No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 936: The Lost Decade of Rory in Majors

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Back in June, KVV penned a piece for the NLU Website "The Lost Decade of Rory in Majors". For this pod, Soly and DJ join KVV to relive the decade long dry spell, the near misses, the not so near misses, the changing approaches to Augusta and our best guesses if Rory will win another major before his career wraps up. If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining The Nest: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at nolayingup.com/join Support Our Partners: Rhoback USGA GHIN App Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Yes! Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here got a little topic deep dive for you. We have taken KVV's piece that he wrote from earlier this summer of

analyzing Rory's last 10 years of the majors and diving into it on the podcast, talking a little bit about what we remember about it., talking a little bit about it, what we remember about it, just having a little conversation about each major championship stop along the way. We recorded this several months back, loading up on these while I was on paternity leave, but we've had a plethora of inventory to get through here

as the year wraps up and excited to bring this one to life. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Roeback, activewear, you all know Roeback, best fit, best feel. The holidays are here, means it's time to give the best gift of the year. That is Roeback, our single favorite item we own, the Roeback hoodie. It is simply unbeatable. It is soft. It's comfortable. Wear it every single day. The spit up cleans up very well out of it almost immediately. When the little babies are throwing up on it, that's one of many,

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hoodies and more with code NLU. It's rollback season, check them out now. Let's get to the pod. Things are going just too well in the golf world. We needed to level ourselves, We need to bring ourselves down. So we have an interesting topic that's gonna bring us down a little bit today. We're gonna get into that.

I'm gonna be playing, I'm listener. I've done no preparation for this. It feels great. I'm so happy to be here today. Also have done no preparation for this part, Mr. DJ Pye. Hello, Pye man. Greetings guys. Talking about one of my favorite

and least favorite topics simultaneously, real duality of man shit we're going through today. It's just gonna be, it's gonna be excellent. So I can't wait to go through it. Thanks for having me on your program. The quarterback of today's episode is gonna be Mr. Kevin Van Valkenberg.

Kevin, how are you? Can you tell us a little bit about what we're doing today? Well, so as we sort of thought back a little bit this year, as we were doing a lot of these deep dives, the ones where Rory popped up in, we were like, man, it's been a kind of a really difficult decade. It's been a, it's a decade of torture. It was first I'm hearing of this. I hadn't realized it had been a decade since he'd won a major. Yeah. So, um, we were kind of, you know, kicking around ideas this year. We're like, what if we just went back and like relived all of it, like tried to sort of identify like patterns or how close he was, how many times he actually was in contention in majors, like what happened

when he fell short. And man, like going through 40 majors really is an interesting exercise in hurt. If you're a Rory fan, if you are a fan, don't tune out route because there is some sort of, you know, some hope in here, some fun anecdotes, some good times to sort of remember, some painful times. We're just going to go back to 2015, you know, that back in 2014, Rory won two majors. Seemed like he was the, you know, the top dog in the world, the next Tiger Woods. ESPN, the magazine writers who are assigned to profile him, we're going to go out and sort of write the definitive Rory piece, looking for how great could he possibly be?

And maybe I'm the cooler, so maybe I'm the whole reason that some of this happened because that's how I kinda got into golf writing is I showed up on the scene in 2015. And if you're new to this podcast, this is not an anti-Rory podcast in any way, right? This is more of a celebration, I think, of Rory, if anything-Rory podcast in any way, right? This is a, this is more of a celebration, I think of, of Rory, if anything, on this podcast. So it is not, there's plenty of, of, of people out there that have turned into massive Rory haters, which I still struggle to comprehend, but that, that is not what you're going to find here. So I think we're going to be drowning a little bit more of our sorrows in this than we are celebrating

any of this. I think if I, if I'm looking at this, you know, optimistically, this almost feels like, remember the journey of the cat trap draw that we did when things were just as bleak as they were gonna get. It's like, let's go through all the, you know, he's going to the movies to see Deepwater Horizon. He's getting his dog's ACL repaired. He's doing all this stuff.

It just sets the table for the 2019 Masters, right? Like it just, it sets the table for the comeback. I think that's the same thing we're doing with Rory. Like you're, we're not going to really, we're not going to appreciate the next one properly if we don't really, uh, you know, kind of audit and, uh, and debrief on, on all of, all of the, the old ones. Which interestingly enough, if I have my math right here, no,

it would be one more full year of Roy not winning majors. And then it would be 2026 Masters that would be the same gap in Masters wins from Tiger as Tiger had between 2008 US Open into the Masters. I know there's a couple of majors he skipped in 2008 and all that but I think that's an interesting little parallel here which is again worth revisiting and I think we're going to get into this of how unlikely this felt in 2014. We'll get to this probably when we get post 2016, but Rory came on our pod for the first time in 2016 and into 2017, he came back and we talked a little bit

about majors and it was like, hey man, you kind of haven't won one in a while. And that was eight years ago now, but he delivered a famous line in that of like, Dustin had one major, blah, blah, blah. Everybody, all these Jason Day had one major still does. He's like, all these guys, they got to get three more majors to get to me. I need three more to get to Arnold

Palmer. And see he's been passed since then by a guy that had zero at that point Brooks Koepka and has now won five of them and he is no longer like the major winner of this generation. And it's very interesting and surprising. Nugget in there, because of like his play has not dipped. You go pull up that data golf page, man. Find me one that looks better over the last decade plus of just green, green, green, green, green,

some tiny little dips in years, but like nothing like we've seen from Jordan Spieth, nothing that we've seen from Justin Thomas, nothing like we've seen from Jordan Spieth, nothing that we've seen from Justin Thomas, nothing like we've seen from insert any player Brooks Koepka has had massive dip years. Dustin Johnson has started to fall off. He's a little older and whatnot, but like it's not come from like a where did Rory's game go? It's like, dude, how honestly, how have you not gotten any of these majors over

the last 10 years? And other than a couple, a couple weird ones, I mean, Port Rush comes to mind where he kind of just shit the bed on the first day and it almost felt like the moment was too big. But outside of that, it's like, no, he's kind of there at almost all of them too. It's not like he's just some complete headcase that is not able to contend in these things. It's constant contention, which we're going to see too. And I think, yeah, The thing that makes it really tough is the Tiger One, I would say, equally, even probably more, definitely more unbelievable

if you were standing there on that green in 2008 and you're like, soak it all in, man. It's going to be 11 years before we see another one of these. That would have been harder to believe. Looking back on it, it's like, okay, well, listen, the guy continually getting in car accidents. He could not stop like injuring his knee and back and ankle and couldn't stop something else either. Stop doing a lot of stuff. It's like, okay, you know what? All right. I'm not a forensic scientist here, but like I can understand how this happened. Rationally, I can get what happened here. Rory, I mean, what one injury to think of two injuries maybe. And it's just, yeah, there's no explanation for it really, other than, you know, just kind of the big tone syndrome.

So sometimes you play great and someone else plays better. I reject that. Well, look, guys, I want to take you back. Let's get kick it off here. I want to take it back to 2015, just to sort of set the scene of how different expectations were, how things were feeling back then. This is in 2015, Rory's first chance to win the career Grand Slam and the hype could scarcely be bigger. He's coming off a Ryder Cup performance where he just destroyed Ricky Fallers in singles. So I was joking about how he was going to carve USA initials or carve Euro initials into Ricky Fallers head. My tweet was that he carved, because Ricky had USA shaved inside of his head.

I said, Rory shaved R-O-R-Y to the other side of Ricky's head after beating him like five and four or something. Thank you. So in a cover story for Golf Digest, everybody wants a piece of Rory at this point. You know, he's including the SP in the magazine. I'm following him around at this point trying to get my nuggies. He reflects on what is kind of the sort of one topic that people are sort of starting to ask about his

personal life. His breakup with his fiance, Caroline Wozniacki. He says the turbulence in his personal life has made him rededicate himself to golf. After the breakup, he this is Roy talking to golf's high ideas. I thought, what else do I have in my life? I have family and friends, but they're always going to be there. What else? That's when I decided, you know what? I'm just going to immerse myself in golf for a while. I spent most of my time at it, the

thought about it more and spent more time in the range in the gym than ever because that's all I had and that's all I wanted to do. He's still sort of wrestling with fame. He's only 25 at this point, but he's trying to kind of learn to embrace what being dubbed kind of the chosen one. He says, until a few years ago, I don't want to say I felt guilty being successful because I had a disability given to me, but I was sort of like, why me? Because I felt like it's a very selfish thing to be a winner, a very selfish trait, which is what you sort of need in golf. And I guess it just took me a while to feel comfortable with that because of the personality that I have. I realized that if I want to be successful in

golf, which I do, I need to have it. What helped was realizing how much people like winners, how much people gravitate towards them. So if other people are happy for me winning, then why can I not be? Sounds honestly, remember going back and reading this quote, like it kind of surprised me a little bit, just seeing him like so much, the first kind of I think real vulnerability that Rory showed with like dealing with, oh man, like this is a lot of shit.

Like not only is my personal life getting dragged through the pages all the time, but I'm still kind of figuring out like who I want to be and how to deal with being essentially anointed the next dude. Well, quick pause on this to say like, again, that quote going back 10 years now, there's very few, is there any other guy we could do a decade's worth of majors and look back on and

talk about for as long as we're going to talk about today? The answer is probably no. On that. I mean, we could do tie any time point in Tiger's life. But Rory has just, I want to salute this as well. Like he's made himself available, like from the jump emotionally to golf fans, right? Like he makes it relatively easy to get invested in. He puts himself out there maybe too much at times, he probably catches himself needing to like pull back and

needing to, you know, do do less from time to time. But like, even like throughout all of this, he's made all of his thought process available and all of it and open to critique the reason why people don't do this is like, even like throughout all of this, he's made all of his thought process available and all of it and open to critique. The reason why people don't do this is like, probably what we're about to do in this episode of like how often he flip flops and changes his mind about his approach and all that. But like he is he's always understood the role as an entertainer and like been so forthcoming about so many

emotions that like, imagine doing this for Brooks Koepke. I literally I could not do an episode looking back. He's won five of them, but I could not go back and look at all of Brooks Brooks Koepke. I could not do an episode looking back. He's won five of them, but I could not go back and look at all of Brooks Koepke's majors. Probably about a 10 minute, 15 minute episode. Yeah. I think this is where, you know, I'm not trying to justify any of it of my complete slobbering like Rory love over the last decade, but it's like, this is where it all starts, right? Is, is I think any kind of even moderately new golf fan has to remember what it was like in the days of Webb Simpson, Jim Furyc, Bubba, Matt Kuchar, just hoovering up every golf

tournament. And you know, Rory was still around at the, in those days, like playing a lot in Europe and kind of the early, like percolations of his career. But like when he came in and like kicked the door down firstly congressional, but then in 14, when it was like truly became Rory time. And he's like this in the press room was where it was like, all right, cool, man. Like fan for life. I'm, I'm on board. I'm here. I'm, I'm ride or dive with, with all of it. And then thank you for saving us from web. Like, thank you. I don't even remember a moment. I think it was, uh, we'll get to it,

but it was at whistling straights where he talked after a pretty poor performance in the, um, 15 PGA. And one of the golf writers sort of turned to the rest of golf riders and said, you know, Roy was really good. He talked about Jordan Spieth kind of becoming number one and he was really complimentary, very nice, like funny. And one of the golf riders turned to the rest of us and said, man, like we don't realize how good we've got it. Like it's not usually like this. The number one player in the world being like friendly, charismatic, like willing to stop for press stuff. Like is not how it's always gonna be.

