Full Masters preview: Biggest storylines, top contenders, bold predictions
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Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lab. We are live from Augusta National Golf Club. Rex, you and I just finished our live from hit. We just listened to the State of the Masters address from Chairman Fred Ridley. It has been a great week so far at Augusta. How are you personally, our new president of the Golf Rise Association of America, enjoying this Masters week?

Augusta has really nice like podcast rooms, which is where I am. When you see that, that montage behind me of beautiful pictures of Augusta national, you look like you're in prison. Where are you? Why can't you, you couldn't find something nicer than that. I too am in a podcast room. This is what the podcast room upstairs near the broadcast lounge looks like. Yes. And it's certainly a little bit flavorless. Uh,

A little bit dreary. It does have one of those fancy on-off switches, like on-air. So we should not be interrupted during this podcast. But no, it is not quite as colorful, not quite as vibrant as...

as your podcast room. Right there behind me. I don't know how you feel. It was a frenetic morning with everything that happened. As you pointed out, the chairman just spoke. You and I had a hit to take care of. And then there was also a GWA, Golf Writers Association of America meeting where I was voted president and you were voted second vice president. Congratulations. And I don't know, you and I haven't spoken since that meeting because we've been kind of running around with our hair on fire. But I don't know about you, but there were some nervous minutes when this is, you kind of have to follow specific rules about...

the motion was for Rex Hoggard to be the next president and someone had to nominate me and then someone had to second it. And there was, I don't know about you, but there was some pregnant pauses that I did not appreciate. Oh, no, I was definitely ready to cut somebody if anyone had any sort of dissenting vote for me. So I will assume the president in four years, unless, of course, you were incapacitated in some way over the next couple of years, which I would certainly hate to see. And then I would have

thus be having an entirely different reign of power. But no, congratulations to you. A great honor. First Golf Channel employee to take that honor. You get your face up on the Wall of Fame in the Bartlett Lounge. You get a master's credential for life. I mean, what are you looking forward to doing with your unilateral power that you'll all be able to wield?

Well, I think Bob Herrig, our colleague at SI.com, he's a past president. And he told me like, have one mission coming in as president. So I do have a mission. It doesn't matter. It's kind of a general mission. But the picture on the wall thing, I do want to point out. Inspiring. I have a general mission. Sounds great. Look forward to getting behind it. Well, I can get into the details. I don't think the general public or the listeners of this fine podcast really care about how I want to expand the membership and expand the scope of the GWA. If you'd like that, by all means, we can do a special podcast next week.

when we're not at a major championship and we don't have so many other things to address. But I will say that it dawned on me this morning when I waddled into the Bartlett Lounge, which is the unbelievable restaurant they have built for us here in the media center at Augusta National. And I ordered my I always get the same thing. I get oatmeal and then I get a side of sausage. And I'm kind of gazing up at those pictures on the wall of all the past presidents. And this goes back to 1949.

And OB Keller was the first president of the GWA. And then he was followed shortly by Grantland Rice. And if you don't know a lot about golf riding, those two are like teens. I mean, they're I don't I don't know how you would put it. I've never I've never heard of the former. I've certainly heard of the latter.

At least one of them would be on the Mount Rushmore of golf riders. And I thought to myself, this is stupid. Like, I don't have any reason to ever be on that wall. But it's certainly humbling and it's an honor. I'm glad you're along for the ride with me. It's going to be a fun couple of years. But let's fast forward. Let's move forward quickly, just like I did in the members meeting this morning, to the Chairman's Press Conference. Because there was a lot of interesting, I don't want to say news, but nuggets in there.

Oh, there certainly was. And we went into this. That was part of our hit on live from what are you expecting from Chairman Ridley? And we thought there'd be a question about potential live pathways. He certainly got into that. We were thinking he was going to be asked about Angel Cabrera and his return to the massive first time in five years, I believe, after he was jailed in Argentina for domestic violence charges. He certainly got there.

that. We also anticipated he was going to be asked about the general state of the game, the ongoing division. And so to back up with some of the news that I'm going to be taking out of it, and you can read more of it on NBCSports.com slash golf. He did not necessarily, Rex, seem intent on carving out a narrow pathway for live players like the U.S. Open has done, like the Open Championship will be doing moving forward, even if it was just one spot.

which is potentially would be up for grabs for the U S open and the open. He said, there are other ways that they could address what potentially could be a deficiency in the field with a special exemption or other pathways through the world golf ranking. If they went out and played other OWGR sanctioned events. So I thought that was interesting that even, you know, now year four into the ongoing division in this sport, he doesn't,

He doesn't seem real keen to extend an olive branch to live golf and put much stock into live golf performances. No, that was interesting. And I think you did a good job of covering all of it. I will go to it was less I was less interested in that. And because that to me has been the status quo, at least from Augusta National and the chairman, when it comes to this divide where they seem to.

