How Rory won The Players, and what it means for the rest of 2025
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Indeed.com slash NBC Sports. Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav after a three-hole aggregate playoff, which was wildly entertaining but also turned

into a bit of a pillow fight. Roy McIlroy is your player's champion for 2025, defeating JJ Spahn. Rex, your laptop is absolutely fried. You're dressed up with nowhere to go. What were your impressions of the extra day of golf that we got to have here at TPC Sawgrass?

It was quite the morning. Yeah, I had a lot going on. Laptop didn't blow up. This is on my phone. I apologize for the bad picture and the bad sound. I'm going to go straight to what Rory told us last night after he finished up and the way he put it in the simplest terms. Looking forward to this three-hole playoff here at TPC Sawgrass. He said, I just need to have five good swings.

Turned out he needed six swings, but I would argue, and I was on the desk, and you were just making fun of me, getting ready for TV that I didn't do. And Brandel Chamblee, our colleague, actually pointed out best. He really only needed one swing. The swing on 16, I think that won it for him. And...

I want to get into the idea that if you were going to draw up the perfect hole for Rory McIlroy to start a three-hole playoff against any player, not J.J. Spahn, don't want to pick on J.J. Spahn, but any player, it would be 16, the way it was playing this morning. Downwind, big fairway. He can just launch that driver, play a big high draw, and he sent it, what, 336 yards? He ended up having a pitching wedge in for his second shot. He had more in.

into the 17th hole, the short par 3, then he did his second shot into the par 5. So it's interesting to me that he almost started that playoff thinking to himself that I already have a one-stroke advantage. Like, all I have to do is navigate 17 and 18, and I'll be fine. We finally got something right, Rex. It took us...

apparently now eight days, but we finally said that Roy McIlroy, since he was going to have the honor on the first hole, the three hole aggregate playoff could make a statement with the tee shot that he hit on 16. I think he was aided certainly by the wind that he had warming up on Monday, as we told you guys on the podcast and study completely different direction than what we've been experiencing for the past four days here at TPC Sawgrass. And so 16, instead of playing into the wind and playing more difficult in that respect, it was actually down off the right side.

for a right-hander. So just hit a high towering draw, as you mentioned, hit it 336 and had just a pitching wedge.

into the green. I was fascinated by this Rex. Like I woke up completely jazzed, so psyched, so pumped for this playoff. Like how interesting was this that you have the three watery holes, some of the most famous stretch in all of golf, a dichotomy of not just personalities, but performance as well between Roy McIlroy and JJ spawn. What were your expectations for the playoff? And how did you see that sort of differing from what we actually got?

I don't want to overstate this because you're right. We finally got one right after getting everything wrong this week. And we can go back over that if you'd like. But I think 16 played pretty much exactly the way I thought it would. And nothing – again, this isn't J.J. Spahn. And I'll go back to something I said last night because I think I got caught up in the idea that –

I felt like Rory played the last few holes a little on the conservative side. And certainly when you look at what he did on 18, hitting a three iron, not being overly aggressive with his iron shot, ending up having to make a really good two putt just to make par on that hole. However, I kept coming back to the idea that if you're Rory McIlroy and you have a

you have accomplished everything you have in your career. Take JJ Spahn out of it. If you looked at the other 142 players in the field, you would probably really like your chances starting on that specific hole with those conditions. And given the fact that everything about your driving got better since let's go back to Thursday of last week, even at Bay Hill over the last 14 days, essentially everything has improved to put you in this position. So I will take a victory lap on that one. I didn't see him.

JJ Spahn hitting in the water on 17. He had played that three hole stretch and one under par. Roy had played that three hole stretch for the week and even par. I think JJ Spahn had shown, shown himself and everyone in the golf world a lot about the type of player he is in this very moment in time because there was nothing easy about those 72 holes that he navigated before the playoffs. So I didn't particularly see that. I didn't,

particularly see it turning into a pillow fight coming up 18. I think you and I probably would have played it probably pretty much about the exact same way, but I will take it. I will certainly say what I saw in 17 is what I a hundred percent expected. I mean, this tournament always comes down to how players handle 16, 17 and 18. And this player's championship in particular was really distilled down to that 17th tee shot. So Roy McIlroy goes first.

