Babe wake up, Shane Lowry choked another golf tournament
Transcript
Dominic Colangelo: Hello friends, welcome to Under the Covers, a golf podcast where we deep dive into most recent PGA Tour winners bag, talk about their club choices, review their specs, really just talk about some golf. We're your host, we got Matt, he is our resident scratch golfer and former competitor. Kevin, our club enthusiast, and I am Dominic. really just here along for the ride. I'm a mid to low handicapper like Kevin and just lucky enough to be friends with these guys. ⁓ today got a pretty good pod for ya. We're gonna, like I said, go over the what's in the bag for Niko Ekevaria. afterwards we're gonna go through a Cognizant Classic recap ⁓ PGA National and then go through a few of the news headlines that we got going on in golf today or this week and then a little Bay Hill preview. So ⁓ Nico Echavaria is our winner this week at PGA National. This is his third career win. He posted some pretty solid scores. He started off with an opening round of 63, then went with a 72, 66, and a closing round of 66. had finishing score of 17 under ⁓ and kind of took the win away from Shane Lowry ⁓ or... Shane Lowry lost it. I think we'll get into a little bit of that later. ⁓ But some interesting things about Nico. Like I said, it's his third career win this year. He has only made two cuts. This one, which he won, and then Pebble Beach, and then he ended T8. So if he makes the weekend, he's typically climbing up the leaderboard pretty well. Seems like he's kind of a weekend player, which is nice. and the love talking about this, because actually very interesting storyline. ⁓ He closed on a house in the neighborhood surrounding PGA National ⁓ on Saturday. ⁓ They kind of did all the paperwork and signed the documents, then his wife went and did the last house tour. And then I guess she just walked outside and then she was there,
Kevin Spisak: There's so many golfers that live in that area around PJ National, ⁓ like Palm Beach Gardens there, is it, Jupiter's not too far, right? That's where like everyone lives.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, that's where they all kind of hang out. ⁓ He also got, looking through it, he got arrested in college. His roommate was Taylor Moore, who was in the final group with him, or the second final group, and they both got arrested at the same time.
Kevin Spisak: Hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. For what?
Kevin Spisak: Nice what they do.
Matthew Zampello: I think it was some bad stuff.
Kevin Spisak: Is it like Baker Mayfield style?
Matthew Zampello: voyeurism.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ shoot. no. Yeah. Drunk and disorderly or something.
Dominic Colangelo: whoa that is quite different than what i expected i was thinking like ⁓
Matthew Zampello: more and etch v- More and Etrivar were arrested in Fayetteville police Wednesday in charge with felony video voyeurism. Wow. Tough scene.
Kevin Spisak: Yikes. Hate to see that.
Dominic Colangelo: Sometimes the police report seems worse than it is, I guess? I don't know. See, and we all thought James Winston was a bad guy for stealing some crab legs. He's fine.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. What's like the lowest version that that could be? Like I think about in college, I got written up for being at a party in a dorm that had music that was too loud and got written up for environmental disrespect. So I was all concerned back then that like some future employer was going to see that and think I like vandalize, you know, some public park or something. But I don't know how you could lessen voyeurism.
Dominic Colangelo: Whoa. Hahahaha. Yeah, I don't know.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, you can go read about it. I mean, it was the first thing that popped up as an ESPN article. Probably won't go into the details, but they, you know, took some photos it seemed like. Not very good. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Let's hope he was, maybe he was That's crazy.
Kevin Spisak: Yikes. that's a good segue to look at what's under the covers. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ I love it. All right, you started off, Kevin.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so weird background, weird golf bag too. ⁓ He's got a prototype Sirixon ZXI driver. ⁓ I feel like with most Tour players that we look at when they have something that's not on the rack for us normies, you can kind of figure out what's different about it. But his bag is so all over the place that I'm not really sure what I'd be looking for. ⁓ The shaft. Diamana blueboard ⁓ 73TX, ⁓ mid-launch mid-spin. We've talked about the whiteboard in weeks past. Matt, any comments there on the driver head or shaft?
Matthew Zampello: Just seems like a bunch of the Strikzon guys play a bunch of prototype heads it seems like. ⁓ It feels like they're not really like, and it could go to like the QI, like the TaylorMade guys are playing like custom QI 4Ds, but they're branded as 4QI 4Ds or whatever. Feels like Strikzon is just being like, like we'll of have like a base and we'll make you whatever you want to play and we'll just put Slap Prototype on it. Yeah, mean, Sturksond's an underrated metal wood company, though. I feel like they make some good metal woods. They're definitely lower, lower priced than, I think, by like 50, 50 to 75 bucks or something. ⁓ Really.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: I think even more actually, because I have their, I have driver three wood ⁓ and seven wood actually, thanks to Kevin, but I have all three woods, Strixon and the main reason, obviously I hit them and I liked them, but like the price point was so much better. That's kind of why I went with them.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah, I think they're underrated. They have good performance and it doesn't seem like the pros that are playing Strixon are at a competitive disadvantage. You have a lot of really good tour players playing Strixon clubs.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ And side note for us normal people that ⁓ their exotic shafts cost less for us ordering it than any of the other manufacturers. Going on tailor-made, it's $100 less in comparison if you're ordering a driver, say, with a Ventus Blue or Ventus Black or something of the like.
Matthew Zampello: Interesting.
Dominic Colangelo: so whenever they do a prototype, are they changing the... Like the inside, or are they changing the shape of the driver? Like what's typically the thing that people play with whenever they're making a prototype?