It seems to me they are going to be the last folks at the table who decide to carve out some sort of exemption, whatever it might be, a direct path in their defense or to state the other side of the story. He immediately pointed out Joaquin Neiman. They have the ability to invite special invitees and they do that every single year. Joaquin Neiman being the primary example. I think if there is a live player that plays well, just not on live golf, but also on the Asian International Series events, maybe on the DP World Tour, they're going to go out of their way.

to make sure those players are in the field. So I don't know it's as much of a stumbling block as some other writers do. And I would mention Bob Herrick. Again, our colleague, again, seems to think that having those walls up is a problem that needs to be addressed. I don't particularly agree with that. The one thing that stood out and is kind of dovetailed with that question was he was asked about...

With the invention of live golf and Steve Sands kind of threw this at us today when we're doing our hit on live from the idea that have the majors become more important now that we only see the top players four times a year. And the answer was clear, obvious. Yes. And I think everyone anticipated this and it's played out probably like a lot of people predicted. The chairman's take, though, and I had to kind of scribble it in my notes is, quote, four times a year is not enough. That means four times a year that that's all the top players get together. And we're not counting players.

The Ryder Cup or the Olympics or anything else, you know, some co-sanctioned events that might factor into it is not enough. I think that sends a very clear message that wherever it is we are in the negotiations, there are plenty of people who are tired of this narrative or tired of this ongoing dialogue. They're tired of the monotony of what this has become. And one of those people is Chairman Fred Ridley.

Yeah, it wasn't quite a plea for the two warring sides to come together. But I do think there was an urgency in his voice that we need to come to a solution here for, you know, not just the good of the respective tours, but that golf fans deserve this as well. He didn't get quite into it, but obviously the fatigue factor is setting in now year four. He said he is encouraging players

the cooperation of everyone. And it's important to keep in mind, Live Golf CEO, at least the former one, Greg Norman, was never invited to attend the Masters over the past couple of years. Remember last year, he made the appearance buying his own ticket and marching around the grounds that way. Augusta did extend an invitation that has been accepted by New Live CEO, Scott O'Neill. So Scott O'Neill will be on. And Chairman Fred Ridley said he does anticipate at least some discussions with members of Augusta

And Scott O'Neill, again, Scott O'Neill, not part of,

of the ongoing negotiations between the PJ tour and the Saudi PIF. I do think that is at least a small olive branch to, to, to follow something I said earlier, Rex about the, the sort of live pathways and what could potentially be carved out for them or not carved out for them. I also thought it was interesting that he said that Augusta, as they do every year is likely to take a re-examination of the qualification criteria, potentially,

eliminating the automatic invite for PGA Tour winners in the fall, sort of owing to the changes in the PGA Tour schedule. All the star players, it seems, are taking those couple of months off. Weaker fields in the PGA Tour, not recognizing them in a way that they have historically and traditionally done, granting automatic invites as well. I thought that that was very interesting, could potentially look at some of the

bolstered international tournaments. The person who asked the question, Doug Virkson of the AP, specifically mentioned a tournament like the BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event on the DP World Tour. So I thought that that was interesting as well. I know you wanted to get Rex into the pace of play.

which Chairman Ridley was not just enthusiastically talking about. I do not want to get into that. But passionately doing so. Obviously, this has been a huge talking point in the past couple of months for the PGA Tour. They're going to be rolling out some experimental trials over the next couple of weeks. I think it actually begins next week at the RBC Heritage where they'll be implementing range finders for you to see how that affects pace of play, potentially being more transparent about

about the penalties and the average stroke time. What did you take away from Chairman Ridley's comments on pace of play and how much of a scourge that is in the current professional game?

Twofold. He volunteered that information. That was kind of in his opening remarks, which if he's going to do that, if you're reading between the lines, if you're reading the room, that means this is important to the Masters. It seemed important in the context that this year's field is 95 players. I believe I have that right, as opposed to the last couple of years. I think last year was 90. That doesn't seem like a huge increase. That doesn't seem like a huge concern, but it does kind of show you where the chairman's head is at that I want to make a point.

pointing out that this is an issue and we need to address this. And it has been an issue. It's an ongoing issue. And look, I'm sick and tired of talking about pace of play. I have done it for the better part of almost three decades now. And I don't know that there is a solution. We talked a lot about this at the players championship when commissioner Jay Monahan sort of laid out where the tour is going with these, with this new pace of play plan. And they're going to be very aggressive. I am curious. I'm going to be in Hilton head next week to see if range finders help to see if anything's

going to help the part that really floored me. And this one was tough and it came from one of our colleagues from overseas. And I didn't quite know where it was coming from, but I guess Sunday and I wasn't paying attention. I didn't see this, but during the dry chip and putt, there was one of the competitors have no idea who that, that child is. I feel sorry for the child in this context, as well as the child's parents was using aim point for a putt. That's pretty well known. And he was asked point blank participants, multiple participants, not just one.

