Social star arrives: Min Woo overcomes Scottie, Rory and Tosti's antics
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lab. Well, Minwoo Lee is a first-time winner on the PGA Tour, holding off world number one Scotty Scheffler to win in Houston. But from Minwoo to Scotty to Rory to Gary Woodland, Rex, I thought that was a pretty good tune-up.

for next week's Masters, wasn't it? When you look at where we were on Friday just a few days ago and then even Saturday coming into the final round with Minwalee having such a commanding lead, it seems like Scottie wasn't firing on all cylinders. It seemed like Rory wasn't firing on all cylinders. There didn't seem to be much to talk about, actually. I was concerned. Not going to lie.

Concerned. 52 minutes. My God, how are we going to do that? That's a lot of time to fill. So it was nice to see it come together coming down the stretch. And we're going to have Steve Sands on from the broadcast as our boots on the ground segment in just a minute. And I love sort of the story of Minwoo Lee. And we're going to get into this more. But where he was just two weeks ago.

at the Players' Championship when he's tied for the lead through 36 holes. You thought there was no reason to think that he wouldn't hang around and just had an awful weekend, and that's been a bit of the M.O. if you look at his finishes this year. Didn't play well at all the week before at Bay Hill. Misses the cut. He had good rounds at the Genesis Invitational, sandwiched between some really bad rounds, so it was the inconsistency that had stood out for Minwu, and so to get it done, not just to get that first victory, but it

you get style points on who it's against. Don't you? I mean, if you're going to beat Scotty Scheffler and Rory and Gary Woodland and everybody else that was aligned against you, that's pretty good. It was just like Steven Yeager year ago at the Houston open. Scotty Scheffler last spring went 1-1-2-1-1. That second place finishers was in Houston last

against Steven Yeager, a player you probably would not have expected to beat Sky Scheffler at the peak of his powers. Actually, remember a couple years ago, Paul Azinger was on the call. I think it was at PGA National. He was talking about Tommy Fleetwood and how this is a player who had won repeatedly on the DP World Tour, but he hadn't come over on the PGA Tour. And there's a difference between winning on the DP World Tour and winning on the PGA Tour. I was thinking about that line constantly, and that's nothing to diminish PGA.

what happens on the European tour. It's just a fact of the matter. This is stronger competition. And so I was genuinely curious how Minwoo Lee, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour, was going to handle a position he had never been on the PGA Tour. Minwoo Lee has had, over the past couple of years, two pretty notable disappointments. He does not get into contention on tour very often, but when he has...

It has been pretty disappointing. I think back to the 76 that he shot in the final round of a 2023 Players' Championship alongside eventual champion Sky Shuffler. And then I think back just a couple weeks ago when he shared the halfway lead at TPC Sawgrass that ended up finishing in a tie for 20th at the Players' Championship. And so, like, the narrative has gone with Minwoo that this is a guy who's 26,

He said if you watch Full Swing on Netflix, he was sort of featured there. He said that at times he has lacked maturity. When he says maturity, he doesn't mean like in a childish manner or he's acting petulant on the golf course. He's talking about not being as disciplined as he needs to be to be a professional golfer. And he said he made a reference to in the interview with Keurig-Kedix and afterward that he got a few, quote, kicks in the butt.

After TPC saw grass, but I think where the immaturity or the lack of discipline or precision has showed up in Min Woo Lee's game has been his approach play. You know, he loves to smash it. He's putting a ball speed numbers, Rex, that you and I could only dream of 192, 193, 194, 195 miles an hour, which is like serious, serious stuff.

Five mile an hour is faster than Roy McIlroy, who absolutely obliterates it. But that love for the long ball has never translated to approach play. He has been a terrible iron player each and every season. He has been on the PGA Tour just this season. He was 144th.

in strokes gained approach was outside the top 125 and every sort of scoring category inside 150, a huge flip in Houston. Yes, he could bomb it everywhere. And we're going to get into that. Yes, he putted the absolute lights out, but the biggest difference maker and why Min Woo Lee is now a first time winner on the PGA tour came down to his approach play. His distance control was impeccable, particularly in the final round. If he can play like that. I mean, it looks like

We have a potential star that's budding on the PGA Tour, Rex. I would say that because of the power that he has. And like they talked about it on the telecast, when you get up to ball speeds anywhere, 192, 194, 196, that starts getting ridiculous. Then you don't really care where it goes, which I thought was a pretty good line that came out of the telecast as I was watching on Sunday. But I will point out, like it was the putting.

at Houston. It's been the putting this season. I would say he's fourth on tour this season in putting that's compared to 118th last year. So I do think that's part of this resurgence for him as well. And I kind of wanted to flip this on you because it is fascinating that I don't know why my mind went here, but as I'm watching him come down the stretch and I want to get into what he did on 16, because it seems to me that's when he got a little nervy and it could have come apart with him right there. But before we get there,

I did want to ask, go back to last year's President's Cup. He played just one team match before Sunday singles. He just played twice.

at rural Montreal. And I don't understand why. And I don't think we ever, I don't think anybody really ever took a deep dive into it because it seems like no one was playing particularly well on the international team. We ended up with another blowout going the U.S. way. But now in retrospect, given how he's playing this season, given what we've now seen from his record, I am curious, what did the captain see or didn't see in him that essentially left him sitting on the bench for most of the week? I mean, he was very streaky.

last season on the PGA Tour would have stretches where he played good, got himself sort of on the fringes contention, obviously could never convert it. But I think when you look at Minwoo Lee's skill set, obviously a prodigious driver of the golf ball. You look back to Royal Montreal, the host site of last year's

you know, you weren't going to blast it everywhere and have success. It was sort of a position oriented golf course, A to B sort of plotting your way around. That's obviously not Minmouli's game. He was, he was not a good putter on the PGA tour. I know he's made significant strides. He's I think he's now at top 25 putter on the PGA tour this season last year, really struggled. So if you're, if you're not finding fairways and you're not making putts and again, to harp on something that I just ranted about for like three minutes,

Like his approach play numbers were very, very bad. Like you never see an elite player who loses strokes to the field in that category. He actually sort of reminds me, Rex, of Wyndham Clark, who when he's on with his driver, like can just cut down beefy mammoth golf courses down to size.