Matthew Zampello: Probably mostly weight, wouldn't you say, Kevin? I feel like they're just probably moving weight around. It's like wherever they want weight, they can get it. And because that basically controls what the spin comes out as, so.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, weight and location. I don't think they're really changing anything with the face. Sometimes I guess you could see like a deeper faced prototype. Some tour players don't like as wide of a look. know, the club head looks too fat, so they'll take like the taller face. You know, or they'll make, you know, a more like pear shaped driver. You know, that's pretty common, you know, with the tour models now. ⁓ But that's probably about it. So the three wood ⁓ is ⁓ abnormal configuration again for what we see in most tour players. ⁓ Taylor made QI 10 bonded Hossel shout out Matt ⁓ and he's got a hazardous smoke red 70 gram TX. So the smoke red is abnormal for ⁓ the we've been looking at because that's their higher launching higher spinning shaft ⁓ mixed the core head. So not really sure what he's going for other than, you know, high launch, maybe some stopping power with the 3-wood. ⁓ But without knowing what he's going for with that prototype, you know, there's some questions there.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Going into his 5-wood, ⁓ he's got a different configuration. So he's got the PXG Lightning 18 degree, but then he's got the Hazardous ⁓ Smoke Green small batch, known as the Hulk 80 gram TX. ⁓ So the Hulk is lowest launching, lowest spinning ⁓ shaft for Hazardous. ⁓ So he's got ⁓ high spin, high on his 3-wood, low spin, low launch on his 5-wood. ⁓ To me that seems like there'd be some crossover there in what he's trying to do. And then he's got the mid-launch mid-spin on his driver. So weird, weird wood setup in my opinion. Kind of an abnormal series there.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, just a note, feel like QI 10, like we're going to look back on a couple of three woods just like we do right now. And like you got like, I don't know, rocket balls, ping answer, ⁓ TaylorMade SIM TI. Like you have some like goat three woods. And I feel like the QI 10 core is probably going to fall into that. Like if you, if you look back, you know, two or three years from now, there, there's going to be like a handful. And I feel like that one, that one is still.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: of Tour players bags and it's just a really really good through it so might be one of those kind of unicorns if you can find one at a at a secondary shop I would definitely snag it just to just to have it
Dominic Colangelo: So does Nico, does he have a Strixon deal? Like that's his main manufacturer? that was a, did you touch on it earlier where he has Strixon tailor made PHG? Like out of nowhere?
Matthew Zampello: Mm. Yeah, it feels like Strixxon kind of allows... they have less stringent... like, again, TaylorMade will have a 14 club deal where you have to play all 14 club TaylorMade. I feel like Strixxon doesn't have that strict of like contracts where they'll be like, okay, we'll sign you for a 10 club contract and you can play whatever you want outside of the 10... outside of the irons or the wedges or something like that.
Dominic Colangelo: That's an interesting business model, because I get it, where you have people like us that are going through each club, but the more casual golf watcher, they're not going to know what clubs these guys are playing, unless they listen. Or unless they actually dig. But for the most part, they're just looking at what's on their shirt or their hat.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, we got we got robbed a bit of another Strixxon staffer, What's in the Bag with Shane Lowry, and he's got a QI 35, Fairway Wood, and then the Spider putter. So he's another Strixxon guy that's got some other brands.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Going back to the difference in shafts here, so the ⁓ red, this high spinning, could there be any, ⁓ like it's more about control? Like would any of these shafts kind of give you more control where it really doesn't matter about distance with these dudes, it's really just getting it where he wants it? Could that help out?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, with the high launch high spin, I think he's looking to control the landing so that it doesn't like say run out too far. But that's to me, that seems like the point of his five wood. Like, you know, maybe I think he would be consistent in trying to do that with both rather than trying to go bombs away with the five wood. You know, but but maybe he's got a different thought process. Maybe the five wood is there more so he can. swing hard out of some tough lies and have little more loft under it or a baby's got something else in mind.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Well, it was working for him. What about the irons?
Kevin Spisak: And the irons, long irons, he's got the ZXI5s, we've talked about those in the past, short irons, ZXI7s, so the better players, like Cavity Blade for the shorter clubs. The shafts are the Nippon Modus Tour 125X. Again, weird configuration compared to what we talked about with the woods. So the Nippon 125 would be They're like lowest launching, lowest spinning shaft that they make. So he's going low launch, low spin on the irons and then that even extends into his wedges. But he's going for a mix of mid and high launch on his wood. So again, just abnormal. I would have expected to see something a little bit more consistent.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, we're seeing a ton of guys play combos now in the irons too. I like we don't see a ton of guys just playing full set of the same. They're always looking for a little bit of help now. is cool, see? I'm a big Nippon guy too. I'm a big Nippon modus, so.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I got fitted into the the modus 115s with the Mizuno ⁓ club fitting. I forget the, you know, the total specs of everything, but I really wanted to try them. But I got so used to the rifle look from Project X that that step down look just doesn't appeal to me anymore.
Matthew Zampello: Shout out to Japanese forged irons. They don't upcharge you for nip and shafts. Whereas if you buy titleist irons or tailor-made irons, they upcharge you $15 a club for nip and shafts.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ wow, that's good to know.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, going on to his wedges. He's got 50, 54, 58. I think we've discussed that that's the configuration I have. I've got these exact wedges in a bag waiting for me. Different shafts in there. So as soon as my grooves on my tailor maids run out, I'm moving over to these RTZs. Yes, while they're waiting, they need to get stamped. Yes. but.
Matthew Zampello: And you're going to send them to get stamped in the meantime, isn't it? That's what... Okay. Okay. Yeah. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: There you go.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ Matt, you play 50-50-4-50-8, right?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, Mid bounces in the 50-54, low bounce in the 58. So probably kind of like a bunker wedge in his lob wedge a little bit. That kind of low bounce wide sole mid bounce just kind of, you know, has some good turf interaction there. Cleveland makes good wedges. Their grooves are super sharp and they've been doing it for a long, long time. I don't feel like they offer as many different bounces as Vokey. So it probably makes it a little bit easier to like choose a wedge, whereas Vokey will give you so many options. Cleveland's a little bit just like, here's our grinds, firm, soft, whatever, low bounce, mid bounce, high bounce. You figure out how to hit them well.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ And then they've got the adapt bounce for the full face grooves. Cleveland's also another one who hates lefties and I couldn't order the specific color that I wanted.
Matthew Zampello: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Oh, that sucks. There was one round I played where it was whenever I... Oh, it was after my wedding, actually. So I gave you my wedges to stamp. then, so I played around, completely forgetting that I didn't have my wedges. So I get there, and then luckily my friend was, he was nice enough to let me try them, but he had the Zipcore Cleveland's. And that was...