And multiple participants were using Aimpoint. And I believe our colleague, John Hopkins from overseas, ended the question was, is someone going to tell these children to speed bloody up? I believe it is what he said. Get a bloody move on. That was it. Thank you. I knew I was going to butcher that quote. And I kind of was shaken out of my stupor thinking that, man, I don't know how the chairman is going to address this. How are you going to sit and

criticize a child for pace of play during a dry chip and putt contest. And the chairman actually got around to it. He actually did a good job that, yes, I noticed this. And yes, I wasn't a huge fan of this. That to me also was very telling that they did not like the idea with the chairman pointing out that

we know exactly how long that putt is. You don't have to pace it off. It's not necessary. You know it's either a 10-foot putt or a 15-foot putt. It's not going to be a surprise to you. Also, you kind of know what the break is. You've had a lot of time to hit that exact same putt on the practice putting green. So it's clear. Pace of play is important to the chairman. Like the drive, chip, and putt competition, he said for particular shots next year, you can anticipate that there will either be a shot clock or a time limit

in terms of how these competitors think about the, think about the poor kid. Think about the poor kid just catching a stray who was, who was aim pointing. It may or may not have worked. All of a sudden you're catching a stray chairman. You do love to see it. He, I mean, it certainly sounded like that was going to be a point of emphasis this week. I'm not saying you're going to see guys out with stopwatches and all of a sudden they're going to start cracking down on pace of play in ways we, we haven't seen since Guantan long. However, I do think it is going to be particularly since you're going to have absolutely ideal,

playing conditions over these next four days, Rex. I do think that's going to have a heightened focus and they're not going to be wanting any doddlers,

Fingers up. So I'll just go ahead. And I'll also say he cut to the heart of what the issue is. And I don't think he's addressing it to pick on the child. Certainly not. I know that's not the case. And I know he's not even doing it as maybe a problem here at Augusta because it is a limited field and they finish more times than not before darkness just because it's a 90, 95 player field. I think what he went to is the idea that that child in the DCP was doing this because they have seen their heroes on TV do it.

Pace of play is an issue on the PGA Tour, but that always filters down to the amateur game because they're going to mimic what they see on Sunday afternoons when they're watching the golf channel and what players on the PGA Tour is doing. And I think that was the message he was trying to send. One thing that Chairman Ridley did mention in his opening remarks, which he was not then asked a follow-up on, which I thought was disappointing, had my hand raised, did not quite get called on, was, Rex, the idea of the golf ball rollback.

And it's 2028 for professional golfers, 2030 for folks like you and I. We have documented on this podcast it is going to make a negligible difference for the recreational player. However, of course, for the professional, you're looking at a pretty scaled back version of how far they're going to be hit the golf ball. Augusta has been very clear of what they want to see in terms of a rollback. They are supportive of the governing body's mission to curb distance at the elite level. But I did think it was sort of a direct shot

at the PGA Tour and the PGA of America, which has already come out and opposed the rollback, said that they did not intend to implement it. They think that it's going to do more harm than good. This is, it's a little disappointing because we're not going to hear from Augusta for essentially 12 more months on this issue. 2026, the spring when we come back for the Masters, you're going to be two years away from an implementation. I anticipate that that is going to be, by

By far the biggest storyline, assuming the deal gets done at next year's Masters, because it is going to be coming up quickly, is going to have a significant effect. But I would have loved to have asked the question I would have loved to ask is, is what would you say to the PGA Tour and PGA of America officials who have come out to oppose this as why it is absolutely integral to the future of the sport that you would have a rollback golf ball?

And I think Augusta National is probably one of the more sensitive on this subject. I think it has a lot of reasons why, because this is kind of the standard when it comes to the distance that the modern pro is hitting the golf ball. And we all know what this golf course has done over the decades to make sure that we don't end up with Tiger Woods hitting wedge in for a second shot on 13. It's just part of the fabric of the golf course. There's also something to be said for the chairman, Fred Ridley. He's a former president of

This is a topic that clearly he's been working on in a long time. And I think it's a drumbeat. I think this is a harbinger of where the game is going. And I think you and I had this conversation relatively recently that among the things that I hear on PGA Tour ranges the last few weeks of live golf,

reunifying the game, pace of play, whatever it might be, the whispers are building that something, this is going to come to a head, that there is one side of this, the PGA Tour, the PGA of America, the manufacturers who are going to fight. And it looks as if they're going to fight a lot harder than I think a lot of people imagine.

for these rules not to go through, for this not to be implemented. And I think it is interesting that that was the word the chairman used about, okay, we know what the changes are. The trick now is going to be implementing it across the landscape. That's amateur golf. That's top-level amateur golf. That's the professional game. And I think he sees what's on the horizon. He sees there's dissension, and it's going to be an issue. Cooperation from all stakeholders was his exact phrase. Hello, PGA Tour players.