And as we saw and as we've seen at times, Wyndham Clark's career, like his iron play can be very good as well. And now, you know, he can pair that with a hot putter at times. And all of a sudden you have a player who wins signature events, wins major championships as Wyndham Clark has done. And so, yeah, like when you look at those combinations of factors last season, I can understand why Mike Weir would not put him in just because his skill set didn't necessarily fit that golf course.

No, and that's fair. And as you follow this arc, I did find it interesting reading some things that Minwoo said earlier in the week. I guess it would have been easy coming out of the Players' Championship, getting down on yourself, beating yourself up a little bit. Then I had another opportunity, and it was fun to listen to how Jason Day has impacted him. Because look, if you...

If you need a shoulder to cry on, I don't think there's a better one in the game than Jason Day, considering everything that he's been through through injury and he's been to the top of the game and the bottom of the game. And he can probably speak about as well as anyone when it comes to these type of things. And the message that Jason seems to have given him was,

Just put yourself there. You just want to, I think it's called the Joe Biden. You just want to be there when the time comes on Sunday, you gave yourself an opportunity this week and you got through the door. And the way he explained it was Jason says, it's much, much harder just to put yourself there than to actually finish it out.

And I think that's kind of probably what he learned over, I would say, the last year and a half. Because you look back to last year, he gave himself two really good opportunities last year. He finished running up twice on the PGA Tour. Seemed like he was trending in the right direction. But when he's coming down the stretch, and it didn't seem to me he was doing anything wrong.

And he gets to 16 and we talk about that prodigious power where he can take things out of play that other players cannot. That was a horribly bad time swing because not only did it put him in a really difficult position just to make a bogey, which I thought ended up being a really good bogey on that par five after putting his tee shot in the water, but everyone around him was watching. I think it was funny to hear bones talk about Gary Woodland and the group ahead of him sort of turning around and

sort of asking, did he just hit one in the water? Was that a splash? There was like a boat out there. Did it almost hit that little dock? That thing was miles away. Wasn't that the blow up of the logo for Children's Hospital? I mean, it could, but it was...

It was miles right. Way to be there for the sponsors. And I will say that was one of just two balls, T-balls, on that hole that went into the water on the weekend. Not Sunday. On Saturday and Sunday for 36 holes. So you get an idea of how horribly bad that was and bad timing. And it was also, I had to go back and kind of look because it seems to me leading up to this, he was missing more shots left, if at all. Yeah.

And the only time he missed a drive right all day long before 16 was on the 10th hole. So it was out of character. You could tell he was a little nervy. And I think the bogey probably allowed him to settle his nerves a little bit. Like, I think I love Memorial Park. Like if I were a PGTW golfer, this would be,

like the exact perfect golf course that I would need where there's virtually no penalty off the tee. The fairways are incredibly generous. And then you have like huge, wildly undulating greens, but there's really not much penalty for miss hits off the tee. That was actually something that Roy McIlroy has asked at the end of his press conference on Sunday. Like, Hey, do you think you could, you know, potentially see yourself coming back to Houston in the future? He's like, yeah, you know, I've, you know, I haven't played Tampa before, you know, I've played, um,

TBC San Antonio, host site of the Valero Texas Open before. I wanted to put this on to see how my game stood up. I wish there was more of a penalty off the tee. And so you can blow it anywhere. And Min Woo Lee, for the most part, did blow it everywhere throughout the week at the Texas Children's. He stood up at 42% driving accuracy. But basically the two spots that you could get yourself into trouble were the two spots...

that min willie put it in on eight he almost went out of bounds found the the bush ended up having to take an unplayable uh after a long discussion ended up making par on that hole and then blew it as we mentioned miles right on 16 uh escaped with a good bogey that's why it's like it's hard to know like how much stock to put into this victory obviously this guy is immensely talented

if you look at his staff, this was a little bit of an outlier with his approach play. Maybe he's found something in his game. He talked about sort of the hard work that he has been putting in. I mean, you'd love to see Min Woo Lee all of a sudden become a consistent contender on the PGA tour. He brings in the youths pushing out the olds like you that, that, that love and appreciate the PGA tour. And so like, like I think we're all rooting for,

for Minwoo Lee. But I also don't subscribe to the theory that this sort of driving will translate to many golf courses on the PGA Tour. I know the fairways at Augusta National are generous as well, but there's still trouble. There's still angles. And that's something that, had he driven this anywhere else, I think he could have potentially gotten himself into much more trouble. And we're going to get into Rory and Scott in, I think, what we saw out of their games going in to Augusta. And certainly driving for Rory is going to be the big one

And you can make the comparison that, okay, this helps you get ready on some level for Augusta National. But you're right. It's not about necessarily hitting a fairway at Augusta. It's about putting it in the right part of the fairway. You have to be very, very technical. Tiger Woods has talked about this in the past. It's not even you want to be on the right or left side of the fairway. It gets much more technical if you want to have the right approach shot to this. And I will say, and they talked about this on the telecast, I think Minwoo Lee has the quality.

