April 6, 2026
Moderator: Good afternoon, and welcome to our Golf Channel, Live From the Masters Media Conference call. As you see, we're joined by the primetime Live From the Masters team of Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee, and Paul McGinley.
Before we begin, just going to share a few notes as it relates to our coverage this week and next week on Golf Channel. Golf Channel has had folks on the ground in Augusta for well over a week already, in preparation of our coverage for the next two weeks, which includes, right now, the Augusta National Women's Amateur, which is live on Golf Channel. I think I saw Maria Jose Marin and Asterisk Talley toward the top of the leaderboard there. So, we've got live coverage today and tomorrow from Champions Retreat on Golf Channel.
And then rounds one and two, and then Live From the Augusta National Women's Amateur Friday, Saturday, ahead of the final round on NBC. On Sunday, five hours of some of the best golfers in the U.S. with the Drive, Chip, and Putt National Finals starting bright and early at 8 AM ET, with our own Rich Lerner leading the way on that. One of the treats is that we're gonna have some PGA TOUR players voicing intros for those Drive, Chip and Putt competitors, including Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood with Sam Burns, Justin Rose, and a special tease to open the show voiced by Rory McIlroy.
Then, next week, live wall-to-wall studio coverage, Live From the Masters, starting Monday at 2 ET, live on Golf Channel. Plenty of special guests throughout the days, Jack Nicklaus, Ray Floyd, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, and Ben Crenshaw, to name a few. So we're going to start with comments from our speakers, and then we'll open up. And we're going to start with our host, Rich Lerner. Go ahead, Rich.
Rich Lerner: Thanks, Jamie. Privileged to be back, doing Live From with my, best pals, Paulie and Brandel. And as well, I'll be hosting Drive, Chip, and Putt this coming Sunday. I will say, with respect to Drive, Chip, and Putt, one thing that comes to mind, and now with the Augusta National Women's Amateur being contested, is Augusta National used to be this kind of unreachable house high on the hill. But now, you know, with the Augusta National Women's Amateur, with the Drive, Chip and Putt, with the Latin America Amateur Championship, the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship, which I've covered for a number of years, you can be a 7-year-old girl from Tennessee and get to Augusta National. You can be a 15-year-old young woman from Montana and get to Augusta National. You can be a young man from El Salvador or from Thailand and get to Augusta National.
They've been brilliant and progressive in sort of rebranding themselves, but also simply, in growing the sport around the world.
With respect to next week, you know, I think as we get started Monday, Tuesday on Live From, we'll do more looking back than we typically might do, given that the 2025 Masters was one of the most thrilling and historically consequential majors of all time. Scottie, obviously, is top of mind. I know there are questions, as there are with Rory, you know, in his back, but there are questions surrounding Scottie, but I liken Scottie to Shohei Ohtani, in that, you know, over the course of a long Major League Baseball season, in any given three-game series, Ohtani once in a while is going to go two for 14 or 15. And I think that Scottie's Shohei Ohtani, or at least he's in that neighborhood. Bryson and Jon Rahm, come in with a lot of form, and they have our attention, and we'll devote several segments, unquestionably, to those two heavy hitters from LIV.
I think, you know, we've batted this around recently in our trailer. I know we did it at The PLAYERS, just the question beyond Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, who's the biggest star in the game? Who's the fan favorite? And I think we, in an inspiring way, we have our answer, and that's Gary Woodland. So I look forward to hearing what Gary has to say the week of The Masters. And then I think, lastly, it's been a year in which the younger players have emerged, talking about Cameron Young, and I like Cameron quite a bit next week. Jacob Bridgeman, Chris Gotterup, Akshay Bhatia. So, they warrant attention, as does Justin Rose for what he did at Torrey Pines this year and what he did at The Masters last April. So, all of that in play and I'll hand it off to Brandel.
Brandel Chamblee: That's well said, Rich. I agree with all that. It is always a privilege to get to Augusta National and be a part of Live From, be a part of the Augusta National Women's Amateur Coverage. I really, really enjoy being a part of that, and then do a little wrap-up of the Drive, Chip and Putt Sunday night. There's all these wonderful, feel-good stories before we get to The Masters, and we'll have plenty to talk about, no doubt about it. I get the question all the time, I'm sure everybody on this call gets that question all the time - what's your favorite major championship to cover? And that probably is a difficult question for everybody to answer, but it's unquestionably, I think, the case that Augusta National is hard to match for its aesthetic beauty, for the nostalgic aspect, historical context of every single spot on that golf course. You could name a shot where you can name a spot where a shot was hit that decided who won and who lost it. And then from a drama standpoint, it always promises to deliver, and almost always does deliver.
