Slip Under The Covers with us. Anchors away as Akshay takes the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Mr Brian Rolapp Sir we love you.
Transcript
Dominic Colangelo: He knows it doesn't matter what's under a hood. The only thing that matters is who's behind the wheel. And when I'm washing it, I don't stick to it. Hello and welcome to Under the Covers, golf podcast where we deep dive into the most recent PGA Tour winners golf bag, talk about their choices, review specs, and really just talk some golf. We are your hosts. My name is Dominic and I'm joined by Kevin.
Kevin Spisak: Hey Dominic, I'm experiencing my Michael Jordan flu game right now but excited to talk. We got some free golf and ⁓ the fifth major coming up.
Dominic Colangelo: Yes, sir. And Matt is also here. What's up, Matt?
Matthew Zampello: Hey Dom, thanks for having me your program. I'm wearing my Naval Academy sweatshirt tonight in honor of anchoring his putter. know, the midshipmen, their anchors anchors down, you know.
Dominic Colangelo: You're the worst. We'll get into that later. So we got some fun stuff to talk about. Like Kevin said, we had a lot of free golf this weekend. Akshay Bhatia is our winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This is his third career win. His first Ciggy win, so that's fun. ⁓ Opening round of 70, 66, finishing round of 69 to force a playoff with Daniel Berger, finished off with. 15 under, rises to two in the FedEx points. Interesting about Akshay. So his last few ⁓ golf have been pretty good for him. He finished T3 at Pebble, T6, T16, and then obviously won ⁓ this last ⁓ Every win that Akshay has had, they show this on the broadcast, he has won every tournament in a playoff, which is actually insane how much of a closer he is. There is some cheating scandals going on that we might get to later. And I think all Asher's fans would love to have them, because we love a good closer. I had to show my hat. ⁓ this is also the first playoff that has happened in Bay Hill in the 21st century. The last one being in 1999. That's my last little tidbit about the tournament. I think the only thing left to ask is what's under the covers?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so with Akshay Bhatia, big lefty, we love to see that. We joked about making picks just all lefties. I failed my lefties not picking him this week. But ⁓ great dub at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Akshay's driver, interesting old one, got the Callaway Rogue ST TD or Speed Triple Diamond. So that would be your tour model of a couple years ago with a shaft that is very popular on the PGA tour with the Fujikura Ventus Black 7X. think it was ⁓ posted last year that they had all four major winners. So very popular shaft, really high end. The black ultra stiff for your real fast ⁓ swing speeds lowest launching, lowest spinning in their platform.
Dominic Colangelo: The STTD with a fast swing. Burning swings everywhere.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, the speed tune triple diamond rogue, know, that goes back to Calloway just using the dumbest marketing names ever just to sound cool. And they sound better when you say ST or TD, but when you spell out what they actually mean, it just sounds so dumb.
Matthew Zampello: I had no idea ST stand for Speed Tune, so that's a new one. had the quantum TDTD one tournament, believe it was at the AMX, and had his strokes gained off the T this year so far. So ⁓ quickly put that away. Calloway is working on custom quantum form with a ton more bias. because he is a super, he basically only hits the ball one way off the tee with a massive fade. So he wants a super draw bias driver so he can swing super hard with like a fade swing ⁓ from lefty side and it doesn't over fade for him. So pretty interesting.
Dominic Colangelo: so ⁓ looking at his of the last few tournaments, I think you can actually pretty clearly see when the switch was, because he missed the cut at AMX, missed the cut at Farmer's, getting used to the driver, and then he went T3, T6. So ⁓ I think that's working him so far.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: So the moving on to his fairway woods got a three wood Taylor made qi 10 core with a matching Ventus black with 8x. It's a little bit heavier than the driver pretty typical But model your old Taylor made and then he's got a utility wood the Callaway apex uw prototype again with a Ventus black ⁓ 10x the The utility wood is about 19 degrees which would be kind of like a five wood-ish depending on which manufacturer but heard lots of great things about this UW. I've never hit one but I really want to. I want to check one out. Matt have you ever tried one?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I've hit the UW. It is a very, very sick club. want to get one in my bag. I'm for this just kind of like bridges the gap between wood and hybrid a little bit. It's not as thin as a hybrid, but it's not as big as five wood or anything. And then going back to the QI 10, the Taylor made, I will.
Kevin Spisak: He helps.
Matthew Zampello: I will die on this hill. think the Qi10 is going to be a goaded 3-wood. It's going to be one of those ones that we look back and say the Qi10 core, that was it. That was the 3-wood.
Dominic Colangelo: So far, haven't we been talking about it each week? Should we bring up the spreadsheet?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I think at some point, I think at some point, ⁓ I forgot about the spreadsheet.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I we gotta plug that. So, Matt has been doing some work on his coding and has made a spreadsheet so we can track all of these clubs with all the winners so we can kind of have a totaled list each week of how many clubs and how many brands, all those things. So we can roll that out maybe next week so we can kind of fine tune what we want to talk about. I was curious though. So, the driver is Ventus Black 7X, 3 Wood is 8X. and there's utility what is 10X. What is the difference between those? Why would you need those?
Kevin Spisak: The heavier weight as you get shorter in the club, ⁓ pretty typical across everyone's sets. ⁓ be abnormal if they were the same. So shorter the club gets, the heavier the shaft gets, you can ⁓ manage swing weight. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: Is 770 grams, 80, 80 grams and 10, 100 grams? that kind of the...
Kevin Spisak: That's the general rule, but it's not exactly that because it changes by the stiffness too. if you go on a manufacturer's website, you'll see like the regular 7x or sorry, the regular seven would be. you know, 68 grams and then the 7x would be maybe 72 grams or something. a general rule, but not always. ⁓ been a shaft or two that I've looked up in the past that has been like maybe 10 grams off. It's of just like a rating.