to sort of ascend to that superstar status. And he has a long ways to go with his play. But certainly when you look at his personality and what he does on social media, you and I do an entire segment on barbecuing and this guy loves to cook. So there's a lot of reasons to like him. And I do remember going back just a few weeks ago and you would have been one of the loudest voices in this room when Jordan Spieth did not get a sponsor's invitation to

into the Arnold Palmer Invitational and because well he did not get one in no small amount because Minwoo Lee got one and I think going back you could make the argument that not only was Minwoo Lee playing better than your beloved Jordan Spieth but maybe they see something in him that others did not at that point in time yet I think you don't want to compare anyone to Bryson

Because Bryson, I think, is a genius in terms of marketing himself and playing himself to a crowd. He understands social media. He understands YouTube. He knows how to connect with a younger audience. Minwoo Lee does that on a much smaller scale. And there's a certain showmanship to him. Like, I thought...

I thought doing aim point for his little two inch tap in to win the golf tournament was, was genius. And just sort of a window where I think now that he's got across the line, now that he's going to be in signature events and have sort of a bigger platform, now that he's going to be secure and has a confidence in this game that could translate to more and more PG tour victories. I think we're going to start to see more of the personality that Min Woo Lee has and

And I love that potential for him. I did want to get to something that Minwoo was battling. So it wasn't just the nerves. It wasn't just trying to nail down his first PGA Tour victory. It wasn't just Scotty and Rory and Gary Woodland all making runs at him. There was actually a little bit of tension, Rex, in Minwoo Lee's own group.

As it relates to Alejandro Toasty. And we've seen this in the past from Toasty, and we'll get to that in a second. But there was an issue where Toasty, while Minwoo Lee was sort of sorting out his rules issue on the eighth hole, where he needed five to seven minutes to determine whether he was going to play on his knees and sort of scoop it out of there.

or ended up taking uninflatable. But the entire hole, Rex, took 30 minutes, and that was aggravating to Alejandro Toste. Then Toste seemed to sort of purposely slow play the group down the 12th hole. What was your reaction to everything that was going on inside the group as Minouli was trying to win?

I don't want to do this with Alejandro because he's not the ally that I want. His history speaks for itself. I don't want to be on Team Alejandro when it comes to this. However, it did take Minwili more than 30 minutes to play that hole, and I can see why his level of frustration. However, I had to go back just to start doing

some searches just to remember how clearly it was. And like 2023, I guess on the corn fairy tour was, was just absolutely dreadful. He actually was withdrew or disqualified from a tournament because of some of his behavior stemming directly from what he felt like was egregious pace of play. We have talked a lot about pace of play this, this year, which has been,

strangely refreshing based on what we normally have to talk about when it comes to golf these days. However, screaming at a rules official about your playing partner, playing slow probably isn't going to help it. We've come up with some decent ideas. You and I have batted a lot of things around that I think could probably be helpful, but yelling at a rules official and pouting and then trying to slow play said player is,

probably not the way to go on that front. And I think this kind of behavior is only going to backfire on him. I think we saw it with the way he came down the stretch. It certainly did not bother Minwoo. He didn't seem to care one way or the other. So good for him for boxing it out and not letting it. And I don't find like, look,

They're going to publish numbers eventually. We'll know exactly who the slow players are, hopefully starting next season or maybe even this season. However, I don't think Minwoo is one of them. I mean, he took an egregious amount of time on a number of shots, I thought, on the back nine. Sure. And again, you're contending. You're coming down the stretch. I didn't find the round went long. I think the starting point should always be, did the telecast go off on time? Yeah.

And it did. And I think that's kind of a testament to not just that you can't put that on Minwoo. But if the pace of play is bad, you know it because NBC is running 10 minutes long or whatever the case may be. And in this particular case, I didn't find anything that Minwoo did to be egregious. I didn't think it was outrageous. Certainly, I don't even think he was put on the clock based on anything I heard during the telecast. But you're only going to box yourself into a corner if you're going to act like that on the golf course.

I mean, you got to give Toasty credit because he's, he's unafraid if, if inconsistent and consistent, if nothing else consists. I mean, you, you referenced the 2023 suspension, our friend, Ryan French of Monday Q info had the story back then of, you know, repeated behavioral issues. Remember at this tournament last year,

he got into a tiff with Tony Finau about who was away on the green, when he was playing with him, Tony Finau, he got into a tiff with Tony Finau. Finau was probably like, man, don't you know who I am? Like one of the most likable characters on the PJ tour. And like, I, I,

I've covered Alejandro Tosi for a long time. I did a deep dive on him, a feature story in college. He has a very inspiring backstory. He grew up in relative poverty in Argentina at the age of eight. He was taking solo bus rides an hour long just to get to a golf course. He had encephalitis as his freshman year of Florida. Like he has persevered through a lot to get to this point on the PGA tour, but we've seen these episodes of let's call it combustibility of

where it makes you scratch your head a little bit. And I want to be on record as saying the PGA Tour needs more characters.

They need players with personality. They need villains. They need conflict. I think all of that stuff is compelling, but you also don't want it to come at the expense of being rude or disrespectful to your playing partners. So I hope that he can channel the venom that may be brewing inside, and instead of being petulant,

and someone that guys are, are dreading to play with channel it into something positive and, and be compelling in that way as sort of a very intense character inside the ropes. And we were very clear last week. We had a lot of fun with one segment that we did last weekend on just the idea of all the violence that was going on in the sport. And let's start with Adam Hadwin who took it out on a sprinkler head. And,

I think there was some pushback on social media because it seems as if we were standing up for these players. I certainly wasn't. I don't think you were. What we were standing up for is some sort of personality. And I don't want to be duplicitous.