And as we can sort of see, that's, you know, Scott is certainly nice and friendly, but it's not quite the same sort of charm, I guess. In the 2015 Masters, if you don't remember, Rory opens with 71-71, which seems like a decent score, but at this moment, he has 12 shots behind eventual winner Jordan Spieth. He shoots 68-66 over the weekend, which of course becomes a theme later on, but he's

out of contention. But it does make him feel like he leaves Augusta with very positive feelings. It's just a matter of putting it all together. Rory says after the final round, congratulating Spieth for closing things off. So moving on to 2015, he shows up at the US Open at Chambers Bay. And- As do you, Kev. That's the first time we met. That's why. DJ and I first meet here. We're a meeting of the young golf minds in the world where we're gathering at a shitty bar in Tacoma to sort of talk about how we're going to upend the system, tear apart at all the old media guards. Rory is asked in a press conference if he feels like he's actually the best player in

the world, to which he says, do I feel like I'm the best player in the world? Yes. I think about when LeBron says that, that's not- You want to fucking play me, man? Why don't you? Come on. Yeah. That's not confidence. That's a fact. When you look at how he's carried his team to these finals,

if you look at the numbers, you can really see he's the best player in the world. And for me, I feel like when I look at the world rankings and I see my name up at the top, if you look back the last four or five years, I guess I've won more majors for than anybody else in that time. So kind of like a fuck you like oh you think like this new kid's speech is like you know the new guy on the block yeah I'm still the big dog in the world. Which I will say like if you have to say it are you like that's that's the only you know if it wasn't if that's a maybe a slight look into uh how maybe why things didn't go the way they did

for the next whatever 10 years is like, eh, all right. That's not like, I don't know if like, that's the vibe I need out of you, Roy. Just go beat people's ass. I don't need you to say it. Like it doesn't really, really matter what guys rankings are in golf. I don't know. Tough, tough question though. I'll give them some credit. That's, that's, I don't know what a good answer to that one would have been other than just like, I don't, that's not really what I think about next question. No, I, I don't know. Like Jordan's, I could never play on his level,

you know, like, and I being able to, like he, he took it in an ultra confident level. No, hit me with it. Hit me with the question. I can do it better. I can, you think you're the best player at NLU. It does matter what I think, but it only matters internally, right? When I go tee it up, I do feel like I am the best player, right? And you know, you can let recent results can, can lead people to different conclusions, but it only matters internally. When I go tee it up, I do feel like I am the best player. You can let recent results can lead people to different conclusions, but I have to have that when I go play. I have to be telling myself that I am that player. That's the best way to get the best golf out of myself, which is all I'm currently focused on right now. People can have their

opinions, but all that really matters is the final result. I'm just focused on whatever I can do to get the best possible result this week. And if he had followed that playbook, I think we wouldn't even be having this conversation. I think it would be like, that guy's fucking boring. I think it's not an opinion. It's a fact. And then like pulling the brawn out of it. I'm good with that.

I'm for it. I'm with you. I'm with you. All right. At Chambers Bay, if you remember a bit of a controversial venue, Roy referred to the greens as like putting on cauliflower because they are not even green. All right at Chambers Bay if you remember a bit of a controversial venue Roy referred to the greens as like putting on cauliflower because they are not even green. I will never hear the words Chambers Bay and not think of I can't I won't steal the line from you but it's... Chambers Bay of

course if you remember from our Gary Player podcast is, where the Gary player impression was born and chambers Bay of pigs will never not make me laugh. Uh, didn't actually say, but you, you, you, you're a player impersonation called it chambers Bay of pigs and much like the Sarah Palin thing where like Tina Fey made people think that, uh, you know, Sarah Palin had said, I can see Russia from my house, which she never actually said. Like I think that maybe people will someday, at least in our generation of golf media,

will think that Gary Player said Chambers Bay of Pigs, but not really. Back to the golf. Despite what Roy will refer to as probably the best week he's ever hit the ball in ball striking, he gets off to very uninspired start 72 72 and again watches Jordan Spieth jump out to a lead. But finally on the weekend something clicks. Rory begins Sunday at plus four but he makes six birdies and no bogeys through 13 holes. Pretty good

run at a US Open. He climbs to within three shots the lead at one point but misses a putt from about 13 feet on 14 that would have been a 7th birdie and then bogey's 15 ruining any chances of a comeback. He was flirting with perhaps the greatest round in US Open history at that point. Could have potentially shot 62. Turned to caddy JP Fitzgerald during the tournament and said after a difficult third round, thank God I've got one of these already reference to his 2011 US open when Jordan Spieth wins his second consecutive major at this point, which none of us watching on TV had any idea what the fuck was going on in this tournament.

It was Fox's first US open. The course was a disaster. The grades, like nobody understood all these runs are happening, but they don't know how to follow groups properly. And so we have no like proper attribution of anyone's runs or where things were on the leaderboard. USGA messed up the setup from day to day and like scores would get really low one day and then higher the next day. It was total shit show. And the movable, the par five that changed our four each day.

Like that was, I kind of think the Chambers Bay, we ought to do like a whole deep dive just on Chambers Bay. For sure. I said, I, one of my rare, I think takes that I got right at the time, which like, listen, the greens, very, very bad. Everything else about this fucking rules. Like this is, this is awesome, man. This is the kind of golf I like to watch. It was very tough spectator routing. I remember, cause like basically spectators can only be on like the outside of the property, which that was like meant you couldn't really get close to any of the golf. But it was, I don't know, it was kind of one of the,

I remember that one hurting from a Rory perspective pretty badly, but I think the Spieth run was just making the pill much easier to swallow there. That was pretty damn fun. All right guys, so of course the next major is at St. Andrews. It's the first time we've been back to the old course in five years. The biggest what if in the history of golf here.

Yes. Right? Rory, of course, has tied the course record at St. Andrews the previous time there. It infamously went 63.80 in those two rounds and catching a bad side of the draw. So everyone thinks like, Oh my goodness, like Rory is absolutely going to go like reestablish like, yo he's, he's the true links master, right? Like St.

Andrews only comes along every once in a while. Uh, of course what happens in the lead up to the St. Andrews open, Rory announces on Instagram that he has ruptured a ligament in his left ankle playing soccer with his friends football sorry with football with his friends with the boys and will have to miss the championship. I thought I broke it Roy says later when he talks to media because as soon as I went over I heard a snap. He is disappointed but he vows to keep playing football. Anytime I go

back home one of those things that I regularly do with my friends is play football. It was like the fourth or fifth time in a 10 day period where I played football. I enjoy it. We all enjoy it. It's just unfortunate that it happened. Much to TC's chagrin, Zach Johnson wins the open in a playoff against Louis Ustazen and Mark Leishman. Guys, any thoughts remembering this how it played out? I mean, Spief was what I remember. Solly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that was the week that you and I met. Big couple months for my social circles there. Roy really brought us all together. That's another reason to do this.

I think, other than if Spieth would have won and had the first three legs of the Grand Slam, obviously I would have a little different tone. But yeah, just throw this one out completely. This is like the Hail American Open when everyone's over it. Play the war, you know, fight World War Two. Like this, you know, this doesn't count. Rory would have won this by eight, at least. I kind of I definitely agree with that. I mean, it was only 1500 part of those guys read another some wind in there. But this was like, I mean, yeah, he would have blown the doors off

this one. I really do think so. And it again, why you just missed like a major championship because you were playing football and you still you say you're going to keep doing this. Didn't he later say he's wasn't going to do it anymore? I feel like I think yes, that is one of the like, a lot of things in Roy's life is that he later changed his mind. That's probably shouldn't be playing football in the lead up to but remember, look, he's 26 at this point. He's totally invincible. Like he's got time. He's got 20 years of competitive golf. So there's no chance he's gonna not win a major for 10 years. The PGA championship Roy does return is the first time he's returned. He's been kind of hiding out in Portugal for

seven weeks getting to get ready back his ankle ready, but he doesn't really quite have his a game opens 71 71 Before two good rounds over the weekend allow him to finish t17 Jason day out duels Jordan Spieth for his first major title He says I think it's already a lost year where he's later at the tour championship because I didn't win a major Summing things up One of my biggest memories of this is I was kinda tailing him at this point for the profile that I was writing. I heard him and Brooks talking on like, you know,

one of the, I wanna say it's like one of the T's that's out by the water there at NWISL experience. They were talking about Tiger and Brooks was like, why wouldn't he play? Like they were talking about the wind up because Tiger was thinking about it under the window. Why wouldn't he play in the final year? Like, well, you maybe get a win,

maybe you like change your whole year around, and Rory was like, yeah. But you gotta understand, his life's changing, he's a dad now, he's gotta spend time with his family. And I was like, man, deep down, Rory is talking about himself. He is realizing that he's starting to understand what Tiger was wrestling with later in his career,

is that you can't just be like an absolute alpha killer in some ways. You got to balance things with family life and whatever. And so I thought that was kind of an interesting window into that sort of how he was kind of wrestling with some of those themes in his life. Well, remember like too, I mean, Old Course was setting up great for him. He was a shot out of the playoff in 2010 at Whistlin Straits. Like this was, you know, you don't get to come back to venues

that freak, you know, that short a time period that you've had success at that often in major championships. Like that was also another really good shot for him. But of course we're going back to the masters in 2016, right? There's no way that like this is he's got to win the career grand slam. Like, come on guys, like this, this is a sure thing. This is only a second attempt. Uh, but he decides in this lead up to 2016 to steer clear of Augusta prior to the

tournament. Just doesn't even visit it in the spring or in the week ahead. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to tally these up. So 20, like how many steer clears and how many I'm going to go in advance. There are, I don't know if you have all of that, but, uh, I think we do. Okay. I think the theme and the research. I have one steer clear here for 2016. You know, we did in 2015. Was it, do you remember? I do not know what he did in 2015. Okay. We're kind of going forward. Okay. Yeah. All right. Oh, we might have to go back for that just to make sure at the end. Sorry, real quick, go into the masters because this would be a theme. Soly, maybe this is for you, but like, can you drill down on just like why

the Masters became the big gigantic circled thing that it other than the career grand slam? Can you illustrate for me why it became so obvious that he was going to win the Masters? Because I look at a guy like Scotty and I'm like, okay, like knowing what we know about golf now and the modern game, like that makes a lot more sense to me than necessarily Rory. I mean, I think it was like his driver just being a weapon, but it's like, it's kind of the whole thing is like, you don't have to drive it that good at Augusta, you just kind of got to drive it pretty far. His iron play was was really good, but it

wasn't ever like generational. play was really good, but it wasn't ever generational. His putting was solid, but it wasn't ever generational. So I guess what I'm getting at is, did we almost mess that one up with expectations? And is he as good of a fit for Augusta as everybody thought he was then? It's a great question. I think, honestly, it goes back to him taking a four shot lead into the final

round in 2011 at age 21. And like the previous guy that did that went on to win now five green jackets by the time this was all done, but it was four at this time. And it was just speed for a second. We're not there yet, but I had done that and it just was like, oh yeah, he had a bad Sunday, like he, but he's tailor made for a second. We're not there yet. But I had done that. And it just was like, oh, yeah, he had a bad Sunday. Like he buddy is tailor made for this course. Like, and people just said that on repeat. And I think we were kind of force fed into believing that I mean, that

was, I was probably more impressionable there than I was reaching my own conclusions in the early 2010s. But like, it so you did that, I had the terrible and then went, blew the doors off congressional. It was like, yeah, dude, this guy's gonna be an absolute force in these major championships. He hits it high, hits it far. Which just like couldn't be more different golf courses. Total. Those two.

Like congressional at that time especially. And I just, I was thinking about that the other day. I'm like, man, why did everybody get so obsessed with this idea that it would be like a joke if he doesn't win here? I'm like, is it literally just because like he hits a high draw off the tee? It was like, I think that's kind of an antiquated way to look at it too. Well, I think it was everyone thought too, like, oh, he just had one bad round in 2011, right? Like he's, he's so at ease here. Like he just is tailor-made for this place. Like

he just is obviously he's meant to win a masters. And, and like the masters just doesn't quite work like that. Like it haunts some people for a long fucking time. And I think it's a place too, where there's like a lot of horses for, like all the greats have been really good there. Like Nicholas made that place as bitch. Like Mickelson just like abused that place. Tiger, obviously like the same people like contended

and it kind of the same characteristics of, I don't know, hitting it high, can shape it, of the same characteristics of I don't know hitting it high can shape it all that stuff but I don't know man there was something about like I remember feeling this honestly in 2014 when he won at Hoylake that feeling of like oh shit like forever now it's gonna for as long as it takes him to win one he's gonna have to like do the eight month nine month wait you, between majors and show up at Augusta with like that being the lead storyline. Like there's no avoiding this now. Like the spotlight is on, this is the only one you need.