Kevin Spisak: It's a rough life.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: nice. I don't know why. I think it's just maybe the contact I make, but I don't get too much spin on my wedges, which is kind of weird because typically that's where you get the most. And that was like one of the few times it was just, it was on a dime. It would stop. It was very fun.
Kevin Spisak: Probably because you're playing a wedge that's like 40 years old. Those grooves probably aren't very sharp anymore.
Dominic Colangelo: Hmm. The one yes.
Kevin Spisak: Haha.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, these Dynamic Gold S400, I feel like we're gonna be seeing quite a few of these each week. ⁓ Like you said last week, that's kinda just the more stiff option, right? Or is that the step down? Did I flip those? Step down, okay. Because they're not swinging as hard, like you said.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, like this stiff plus. Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Step down from extra stiff, step up from stiff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bye guys.
Kevin Spisak: So he still has the Modus Tour in his 50 degree, but then the S454 and 58, so not quite as stiff on the shortest two clubs.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: We've got our first different putter. We've only done spiders or tailor-mades.
Matthew Zampello: Finally.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, one of the most classic shapes out there and one of this is the Odyssey version of the spider in terms of the shape that everyone else tries to steal. The Odyssey number seven in the TriHop model. Yeah, this is their classic shape. If you think of like Scottie Cameron, like phantoms have used the kind of two like tongs sort of shape. ⁓ Taylor made use that in some configurations. I think Bet and Artie has.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Lots of people have tried to you know mimic or redo the number seven shape Me and Dom have both played a former version of the Odyssey number seven with the the XO series I used to really like that putter is really soft off the face and I Still have it behind me
Matthew Zampello: the White Hutt insert. Super soft off the face. Super good feeling. ⁓ Played by the Mrs.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah, there you go. Yeah, that was the my Odyssey was the one that got bent that I shared last week. So it's a very strong putter too. Strong enough not to break.
Kevin Spisak: Wait, it's a in the neck.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, there you go.
Kevin Spisak: You Cheers.
Dominic Colangelo: Does, do we have any info? I couldn't see, ⁓ what kind of ball is he playing? Is he playing Shrek's on?
Matthew Zampello: That's a good point. I didn't
Kevin Spisak: Ooh, he's also in the, he should be featured in the lead tape chronicles. He's got some lead tape all over his wedges.
Matthew Zampello: can't find it out the top of
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ really?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Z-Star Diamond.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic Colangelo: Ooh, nice. Yeah, the lead tape, actually, I'm assuming that's kind of like where the ZXI prototype for his driver. It's kind of so you don't have to use lead tape anymore, right?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: And he does have lead tape on his driver. He does have it on the heel side.
Dominic Colangelo: on the prototype. ⁓ wow.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, get the swing where swing way exactly where he wants it.
Dominic Colangelo: And then I think you were telling me before, if that falls off mid-round, can't, you can just try to stick it back on. You can't add more, because that's changing your club, essentially.
Kevin Spisak: I don't know. I don't know the rules there if it falls off. I know you can't add more during the round, but I don't know if it falls off.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ no.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, let's look that up. So yeah, ⁓ that's what's in the bag for old Nico here.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, get into some cognizant recap ⁓ or Honda Classic if you're an OG. ⁓ But yeah, Shane Lowry, man, tough, tough scene. ⁓ Just hits a couple, I mean, foul balls. Like straight off the end of the bat, know, high rights, not good. you know, 16 just absolutely comes out of that.
Dominic Colangelo: You hate to see it. Hahahaha
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: three iron it was I think and just hit it straight in the water and he didn't, I mean, he didn't miss that by like a foot. Like he missed his aiming spot by like 50 feet right to the right with a three iron.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Dude, the broadcast, I thought I was hitting a house across the water.
Matthew Zampello: Crazy. And if you watched early that day, I think it was like four whole four or five. He almost like topped a driver. I don't know if you guys saw. Yeah, it was I think it was on a whole six, that really hard hole that you're talking about, Kevin. Yeah, he like topped his driver like 200 yards. Yeah, that's
Dominic Colangelo: I didn't see that.
Kevin Spisak: and see that one. Interesting. So, so hole six and the bear trap. just totally fell apart. So maybe the bear trap is harder than we think it is.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. I know, and then just hits this like, wipey fade on 17 directly in the water, tough scene. And honestly, I'm gonna call out like, Nico, he almost hit it in the water on 17 also. That wasn't like where he was trying to hit it, he got lucky.
Dominic Colangelo: Very close. Right. He got very lucky. And that's kind of like, I was very surprised by that because, and I guess it's just how golf is, because Shane, he seemed like he was in complete control. And I think he even said that too. he was hitting it where he wanted to and he was hitting it well. But then ⁓ you you come ⁓ the last few holes and I don't know, like was that nerves or was it just, I don't want to hit in the water.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, and
Dominic Colangelo: Was it, you see the finish line, you're kinda getting nervous, or is it the conditions out there were tough?
Matthew Zampello: And like any other golf course, most other golf courses, Shane wins. Like it's just water and out of bounds scares the shit out of these guys, right? Like that is the way, like high rough doesn't really scare the crap out of these guys. know, firm greens, they're used to it, but like hitting it in the water and having to take a penalty stroke is like what scares these guys. So like the course is cool. It's PGA national. Like it's pretty famous. It's not like the most thought provoking golf course, right? It's just like, it's very in front of you. Like you have to hit it here and you have to avoid the water, right? Like it's not, but like it seems like at least test the guys and like coming down the stretch, you have to hit good shots and you can't fake your way around it. So. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. It'd be really annoying too where most courses you hit in the water and like you get a favorable drop somewhat, but here you gotta go all the way back or hit the drop zone. Cause that was at 18 where the caddies like sprinting back the whole fairway or something or no that maybe that was 16 actually.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, here you have to like, you gotta, right.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: 516, if he didn't cover the water, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I think it was 16 because Niko was in his post-game interview. Niko said that the, I think he said the camera guys that were behind him said, like mentioned that he hid in the water. It wasn't even his caddy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: I ⁓ was on a fat nap on Sunday afternoon, woke me up right on Shane on 16T and caught everything. ⁓ So the thing I want to get into though is like Nico Echavaria, interesting guy, good golfer, great golfer. I mean, he's not going to be like a Scottie Scheffler or anybody but...