It's sort of this three quarter, three quarter nine iron that found the back of the green. Very interesting that I was I was on the range with them for about 45 minutes before they headed to the 16th tee. And late in Roy's warm up, he rotated about 90 degrees from the teeing area, TBG Sawgrass, and started launching what again was going to be three quarter, three quarter nine irons.

towards the third green, trying to sort of replicate the wind direction that he was going to be facing on 17. Hit maybe five, six, seven of those shots. Felt comfortable with the yardage. He said he wanted to hit it. That three-quarter, three-quarter nine iron is about a 147-yard shot. Using the track man, he saw that it was going 130, which was sort of his target number for playing that. So again, he had a nine iron there. J.J. Spahn.

after seeing Roy go to the back of the green, said, look, Roy's at least a club longer than I am. I'm going to hit sort of a chippy eight iron. He launches it high. And at that point, when the ball is in the air, Rex, and like it sounded absolutely flush, it was absolutely pure. I was sitting there next to Sean Martin, our buddy for PGAtour.com. I said, oh, he absolutely flushed that. He actually thought when the ball was in the air, this thing's going to end up short.

He was thinking it needed to go. Instead, I don't know if he hit it too good. I don't know if the adrenaline, I don't know if the wind slightly died down. Like, it was howling at this point, probably 25-mile-an-hour gusts.

flies the green at least 10 yards long and was still in disbelief about 30 minutes later. He saw the shot for the first time at sort of the end of his press conference. And he said, he like paused his answer and said, do you guys mind if I watch this? And he saw it and he goes, look at, look how high it is. It's floating. Like he was just completely in disbelief. Rory couldn't believe it either. It was such a good shot. So I think,

when it comes to JJ spawn, yeah, that's going to be the shot that, that doomed his bid is unlikely bid to win this player's championship. But I don't think he would necessarily be lamenting anything or, or ruining anything or, or feel like he made a mistake. You know, I think that's, that's pretty powerful.

where he should, he, he hit the shot exactly as he was intending to do. So he said he hit it absolutely perfectly. He didn't pull it off. I feel like that's easier to stomach than, you know, missing a four footer when he had an opportunity to win the golf tournament. And,

And I want to give a shout out on this to Mark Russell, Little Russ's dad. We were talking about this last night. When Mark Russ was part of the rules committee, he was part of the committee that came up with the idea that maybe because we have this three-hole stretch that we go to some sort of aggregate playoff. And I'm pretty sure –

genius there was a lot of discussion back and forth and like well look we had to come back monday morning and there's nothing that we as golf riders like to do less than come back on monday morning i think both of you and i were both really looking forward to showing up this morning and what was going to happen because so much could have changed even with rory starting on that hole and i'm going to go back to the idea that he won it on the 16th hole with that opening drive but yeah i mean

I think JJ spawn still thought, Nope, I just gave up a stroke. I'm still fine. I'm with you. I was actually up in the tower where the set is on 17. And then we actually have a monitor up there that gives you exactly what the wind was. It was closer to 25.

when he hit. So I don't know if he just didn't catch the gust that he thought he was going to catch. Maybe you're right. Maybe he caught it too well. Never touched land, which is pretty surprising on that front. But I am struck by the idea that this was the perfect way to finish. And even Rory sort of leaned into it during his press conference that this event is so good for a lot of different reasons. Every year it gets better. The golf course conditions get better. All of the infrastructure around it gets better. That is what really makes it special in my mind. Yeah.

It wasn't just that this was like a made-for-TV event with actual stakes in the line and winning one of the most prestigious tournaments in all of golf. To me, what made this such an interesting contrast of players, Rex, was the contrast in where these guys are in their careers. Do you subscribe to the belief, Rex, that Rory needed to win this Players' Championship, whereas J.J. Spahn very much would have liked to win the Players' Championship?