Hello, PGA of America. Let's transition Rex to the 89th masters and the participants. We talked about the golf course on Sunday. No need to rehash that again. A lot of trees fell, not going to make a huge difference from a playability standpoint. Maybe some sight lines are a little bit easier. Bryson said you can play a big cut over the cabins on 10. Now, John, John Rom, who said that he did not believe it. And in fact, there may have been a tree planted overnight. We'll have to go back out and see what,

We had a lot of press conferences on Monday and Tuesday. What is the most interesting thing that has come out of it to you from a player perspective at this Masters?

No big shock. I wrote Rory yesterday and it is interesting that I always do the love affair or unrequited love affair when it comes to this golf course and Rory McIlroy. And I, I was, I kind of got caught in the air and midair with the ball and didn't know where to pass it this afternoon when you and I were on with Steve Sands, we were supposed to pick our favorites on golf channel.com. I picked Rory McIlroy to win. I'm going to stick with that pick.

As you can tell by the tone in my voice, someone told me I was at a function last night and someone said, I saw you picked Rory, but you had to have it. It had to be the most hollow pick I've heard in my entire life. And I did the same thing today where everything I could get, every statistical analysis I would lay out would point to. Yeah, Rory's probably the guy to get it done this week. If you're coming in and you're being objective about this, then absolutely. He would be the guy. If you look at.

This, of course, is number one on tour in G.I.R. bias that would lean towards Rory McIlroy. Certainly what he's able to do off the tee. Certainly what he's been able to do with his putter the last few weeks. But then you add the history to it, the emotion to it, the unrequited love, the heartbreak, whatever it is you want to talk about it. And I'm going to stick with Rory now because I have to. I've gone on record numerous times, but I don't feel great about it.

I mean, I don't think anyone feels great about it. It's clear like a head-heart type situation. There are certainly reasons why this could be Roy's Masters, finally, in what I believe is his 17th

attempt. You look at a strokes game perspective, this is the second best strokes game numbers he's ever had heading into the Masters. It's the only time in his PGA Tour career that he has two victories heading into Augusta. You look at what he's done sort of technically with his game, the changes to his golf ball, to going to a spinnier golf ball,

playing more sort of three-quarter shots to, you know, flight the trajectory down and work it a little bit easier. Like, I think there are parts of his game that should give you reasons for optimism that perhaps did not exist before. But as we've talked numerous times, it's never like a physical limitation issue when it comes to Rory. It's all mental. It's all mental. It's all about Thursday. That's all how he gets started off. And Rory, to me, was the most interesting one

in the press building over his first couple of days, sort of the openness and thoughtfulness and reflectiveness that, that Roy showed sort of looking back at the heartbreaks that he has had over each of the past four years, the, the ability for him to not just be, be willing, but also able to get his heart broken again and again, and seemingly want to come back for more. And, and,

One of the interesting things that we've seen over the PGA Tour over these past couple months is sound bites from players like Thomas Dietry and J.J. Spahn, who are varying degrees of success in the PGA Tour. J.J. Spahn has already won. Thomas Dietry, prior to the WM Phoenix Open, had not won. But they talked about a fear of failure.

where they would almost get in a position on the weekend where they did not want to go any deeper. They did not want to make birdies because they didn't want to even put themselves in a position in which they could potentially fail and feel embarrassment and have to answer questions about it. Rory McIlroy, I thought quite candidly, said he grappled with those same feelings too. Back in 2019, after the 2019 major season, by that point, he had already been a four-time major champion, but he was in the midst of a five-year major list drought. And he said, look,

I want to pour everything I have into these weeks. I want to chase freedom on the golf course. I want to have more fun between the ropes. I want to embrace the pressure and the cauldron that is major championship Sundays. And to his credit, every year since then, he's 11 top...

10 finishes in the major championships since then. He has put himself in position, whether it was 2021, the U.S. Open at Torrey Ponds, 2022 at the Open Championship, 2023 at LACC in the U.S. Open, and of course last year with the U.S. Open and losing that duel to Bryson DeChambeau. He has been through a lot in his career,

He has shown a resilience that I think is pretty admirable for a player of his stature. And as he said two years ago, Rex, when he lost to Wyndham Clark at LACC, I would go through a hundred of these types of Sundays just to get my hands on one more. That's a great attitude that he's taking now into this Masters.

