- Matt Fitzpatrick wins the RBC Heritage, confirms he’s That Guy
- Jon Rahm wins too → deep dive into his bag
- LIV Golf updates (light drama included)
- Zurich Classic preview: team format = golfers finally get a buddy
- Notable player pairings and teams to watch
- Complaints about slow play (shocking, I know)
- Member-guest experience = fancy golf + mild chaos
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. He knows it doesn't matter what's under a hood. The only thing that matters is who's behind the wheel. Hello and welcome back to Under the Covers, a golf podcast where we deep dive each week in the latest PGA Tour winners bag. We are Matt Fitzpatrick. ⁓ Just kidding. My name is Dominic. We got some fun talking today. We got Matthew with us here. What is going on, Matt? When I'm washing it, I don't stick to it. But again, with the driver right now, the driver sucks. I tried to activate my glutes as best I could. Now watch this drive. When I'm washing it, I don't stick to it. But again, with the driver right now, the driver sucks. I tried to activate my glutes as best I could. Now watch this drive.
Matthew Zampello: What's up Dom? I wore my Liv hat today for our Liv guys RIP or maybe RIP in 2026. Also I'm taking a sabbatical from the game of golf for a month due to my poor play. So I know it's not good.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ no.
Dominic Colangelo: Didn't you just shoot a 68? What am I thinking of?
Matthew Zampello: No, no, that was best ball 68. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ sure, okay. Well, sorry to hear that. I guarantee I'm gonna see you on the course at the end of the week, but we also have Kevin with us. What's going on, Kevin?
Kevin Spisak: Hey guys, I'm ⁓ excited to talk about the Zurich coming up. got my TPC Louisiana hat on, you know, in honor of it. Got to play TPC Louisiana one time and it was very fun. A friend took a blade of grass to the eye. His eye swelled up like a tennis ball, but hey, went in New Orleans.
Dominic Colangelo: Winning New Orleans, baby. That's a tough one. But yeah, so like I said, got a fun show for us. A lot of live golf talk, I feel like. I think there's a ton of golf news, but first we need to talk about the RBCT, RBC Heritage. Matt Fitzpatrick wins his second golf tournament of the year and second RBC Heritage win. It's fourth of his career and officially rose to number two in the FedEx rankings. proud member of the New York Golf Club, shout out TGL, started off with a hot 65, kind of just stayed up on the top of the leaderboard, went 65, 63, 68, 70, and that was with a closing score of 18 under. He kind of entered in Sunday with a three shot lead, but kind of coasted for that whole round. I think he had what, like 14 pars in a row, and it's kind of tough to do that with Scotty on your tail. because he definitely made it very interesting. It came down to that 18th hole. They essentially had the same chip shot going into the green for a birdie chip going in for par. Scottie had a real tight one and then Fitzpatrick duffed it. He just wanted to make it interesting, ended up boating. And the playoff, identical tee shots. This time Fitz wasn't into the bunker and then just got it done. ended up sinking that awesome putt. He is a frequent Hilton Head vacationer. As a kid, as a young lad, him and his family would go, I think he was saying when he was like 10, like super young, they would always go. So really loves his course. It's really fun for him to win this tournament. And then they even recreated their family photo with the lighthouse in the background. It's incredible. But yeah, Matt, do you think about Fitzpatrick winning his second tournament?
Matthew Zampello: Well, he's definitely a top five player in the world. think they have him at number three in the official world golf rankings and he's four in data golf rankings. I think John Rom's still ahead of him, but I think he's solidified himself as a top five player in the world. Right. I think it would be, in my eyes, it'd be Rory Scotty. Justin Rose, Fitzy and Tommy Fleetwood are like the top five players in the world right now. So he's he's certifiably certifiably a great player. ⁓ I just want to say he definitely pulled that iron shot on in the playoff. I don't think he was aiming there. I think that was a ⁓ shit. It's right at the flag. ⁓ So I will say I think that was I mean, that was a happy accident, but.
Dominic Colangelo: Right?
Matthew Zampello: All power to a man. feel bad for him. I feel like he gets treated so unfairly in the United States. He was getting booed at the players and or booed, not booed, but like people are clapping for like when he hits a bad shot, they were like clapping after or cheering, I guess, after he duffed that chip in regulation on 18. So. He doesn't deserve it, like he's not a bad guy and it's not like he's done like crazy things in the Ryder Cup, which like people.
Dominic Colangelo: which is so annoying.
Matthew Zampello: people don't like him for. He's he's Matt Fitzpatrick. He's lovable. He's not even a bad dude.
Dominic Colangelo: He's our frumpy Sketchers boy.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha.
Matthew Zampello: I know, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: It's so weird and like, so there's been a lot of talk about those USA chants and I get it, it's fun. I think the PGA and the fans there are lucky that it's Matt Fitzpatrick and that he's so classy and that he took it that well because I don't think many other people would. I mean, you see John Rahm on live and PGA just yelling at people for being so loud. I guess they're kind of yelling at his backswing but. I don't know, it's not the Ryder Cup. It's not USA versus London or England. know, like, it's just, I feel like you can find something new to chant. It's kind of what I'm getting at.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I agree. I think it's kind of an old thing. like you said, of all the Europe golfers, he's easily like the most calm and likable. He is not like super fiery and shit talk in the crowd or anything. You know, everyone loves Rory, but I could see like people giving it to Rory more so than Matt Fitzpatrick.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, and I love the... I can't hear you.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, the I can't hear you after singing the putt was awesome. It was so subtle and just throws it right back in their face. That was great.
Dominic Colangelo: It's so perfect. like, going back to what you said about him pulling it, is that just, cause it was super windy, first of all. So that's why him and Scotty were both all over the place on that last hole. do you think it was because...