Dominic Colangelo: There you go, nice. That'll happen, play 54 holes.
Kevin Spisak: Jeez.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ I think it'd be interesting to know like if with this new PGA tour that supposedly Brian roll app is going to roll out where there's kind of going to be like a PGA tour a and like a PGA tour B right the guys that play in signature events all the time the guys that play and kind of like the rocket classics You know Dallas whatever the Dallas tournament is that TBC Craig Ranch I always forget what it is ⁓ Are like Is Niko a signature event player or is he kind of a PGA Tour B player? I feel like he's never gonna be like a really great player. I feel like he's probably gonna fall in the more PGA Tour B, but it's interesting because five years ago, 10 years ago, he would make a great living on the PGA Tour. And he's still gonna make a great living, but like he would be always be on the PGA Tour. And now he's, I feel like he is kind of like the epitome of the line of what Roll App is trying to be like. It's like, if you don't move the needle, You're not in the signature fence, right?
Dominic Colangelo: Interesting. That's a you can almost compare that to like a Wesley Bryan He is not he's not good enough to win a PGA tournament But he's the best YouTube golfer there is because he's a pro he just can't keep himself on tour I guess because of the live stuff, but that's kind of he's kind of that weird He's making money on YouTube, but he wants to play for the tour, but he can't win money on the tour You know what I mean?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, it's just he's like, I feel like he's just, yeah, he's gonna be like a good case study over the next five years to watch of like what happens with Nico's career.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: Honestly, like also being from Columbia could be a good Liv sign at some point, right? If he gets fed up with the new PGA tour and Liv comes and like Liv seems to sign a bunch of international players and they're like, hey, come to Liv and we'll have a tournament in Medellin.
Dominic Colangelo: Is there a reason for that? it just like, because they travel so much, they get all these international courses? Or is it maybe they're just not doing so well on the tour so they go to live?
Matthew Zampello: think a lot of them don't necessarily want to live in the states and want to just travel around the states all the time. And so they've somehow attracted a ton of the international guys that can live wherever they want to live and then just travel to the live events when it's out there. So I don't know. Just give me something interesting to watch over the next five years, I think.
Dominic Colangelo: For sure.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, going back to Shane for a brief second, like what a roller coaster round where he starts off. He's got four birdies and an eagle and then goes into back to back doubles. You know, most players would be pretty content, I guess, in general, you know, finishing two under on a Sunday and just kind of getting out of there, getting their paycheck moving on. But I guess not when you've got a chance to win and you just gifted away.
Dominic Colangelo: You It's insane too because at one point he had that three stroke lead and that's when he hit in the water. He was fine whenever he was fighting for the lead but then as soon as he gets a big one that's when he hits it in. I was actually counting so before the round the announcer said he had 19 birdies. So total he must have had, let's see, 20, 21, 22, 23. So 23 total birdies and then a couple of eagles in there as well. I believe had the most birdies in the field. and then just completely botched it. Poor guy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. He was my pick because he had a history there of, you know, coming up shore and I thought he could maybe just get over that hurdle, but apparently not.
Dominic Colangelo: It's a perfect pick for one and done because he's, I think he's, he hasn't been worse than T10, I think is what they were saying. He's been very close all the time. So like it's a great one and done pick, but man, I really wanted it to win. I'm happy for Nico too. So that's a fun one, but man, I like Shane.
Kevin Spisak: Really, yeah, he's, I really don't have a good reason for it. He's just never been one of my favorite golfers, and I can just go back to not liking him since my pick is over.
Matthew Zampello: I feel like after the Open Championships this year where he was at the course he won his Open Championship at and he had like a bad round and he like slammed his club and was like, fuck this golf course. I was like, all right, dude.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, he's been complaining a lot lately and there's a lot of people so ⁓ you might have to jog my memory. had a driver and it went through the bunker in that high stress moment like on the last few holes. Went in the bunker, bounced barely out. So everyone's like, you cannot complain about courses being unlucky and against you because that happened to you. So you'll be fine. goes back to what you saying last week where
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: these guys, they complain about these courses being hard. And you gotta go through that. You're getting paid so much money. you're gonna have ⁓ some tough
Kevin Spisak: Yep, everyone plays the same chorus.
Dominic Colangelo: So speaking of, we're gonna get into our one and done's. As a quick recap, we're choosing one player every week and we're keeping track for every tournament. And we're choosing a player and whatever they get placed, we add those totals every week. Whoever has the least amount will win. Matt had fourth place, my guy was seventh, Kevin was 20th. So then this.
Matthew Zampello: Two weeks ago.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, two weeks ago, thank you. this recent week for Cognizant Classic, Matt, he went with a homer pick, Chandler Phillips, and he finished...
Matthew Zampello: T63.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, way down the list.
Dominic Colangelo: T63, he ⁓ actually.
Matthew Zampello: Chandler, if you're listening, I mean, I picked you out of the love of my heart that we had in high school and you did okay, but not.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I mean, hey, he made the cut. That's all you can ask from a guy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it's a come a picture.
Matthew Zampello: We were stressing out.
Dominic Colangelo: Oh yeah, because it flipped because everyone was doing so well. So he went 74, 68, 68, and then a rough 76, five over for the last round. So at T63, so Matt, he had four, and then 63, so he's chilling with 67 points right now.
Matthew Zampello: I know. ⁓ Probably distracted with all the bass in the way.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ absolutely, that's a lot of water. And then I went with Joel Damon, much to Matt's chagrin. Last week he gave me a stank face because he hates Joel. ⁓ No, no, you made your opinion known. ⁓ So I just thought, I wasn't really going for a winner. I kind of just chose, I kind of figured he'd be top 20 is what I said.
Matthew Zampello: I don't hate Joel, I have nothing against Joel.