And if you doubt that, all you have to do is look back at last year. That was, I would argue, the most drama-filled, compelling, historical, tug-of-war between, not just Justin Rose and Rory, but between Rory and history, that the game has ever seen, and I think it's the most important and best major championship that I have ever seen, and that is taking into account 1986 Masters, and the 2019 Masters, and so many others. Never seen anything like it. So, to Rich's point, yes, we will spend a fair bit of time early in the week going back and looking at that because it was that special and it was that compelling.
Beyond that, I would just say that almost everybody entering this year's Masters has some question mark or caveat attached to their name. Nobody, is the dominant favorite the way it was two years ago with Scottie or even the way it was a year ago with Rory, because I think Rory was on a lot of people's minds with the way his game was going. And I would say right now it's almost a dead heat between five players going into next week, and every single one of those players have some caveat attached to their name, or question mark going into the week, so we will have plenty to talk about with all of those players next week in our run-up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday before they finally get underway Thursday.
Paul McGinley: Well, thank you, Brandel. You've already surprised me with one thing you've said this week, and when you asked your own question, what was your favorite major, I thought The PLAYERS was going to be the answer to that question.
Chamblee: I said best major, from a competitive standpoint, but from a drama, I think The Masters. Go ahead.
McGinley: Oh, good.
Chamblee: I got the pointy elbows out already.
McGinley: Yeah, you put me on the back foot there. I was surprised at that one. But yeah, look, I mean, I adore everything the guys have said. We have a great team. I'm very proud to be part of the Live From team. I really enjoy every moment I spend with the guys.
And, you know, we're great friends away from it, as well as friends on the set as well too. And we like to talk golf and we like to bring up opinions and that's okay. That's what's wrong with this world at the moment. If you don't agree with somebody's opinion, the first thing you do is jump on social media and try to get the guy fired because you don't agree with his opinion. And I think, you know, the game more than anything needs some direction at the moment. You know, we've our greatest player, certainly in the modern era, Tiger Woods obviously got his issues going on. We had crowd behavior at the Ryder Cup last year. That was out of control, and boundaries are getting expanded.
I think what is so refreshing about Augusta National and The Masters is those boundaries will be retreated next week. The code of behavior, not just from the players, but from everybody associated with it, inside the ropes as well as outside, will be exemplary, and it's a good reset for the game of golf. I think we need it at this moment in time. When it comes to the playing of it, you know, agree with what everybody says, you know, with the top two players, Scottie and Rory's slightly off their games for different reasons. Scottie's just coming off the back of three tournaments in a row where he hasn't finished in the top 10. He hasn't done that for a year, I mean finished outside the top 10. So this is a real slump, in his terms. So you know, he's not quite on his game and obviously Rory's got his injury issues, and obviously the other thing about it is guys really struggle at the challenge when they are defending. There's a lot goes on into being the host and coming back as defending champion, and a lot of distractions off the golf course.
They're great fun, and I'm sure he's going to enjoy every moment of it, and there'll be days he'll never remember, but whether it drives him into focus and into performance, well, that's a question that I would have.
And then, you know, again, talking about the LIV players I've been watching, not watching the golf, necessarily, you know, keeping an eye on it more than anything else. And what I will say is that Rahm and Bryson are playing phenomenal golf. I know a lot of the golf courses that are playing on LIV because they used to be European Tour events before LIV came and took those tournaments off the European Tour and so I know the golf course as well, and the scoring that they've had around those courses is just spectacularly low. So they're obviously on form, and they're coming in with a point to prove, like all of the LIV players, they come with pointy elbows.