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: don't really know how word it. They're not always aiming for the flag. Like that's a really tight green. Like it's really, you know, if you miss left, you're toast no matter what. So like they're aiming for that little mound on top of that green, right?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think with that win, it was into him off the left, right? So was into him off their left side coming in. It was it was blown like 30 miles. Like it was blown. It was hard that day. And he's definitely trying to hit like a knockdown shot. And sometimes when you hit a knockdown shot, you you have to come over the top of it a little bit to like hit a knockdown shot and keep it low. And I think sometimes when you do that, you can hit the pole. And I think he just came over the top of it and just hit the pole instead of the.
Dominic Colangelo: and
Matthew Zampello: You keep it low shot. And I think it, I think he was probably aiming middle of the green and he pulled it 15 yards and it went right at the flag. And I think originally he thought he hit like the left going left ball, not like the left going straight ball, which saved him. Cause I think if he hit the left left ball, it would have been in the water and Scotty wins. No problem. But all credit to a man. mean, he's, I love, I also love Harbor town. think Harbor town is such a cool golf course.
Dominic Colangelo: for sure.
Matthew Zampello: It's so fun to watch. It's so fun to watch a different type of golf. Like they're so, it's just, you don't see a lot of that where they have to think off the tee and you know, they're in the, in the trees. think we were watching like the first hole on Sunday. ⁓ and Mrs. Under the covers was, was like, every ball is going right into the, into the, into the trees on the right on the first hole. And they all have the same shot from the right, except for Jordan Speeth. He hooked it out of bounds on the left, but.
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Dominic Colangelo: Only Jordan's teeth can pull that off. He's our beautiful boy.
Kevin Spisak: Ha
Matthew Zampello: He's our beautiful boy. But yeah, it's a cool golf course. I hope it stays, because I know there's of think courses like that not staying in the new premier events kind of rotation, but I hope Harbor Town does stay, because it's such a cool golf course and I love it. And then you get to 18 and like the conditions are just like, it's like biblical out there on 18 usually, which is sick.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, you're, all up in the trees, the entire course. And then for 18, you're like, am I in Oregon playing band in right now? What the heck is going on? And it's, it's such a cool finishing hole. ⁓ definitely a shot shapers course. We talked about that a little bit last week. ⁓ kind of going through our one and Duns, ⁓ Kevin, have you played any, I'm asking you, Kevin, cause I feel like in Texas, there's not as many, you know, Woodsy courses, but like, have you played any of those tee shots that's just
Matthew Zampello: Yeah
Dominic Colangelo: They're like suffocating those teach. like your, if you don't hit it correct, your toast no matter what.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, certainly. The Midwest is absolutely loaded with big trees and tight tee shots. Not quite the Carolinas version of that, like where there's a lot of pines out there, but a good friend of mine used to live in Raleigh and was a member at a place, Pine Hollow, that was pretty awesome with the pines and how you had to place your tee shots. I quite enjoyed playing there. One of our good friends shot the round of his life and while I was like slapping it up, know, zigzagging my way up the course, but, ⁓ but yeah, definitely it, it makes ⁓ a nerby tee shot. ⁓ but you feel like if you can drive it, then you can have a good day. And, ⁓ Matt Fitzpatrick in strokes gained, was third in the field in driving, this week. ⁓ then it was like in total driving. was first. And so clearly he's got the driver work in that Tensei Orange is doing good things for him.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, it is. And so the RBC Heritage, very fun course. It's the week after the Masters. I feel like it's mixed reviews from what I've been hearing on the interwebs where I know we all like it, but there's some people who just don't really think too much of it. I think it's maybe just because you put so much energy and focus into the Masters. So it's kind of, some people are like, eh. I already watched a full weekend of golf. I don't need it again. But like for us, we love it. So it's easy listening. know, the players can score pretty well if the conditions are right, but they can also do horrible. I know, was it Nellie Korda? There's LPGA player that was saying like, she loves it whenever all these players do horribly. Cause it's like, you kind of got to earn your way and shot shape a little bit instead of just bombing it. And I was like, I kind of agree with that. But yeah. Very cool course. A lot of people were taking frustrations out, it seemed like, after getting beat up by Augusta. Like Potgieter, he was dead last at Augusta, came out swinging. Seaboo Kim, Cantlay, Homa, all these guys.
Matthew Zampello: Homo had a club-club toss.
Dominic Colangelo: I know, right after talking about Sergio. What is that about?
Matthew Zampello: I know, you had the two handed tomahawk, is objectively sick, like it.
Dominic Colangelo: It looks way better.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ yeah, that's 14 year old Kevin right there.
Matthew Zampello: If you're I am perfectly okay with you Tomahawking a club in the woods as long as you're not like hurting a t-box like if you're just hurting it, ⁓ you know, there's no there's nothing wrong with
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: It's a waste area and a tree, know, like who cares? We just love Max Homa. So going back to our beautiful boy, Justin Spieth, ⁓ Justin Spieth. I'm gonna read a tweet from Justin Ray about Jordan Spieth. So I got my mind crossed a little bit. So Justin Ray on Twitter, I apologize. During Spieth's opening two days.
Matthew Zampello: Justin Spieth.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: He became the only player in the last 20 years on the PGA Tour to be under par, but also have four double bogeys and zero bogeys through 36 holes. Just an unreal stat from our guy.
Matthew Zampello: He's the gift that keeps on giving man. He's he's so bad. He's so but he's so good. But I mean, I think he was the best putter in the field this week or something like that. Because I think he was like the worst putter in the field at the Masters, but besides.