Yes and no. I mean, I'm sorry. I did that wrong. No and yes. Got confused there for a moment. No, I don't think Roy needed to win it. He's already won the Players' Championship. You don't think he needed to win it just based on the last three years, the number of close calls he had. You can pick whatever one you want. 2022 Open, 2023 U.S. Open, 2024 U.S. Open, 2024 Irish Open, 2024 Olympics Open.

Any of those tournaments in which he kicked away. BMW PGA, where he got beat by Billy Horswell. You can keep going down the list. Again, being on the desk, and we were having this conversation with Brando Chamblee and Paul McGinley on the desk before it came up. And Brando brought up a good point. This is something that you always lean into, so I was fascinated by this. There has been a study that's done on the PGA Tour that when the winds blow higher than 18 miles per hour, Rory McIlroy is the best player statistically on the PGA Tour. It's counterintuitive, obviously,

I tend to agree with, I think, what you're probably thinking now, that no, those aren't the best wins for him. But you certainly see what he did today. And I'll also go back to the idea that

maybe he's not the best closer that we've ever seen. But I think you can also make an argument statistically that Jack Nicklaus might not have been the best closer if we're putting him under the microscope. The comparison being that, yeah, he won 18 majors. He finished 19 times in those major championships, which means he had a chance more times than not to win. And he didn't more times than not. So I think sometimes we get a little hypercritical. No, I don't think he had to win this one at all. Now next month,

At the Masters, we're going to have a completely different conversation, but he's already won the Players' Championship. This year, he's already won a signature event, and I don't know if it's going to look good on the resume. He's certainly going to enjoy this one for a lot of different reasons, but no, he didn't have to have it. I think your assessment of JJ is 100% correct.

No, I think Roy had to have it. I think Roy McIlroy understood that he had to have it just to sort of gird himself from the torn of criticism that was going to come his way. Keep in mind, Roy McIlroy was leading this golf tournament by three shots with six holes to play. Yes, J.J. Spahn went two under over his last four holes to get to the 12-under mark. But Roy McIlroy played one over after...

After taking that three-shot lead into the clubhouse, missed a couple of makeable putts, whether it was on 15 or 16 as well. I think with the accumulation of scar tissue that he's had over the past couple years, he desperately needed to put his stamp on a big tournament victory, particularly with, of course, the Masters coming next month. As it relates to J.J. Spahn, I think he was a real revelation there.

Rex for me this week, sort of his career path, the career journey that he has been on and something that I'm going to be writing for NBC sports.com slash golf on Monday is, is sort of looking at the, the very dark art and the hard process that comes with winning. And, and, and JJ has been very open about how he, uh, at times in his career has sort of shied away from the moment. Um, you know, essentially he told me, uh,

on Monday, not wanting to embarrass himself. You know, he, he has so much scar tissue from what happened. 2022 FedEx St. Jude championship, a playoff event on the, on the PGA tour shot 78 in the final round while state to the 54 hole lead. He said he was so embarrassed afterward. He wanted to crawl into a hole and die. And over the past couple of years, he,

He has basically been sort of insulating himself from feeling that ever again. And it's something that Thomas Dietry touched on last month at the WM Phoenix Open. It's something that J.J. Spahn has reiterated over the past couple days. Again, hitting the shots that he wanted to.

while in this spotlight under the most intense pressure he has ever felt in his entire career, even if he does not walk away with a W, I think it's going to be hugely beneficial for him for the rest of the year and perhaps for the rest of his career. I was listening to Rory McIlroy's press conference up on the desk on 17, waiting to do TV that I ended up

not doing. And I heard your question to Rory and I turned to our colleague, Todd Lewis, and I go, the emotional vampire. I know exactly what he's going on. He's going for the tears. He's going to try to cut tears. It's not tears. It's, it's trying to under, it's trying to, to, to get a greater understanding of, of what makes these guys tick. No, no. You always go after the emotion. That's a hundred percent. And it's going to be a good story. I'm looking forward to reading it. There's human beings who experience emotion.