Dominic Colangelo: and he ended up having, he put together some pretty good rounds, had a pretty big birdie drought, but then figured it out on the last day. then our clairvoyant, Kevin, he chose Shane ⁓ and we were ⁓ very excited the group chat, hoping that he would you that one
Kevin Spisak: Yep, yep, now I can go back to not liking him. who's first for Bay Hill?
Dominic Colangelo: I can go first. There's some good history at this course. Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Wait, I have a question. Can we ever pick the same player in a week?
Matthew Zampello: No. ⁓ the same player in a week?
Dominic Colangelo: I think so. ⁓ you can't? Yeah, like, if I choose one guy, can Kevin still choose him? I think so.
Kevin Spisak: like so.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, it's one and done per person. Like I said, we make up rules as we go here.
Kevin Spisak: So should we? Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, that's true. I like it.
Kevin Spisak: So now that Matt's in like far, far last, me and Dom can just pick the same player every single week and just guarantee Matt gets a tattoo.
Matthew Zampello: you
Dominic Colangelo: Yes, we're doing that. All right, Matt, you go first. Unrelated.
Matthew Zampello: No, no, no, no, no. I think the last, the person in last goes last.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: That's actually not a bad idea. The person who's leading goes first.
Kevin Spisak: Perk, wait, the person whose leading goes first.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, person who's leading goes first.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Kevin went 20 and two, I went seven and nine, so barely ahead. Yeah, so a lot history at Bay Hill. There's a lot of players that play well there. ⁓ Again, I feel like for one and done, I'm just gonna keep going with the they might play well. I'm not gonna go for winners. ⁓ So I'm gonna go with the Italian stallion, Max Homa. ⁓ I feel he's been playing pretty well lately ⁓ and he stripes it Bay Hill in.
Matthew Zampello: Thompson. Yeah, you went seven and nine. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: recent past. ⁓ Played pretty well at TGL last night. I know you're really excited about that, Yeah. Give me Homa. Give me Homa.
Matthew Zampello: God, keep that shit off my screen.
Kevin Spisak: TJL is fun. I don't know what you have against it. You don't have to have it be, you know, like the Masters, but it's just, this is kind of the off season for the rest of sports. It's fun.
Dominic Colangelo: It's interesting that like ⁓ some of the players in the Cognizant Classic, they finished their round and then went and played TGL. That's crazy. But it's all fun anyway.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, is he gonna be distracted with TGL going on and barely making cut? That could be a tough pick.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: He didn't last time. They had a pretty big comeback last night and then he ended up what T11 last week.
Kevin Spisak: pick. For a second place pick, I'm pretty torn. Someone I want to pick, but I think I'll save them for later. And I will just shoot my shot with Tommy Fleetwood.
Dominic Colangelo: Nice.
Matthew Zampello: Ooh, you guys are both out of the majors for with Tommy left
Kevin Spisak: That's okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Just worry about your own picks, Matt. ⁓ No, I was thinking of just. I was thinking of just going safe and just doing one of those those big boys like Scotty plays well there. Rory plays well, but I feel like like like you said, you kind of want to save some people for the Masters. I mean for the the majors.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. T63.
Matthew Zampello: Alright, I am going ⁓ with another kind of back in my days ⁓ playing with this guy. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ no, he's missing the cut.
Dominic Colangelo: Absolutely.
Matthew Zampello: No cut this week. SIGGY!
Kevin Spisak: Okay, lucky.
Dominic Colangelo: You dirty dog.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Okay, ⁓ shout out Plano, Texas. Some people call Plano, Texas, ⁓ Maui of Texas. ⁓ Pearson Cootie, he's been on a hot streak too, ⁓ back this week. Pearson he's been ⁓ almost waste management. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: I've heard that.
Kevin Spisak: Who?
Dominic Colangelo: Who? ⁓
Matthew Zampello: played good I believe at Torrey as well. ⁓ Gonna take him down this week. My boys from Plano, Texas. Plano, or Prestonwood Country Club, Glen Eagles Country Club. Shout out Plano.
Dominic Colangelo: So you're choosing the guy with a typo as his name. I always think it's like, it's supposed to be Cody and there's just an extra O in there.
Matthew Zampello: Don't disrespect the Cootie family. Charles Cootie won the Masters. Thank you.
Dominic Colangelo: Hey, I'll put some respect on his name, but I will poke
Matthew Zampello: Bay Hill Preview, ⁓ I'll take you on a little ride ⁓ as you would in ⁓ because we're in Orlando, Florida this week. ⁓ Land of the shopping mall. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Actually, I'm gonna correct you, it's Disney World. The easy way to remember is World Orlando, O-R-L, and then Disneyland is L-A, L-A-N-D. Fun fact for ya. That's, hey, that's fair. Now you know.
Matthew Zampello: Is it Disney World? Okay, I'm not a Disney guy so you know never really yeah um course designer uh Arnold Palmer this is the Arnold Palmer Invitational um Arnold Palmer alert Arnold Palmer you get a great movie um course record minus 10 62 Andy Beam uh third leg Greg Norman um and Adam Scott um
Dominic Colangelo: Arnold Palme alert, Arnold Palme alert. Third leg Adam Scott.
Matthew Zampello: Famous holes, ⁓ hole six, par five, the one that curves around the lake. If you remember Bryson tried to drive the green when it was downwind in 2021. Just an epic, epic picture. Can't get that one out of my head.
Dominic Colangelo: That's also the, that's the John Daly hole, right? The John Daly tin cup.