Dominic Colangelo: I think I heard about that one, which is very Jordan Spieth. Yeah, he's been playing like Justin Spieth lately. I'll tell you that. So I have a question for you, Matt. ⁓ I'm not sure how much you listened, but ⁓ I believe this was on Thursday or Friday. they essentially, they're talking about the conditions of the course. I think it was Friday, because Fitzpatrick just had that awesome round. But they're essentially saying that Saturday is going to be the highest scoring round of the tournament. ⁓ And my question to you is, how do you announcers know that? Like, how are they predicting what is gonna be the hardest because at the Masters, they said Friday was gonna be the highest scoring. And you know, they weren't wrong per se, but like they said it was gonna be hard and fast, the conditions, and it was completely opposite. So like, are they just throwing darts at the wall or what?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ lot of times they'll get, look at the pin positions. The pin positions are probably the biggest factor, right? The course is relatively the same every day. It depends on the wind. So if it's either the wind could have kicked up on Saturday, which I can't remember for dinner not. ⁓ I was doing my own thing on Saturday, but I, ⁓ and then, and then the pin placements, if they have all the pins tucked, they know that the guys aren't going to get at them. But if they have all the pins in good spots, they know the guys will tear that place up. So. I think that's what they kind of look at and they kind of make a projection kind of based on that.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. That makes sense. Because it's so funny when you hear that and then it's just so wrong. And you're just like, where's the accountability anymore? Yeah, 63, tying his lowest round on Friday. Fitzpatrick did, but just silly. then ⁓ I just loved his comment at the end where he was talking about the yelling and, you know, played it off super well. And he's just like, well, I guess they just have short-term memory because we won in October.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, Dude's like 62. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: like hang that quote in the Louvre. That's incredible.
Matthew Zampello: Well, I feel like we're going to get absolutely just roasted in Ireland next year and it's going to be a bloodbath because we keep egging their fans on and egging the players on of Channing USA at PGA Tour events, which is not good. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: not a good idea. That's part of it though is, you know, the game is growing. You're getting all these baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports fans, and that's what they do at an event. They yell for the people they like. So it's, I don't know if it's just like nobody's taught them. They just don't care because it's fun. Why not? No one's telling them not to. But yeah, it's just, it's kind of like etiquette, pace of play, outfits out there. You wanna grow, but you don't wanna grow too much, I guess, you know?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I think Nance used jingoistic was the term he used on during the playoff, which I thought was funny. Yeah, I think it is. it is. Yeah, I don't think I don't think Nance would use a fake word. Nance is pretty. He does research, but.
Dominic Colangelo: Is that a real word?
Kevin Spisak: Where did he get that from?
Dominic Colangelo: That's awesome. Well, I think that's kinda all we have about RBC. So going into Matt Fitzpatrick, we already have, this is our first repeat winner on Under the Covers. It ⁓ is a first, and it is also the first time one of our won and done picks has won the tournament. So it's a very exciting episode. ⁓ But on that note, since we already talked about Matt Fitzpatrick, we're gonna shift gears a little bit because there's so much news going on. in the live world, we're gonna go to our correspondent down in the live golf Twitter ⁓ atmosphere and talk about John Rahm's latest win.
Matthew Zampello: That's that's right. ⁓ You know, I go by the the midnight Twitter account. ⁓ A live golf fanatic, I think is what my my. There's a lot of burner accounts out there for live.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: That's awesome. Did you want to go through it?
Matthew Zampello: yeah, we can hit up, we can hit John Rom. John Rom wins in, in, in live Mexico. he might never win outside of live. And if live ceases to exist after this, we might never get another lot. John Rom win. ⁓ So we got to do, we got to do his bag. ⁓ yeah, John Rom, what? ⁓ Definitely not winning a major anytime soon.
Dominic Colangelo: He's definitely not winning a major anytime soon. I know that.
Matthew Zampello: And he anything he's banned from all other tours outside of live and the Asian tour. So, yeah, maybe we'll hit them up for the for the, you know, Hong Kong open in October or something like that. But. let's take it under the covers and Kevin can tell us ⁓ what's under ⁓ John Rahm's covers. Big Calloway boy we have here today.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, big Callaway boy, Travis Matthew guy. ⁓ His driver, he's got the Quantum Triple Diamond driver, 11 and a half degree. Pretty unique loft there. It's kind of funny, know, like, Liv just being like so low quality in a lot of different ways. They did a What's in the Bag like a month ago for John Rahm and they put 11.6 degree and published it. So was like, either that's really weird or it's a typo. But then everything else says 11.5. So clearly they just messed up and didn't proofread. So he's got the Ventus Black 7X. We've talked about that quite a lot. Super common shaft among the pros and fast swingers. His 3-wood Paradigm AI Smoke Triple Diamond, the high launch version. So he's got the 11.5 in his driver and then a 16.5 in his 3-wood.
Dominic Colangelo: gotta be a typo.
Kevin Spisak: So the way he delivers the club to the ball, he's definitely looking for some help getting it up in the air on these woods. And then his five wood is a pretty stock five wood loft at 18 degree. ⁓ I'd like to know kind of like the mapping of his bag, because he's only a degree and a half different on three wood to five wood. But his... change on his woods to graphic design. So he's not using the Ventus ⁓ His three and five wood. He's got the tour ad di ⁓ and both of them so You know again that one and a half degree loft difference. ⁓ was thinking like, okay Maybe he's using a different shaft and that is you changing the launch characteristics and the five woods going higher and shorter but But he's using the same shaft 8x pretty stout shaft for sure. You know, I'd love to know like what his thought processes on the five would maybe it's more of like a specialty club for him. But, Dom isn't don't you you don't you have the DI in your three one.