I am going to call you a little bit on your stats, Bert, just now, because you did it on live from the other night. I didn't want to do it on that. But as you correctly pointed out, since 2019, he's played in 19 major championships when he had that epiphany that I'm going to treat these differently because they are differently. And I appreciate the thought process and everything that goes into that. As you just pointed out, 11 top tens and two runner up finishes. He's been close. And the 19 finishes before he came to that epiphany, he had 10 top 10 finishes and one runner up finish.

So it's not as though his record in the majors is suddenly... No, but I think the main difference, if you look back from 2015 to 2019, what stands out is actually how few chances to win a major championship he actually had.

Like you can go back again to 2018 masters here. He was still a couple of shots behind Patrick Reed when he played in the final group at shot 74 and gave himself no favors trying to win a green jacket that stood out in that span. It's not necessarily the top tens. It's how, how many, how few realistic chances he actually had to win a major championship. But the last four years, each year he has had one golden opportunity and failed to capture it each time.

Well, and I love this. And I think I used Xander Shoffley who spoke on Monday kind of about this and the idea that it's not necessarily the winning that, that gets you, that gets him motivated. It's not holding the trophy. It's not putting on a green jacket. It's just putting yourself into the mix.

on Sunday afternoon and the excitement and the adrenaline rush. And you and I can only imagine what that must feel like. It's almost like an out-of-body experience. And I love the way Xander articulated as it applies to Rory McIlroy, where you're right. There are clearly been times over the last decade since he's won a major championship when he didn't want to go through that.

Like it is an emotional roller coaster that you're on and you're hoping you want. You have to believe that it's going to come out on the right side. There's a really good chance it's going to come off the rails and you're going to crash and burn. And I always go back to our former colleague at Golf Channel, David Faraday, told me this story once about early in his career. He found himself on a Sunday morning. I'm sorry, Sunday afternoon at the Open Championship means the world to him being from Ireland. And his name was atop the leaderboard.

And he said it was on the fourth or fifth hole. And he goes, and at that point, I realized that I need to go away now because everyone remembers who crashes and burns on 16, 17, and 18. No one remembers who crashes and burns on five, six, and seven. I love it. But I do think it's, it speaks to a fear of failure. I think a lot of players, uh,

sort of inherently have, even if it's subconscious. And Rory is not just willing to talk about it. He's willing to sort of face the fire and go through it as well. So if you remove Rory Rex, who I think is inarguably the most interesting player at this Masters for myriad reasons, who is next up on your list? Like you can't wait to see how they perform this week at Augusta National.

Scotty, and I did this last night on live from the idea that this is not the same Scotty that bit your head off at the Players' Championship over a very mundane question. This Scotty was relaxed when he spoke to the media yesterday. This Scotty was showing that quiet confidence that we're used to seeing about him. And I think it goes to the idea that he finally feels like everything has fallen into place. I think his last start

gave him some gave him sort of that idea that yes i i can still do this that it's not it's not going to be different and i think it's relative to his struggles quote-unquote struggles this year and he summed it up best he said this year has been good not great and if you break it down statistically i think that's exactly it that the stat i used was strokes gain approach last year on the pga tour no big shock he was first this year he's plummeted all the way to 18th

But the difference in that is about a half a stroke and it's not that much. And that's a really good snapshot of that's the difference between good and great. But when he shows up this week and I think to use his words, how prepared are you? Very prepared, more prepared than he ever has been this season. I think that's where that relax come from. And I think that's where that quiet confidence comes.

He checked every box that he needed to two weeks ago in his final tune-up start at the Houston Open, leading the field in approach play, leading the field in proximity of the hole, nearly tops in the field in scrambling. He's been great inside 10 feet this season on the PGA Tour. Remember, that was the main reason why Scottie went to that clogged rip.

last December at the Hero World Challenge because he was sick of missing inside 10 feet. That has been a very good zone for him. I don't think he's the most interesting player, though. Obviously, it would be historic. He'd become the fourth player if he won back-to-back Masters titles. I believe he'd be the ninth player ever to win three Masters titles or more. He'd win three of the past four years if that were to be the case. I hate doing this because it's like you're lumping them all together together.

But I think the live players collectively are very interesting because outside of Bryson DeChambeau, who factored last year at the Masters, factored again at the PGA Championship where he chased Tanner Shoffley to the finish line. And then, of course, he won the U.S. Open. It was a very quiet year.

for a very strong contingent. 12 live players are in the field this week, and I think most of them are very interesting on their own merits, whether it's John Rahm, again, who I think will go down as one of the best European players ever, a generationally great player to his high standards, had a pretty dismal 2024 year in the major championships. Hearing him on Tuesday, he sounds ready to sort of avenge

What was a disappointing year for him? Perhaps proved some critics wrong that that sort of sort of increased the skepticism that his move to live golf could potentially be sabotaging what is a pretty ascendant career. I think players like Bryson DeChambeau, he talked about the confidence he has. He's actually driving the golf ball better right now, Rex, than he ever has at any point in his career.