Dominic Colangelo: And last week we were talking about ⁓ Nico Etchivaria and his Srixon ZXI prototype. So with this wood being a prototype, is it again, just you're kind of changing the weight to use you want or what kind of stuff do think he's changing and playing around with?
Kevin Spisak: I'm not certain, but knowing Calloway, wouldn't be surprised if prototype was just like a marketing buzzword they used and not an actual, like it didn't mean anything.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I could totally see that.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, could be a bunch of hot melt, too, that they put in there to like move weight around and head, essentially.
Dominic Colangelo: as hot milk.
Matthew Zampello: It's essentially hot glue that they drip into woods and drivers. And it's basically like a glue that will dry. so they can in input weight inside the head and move it wherever they want. ⁓ for the pros clubs, pretty insane. If you get into hot melting clubs, you're, you're like a gear guru. ⁓ yeah, there's a guy, there's a guy at my club that does hot melting. ⁓ he's been trying to get me to put hot melt my driver for.
Dominic Colangelo: You're sicker.
Matthew Zampello: for a while, I just stick with lead tape. He's a pretty good player. He's one of the better ⁓ at our club. ⁓ to work for Nike Golf back in the day, ⁓ he's big equipment guy.
Dominic Colangelo: How does it work for them? That's cool.
Kevin Spisak: say it looks exactly like a hot glue gun. It looks just like that when you're, but you're like putting it inside the club head.
Dominic Colangelo: I gotta look into that.
Matthew Zampello: Make you can you can also change the sound. That's a huge thing that they try to do. Some ⁓ some will say I don't like the sound of this driver. They'll put hot melt inside the face or right behind the face and it'll really like dead in the sound makes it come off like a like almost like a silencer a little bit.
Dominic Colangelo: Would that change the trajectory of the club and how it comes off? Or is it literally just the sound that it messes with?
Kevin Spisak: depends on where you put it. It would certainly change the trajectory you put extreme amounts of weight on one of the ends of the club.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. That's crazy. I love that. Like the amount of tweaks and ingenuity that some of these guys have is very fun to listen to.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, if you ever get into it, there's another cool story of Tiger puts ⁓ wooden dampeners in his in his irons basically dampen the vibration when he hits it a little bit like off the toe or a little bit on the heel. ⁓ it's basically just the wooden dampeners you can get from like Home Depot. And he just like sticks it in the shaft. Right. And then and then throws it in his club. Like there's so many little things that the tour guys used to do and still do to this day that we obviously don't get.
Dominic Colangelo: incredible.
Kevin Spisak: Moving on to his irons, he's got a utility Callaway X-Forge UT, 4 irons 22 degrees. Then on the of his irons he's got the Callaway Apex TCB RAW, so TCB stands for Tour Cavity Back. And then his shafts, kind of interesting, he has the KBS Money Taper 125 stiff plus. Actually I previously played ⁓ some graphite I was eager to see what he was playing ⁓ season, seeing if he was experimenting with something new. Graphite shafts have been on my mind currently for just what ⁓ all different manufacturers are coming out with. And it's necessarily just your grandfather's ⁓ 50 gram anymore. They make legit ⁓ stout graphite now. ⁓ interesting he went back the steel. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: And he's got got a B stamped on every one of his irons and he uses the raw version of the irons, which I think is sick. If you use like raw irons are pretty awesome. They all look rusty.
Dominic Colangelo: Do you get any more spin with that?
Matthew Zampello: Not really in my opinion anymore, but it's more of just an aesthetics kind of thing at this point.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I've seen pretty conflicting data that like the raw doesn't really add much. You'd think it would add some like surface friction and with the wedges you would think it would, but doesn't really add that much.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, so purely cosmetic, and I think it looks so cool. I used to have the RTX, they're raw, and it was such a cool look. I loved it. So know, I think was maybe the first week, the first episode we did, but you had talked about the C-Taper, because that's what you're using. So what's the Money Taper mean?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. the money 125 it's steel iron it's mid-launch spin it is supposed to be similar to the C taper but a little smoother more responsive feel according to KBS so it's probably just a feel maybe the vibrations better I know sometimes ⁓ the C tapers that I have feel a little bit like hard. You know if you mishit it you really get some intense feedback. probably just what he got fitted into with the tour van.
Matthew Zampello: So said mid-launch low spin? I might have to try though.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: There you go.
Matthew Zampello: You know, getting older, I'm not launching my 4 iron, 5 iron as high as I want to anymore.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I certainly am not. When I did the map my bag on the Trackman, it basically told me my four irons worthless because I was hitting it exactly as far as my five iron. It's just like that that hurt my pride a little bit.
Dominic Colangelo: You can see that.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. then so moving along to his wedges, Callaway Opus SP 50 degree, 54 and 60, similar to some guys in the past, you know, four degrees between the 1554 and six between the 54 and 60. He's got KBS high rev 2.0 135 X shafts in those. So some heavier shafts than his irons. But the Opus I've heard is very popular. wedges. haven't personally played them. I haven't played a Callaway wedge since the Mac Daddy 2s, but those things were pretty sweet back in the day.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah.
Matthew Zampello: What a stupid name. I'm sorry, I gotta, I mean...
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. As, as 18 year old Kevin, thought Mac daddy was the sickest wedge name that could possibly be. ⁓ cause Phil, Phil Mickelson and you know, being left handed, it's just like wedges, wedges what putters are to me now back when I was ⁓ 18 20.
