The Shotgun Start

This Wednesday episode goes long on this week’s event, the Byron Nelson. We get into the unique (for the PGA Tour) course, Trinity Forest, in Dallas. We discuss some of its key features and why it makes for such a different watch and test on the PGA Tour. We also chat about the British Masters, its quality venue, and whether Chicagoan Matt Fitzpatrick will ever be able to host this event. Then we get to Tony Romo’s exemption at the Nelson, his hockey style putting stroke, his intense practice habits, his sizable over-under number for round one, and his big plans to play more tour golf. In news, we hit on John Daly getting approval to use a cart at next week’s PGA Championship. How will this work, especially on what could be a rain-soaked Bethpage? Is the 90-degree rule in effect? Cart path only? Will you get relief from a tire mark? So many questions before we wrap with Paulie’s Picks and an abominable and astonishing Nelson one-and-done selection from one participant.

We return from the weekend with a double worse-for-the wear feature, which means you may want to just set this episode to 1.5 or 2x speed at the start. We run through the results and commend Max Homa’s work to get to the point of winning on the PGA Tour. We also use that as a jump off to contrast it with some players who may be the beneficiary of repeated exemptions. Then there’s a wild divergence on the Minneapolis business community as well as this Quail Hollow event getting eaten by some of the elevated status titles and WGCs that line the schedule. After the Kentucky Derby controversy, we put out a few golf hypotheticals that might come close to comparing to that overturn and ruling at the sport’s biggest event. In news, we hit on the joy of the Brooks Koepka and Brandel Chamblee beef that reignited with Brooksy’s weekend photoshop work. We sign off with the weird story of Steve Sticker being used for a charity outing scam and ponder who you would choose for such a scam to make it both believable enough and also draw interest for your outing.

We get a little loose on this Friday episode. We begin with a quick leaderboard check-in, discussing Rory and Joel Dahmen in Charlotte and Anne van Dam (and the Dutch population at large) leading on the LPGA. This also leads to Andy proposing a dramatic overhaul to Olympic golf, where regions, and not nations, are represented. We also discuss The Pace Car blowing a tire and withdrawing after an opening round 80, as well as the telepathic Team Reed maybe sorting out their swing. In Flashback Friday, Andy takes us down a memory lane occupied by Rory McIlroy, Billy Mayfair, and Wells Fargo Ironman J.J. Henry. We wrap with news we either care or don’t care about from the past couple days, hitting on teetotaler Bubba endorsing CBD, some extreeeemely crooked exemptions at Colonial that will leave you choking on nepotism, Keith Pelley’s tone deaf comments on the Euro Tour’s role in Saudi Arabia’s evolution, Lydia Ko parting ways with another coach, Tiger’s big boat sailing to Long Island, Jason Day’s dream of being in the military and the idea of him blowing into balloons in the trenches or on the Black Hawk, and lastly, Victor Dubuisson giving up wine, getting in shape, and dreaming of a return to the Ryder Cup.

This Wednesday episode begins, as you’d expect, with a lengthy divergence on J.J. Henry after Andy comes with the little fact that he’s one of two players that have made a start in every iteration of the Wells Fargo Championship. We discuss the odd and arbitrary “300 career made cuts” category that allowed him to keep his card this year. Then we get into the full schedule for the week, comparing the purses of some LPGA events to Champions Tour events and then discussing the leaderboard at the PGA Professional Championship. The event of the week has us reviewing the career earnings of the all-time wins leader on the Minor League Golf Tour. In news, we discuss some comments from PGA Championship setup man Kerry Haigh on the weather and conditioning they’re hoping for over the next two weeks to fill out Bethpage Black. We also rant on the absurdity of Carson Daly’s latest interjections about the “Spirit of Earl Woods” in his podcast with Rory McIlroy. We wrap with some Quail Hollow picks and intel from Fried Egg Paulie.

We return from the weekend to run through a full slate of tournaments across the world of golf. We get to Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer’s runaway win at the Zurich Classic, and Andy offers some misgivings about the fallout and impacts that a win or a successful finish has on some of the weaker links in these two-man teams. Then we get to Jorge Campillo winning the dagger in Morocco and revisit our claim that more young American players should go see the world and come up through the European Tour. We review Minjee Lee’s cruise to an LA Open title at Wilshire and also hit on the Champions Tour event at Big Cedar, which Andy argues “does not need to exist.” The start of the PGA Professional Championship is also addressed, and we posit that the new schedule puts the pros from the Northern U.S. at a severe disadvantage. In news, we discuss Eduardo Molinari’s bold move to tweet out all the slow play times on the European Tour and what more can be done to affect real change. We also get back to Tiger’s announcement that he’s skipping the Wells Fargo and why it doesn’t matter. Before we get to Andy’s weekend wearing mittens and Brendan’s long afternoon coaching youth soccer, we wrap with the news that one LPGA pro uses lemon wedges to focus and wonder if this is a real aid we should put in the bag or if it’s more quackery.