I want to be perfectly clear that I appreciate Toasty's passion. I appreciate his fire. I'm just not sure if slow playing your opponent in the final group on a Sunday is the right way to do that. But if he feels like that's the best way for him to fire himself up, then go ahead. Have at it. I really don't have a problem with that. I'm not going to say one thing last weekend and say a different thing this time around. I will say, as I went back to Ryan French's story from 2023, there was another tournament, I believe it was on the Corn Fairy Tour, where Toasty

Toasty went out of his way to find sprinkler heads to hit on his way down the fairway, which makes Adam Hadwin seem a little silly right now. Not only did Adam Hadwin have to pay to have the sprinkler head fixed, I think they put something on social media, his wife and he, about they bought the entire superintendent crew lunch one day. So clearly he felt bad about it. The other way to go is just find every sprinkler head and take it out on them. And look, he's obviously not going to make

many friends on the PGA tour behaving like this. JC Deacon, his old coach of Florida said he's not interested in making friends on the PGA tour. You have to play, you have to play consistently well, uh,

to back up this sort of behavioral issue. Alejandro Tosti in his first year on the PGA Tour lost his card, had to get it back through Q School. He has not been in contention very often in the Houston Open. Again, we like these guys. We like conflict. We like villains. It just can't be disrespectful. And Bones, who was on the call for NBC, thought that it veered into that territory. On the sort of character spectrum, Rex, I'm not sure you could find guys that more disparate polls than Alejandro Tosti and his fiery demeanor on the golf course.

And the stoic one, the world number one, Scotty Sheffler, who tied for second, I believe, for the third straight year at the Houston Open. Shot 62 on Friday. Shot 63 on Sunday. Scotty, Rory, both in the field. What were sort of your biggest takeaways as it related to those two players? I'll start with Rory because I think if you're looking at it from 30,000 feet, and I don't want to make this sound like a warm-up for the Masters, but in those two, in their mind. It was a warm-up for the Masters. It was a warm-up for the Masters. I'm not taking anything away from the Houston Open, but...

Let's be honest and call this what it is. And if you're Rory, I'll start with him because that's the easiest. Fourth and strokes gain TD Green. Top 10 and driving distance. The things that he didn't seem to quite have, even in victory at TPC Sawgrass, seemed to come together. And again, you just pointed out, he had to work really hard to miss fairways on this particular golf course. However, I think what he saw out of his game was probably very encouraging. And I think once he got on scoring runs, which we all know can...

that that's how you get things done at Augusta. You go on a scoring run and suddenly you have four straight threes on the card and you know, you're, you're doing something special and we've seen it out of him before. And I am curious because this goes to the idea we sort of talked about last week when we were co-hosting golf today, that Scotty Scheffler is still the favorite, but in my mind, I continue to trend towards Rory and,

not necessarily because of what he did this week, just because of where he is in his game. I think for Scottie, it was one of those incremental gains. I guess the one thing that I will say about Scottie's game, and I think this coalesced,

on Saturday when he needed a quote unquote moving day to use the cliche when he needed to do something special. And he had done something special the day before with a 62. He, I think he shot one on a par shot 69. The scoring average on that day was 68. So he didn't even keep up with the average for the field, which is surprising out of Scottie. And I keep going back to, I think we both keep going back to the idea that that hand injury set him back in his off season. And,

And he is a creature of habit. We know exactly what he wants to do. He shows up at the golf course with a game plan and he sticks to it. I think he was probably held back further than maybe anybody anticipated, maybe even himself.

He anticipated. And I made this comment last week on golf today because we threw up a graphic between some key stats between last year and this year. And the difference is minute. It's being second in putting versus 12th in putting this year. I mean, we're talking about fractions at this point. We're talking about a quarter of a stroke per round. But those things add up. And I think that's the difference why he is now six events into his season and still hasn't won.

So I think overall, both players got what they wanted out of their final tune-up at the Houston Open. You started with Rory. I would start with Rory as well. He made a slight driver adjustment after the third round, knocked down some loft. He said it was getting too spinny. Seemed to drive the ball much better in the final round. That's something to look forward to. And I think Rory said it himself, that he still knows what he has to work on. He has not been lights out.

these last three weeks on the PGA tour. Didn't drive a particularly well at Bay Hill or hit his irons. He was sort of scratchy still at the players championship, which I know is ridiculous to say, uh, the strongest field, the PGA tour season and won that golf tournament. I think he did so a lot on the strength of great short game, great putting and sound course management. And then, you know, he was not obviously top, uh,

full flight as well at the Houston Open. He said Michael Bann, his longtime swing coach, is coming into South Florida on Monday. They're going to get to work. His putting and short game continue to be very good. I thought, like, anecdotally, the stats didn't necessarily bear it out. I thought, like, he hit some fantastic short game shots that are going to portend very well for Augusta National with the very undulating greens, a lot of slope, some of the false fronts, the tightly mown areas. I thought that was very encouraging, as well as fourth –

And stroke gain, tee to green. One thing though, Rex, like it popped up in the interview with Kerry. He said, my right elbow has been bothering me. He said, I'm going to get a little bit of treatment on that. And we'll go from there. Like, Oh, what, what could, can we follow up when, how, what swings with, with the masters on deck? That was certainly notable for me as it relates to Scotty. I thought this was very encouraging as well. He putted great.