Dominic Colangelo: Ha ha! I like that. Back in your catting for Johnny Manziel.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, that was exactly when I cat-ed for Johnny. Then on his putter, we've got Odyssey AI Dual Jailbird ⁓ So their new putter for the year with half ball on top. AI, they've got, Callaway loves the ⁓ marketing, but they've got apparently a face that's been AI designed that's supposed to help with mishits. And if you look at it on the pictures, it's all wavy. underneath and yeah, they say it supposedly is provides a better role. You know, interesting how every single year the insert that they use provides a better role than the last one that was already the best one that could ever exist. But jailbird's been a big popular design ever since Keegan Bradley, you know, made it pretty popular. And then what Wyndham Clark won and then Ricky Fowler switched to jailbird for a while there. I was really excited to try one out, but they only made them in right-handed, you got the original model. So now they're open up, but in protest of Calloway and Odyssey, I refuse to get a jailbird now.
Dominic Colangelo: No way. Of course.
Matthew Zampello: Well, I refuse for a different reason because he's anchoring his putter, so it's that stupid 45-
Kevin Spisak: Have you ever heard the allegations that Dom anchors his butter?
Dominic Colangelo: Nope. Not anymore. It was a fun year. I found my grandpa's and it was sick, but it's just so hard to judge long putts. The short ones are automatic. So I get where people are kind of upset about that, but the long putts, it's so hard to judge power. It's unreal.
Matthew Zampello: Domory, you're not using a long water, are you? I think we need somebody to follow him around for every round and slip a piece of paper between the putter and his chest like you do between it, like middle schoolers do at a dance. want this to make sure they're not too close to each other and leave room for Jesus. That's right. ⁓ want that because ⁓ think just...
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: You gotta leave room for Jesus.
Matthew Zampello: There's gotta be times that it, I mean, and it's probably not, he's not trying to do it. Like he's probably not trying to anchor, but I think there's definitely gotta, I mean, he, look.
Kevin Spisak: So remind me, what is the rule? Can your hand be touching your chest or can nothing be touching?
Matthew Zampello: I don't think in-
Dominic Colangelo: So the rule is from your elbow down if it's touching any part of your body. like if you're touching here, that counts. If you're here, Matt's saying he's touching his chest, but his chest is as thin as a piece of paper. So of course it's gonna look like that when he's bent over and hunched. So like whenever I was using it, I actually did research, I did field work on this, Matt. You did not. But it's a lot easier than you think to not anchor.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: and everyone thinks you are.
Matthew Zampello: want to see a gap as big as Michael Strahan's two front teeth between the pie.
Dominic Colangelo: Well, the thing is that you're not gonna be able to see it unless you wear shirts like Rory and it's tight against his chest. Any other shirt that's gonna hunt you over and you'll have it your hand. But see, the thing is what I'm so confused about with your hate for anchoring, or not anchoring, your hate for long putters. Your boy, you've been copying his setup, Adam Scott, famous long putter. Why aren't you mad about him? Because he's not winning?
Matthew Zampello: That's true. That is very true. He's a beautiful boy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I was gonna say he's he's so pretty you can't hate him
Dominic Colangelo: So you're like Odyssey, you just hate lefties. That's what it sounds like.
Matthew Zampello: No, I would argue I think Adam Scott makes a conscious effort to have it very separated from his chest. I don't hate long putters. Now, I also believe that the forearm anchoring should be banned. totally believe that that should be banned because ⁓ I didn't believe that I would have tried it by now. But I think you I want to see a very, very big gap between ⁓ he has a person following him. Check it.
Dominic Colangelo: I appreciate you mentioning the forearm anchor. I do not believe that you never tried it.
Matthew Zampello: I probably have played around with it, I have never put it in competition. I have never put it in competition.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ interesting!
Kevin Spisak: Ahoy.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah, whatever you competed last.
Matthew Zampello: my own club championship.
Dominic Colangelo: Which he won by the way. He had a clean sweep and then your wife won too, which is unreal.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, you know, I don't like to say it, but I beat a guy that got third in the Masters. It's no big deal. Whatever.
Dominic Colangelo: I think you should shout that from the rooftop, stamp it on your forehead. Stamp it on a club.
Matthew Zampello: He might have gotten third in the Masters in the 70s, but that's not the case over there. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: It counts, it counts.
Dominic Colangelo: When he's playing against plumbers and electricians.
Kevin Spisak: No, that was just Michael Jordan. But going back to Dom and his anchoring, Dom came and played with me at the Giving Golf Member Guest last year and we had a putting contest. And with like 70 people watching, Dom uses his anchored putter and or non anchored long putter. And all at once there was probably 10 people, he's anchoring, he's anchoring.
Dominic Colangelo: Thank you. Verbiage, please.
Matthew Zampello: Shout out, NavelCamp.
Dominic Colangelo: Every time. And guess what? made a good amount of putts and I was way too drunk. Like, we did a chipping competition and I hit it, I had no feel on the club whatsoever. I was just spraying and praying and then we started putting and then that was fine. Had a little bit of water before. But then our boy, Kevin, the club master, just was out and he ended up winning. Got me a sweatshirt. I should be wearing it right now. and he got us some free swag from winning a putting competition.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, municipal pullover. was, it's probably my like most prized possession right now. I like it so much I bought another one.
Matthew Zampello: Do you believe that he would have won that tournament without the long putter? he was required, if the rules said you had the longest putter you could use is 36 inches, let's just say it's 36 inches. Because I don't feel like it's fair if the rules says 35 inches for somebody like Christo Lamprat, who is seven feet tall, to have to use a 35 inch putter. I don't think that's fair. Whatever. You see where I'm going?
Dominic Colangelo: You want it to be proportional to the person's body, essentially. Well, Akshay is what, 6'1", 100 pounds. He looks like a long putter. like, very good. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha.
Matthew Zampello: You're a bad guy.
Kevin Spisak: You have to use a putter that looks like you.