If I had a laptop that worked, I would take a slightly different tone on that one. I think I would look more in the idea of Rory's complicated relationship with this championship. And he could not be more effusive during his press conference and all the interviews that he has done today talking about how this – I get the feeling that in his mind it is –

the fifth major championship and how special this event is to him. And he was asked specifically, how do you celebrate certain championships? And I got the idea that he's probably going to celebrate this one pretty well. And it's also St. Patrick's Day, as he pointed out. So this one will probably be an enjoyable event.

It was not always that way early in his career. Not only did he not play well here, and he sort of touched on the idea that when it was played in May, it really wasn't his cup of tea, that it was brown and bouncy and didn't really fit his game. It seems to suit his game much better in March. I get that, but it goes much deeper than that.

The management firm that he was with earlier in his career was a very European-centric management firm. And they were very much, I don't want to say anti-PGA Tour, but they wanted to put the European Tour first. And there were years when Rory actually skipped this event. He did not play it. Instead, he opted to do something else this week. And it has evolved from that to where he is now, the PGA Tour spokesman in all things sports.

PGA Tour, whether that's Live Golf or if this should be the fifth major. And you could tell. This one did mean a lot to him. I'm still going to go back to the idea. I don't think he had to have it. It sounds, Rex, like you're working on a golf course story. And I'm not going to bite. And I'm not going to subscribe to your narrative. So I think –

Oh, no. I think we're just going to leave it at that. The reason why I think the angle that I'm working on is so compelling is these players are separated by one year in terms of life. Roy's 35, JJ Spahn is 34, and yet their career...

their careers could not be at a wider golf and what they're trying to accomplish. Like JJ Swanton was at a point last summer where he thought his career was coming to an end. He was content. He'd been on the PG tour for eight years. He had just a single win. He felt the pull of home with a young family. Meanwhile, Roy McIlroy here is a year older whose outstanding career goals would cement him as one of the all-time greats. And yet they showed up on the 16th year, 16th hole here,

for the first hole of this three-hole aggregate playoff. Like, Rory McIlroy completely nervous, felt his stomach churning, his legs were shaky, understanding the significance of trying to win this golf tournament. J.J. Spahn feeling anxious as well, like, oh boy, here we go, knowing this is a player who has earned $7 million in his career. The check that he was going to receive, regardless of whether he won or not, was going to represent at least $1 million.

a quarter of his career earnings could cement him as sort of a player to watch this year would vault him in the major championships for the next three to five years. Like it would be a career changing. It would be a life changing victory, how those players grappled with those emotions, what the different achievements would, would mean to them, I think is a fascinating contrast. And I think that's why I had such a great time covering this playoff Rex.

Rory has talked endlessly about how he is now a complete player. Do you think now he is better equipped than ever before to win the Masters?

I didn't listen to anything you just said. I was watching up on live from Johnson Wagner was hitting the tee shot on 17 to reenact. You know, we always does that great segment that we do on live from with Rory next to him, no less. And if you were curious, he put it right in the middle of the green. Johnson Wagner did not think he was going to do that. I also think it's important that when Johnson Wagner saw that,

what they played, how they traded shots back and forth. JJ Spahn went in the water. Roy gave himself a birdie look. He turned to everyone that was on the set and with a very heavy chest went, I'm going to have to hit that tee shot. It was really a funny moment.

And it's worth pointing out, I did not realize this as well. Johnson Wagner's scoring average on that hole as a PGA Tour professional is the lowest. Anybody that has at least 20 rounds on the golf course. 2.7. And he actually improved on it today. So good for him. I mean, he's a three-time PGA Tour winner. It's like he's a bum. I know he gets made fun of now for the chipping yips that he is currently battling. But, like, Duke could absolutely play.

And look, this one's probably not going to go viral like what happened last year at the US Open with Bryson DeChambeau out of the bunker. But good for our buddy, Johnson Wagger. I will go. Now I answer your question. I actually was listening because this was something we were going to talk about had Todd and I actually gone on TV. I go back to Pebble Beach.

And the idea that Rory talked about being more of a conservative player. And this goes directly to what we just talked about, the way he finished up the regulation play, 70, 71, 72 holes. And he clearly had an idea of what he wanted to do. He wasn't going to throw the tournament away, just like he didn't at Pebble Beach, maybe like he did last year. At, as you pointed out, the Irish Open, at the BMW PGA, certainly at Pebble.