So, expect, certainly, Rahm and Bryson to raise a gallop next week. Both of them have got form around that golf course. And then it's, you know, Xander Schauffele is coming off the back of two top-fives in a row. I really like the way that he is trending. He's such a brilliant player through the bag and I think he's trending towards another big season this year, haven't had a slow one last year. And the guy that I like, who's off the radar, I'll finish with this, left-handers have always done well around here, for whatever reason it may be, there's obviously some reasons for it. We can elaborate on that if needed, but Bob McIntyre is the guy to highlight for that. I think he's got a heart of a lion. I think he loves the big moment. He's already had two top-tens in the majors last year, and a big finish in The PLAYERS this year. In fact, he nearly won The PLAYERS if he'd have taken four rather than six on 16 where he got unlucky with a bad lie left of the green. He may well have won that tournament. So he's trending towards winning one of these big ones and there's a reason, you know, like there was in 2010, when Colin Montgomerie put Graeme McDowell down at number 12 in the order.
As a captain, you pick players for big moments who've got big stomachs and big hearts, who can handle situations, and Bob was right down the order in Bethpage, and that's ominous of what his peers think about him. And also, you know, Luke Donald is right at Cup captain, so he will be the guy that I would highlight outside of the obvious ones.
Moderator: All right, well said, everybody, thank you. Alright, so we can start with some questions,
QUESTION: Yeah, gents, pardon the wind, I'm actually on the course right now, as you guys would expect, this time of year, April 1st. Hey, wanted to ask you, you know, Paul, you just mentioned that there are players off the radar. What are some guys outside maybe that top 10 or 12 that we should really, you know, just be focused on, thinking about going into this Masters?
McGinley: Look, you can go down as far as you want, there's so many in that second tier, if you want to call it that. You know, you have
Rory, and you have Scottie at the very top, and maybe you could put in Bryson and Rahm and make those four, and for me, then, there's a separation down to everybody else. And not a big gap, but there's a separation. And then the next, next level of players, they're probably about 20 deep, and you know, speaking from a European perspective, I mean, you just love to look at Matt Fitzpatrick and his form.
Coming in here in form, although he does hit the ball relatively low, it's not really conducive to playing well around there. His record around here is only moderate. Justin Rose, again, you know, he's going to be inspired, having already won this year, and obviously plenty on form, but he's been a bit hit or miss this year, and I think the inspiration of being at Augusta National and third time lucky, maybe, should he get into a playoff, will maybe drive him on.
From a European point of view, there's a lot of really strong American players coming up. I really like this Gotterup. I think he's got something about him. Bridgeman was so impressive in winning in LA earlier in the year, but there's so many in that group it's hard to identify exactly who you think is gonna come through, but I've no doubt that the pipeline of strong players coming through on the PGA TOUR is a very, very strong one. But as we all know, experience counts for a lot around here, so I'm expecting one of the top players to come to the fore this week.
Chamblee: I'll just add, you know, it is fun to look at, you know, a handful of players that nobody's thinking about it. I almost feel like, maybe not this year, it would have been appropriate but in years past, on Wednesday night, when Paul and I make our picks, or Rich asks us to make our picks, it's almost like besides Scottie Scheffler because he was just so demonstrably the favorite. But this year, that's not the case. You know, again, it's almost a dead heat of a handful of players, I think, coming into this Masters.
Looking back just to the next level of players who might surprise, I would throw out Adam Scott, I would throw out Jake Knapp, I would throw out Nicolai Højgaard, I would throw out Si Woo Kim. I would throw out Min Woo Lee, I would throw out Akshay Bhatia, and again, I agree with Paul's point about Gotterup.
So there's a handful that, certainly, you can make a case for if not being amongst the top-five favorites, that next tier. It wouldn't surprise me if one or two or three of those players I just mentioned were on the first page of the leaderboard or on the top of the second page of the leaderboard come Sunday.
Question: Hey, gentlemen, thanks for doing this. I know each of you have seen plenty of changes at Augusta National on and off the course over the years. I'm curious, from a media perspective, you know, things change every year, and this year's no different. We have a new broadcaster and some new elements and all that. From y'all's perspective, what does the Augusta National's willingness to continue to evolve on a media front, how does that play a part in its overall willingness to progress forward? Brandel, I'd love your thoughts, and Rich and Paul, if you want to as well, that'd be great.