Dominic Colangelo: No, I have the HD in mine. HD6.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, HD. ⁓ yeah, this is the orange one. ⁓ Yeah, yours is blue. So yeah, cool, cool builds. He's got the AI smoke and the 5.2. So he's a couple of years old here now on the on the woods, but using the current driver. And, ⁓ Matt, you've got some experience with the quantum triple diamond, right? Or did you play the core?
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: am playing the Quantum Max Triple Diamond, ⁓ so ⁓ more forgiving model at 9 degrees of loft with a Fujikura Blue ⁓ 6X. ⁓ I don't swing it as hard as burly boy Jon Rahm. ⁓ Some might say I don't have as much junk in the trunk as Jon Rahm to swing it that hard, but know, close. ⁓ a great driver though.
Dominic Colangelo: I don't think anybody does.
Matthew Zampello: You can hit that thing all over the face and it still goes straight. I'm very pleased with the quantum these days.
Dominic Colangelo: Is, am I wrong? Doesn't he shorten his driver shaft too? Is he still doing that?
Kevin Spisak: Most players do. ⁓ Have you ever seen the thing about like one of his legs is shorter than the other one? Yeah, I feel like everyone's like talked about it. It's kind of an old story, but you know, that's like why he swings the way he is. And he just utilizes so much power out of that. ⁓ So, you know, most players do shorten it, but he's got his maybe a little different for his body type.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I did see that, yep.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. He's born with a-
Dominic Colangelo: Kevin, what's the difference between the orange and the blue graphite design? Do you know? Off the top of your head.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ Well, so there's a bunch of different colors. There's several different blue ones. So your HD would be like mid-launch, mid-spin, ⁓ where the DI is going to be more lower spinning than that. The one that Tiger played for a while or is still playing, the VF, is their lowest launching, lowest spinning. So that's like black and maroon colored, kind of that Sunday red type of color. But they've got a whole bunch of different shaft profiles that Graphite Design, it takes forever to actually test all of them.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. True.
Matthew Zampello: too many. I feel like I get lost with graphite design.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. They're pretty sweet. The one Dom has in his driver and three-wheel are pretty awesome.
Dominic Colangelo: loving it. It literally, my three wood used to go farther than my driver. It was ridiculous. There was just that little bit of extra pop and it rolled forever. But now ⁓ matched them so it's a normal bag now, which is fun. So thank you, Kevin. So the next clubs are a little bit more interesting because we're kind of, you know, we're not really sure which one he's using. He kind of flips back and forth. But what are the next clubs? It's either, you know, utility iron or what has he got?
Kevin Spisak: So. so according to the what's in the bag that the live golf posted a month ago, he had four through pitching wedge on his ⁓ So it went straight from five wood to irons. But then we also saw some stuff about utilizing the apex utility iron at 21 degrees, ⁓ with the KBS tour hybrid shaft. So it sounds like he might tinker around, switch it depending on tournament utilizing that. ⁓ you know, 4-iron or the utility club. ⁓ The Apex utility is pretty cool. I'd be curious to know if, which I'm sure we could find it somewhere, but I'd be curious to know if he has toyed around with the Heavenwood that a lot of players have used, you know, instead of this Apex utility, but a little more forgiveness there on the 4-iron ⁓ if he's using the Apex 21. then he's got on his irons, the Callaway Apex TCB. We talked about these a couple of weeks ago. And as a refresher down, what does TCB stand for?
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ is it, it's not total cavity back.
Kevin Spisak: Not quite. Matt, you remember?
Matthew Zampello: tungsten cavity back.
Kevin Spisak: to work cavity back.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ dang it. I overthought it. Shoot. OK.
Matthew Zampello: I was thinking about TCBY, the yogurt place.
Kevin Spisak: So, yeah, better players cavity type of iron, ⁓ kind of like tailor made piece seven CBs. ⁓ You know, where it's not like a total game improvement, you know, it's clearly a player's iron, but gets a little bit more forgiveness. And as we can see with his driver and his ⁓ woods, he's trying to throw the ball a little bit higher in the air due to his delivery.
Dominic Colangelo: Dude, a throwback. What a throw-
Kevin Spisak: So that cavity back will help him get some higher launch on his iron. So good fit for him. Project X 6.5 shafts, so not quite as strong as Rory's 7.0s, but 6.5 is quite the stout shaft still. ⁓ Still swinging a two by four.
Dominic Colangelo: Is part of that reason of not maybe not trying that seven wood or sorry, heaven wood, sorry Calloway. Do you think part of that is because he just swings so hard, you almost want to have an iron or is there no difference there?
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ I think he, I think he's looking for, well, with the heaven would he be looking for forgiveness no matter how, how fast he's swinging. And because he's looking for high launch in his other clubs, I think the heaven would would really like go along with that. ⁓ but maybe just out of versatility, maybe he uses the five wood in that capacity to, you know, have a higher lofted wood. So maybe the heaven would is, you know, not necessarily like needed to be some overlap. You know, and then when he's got like a thick lie in the rough, he wants to like chop down with the utility iron, you know, rather than have a fair way.
Dominic Colangelo: Makes sense.
Matthew Zampello: Callaway releases the TCB in a raw finish in Japan. I've been looking up some TCB raws. can get them for about $1,500 a set. It would be very, very cool to get my hands on one of those. I would love a raw set of irons. I feel like having that, you can spot a player from a mile away if they have a I think even Xander uses the raw TCBs.
Dominic Colangelo: That seems kind of low, because I feel like normal irons these days at top level irons, they're around that $1,400, $1,500 mark. So I'm surprised that the raw is right around there too.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Matthew Zampello: Well, I think these are used $1,500.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ okay. That makes way more sense. Gotcha.