Dominic Colangelo: That's why we always use mallets because we're big boys now he He is there's got to be a line somewhere. You can't just say oh you can't use a 35 inch because there's it's a 36 inch max like There is a line somewhere. He's he's fully in the rules allegedly Allegedly I don't know and it's kind of a dangerous game to play saying what if if he if he uses a short part I mean if he's dialed like he is with this one
Matthew Zampello: allegedly. We don't know.
Dominic Colangelo: then yeah, sure he wins because his approach game was sick. I don't know.
Matthew Zampello: I would volunteer for the PJ tour to follow him around and before each putt walk onto the green and stick a piece of paper between the gap. I would volunteer my time.
Dominic Colangelo: I'm sure you would, Matt.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I think he's such a good player like otherwise, you know, if if he was practicing as much as he is with that putter with another putter, he would figure it out and get dialed. Who's to say if he would win this specific tournament, but he would still be a quality player no matter what.
Dominic Colangelo: Cause he got to the pros without a belly. Right? Wasn't he using one before he got his pro card?
Matthew Zampello: I don't know.
Kevin Spisak: I don't know how long he's been using it, but...
Matthew Zampello: seeing Akshay for the first time at the US Junior or I mean I'm sorry US Amateur at Pinehurst he was basically that was right before he was gonna turn pro he just never went to college and just straight-up turned pro out of high school
Dominic Colangelo: Okay. I was able to follow him at the 3M Open up here in Minnesota and it was him and Jake Knapp in a pairing and that was much fun to watch because their swings are so sick and Jake Knapp, it doesn't even make sense how far it goes. Like he has so much whip at the bottom of his swing, it's insane. I just like watching them both.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I've been hearing about actually since one of my Dayton golf trips before he was pro My buddy John was telling me he was glued on him. So I've had my eye him for a while and Yeah, he weighs 130 pounds at 6 1 so he is he's a freak. Yeah, you were
Dominic Colangelo: I wasn't that far off.
Kevin Spisak: You're within 30%. Have you heard the story about his fiance, now wife? I don't know if they're married yet.
Matthew Zampello: Crazy.
Dominic Colangelo: You I literally just about to say that as my last little tidbit. Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, they are married. They definitely are married.
Kevin Spisak: Okay, they are married. I heard the story and then didn't care to follow it up because just that story is like great enough. ⁓ yeah, a social media influencer, right? He slid into her DMs, asked her to caddy for him and then won a corn fairy event.
Dominic Colangelo: It's awesome.
Matthew Zampello: He won the barracuda which is the opposite which is the opposite to To the open championship opposite week. Yeah
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. It was, yeah, it was in the Bahamas.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ it's the alternate PGA Tour event? Okay. Awesome.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. was his first professional win. He slid into her DMs, asked her to caddy, carried his own bag, just said, hey, look pretty and walk with me. And then won. It's gnarly. Yeah, now they're married. Like what a love story.
Kevin Spisak: incredible. That's incredible. So did he already have his PJ Tour card before that event or did he get into it and he was trying to earn it and then that got him his official card?
Matthew Zampello: think that's the way it went, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: That's crazy.
Dominic Colangelo: Because it was on the corn fairy tour, so I don't really know how that works. But yeah, Akshay Bhatia, like we said, third PGA win. He dedicated this to his niece, which is a very wrenching story. But you gotta love to hear those kind of things that he kind of had her on his mind. And the rainbow on 18, he said in his interview, he just kind of thought of her like. You can't really script that, it's awesome. But yeah, it's.
Matthew Zampello: And that six iron hit into 16 was sick to like three feet. That was nuts.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah. then the Shot Tracer on 18th or on the playoff.
Matthew Zampello: Oh on 18? I know! Yeah I was like, he shanked it! And then it was like-
Dominic Colangelo: I know, was like, he's in the bunker, ⁓ no. Yeah, man. But yeah, so Akshay Bhatia, I think overall, kind of just getting into more of recap of the Arnold Palmer. A amount of withdraws, which, you two, but still, Rory withdrew, and so did Smotherman. I don't even know, I know Smotherman had just had an illness, and then he was very emotionally hugging his parents on his way out.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Don't really know what happened there. Hope everything is okay. Why did Rory back out?
Matthew Zampello: He had back spasms. He was working out before the round. So he is currently on way to the players. He was treatment at home, but yeah, kind of with the players, the masters coming up, it was probably a good idea for him to WD if he was having any sort of back stuff, make sure he compete though. So hopefully Rory sticks it out for the whole player's championship this week.
Dominic Colangelo: think the course looked good. There is that one delay. Man, that would be tough trying to in that downpour. I think I saw, have been Morikawa that hit one and then, no, it Minwooli. He hit a putt, ran right ⁓ under ⁓ the bleachers. be hard.
Matthew Zampello: back to Akshay too, it's Akshay is 24 years old. He's five years younger than Morikawa and he's five years younger than Chris Gotterup. It's insane, right? he's already a seasoned PJ Tour bro those guys are at the same level. And some of those guys that are even older than him are just coming out on tour, which is nuts.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it reminds me of when Jordan Spieth won his first tournament and he was like the same age as us. I think it was like freshman year college. It's just like, are you kidding me? I'm like sitting here cleaning a golf cart, spraying off and picking up someone's like dirty cigar and Jordan Spieth saw him win in PGA Tour events.
Matthew Zampello: Right.
Dominic Colangelo: you
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: And then it's all downhill from there.
Kevin Spisak: Yep.
Matthew Zampello: And just to touch Daniel Berger was leader basically from round one all the way until the 80th hole into the playoff. Tough for him, but on that last last playoff hole, but a great story all week really came back from he got all way down to like ⁓ 600th in the official World Golf rankings. And now he's back up into the top hundred. So good player hits that
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, man.
Matthew Zampello: Burner fade off the tee that little low fade, which is really sick. So burger I think is cool. He's a good player. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that par he made to force the playoff was so clutch from where his tee shot was.