It was almost easier before he won the Open Championship. Yeah. When you have to complete the slam by winning the Masters, it's fucking brutal. Like it's just so different. Nobody ever writes about Jordan Spieth just has to win the PGA championship to complete the grand slam It's just like that's not even a story going into every PGA

But it is never ever not the lead thing that Rory gets asked in any of this stuff as he comes into every Masters Yeah Anyway to 2016 first approach at doing things a little differently. I'm pretty for sure. I remember in 2015 He came early played a ton Super prep and just kind of got it like a little bit overhyped and ran into the speed buzzsaw But in 2016 says I made the decision not to come up early this time The course changed torch doesn't change year to year unless there is a couple of subtle things that have to do with some of the green Complexes, but the course we saw last year is pretty much the same as the courses we're seeing

this year. I really feel like I play my best golf when I'm more relaxed and when I'm having fun out there and not overdoing it and not overthinking it. Unlike 2015, Rory is in contention going into the weekend. It opens with 70-71, but of course scoring is kind of down that year, so it's good for solo second trailing Jordan Spieth by one stroke. The hype going into Saturday, it was a pairing between McElroy and Spieth is considerable. This feels like the beginning of a true rivalry, but McElroy

is sort of flummoxed by high winds and tough conditions on Saturday shooting 77. He fails to make a birdie. The first time that has happened in 81 rounds that he's played in a major. Jordan Spieth was sometimes 30 and 40 yards behind Rory on this Saturday, but shoots 73 despite sort of that thing. And Rory, infamously, in one of our favorite things, tells Soxomedia afterwards and he had said, I turned around after 15 and I looked at, I've looked at my caddy and then at Jordan and said, how the hell is he too under par today? But it's his most impressive asset as much as it could be annoying to some

of his competitors. It's very, very impressive. And of course, Jordan Smith wins the master's that year, second year, oh no, wait, sorry, Jordan collapses on Sunday. Will it comes from behind? Roy shoots 71 on Sunday. Willett comes from behind. Roy shoots 71 on Sunday and ends up six shots behind Willett in victory. To your question, DJ, I went and looked this up. And to my knowledge, I think this

is accounting for all Augusta performances and not just the five years. But it's a little confusing when you go to data golf course history tool. So like the top players at Augusta on their true strokes gained for their careers. And look at how this kind of arcs is like, older guys get punished the longer you play in it, because you know you're going to get hurt on this. But obviously, Scottie is number one, plus 3.3. Jordan's still second at plus 2.6. Ram is plus 2.5. Morikawa plus 2.36. Phil plus 2.2.

Tiger plus 2.1. Rose 2.05. Cam Smith plus 1.99. Rory plus 1.96. And Rory is the only guy in the top 20 of guys that are based on their true strokes gained at Augusta, that is performing under what he's expected to perform there.

Everybody else is like a better course fit for Augusta or performs above their normal expectation as a player, except for Rory is minus 0.02, like it's tiny, but everybody else has green bars and he's the only one that does not. Man. Sick. I mean, all that to say is like, he's not only one that does not. Man. Sick. I mean, all that to say is like,

he's not a massive course fit. Like it's very normal course for him, but it's not like, it is not proven over a large set of data to be a big course fit for him. And in a way, like not to jump on the end here, but it's like going to, looking at him at Pinehurst and even LACC in spots is like, man, that's more like the golf you would have needed to play at Augusta during these

years to go win there. Right? Like he's, he does seem like he's gotten more precise with his irons at these types of tournaments. It's gotten more patient. He's he's a different player than he almost was at these majors that we're going to go through and recount. The 2024 golf season coming to a close. It's time to take a moment and celebrate your 2024 season with GenRewind brought to you by Century Insurance. GenRewind has evolved from, you know, the single page image to now a multislide

interactive experience, the new format lets golfers dive deeper into their season with a richer, more engaging presentation of their data. It shows you your handicap index changes throughout the year, your best year, and your not so good rounds along the way, the easiest and hardest courses you played, total number of rounds you played, where you played the most. The Gen Rewind is presented by Century Insurance

is now live in the USGA Gen app. Update your app to see your full 2024 recap and relive the moments that defined your success. You can also easily share your GenRewind with friends or on social media. You can compare highlights who had the better year on the course. If you don't already have a handicap index,

now is the perfect time to sign up and download the USGA Gen app presented by Sentry Insurance. You can post your scores, track your handicap index, and unlock personal golf insights like GenRewind. Sign up for a handicap index today at usga.org slash get a handicap and download the USGA Jin app to prepare for an amazing 2025 season. We're also going to be doing a deep dive into our Jin Rewinds on the December 22nd

episode of the No Laying Up podcast. You can find that wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll also be sharing our Jin Rewind highlights on our social media channels, mostly on the No Laying Up Instagram. And we'll be discussing the feature in depth next week. Thanks to our friends at the USGA and Century Insurance. Now back to the pod. As we will see here, this year's US Open is at Oakmont Country Club. He enters as one of the pre-tournament favorites, having won the Irish Open that year and finished fourth at the Memorial the week prior. But unfortunately Roy shoots 77

in the opening round. Trying to play conservatively off the tee He misses several fairways with long irons. Oh, I know that game It's his worst round at the US Open since 2012 and it leads to his first missed cut in a major in three years However, he does get involved in the championship from his couch When the USGA informs Dustin Johnson that he might be penalized after his round for causing his ball to move on 12th green. McElroy leads an avalanche of criticism on Twitter, firing off several barbs at the USGA. The first one is, this is ridiculous.

No penalty whatsoever for DJ. Let the guy play without this crap in his head. Amateur hour from at the USGA. I've always loved that he was tagging the USGA. This isn't right for anyone on that golf course. He says in another tweet, if it was me, I wouldn't hit another shot until this farce was rectified. Then when Dustin Johnson hits his approach on the 18th hole to a few feet, rendering any

potential penalty irrelevant McElroy lets one final tweet flop take that, that usg. I love that, which going back to last year on this, I kind of maybe had forgotten about that Rory quote of thank God I have one of these. That's not what we're looking for. That's not the mindset we're looking for for us opens that that's, you know, marrying that up with what happened at Pinehurst this past year of like, man, if your attitude in 2015 was like, well, I don't know if I can win another one of these was that's, that's tough. The open championship there is that this year is at Royal trune 2016. The interesting prep

here racked McElroy confesses he's never played Royal trune prior to this week, but he doesn't see it as a big disadvantage. Despite making an eight on the postage stamp in a practice round, he's just happy to be playing in the open again, having missed it the year prior asked if he thinks that Spieth Jason Day and Dustin Johnson and himself are the games big for McElroy points out how far those three have to go to accomplish what he already has. So echoing what he will say later, I've got four major championships and I'd love to add to that tally just as those guys would love to add to their one or two majors they have just

keep going. As we remember, I do not remember this but Ray actually finishes fifth in this open championship but never even comes close to contending because Sensen and Nicholson just pull away from the field. Sensen wins by three strokes, an astonishing 14 shots better than third place finisher J.B. Holmes. So Rory's well back of this one. But that's okay because we've got another great track coming up. Another long kind of Bomber's Paradise.

Baltasaral, the Sral, the final major of the year. In his pre-tour tournament press conference at Baltimore. A Rory is asked to assess his year so far. He says, as for a grade, I'd say a B minus maybe I could change that into an a plus on Sunday. There's a lot of golf left last major of the year, and I want to give it my all and get in the mix and try to win another one of these things before I have to wait another eight months to try to get another opportunity at Augusta this year.

This one, this one's maybe the, maybe the worst luck since they simulated this whole major, it seems like Rory would have won. Right. You think a green screen would have been way better. Like the, like, you know, whoever, you know, one of those weird NBA lottery years. It's like, how did, I don't know who was the, who's run the PGA of America this year, but they really got this simulation wrong.

Uh, and it's opening Rory shoots a miserable 74, failing again to make up any birdies, but he follows it up with a 69, yet he still misses the cut. His putting woes are becoming a reoccurring issue. I'm happy with my game from tee to green, and I'm driving the ball as well as I ever have. It's when I get on the greens that it's a different story.

I'm struggling. Yeah, it's a different story. I'm struggling. Yeah, it's it's it's hard, he says. And 2017 rolls around. This is his third attempt at winning the career Grand Slam in 2017. He's going to the Masters Roy reveals that he has changed his approach, so I get your pen out and mark this

one down in the two weeks prior to the tournament he came to an August, he came to Augusta national and played 99 holes of prep. I think it's been a relatively quiet buildup to the masters for me, which has been quite nice where he says it's made a bit of a change from the last couple of years, especially 15 coming off the back of two major wins in a row, going for the career grand slam. I've realized that the more comfortable I can get

with this golf course and the club as a whole, the more comfortable in the environment and surroundings the better. He also suggests that he's more comfortable in his own skin now than he has ever been. When you're in your 20s, I feel like you're still searching for who you are, Rory says.

Everyone goes through that awkward stage in their lives. Not that they're lost, but what's important to you and what's not important to you. You figure out some of those things that are important to you and are important to others and vice versa. So you can't please everyone. I think the more comfortable I'm in on my own skin and my own convictions, and that's when I realized I just have to live my life the way I do. Some people will like that and some people won't. Those people are the ones that really matter to me. You know, the ones that do, they support me 100% and that is great. Anyone remember how things go in this Masters? 2017, this is Sergio's year. I'm guessing it doesn't go great.

Yeah, all kind of bleed together. He doesn't win. Yeah, I know that. Oh, that's correct. Good, good guess. Another slow start, Dooms Roy's success. He starts out 72, 73, 71 doesn't break 70 until Sunday, shoot 69, but finishes six shots behind Sergio and Justin Rose, who ended up in a playoff afterwards. Rory is asked about his impending marriage to Erica stall who he met while she was working for the PGA of America. I'm excited. He says, it's a great time in my life.

It would have been nice to walk down the aisle in a green jacket. Oh, what a hard quote. Onto the US Open, which is at DJ's home club, Aaron Hills this year. That's right. He enters the US Open nursing a rib injury that has been bugging him throughout the year,

but he doesn't believe it will stop him from contending. Ask what he thinks about the fact that the USGA is cutting down some of the fescue at Aaron Hills in response to player criticism. McElroy scoffs. We have 60 yards from left to right off the, from the left line to the right line, he says. You got 156 of the best players in the world here. And if you can't hit it within that avenue, you might as well pack your bags and go home. These are the widest fairways we've ever played in the US Open. And then he packed his bags. He shoots 78 in the opening round, calls it up with a 71

and misses the cut. Careful what you say about Aaron Hills here since our NLU club championship is about to drop and everyone's going to get to watch you guys go play this golf course. It's probably already out as of the time of the publish of this episode. I am decidedly not one of the 156 best players in the world. So if you see- Kev's bitching about the rough. Why does he put this shit down?

It was outrageous. I was dropping water bottles. Remember, I think Kevin Na was dropping water bottles, watching him disappear into that. Brooks Kepka, a player who will eventually pass McElroy in total major victories, spoiler, wins his first major championship. God, he was so good that week.

Just watching him just completely suffocate that field was, that was core memory. Yeah, also in contention that week, Ricky Fowler and Justin Thomas, Brian Harmon names that are still sticking around. Not a lot of names are always still popping up on this like Rory, but a few here and there. On to Royal Berkdeal for the Open Championship this year. He is no longer considered one

of the favorites. How did Rory not play good at Ayrton Hills, man? That is how we shoot in 78 out there. The only way you shoot 78 is if you drive it horrible out there, right? I remember him hitting like, I walked the round because he was paired with, it was like a super pairing of like Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy and they all three missed the cut and they were just like completely, and it wasn't even a win that week which is crazy. They were just completely lost, just like firing like long irons into the fescue.

Oh man. We can maybe talk about this on another pod, but the Roy's Roy's trophy case with the associated golf courses on them is would not make it a good tourist season You know, there's like every time we get to the Chambers Bay the Aaron Hills. It's like Kind of kind of vacates himself a little bit, which is a bummer. I don't know What would be like the most creative golf course he's won on. I mean Hoylake's not like the most straightforward golf course. I know it was soft a little. It was green that week, but probably his best. Yeah. Irish opens ever at any one of the good courses? He didn't win when it was so. I think he won K club in 2016.

He didn't win when it was so key one K club in 2016. Um, CJ, yeah. Bridge bridge stone. Even saying guys, it's not good. Dove mountain match play. I think in 2015, quail hollow. Kia. Kia. They hill.

I'd say sawgrass, sawgrass. Yeah. Bay Hill. I'd say Sawgrass. Well, Dej may have unveiled something that we didn't really possibly consider. Anyways, Renaissance, DPC Louisiana, Coel Hollow again. Not sure if you guys remember this, but prior to the Open Championship at Berkdale, Roy was kind of in a stink session here. He'd missed the cut at both the Irish Open and the Scottish Open. Pre-tournament odds listed him as 20 to 1. If I saw my form the last couple of weeks, I'd say that's a pretty fair price, Rory says, but all it takes is one good week.

It's a good time to back me, I think. He's recently gotten married prior to this one. Also, this was the summer I was following the, I went to the Irish Open, Scottish Open and the Open Championship and Rory kept missing the cut. You're the cooler, not me. I went to all of those. It was wild.

A newly married McElroy says a win is not gonna change his life. I wanna win this week, but I don't need to win. A second Open Championship isn't gonna change my life, but I wanna win. It looks like Rory is DOA as he plays the first five holes and five over, but walking off to the sixth hole, caddy JP Fitzgerald unloads on him for the first time in their relationship, lashing out at what he sees as Rory's indifference. You're Rory McIlroy, what the fuck are you doing? Fitzgerald says.