Got into the mix at the Masters for the first time last year, playing in one of the final groups. And then I still think, you know, players like Joaquin Neiman,

Who's playing the best golf of his career and has been one of the best live players over the past couple of years or Terrell Hatton, who played as well as anybody in the world late last year and early this year is sort of reasserted himself in that conversation. I think even a potential dark horse, like we talked about on Sunday with Phil Mickelson at the age of 54, tied for second at the Masters a couple of years ago, playing some actually some really good golf statistically and

on live golf this year. I think collectively, we even talk about Brooks Koepka, Mr. Major, who again is not factoring the major championships in each of the last five. I think, I think there's something to prove there. And I'm, I think I'm most curious to see how that contingent plays this week.

We did a punch shot on that, and I thought it was interesting because it was which one of the live players could contend. And my response was, I can think of at least half dozen, if not more. And we can bat that back and forth because, as you just pointed out, there's a bunch of guys where you could sit and, yeah,

I could see him having a good week here. Certainly he's played well so far this season. The one, however, that stood out to me was Jon Rahm because he talked about last year was not his favorite major championship season. But you and I sort of mentioned this in passing. The one thing he did say that stood out to me was he said he was unfairly judged.

on his performance in the majors last year. And my counter to that was, yes, if you weren't playing on Live Golf and you had the exact same season on the PGA Tour, two wins, finished inside the top 10 in every other event outside of the major championships, you're right. We

We would probably look back on that season and think to ourselves, it was a good season. Not like Scottie Scheffler says, not a great season, but a good season. But in this fractured world that we live in and you can only take things in incremental bites, we're going to look at the three majors. He missed one because of a foot injury. And I also want to tack on the Olympics where he had a sizable lead going into the back nine on Sunday and not only played his way out of a gold medal, but played his way out of a medal.

Period. But I do sympathize, empathize probably is a better way of saying it. And the idea that everyone looks focused entirely on how he played in the majors.

Everyone judged his entire year and how he played in those three events, four events, if you're counting the Olympics. There is a unique stress to that, that I don't think we can overestimate here. Like he knew the spotlight was on him after going to live golf. And he knew the only thing that he did last year and the majors that was going to matter. The only thing he did last year that was going to matter was the majors. I can only imagine how difficult that is. And that doesn't change this year is what sticks with me.

Yeah. And like, I don't make my only quibble with that. And, and John Rahm has always prided himself on his, uh, consistency. And like, you look at his, his PGA tour record, 48% of the time he has finished inside the top 10 in his, in his PGA tour career. And look, he's never finished outside the top 10. Uh, and now what is nearly one and a half years on live. I think we still struggle with what that actually means, uh,

When you're playing the same 48 players or 52 players at this point, week in and week out on golf courses that even live players are saying is not quite difficult enough. They're looking to sort of revamp their schedule to have better tests of golf. You can look at any statistical measure. Even if John Rahm is down to 80th in the official world golf ranking, you'd have to be an idiot to

to think that he is not one of the top 10 players in the world. In fact, Data Golf has him at number four. But if you're only getting this small snapshot of what Jon Rahm is and who Jon Rahm is competing against, the very best players in the world, it's going to be imperative for him

to play well in the major championships this year or the calls and the criticism and the skepticism is only going to increase if John Rom cannot get it done in the major championships. Let's talk picks. Let's talk contenders. Let's talk sleepers for those who have major pools at offices or at home with their families or even if they're gambling away their precious income.

Well, pick, I think we just kind of did our picks. I went with Rory McIlroy again, as you pointed out correctly. It's a head versus heart conversation. I would go through what you need to do well here. I mean, the obvious one is strokes gain approach, and he does that really, really well. You look at, he's got two victories. Not quite as well as some of the other players in the world, though, Rex. Sure. No, I understand, but he's got victories in a signature event and in the Tours flagship event. I believe his head is in the right spot. So for all the reasons I said, and look, this isn't a...

I don't have a lot of bass in my voice when I say this, and I understand. A little high. I think he's going to win. Yeah, I'm not leaning into this. Yeah, no, like I said, I don't have a lot of bass in my voice when I do this one, but I'm sticking with Rory McIlroy.