Matthew Zampello: I think yeah, he tried to hit like a bunch of the water and just gave What is it kind of known for? It's actually been, over the last few years, ⁓ they bake the course out super dry and make it really firm. Actually, probably one of the toughest courses on the Florida Swing, or the toughest for sure. And it's been a super dry ⁓ here in ⁓ so. Hopefully it's gonna be extremely tough this year. Super excited to see the guys, know, bitching about how hard their golf course is when they're playing for $12 million in a guaranteed paycheck. But whatever. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Are they purposely not watering it for that reason? Or is it just the place they are, they just don't get much rain right now, or are they doing it on purpose?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Yeah, I mean they will purposely leave the greens pretty dry so they're pretty firm this week ⁓ JT's back Justin Thomas making his season debut this week after think was back surgery, right? Is that right? So good to see him back. We'll see maybe see if he's wearing ⁓ a clothing sponsor ⁓ Ask my buddy who is a well, I would classify him as a well-traveled golfer
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ texted him today, give me five words on how you would feel about Bay Hill versus other courses you have played for the pod tonight. And his response was TV makes it look bigger. So if you've ever played Hill, you can either agree or disagree with that. But that's somebody that has ⁓ experience on the ground there, their take on Bay Hill.
Dominic Colangelo: It does look massive on TV. Has he played it multiple times?
Matthew Zampello: I think he plays it, he played it twice when he was there. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: How does he do? Like is it hard for an amateur?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I think it's pretty hard. Like I think it's a hard golf course. It's hard for the pros. So I'm guessing it's hard, right? I'm guessing they, I mean, I don't think in the summers they keep it as firm as they do in this, for this tournament, just cause it's going to be, it might die in the summer. But yeah, I mean, it's a cool tournament, super small field. I think it's only 70 or 80 guys or something like that. No cut event. So, you know.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Guaranteed money for these guys, which is great for them, you know, they they ⁓ but you know, you got all the big hitters in the field Scotty Jordan Zander Justin Rose, they're all playing this week. So ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Laser. Blazer.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, was pretty torn on... I really wanted to pick Victor Hovland. He's of my favorite golfers, ⁓ but I figured I'd save him for later in year. Just something tells me he's got it in him this week.
Matthew Zampello: Last time we saw him I think he was using floaties on the range, so I don't know.
Dominic Colangelo: that.
Kevin Spisak: Hey, don't knock it till you try it.
Dominic Colangelo: Would you agree, would you agree he's a pretty streaky golfer? Like he has some pretty good runs, but pretty bad runs too.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, when he's lights out, he's like unbeatable and I absolutely love his putter, his PLD. It's so cool. It's like the bronze almost like rusty look finish kind of mid mallet. Sick.
Dominic Colangelo: Awesome. Let's hope he wins so can talk about it.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so Bay Hill, I think that's a good time to go into our golf trivia maybe and see if me and Dom could slam a beer.
Matthew Zampello: for how we were doing this.
Dominic Colangelo: Let's do it.
Kevin Spisak: Okay, so our Bay Hill preview leads us into our next new segment for golf trivia. Started last week and we're going to keep it going. Each week I'll ask a random trivia question that I've looked up and if Matt or Dom can answer it, the other two, including me, will slam a beverage, particularly maybe a nice light cold beer. So, our question for this week,
Dominic Colangelo: Hmm.
Kevin Spisak: The Bay Hill Invitational has had some multi-time winners. Tiger Woods has won it eight times. Then the rest of the multi-time winners have only won it twice. And there are seven of them. Besides Scottie Scheffler, can you name either of the other six?
Matthew Zampello: I Matt, Matt Every!
Kevin Spisak: ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: I was gonna say, only one out of six?
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ goodness gracious, that was fast. Who the hell is Matt Everett?
Matthew Zampello: Matt Every, Matt Every, Matt Every was the Bay Hill sniper.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ man, the look on your face, you just lit up.
Dominic Colangelo: Name two more. He loved that question. Name two more.
Kevin Spisak: Alright, think think Dom should get a crack since there's now six remaining and then we'll just all chug one
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Two more. ⁓ That's right.
Dominic Colangelo: cheese okay so six two-time winners
Kevin Spisak: Six two-time winners. two of them well.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ Because it doesn't matter, is there any like really old golfers? Or is that too obvious?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not that old of a tournament. So they're not like really really old ⁓ The first tournament was in 1979
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Okay. Gimme Phil.
Kevin Spisak: Not Phil, not Phil. The other multi-time winners are Jerry Heard, Gary Koch, Tom Kite, Lauren Roberts. Here's the big one, Ernie Els.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang. ⁓ I don't think I would have guessed any of those people if you gave me a million guesses.
Kevin Spisak: Ernie Ellis, he's famous.
Matthew Zampello: Can you believe, can you believe I I pulled Matt every out of my, out of my, out of my butt there?
Dominic Colangelo: Well know, I know Ernie Els.
Kevin Spisak: That... I swear I've never heard his name in my life.
Dominic Colangelo: I can believe it, but I feel like you might have been typing up a storm over there and getting a little cheat.
Matthew Zampello: No. You know why I know that. I remember I remember when at the Bay Hill tournament it was when he won it the second time or it was the first time in the second time I can't remember but he had a downhill he had a downhill putt on 18 and as he was walking up somebody from the crowd goes it goes a little right
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, his Wikipedia picture is absolutely hideous.
Matthew Zampello: And sure enough, he aimed it left and he made it. And he pointed back at the guy and he was like, thank you. And that was like when he won it. And then he somehow became like the Bay Hill sniper, man. He was so good at Bay Hill. Now he's off the tour.
Dominic Colangelo: D'h-h-h-h- Whoa! That's sick actually.
Kevin Spisak: is
Dominic Colangelo: Isn't that illegal? You can't get outside help,
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Yeah. Well, Matt Every was the one who got busted for marijuana on tour too.
Kevin Spisak: You can't control what a fan says though. They could have said it goes less.
Dominic Colangelo: Take away is, take away is law, take away is win.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, here's Wicked. Ugh.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ jeez. My hero.
Kevin Spisak: His Wikipedia picture looks literally like every single clothing advertisement and Dick's sporting goods in the golf section. It's like the most bland generic photo ever.
Dominic Colangelo: And he doesn't even have a, guess he probably came wearing a hat, but like it looks like he's hitting out of the rough first of all. And then he looks like just one of those guys, like you just find a guy and put golf clothes on him and just say, Hey, do a swing and we'll take a picture of it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, they're totally like not fitting very well too. It's like the shirt's a little too tight, the pants are too loose.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, let me go find a beer.