The pep talk lights a fire in Rory and he proceeds to birdie four holes on the back nine clawing his way back into the championship. Sunday he posted within four of Jordan's beat at one point but he can't climb quite climb into contention he finishes t four shooting 6967 over the weekend. This was things go ahead being there that week was like that that hammered home to me and maybe this is obvious or should have been obvious to me, like how popular he was in Europe, like how, like the, what not like the fans, not just cheering him

on, but like the, like urging him on like very passionately, like, oh, come on. When he was making runs, like I, that is, that is something that stands out. Like I was trying to fall. I remember trying to follow him around the 10th hole, a dog leg left and like just not being able to find a spot and the actual real buzz on the ground for fun. Even on not his best week was like, Oh shit man. Rory's or is a big deal over here. We didn't have ropes passes back then. So I know we were on media outsiders at that point. So afterwards he started talking with the press. He says these things happen happen. Rory says, you look at Jack Nicklaus and he

went through a stretch where he didn't win a major for three years. Not comparing myself to Jack. It's hard to win them. It's very hard. It's the reason, especially this generation, excluding Tiger, no one's got five. So it's tough. Yeah, but you have a 20 to 30 year window where you can win them. I got off to a great start of my career. But as I've said, I've still got 15 to 20 more years to add to that tally. But look, yeah, I feel like the last three years has been too long. At the same time, I'm not going to rush it. I'm not going to stay, I'm not

going to be impatient. I'm just going to play my game and hopefully my chance arrives at some point and I'm able to take it. Of course, now we're going to Quell Hollow, right? Because we're just going to dominate Quell Hollow. I'm sorry. Like just, it's going to happen. This is a place where it's always been like a home away from home from him. First score victory. Yeah. We shot what? 61 there to sort of- 62 I think. Yeah. 62 to get that. Surprisingly, Rory shows up at Quell Hollow though without his regular

caddy. He says he and Fitzgerald will not be working together anymore. It's been on my mind for a while, Rory says. I don't know. It's one of those things. I guess I was trying to accomplish more of a clutter free mindset on the golf course, trying to take a little bit more responsibility. I feel like if I make a decision that's mine and I own it, and even if it's good or bad, I can accept that myself. And I alluded to it last week as well, it's getting very hard. I was getting very hard on JP, probably harder than I should have been. But it was more, I just wanted to, didn't want to have that frustration on the golf

course. So that's really what I'm trying to accomplish. McElroy's childhood friend, Harry Diamond, is working for him on what he says essentially will be a temporary basis. BJ Championship, Quail Hollow will be their first major together. He's still thinking about who might caddy for him full time going forward. We've been inundated with people who wanting to have a chance on the bag, McElroy says.

I can't really think about that until next week, until I have a week off. And then I can just reassess how these couple of weeks have went with Harry on the bag. Question for you guys. If Rory called either of you and was like, hey, I want you to caddy full time for me next year, would you drop what you're doing and do that? Yeah.

Yeah. Me, Jake, what that mean? Child, it was a bit of a step to come to that. I thought you were stating in 2017. Oh, yeah, like right now. No, no, as of right now, he would call you and just be like, next year I want you on my bag full time. That would be tough. I think I would do it. Yeah, I would, you know, be like, next year I want you on my bag full time. That would be tough.

I think I would do it. Yeah, I would, you know, I'd have weekly check-ins on the NLU podcast with how things are going. Well guys, we flew a wedge long again. Trying to get him to hit a sawed off one. Make for a heck of a blog, you know? It would be. It'd be a great book.

Yeah, exactly. If you're listening, if you want me to do a stint, we can work out a price lower than Harry's. Despite a tremendous, uh, track record of success at Quail Hollow, McElroy doesn't break par for the first three rounds. A 69 on Sunday helps him finish in 22nd place, but another year has come and gone without winning a major. It's tough. He says, I want to get back in the winter circle. Uh, you don't want to be teeing off at 9 45 on the final rounds of a major. It's tough, he says. I want to get back in the winner's circle.

You don't want to be teeing off at 9.45 on the final rounds of a major on Sunday. That's not where you want to be. Justin Thomas wins his first major out dueling Hideki Matsuyama and Louis Ustazen. And he gives Sully a high five on his way to the, you were there. I didn't even remember that he said this, but we're talking about going into the season and he was like boldly, he's like, I'm definitely going to win at least one major this year and took all the way to the very end. But he is walking to go get the trophy and he sees me standing over there. And again, I don't remember that he said this, but he just gives me a DAP.

He was told he was going to fucking win a major this year. And little did I know it was on CBS and the cameras caught the whole thing. And that was very funny that he was thinking of that at that moment, going to go collect this trophy. All right, guys, 2018. We're back at the Masters. This is the year. This is how to be the year.

What are we doing? Rory wins the Arnold Palmer invitation in the buildup to the Masters, his first win since 2016. He didn't, he went all of 17 without like a PGA Tour victory. Crazy facts and putting year. Yes. Where he just made like literally everything. Yes. He says he feels good about his game. It feels like he's finally getting comfortable with Augusta and admits that in 2015, he let the hype of the career of Gland Slam get in his head. I'm an avid fan of the history of the game and I know when here and what that would mean

and what it would put me in history alongside some of the greatest who have ever played this game and that would mean an awful lot to me. But I have to try to clear my head and come out Thursday morning and go out and play good golf, hit good golf shots, have to have good course management and hole putts. For the first time in several years, Rory gets off to a very good start at Augusta, shooting a first round 69. Do you remember what his approach was? Did he come early or? Did not list that. I'm sorry. If I'd have known we were going to approach I would have got better.

He follows it up with a 71 on Friday but shoots a 65 on Saturday, his best round at Augusta since 2011. And it gets him into the final pairing with P. He trails by three, but he knows this is his best chance to win a major since 2014. This sucked. This day sucked, man. Opening tee shot was one of the, I mean, just like first pitch, a home run for the office. Three run Homer on the first pitch. Somehow on the first.

Well, not quite. If you remember, Rory hit his tee shot out on Washington road, but he made a par and Patrick Reed made a bogey on the first hole. It feels now like Rory like blew the whole thing by wiping it way right. But he has a putt. Okay, I'll get to that in a sec. Patrick is going for his first, Rory says, and I'm going for something else.

It's gonna be good fun. Despite considerable crowd support, McElroy insists that he is the underdog going into Sunday. I feel like all the pressure is on him, Rory says. He's gotta go out and protect that, and he's got a few guys chasing him that are some pretty big-time players he's got to deal with it and sleep on it tonight i feel like i can go out there and play like i've got nothing to lose if i can do that i feel like i'll be okay personally unfortunately for one of

us not play i wouldn't get i don't want to be around sorry first of all he does not play like he has nothing to lose on sunday uh even though reed bo the first hole and McElroy birdies the second hole, missed eagle putt on number two seems to let all the air out of Farrar. He hits only eight greens on the day. Only four players in the field. The entire field shoot a worse score than his 74. It wasn't as if nerves got to me, McElroy said. I just didn't quite have it.

Patrick Reed wins his first major holding off Ricky Fowler and Jordan Speith who shot him. One of the greatest rounds in the championship. Who basically won that match. Yeah. God, that day. That part was sick of that day, Dej, that run on the back nine. Yeah. I don't know. It felt like the whole, it felt like it was doomed by that point. The missed Eagle putt was like, I feel like that was the first real like, ah, this, this guy, man, come on. You know, I think I had been making excuses for all the other ones leading up to that one. I think that was the first time I was like, all right, this, this might not be it. Yeah. It was the first time I like the true disappointment of like, oh man, like

this is going to happen. Like I know this is going to get all the things I want in life. US Open's going to Shinnecock seems like, hey, this would be a good venue for him. You know, like kind of a great as we were saying, maybe just doesn't. Yeah, horrible venue. Great golfers. Yeah, doesn't go well at all. Right from the start plays his worst round at a

major since, uh, the Augusta collapse in 2018 or 2011. He shoots an 80 that includes seven bogeys and three double bogeys. Um, second round 70 is sort of serviceable, but not enough to make the cut sending him home. I felt like my game was good coming in here. Macklemore said, I just think I was blown away by the wind yesterday. That was the theme thing. I mean, I haven't played in a wind like that for quite a long time. It is his third

straight miss cut at the US Open. She's this is where it's starting to be like, all right, man, like, does are we saying like the course and conditions have to be like perfect for you to like just even be around like that? I love that. Like, that's not a great sign. for you to just even be around. I don't love that. That's not a great sign. You gotta create opportunities here. I will say three straight cuts missing U.S. Open

forced him to sort of change his approach and mentality. Gets to be a much better U.S. Open player in the future and I think that's sort of the impetus of it is these three straight missed cuts. Going into Shinnecock just getting the doors blown off that was finally like a wake up call. But we're going to Carnoustie. Carnoustie marks four years since Roy last won a major and the press is starting to wonder if his pressure is getting to him. Does he need another major to cement his legacy? At this point,

I'm not trying to submit any- All the boys are talking about that out of the park. I'm impressed from what we've been saying. you might be a fraud if you don't win another rager. At this point, I'm not trying to cement anything. McElroy says, obviously I've had a decent career up to this point and I've got a lot of time to add to my major tally or just tournaments or whatever. It's hard to win any week on tour, let alone the big four every year. Look, I had a nice

run there from 2011 and 2014 and I haven't won one since but I'm trying. I'm trying my best every time I tee it up. It just hasn't happened. You know, I'll give it a good go this week. Ackroyd climbs into contention opening with two straight rounds of 69. A star studded leaderboard has everyone a buzz though, particularly with Tiger Woods back in contention for the first time in several years. Tiger even leads at one point on Sunday before fading a bit. In the final round, Rory Eagles the 14th hole to tie for the lead.

What a good golfer. His best chance to win a major since 2014 is staring at him right in the face. But he can't muster any more birdies down the stretch. And Francisco Molinari wins by two strokes. Rory finishes T2. Right there for the taking. Francisco Mulanari wins by two strokes. Rory finishes T2. It's right there for the taking. Tigers double on 11 was more painful than Rory not winning this because he got into the lead. But Francesca was just, he was a boss that day.

He was efficient. I have no regrets, Rory said. I played the way I wanted to play this week. It gives me a lot of encouragement going into the final major of the year. I just ran out of holes. Well, surely he's going to play great at Belle Reve, right? Belle Reve needs our period, dude. Shitty course. Got to hit driver every single hole. I'm going to come out and maybe call this one of the most forgettable majors of this entire run. But we'll

get there in a sec. With a chance to hit driver on most of the holes, Bell-Reeves looks like she'd be perfect setup for Rory's game. In a pre-tournament press conference, he once again asked if winning majors is testing his patience. Yes and no, Rory says. I mean, even from 2014, I've given myself some half chances at majors. I think my best chance at Valhalla was the open at Carnoustie, but in golf, you just have to be an eternal optimist. You have to make the most of everything and you have and see the positives and move on and forget about it. And that's what I've tried to do this year in the times where I haven't won and haven't played my best. I try to learn from it and move on.

There's no point in reflecting too much or dwelling on it. Despite the optimism, Rory never hits anything going, opening with a 76 shots back of first round leader Gary Woodland. Gets stuck in neutral on the weekend, going plus one, and it's one of his most forgettable majors. He finishes T 50th, 14 shots worse than Brooks Koepka. Before he leaves St. Louis, McElroy gets asked, how will he remember this major season? I probably won't, McElroy

said. I mean, I don't think there was anything memorable about it. Oh, excellent. But okay, it's fine. It's like 2019 is coming around, right? Like 2019 Masters. There's a global pandemic going on to take our minds off this. Okay, that's a long year. We'll get there. So he enters the 2019 Masters, a strong favorite based on some of his best form in years. In eight starts, he's finished in the top 10 seven times and he won the players in the build up to Augusta. In terms of true strokes gained he's actually playing better in this year than he was in 2014. 538 getting into

the sports writing game describes this year as the Bist Masters as McElroy's to lose because of the sort of data projection. McElroy's ever quick to emphasize that he's not going to be defined by his golf. I think the big thing is I'm not my score. I am not my results he says. We're sort of repeating kind of therapy mantras here. Some of the kind of mental approach repeats he's been dabbling in meditation over the last year. I guess He says, we're starting to sort of repeating kind of therapy mantras here, some of the kind of mental approach. Rupici has been dabbling in meditation over the last year. I guess I've dabbled in over the years,

and I needed it from time to time, Rory says. But I've never fully immersed myself in it. It's searching until you find what resonates with you. Maybe what resonates with me isn't going to resonate with somebody else, but I've found what I feel is the best path forward, and I've committed to it. You know, it's still so early in the process, so very early stages, but I just feel for me to

live a healthier life, not just my career, but away from the golf course as well. I needed some perspective and I needed to separate those two sort of lives that I have, you know, maybe, maybe. I write this down, mental approach, meditation, you know, it's, it's not arriving early. It's not playing nine holes, but you know, we're meditating. Back when it makes five birdies in his opening round, but also six bogeys. 73 that essentially puts him in chase mode for the rest of the tournament. Finishes T 21, nothing but a footnote in one of history's most memorable majors as Tiger Woods

wins his fifth green jacket. The press kind of needles right says like, yeah, you know, you bummed. He says, it seems like you guys are more disappointed than I am. I'm good. How much fucking money I've got guys. Guys, I'm fucking good. You know how fucking easy this is, Ray?