Chamblee: Look, I'll just say that, you know, Augusta National has a long, long history of setting the bar as it relates to the media coverage, as it relates to how they treat the media. You could even go back and look and say that the media had a lot to do with The Masters being called a major championship, to the days of Grantland Rice, to the days of Herbert Warren Wind. You know, ‘The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.’ The way they have really wrapped their arms around this event and if you look at the media building, it's almost, to me, it's like an homage to what the media has meant to The Masters. There's been this great collaboration between Augusta National and the media. You know, they treat them well, but then when you go there and you walk the grounds, it's a special feeling, for sure.
Every aspect of The Masters is run at almost a mind-blowing level. You think about that. They do it once a year, and they still set the standard. Every single shot is shown. When I'm doing my work, when Paul's doing his work, when Rich is doing his work, and we have a question about some shot somewhere that wasn't shown on TV, all we need to do is click a couple times, and boom, there's the shot. And immediately, the shot has context. ‘Oh, that's why he missed it. He had that weird lie hanging on the lip of a bunker.’ Something you wouldn't have seen, and then all of a sudden, even ShotLink doesn't give you that kind of detail.
From every single aspect of them delivering the interviews and the newspapers and every periodical, feeding the media, taking care of them, making sure that nobody wants for anything.
They play in it, and the patrons that go to it, but it is, from a media perspective, the best event that anybody goes to, year in and year out. There's loads of people on this call, and I'm sure that they would echo those sentiments.
Lerner: Yeah, I would just jump in, thanks for the question and for hopping on. Maybe one of the last places on planet Earth where the media is elevated, celebrated, treated in the way that they are.
I mean, that press building is unlike anything in the world of sports. If you were an official showing up at The Masters for a tour, and say you were involved with Daytona 500, or Indy, or Wimbledon, or any of the other sort of iconic sporting events around the world, you'd walk away feeling, you know, somewhat diminished, and that is with respect to what they've done with media in the last few years, you remember for so long, part of the mystery and magic of Augusta was the idea that less is more.
They sort of wrestled with that, and we always ask the question, when are they going to open it up a little more? When are they going to expand their coverage? If you look at the other majors, you know, U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, those Thursday, Fridays are just grind them out. Sun up to sundown, long days. So Augusta now has opened it up a bit more. It's somewhat expanded, it's not, you know, 7 a.m., but you can jump online and certainly, to Brandel's point, get whatever it is that you need.
I would say this, again, to amplify what Brandel was saying. Technologically, digitally, they are absolutely in a league of their own. No one touches Augusta National. We always joke, you know, we should send the people from Augusta National down to Washington, D.C, and things would work immediately. Whatever they do, there is only one way to do it, and that's best in class.
And so, it's media, it's the new player services building, the tournament practice area, whatever they do, A, it's going to be the best there is, and B, it'll look as though it's been there for 30, 40 years.
So it's this commitment to doing things at a certain level. Rory, I thought, had a great quote. They know who they are, and they stick to it. So, yeah, I mean, their media presentation, is elite.
Question: What's up, Brandel? My question was for you. I was kind of curious what your current favorite golf swing leaderboard looks like these days. Like, who's got your favorite move out there right now in The Masters field? I'm also kind of curious your thoughts on Marco Penge's swing.
Chamblee: That's a great question. Like, if I could pick the best swings, at the top of that leaderboard, just based upon the aesthetics of the golf swings?
Question: Based on whatever fits your eye.
Chamblee: Wow, that's a great column to write right there. Obviously, Adam Scott, I don't know how you get better than Adam Scott's golf swing at the top of that list. Rory's on there, for sure. For sure. Morikawa, good gracious, what a golf swing. Xander Shauffele. Incredible.
And look, I'd put Scottie in there. I know it's funky, but there's just too many moves that remind me of Jack Nicklaus.
What else? Where else would I go, golf swing-wise, but I'm completing that list. I don't know. Si Woo Kim's golf swing's pretty darn good. I absolutely love that move.
Marco Penge's move to me, it reminds me a little bit of Min Woo Lee's. Like, every single aspect of it is about power. It is the perfect fingerprint of a power move. Not a lot of lateral movement and transition. That's why you get that big angle in their lead leg away from the target, whereas if you look at Tiger Woods, or you look at Scottie Scheffler, or you look at Jack Nicklaus, they did not have that move. So, it is every single earmark of distance and power. You look at home run hitters, and they have that same angle in their lead leg, away from the pitcher. So, while it's ideal for creating power, both of them struggle with their iron game, and they struggle with it because of that. You have to have some lateral movement.