Three of the four rounds. He was first in the field in proximity to the hole. He made only two bogeys all week. What I noticed off the tee, and we just talked about how

Min Woo Lee was bombing it everywhere. Rex Scottie seemed to be like purposely laying back some off the tee to prioritize accuracy. He's only 42nd in the field and distance. His ball speed was somewhere around one 75. Mark Rolfe did a great breakdown on one of the golf central pregames about how Scottie's footwork was.

wasn't as active as it has been in the past. I would have loved to ask him, was this by design, even though you're on a golf course where you can blow it anywhere? It goes against sort of his nature to be looking ahead to the Masters.

So I wonder if it's that, or I wonder if maybe he just doesn't completely feel 100% with his game. He's still like Rory says, he's got some work to do as well. No. And I think that's a good conversation to have about Scottie. Cause he clearly is at the point now where he is probably going to search a little bit, knowing that he's now in the major championship season, that the warmup is over. I need to probably sort of start locking in that. I think there was a degree of grace there.

that he'd given himself because of what he went through during the offseason. And I keep going back to the idea that maybe the hand injury was a little bit more intrusive than we gave it credit for. Maybe because he was dismissive about it. He made it sound like, yes, it was a bad cut. I had to get stitches. But once the stitches were out, I was able to start. I think there was probably something there that set him back a little bit more than we anticipated.

All right, Scotty and Rory taking the week off, the week of the Valero Texas Open. But just as a reminder, Rex, we'll have plenty to discuss on Wednesday. We do this podcast twice a week, just once on linear television. Stay tuned for a new episode on Wednesday on YouTube or wherever it is you get your podcasts. We'll be right back with Steve Sands after this short break.

And we are pleased to be joined now by NBC Sports broadcaster Steve Sands, who is on the call for the Texas Children's Houston Open. And, Sands, I want to start with this. This thing was an absolute snoozer with the five-shot lead on the back. Now, all of a sudden, it became a little bit more interesting, didn't it? Yeah, it's a bit of a trend, isn't it, Ryan and Rex? I mean, look, Bay Hill, Colin Morikawa had a three-shot lead late, couldn't finish.

Rory McIlroy had a three-shot lead late at the players. Couldn't finish, but he ended up winning that Monday morning playoff with J.J. Spahn. And last week at the Valspar, Justin Thomas for a brief second had a three-shot lead, but mainly a two-shot lead when he got to 16T. And he ended up not being able to finish. So it's hard to win, man. I mean, we say that all the time. But Minwoo Lee having never won before, this one isn't nearly as big a surprise as the previous three weeks.

I love the way you guys told the story coming down the stretch, because as you just pointed out, having not won on the PGA Tour, I don't think people realize how much pressure, how much you internalize that, how much you set up late at night worrying about, am I going to do the right thing in that situation? What did you see out of Minwoo that impressed you the most?

You know what, Rex? I think toughness. I just think that when you have a bogey late like he had on 16, and these guys are well aware of what's going on around them. Scotty Sheffer with four straight birdies, number one player in the world, McElroy making a run, Woodland making a run, and it's an emotional run at that. He knew that he posted 19 under.

And he knew that he had to close strong and, you know, a bogey at a par five 16th for a reachable par five for a guy of not only men was caliber, but his power. That was a terrible tee shot. And he ended up gutting it out, kept his poise and ended up making a couple of pars coming home and got the one shot win. It's just, it's tough, man. He's tough and it is tough out there.

I know you're not on social media, even though you have a Twitter account that has more followers. Do we do this every time? Every time you guys make fun of me on there. However, however, Minwulu is actually a pretty big deal, Tansy, on social media, on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube. Like, do you think that this can resonate?

with the greater sports audience or can this sort of be just confined to wow this is a great first time winner on the pga i i think that's the beauty of social media i think that social media can gather people who might not be sports fans and then all of a sudden make the audience and the interest larger because of social media's reach i i thought it was funny you guys would love this uh

You know, our great producer, Tommy Roy, we go through all these elements during rehearsal and all these different things that we're supposed to do all throughout a show. And sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It's live TV, it's live sports, so you can't script it. But we did something on his social media presence and something of his Instagram posts. And Tommy had me do it, go into commercial break in a flip of a second. And I'm thinking to myself, wow.

Is it Instabox? Is it Facebook? Is it what? I mean, I don't know what these things are called, you know? And I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm like, and all of a sudden, one of the guys to our left holds up a sign that says Instagram. I'm like, what is it? Instabox? What is Instabox? You know, Facegram, Instabox. I don't know what it is. And so anyway, so.

I think that social media is a cesspool in a lot of ways. But I think when it comes to sports and gathering momentum as a live event is moving forward, absolutely an audience can gather as social media starts to build some momentum towards the end of a sporting event. I think it's great. I think social media in that respect is great for sports.

I had about 10 other questions about the finish on Sunday. Exciting finish, PGA Tour. But since you steered me in this direction, I cannot let this go. I can't let this go. I think it was my first year at Golf Channel, so it would have been 15, 16 years ago. You and I were in Abu Dhabi. We were doing a segment. And what was the name of that segment in your mind? For me, it still is. What did you think, David? It's Pound Ass Wrecks.

And of course, we know now, 15 years later, that's actually a hashtag. You know it now, correct? Correct. You and I are the same age, right? I'm 56 years old. It was a pound sign for the first 40 years of our lives. Yeah.