Matt Pinehurst, he's a better player now. He'll be the first one to point it out. I actually did some stats yesterday. I went back to 2019 when he won here for the first time, and they would be exactly what you would expect they would be. He led the field off the tee. He led the field off the tee, strokes gained tee the green. He led the field in driving distance, and it was probably middle of the pack.

When it came to putting, was right around even. Didn't lose any, didn't gain any. That's all he had to do, given how well he was hitting the ball and given what he can do with his driver. This week was completely different. He started the week, I think he only hit four fairways on day one. After day one, he was dead last in the field and driving. On day two, he was close to dead last in the field on driving. He got better.

as the week went by, but this was a completely different scenario of how he won it the first time around. And I think it's an indication of how he has grown and evolved as a player. He was always looking for our colleague, Doug Ferguson asked him this question. It's been a few years ago. He had hit it in the right trees on 18. We can all envision that because we saw that a lot this week.

And Doug's question was, was fascinating to me. He asked Rory in this situation, do you look up or do you look down? Which, which is your first indication? And Rory thought about it and he goes, I look up and it was you and I, we're always going to look down because we realize I can't hit a pitching wedge, 190 yards. So there's not even any use of me even looking at it. I'm just going to try to bunt it back to the fairway. Whereas I think,

Rory has been tempered by that in recent years when he hit it right on 18 today. I don't, I didn't even see him really look up. It was always, I'm just going to punch out. Now, granted he had a three stroke advantage. It's not like he had much to really prove at that point, but he is such a different player mentally now. And certainly his

his putting with his work with Brad Faxon is so much better now. And he has evolved to your point, the stage he is in his career. I would say that he, this victory was so much better than the victory here in 2019. Yeah. I mean, Roy said it himself and it was clear just watching him over the past five days. Like he had nowhere even close to his a game. I mean, he was barely top 10 from structure gain Tita green perspective and he still won the

this golf tournament against the deepest field on the PG tour. Like technically he is a better putter. He's a better scrambler. He's much better as we saw, not just this week, but also at Pebble beach. Remember we shot 65, 66 on the weekend. And it's a pretty difficult conditions at Pebble beach as well. Just flighting his shots, the trajectory, the shot shapes, you know, he just has better control of his golf ball than arguably at any point in his career. But to your point, I think it's also a lot of, um,

strategic elements. His golf course management is so much better. Remember what he, what a pebble he said, he was trying to play more like Scotty Scheffler. What that means is, is trying to make fewer mistakes, playing more disciplined, playing more patient golf. Like Rory, we think of,

the excitement and the big drives and the towering iron shots and, you know, the birdie barrages that he can go on and shoot 61, 62, 63. Like he said, I'm 35 years old. I'm at a point in my career where all that matters to me is winning golf tournaments.

And it might not be as entertaining. It might not be as exciting. It might be going against some of the competitive impulses that I have to be more dynamic. But that's not going to lead to more tournament victories. I think what we saw from Roy McIlroy this week at TPC Sawgrass is sort of a template for the way that he would like to play. And so to answer my own question, yes, he is more complete now, Rex.

I think he's in better position now than he's ever been to win the Masters. It doesn't mean he's going to do it. There's still obstacles, I think mostly mentally, that he's going to have to overcome. But I think from a technical standpoint and sort of a strategy standpoint, he's better equipped than ever before.

And I think I was a little surprised, actually. And I know he had said it early in the week that the plan was to play at least one more time before he gets to Augusta. He feels like three weeks off is too much time off heading into the year's first major championship. So either Houston or San Antonio is going to hit the Rory jackpot. After he won here, though, I was a little surprised, given the fact that you were at a different stage in your life and your career. Your game is pretty solid right now. And I think that's an indication of you're right.

He's going to have to go into this week with a completely different mindset. And he keeps trying to reinvent himself. And I always give him credit that he keeps trying to win that Masters, trying to do the one thing that's going to define his career. You said, did he have to win this one? No, I didn't think he has to win this one. I think eventually he has to win the Masters because that puts you in an entirely different conversation if you win the career Grand Slam. So we know what that means to him. And he's never just sat back and said, well, maybe it will happen.