Matthew Zampello: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, unlike the nerves it would take to do that, because wasn't it a pretty big slider, or is it a straight putt? I couldn't really tell with the broadcast.
Kevin Spisak: Seems straight-ish, but it was long. I mean, not long, but it was not a gimme for sure.
Dominic Colangelo: Absolutely.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, Tigers hit that. feel like that putt Tigers hit 10 times and made it, you know, eight or whatever. So everybody kind of knows what that putt does. I feel like it's just about getting the speed in line like perfect, but you know, it's going to move to the right. You know, it's going to be fast and everything.
Dominic Colangelo: Right. for sure. You weren't kidding though about the greens being kind of dried out and quick. I feel like a lot of people are struggling with that. You know, there's a couple of people who could stop it every once in while, but overall it was pretty tough.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah, Justin Thomas was like, I'm glad I'm not gonna be playing there this weekend because the greens are gonna be dead by the weekend. It's like, all right, well, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, that's why.
Matthew Zampello: All right, getting into some news headlines ⁓ the week. John Rom had a live interview and his DP World Tour drama. He's basically not in the short offered a ⁓ way to your and be able to have full time status on the DP World Tour and not continue to get fined for playing live events and then also playing DP World Tour events.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Matthew Zampello: Everybody on Liv settled all their fines. John Rahm is deciding to just not pay his fines and continue to fight against the DP World Tour saying what they're doing is And I believe he used the words extortion, which I don't think that's necessarily correct. There's been a lot news on it. John Rahm's an interesting guy. And then there's also a story John Rahm
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: sent his plane to Oman to go pick up all the lip golfers that were stuck trying to get over to Hong Kong. yeah, crazy, crazy stuff. But he up getting his first win out in Hong Kong. So he ended up winning this week.
Dominic Colangelo: Wow. is ⁓ And he's doing what we all want to do and just not pay our taxes. He's living our dream outright.
Matthew Zampello: right. That's right. Yeah. But yeah, he got his first win at live Hong Kong. first live win ever, which is crazy to say because he's been on live for how long now? Three years? First ever first ever win on that. Yeah, he's come second like 10 times. It feels like I know right and he won player of the he won the player of the year last year because he got second so many times like never won which is
Dominic Colangelo: first win?
Kevin Spisak: That's his first win? Seriously? Wow.
Dominic Colangelo: Is he Phil Mickelson?
Matthew Zampello: Which is insane, I know, right?
Kevin Spisak: he kind of like that on the PJ tour as well? Didn't he have so many second places?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. And then when he broke through at the U S open and the masters, I think he started to check off some more and he had some really hot streak for a while. Yeah. John Rom first one on live kind of to ⁓ Singapore this week opposite the players, which is a bold move. It's at Sentosa golf club. If you haven't seen pictures of Sentosa, I would highly recommend looking it up. Sentosa is freaking sick. It's like Augusta national.
Dominic Colangelo: Really.
Matthew Zampello: Singapore, ⁓ private. The they throw out there for the joining fee is astronomical money, crazy Singapore stuff, but super cool golf course, ⁓ very like a bunch of stuff on the lake and everything. Yeah, excited again. of another good week. The players during the day live Singapore at night. I can get used to this schedule. I had some great
Dominic Colangelo: It's gonna be crazy.
Matthew Zampello: I had a great Friday night and Saturday night. Got home from dinner on Friday night, ⁓ a couple drinks, watched some live golf, and then Saturday night was just let the rainy here in Dallas ride in and took in some live golf right after the F1 race on Saturday night. It was fantastic.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: You gotta send us an update text whenever you watch Liv, I need to put it on the calendar, because I never watch it. I need to watch it.
Matthew Zampello: It's a pretty bad and I think the production quality is pretty bad. Like it's not very good, but I mean, it's cool. Like you get to see Bryson playing with basically like no fans. You get to hear a lot of catty conversations.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ there you go.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I don't think I've watched more than like 15 minutes of a live event, but I see a lot of the highlights when big stuff happens.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I pretty much only watched Anthony Kim's round. And that was a pretty great round to watch, but like, I need to watch more.
Matthew Zampello: I don't watch it if it's during day. Like if in the United States, I won't watch it because I have better things to do or I'm watching the PJ tour or whatever. ⁓ if it's at night, I'm tuning in, baby. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: at night. Little SpongeBob.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ last thing for news, a new schedule potentially dropping Wednesday from from Sir Mr. Brian Rollap, sir. Your majesty. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Mr. Rollapser. Yeah, if you haven't been able to check it out yet, Matt and I recorded a separate podcast kind of going over Matt's proposed schedule. And we kind of had some fun with it, kind of getting some names out there. Unfortunately, Kevin said, he's in his flu game, Jordan flu game, so he wasn't able to join, but it's a very fun episode. Go check it out, and then we'll kind of have probably a recap of when.
Kevin Spisak: Mm.
Dominic Colangelo: when his schedule drops. So I think what we can kind of transition to is talk about the players a little bit.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, so players preview jump in ⁓ you feel whenever you feel I'm ⁓ got something so Pete die design ⁓ Mr. Dice ⁓ as they call it Super cool golf course ⁓ built a swamp all that sort of stuff
Kevin Spisak: So
Matthew Zampello: so the big question this week, the big talking point ⁓ is you consider making the players a major championship? I know where I stand, absolutely not. It's not a major. It's a big tournament, but it's not a major.
Dominic Colangelo: Why is that? Like, why don't you want it to be a major?
Matthew Zampello: I think the majors are, if you look at the LPGA, Evian Championship basically bought its way into major and nobody thinks it's a major. And think if we added a major this late in golf history, I don't know how you would go back. you go back and make Tiger a 17 major championship, major champion now because he won the players twice?
Dominic Colangelo: That's a good point.