This kind of changes. I remember this approach distinctly as well. Just like, oh, I mean, my life's so good off the golf course. Like we're fine. And you can kind of see him, him trying on a bunch of different, a bunch of different personalities here. I feel like, which this kind of, you know, this is kind of feels like the Scotty approach, except for he keeps winning too, you know, but like, I feel like if Scotty didn't win, he'd be like, ah, yeah,

that sucked. I really wanted to win, but like, what are you going to do? But I believe Scotty and I don't believe Rory at all. He wants it so fucking bad. He's trying to convince himself. And I was thinking about, uh, I think it's like, what are you going to do? But I believe Scotty and I don't believe Rory at all. He wants it so fucking bad. He's trying to convince himself. And I was thinking about, uh, it's funny when you were going back talking, I forget where that was at the open, maybe at the masters, when he was talking about like career grand slam and you know, I'm a big student of history and I know what this

would mean for my legacy. Like, do you think Scotty's ever sitting around just like, Oh, damn mayor. Like, I think this is really huge for, could be huge for the way I'm perceived in the history of the game. I just don't, I don't see that. Mayor. I don't, I don't see that happen. Which is just a really funny difference to me. Damn Mayor.

Damn Mayor. Like they're gonna be talking about how I'm not one of the greats. Okay. Oh damn, Merrick. Like they're going to be talking about how I'm not one of the greats. Okay. I think we're now on like, oh Merrick, what do you think? Beckett, can you believe what they're saying about me? I can't find him anywhere. What's James Corrigan going to write about this week, Mayor? Come on. Okay. We're on to the PGA, which is at Bethpage. McRoy says he's a big fan of the PGA Championship

moving to May, and he likes Bethpage Black as a golf course. He suspects it might even benefit his major chase. I have a pretty good record in May, he says. Rory's recently turned 30, which he's still trying to wrap his head around. I definitely don't feel 30. I mean, even just at the start of this press conference, this is my 11th PGA championship,

and I'm like, where did the time go? I don't know if you remember this, but Rory finishes T8, but it's really not that memorable. After two rounds, he trails Brooks Koepka by 15 shots. Brooks stumbles a bit down the stretch, but holds on for his fourth major title, tying Rory's career. Afterwards, Rory's asked about it.

Quickly. He says, I don't understand why he doesn't do it more often, Rory says. That's my thing. He obviously gets into this mindset of the majors, and he just really goes into a different sort of state. But that's what he's capable of, obviously, and it's awesome. On to the US Open at Pebble Beach.

Right before, Rory wins the Canadian Open, firing a sizzling 61 in the final round. But most of his focus is still on his major championship drought. The press wants to know, a lot of questions from the press. Hey man, like what would he mean to win a major? Can you imagine?

Yeah. Yeah, liberating and satisfying, he says. I mean, there's a lot of different words you could use to describe what it would feel like. Looking back at this honestly, just pause for a second, I get sometimes why fucking being an athlete for sure is so fucking miserable because it's a click. One thing if like one person was asking the question every time right because if I was the only Rory McIlroy like interviewer after everything I probably wouldn't be like, what would it mean to win a major?

Like, hey man, but what would it mean to win a major? Like after every single fucking tournament? But when there's like 50 people at everything, like somebody's gonna ask that question. So you just feel like, oh dog, like just check the transcripts. Like I've said all I need to say. It's not even just the majors too.

It's every tournament they go to. I mean, you go to Pebble Beach, it's like, hey, such and such from the San Francisco Observer. I mean, what would it mean to win in a city like San Francisco? And then you go to Colonial and the guy from the whatever. What's the Dallas Morning News? You have Star Ledger. Yeah.

I mean, it's sort of history in Dallas. What would it mean to you to win here in Dallas? One of my favorite moments, Dej, that I can remember in a press conference is when the guy who asks like every week, like, can Hideki win a major? And he starts asking the question to Jordan Spieth, one of the majors. I can't remember. And Spieth is trying so hard not to laugh. Like he just knows the buildup is like, hey, Hideki is like, he's been he's been really improving his game like he's working hard and he's Jordan's like

just trying everything he can he's got that like smile on his face at the end of his like Ken Hideki with a major Jordan gave like a really polite answer was like that question gets asked got asked so much so often that the guys are just like waiting like I hope I hope I get the Hideki question it's so good alright so Roy's asked what would he mean to win a major yeah I mean that the guys are just like waiting. Like I hope I get the Hideki question. It's so good. All right, so Roy's asked, what would he mean to win a major? Yeah, I mean liberating, satisfying.

There's a lot of different ways you could, words you could use to describe what it would feel like. At the US Open Champions reunion last night, which was a lot of fun, I had a chat with Johnny Miller and Johnny said, you look back at the history of major championships, that first round is so important. I said, my first rounds at Augusta Beth Pages here

sort of put me behind the eight ball. It's hard to catch up, especially, you know, major championships are played on the toughest courses. And if you start to chase those really tough courses, it's hard to do that. I think that's what sort of held me back a little bit. So right on cue, Rory opens with a 68, 69. He's only four shots back of Gary Woodland

going into the weekend. Hell yeah. But the air sort of slowly leaks from the balloon over the weekend. 70-72 is good enough for another top 10 finish at a major, but he finishes eight shots behind Woodland, which sort of says it all. Man. On to Royal Port Rush. Arguably the most anticipated major of of Roy's career, considering he grew up in Hollywood a little more than an hour away. He owns the course record, although he did a redo after he did this, having shot 61 as a teenager. On top of that, he is inundated with questions

about the social political impact of the Open returning to Northern Ireland for the first time in 68 years. Just exactly what you want to think about is whether you could reunite Ireland with a golf victory. Dairy player stops apartheid like Rory could do. I mean, if he really wanted to be considered an all time, great.

You have to reunite a country. I think no matter what happens this week, if I win or if someone else wins, having the open back in this country is a massive thing for golf, Rory says. I think as well as it'd be a massive thing for the country. Sport has an unbelievable ability to bring people together. We all know that this country sometimes needs that. The weight of those expectations seems to overwhelm Rory though during his first round.

His first swing at the open, a two iron off the tee, sails left and lands OB, internal OB. Eventually makes an eight. He also makes two double bogeys late in the round and signs for a 79, a disaster of a start. Man, that's up there. If not the most unfun Roy round of the career, that's top three for sure.

I mean, the old course was at 22, it was up there. Obviously, Pinehurst, but that one was up there, obviously Pinehurst. But that one was like really fun until the last 10 minutes until it wasn't. Yeah. This one, this one was just pretty unfun all the way through. I also was thinking about it like this. I think this tournament, this might be the, at least modern era, like this is the tournament I'm most bummed to have not been at. That had to be fucking awesome on the ground there I

do remember thinking I think I even like tweeted this like if you picked Roy to win this week I I questioned whether you know him at all like because like this was the most like yeah dude this ain't happening this is way too many thoughts in your brain and way too many like people put expectations and hopes and dreams on you that you're gonna be the sort of uniting truth of all this place. Uh, I'm pretty truthful with you guys. Rory says, I look, I wasn't nervous on the, or excuse me, I was nervous on the first tee, but not nervous because of that, like all the political stuff. I was nervous because it was an open championship.

I usually get nervous on the first tee anyway, regardless of where it is. So maybe a little more today than other places, but I don't think it was that a A real like grind in my feet on Eddie's couch situation. Like his Friday round at Port Rush though, however unfolds as one of the most emotional rounds of his career. He summoned something special, pouring his heart into every shot

as he tries to make the cut. He shoots 65 and he's in tears as he gets a standing ovation coming up the 18th hole. The last week has been a real sort of Roy Hobbs after he got shot. The last week has been a real sort of eye opener for me. Roy says, sometimes you're so far away and you forget about all the people who are cheering you on back home. And when you come to play in front of them, it definitely hit me like a ton of bricks by today.

It misses the cut by a single shot, but he says his Friday round will go down as one of the best memories of his entire career. Just yeah, get off the bus man. Like you know, you shoot 65 on a Friday but the only time you can't do it is after you shoot 85 million on the opening day, right? It's just like where this maddening process just started. It just starts flip-flopping. It's like, all right, great start, collapsing finish, or collapsing start, incredible finish. Just never, never pieced together for 72 holes.

2020, the global pandemic is raging. With all the majors postponed for several months because of COVID, the first major of the year will be the PGA Championship at Harding Park, same course where Roy won the match play in 2015, be the first major without fans in attendance. Roy says, look, I'm not a public health expert and I won't pretend to be up here. Thanks, Roy, for that.

I guess whatever they say is what's safe to do. I feel like I'm a rule follower and I'll play by the rules. So as long as they tell us it's safe, then it's safe. Does it bother him that he hasn't won a fifth major championship? It doesn't keep me up at night. And I don't think about it every day. But when I play these major championships, it's something that I'm obviously reminded of. Rory says, Yeah, look, I would have liked to win a couple of those

majors in that time. But I feel like I've had a couple of decent chances and I just haven't gotten the job done. Roy doesn't really play poorly in this major, but he kind of just gets left in the dust. He trails Dustin Johnson by nine shots going into Sunday. Colin Moorcow wins his first major out dueling Paul Casey and DJ for the win. Scotty Scheffler, a PGA tour rookie finishes T4. Rory's asked once again to explain why he can't seem to break through in majors. I don't know, he says with a smile on his face. Maybe I'm just not as good as I used to be. Of all the quotes that I've dug up, that was one of the saddest. Which in a way almost feels, I don't know, that almost feels like performance art, tug

and cheek, jab it like Sergio there. Right. Or the whole like, maybe I'm not good enough to win with it. Like I don't think that's what Rory was actually feeling. I think it was just kind of more of a, please stop asking me these questions. Well, I think that's it. Like, you know, fuck you guys. Like, yeah. Why do I have to keep like saying these same things over and over? What a God, maybe I was just starved for, for major championship golf, but what a what a Sunday that was Seriously. Yeah, that was so Matt wolf Yeah one like that three would call and hit is like one of I don't know how that I guess just cuz there's no fans

But like talk about just the three was driver. I was a driver Yeah, just the best like major championship shot that never gets shown on any replays. I feel like I'd never see that one floating around but that was insane. It's a shame there wasn't crowd there for that one because that would have been like iconic. Yeah. All right we're on to Wingfoot. Now of course we've got some changes going on in Roy's life. It's his first major since he became a father. His daughter Poppy was born in August just a few weeks after the PGA Championship. Everyone is good. Thankfully, Roy says, I'm just grateful that everything is good at home allows me to come up here and focus on what

I'm supposed to do. I actually changed my first two diapers. I'm so very proud of that. Yeah, I got my hands dirty. Put it that way. To unlike to Oh, my god. All right. Two types. Come on. Ready? I need you getting your hands dirty in there. If you want the proper perspective, I need you. I was averaging about 11.6 that first month. I think if I check my stats, you should have

learned to hit the driver a little better. So you should do your speed training a little earlier in your life. Maybe you would be in that situation. I don't know if you guys remember this, but unlike recent majors, majors Roy gets off to a strong start shooting his first round 67. No memory of this. Yeah he and JT like out to an incredible start but his championship's hopes disappear the following day when he follows it up with a 76. Okay I actually do remember that. Finishes T8 his his 12th top 10 in a major since 2014, but 12 strokes behind Bryson DeChambeau,

who wins his first major. I think it was hard to remember anything other than the super say he'd resign if anybody shot under par. That was pretty much top of mind. That was pretty all consuming. I feel like 2018 Masters and 2020 US Open are like the active golf worlds, like Homer Simpson retreating into the bushes

thing of like, Hey, let's all back away. Let's just pretend this never happened. Like we're we all agree here. Like we don't agree with what just happened here. Well, unfortunately, Rory does pay close attention to what happens to the champion. As we sort of started to reveal in his final quote here to the media, I don't really know what to say because he's just the complete opposite of what you think an US Open champion does when asked about DeChambeau hitting only four of his last 21 fairways. Look, he's found a way to do it. Whether that's good or bad for the game, I don't know, but it's not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played. It's kind of really hard to wrap my head around it.