And all of a sudden, this thing called social media comes around. And I'm standing next to Rex Hoggart in the middle of the desert in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi. And I got to do this segment with him. And all of a sudden, it's not a pound sign anymore. It's a hashtag. Well, I never heard.

that. How would I ever hear that? The best part about it was John Faco, our camera guy and our producer, Alan Robinson, and you all knew. And I had no idea. And I was the one hosting the darn show. I had absolutely no clue, but you handled it very well. It was very kind of you to be nice to an old man. But, but, but Sanji, it's sort of, it's sort of an interesting point though, because I mean, we do live in a social media era and, you know, people can build brands and

based on how they interact with folks or what they sort of put out socially. How have you been able to, you know, in the span of your career, avoid social media and not join the temptation to

to put no unspoken thoughts out there for everyone to see? I think a couple of things. One is, it's how I was raised. My mom and dad raised me to realize that it's a team game. You know, it's not an individual pursuit. Our lives are so great. We travel all over the place. I'm talking to you right now from Houston. We just finished an amazing PGA Tour event. For the most part, everyone who's watching right now is a golf fanatic.

or else they're on the wrong channel. So why would I want to show off? Nobody likes to show off. Everybody knows where we are. It's a very visible medium. I've been doing this 34 years. I'm incredibly blessed. I'm incredibly fortunate to work with people like you guys and all the team all throughout the years.

And I just think that it's important. I know people are into their brand and I guess everybody has their own brand. All three of us, I guess, have our own brand. But to me, I just think that no one's interested in what I am doing at the time. Hey, I'm at a bar in Houston watching the Sweet 16 on Thursday night. What are you doing right now? You know, I mean, nobody really cares. And I also think that direct contact is really important, especially with what we do.

For people who don't know, they think that we're like best friends with these guys because we're around them all the time. We're referencing them. We're speaking to them. We're seen with them. Listen, it's a professional relationship. And I'm forever grateful from Tiger all the way down to everybody else who have been very good to us. And I feel like it is about trust. And that's it. And if I want to reach out to somebody, and I mean this in the most humble way, I'll reach out to them directly.

If I need to hear from somebody, I will call or text them directly. I just think social media sometimes can get a little squirrely. And I'll leave that to you two young guys. I'm not, I can't do it. I'm not into it and I don't want to be into it. And I don't know what it would be known for it. And I feel like every once in a while, if Rex and I are out having a beer late at night, well, we might say something stupid and put it down and type it. And that would not be good for either one of us.

Now, you learned this in journalism school at the University of Maryland, proud University of Maryland, fighting Steve Sands, as I call them. But you root for the story, not the player to do the journalism thing. I truly, truly, I really, truly mean this, whether I'm speaking to you guys on this show or it's on a radio show or whether I'm talking to kids at a university or whatever's going on in the world.

I am a firm believer that we are just clowns in the circus. I think that the events, the players, the officials, the caddies, the tournament organizers, it's all about them. And we're obviously there to document it. We're obviously there to be the voice of record. And we're there to entertain and enlighten and inform the audience. But I don't think we're...

part of the show. We're just kind of on the periphery of it. And I think people who are, who do what we do for a living, if you're a sportscaster and you feel otherwise, I personally think you're mistaken. It's always about the events that you're covering and the athletes.

All right. Nope. That's what I was getting at. Perfect segue is, was there a better story today? And look, Minwoo Lee was an incredible story, but Gary Woodland, you and I both know GW. We both know what this means to him after everything he's been through. How would you characterize that story? Oh, I think Gary was the biggest story. And that has nothing to do with Minwoo Lee. I mean, Minwoo Lee winning is great. He's 26 years of age. He's come close before a couple of runner-up finishes, has a huge personality along with a ton of game. But

let's put it in its proper context. If Gary Woodland comes back after what he has gone through and comes back and wins, that'll be one of the biggest stories, if not the biggest story of a season on the PGA tour. And there's no denying, uh, the energy around Gary. Uh,

I had a long chat with him on Wednesday on the practice putting green about these types of things, holding his emotions together. You know how big of a deal Gabby is in holding the family together, which allows him to go play golf and how big of a deal Brennan little is caddy has been in helping him regain his confidence back out on the golf course. If he would have gotten to the finish line today,

That has nothing to do with Minwalee. That would have been a bigger story, I think, in the world of golf and sports. It's a wonderful story to see him come back. And you saw anybody who watched the final round as he was making his run to a course record time 62 and finish one back. I mean, he was getting love from all kinds of fans every step he took. And you could see the emotion on his face. He held it together, but you could see the emotion on his face.

Tansy, you've done a bunch of Florida swing events. Now you've seen Roy McElroy up close. You've talked to Roy McElroy extended conversations over the past couple of weeks. Why can this year's masters be different for Roy McElroy? It's a great question, Ryan. And I'm sure we're going to talk about this on live from the masters, which by the way, I'm sure we'll get to that too, is my favorite segment of the year. Each day dealing with YouTube bozos, getting up there and spewing all of your knowledge and,

Here's why I think Rory has the best chance to win the Masters. I think now I'm about to say something crazy because Scotty Shefford played well this week. He didn't win, but he played the best he's played. He shot a 62, shot a 63, I think today. Clearly he's playing good golf, but he's not quite razor sharp just yet.

So if you take the top two players, you know, Xander Shoffley is not quite razor sharp either. So the top three players, McElroy's won twice. First time he's ever done that in his career leading up to the Masters. A playoff.

A player's win, obviously a massive win, and a win at Pebble, a big, big win for him as well. And I think he rides a lot of confidence going into the Masters. I think he understands. He's tried it, what, since 2014 was his last major. So he said, what, 11 or 12 cracks at it, 10, 11 cracks at it. He's probably tried it eight or nine different ways. And I think that he's probably learned, I think,

to just go play, drive the golf ball, and try to chip and pitch it. If you miss greens, make a few putts, give yourself an opportunity on the weekend. Don't be too overly aggressive on Thursday and Friday, kind of ease your way into it.