Matthew Zampello: does.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Jack won it three times so he'd still keep the lead.
Matthew Zampello: Right. Do you, how do you handle that when it wasn't a major when they won it, but now it is a major. I don't, don't know how you can, how you can, we're far, we're too far gone. We can't ⁓ go now.
Kevin Spisak: Why?
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. And it's such a cool, like having four majors, I think just works. It's a good number. The grand slam stats would be toast. Like there wouldn't really be any, you know what mean? Like it just makes everything askew a little bit.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, and this has been a debate for forever But I think the ⁓ big question there is like right now the players is an event on the PGA Tour You know the other majors have some governing body that runs the tournament like who's the governing body that? Says that they run the players You know is it like the players association or something like that like I know they call it like the players Championship, you know, because it's has had a bigger purse and it was supposed to be the biggest event of the PGA TOUR season. But you know, it's like, what is a major if you're going to add the players to be called a major?
Dominic Colangelo: Right.
Matthew Zampello: just think that they would have to do some crazy stuff behind the scenes to make it a major. I don't think people would, it would definitely be the weakest major, maybe equivalent with the PGA Championship, since that's kind of fallen off its pedestal a little bit. But I think it has its position. Like it is the best tournament on the PGA Tour to win. And that's a good thing to have.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. And who gets to decide that it's a major?
Dominic Colangelo: I know that's what I keep asking myself and I think...
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: You can't have a major where they do the creator classic.
Matthew Zampello: Well, they canceled that this year. goodness.
Dominic Colangelo: Like they do it at the tour championship, but playoffs are made up in PGA. just, I think the major state of the majors, keeping how it is. I love the players. I'm not discrediting it at all. I just don't think you should change. I think there's some things that should stay the same. You don't always need to change things because that's really, it would really be a money grab.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. They say when you say that the players is like a bigger, more paid paid attention to tournament than the playoffs or the tour championship.
Dominic Colangelo: I'd say so.
Kevin Spisak: So it almost like already, ⁓ already has its status, like we don't need to do anything more.
Matthew Zampello: Tasting. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: see that. It's clicks. Everyone's looking for clicks.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. And Brandle went through and said it's, he would argue it's higher than the other majors because of the field. Like Brandle is such an idiot, but it's just one of those. That's your click. Yeah. They, they literally like the golf channel execs were like, Hey, Brandle, go say something crazy on TV. got you. so other big talking point, right? TPC, saw grass.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that is just pure clickbait.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Hold my beer.
Matthew Zampello: Is it great or is it terrible? think a lot of the players love it. A lot of players hate it. Would you? I I don't think we any of us have played it. I love watching it on TV because I think it's hard. I think it's a hard golf course, but. A lot of people don't like it, so. Quick take would would you say great or terrible?
Kevin Spisak: I mean, it's the most famous TPC course by far. The Island Green is probably the most famous ⁓ in golf. you know, other than maybe 12 at Augusta. You know, it's the picture that's in every sports bar, country club, you know, Muni Golf Shop. You know, the Island Green, how many other golf courses have, you know, tried to copy it and have their own. You know, this is the one that they all try to copy. So I think that makes it great, you know, even if you don't love the rest of the courses, even like the front nine. It's just so iconic and famous and the big moments that have happened there through the years. I it just has to be great.
Dominic Colangelo: I agree. I was going to shout out ⁓ iconic it is. I know, it's just like there's things you can tweak about it that doesn't make it too crazy. Like people are, the pros are forced to hit stingers now under that tree, I can't remember which hole it is. But like those are kind of fun. I think it's overpriced. I would like to have some kind of shot to play it in my lifetime. Like why is it $750 for a tee time, you know?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ yeah. That's it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I've heard during the offseason in the late afternoon I've heard you can get a pretty good deal
Matthew Zampello: He's more than that.
Dominic Colangelo: Ooh. right, I know our next golfer.
Matthew Zampello: If work for the PGA Tour, if you work for the PGA Tour, you play for free. So my take is if I can't name a hole on the front nine, it's not a great golf course. That's my rule. It's my rule of thumb.
Kevin Spisak: There we go.
Dominic Colangelo: I will send you my resume, PGA, if you're listening. Is it now?
Matthew Zampello: That's true. So Augusta, Oakmont, like those golf courses are like great golf courses because you can, there's great holes throughout. I couldn't tell you a hole on front nine of TPC Sawgrass. I can tell you what 16, 17, 18 are for sure.
Kevin Spisak: I'm sure you could you've probably played it enough on like Tiger Woods, know video games or golf sims or PJ 2k I bet you you know what they look like
Matthew Zampello: Couldn't tell ya. really I couldn't I mean no there's
Dominic Colangelo: I think what I'm learning is you're a hater. You're a big hater. I am a big hater in certain aspects, but I don't know. think you're seeing opportunities to just downgrade sick courses just so you can talk about it.
Matthew Zampello: I might be. I might be.
Kevin Spisak: Yep.
Matthew Zampello: So, so going off that featured holes this week, 16 and 17, 18 are obviously the featured holes. Now going back, don't love TBC sawgrass, but 16 and 17, 18 are great. I think they are awesome. They've built this stadium around those holes. It's an amphitheater, like pretty natural too. Like they have all the built up, built up hills around it. It's pretty awesome what they've done.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: 16 is a a birdieable par five with a lot of risk. 17 obviously you just have to get up and hit a shot. Brooks talked about it today how 17 kind of has this number and 18 you got to hit two great shots to give yourself a birdie chance but it's a pretty easy bogey and if you hook it left obviously it's a pretty much automatic bogey or double and a lot of players end up just blowing it out to the right and then taking their layup and and bogey from there. or potential bar, they can get up and down. So it. ⁓ a big fan of 16, 17, 18.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, in 1617 18 obviously like the famous ones the finishing holes, lots of big moments, but we talked about the hardest holes on the PGA Tour a couple of weeks ago, and actually 14 had the highest scoring average of any hole last year. And then that was, so that was 42nd on the PGA Tour for 2025. And then the next on sawgrass would be 18 was the 53rd hardest hole. So the tough stretch there at the end.