Okay, I'll go with Colin Morikawa. That's what I picked him when he's become, Rex, like this controversial figure who hates the media. He hates fans. He hates sort of letting us in. I really don't think he wants to embrace that role, but he continues to.

sort of find himself in the middle of this controversy. But I like him for all of these statistical reasons that you mentioned, the approach play, that being by far the biggest term, a determiner for success at Augusta national leading the PGA tour this year and strokes gained approach. And I think everything is just sort of coalescing for him. He's had plenty now of,

of big game experience over the past couple of years. He played in the final group last year at Augusta national, his short game and putting is vastly improved from even when he was winning major championships. And so I think if he is at his sharp shooting best as calm or how it typically is, I think this week sets up incredibly well for him. How about is you get a little bit deeper Rex, who are some, I don't know, off the radar type names that you feel that you feel pretty good about backing this week.

Well, we had to do what our editor Mercer Bags called a long shot. And his definition of that was 50 to one, because you and I always seem to want to bat this around a little bit. But his line was 50 to one. So I came in with Russell Henley, as you're going to but you're going to quickly point out he's a top 10 player in the world. Top seven. Top seven in the world. But you're right. Based on the top sevens.

Based on what our editor told us to do, I went with Russell Henley as a long shot five time tour winner. He's just kind of the perfect fit of what you think of a long shot Masters champion. Again, I'll go back to G.I.R. and he's third this season in G.I.R. could be sixth in proximity to the hole. If he can putt like he did when he won just a few weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, I don't think anyone should be surprised. And to be fair, I don't think he should be a long shot. But our editor set that number.

He did set that number, just completely throwing him under the bus. I do love that. Rex, for you, for me, he was also the player that I picked. And someone got in their feelings in the comments section on our Sunday Night Pod when I sort of dismissed Patrick Reed, which I probably should not have done. I didn't realize his record in the Masters was quite as good as I thought over the past couple years. While also backing...

But while also backing Russell Henley, and the reason why I backed Russell Henley and perhaps not Patrick Reed is yes, the course fit might be good. But even though Russell Henley is a shorter hitter on average as Patrick Reed is, the other elements of his game are stronger.

a great iron player, a very streaky, if not good, certainly above average putter on the PGA tour. So he has other compliments of his game that again, I don't, I don't actually dislike Patrick Reed this week. He probably would have been in my, you know, 11 to 15 range if I was doing like a deeper power ranking. So I did want to put that out there for all of the people. I also think like a SEP Straka, uh,

Rex could be a good pick this week. If you go even a little bit further, like a Michael Kim, who from a strokes game perspective this year has been very good. Maverick McNeely now among the top 10 players in the world again. I'm not sure how much of a wild card the top 10 player in the world can be, but as a first timer, that makes a lot of sense to me, particularly with the way that he can putt the golf ball. There was something, Rex, that you wanted to get into, because I know we're now a day removed

from scotty scheffler's uh champions dinner we don't want to get into that fanciful notion of oh if you won the masters what would you have but you you had this idea and this is this is you know 50 your podcast too i i want you to to voice exactly what that's that's a five dollar fine with the concession menu and what you actually want to do please can you please explain

Thank you, Fred, for putting up the menu for, for those of you in the listening on, it's not the washing audience. Fred has put up a menu of what the patrons can order. And as we've, we've talked about in the past, this is embarrassingly cheap. If I gave you $20, you probably couldn't spend it walking around all day long. So it's what I wanted to do. And I think you and I have done.

What would be our champion's menu? Because we fancy ourselves foodies. Clearly, we like to spend time around smoke and the barbecue. However, I wanted to do this a little bit differently. So if I was doing a champion's menu just based on what you can buy as a patron on property, and this is twofold.

So you have to do everything you have to do. You know, you have to start with an appetizer, the entree, dessert, drinks, the whole nine yards. I have come up with my menu and I actually did the math while we were sitting here. My total came to seventeen dollars. So everyone play along here. So for the appetizer, for the appetizers, I'm going to I'm going to go something along the lines of maybe some Georgia pecan caramel popcorn popcorn, which I thought was very good or pecan.

Whatever. I'm not from Georgia, so I don't have to get it right. And then as a combination for my entree and play along with me here, I want I don't like pimento cheese. Let's be clear about this. The barbecue was very, very good. You had one yesterday. I'm not sure it agreed with your stomach, but you went with it anyway.

What I'm going with is a barbecue sandwich because it is delicious. I'm going to get the egg salad and I'm also going to get the classic chicken. But pay attention. This is what you do here. You take the classic chicken off that bun and you put it into the egg salad bun, thereby creating one beautiful, delicious sandwich for my beverage. Keep in mind, though, that's a that's a cold chicken sandwich. If you've never been to the Masters before, this is not a hot chicken sandwich like you would be getting from Chick-fil-A. Cold is it's it's not for everybody.