And I think he carries the most confidence he's ever had into Augusta based on those two victories. And let's face it, the two or three other best players in the world are not quite as razor sharp as he seems to be leading into Augusta. So I think he takes this week off, practices, preps, gets ready. And I think he shows up at Augusta. And if it's his time, it's his time. But I do think it's his best opportunity we've seen in quite some time.

And I think that's fair. And I'm with you a hundred percent, but Lav and I are really bad when it comes to any gambling conversations, him much more so than me, but I'm bad as well. You've been known to make a wager from time to time, given what you just said, why we, why is Scotty the favorite just ahead of Rory going into the mass

Well, he's the defending champion. He's won it two out of three times. And the three of us have talked about this on and off the air. I'm a big believer. Let's say there's 100 people in the field. I don't know the exact number that's in the field just yet. But let's say it's around 100. It's usually, you know, somewhere in the 90s or around, let's call it 100 players.

you can wipe away 65 of them off the off the back in my opinion and I think if you take 30 to 35 players I've always thought the two the two events that are the easiest and they're not easy to win on tour or the tour championship and the old century when they're only like 28 or 29 guys because you don't have that many players to beat and I think at the Masters look

Scottie's the favorite because he's won two out of three times. All right. Rory is going to be one of the favorites because he's just a fabulous player who has not gotten it done there. And I think that,

You cannot overlook the experience at that place. You cannot overlook the vibes you have when you enter the grounds. I mean, how did Lee Trevino never win there? He didn't have good vibes when he got there. And, you know, it was a different time, different era, and it just kind of probably prevented him from playing his best. Well, McElroy's trying to do something that only one guy in the history of the sport has ever done, win the career Grand Slam at Augusta National. And no offense to the Squire, but back in 1935...

Gene Stairs and one of the masters. Slightly different attention. It's just a touch different now than it was then. So look, you know, you never know. But if you had to put money on one guy, it would have to be one or the other. And you probably would have to put your money on Scottie just based on past performance there. He's way more comfortable there, I would assume, than McElroy is because he's won it twice.

Well, I know we'll be discussing Scotty and Rory and everybody else in a week's time on the live from the master set. Can't wait to see you, buddy. And about a week's time from Augusta National. Thanks for joining us. See you soon. And just a reminder, you can catch Steve and the rest of the NBC Sports team on the call next week at the Valero Texas Open. Coverage beginning Thursday on Golf Channel.

All right, Rex, falling on the heels of Bud Colley's inspirational comeback, Gary Woodland posted the best finish of his own comeback in Houston tying for second alongside Scottie Scheffler. Which story to you is more remarkable? Because they're sort of dominated the early spring at this point of the season on the PGA Tour. I don't know if you can really compare because Bud Colley's story is really cool. We had a chance to talk to him last week on Golf Today, and I think his attitude is

Coming out of everything that he had been through, there was a horrific car crash in 2018. But there was just a litany of injuries and surgeries that came after that to get back to where he is now, which is having a chance to buy for a PGA Tour card, contending at the Players' Championship just a few weeks ago. But for me, it's Gary Woodland because I think you and I both are probably a little bit more invested in this story just because Gary has been so open about it. I remember going into last year's Masters.

and sitting down with Gary at the Players' Championship to do a story. The Golf Riders Association had given him our Ben Hogan Award, which is essentially the same as the PGA Tours Courage Award, which is what he won this year. Ha! PGA Tour, you were too late. We beat you to the punch.

But I remember sitting down with him on the lawn, just sort of having him walk me through the surgery that he had been through and the baseball-sized tumor and how much uncertainty was there and how much anxiety and fear that caused because it was pressing on a nerve that controls specifically those emotions. And I remember turning the recorder off.

And he and I talked a little bit longer, just sort of in a more friendly conversation. And he confided that, yep, still not there. We're still struggling trying to find the right drugs. I'm still struggling. I can't sleep. I still have fear. I still have anxiety. And I remember seeing him at the Cognizant Classic just a few weeks ago this year. And he was smiling and laughing. And I remember he was on the pack for the first time. So I wanted to talk to him about why he chose to do that. And

the conversation turned to how are you feeling, you know, the human response. And he was so happy that he feels like he's finally landed in a spot. And it was fascinating to me because the litmus test was he played in Phoenix and we all know what those crowds are like. And he goes, I wanted to get extra sleep. I wanted to have as much rest as possible because I knew how much that could stress me. It's kind of triggering for him. And he said, I was fine. And I think that's the corner that he was looking to turn physically. And now we're starting to see the corner when you look at what he's able to do on the golf course now.

I mean, this has been such a palate cleanser over the past couple of years on the PGA Tour that have been dominated by greed and money and everything else to have these two players who are sort of waging their own inspirational comebacks. I mean, Bud Colley...

in that car accident, broke six ribs, collapsed right lung, fractured right leg, didn't hit a golf ball for three years as he dealt with some of the other complications. You mentioned we had him on golf today. Like you could hear the gratitude in his voice, just being able to play at a high level. Once again, like it's great to see as it relates to Gary Wooden, like one of the most universally well-liked players in

on the PGA tour. One of the only bright spots of that full swing series was seeing Gary Woodland, you know, inside the MRI room, inside his house with his family, as he was, was sort of trying to come back from this and, and dealing with the fallout and trying to get his medicines, right? Like it's so courageous for him to even try to come back.