Dominic Colangelo: Wow.
Kevin Spisak: You know, we obviously know all the challenge that comes with 17.
Matthew Zampello: It's crazy how 17 is like 125, 130 yards. Normally for PJ tour pros, like that's like.
Dominic Colangelo: So easy.
Matthew Zampello: bird is birdie central for them. But you just throw some water around and it just gets in their head. It's it's it's nuts. They've done a it's genius what they've done with 17. So
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, since you know the the tournament in 2019 was moved to March where it used to be in in May for a while before that I learned recently that it had previously been in March even before you know even before that I thought it had just always been in May but I was looking at the scoring averages of like the players who've won
Matthew Zampello: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: when they moved it to March, remember the big story was like, ⁓ my gosh, the weather in Florida is so unpredictable. There's be storms and there's going to be wind and the course is going to be, you know, just ridiculous. in the last six years, the scoring average for the winner is 15.3 shots, ⁓ you know, ⁓ under par. in the years while it was in May, The winning score average was 13 and a half shots under. So it's actually been easier than when it was in May.
Matthew Zampello: Well, they overseed in March. So in May they didn't have overseed. And so they were playing pure Bermuda in March. It's all overseeded. So it's rye, a little bit stickier, bit somewhat easier. I think that probably.
Dominic Colangelo: That's cool.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. so ⁓ trivia time for the week the championship coming up. If you guys get this question right, I'll have to owe you one on the beer chug because I'm still battling whatever virus my daughter gave me from daycare. But we mentioned, Tiger's won this a couple times, Jack has won this three times, never consecutively. So Jack Nicklaus has won in 1974, 1976, and 1978. So perfect gap year in between. In 1974, Jack won with a score of 16 under. In 1976, Jack won with a score of 19 under. In 1978, Plus or minus one, what was Jack's winning score?
Dominic Colangelo: Mmm.
Matthew Zampello: 1978.
Kevin Spisak: Yep, 1900 and.
Matthew Zampello: feel like ⁓ is a crazy question, ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Probably it is. have a three stroke gap. He's giving you plus or minus one.
Kevin Spisak: There's a lot on the line.
Matthew Zampello: Plus or minus one, you said?
Dominic Colangelo: So he's giving you some leeway.
Matthew Zampello: for under par.
Kevin Spisak: All right,
Dominic Colangelo: Yes, give me 10. Round number.
Kevin Spisak: both wrong. Jack won with he was won over. Yeah, big swing 16 under 19 under one over the
Dominic Colangelo: Whoa! So that was close.
Matthew Zampello: I knew there was something going on with Kevin because he was gonna ask something where it was crazy number. I did not think it would be one over par. must have had some crazy conditions that year or something.
Dominic Colangelo: It had to be weather.
Kevin Spisak: I was looking at who the winners were just through history, because Scottie made history by being the first back-to-back winner. And with Tiger's prestige and everything, it's amazing that he never did that. But the winner the year prior to Jack's one-over win, Mark Hayes was also one over in 1977 and won. So two kind of wild years, and then the scores go back to being well below par for quite a while.
Matthew Zampello: Man, I thought you were going to pull some like who won in 2007 and I was going to say Adam Scott as quickly as I could jump just because I knew that
Dominic Colangelo: though.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. double trivia question, give you guys another chance to give me a beer chug. In 1994, this player set the record for the lowest score to ever win the players. Scotty won a couple years ago at 20 under. Who is it and what is the score?
Matthew Zampello: to go in the memory.
Dominic Colangelo: Wait, you already know it, Matt?
Matthew Zampello: I I know it. You go first.
Kevin Spisak: You gotta you gotta nail it exactly since it's a double question.
Dominic Colangelo: I guess I say, let me guess. For the listeners, Matt is shaking his head yes. So I'm try to go first.
Matthew Zampello: I think.
Dominic Colangelo: Hmm. What about like a... Phil Mickelson?
Kevin Spisak: No, that would be before his time.
Matthew Zampello: No. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I knew I was gonna sound so dumb. was like, I don't know how far back I can go with my knowledge.
Matthew Zampello: So I think I'm between two people, but I think I got it. This guy went off on the back nine and made birdie after birdie and could not stop making birdies. And he was in a very famous Polo Ralph Lauren rain jacket, Davis Love III, and it was 23 under par.
Kevin Spisak: You are very close. He won in 1992, not 1994.
Dominic Colangelo: oooo
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Then it's Freddy Couples.
Kevin Spisak: Nope, it was the shark, Greg Norman, with 20... 24 under par.
Matthew Zampello: Alright.
Dominic Colangelo: Damn it.
Kevin Spisak: He won with a four shot lead.
Dominic Colangelo: right, I think that is a perfect time to ⁓ into our one and done's So can recap last week There's a little bit of drama we'll get into it so Matt he went with the typo Pearson cootie He did well, didn't he?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, just a... 63rd.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, he missed the cut like we predicted. Matt chooses him, he's going to miss a cut. Kevin Tommy Fleetwood and ⁓ went Max Homa and that is things get kind of wonky. ⁓ For some reason, I was looking, I was frankly looking as we were recording, if he was playing, thought he was on the field. Apparently he wasn't. I got, I think there was maybe 5, 10.
Kevin Spisak: So, So, thank
Dominic Colangelo: to 15 tee times that went out. And then I realized that Max Hummer was not there. And I have text evidence, I said, Kurt Kitiyama is my new choice. But was T18, best out of us three. It feels wrong. I think I should just get a, I think I should get a miscut. I don't think I
Matthew Zampello: No, been thinking about it. I've been thinking about a lot, Dom. I think what you should do is should get
Kevin Spisak: No.