However, we're going to the Masters, a Fall Masters here, all right? Because of the Masters, it'll serve as the final major. So we're gonna get two majors right and back to back. This is his chance. This is his chance. This is his chance. He won't have to wait through the eight month wait,

either way, like this is your chance here. The unusual schedule has many predicting that McElroy has been given an unexpected blessing in pursuit of the first grand slam. It's the first and only time he won't have to spend eight months waiting for the masters to arrive. Phil Mickelson getting into the quote game here is asked uh you know because he didn't win a major until he's 33 years old. Rory's not even close to that yet. If there's any advice that he might give Rory as he tries to snap his majorless streak, come join the high flyers. I got some thoughts about I cannot put them in writing, but let's have dinner. I could

tell you about it. First of all, there's not much advice I can give him, Mickelson says. The guy is as complete of a player as there comes and there is his well as a smart, he's knowledgeable, he works hard so he'll win and complete the Grand Slam. He's too great a player not to. There's nothing I can really say to help him. He's gotta have a lot of great opportunities and he's going to continue to do so.

He's playing beautifully. I would be shocked if he wasn't in contention with a great chance on Sunday. Phil, very complimentary of our boy back in the day. His preterm at press conference, Rory admits that he's been trying to add speed to his swing during the last month. It will be months before he'll admit it, but he'll chalk it up to the pursuit of a bruised ego of watching Bryson tear apart wing foot. As his session comes to a close, one reporter asks Rory where

he thinks his inner grit comes from. I think a grit comes from my failures, and I don't have to look any further than this place in 2011 I learned a lot from that day. I learned a lot of what what I needed to be and what I didn't need to be I think failure, you know, I think I say this to young guys that are coming up You can't be afraid of it You have to embrace the fact that you're going to fail at things and you should learn from them And when you do you should be better However, Roy's swing looks completely out of sorts

during the second half of the first round, which gets split between Thursday and Friday because of an electrical storm. He plays the first nine and even par and then plays the back and three over to finish with a 75. So I think you, I remember you tweeting that, it looked like Rory was just throwing his arms at the ball. Shout out to me, that's how I swing me all the time.

I have been playing, honestly have been playing so good coming in here and then I go into the first round and I shoot 75 and I'm like, where the hell does that come from? McElroy says. Augusta national member Jimmy Dunn gives McElroy a pep talk when he's on his way to the range between rounds

and it seems to work. Roy plays his next three rounds in 14 under going 66, 67, 69 but as often as the case at the Masters, it's too little too late. Dustin Johnson, who was Rory's playing partner during the first two rounds, so the electrical storm can't be chalked up to the reason here, wins with the lowest score

20 under in Masters history. You should have hired Jimmy Dunn to be his caddy. Oh my goodness. I could have solved a bunch of things. Well, that's okay, right? Because the Masters is the next major. It's coming right around, right? A frustrating start to the season,

one that includes missing the cut at the players at 2021. Roy admits he's kind of searching coming to the Masters. He confirms a report that he's been working with swing coach Pete Cowan since the match play event in Austin, a surprise considering he's only worked with Michael Bannon since he was a teenager. He says this is the beginning of a journey and that his swing is in transition. Pete Cowan's sick.

We should do a deep dive on Pete Cowan. Should be a great interview. Yeah. It's a very tough choice. It was a very tough choice, McElroy said, but as I said a couple weeks ago in Austin, it's not as if their relationship has changed in any way. Michael is still part of the team, you know, it's just an extra set of lay eyes to see a few things. I just felt like bringing in Pete can only help. Does it help guys?

I don't think he wins this one either. It definitely does not help. He misses the cut just for the second time in his career at the Masters shooting 76 74. Looking kind of lost at this point. That's okay though because we're going back to Kiowa, right? Where he's been like a tremendous success here. Obviously, he's going to kick ass here and win a major. I straight up, as soon as you said Kiowa, I'm like, wait, Kiowa, who won? Oh, right. How did that happen? Oh my God. What? Wait, who won this? How did that happen? How am I not thinking about that all day, every day?

Yeah, in the lead up to the tournament, he's trying to kind of downplay the fact that he's, you know, dominated the last time here. He says he's changed in significant ways. So has the course a lot has changed. I'm in a completely different place in my life. Yeah, everything has changed really. I feel like I'm a completely different person. I think a lot has changed for the better. I'm standing up here probably more confident in myself, happier where I am in my life, just sort of enjoying everything, enjoying life, enjoying everything a bit more. It's a real never the same man, never the same river type of situation

going back to Kiwa there. Literally right before Kiwa, he won the Wells Fargo at Quail. So it's not like he was playing poorly, but it looks lost at Kiwa failing to break par in any of his four rounds, finishing T49. Phil Mickelson becomes the oldest major champion in history, out-dueling Brooks Kapka to win his sixth major title. I don't know what the next 20 years down the line is going to look for me,

Rory says, but hopefully I'm in Phil's position and still contending in these things. Oh man. On to Torrey Pines at the US Open. The questions about why Rory hasn't won a major are getting slightly more pointed. On the eve of Torrey Pines, he's pressed about his uneven play in major and why he frequently puts himself in a hole and has to dig out of. Probably just putting a little too much pressure on myself,

playing a little too carefully, a little too tentative. I think that sort of sums it up. This year however, Roy echoes his start at pebble and wing foot and shoots one under to start of the championship. He stumbles in the second round and shoots 73, but he soars into contention with a third round 67. Hell yeah, we're going, we're fucking going

all in on this one. We're winning this one for sure. I'm trying to think of the last time I really felt like I had a chance, Rory says. Carnoustie in 18 maybe felt like I had half a chance. Going into the final day of Pebble, maybe in 2019. It's interesting he doesn't include the Masters in 2018 just because he got the doors blown off on that final day.

But apart, this is Rory talking again, but apart from that, there's really been some good finishes, but I never felt like I was in the thick of things. I'm just excited for the opportunity to have a chance to be in one of the final groups. When Roy birdies the fourth hole on Sunday, trickling in a 30 foot putt to go four under. He's a shot off the lead.

Cannot maintain that position making a bogey on 11 and a double on 12. 73 is good enough to finish T7 another yellow box and his Wikipedia page, but not much else matters. John Rom who started the final round a shot behind Rory shoots 67 to win his first major. It's disappointing that I had a chance and didn't get the job done Rory says but considering where I've been the previous first previous few years it's a big step in the right direction. Okay yeah right going back to the Open Championship going to Royal St. George obviously like this would be no

truly one of the most forgettable majors of the whole deal. What may go down as one of his most forgettable majors the decade he never even sniffs contention finishes t 46. After the Ryder Cup that fall McElroy announces he is parting ways with Pete Cowan and returning to work with Bannon actually kind of thought that was a significant thing in the some of his research because it felt like maybe a wasted year in the middle

of his whole kind of career, switching coaches, not trusting. What he had going previously. If you look now, I mean, at this point and obviously the current point, you can look at, I remember like look at this at the time and saying, Roy got four major wins in like five chances. Like I would say whistling straights was a good chance, but that's an unsustainable rate. And it is not how,

I mean, Tiger has like, look at how Phil has gotten six majors in how many great chances, 20, 21, 22. I mean, just I'm pulling that out of my ass. But like, when we look, if you just kind of zoom out on Rory's career, like four wins out of the amount of chances he's had and the amount of duds, like it makes sense. It does make sense. It just, the path of getting there does not make sense. And it is not helpful to get the next one. Like it's, you'd rather than be more spread out than like have this doubt creep in over a decade period. Which speaking of the 2021 open, I mean, that's kind of the same thing with more color, right? Like that's, of the same thing with Morikawa, right?

That's what's going to be interesting to watch his career going forward. Is he starting to play really good golf again? And if he has another year full of close calls, it's going to, you know, it's a smaller scale probably, but it's going to feel similar, I would imagine. I think the one thing that made it, like the contrast a little bit more stark solid is that Brooks kept just like winning majors like every time he got into contention. And so I was like, well, man, this dude is like literally in your generation. Like how is this guy doing what you used to do and you're not anymore?

I'd throw in though, like Brooks has had some close calls at US Open and majors. Like there's some other yellows in his Wikipedia. It's not like he hits more often than he misses when he is in contention. But there again, I agree. But one during that stretch, when he won at Bethpage, when it was like four in like literally three years, that was whatever the photo, it was like, okay, this guy is going to just like every time he gets a contention, he's going to close this out. It wasn't, he was a little bit in contention at Port Rush and kind of faded a bit at the end there. And so the US Open at Pebble. So it wasn't quite like it seemed,

but it was just like, once, I mean, once Brooks tied Rory and majors, it was just like, oh, you finally don't have that thing hanging over everybody else anymore. Like, well, I'm still the, you know, best guy in my generation with the most majors. Like, ah, now you're tied. Oh, wait, now you're behind.

Which is good too. I think it's interesting too, Saul, I think you're making a very good point on like the order in which this happens is probably very important for future success because you look at someone like Xander for whom like the exact opposite happened where it was just like, okay, man, here's seven years of close calls and just keep beating your head against the wall. And then now the floodgates are going to open. Like he, who, who do you like to win a major next year more like Xander Rory? You know, it's, it's, it's an interesting thought.

Not, they're not all created equal. I got Brooks. It was runner up to tiger 2019 masters, which I think he threw. But that's true runner up to Gary Woodland at the 2019, uh, US open runner up to Phil at the 2021 PGA championship and runner up to Rom at 2023 masters. Like it's, uh, it's crazy that Brooks lost a broken down tiger and broken down. It's the moment of Brooks's legacy. We know he was notoriously in cahoots with you might've thrown that one too.

Yeah. Thanks Brooks for your service. He gave golf some pretty historic moments for the content. All right. We're going back to the masters in 2022. This is his eighth attempt to win the career Grand Slam. He's clearly running out of ways at this point to answer the same question about whether he feels pressure to complete it. Can I tie it down for this? You know what Roy should do? He should do a bit where he like takes one of his press

conference answers in totality from a prior one. And like when he gets asked about it in 2025, he should just read the exact statement. Hold up the- No, he should just read it. Like see if anybody catches on. Like yeah, I'm gonna give him the exact same answer I gave in 2017.

That's a good one. Also it'd be funny if he was like, do I really have a chance to win the career grand slam? That's crazy. I've never thought about that. Whoa. Who else has done that? Jack? Has he done it? Did Gary play it? Nope. Sorry. Okay. So, he says, look, it's still very, very important, but I don't know if I would feel like I was fulfilled if I didn't win one or one if I didn't win one or whatever. It's less pressure than it was in 2015 for sure. There are other plenty of people saying though that however this will finally be his year. I know how these stories unfold says Jim Nance in a pre tournaments chat with the media. Augusta just has this ability for some reason to tell stories better than any other place. Those scripts one year beats the next and I mean I have it in my head and my heart

that he's going to win a green jacket one year. I mean he's going to have a lot more chances but this just might be the year. This might be the year it's quiet enough going into it. He's such a rare talent. Maybe that's the story this year. How The story this year will end that he completes it. No, the story has an all too familiar familiar feel. I gets left behind early, shoots 73 73 and trails Scotty Shuffler by 10 shots going into the final round. Asked by the media what his goal is for Sunday, he says just try to move up a few more tomorrow and try to get a top 10 and move on.

But on Sunday Teeing off an hour before the leaders and with nothing to lose Roy plays arguably his best round of his master's career making six birdies and an eagle to surge up the leaderboard He's never truly in contention because Scheffler leaves by five strokes when McElroy finishes God, it felt like he was When he holds out from a bunker on 18 one one final birdie, putting an exclamation point on a 64 and tying the lowest final round in Masters history, it feels a bit like an exorcism. So I know we're at the Jigger Inn for this one.

I remember we were, we had this trip with a bunch of NLU people that got delayed like three years because of COVID. And we finally were able to take it and we had the entire jigger in rented out to ourselves. And I think that was like, that was Rory hope and optimism personified inside of that bar. I mean, that was an entire building of people just trying to will him into, will him into contention. I remember making, making Eagle on 13, the whole place just goes nuts. It was like one of my most fun golf watching experiences ever. Roy says afterwards,

to play like I did today and finish like this, man, it's absolutely incredible. This tournament never ceases to amaze me. That's as happy as I've ever been on a golf course right there. This was also the Masters where Tron said that Scottie Scheffler winning would be the worst thing that would ever have been golf, which remains to be seen.