Kevin Spisak: Alright, yeah, I'll grab one to... Damn, I can't believe just the look on your face when you just lit up. It was like Christmas morning.
Matthew Zampello: I so happy when you asked me that question, I was so happy. I used to watch Bay Hill. I don't know why. I just, have a very like visceral memory of watching. just come out of nowhere and just win golf tournaments there. I was gonna say I was I was between I was also gonna think the other players I thought Russell Henley because I thought he had done a couple good ones
Kevin Spisak: He won once.
Matthew Zampello: I was gonna say Bryson, I didn't know if Bryson had one twice. Um, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: ones.
Matthew Zampello: and tired.
Kevin Spisak: I thought that was such a good trivia question because Tiger winning it eight times is like so crazy and then the next is two.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: back.
Kevin Spisak: what'd get?
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, so this is all I got in here. This could be rough. Little spotted cow.
Kevin Spisak: Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho
Matthew Zampello: hahahaha
Dominic Colangelo: Speaking of ⁓ all these Siggy classics, we got the Sig open.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ sig open. Nice. I guess.
Dominic Colangelo: little frosty boy mug and then check this out. ⁓ wait, so White Elephant, we got their golf club like bar tools. ⁓ What you got Kevin?
Kevin Spisak: Got a corona premiere because I'm trying to watch my figure and I put it in a nice Chi town dog pound Shout-out Club of the Year 2016 The biggest the biggest Browns backers bar outside of Cleveland
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ hell yeah. Very cool. Okay.
Kevin Spisak: This is going to be astonishing how quickly you beat me at this. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Do you have one, Matt?
Matthew Zampello: Do I what?
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ no, you answered correctly. don't have to... Forgot about that. Alright, cheers and
Kevin Spisak: All right. Cheers. Cheers to Matt Every.
Matthew Zampello: Cheers boys. Shout out Matt Avery. Dominant you're an animal an animal
Dominic Colangelo: That was tasty. I wish I could have savored that one. This is my last one.
Matthew Zampello: Animal.
Kevin Spisak: Damn.
Dominic Colangelo: So Matt, why don't you take us through, we have a few headlines that it's in the golf world these days, so what do we got?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, live Hong Kong opposite ⁓ Bay Hill this week. So some some prime time late night golf, which I'm super pumped about. Love some good late night golf. ⁓ Phil still not playing. Missed the first three live events this season. Has some family stuff going on. So hopefully, hopefully he's everything's going OK there. ⁓ Seminole. No, he hasn't said.
Dominic Colangelo: This gonna be sick. Do you know what... Do you know what... ⁓ interesting. That sucks. ⁓ okay.
Matthew Zampello: You just said personal reasons. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Is life cool with that? feel like they'd be the people who would not be cool with extended leaves.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, but I feel like they have to be right like they they almost have to be for like They want to recruit players etc. Etc like they have to be okay with him But I mean three out of the what eight or a handful events that they play It's quite a lot Today on Monday March 2nd as we're filming this Seminole Pro member was today If you don't know what the seminal pro member is
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Thank Thank
Matthew Zampello: It's basically a who's who of pro golf and business. The business world that, ⁓ you know, come down to Florida, go to Seminole. It's a best ball tournament with a a pro and a member right from Seminole. So you got people like Brett Baird. ⁓ You just got all these business moguls. Jimmy Dunn. So if you don't know Jimmy Dunn, he kind of runs. He's kind of like the back channels of professional golf.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Um, just a bunch of, just to kind of, it's kind of like a met, it's a bunch of menaces hanging out together for an entire day. Um, but yeah, I, I would argue it's the best non tournament or unorganized event in all of golf. Like outside of the regular tournaments or whatever, like it's the best event. mean, hundreds of thousands of dollars are being bet that day. It probably is. mean.
Dominic Colangelo: You
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Crazy stuff.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, scrolling through the t-sheet, it's like incredible the big names on here. Nico, who just won, is going straight to Seminole. Jacob Bridgman, our winner last week. Corey Connors. Yeah, Matt Fitzpatrick, Ricky Fowler, Rory Brooks. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: James on James playing. Rory's playing with his dad who's a mem-
Kevin Spisak: Matt Kuchers, Stuart Sink, Nellie Korda is playing, Jessica Korda is playing. And that's like just the people who are teeing off on number one. And then there's a whole nother double the field going off on 10. It's incredible tournament.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ that's cool.
Matthew Zampello: pretty crazy.
Dominic Colangelo: So is Bo Van Pelt related?
Kevin Spisak: to Stephen.
Dominic Colangelo: To Scott? Scott, pfft, I'm hammered. Is Bo Van Pelt, I mean, there's not many Van Pelts in the world, I feel like.
Matthew Zampello: To who? I don't know, maybe.
Dominic Colangelo: Scott. So... Wait, so I was right, you made me feel like I was wrong.
Kevin Spisak: I don't know why I said Stephen.
Dominic Colangelo: Man, are we drunk? One beer, one beer did us in. So I was curious, so Seminole, that's one of the more private clubs in America, right?
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ man. Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: It's like Cypress Point of Florida, essentially. It's like you have Seminole, Augusta National, Cypress Point. Those are kind of like national golf links.
Dominic Colangelo: the east. Kevin, aren't there some... Aren't there some guys that cat-eat at Seminole?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, you remember Jeff from the Gimmie Golf Club? He cat-eat that Seminole.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah, that's cool. ⁓ Matt, they, so their Gimme Golf Club in St. Louis, awesome place. If you're in the area, check it out. They opened up a bar next door ⁓ called Loopers and they have a bunch of ⁓ different caddy bibs hanging up on the walls. It's a very cool vibe in there. It's awesome.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he's got some really cool stories.
Matthew Zampello: Remember I asked my caddy from Pebble Beach if he'd sell me his caddy bib? He said they're not allowed to do that. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: So, thank you.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ really? I mean they can't regulate that. He can do it. He just didn't want to sell it to you. He was being nice.