Matthew Zampello: 20 police penalties.
Dominic Colangelo: I don't hate that.
Kevin Spisak: I'm willing give Dom the spot because he texted us before anything happened, only if he chugs his Kirkland Black Cherry. You
Dominic Colangelo: So yeah, if if there's any consolation I texted before Kurt Kenyama went off so he never he didn't have any shots done yet. So I I do think I do need a penalty of some kind and if that takes chugging another white cloth that I can do that.
Matthew Zampello: I'll okay. We a penalty in the bank for Dom. How about that? That we ⁓ deploy it anytime.
Kevin Spisak: Each one of us gets a penalty chug that we can deploy.
Dominic Colangelo: That's fair.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, that's
Kevin Spisak: Is that or chug or shot?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: No questions asked has to be done.
Kevin Spisak: Alright. All right.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I like that.
Dominic Colangelo: Sweet, so going over it, I'll do, I'll I already get wasted off communion wise. So quick recap again, Pearson Cootie missed a cut. So we're giving Matt a 63rd place, just going by count. Tommy Fleetwood for Kevin, he finished 49th. And then Kurt Kidiama, T18 with a caveat of a one.
Kevin Spisak: What time do go to church, ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: shot or drink penalty given out whenever Kevin and Matt see fit. That brings our totals to Matt with a whopping 130 points. we just realized that Pearson Cootie and Chandler Phillips both had a finishing placement of 63, which is just incredible. Kevin in second place with 71 points and I have 34. So that'll be definitely be pretty fun to see how this kind of continues throughout the year.
Kevin Spisak: you
Dominic Colangelo: Like we kind of mentioned before, what was that?
Matthew Zampello: We're still here. We're still early in this. guys, you guys use Tommy Fleetwood way too early. Trust me. And, Kevin didn't even, Kevin didn't even hit on Tommy Fleetwood.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. That was a big waste.
Dominic Colangelo: That is a tough one. you use a big name, you gotta use him in a good spot. And I think we all thought he would be fine. So that was actually kind of surprising.
Kevin Spisak: That hurt.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, that hurt a lot.
Dominic Colangelo: So yeah, think moving forward, think a fun ⁓ will be that spreadsheet kind of showing the numbers of winners bags with brands, shafts, degrees, specs, like that. We'll kind of maybe flash it on the screen, maybe go over it next week. And then like I said, continue these one and done's. ⁓ Is
Kevin Spisak: I bet it's gonna be the same guy I pick.
Matthew Zampello: think we gotta make our one and done picks. But Dom, you have to look at the leaderboard before you make your pick. You cannot just pick.
Dominic Colangelo: That's fair, absolutely fair. I do have one. to, as of this morning though, I haven't checked. So let me check right now and then y'all make your picks.
Matthew Zampello: Okay. Alright, I'll go first this week I'm in last place, unfortunately. Jason Day. Mr. Malbon himself, Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy, loves Sawgrass, champion, predicting a great week for JDay.
Kevin Spisak: Browns fan, Cavs fan, love JJ. So earlier today I went down quite the Twitter rabbit hole with a post about some stats. I won't read off all of them but there's some interesting ones and the list starts big and keeps getting smaller and smaller and ultimately made my pick for me. So got each of the last six winners, top 19, strokes gained, tee to green. Big list. Each of the last six winners, top 11 strokes gained total, smaller list. Top 53 in bogey avoidance, top 62 birdie average, we'll skip forward. We get all the way down to each of the last six winners entered the week inside the top 11 of the FedExCup standings. And each of those metrics lead me to pick Jake Knapp, Mr. Beautiful Swing. Repeat after repeat I can just watch this swing all day so nice
Dominic Colangelo: I love that actually. think those are two very good picks. For me, I just got through making sure that he's on the tee sheet. He has a 12.54 Central Standard tee time. The last few times that he's played at the players at TPC, top 40, he was top T3.
Matthew Zampello: It's a good pick. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: He was T38, T28, T2, T12, So he has a history of playing well. Again, I'll never go for the winner. I'm going for the top half in making the cut. This has a sick two iron stinger that helps him hit fairways. Last couple tournaments, he's been the leader after 36 holes. And his name Minwoo Lee.
Matthew Zampello: Wow, very Ozzy-centric this week. like it. The chef, all right.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah, I like it.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ isn't Min-Woo Lee, doesn't sister play professional golf?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah?
Dominic Colangelo: dude, she's so sick.
Matthew Zampello: Lee Yeah Lee Minjee Lee
Dominic Colangelo: so good. Say it again, sorry. Minjee Lee, yeah. So that was one of the first episodes. I made a joke because it flipped, the broadcast flipped from PGA to LPGA. And she's pretty much always on the leaderboard.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that's what I thought. That was how I was like recalling it. And then I was like, oh, no way.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, they had a pretty cool, were they in full swing or is it just like a separate? Okay, yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And she, doesn't she beat him like a lot?
Matthew Zampello: They were. They were on full swing. Yeah. Yeah, they actually practice in Dallas quite a bit and they're up in my club every once in a while. They'll come out and really cool. They're super, super awesome. They kind of keep to themselves, but they'll go play and play the matches and stuff out there.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ that's cool. That's cool, I like that. Well I think that's about it for us. sure to follow us on our socials. We're on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, at Under the Covers Golf. Excited to see the players. It's always a very fun tournament. TBC Sawgrass, Matt's favorite. Can't to see you shows up this week so we can take a look at what's under the covers. See you next week, peace.
Matthew Zampello: Shout out Brian Rollap, Mr. Brian Rollap, sir. I love you.