“Hey, how you doing? It’s Friday!” We head to the weekend with a quick check in around the world of golf, from Morocco to Los Angeles. We debate whether the Zurich Classic, two-man format or not, stinks. We also get into whether upstart pros should go to Europe to work their way up the world rankings. Then, by popular demand and from the mind of Andy Johnson, we play another round of the guessing game for a few more walk-up music selections most appropriate for some Shotgun Start favorites. In news, we get to Tiger committing to the first ever PGA Tour event in Japan, his scheduling choices, and the overreaction to his gait from a social media video on Thursday. Then we hit on the news of John Peterson’s fifth or sixth or seventh un-retirement of the past year, and some of the absurd quotes he delivered about why he made the choice to come back. Ernie Els’ special exemption into the U.S. Open has Andy bursting with joy, but we also provide some intel about some International players maybe not thrilled about being told who to play with this week. The disastrous deal a Euro women’s pro announced with Golf Saudi, as well as the awful caption for it, get a review. We conclude with a Flashback Friday on a 1980s (sorta) legend.

This Wednesday episode begins by running through the full schedule for the week, with commentary on the Champions Tour pilgrimage to the Ozarks, the Web Tour playing again with no TV coverage, and the utility of the European Tour handing out a trophy that can also be used to prepare dinner. Then Andy crowns his Event of the Week, which goes to a classic Los Angeles design that has, rightly, ripped its name from PGA Tour. The Zurich Classic format comes into the crosshairs as we examine the end-around of players who have little-to-no status using another player’s (who does have status) shots during a competition that could land them a two-year exemption. We also dabble with a walk-up music game, as Andy comes up with some song options for a few Shotgun Start favorites that Brendan has to guess. In news, we hit on the Hero World Challenge still going up against the Aussie Open, John Peterson coming out of retirement again, and a call to action to help a PGA Tour pro design his new logo. We wrap with some one-and-done picks after getting blown off by Paulie.

After a brief diversion on Easter candy, Andy and Brendan return from the weekend to run through the results from the golf world. They get into C.T. Pan’s big win at the Heritage, DJ’s staggering implosion on the back nine, and Rory Sabbatini’s Sunday fade. The Sabbatini contention brings us to a possible scandal revealed on the coverage over the weekend and has us questioning whether his decision to become Slovakian came from pure intentions. On the Champions Tour, we discuss the two MLB pitchers that made starts at TPC Sugarloaf with limited success. Then we get to the matter of Tiger rolling out to The Woods in mesh shorts and his dri-fit gear. We wrap with a Sunday Scaries segment that suddenly dives down a rabbit hole on the life and times of Larry Nelson, war hero and three-time major champion.

We begin this Friday episode with the news that the PGA Tour’s grand finale and the crowning FedExCup test will now feature two leaderboards, one hidden and one for public consumption. We revel in the OWGR sanction board holding this over the Tour’s head and making them work for it, and also the fact that a move made for simplicity has resulted in this weird and convoluted two-leaderboard system. Then we get to the matter of Mike Weir playing in Alabama and wonder how many players have gone from the Masters one week to RTJ Trail the next. We also address the news of some big names committing to the new Detroit event and, combined with some star commits to the new Minneapolis event, question whether something untoward is happening on the money side with these events. Some two-man teams for next week’s Zurich Classic are out, including one father-son duo that will certainly raise eyebrows and maybe even tempers in the locker rooms. We wrap with a Flashback Friday on two-time Heritage winner Payne Stewart and some of his early career achievements and under-achievements, including that stretch when he played Top Flite cavity back irons.

We’re back recording remotely after a week in Augusta and this Wednesday episode quickly devolves into covering all absurd corners of the golf world since Tiger won the Masters. We run through the schedule of the week and Andy delivers some intel on the great Pasatiempo when crowning his event of the week. We also ponder why Mitsubishi is putting all their marketing money into sponsoring senior events as well as some background on the sketchy circumstances that brought the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail into existence in Alabama, site of this week’s Web Tour event. Then we get to the news that a physicist has disproven Bryson DeChambeau’s crackpot science of putting with the flagstick still in the hole. We discuss the news of Hosung Choi’s exemption to the John Deere Classic and what he might do exploring the Quad Cities region in the heartland of America. Also in news, we hit on the PGA Tour releasing a new mobile video game, which gives Andy an opening to provide some field research he did on if the Fortnite tents have brought kids out to the PGA Tour events. We wrap with some quick picks for the Heritage.