Kevin Spisak: Said that was in Japan. They get like the coolest releases all the time for all manufacturers. Mizuno is like clearly like obvious why they get the best releases there, but like literally everyone. There's been some Japanese specific like Scotty Cameron's that have been really cool. We need to spread the love here.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I think they only release them in Japan though. that. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: so we're going to go over to his wedges. It's the Callaway Opus SP wedges, 52, 56, 60, same shafts as his irons, Project X 6.5. The Opus are some pretty cool shafts. I haven't personally tried them, but I know someone who has who speaks extremely high of them. Maybe they could replace Matt's love for Vokey's one day if he ever tests something out. But pretty standard look here on his wedges. What do you guys think?
Matthew Zampello: Nope. Yeah, plays a pretty standard wedge. six same shafts in there and everything. I feel like John Rom has always been a pretty good wedge player. I wouldn't say he's like jumps off the page as a wedge player, but ⁓ again, he's a, I feel like he's a company guy. He was all tailor-made when he was tailor-made and he's all Callaway when he's Callaway. Like he was never, he never had a club from like a different manufacturer. ⁓ so. I think he's probably just gonna, I think he's one of those guys that it really doesn't matter the wedge you put in his hand. He's gonna hit it pretty much the same, feels like.
Kevin Spisak: Yep. Pure kind of pure speculation based on how he's approaching this whole like returning to one of the tours thing, you know, not paying fines. It seems like he's really like dollar driven. And I don't you know, I don't know that to be a fact. But the way he was like a full company man for Taylor made and then switched over, you know, one day later and was a full company man for Callaway, you know, it kind of seems like he's just going for the biggest dollar and the biggest paycheck and. He's not looking to pay any fines now in his current live golf struggles.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, it seems like, I mean, like you said, it really doesn't matter what he's using. I think it just shows how good of a ball striker he used to be. Now he's kind of back and forth a little bit, but he's just so pure that it really doesn't matter. I was watching, you know, there's all the YouTube golfs videos, but with his wedges, he's still taking massive swings. So I was curious, because, you know, typically we've seen the wedge shafts kind of go down in stiffness, but he keeps it the same throughout. So he's swinging just as hard with a 60 degree ⁓ on like a three quarter shot. Obviously chips are different, but it is interesting the way he uses those.
Matthew Zampello: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, or he's got him that stiff because he's trying to reduce spin. You know, it might not be necessarily he's trying to like, swing or go after it that hard, but he might want that stiffer shaft, because a lighter shaft will increase spin.
Dominic Colangelo: Interesting, I didn't know that. Very cool.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. And then on his putter, he easily has the my least favorite putter that we've ever talked about. The ⁓ Odyssey White Hot, OG, Rossi, no alignment line, ⁓ zero degree loft on his putter. I absolutely hate it. I think it's the ugliest thing on earth. ⁓ The Rossi's are, it's a pretty like classic design. Like everyone has played one at one time or another, whether you're you just picking up the game and you found when I played against sports or you, you know, love Odyssey and you picked up a brand new one. They keep coming out.
Dominic Colangelo: or you're using your dad's putter on the putting green in his office.
Matthew Zampello: Right.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, 100%. I can't tell you how much I dislike his butter. It's so ugly. Just
Dominic Colangelo: Go in.
Matthew Zampello: Next time we see him in person, we should tell him that, Kevin. We should give him-
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he'll he'll totally listen to us. We're get you into a PLD job. Yeah, we're on a first name basis. We call him John.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, for sure. Why wouldn't he? We're the coolest niche podcasts around.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Dominic Colangelo: Johnny boy.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ but then his golf ball Callaway chrome tour, ⁓ kind of interesting story about, ⁓ a friend of mine was in the airport and ran into a Callaway rep. One time they got to talking about, ⁓ you know, their love of golf and, you know, what do do for work? ⁓ came out this person as a Callaway rep and it's like, ⁓ do you play our balls? And, know, my friends like, you know, I typically play a Pro V1 or Taylor made TP five and they're like find me at baggage claim and I will give you a box of balls and I guarantee you it will be your favorite ball from then on. It's like pretty huge claim. Friend is just getting bags, of forgets about it. The person hunts them down, gives them balls in the airport. And then he said that legit, like it became his favorite ball. And he's telling me the story. I'm like, damn, I haven't tried any of the new ones. Like I gotta.
Dominic Colangelo: Well...
Kevin Spisak: go by and swing some. bought, this was when the, it was the Chrome Soft LS was out before the Triple Diamond. I played it and I shot my career low the first time I ever played this ball. So was like, maybe there's something to these Catholic balls.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah. Dang, and those were the Chrome tours.
Kevin Spisak: It was the Chrome soft LS. So now that's been replaced by the by a newer line. We've got the triple diamond.
Dominic Colangelo: I mean, it's a-
Matthew Zampello: believe Callaway Golf Balls are manufactured. There's a big manufacturing for Callaway Golf Balls here in DFW. That's where they do a lot of their manufacturing. It's a massive facility. It's right next to It's right next to the NASCAR.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Dominic Colangelo: That's funny, I thought they were in Carlsbad, California.
Matthew Zampello: They are, but I think they manufacture somehow the golf balls came out of that and come out of DFW for some weird reason.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ okay.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, everyone's in Carl's bed, but, you know, Titleist's manufactures their balls in Massachusetts and yeah, different plants, different places.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, well John Rahm as Matt loves to say He's Dak Prescott just winning in garbage time when the points don't matter He wins live golf Mexico City, which we talked about it before Surprisingly is only a second win in live history Blows my mind
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, he got second at every event last year and then won the year long season race, but never won a golf tournament. don't know. It's so weird. The whole thing is so weird. yeah, mean, Schopoltzpec, played at whatever 7,000 feet and a cloven of a high school boys event basically yardage-wise.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Mm-hmm. We gotta-
Matthew Zampello: He really did. He really did good there. He should be. He should be well in prime for the 7500 yard golf course at the PGA Championship.