Eventually, I'll get it done. He's always looking for a new, different way to do it, whether that's playing the week before, whether that's playing more on the West Coast, whether that's playing more in Europe. Whatever the case may be, he's always trying to come up with the formula, and I do appreciate that. I think it's not just Rory's excellence, and now he has a signature event as well as a Players' Championship on his resume in 2025. There also seems to be a window of opportunity here. This guy, Sheffler, who I want to get into here, tied for 20th.

at the Players' Championship as he was bidding for the three-peat. Xander Schauffele finished last, dead last, 72nd among those who made the cut at TBC Solidgrass. Ludwig Oberg

Missed the cut, the 36-hole cut at the Players' Championship. Kyle Morikawa has not won since fall 2023 as he has sort of his own demons trying to close out the golf tournaments. Like, everything seems to be aligning as it relates to Rory. What do you think of some of the other contenders, some of the other storylines that we saw play out from this Players' Championship?

One, you look at sort of the lack of star power at the top of the leaderboard. Certainly Rory carried that very much, very well. The other players who didn't play well here, I think that speaks more to the razor's edge of this golf course. I don't think Lou Viggoberg's game is in trouble. I don't think there's anything he had to go home to your neighborhood and knock a tee to work on after missing the cut this week. I just think that you only have to be a little off a TPC sawgrass to suddenly find yourself on the wrong side of the cut line. I,

Xander is interesting to me. I sat on the range and

I watched him warm up for his round yesterday. I talked to a member of his management team, and as he said on Saturday night, he had blown that ball count out of the water like he was tired of sitting around waiting to make sure the doctors were okay for him to start hitting the balls that he needed to. I think at this point, he just doesn't, the fallback on Tigers cliche, have the reps yet. He has to figure out a way to ingrain that swing. He was clearly uncomfortable this week. He was clearly uncomfortable last week at Bay Hill, and it's getting early.

It's getting late early. Sorry, messed up the cliche. It's getting late early for him when it comes to Augusta. So he will have one more start. He's going to play –

I believe at Valspar and then he'll take two weeks off. And so we'll see what he does this week at Valspar as he tries to gear up. I guess if anyone concerns me a little bit, and this is a little odd for me to say it is Scott, not just because of his game, because I still think there's some rust there after the injury and everything he went through in the off season. He was just in a mood this week and he doesn't seem to be in a very good mind space.

Yeah, I totally agree with you on that respect. Xander is playing Valspar this week. And I asked him, I think it was after the second round when he just barely eat through the cut to make his 58th consecutive cut made on the PGA Tour. This is the sixth longest streak in PGA Tour history. You know, I asked him, is this rust or

Or is this something, you know, technical that you're having an issue with? And I think it's pretty clear, Rex, with Xander shooting 77-81 on the weekend in high winds, which can expose you that he's clearly having an issue slotting the club where he wants to. Maybe it's because of the rib issue. Maybe it's because of the layoff. Maybe that's just golf and your swing doesn't feel the same two consecutive days. But there's a lot of work going.

for Xander Shoffley to do to where I'd feel very comfortable sort of pegging him as one of the tournament favorites. I'm with you on Scottie. It was a very odd week. It wasn't just an odd week because, you know, Scottie wasn't at his ball striking best. It wasn't just an odd week because he lost strokes at the field three of the four rounds on the greens. It was the frustration that seemed to be bubbling.

on the golf course, getting baffled by some of the wins, getting baffled by some of the breaks that he had. Also, he was just a little bit persnickety.

He was just a little bit grumpy. He was a little bit short-tempered with some of the media members, which, again, I think is sort of a window into where he is. Some of the media members? Some? Some. That's a weird way to say Ladner. Including this guy as well. And he has not had much, obviously, that has not gone right over this past year and a half, if not three years altogether. It'll be very interesting to see how he handles –

the expectations because he has done, he has done a, a, an admirable job of saying, you know, I'm only judging myself. The expectations that I have for myself are higher than anyone can place on me. It just seems Rex, doesn't it? Like,

He's carrying a little bit of a burden, an external burden for how he's supposed to be playing. And when he's not matching up to that or not living up to those expectations, he seems to be bristling at that a little bit. No, I think that's fair. And I think it's odd because he's never allowed that. He's never allowed any of the outside noise to impact anything he does internally. He's very structured in what he does. And I think, again, that factors into a little bit of where he is with his game right now.

