this weekend, I played I played golf. We might play golf this week. Yeah, we might play golf this week. We'll see, I am debating on whether I should keep interlock or go back to overlap grip. So that's a big topic of conversation, when it comes to my golf brain. Okay. So we'll keep I'll keep you posted on that. But other than that pretty chill week, good. Two weeks at home. I'm pumped about being here, this is going to be great. 70 dudes battling for 50 spots in Denver, but I'm also excited for, you know, we got a lot of great shows coming up. Yeah thrilled to be on site this week and the next two as well. So hope you enjoyed today's episode and we'll be back here on Wednesday night here in the larger sense, but in a different location here at TPC South Wind. For more preview of the Fedex Saint Jude Championship. We appreciate you watching and listening and we will talk to you then.