Dominic Colangelo: Good job, buddy. Which I think that's a good time to also bring up Bryson's issue with that course. Clearly he was the only one who had an issue with it, but he's on one of the holes kind of over in the rough and he's just sitting there waiting for a rules official and he's just, there's gotta be a ruling here. There's gotta be a ruling here. This is rough. And it's like, hey man, you signed up to play around the world. This is you gotta play with. Everyone else is playing with it. Stop being, I think he's,
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I think he's trying to kind of tinfoil cap. He's using this as like a, can't stand this anymore. I gotta get out of here. Because that was such a weird thing to be mad at. They've played at worst courses.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: How many PGA Tour events do you see someone hit it on like the trampled rough that the spectators have walked on? Like they all play from different places. He's the only one who complains about this.
Dominic Colangelo: I've been saying it man, he's reverting back to the Bryson we hate. It's weird. The pre what?
Matthew Zampello: pre-p-m-risin'.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: the pre-PR team when he hired his PR team. They said, hey, dude.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, exactly. It's insane.
Matthew Zampello: All right, I'm gonna break down the news of the live news over the last week, and I'm gonna go really fast, and then we can go back, I feel like let's hit the spots. You guys tell me where you guys wanna hit the spots that we need to talk about, but I'm gonna go through Tuesday to Tuesday. Essentially, that's when the news happened, so last Tuesday to today. Okay, Tuesday last week, Monday Q info, which is great Twitter account if you don't follow Wood Riley.
Dominic Colangelo: I like it.
Matthew Zampello: reports that the Saudis have pulled funding for live and expect expects live Mexico to not happen, which is crazy because they were all down there Thursday live announces that the reports are BS and an investment sales pitch from the CEO basically on live TV. ⁓ During that Thursday television event when they started doing the round, there was a blackout of power outage, which is so they were off air for like two hours. Tournament went on. That same Thursday, TNT Sports, which is a UK channel, has an interview with the CEO where he accidentally admits they only actually have funding from the Saudis through 2026. They delete the interview, cut that part out, and repost it, but everybody saved the original one where he said they only have funding through 2026. Friday, Bryson complains about the turf in Mexico, which he just hit.
Kevin Spisak: you
Matthew Zampello: Sunday, Bryce and WDs for the final round with wrist pain. Sunday, John Rahm wins Live Mexico, which is an indictment on this whole process, because he stinks. He wins by like five. Sunday, Live commits to returning to Mexico in 2027, which is also insane, because they don't have funding. And Monday,
Kevin Spisak: You
Matthew Zampello: where there's reports that Bryson's lining up plans for after live, which I can only assume means the YouTube golf tour with the Brian bros and, and, and grant teeth or whatever the fuck his name is. And then Tuesday smash GC rebrands to Oklahoma golf club to just put the cherry on top of this whole, the whole thing. Could you imagine naming yourself? We're going to go from, we're going to brand it to one of the smallest, least populated States in the United States and
Kevin Spisak: Yeah
Matthew Zampello: That's what we're gonna, that's the future of this golf club. It's like making it Cedar Rapids Golf Club.
Dominic Colangelo: To quote Herb Brooks, that'll get him going.
Matthew Zampello: So that's the news. All right, take a breath. What do we got to hit up on? What bullet points do we need to break down?
Dominic Colangelo: I mean, that is a lot and it's so funny that I was listening to the talking heads the other day and it was very much like... The Liv's response was basically saying, no, we're good. What are you talking about? We're all fine. are you? Like, and then they actually made a good point where golf sources these days, like golf reporting, there's no sources anymore. People are just like, you see it on nuclear golf Twitter or whatever that page is. And you're like, it's gotta be true. Nuclear spelled wrong. It's gotta be it. ⁓ the, ⁓ wanted to touch ⁓ the Smash GC a little bit because it's absolutely ridiculous. Not only is it ridiculous, I'll say their branding is pretty cool. Their logo is pretty sweet. ⁓ You just name the team after the captain is one take, weird. Two, like you said, smallest market in the world. They're trying to be a worldwide golf brand and they market Oklahoma out of all places. We love Oklahoma, but still. And then like the most insane thing,
Kevin Spisak: you
Dominic Colangelo: You're going to change your team name and your brand mid season? What is that? It's not like it's Brooks Kepka GC. It's Smash. It's fine. Leave it for the year.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Oklahoma GC with ⁓ Graham McDowell from ⁓ Dublin, Ireland on.
Dominic Colangelo: Like what in the world? So strange. Kevin, do you have any of these that you want to bring up?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, just everything all about it seems like it's so in line with how live just has always been where it's just so like not professional. There's there's no there's no flow or fluidity. know, they were broadcasting what at the beginning they were on the CW. It's just like it's so just like. I don't I can't even put into words just how it's like not nearly the prestige of the PGA tour. They're trying to be different and trying to do something different. And then they just make themselves look terrible. know, rebranding in the middle of the year, just the way that the play has been and Bryson complaining and John Romm making all these weird comments and, you know, Brooks left and slimy P Reid left and, know, everyone wants out of there. The Saudis even want out of it. They know that it's a sham. You know, just kind of time.
Dominic Colangelo: It's off.
Matthew Zampello: feel like MBS was reading the financials and it's like, we spent $5 billion on what? Get that out of here.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ it's over. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ My son did what?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, MBS is a listener to our show, so he's clearly going to come after us.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, you're right. It's almost as as unserious as Tom Kim winning player of the year in TGL.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: I couldn't believe that. barely even watched it, but I'm like, Tom Kim, really?