Matthew Zampello: Only other news, McLaren Golf. you're an F1 fan, McLaren is getting into the golf equipment world. When I first saw it, kind of thought it was gimmicky, weird, not really going to be like a real thing. Then watched the equipment junkies short or TikTok or whatever. If you haven't watched the equipment junkie, I would highly recommend it. He's super good at what he does. But he kind broke down a ton of they've they've went and hired like a ton of ex Callaway Taylor made Cobra engineers and a few executives as well So it seems like it's a real thing. They're actually gonna come out with some some really some real stuff So we'll see how it goes. It'll be interesting to see
Dominic Colangelo: Whoa. That's really cool. mean, is there any like, is it strictly, they're just making new clubs or is it like they have some new technology, like new metals or something they're introducing?
Matthew Zampello: mean, if you think about it, like they know the material space with F1, like carbon, all that sort of stuff, right? Like they understand that space. So it's probably not that big of a jump as people think. They probably also have basically unlimited manufacturing space to do stuff. ⁓ It's not like they're short on CNC machines or whatever they need a golf club. ⁓ So I don't know.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Raid.
Matthew Zampello: Who knows it's gonna, I mean, yeah, it's gonna be super interesting to see. The thing I think that's gonna happen is like, they're gonna be like, oh, here's our driver, it's 2000.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I was gonna say it might be a little pricey with the the name recognition there
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, they're probably set up to have some of the best aerodynamics engineers in the world working for McLaren. And so I'd have to imagine the name of their game is going to be all about speed.
Matthew Zampello: Ha ha ha. Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Reducing drag and all of that. ⁓ If you rewind 13 years ago to a younger version of myself as I was sitting in one of my aerospace engineering classes, I was like, wait, I think there's a lot of parallels here between like designing golf clubs and designing airplanes. And then I came up with my dream job that still gonna have one day. But I think McLaren would be same thing. They've got aerodynamicists and. They've invested so much money on the F1 side and just like their exotic car side, they'd be a perfect fit to go over into golf.
Matthew Zampello: Kevin, your dream job isn't a niche golf podcast.
Kevin Spisak: Well, this will help get us there.
Dominic Colangelo: This is a stepping stone. That is interesting though, like why airplane companies, you like you said with the aerodynamics and materials and all that knowledge, why they haven't gotten into this space earlier. But there's also, I think, and this could be very wrong, but COVID really blew up for golf. It like really kickstarted all this. And there's so many different companies now making golf clubs because there's such a high demand for golf now. So I'm curious if like, if that helped at all, or if there's some other reason why so many people want to make golf clubs.
Matthew Zampello: Well Lando, their F1 driver, Lando loves golf. Yeah, he's like a huge golfer. like every, before every F1 race, he always goes and golfs at wherever they're at. So I don't know. yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: That's sick.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, there were those there's those Red Bull collabs with Taylor made and Yeah, but ⁓ Wasn't the Red Bull driver also a big golfer or is that who you're mentioning?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ yeah, that's Haley. That's just paint though, I feel like. That's a, I don't know, I don't think Max plays. I know.
Kevin Spisak: remember him being, there were two drivers interviewed on Pardon My Take that one of them mentioned playing golf.
Matthew Zampello: Carlos Sines I know plays golf, Lando Norris, Trico Perez probably plays golf, I think he's a golfer. ⁓ He lives in the Houston area.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. seems really interesting. I haven't really gotten into it, but I think Norris ⁓ ⁓ from that.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I wonder if any other F1 or car manufacturers get into Golf 2. Like if this blows up, if it goes well.
Matthew Zampello: Historically new people coming in golf space doesn't work Like we've only seen it a couple times Nike came in they're out now I think the only like brand that we have some staying power feels like PXG like they came in late
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: .
Matthew Zampello: but they kind of found their niche and they kind of fill it. It'll be interesting. mean, and then like you have like place like Zexio or that XXIO or whatever that company is and like they kind of fill the niche, but I don't know.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah Yeah, they're part of Cleveland's portfolio because they're owned by Dunlop Sports. Mm-hmm. So they're like the high-end model for that. You know, it's literally just for people who want to spend the most amount of money possible on their golf clubs for no reason. But no for the Zexio.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ really?
Dominic Colangelo: for PHGAs.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ okay.
Kevin Spisak: They're like advertised that way too, that they're just trying to be expensive just for people who want like the, you know, the name brand handbag of golf clubs. ⁓ Like Tacoma or Vice seem kind of, you know, interesting that they've come in and they follow like the direct to consumer path. But how long is that going to stay around? Are they going to go by the wayside or will they be here for a long time?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: It's like LA Golf 2, ⁓ they're going to that DTC, but if they lose all their designers and all their employees, how are they gonna make new stuff, is my question.
Kevin Spisak: You know the next irons that I'm like desperate to try out is the Avodas? The curved faces. ⁓ They're like, they're so expensive.
Dominic Colangelo: Really? How do you spell it?
Kevin Spisak: A-V-O-D-A. That's like Bryson's been testing them out ⁓ here and there. And they've got like curved faces kind of like like fairway woods or like drivers do.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: They're in Jason Day's bag now too. Yeah?
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ are they? And they look really cool too.
Dominic Colangelo: Force there.
Kevin Spisak: They're great looking club.
Dominic Colangelo: Interesting. ⁓ yeah, those look sick.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ There's a guy at my golf course. ⁓ He gets in his hot tub every day at 5 a.m. and he just sends me golf memes and golf stories. So I wake up every morning with like four or five golf stories in my text messages. And he sent me the, from the hot tub, and he sent me the Evoda Iron.
Kevin Spisak: Nice. Just keeping you in the loop.
Dominic Colangelo: from the hot tub.
Matthew Zampello: You
Dominic Colangelo: Any words? Is he in Texas? So hot done in Texas. Unreal.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I think it's a place to end it. ⁓ Make sure you follow us, on our socials. If you search under the covers golf, that's typically where it is. ⁓ TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. ⁓ Twitter's under the covers G, cause the name is too long, but it's the same.
Matthew Zampello: Shout out Prairie Dunes.
Dominic Colangelo: Shut up,
Kevin Spisak: Shout out Kenny Reilly.