But I think it's been pretty fun since. Gosh. And the fact that T.C. invented Sky, I know such a real often situation. Oh, I hate it. This is a good trivia question. McElroy finished his solo second, his best ever finish at the Masters. There's only one of the few times he was not truly in contention. Well, the good vibes of Augusta seem to carry over to the PGA.

We're at Southern Hills and Rory opens with a 65. He's the solo leader. We're finally getting away from the bad starts. It's the first time he's held the sole lead in major since 2014. He's in such a playful mood. He cannot resist cracking a joke when the PGA of America moderator asks if this is the start he's been looking for at majors. No, I'd rather shoot 74 and try to make the cut tomorrow, Nakarai says. But for whatever reason, he cannot sustain his strong play. He

tumbles down the leaderboard, making a triple bogey on Saturday to essentially fall out of contention. Early in the week, when McElroy opened with a sizzling 65 in the first round, it looked like he was poised to snap an eight-year drought at majors. Announcing his presence with a roar, writes ESPN's Kevin Van Valkenburg, now it seems like he has slunk back into the wilderness, a once vicious lion who has forgotten how to hunt. Spoiler here, a little Easter egg here. This was actually me trying to sneak cat references

into the ESPN's copy because I had done the Shotgun Start Cat podcast that week and so we were making as many cat jokes as possible and so I thought him being a once vicious lion would wink wink at the shotgun start listeners. Justin Thomas, who began his final round seven strokes behind Mido Pereira, completes the biggest final round comeback in history, winning his second PGA championship, shoots final

round 67 and then beats Will Zaltouris in a playoff. It was a sick major. It was very fun. It was. We're going to the country club, right up in Massachusetts. Rory, who once missed three straight cuts to the US Open, feels like he has

left behind that period for good. He's become, believe it or not, one of the game's most consistent US Open performers. And he opens with a first round 67. And after a second round 69, he's just a shot off the lead shared by Colin Maracalla and anyone remember Joel Damon?

That's right. Yep. I'm in a good place where he says after a second round, I'm really happy with where my game is. And I think that's the most important thing. Another weekend fade, however, dooms his chances. A Saturday 73 leaves him three strokes behind going into the final round. He never gets closer than that. He finishes T5, his fifth consecutive top 10 finish

at the US Open, but it is a little soulless. Another top five in a major, McElroy says, I guess it doesn't really mean anything. Ooh, Jesus, come Come on man. That fits Patrick wins his first career major shooting on around 68. Yeah, cool top five Joel. This doesn't this doesn't be enough fucking easy. This is for me. Well, can anyone remember where we're headed next?

Oh God, no, nope. Nope. Right. Sorry, gotta do it. We're going to St. Andrews for the 150th playing of the Open Champions. God, I wish he would have just gone out and played soccer the week before. It would have saved everybody a lot of time. A lot of people are wondering if the Stars might be aligning for McElroy to finally break his winless streak at majors. He is both the betting favorite and the emotional favorite going in. Death Stars are aligning for McElroy to finally break his winless streak of majors. He is both the betting favorite and the emotional favorite going in. Death stars are aligning. Also the live PGA Tour drama, which has been going on in the background all this time.

Rory says, I can't go in here thinking this might be my time. I have to go out and play a really good tournament. I'm happy with where everything's at. I just can't get ahead of myself. For three rounds, Roy plays patient at times brilliant golf. He opens with a 66, and follows it up with a 68. And on Saturday, he holds a bunker shot on the 10th hole for Eagle to grab the outright lead, a shot that feels at the time like it might go down as the signature shot of the championship. I think it's just appreciating the moment and appreciating the fact that it's unbelievably cool to have a chance to win the open at St. Andrews, McElroy says.

It's what dreams are made of and I'm going to try to make a dream come true tomorrow. Where were you guys watching this final round? Kill House. We had just moved into our house here in Milwaukee and so I was in the very room that I'm in right now, like pacing around watching by myself. DJ, I believe I texted you on Saturday night as I was thinking about leaving ESPN and coming to NLU and saying, I can't believe Roy's going to win a major tomorrow and I'm not going to be there. I don't ever want to miss another one of these again.

And you said like, amen, let's do it. That was sort of the, when he has been left me home for this major, that was kind of the final straw. I'd be like, fuck this, I'm going to work for a much better company. Instead on Sunday, what unfolds is a slow boiling nightmare for McElroy. He plays conservatively throughout the day

and Cam Smith, who trailed Roy by four shots going into Sunday, surges into the lead with five consecutive birdies on the back nine. He played so fucking good. That's incredible. Like, I think that does get, I don't think we lost this at the time, like I think we gave it its proper due,

but I think as history goes on, it's gonna probably be remembered for Rory kicking this thing away, and Cam absolutely wrestled this thing to the ground and took it. He played so goddamn good. I remember when he, when Cam ended up short of the road hole bunker, I was like, oh, he's so fucked there. Like this is the, my heart is filled with hope. Like this was the break

that Roy needed. There's no fucking way you can get up and down from there. And then he hit that putt that rode up the edge of the bunker left from a 10 footer and he rolled that 10 footer in. I was like, well, perhaps some things are just not meant to be because that was fucking disgusting. How good that was. That was just incredible drama. Just like everybody turning towards home, everybody going the same direction on that golf course, going back towards the town, the falls get more and more famous as you come in

like different. Oh, that was fricking epic Sunday. What was, do you have a specific moment? Kev? I don't want, sorry, I don't want to jump on the birdies and bogeys here, but no, was it, it was there for me? It was like 14. Yeah. I remember vividly, right. Where it was, it was playing straight into the wind or sorry, I'm sorry, straight downwind cam, just leaving it in the perfect place to blow it over the green in two shots on 14 so that he could chip back into the wind and make an easy birdie and Rory leaving it in like the hardest, most

difficult spot short right of that green chipping downwind ball running like green running away was just like, Oh yeah, this it's not happening. Yeah, I, I don't know. It all kind of blends together in a sort of mush for me in a lot of ways. I mean, I remember, I remember the shot Rory hit into 17 Unbelievable. It was like alright, fuck this I'm actually gonna play Roy fucking McIlroy golf and hit the most hardest fucking shot possible But then of course doesn't make that birdie He finished with only two birdies on the day and he finishes tied for third actually could make any putts Afterwards he says I'm only human. I'm not a robot. Of course, you think about it, you

envision it, you want to envision it. I was literally my hotel room is directly across the big yellow board on 18 right at the first. Every time I go out, I'm trying to envision McElroy as a top name on that leaderboard. And how would that feel? At the start of the day, it was at the top, but the start of tomorrow, it won't be't be you got to let yourself dream you got to let yourself think about it and what it would be like once I was on the golf course it was just task in hand trying to play the best golf course playing the best golf that I could this is this real like Vince McMahon jiff just yeah cut it off guys we not, no, you can't do this. It's, that's honestly one of the like most kind of beautiful

sad quotes, I think of this era of golf of like, hey, I was, I was looking at that leaderboard and I was trying to envision it and tomorrow won't be up there. Like it was up there on top and now it won't be. And I got to live with that. It's like, whew. I mean, the image of me gets in the golf cart, like puts his head on Erica's shoulders and just like, yeah, started crying drove away. It's just

like, fuck man. Well, we're going back to Augusta though. So that's a great way to fix things. It's his ninth career attempts to win the ninth attempt to win the career grand slam. But he knows that a pattern has emerged for him as Augusta. He just can't figure out how to start strong. I always feel like I have the physical ability to win this tournament, he says, but it's being in the right headspace and letting those physical abilities shine through. It's been tentative starts not putting my foot on the gas early enough. Unfortunately, that self-awareness doesn't quite help. When he reaches the first tee, he shoots 72 in the first round and 77 in the second to miss the cut. John Rahm, meanwhile, wins his second major, outlasting Brooks Koepka. Rory skips the RBC heritage the following week, spends some time with family, citing the need to attend to his emotional

well-being and mental health. I needed a break for me, Rory says. Tough stint there, just tough all around. Well, we're going to Oak Hill now, a place where you might have home-build a gym. Yeah, home game. His wife Erica is from Rochester, and the McElroys are actually members at Oak Hill. McElroy, and he said this to me and Kyle

as we were walking around that day, is sort of an honorary membership that he's only played the course a few times, including like the day before his sister-in-law's wedding. He says, I still get the emails. I open them sometimes. He's typically loquacious and open with the media, as we've seen in this, but he's curt and guarded before the tournament, answering multiple questions with one-word answers.

Asked if he ever goes back and watches his performance from Valhalla in 2014, McElroy admits that he has but then declines to elaborate. Yes, sometimes, he says. There was a ruthlessness about the way you were that final day, Alan Shipnick asks. Are you still that way? I feel like that's a pretty exhausting in life in general to be that ruthless, Rory says. It's not as if I can't get into that mode, but I don't feel like I need it to be that way to be successful on the golf course. McElroy doesn't have any blowups at Oak Hill, sort of sticking to a plan of patience, but he also doesn't really produce any fireworks. He finishes two under par for the week, seven shots back of Brooks, who wins his fifth major. For the first

time in a decade, Rory is no longer has the most majors of the player from his generation. As we'll see later in the Netflix documentary, Full Swing, that comes out in March of 2024, Rory is captured in the Oak Hill locker room, talking to his manager, Sean O'Flaherty, excoriating himself and contemplating his future. My technique is nowhere as good as it needs to be. Rory says, I almost feel like I want to do a complete reboot. It's the only way I feel like I'm going to break through. It feels so far away. I'm not at the stage of my life where I feel like I can do these two week boot camps. I feel good enough to fucking top 10 in my head, but not

good enough to win, like pull away, like win fucking major championships. Shit myself the left pins. Yeah. Which is crazy. Like looking back on it now because I feel like LACC was I don't know up there on he obviously to his point didn't win running away like he did in the past but pretty complete performance. Yeah. That's also an unreasonable expectation to win going away.

And I feel like, yeah, maybe we probably should have started with this part of just acknowledging and saying out loud, it's really, really, really, really, really fucking hard to win majors. It's just really hard. When the dividing line is you'd be the best in the world at a really hard golf course or everything else is a failure, at best, you've got a 5% chance to win all these things. Right.

So you can drive yourself crazy looking to make those odds, like 6% instead of 5% when you go to tee it up. And man, it's just, it might just be that hard. I don't know. Could you talk me into a scenario where like winning congressional and Kiowa in like blowout fashion was maybe worse mentally for him in the long run. Because it's like, Hey, like I should have, I should do this all the fucking time. Like, why am I not like this good? Like, I don't know. It's a, maybe it's a dumb question

to ask, but like, does he win more majors if he doesn't win four of out of five in that succession over the long haul? Like, is he just easier for him mentally to understand? Like, Hey, it's not that fucking easy. It's a good question. It is a good question. Is he just easier for him mentally to understand like, hey, it's not that fucking easy. It's a good question. It is a good question. How many did he win Hoylik by? Two, like three or four. I think it was two.

I'll look that up. But it never felt like- The point of this is that none of the four were like, I guess other than Valhalla, it doesn't seem like a ton, ton, ton of wins in his career. I need to double check this, but they're not. Yeah. Actually the last hole. Yeah. Scrap that because I think that there is there's it's probably half and half, I guess. He won by two in what like, but he

was up by six going into the final round. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. Like Sergio made it briefly, made it like, or maybe it was Ricky made it interesting briefly on that Sunday, but then it was not really, it never felt like he was, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, I might lose this major. It was kind of like, yeah, I'm still in control. I'm good. There was a moment where he made a, he made back to back bogeys on the front nine. He bogeyed, he had a horrible shot at a sixth, the par three, and it was like, oh shit, this is okay.

It's somewhat interesting, but he bounced back. We're going to LACC. For the first time in his career, Ackroyd declines to speak with the media prior to a major championship, saying he's grown weary of the sound of his own voice during all the PGA Tour and live drama. Remember, of course, this is after the merger,

pre-unification, fake merger, mission statement, whatever the fuck it was. Instead of obsessing over his pre-tournament prep, he chooses to take a more relaxed approach. His practice rounds at LAC are the first time he's seen the course, and the vibe pays off when he opens with a 65. I started thinking about winning this thing

when I came here on Monday, McElroy says after his second round 67, no one wants me to win a major more than I do. He does actually trail Wyndham Clark and Ricky Fowler by a shot going into the final round, but it is clear early on is a two man race after Ricky bogeys three of the first seven holes. Wyndham Clark, despite having one career win at this point, hangs on getting up and down from everywhere to hold

off from McElroy by a stroke despite making bogeys on 15 and 16. A bogey on the 14th hole where Rory misses the green with a wedge in hand is ultimately the difference. He gets relief from an embedded ball. It doesn't matter. Rory is asked after yet another disappointment in a major, if he feels like he's running out of things to say and lessons to learn. I think somebody might've asked this question

who was on this Zoom, that would be me. When I do finally win this next major, it's gonna be really, really sweet. I would go through a hundred Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship. We're getting close. Almost halfway there. The wedge into that par five 14 was like, that's the one that sticks with me there.