Matthew Zampello: I didn't even see that. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Math boy.
Dominic Colangelo: with Bryson doing his plans after Liv, I did think it was really interesting that instead of using Bryson's channel, Twitter page, they used Crush GC. Like, yeah, they used Crushers GC Twitter page. Sorry, I don't care. It is like, okay, Bryson's gonna start this new 2v2 with Garrett Clark.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Can you put some respect on their name, Dom?
Kevin Spisak: The names are so dumb.
Dominic Colangelo: playing against randoms. It's like, why are you posting? This isn't live golf. Why would I care if I'm a fan? Like it's so interesting.
Matthew Zampello: I saw this funny thing today. I can't take credit for it because it's hilarious. But it was like Bryson's new golf tour is going to be all right. Who can shoot five under on the back nine while finishing an entire tub of mayo? That's going to be that's going to be his next challenge.
Dominic Colangelo: That is so ridiculous, dude. ⁓ my gosh. I don't hate his YouTube content though. That's the thing. That's what's so weird about all this. It's like there's YouTube Bryson and then tournament Bryson. It's so weird. I don't get it.
Matthew Zampello: In my video of the year, gave him one of the videos of the year in 2025 for his practice round at Oakmont, showing us Oakmont and how he was going to play it and all that sort of stuff. That was a fantastic YouTube video. And then he goes and does shit like, let's go finish a whole box of Cheerios on the back nine. And you're like, is a waste. This is a waste of my brain cells.
Dominic Colangelo: Alright, alright. I wanted to bring up Ian Poulter's comments. I don't know if you all saw these. So they essentially were talking about Brooks Koepka going back to PGA. And Ian Poulter was very butthurt about it. He was saying, and I'm gonna read some of these quotes, there's a definite issue between the PGA Tour and Liv. What did they really open up? They gave an opportunity to four players and four players only. I'll ask everyone on the outside, how does that honestly look when you only take players who have won? Brooks, five majors, Kim Smith, was one of the players in the open. You would take back Bryson DeChambeau and gave the opportunity to Jon Rahm. So just F everyone else, right? We want the biggest four assets so we can nick, we want the biggest four assets that we can nick back from Liv and we don't want any of you lot. How does that look? And I'm just gonna stop there because yeah, Ian, we want the people who are good. What kind of comments are these? Like, no, we don't want you back if you're bad. That's like. That's Brian Rolaps whole thing is he wants what's best for the tour. He wants what's going to be entertaining and he wants what's going to give viewers. We're not going to watch Ian Poulter anymore. Like obviously he was a, he was a legend, but like, no, he's not good anymore.
Kevin Spisak: Ian and his 7,000 cars can just go sail off into the sunset and, you know, we don't need to watch him anymore.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, it's like from a zombie land where Woody Harrelson's crying with the money. Like just go cry with your money, it's fine. Like it's such an interesting take where he's like, wow, I can't believe they're only taking back the people who have won the most important tournaments on the PGA. Isn't that weird? Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, his only claim to fame for the last like 15 years has been every once in a while, you know, the Ryder Cup, he would play phenomenal in and he would be he'd be dog shit in between. You he'd just pull it out of his ass to play well and match play at the Ryder Cup, which is which is great for him. You know, the Ryder Cup is like the biggest event for, you know, Europe versus USA. But, you know, he would just be absolutely irrelevant every other minute in between Ryder Cups.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: His son is sick though. ⁓ I randomly watched, ⁓ it was Florida versus, was it Arkansas maybe? I can't remember, some random college tournament that was on ESPN 20. And Ian Poulter's son was killing it and he destroyed the kid he played against. So I think he could be pretty fun to watch eventually but.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, Laura.
Kevin Spisak: Thank
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, Luke, Luke Poulter is legit. He's gonna be good. But hopefully he does it. He does do that. I mean, if you're like, I would be pissed if I'm Ben on. Ben on was a pretty good PGA Tour player. He's now on heat. This is his first year on Korean Golf Club, which which is way better than Oklahoma Golf Club. And then like Michael Asaso. Right. He was like one the fans out. He had a
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah.
Matthew Zampello: He was going to, had a master's invite this year because he won the NCAAs. He declined that to go play for high flyers golf club with Phil Mickelson, who now is not playing because of family reasons. then live is going to be disbanded after 2026. So he gave up his spot in masters, gave up pretty much an automatic PGA tour card for, I don't, mean, yes, he got a good amount of millions of dollars, but like, I don't know.
Dominic Colangelo: about that.
Matthew Zampello: That's nuts to me.
Dominic Colangelo: That swing probably isn't lasting much longer. So I'm glad he got a bag, but like you said, I don't know, Patrick Reed's going through the world tour, mean the Euro tour to kind of earn his way back. ⁓ Brooks just had so much money, they just like, ⁓ pay it fine. He'll be okay. So like, I hope he makes his way back somehow. That's kind of, I think that's a good quote unquote punishment is to make these guys grind it out for a year and do a full year.
Matthew Zampello: It's true.
Dominic Colangelo: You're not winning these massive purses, because you're fine on money for a little bit. So let's prove that you actually want to be on tour. ⁓ So I think it's kind of a nice little segue into PGA. Kind of prove that you're not just here to make money, you're here to actually play golf like we want to play golf.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I love the pictures of Brooks waiting to get into this tournament. He went straight from Augusta and just sit in poolside as the first alternate. That was hilarious.