It is not, but it's still delicious. I'm going to go with, you're not a huge fan of the crow's nest beer, which is Augusta's own. Essentially, essentially blue moon. I've heard you say that before. I'm not sure I agree with it, but I'll go with that. I'll give you that on the back end. And then I really wrestled with this one because you, it,

As far as dessert goes, I think there's only one option here, but I'm going to have to say the word again. So I'm going to go ahead and try it again. Georgia peach ice cream sandwich. Those things are delicious. So that entire menu, which would be my champion's dinner menu, came to a grand total of $17. What you got?

Okay, I have not done the cost, so you can follow along. You can jot down the notes while I'm talking here. First of all, if we're doing an appetizer, that also means it's happy hour. And so I'll be starting with a beer, even if it is the crow's nest. I'm not a huge fan of Blue Moon, but I would certainly suck one down for this very special occasion as it relates to food appetizers.

Uh, you could, you, I mean, you could go, let's see, maybe some fruit every single morning. I get apple slices. I have a yogurt parfait. Apple. Yeah. It's called an appetizer. Like there's not a plethora of options here as it relates to your appetizers. Uh, I don't see the yogurt parfait there, which is very disappointing. I've also had the muffin quite delicious as it relates to the main entree. You're right. I'm a big barbecue sandwich fan as it relates to

The Masters concession. The only problem, though, Rex, is that they're small. They're more sliders, I would call them, than sandwiches. And so you probably need at least two to get filled up. I have no problem putting those down. It wouldn't think anything of it. I'm very relieved that the hot dogs that I have been consuming each and every day here at August National are not on that menu because I got to be I got to be honest with you, folks. I am at war.

There is an inner turmoil that is underway, and I'm raging against the machine as we try to get normal and natural as this Masters is about to get underway. But yes, the barbecue sandwich to me is by far the highlight. And again, I still like the egg salad sandwich. I like that cold chicken. I like the chicken salad for me if I could only choose one. The Masters Club is also very good. I don't want to undersell the Masters Club either. It is, and it's like a ham...

turkey cheese combination something along those lines but again to me heavy on the mayo a little bit of bit of mustard yes it's very good though it is good and then for dessert yes we're going to have more beer and i would go with the moon pie as well as the georgia peach ice cream sandwich all of that rex is very very delicious uh let's let's do something a little bit different

As it relates to the end of this podcast, this is George, this master's preview podcast is time. Now Rex for the moving forever forward presented by workday in short, what are you most looking forward to for Thursday's opening round?

You said it about a million times and I make fun of you every time you say it, but there is something to be said for Rory McIlroy getting off to a fast start. I don't think he needs to shoot 65 and have a five stroke league after day one, but there is something to be said for the idea that anything in and around par, I think would be a good enough start. You want to see how the golf course is playing. We talked a lot about all the rain we got on Monday. My guess is by the time we end up Thursday's opening tee shots, I think it's going to be plenty firm and plenty fast. And the golf course is,

seems to come around every single year. We're always worried about too much rain, not enough rain, whatever the case may be.

They have the magicians. They know what the secret sauce is to get it dialed in. And if Roy can go out and shoot, like I said, anything around par, I think this puts him on pace for me to put a little bit more base in my voice when I announce him as my favorite for this week. Even par is not going to get it done. The reason I keep harping on this is because it is so important. We look at Roy McIlroy's history in the Masters just twice in 16 career appearances has he shot in the 60s in the opening rounds.

News flash. Those two rounds were in 2011. The open was 65 on his way to a four shot lead heading into the final round. Also as well in 2018, when he shot the sixties in the opening round and then played his way into the final group with Patrick Reed, even though he eventually lost you, you sort of dismiss the fact that,

that the fast start is important. But when you look over the past decade, I think in particular over the past half decade, it is imperative to get off to a good start. The average position for the first round leader of the eventual champion was about 6th.

Sixth place after the first round. Those last five champions of the Masters Rex have averaged a shade over 67. 67.2 was their average opening score. And so it is imperative for Roy McIlroy, I would argue, as I have all year, that it is the most important round of his year, if not one of the most important rounds of Roy McIlroy's entire career.

It's going to be a great opening round of the Masters. Scotty Scheffler, Justin Thomas in the morning, Rory, Ludwig, Brooks Koepka, John Rahm, all going off in the afternoon. We'll have it all covered, not just on Live from the Masters, which you and I will be appearing again on Thursday, but of course, NBCSports.com slash golf for all of our latest news, notes, and updates. You and I will be back Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with mini pods after 8 p.m.

each and every tournament round before the grand finale on Sunday. We will do the full hour long episode recapping the year's first major. All right. It's been a great start to the master's week. Look forward to getting it all started on Thursday. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. We'll talk to you guys on Thursday night. It's spring black Friday at the home Depot. So what are you working on?

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