This is the thing about golf, this is the rub, you know? Almost every swing has give and take in it. If you're maximizing power, you are likely a poor iron player. And if you are moving laterally, you're probably not maximizing power. And that's the rub. You gotta do both of those, you gotta blend both of those, and Scottie Scheffler has a perfect blend, Tiger Woods had a perfect blend, Adam Scott has a perfect blend, and that's why they were phenomenal iron players, as well as great drivers of the golf ball. So I love Marco Penge's move, but if he wants to get to the next level of golf, he's gotta be a better iron player, and to do that, he needs more lateral movement with his irons.
Question: Thanks very much, guys, for doing this, and forgive me for this, it's gonna be a bit of a long-winded one, but you know, the two professional golfers on the call, you've been watching Rory 20 years.
Just the evolution of his game. It appears to really have moved up a notch in the last 3-4 years. Putting, iron play, wedge play, mental game. And there were a couple of things I were reminded of reading Alan Shipnuck's book. This week, it's just come out about Rory. Brandel, Rory's second shot to the first hole, in the first round last year, you said, I think I can quote it here. ‘Second shot of the tournament, I thought, it's over, because Rory had a hook lie to a left pin, and he cut a wedge in there. He'd never had that shot before.’ And the other quote was from Paul about Friday's round. Which was when Rory shot, you know, one under on the front nine, having double bogey two of his last four on the Thursday, and he thought that was the winning of the tournament there. So my question is, how excited are you to watch what Rory McIlroy might be able to do over the next 5-10 years, now that he's unshackled at Augusta National, that he has that monkey off his back, that he has that Masters, and, you know, in terms of his game, and where it might go from here, and what's going to motivate him for the next 5, 10 years? What do you see happening there?
Chamblee: Go ahead, Paul, you've certainly seen him grow up far more than I have. You start.
McGinley: Yeah, I feel that he's a more complete golfer now than he's ever been before, the stats will show you that. I think he's got so many different elements to his game that he didn't have before, even when he was winning those majors in the early 2000s and ‘10s. This stinger he hits off the tee now, I'm really impressed with that. He didn't have that before.
He moves the ball easier left to right than he's ever done before. His wedge play and distance control is much better, and obviously his putting with Brad Faxon. So, to answer your question, he's a more complete player now, and he's more equipped to win major championships, in my view, than he's ever been before. However, the competition is stronger than it was when he was winning majors the previous time, when he won the three majors in quick succession. I think that's a challenge.
But the biggest challenge is a motivational one. You know, having completed the Grand Slam, it's a huge milestone in anybody's career. And it's not the end of the line, though. There's still goals to be made, and particularly from a European perspective, Nick Faldo has still won more majors than him, and I'm sure he cannot unequivocally be called the greatest European player of all time until he passes Nick.
So it's important that he keeps going. I think he will keep going, and certainly, having been around him quite a lot the last few months at the TGL, I can assure you that he loves playing golf, he loves competing, and it's just a question of focus for Rory, like it always is, probably even more so now than ever.
Chamblee: I would just say that one of the more amazing things about Rory McIlroy, and again, this speaks to the team that he has around him, his fitness team. As years have gone on, I mean, Rory's at 36 years of age, and he's gotten better with age. He's kept up with the increasing club head speed, the increasing ball speed on the PGA TOUR, and surpassed the increases of the field average. And that's saying something. You know, he's kept in step. When he first came out, his ball speed was 173, and he was ahead of the curve then. But now the average ball speed's 175, 176. He's up around 185, 184. It's just amazing how, as the year's gone by, he's just gotten better and better and better. And I would say that all things being equal, until you have physiological decline and your nerves begin to betray you and you get distracted by things off of the golf course, which does inevitably happen as you get older and you have kids, etc, etc.
All things being equal, experience makes you a better player. So, when you speak about Rory being a more complete player, I'd push back a little bit and say, no, he was a more complete player, technically, from 2012 to 2014, hence why he won major championships by eight. He was just a better iron player, all the way around.
Having said that, there's no real decline. I mean, his game has been pretty consistent, and he's become a better putter. So, when you add up the total package, yeah, it's still just as good as it was earlier in his career, but he has the experience and he's got more speed than he even had early in his career.