But as much flack as we've given them for wedges, like to have that happen, when you've got one of your best chances, you've had quite some time of actually winning one was just an extra, extra hard kick in the gonads. Yeah. It was tough too because like he, that, you know, he hits a, not a terrible tee shot off of the, um, off of that tee. And it's just like, it was just, I remember I was right there looking at the lie and it was just shitty enough

of a lie that like he couldn't go for it with like three wood or whatever it was and Wyndham of course hits in the fairway it's an incredible three wood on that green and then is able to two pot for birdie and you know that like there's a enough of a difference it's like Wyndham didn't have the whole the wedge shot was fucking pretty hard but Wyndham didn't have to mess with the wedge shot because he didn't miss his tee ball in the fairway was able to just kind of hit a power fade over that bunker there. All right, we're on to Royal Liverpool. The final manager of the year is another opportunity

for Rory to be reminded of his old self. Revisiting Hoylake for the first time when he won the Clare Jug in 14. But he's not really interested in doing that. A little bit, he says when asked if returning brings back fond memories But maybe not as much as you might think over the past year nine years a lot has happened in my life Rory doesn't play a single round over par but finishing at six under scarcely matters because brian harman wins his first major

Nearly lapping the field with 13 under and winning by seven strokes It's rory's seventh top 10 finish in the last eight majors. Over the last two years, would I have loved to have picked off one of these things? Yeah, absolutely. But every time I tee it up or most times I tee it up, I'm right there. I can't sit here and be so frustrated.

Yeah, we're not frustrated at all either. We're doing totally fine. We're not frustrated at all either. It's going totally fine. We're going totally fine over here. Hey, we're going back to Augusta. For the first time in a decade, Roy does not feel like the clear favorite. Uh, Ram is the defending champion and Scheffler is actually the clear favorite having emerged as the game's best player. Thanks to Roy. That however, to use a mallet. That however, does not deter questions about whether or not McElroy can win his career Grand Slam in his 10th attempt. No question. He'll do it at some point says Tiger Woods. Rory's too talented, too good. He's going to be playing this event

for a very long time. He'll get it done. It's just a matter of when, but yes, I think that Rory will be great Masters champion one day. It could be this week. You never know. It's just a matter of when. But yes, I think that Rory will be great Masters champion one day, and it could be this week. You never know. It's just that again, the talent that he has, the way he plays the game and the golf course, the way it fits his eye, it's just a matter of time." McElroy, having listened to those similar sentiments for a decade, responds to questions about Wood's compliment with what I would describe as weary bemusement. It's flattering, Rory says. It's flattering where he says, it's nice to hear in my opinion,

the best player ever to say about the game to say something like that. Yeah, so does it mean it's going to happen? Obviously not, but he's been around the game long enough that at least I get to have the potential. He knows at least I have the potential to do it. Not this year. A meaningless 22, T22,

any chance undone by a second round 77. Paired with Scottie Shepard right up, right next to him. Like just playing together, you get to see what the premium ball striker of this era now is, like how far behind you actually are. Scottie wins his second green jacket, holding off Ludwig Eber and Max Homa. We go on to the PGA Championship at Valhalla, another chance for Rory to relive his old self but prior to the PGA Championship, basically on the Monday, news breaks that Rory has filed for divorce from his wife Erica, seven years, citing irreconcilable differences. His manager Sean O'Flaherty, says he will not be answering any questions about his personal life and asked the media to please respect his

privacy. I'm ready to play this week, he says, curtly deflecting one question about what his state of mind is. Rory actually opens with a first round 66, but a second round 71 ends any real chance he has of contending. Scottie Shuffler's arrest on Friday, a thing that still feels surreal to say, when he is charged with felony assault on a police officer during a traffic incident outside Valhalla, becomes the story of the tournament. According to Nathan Hubbard of the Fairway Rolling podcast, McElroy walks up to Shuffler on the putting green on Saturday and couldn't resist cracking a joke. Pretty uneventful week, huh? Rory says.

Well, you took some of the noise away from me, so I appreciate it. Rory finishes T12, nine shots back of Xander Chauflay, who wins his first major championship. The 71 on Friday is obviously not what I was looking for, McElroy says, kind of echoing the theme of a decade. Obviously I put myself too far back. I'm going to, I'm just going to do this while you're covering the next one. I'm going to go to chat GPT and I'm going to say you are Roy McElroy and you just had a disappointing major championship round. Give me some quotes on this and I want to see what it comes back with. Just in case we don't circle back to it also now not getting divorced.

So we have no real clarity on kind of what happened or didn't happen or you know, what happened or didn't happen. So I'm going to go to chat GPT and I'm going to say, now not getting divorced. So, no real clarity on kind of what happened or didn't happen or no bigger privacy respecter than me. Thank you for respecting. But just updating that for the historical record. Thank you, Dej. Well, we're on to Pinehurst, which couldn't possibly be any more painful than St. Andrews, I'm sure. Rory opens with a 65 in round one.

He makes it clear prior to the tournament, he's going to be basically doing almost no media. He's got a new media plan. This is right after I had acquired the block party, by the way. Neal sold it on Wednesday night. Wow. Well, he bought it. Historic gains at the just perfectly time investment.

You might have bought at the bubble teach. I'm not sure That's it's unclear in the first round after his first round 65 He's tied with Patrick Cantley his old Ryder Cup foe who he referred to as a dick But in the second round he kind of struggles a little bit shoot 72 falls back to three under but in round three He cleaps crush to contention with a 69, leaving him 3 shots behind Bryson on the final day. Round 4, as we all probably know, goes down as maybe one of the most heartbreaking rounds of his career.

He birdies 4 out of 5 holes at one point, 9, 10, 12, and 13 to get to eight under par leads by two. But Bogey's on 15 and 16, including a short missed putt on 16, ultimately undo him. For some reason that remains unclear, he hits driver on 18 when he'd hit three wood all week and said he was going to stick to that plan no matter what. Driver leaves him in the wire grass unable to hit an approach to the green. He punches

out to the front of the green, hits a decent chip that runs out just a hair too much and leaves him with a difficult putt above the hole. He cannot make it and make par. Bryson drives a kind of a similar way in the wire grass, dumps into the bunker, gets up and down and unredeem a ridiculously good shot and wins the U S open by one. Rory peels out of the parking lot without talking to the media. But I do have some quotes of what he would have said if he had, if he had a chance, it's disappointing, no doubt, but I'll take the positives from the week. There are still a lot of big tournaments ahead and I know my game is in good shape. I just need to put

it all together. There's on handling the pressure. He said there's always pressure in these situations, but that's what we live for. I didn't handle it as well as I wanted to today, but I'll learn from it and be better next time. But the fan support out there, he said the support out there was incredible and I can't think the fans enough. I wish I could have given them more to cheer about, but I'll keep grinding. Hopefully give them something special soon. I should, I wonder if anybody would have asked him who Bryson was gonna do his next breaking 50 with chat GPT would have

nailed that one too. Listen, I hope this with this comes through comes true. But like I every day I kind of wonder like will pop up in my algorithm that like Roy and Bryson are doing a breaking 50 video like that would be a great way to announce the sort of reunification like, you know, hey, I mean, I don't know if you have any lingering thoughts on Pinehurst. It's pretty recent in our memory here. It doesn't feel like it needs too much rehashing, but on to

Trune before the tournament, Roy reveals that he's changed his cell phone number, hoping to create a little distance between himself and the media because he got too many texts after the US Open. For the record, I was not one of those people. I was not either. Thank you, Selen. Pretty completely unmemorable. I feel like I need to say I was not one of those people.

I don't say it. Like, I don't have his number, but like, you know, I didn't do that either, but like, if I didn't say it- You didn't get it as part of the block party, like that it was handover is that no, I did not either. Yeah. I mean, hey, you know, I get it. Like, look, if if you're an actor, like it is, it is interesting to be like have a relationship with a super famous person, where you're like, occasionally

text back and forth, because like, you definitely think like, oh, man, like, why don't you text me back and forth because you definitely think, oh man, why didn't he text me back? And then you realize, oh, because it's like 200 people would text him about various things and you think, oh yeah, I totally get, wow, it must be fucking impossible to be that famous. You absolutely should, I would never give myself out to anyone in that scenario.

All right, so we're on to Trune where Rory then shoots 78 in the opening round and follows it up with a 75 in the second round. Says he starts thinking about his vacation plans after he made a triple on the fourth hole in the second round. This was real like Richie Tenenbaum shit. He's taken off his shoes in one of his socks during this round. This was really, really, really bleak. And a shout out to anybody who's like, Oh man, this pine hearse thing, this is just going to really light a spark. Watch this guy come into true. Like, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Yeah, save, save, don't go check the tape on that one. Final tallies for the decade of what we're referring to as a decade of lost majors for Rory. He missed seven cuts over 39 majors. Wons, 21 top 10s, and 11 top fives, zero victories. Guys, how do we sum up this decade of lost majors for Royal Recreation? Well, let's just do it this way. When does he win another major and what year? Yes, and I'm gonna say it'll be 2026.

That was gonna be my answer too. I don't know why, but. Yes. And I'm going to say it'll be 2026. That was going to be my answer too. I don't know why. We're going to Quill Hollow this year. It's very interesting. It's really easy to dismiss that after what we just went through though. Like, Oh, we're going back to Royal Liverpool. We're going back to Fall Hollow. We're doing all this. I'm going to say yes as well. I fuck it. I'm going to say this year. I'm going to say,

I'm going to say when Quill Hollow. I don't know. I'm on the record so voc. I fuck it. I'm gonna say this year. I'm gonna say I'm gonna say when the quill I don't know. I'm on the record so vociferously on both sides of this that Your words be nothing exactly exactly. I actually think I think he's gonna win two more majors I don't think the Masters will be one of them. I think he'll win a US Open and I think it went another PGA Wow Yeah, I don't think he wins the Masters. I think I'm I'm in that camp now, but I think it went another PGA. Well, yeah, I don't think he wins a master's. I think I'm, I'm, I'm in that camp now, but I think he definitely, I think he ends up with six majors. I think he'll get two more.

Deidre what's the state of the block party? Will there be any block parties anymore? Is it, is it DOA? Well, no, I discussed this, I believe after Pinehurst that I did acquire it that Wednesday night. Technically I acquired it via shell corporation that was in Cody's name. So Cody was left holding the block party and you can direct any questions you have about it to him. I know Neil notoriously took a bath of the entire thing, bought at the highest peak,

sold at the absolute lowest Valley. And so it's, I don't know, I think we're in a state of kind of maybe rebirth a little bit. Let's take a step back. Let's trim the trees. Let's see what we really have in front of us and we'll come out next year. We just need a little time to reflect. I think. I think that's fair.

I think we all kind of need a little decade, maybe to reflect on this decade. Yeah. All right. Well, Kev, I think we should move to wrap. I know Dee just got to reflect on this decade. Yeah, all right. Well, Kev, I think we should move to wrap. I know Dee's got to run here as well. And I'll be in danger of talking about this for another two hours. But appreciate all that went into preparing all of these notes and look backs for

the last 10 years. I hope we can bump this up in celebration next year when he does go win at Quail Hollow. But that'd be, this is a fun one to note into the historical record. This will help the 2045 podcasters that'll be doing deep dives. This will be a great resource for them. This is available on our website if you're a sadist

and would like to go through sort of the, you know, the pain all over again. Some of the quotes when you read them back to back really start to echo and like add up. I'm sure he doesn't, I mean, he talks to the media so much, I'm sure he doesn't remember half of these things that he said, but when you sort of see them like, it's like, oh man, like how, it can't be fun to go like roll it into Augusta every year. Like, so what would it mean to win a career in Grand Slam? I don't know, man, what would it mean? Shit. Like what slam? I don't know, man, it wouldn't mean shit. Like what? Fuck this place.

No, like you gotta say the same nice things every time. Rory, if you're listening, I would say take that idea of rereading one of your answers and give us a little nod by just like, what word can we have him throw in just to do in there? Let's say elephant. Let's say the memory of an elephant. Throw that phrase in there,

we'll know that you listened to this and you're gonna just repeat a previous answer. Hell yeah. So that's gonna wrap us. Thank you so much for listening. Appreciate everyone, their time invested in this podcast, including those on this call. So appreciate y'all.

Have a great day. Thanks for listening. Cheers.