And to do it now on the best tour on the planet and be competitive again. He linked up with Randy Smith, a longtime swing coach of Sky Shuffler. He has his great, his game in a, in a great spot. I don't think there's any reason to think that the next few years can still produce some of the best golf of Gary Woodland's career. We absolutely love to see it. Second topic, Rex, you Henio Shakara playing on a sponsor exemption one on the DP world tour at the Indian open. You impressed with this young talent.

Uh, very impressed. And also what it means for golf. I wrote this story at the players championship just a few weeks ago with Lord Cantor playing in it. Here is a former live player, Lord Cantor. I'm talking about as well as Takara, uh, who had sort of bridged that divide. He was the first live former lip player to play in a sort of a non-major non-co-sanctioned event at the

Players Championship. And now you have Shakara, who has an opportunity to play his way inside the top 10 and earn a PGA Tour card that way. That was certainly Laurie Cantor's decision, I mean, goal as well, to make it over to the PGA Tour. We're making very, very slight, incremental, tiny little steps, but it's always encouraging when you actually see it, where there is a universe where both of these players can end up playing on the PGA Tour. And the path back that we've all wanted to see for so long would be right there in front of us.

And, like, he's obviously a big time down. He was number two ranked amateur in the world out of Oklahoma State when he decided to jump to live. So he is now one on three professional circuits at a very young age. He won on Live. He's won on the Asian Tour. And now he's won on the DP World Tour. He was one of those players who, you know, after getting dropped by his team, sort of in the wilderness, he's, you know, suspended on the PGA Tour through September of this year because the non-sanctioned things. Like, you would think he was –

looking for places to play ends up taking advantage now of a sponsor exemption that comes with a two-year exemption on the DP world tour, assuming that he takes up membership, which of course he would. And again, he could get his PGA tour card at the end of this season via the top 10 in the race to Dubai standings, an immensely talented player, a good for him for making it work even under less than ideal circumstances after getting dumped by live. Speaking of live Rex, it took until April, uh,

But Liv is finally back in the U.S. this week at Trump Doral. We're already seeing some of the propaganda in advance of the big event. Does it have your attention, the event that will be conflicting directly with the Valero Texas Open?

Yeah, absolutely. It's a fun venue. I mean, the tour went there forever. I think it's always interesting to go back and play the Blue Monster golf course after covering events there for so long. This will actually be the first time I think I haven't covered the live event at Doral. There's a wedding I have to go to in Savannah because I always felt like it was good to, at the very least, go out and talk to the players who you haven't really had a chance to see since last year's Olympics, I guess, but more so the Open Championship. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And I guess the part, and we've touched on this before in previous podcasts, is

that this is probably the first time when you'll be able to make a head-to-head comparison between a PGA Tour event and a live event. And it'll be fun to see how that lands. Yeah, like I want to see...

Not just the ratings, but I want to see the players. I want to see how Jon Rahm, I want to see how Bryson DeChambeau, I want to see how Brooks Koepka look on a championship test. It's so hard to see if you're playing some of these confined and claustrophobic golf courses that the live guys have been playing on the international sites over the past couple months, how that would sort of translate to big boy major championship venues this year.

obviously would do that at Drumdor. It's going to be a great week to have two televisions. We've actually left time for listener questions. We never do this at the end of the podcast. I was very excited. This is from Marcus Finley. Real quick though, Rex. He wants to see LPGA players

on each TGL team. You a fan of that? I am a fan of that. And I think there's going to be some version of that going forward. I think we talked a little bit about this after the final last week, just the idea of everywhere they can go to expand. Obviously, I think they're going to add to maybe even three teams and there's the talk of starting a woman's league, but yes, I think mixed teams would be in the mix as well. Yeah. I don't know if there's a huge appetite for it, but I think in the right window and sort of a limited schedule, it could be really fun. And

And I think he could, could boost the profile of, you know, a half dozen, dozen players, however they want to end up working it for the TGL schedule. I think players would like be lining up around the SoFi center to get paired with a Nelly Korda or a Charlie Hall, two of the most charismatic players on the LPGA with tons and

and tons of game. I think in the right window, I think that could really be quite successful. How about this Rex from Lori Morgan, who is, who is dumping on us saying the golf channel, you and I are okay with throwing clubs, but we're not okay with Colin Morikawa skipping the media. Do you care to explain yourself?

We hit it off big last week on, as our friend Steve Sands would say, Instabook because of something that we said. I hope this happens and we go live on Instabook or we pop off on Instabook again. To be clear...

We weren't okay with him blowing off the media, but I think both of you, you and I were under the same mindset that no, he does not owe the media anything. I think we've been absolutely perfectly clear with that. As far as players getting angry last week, I think the idea that we talked about was some sort of personality. That's all we want to see. Now I do not condone what Adam Hadwin did to that sprinkler head. I think it's shameful, but no, I'm not going to sit here and criticize him for that. Look,

The point here is that there's consequences for actions. That is why you saw all of these PGA Tour players come out on social media to try to explain themselves, to apologize for the fans, to essentially say this is not who I am and this is not who I want to be as a PGA Tour player and a role model. They're obviously going to receive a fine, most likely, from Ponte Vedra and the PGA Tour. Would they have apologized if the videos did become public? Probably not.

but it's the reputations at stake as it relates to kalamur kawa like it's it's a similar thing but also different and that it harms everyone involved if there is not cooperation between pg tour players and media members fans don't get to know these players better and players run the risk i think of being sort of dehumanized by the public if they're not a part of the media that's all i have to say about that stop dumping on us although i always check the comments

That's going to do it for this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. You guys know the drill. NBCSports.com slash golf for latest news, notes, and updates. Rex and I will be back on Wednesday for a preview of the Valero Texas Open and Trump Doral on live. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. Talk to you guys in a couple of days.

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