So, it's impressive. But having said all that, and you start to look forward, he's 36 years of age, and historically, the window, it doesn't close after 36, but it narrows dramatically. Players still get chances that they just don't convert those chances historically. Jack won 78% of his major championships, 14 of his 18, before 36, or up to the age of 36. He only won 4 after that, 22%.
So, you know, when you start to look at Rory from 36 to 45, he's got 40 major championships in there. The probability is when probability declines with age. There's an aging curve, and it's real. And nobody escapes it. Nobody. And even though he's improved physically, to Paul's point, the competition is deeper, distractions off the golf course become more prevalent as you age, and your kids age, and you got all these business ventures. so I hope it's not the case with Rory. I hope he wins 2, 3, 4 more major championships. I'd love to see somebody get to double digits in this era in major championship wins, besides, Tiger Woods. But, historically speaking, it's likely that Rory's best golf has already been played.
Lerner: I would just add one quick thing and that is that Rory enjoys being Rory. I think he's arrived at a place, and Paulie probably could back me up, where he's enjoying this. And that isn't always the case, given the demands of being a high-level, modern, professional sportsman.
He's enjoying traveling. He traveled the globe with a green jacket. I know Augusta National deeply appreciated that. I just think he's at a place where he's happy, and I think a happy golfer is an effective golfer.
Question: Thank you very much, and thanks for giving us some time. I'm just curious, with all the names we can throw out, and I couldn't agree more with the general sense that this is a fairly wide-open Masters. One guy who didn't get any love was Patrick Reed. Just curious, I know that he was hot early, but, thoughts on his chances?
Chamblee: Well, yeah, absolutely. If you were going to design a golf course for Patrick Reed, you could hardly do better. You know, it gives you a little wiggle room off of the tee, and he kind of historically needs that. His iron play has been pretty good this year, obviously and, from all the rage on social media, is strokes guaranteed to green. If you go back to the era of strokes gained, go back to 2004, 2003, the numbers were not reliable, but 2004, you know, he sort of fits all of those parameters, and he's had tremendous success there. And to Paul's point, and I love it when Paul goes with the pointy elbows, nobody's got pointer elbows than Patrick Reed. He plays with boulders on both shoulders.
And, you're right, I think we are remiss in that we haven't mentioned him thus far, because, you know, as much as people want to say Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau have had the hot hand, it's hard to not look askance at live leaderboards, it really is. But Patrick Reed's been playing the DP World Tour, and he's coming to a place where, like Jordan Spieth, like Phil Mickelson, and I'm purposely not mentioning Tiger Woods, because Tiger Woods played well everywhere, but disproportionately, Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson were fit perfectly for Augusta National, and that's true of Patrick Reed as well.
McGinley: Yeah, Patrick Reed is no doubt, you know, a former major champion, a Masters champion, as we know. He had a hot hand back in January, early February. If The Masters had played around then, I think he would have had a better chance than he does now. He's gone off the boil a little bit, I've been following his results, and he's kind of flatlined, not just on LIV, but also on the few events he's played on the DP World Tour.
So can I see him having a top 10? Yeah. Can I see him winning the tournament and really contending? Well, I think there's too many class players up there that have an edge on Patrick coming down the stretch in terms of maybe a little bit more quality to their game. But you wouldn't dismiss him, of course, but he certainly wouldn't be one of my favorites. I wouldn't have him in the top 10 favorites, but that doesn't mean he can't get himself into a top 10 position.
I love watching him play golf, by the way. He's one of my favorite players to watch. You know, when he grips the club with a putter, when he grips it with a chipper, there's nobody looks better over it than him. Okay, his swing is not what you call classic, but I like those funky kind of swings, and he's got a little bit going on with his swing, and very right-to-left, kind of one-dimensional style of play, but certainly when it comes to the short game, I just love the natural way the club fits in his hand, and his actions are phenomenal. His chipping action, phenomenal, and his putting action in particular.
Question: Hey guys, thanks for doing this. I think you've talked about this on the show, but in this setting, maybe you can flesh it out a little. Do you have theories on the run of back injuries? Is this just coincidence? And we've always had bad backs in golf, but it does seem like we've had a lot of key players coming into this Masters dealing with some stuff, and even people like Pierceson Coody last week. Your, thoughts and theories, I'd love to hear them.