He wants his offseason to go a certain way. And because of that accident that set him back, it wasn't able to go that way. And as a result, I think that's probably part of what we're seeing about the game. It's just not 100%. That, like,

I could understand if frustrations in my game and not playing the way I want to. I totally understand. It's the idea that somehow he's letting these external distractions get to him coming into this week, trying to get the three P going into the masters, trying to do what he's going to do there. The rest of what he's trying to accomplish this season. I think that's the part that surprises me the most. And even, even,

When he did do good things this week, it still seems like he was ahead of himself. It still seems like he wasn't in a great mind space as far as moving forward. I did also want to bring up the idea, and this was something that Rich Lerner was talking about this morning. They wanted to take a deep dive on it if J.J. Spahn were to win. And the idea being that

If you shrink the fields in the future, like we have at the signature events, for example, you're probably not going to have many JJ spawns or bud colleagues or, or any of the other stories that we have this week. Cause let's be honest. If this was a 72 man field, JJ spawn probably wouldn't be here, but he's a top 60 player in the world.

Now he is. He's 25 now. He's moving up to 25 now. But he would not have been, I think, is the argument. And we get the opportunity to tell these stories, the Alex Smalley's, these stories that I think are important to the PGA Tour, clearly not as important as Rory.

or Colin Moore or Scottie or any of the other conversations we have. But this is a good example of what you end up with when you have a field that's a decent size. And I would argue this is a decent size field. This should be a championship size field. Speaking of outside noise, external noise, there's a semi that is backing up very, very close to me. So I will put a bow on,

on this podcast like this. Rex, what will be your enduring memory or your biggest takeaway from this Players' Championship? It's a three-hole playoff. And again, if you would have asked me 10 years ago, I probably would have rolled my eyes and thought it was, no, it's a gimmick. Like, you don't have to do it. But

This was a perfect example of how you have it on an iconic golf course and everyone can play those three holes in your head. And you know exactly what the player is going to face on every single shot. You would have a similar scenario if we did it at St. Andrews or Augusta. Because when you know these courses and you know these holes, I think it creates a neat connection between the player on the golf course doing it and the folks who are at home on Monday watching it. It's the perfect golf tournament.

That's how I would put a bow on the players championship. Traffic is not great. I'm not giving you perfect. It's a really, really, really good job. Did not have a single issue coming from Nocatee. And of course, I'm proud of Nocatee. But like from the fan perspective, I had my wife and my son out here. They had a great time. There's kids zones. It's easy to walk around. I would...

I would make the argument Rex that the players championship and the masters really resonates most with fans more than any other tournament because the holes are recognizable. It's the only tournaments all year long in which we come back at the only huge event, excuse me, that come back every single year to the same golf tournament. So you've, you know, the history on those holes, you know, what's possible on those holes, you know, the disasters, you know, the, the, the heroism that can, that can take place as well. And so I think that's a really powerful tool for golf fans to,

I think from the field perspective, being so deep, having no player who's really a potential outlier who could win this tournament, I love that aspect of it as well. The players love it, the tournament areas.

all of the accommodations that they have here. Like it is the perfect golf tournament. I know we tend to bash in the PGA tour. They absolutely have a home run in the players championship. And just imagine if they could reintegrate some of the great players from live, a great event could be made even greater.

That is going to do it. This edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav. Cannot thank you guys enough for all of the support, all the downloads, all the comments each and every day that we did mini pods and the full preview and the wrap. We do certainly appreciate their support. Make sure you guys go to NBCSports.com slash golf. We're having plenty of follow content after this Players Championship. We'll talk to you guys on Wednesday afternoon for another edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav. You let me down, Avril.

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