McGinley: Well, I'll start, and I'm going to start a row with Brandel when I say this. It comes down to technology and this chasing of speed, and it's a matter of time before guys get injured, and I really hate the fact that the game has become so heavily weighted towards being a big hitter, and that guys are chasing speed as hard as they are. And I talked earlier about the parameters and boundaries in the game, and there's so many different boundaries, and that boundary on equipment has, in my view, has stretched too far, and it's too advantageous now to hit the ball a long way in professional golf where you can dismantle most of the golf courses.
Having said that, Augusta National's one of the few where there's not a huge correlation between massive ball hitting anymore. It's more about iron play, as we know, and being really good around the greens. But, I think when you hit the gym as hard as the guys are having to do in order to get the speed that you need now to play on tour, it's only natural that you're going to have more injuries. That's just symptomatic of the amount of hours and heavy weights that are being lifted by all of the players at all levels, even young kids now, too. You look at, you know, some of the kids coming on tour, and straight away, they seem to have injuries. And I think that's a real and sad indictment that we have let speed become so dominant, in this modern game.
Chamblee: Look, I wouldn't argue that. There's an obsession with distance and speed. It'd be crazy to do that. But I wouldn't correlate this obsession with the injuries as much as I would just the technique that they're using to hit the ball a long way. Nobody loved golf or practiced more than Vijay Singh. Nobody loved golf or practiced more than Phil Mickelson. Nobody loved golf or practices more than Padraig Harrington. All three of them were prodigious hitters of the golf ball. All three of them. All they tried to do was hit it as far and as hard as they could possibly hit it. None of them have been injured. Now, why is that? Because they all have earmarks of longevity in their golf swings. Long swings, and they turn and get deep into their right heel, right hip, and they lift their lead heel.
The resistance movement that is so prevalent on the LPGA Tour and the PGA TOUR is a recipe for back injury. It is a recipe for disaster. It puts way, way too much pressure on the lower back and causes too violent of a transition and relies too much on jumping and contorting the body. So, I don't, for the life of me, I don't understand why people don't just look at those players that have played with the fewest amount of injuries and had the most success in their careers and follow along. Again, you want to look at a resistor in Tiger Woods. Who's had more injuries than Tiger Woods? Resisted with the lower body.
Jason Day resists with the lower body. Justin Thomas resists with the lower body. Rory McIlroy has resisted with the lower body. You show me somebody with an early back injury, I'm gonna show you somebody who resists with the lower body. I have no idea why they do it. It's ridiculous. No other sport would do it, but they do it.
McGinley: Okay, well, there's a row brewing here, so we better move on, Jamie, because, you're gonna have to referee there, Rich, is gonna have to stand in, because I'd love to pick apart what he's just said there, but.
Question: Thanks, again, for doing all of this. This may be a little related to the last question, but in past years, there's been a discussion about what's the magic formula heading into The Masters. Do you play the week before, get a running start? Do you play the week before, the week before, and rest? This year, Scheffler hasn't played since The PLAYERS. Rory hasn't played since The PLAYERS. I don't think Cameron Young has played since The PLAYERS. Neither of the top two LIV names have played the last two weeks because they have no events. What's the effect of that, perhaps, as we go into next week, and depending on the results, could there be a trickle-down effect in future years?
Lerner: Great question.
McGinley: You make a great point, and it's exactly what I've found in my research. It's unbelievable how many guys are going cold into this major championship compared to previous years by having extended breaks, and it's a really, really good point and something that we're going to talk about in the show next week. It's unique, it's different, and the proof will be in the pudding. The guys who've played a little bit leading in here, are they going to be at an advantage? And the guys who are not, you know, are they going to be slow coming out of the blocks? You make a really, really strong point, and I'm fully in agreement with you, and I'm interested and intrigued to see if they can get up to speed competitively. Because remember, at the end of the day, winning or losing when you're as good as Scottie Scheffler, or as good as Rory McIlroy, it's often one or two shots, and those shots are not always got in the last nine holes on Sunday. Those shots can be got early in the tournament. So, you know, a slow start or not an extended run of good golf. I'm going to be intrigued to watch all of it unfold. You make a really good point.
Chamblee: Yeah, look, I think this Masters is a little more wide open than I can remember any in the last 4, 5, or 6 years because it seems like every single player that comes in that you would call a favorite has some caveat attached to them. Maybe the fact that so many of them haven't played, they're all in the same boat. I don't think that they're gonna be too disadvantaged by not having played. Jack Nicklaus famously didn't play the weeks before major championships to get ready. You know, historically, I could go back and look at a great many successful players that took time off before major championships.
They make it very hard to take a week off on the PGA TOUR. Players, or course coming into majors or The Masters in particular as it relates to where they play Memorial Park in Houston, they try to set the golf course up in such a way that it reminds them and plays like Augusta National. So you get both. You get competitiveness and you get to play in a place that sort of simulates the conditions of Augusta National.
I'm like Paul, I'll wait and see how this affects the play to whatever extent it does, but I would just say that there's historical examples of players who didn't play before major championships, and like Jack Nicklaus, who had the most success of anybody in major championships.
Lerner: I would just add, I'd be curious to see how all of this impacts the future scheduling by the PGA TOUR because this diminishes them. It's just furthering this idea that there's one tournament, or four tournaments, that matter more than all the others, and will they deliver a Signature Event, say, I know Houston's bucking for one, will they deliver a signature event, at a minimum, say, 2 weeks out from The Masters? Would they even toy with the idea? I'm guessing the players would go against this, but would they even entertain the idea of putting a Signature Event the week before the Masters? I doubt that, but I'm curious how all of this and this dialogue impacts what they might do with the schedule up at Ponte Vedra.
Question: Hey guys, thanks for doing this. Scottie has had some slow Thursdays recently, and has had to climb uphill ever since. Is that, in regards Brandel and Paul to the to swing issues, or is that more mental? Where do you see Scottie's slow Thursdays coming from?
Chamblee: Well, he hasn't been very sharp, by his standards. I know he's won, but we're comparing him to his standards. His standards are a little different than everybody else's, so he's never, you know, you go back to 2022, and, you know he was on the ascendancy, and his data wasn't great coming into The Masters, and he still prevailed, great by his standards, but he's 80th in strokes gain approach.
And I know he hasn't played a lot, but he's played enough. And he's missed a number of shots to the right, and missed more greens, and been more imprecise than I can ever remember him. So, I think his golf swing's a little bit different, I think it's a little bit shorter, I think the face is a little bit more open at the top.
I'll be curious to see if he and Randy Smith clean that up by the time he gets to Augusta. He said it's no issue, and that's fair enough. I mean, every player is going to defend whatever it is they're doing, but the data, and empirically, it's a little bit different. So, early on in the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that'll be something I'm certainly paying close attention to.
McGinley: Well, my view on it is, and just give me a time to explain what I'm going to say here, I love seeing Scottie playing poorly because he's been so brilliant the last 2 or 3 years, the standard has been so high, and it's really intriguing to watch a guy on the back foot, obviously struggling with his game, obviously struggling, to get into a new driver, obviously not at peace with the levels that he's played before, and yet still churning out the results that he has.
I say three times in a row now he hasn't finished in the top 10, but bearing in mind how poorly he's obviously feeling about his game, he's still finishing between 10th and 25th in each of those three, as well as winning earlier this year. So, this all adds up for me to the greatness of what we are now looking and watching unfold in Scottie Scheffler. Not everybody gets a free run, Tiger Woods included, it was always the same. There's always ups and downs, and it's how you play, and how you chisel out results when things are going against you, and playing terrible, and not feeling, not terrible, but not on your game, and feeling your game is out of sync. That's what's a sign of greatness is. And the way Scottie has played, particularly in the last 3 or 4 or 5 weeks, and we can all dissect as to why that is, but the bottom line is, the guy's still making cuts. He's still finishing between 10th and 25th, and it's another tick in the right box for me as how great this player is lining up to be in the history of the game.
Lerner: I will just reiterate what I said earlier. He's Otani, or he's in that neighborhood, and you don't rule out that Scottie could win The Masters by 4 or 5, as he's done in the past, which I don't know if that would be not quite the equivalent of 6 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts, and 3 home runs, but this is golf's World Series in a manner of speaking, so I expect, Scottie to show up.
- Golf Channel -