Dominic Colangelo: He's awesome,
Matthew Zampello: I feel like to wrap it up, got so so they the Saudis have now canceled Nio, the the the line city. If you're familiar with that. ⁓ So Nio was the city they were they were going to build like a line. was like going to be like a 20 mile line city in the middle of the desert. And it was going to be this crazy metropolis. And it was going to cost a bazillion dollars. They canceled that. They canceled the all around ski resort, indoor ski resort that they're going to try to host the Olympics at.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-mm. Really?
Kevin Spisak: You
Matthew Zampello: in saudi arabia the winter Olympics in south dumb i'm not making this up i promise i'm not making this up they they cancelled that project and now they cancel live what else is next they're gonna cancel everything else
Dominic Colangelo: What? It sounds like it. I'm the least political person, but I hear it's something to do with like all the war going on. Who knows? We don't have to touch on it, but I'm like, there's gotta be some overarching reason why this is all happening so randomly. You know what I mean? It's weird.
Matthew Zampello: I just don't see any way that any business person says, yes, this is a good investment after. There's no way. mean, you're just burning cash on. And I don't think anybody is going to have the money to pay Bryson what he wants to be paid. So now you lose arguably your biggest asset outside of John Rahm and Bryson. mean, who else is there?
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah. Yeah, unless they just agree to make smaller purses, mean smaller contracts, like I don't see where that works. Or they just, know, Greg Norman concedes and he kind of says, hey, let's just go back to what I wanted originally. And we have, you know, six tournaments a year that are a fun shotgun start. That's one day. Cause that's the, that's the whole idea in the beginning was just an exhibition thing. And then PGA was like, nah, that's not what we're about. So that's why he did all this. So it's like, why don't we just merge? It'll be fine. Make like a fun tournament as like a bye week. If you don't want to play, have to play. We know Rory won't, but whatever.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, we we definitely missed an opportunity to have a PGA Tour versus live sort of Ryder Cup event. That would have been the event of the year for sure if that ever happened. But I get why the PGA Tour didn't want that to happen. They couldn't risk losing.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, exactly. That'd be sick. I mean, it's pretty much every major. The best live players are already playing in majors.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, in 10 in 10 years from now, we're going to we're going to be telling our ⁓ our kids that there was a somebody told us that a team called the Range Goats in golf was worth a billion dollars. I just want to throw that out there. I just want to that out.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Mm. you
Dominic Colangelo: So while we're on the subject of other tours, I wanna talk about the Corn Fairy Tour for a quick second, cause they're adding in an average stroke time. We're talking pace of play timing, which is very fun. They're calling it the AST, and it's a pretty interesting concept. kind of going through, this is the note that they left their players. So they're essentially, they're doing this so they can provide competitive context to fans. They want to create positive storylines and changing the perception around speed of play, which currently is skewing negative because everyone's saying, you know, can't lay. It's like, gosh, he's taking forever. And then Ludwig is, you know, going four seconds. So it's kind of, it's a weird perception going on and it's just all relative. So they kind of want to just show, Hey, this is what we're doing. ⁓ And like I said, correcting inaccurate information and supporting members who are incorrectly labeled as slow players. So what they're doing, it's very similar to the ABS system in baseball, if you are familiar. So the automated ball strike is what it's known for. So they've been doing it in the minors for about six years. ⁓ And you know, three of those years was random leagues that didn't matter. So the last two or three years, they've been doing the challenge situation where if you don't know, throw a strike, it's called a ball. Ketra thinks it's on the line, he can tap his helmet, boom, whatever, doesn't matter. So they're gonna roll this out after, actually no, it's this coming tournament for the corn fairy. They're rolling this out, they're gonna start timing people, and it's essentially gonna be on the PGA website in the stat sheet. So you can kinda just see total time. I'm not sure if they're doing like, only average per shot, or if they're going to do total time or something like that, like that'd be kind of cool to just see how much time is spent preparing for a shot versus walking to the next ball. You know, like you can take the total round time, subtract the preparation. That'd be kind of cool. But yeah, it's a very interesting process. And I think similar to the baseball is that it's going to start in the corn fairy and then eventually make its way to the PGA. I don't know, like Do y'all have any specific people that you'd be kind of interested to see? I just mentioned Cantlay, but like anyone off the top of your head?
Matthew Zampello: don't know Kevin, you got anybody?
Kevin Spisak: Brian Harman comes to mind as being slow. know, Bryson would be, but he's clearly not playing on the PJ tour. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Mmm. You might be at that time.
Matthew Zampello: That's where my mind went, was Bryson.
Kevin Spisak: So it seems like a pretty subjective stat because you're not going to count when they're walking from their tee shot to their second shot. And then if they say have a longer drive, when, you ⁓ when do you count that it's their turn, you know, to take their second shot, you know, they're preparing for that, you know, the whole time the other player is going. So I don't know how you really time that. If you know, maybe if you just wait for the other balls to come to rest, you know, and then then they're on the clock, but ⁓ that sounds like it would be, you know, up to the timekeeper and it could vary. But, I don't know, maybe they've got some like really defined rules.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, that's actually a pretty interesting point. And ⁓ quick note, there's like basketball. Have you heard all those, ⁓ the rumors where it's like Michael Jordan didn't actually get 15 assists in the game. The stack keepers were Chicago fans. That'd be kind of wild that similar. But anyways, ⁓ I was thinking that too about the timing. it's like, would tell, they would have the players have like a certain cue of here's when your time starts kind of thing. ⁓ At first I was thinking when the caddies drop the bag, but then the caddy would be smart and just hold the bag for a while and then drop it or whatever. I don't know. They probably will have some kind of form of starting the clock and it's like, okay, clock starts now. Kind of like how baseball has like the timer in your face showing you. But yeah, I never really thought of it like that where, you know, it is a very subjective timing.
Matthew Zampello: I think it's gonna be great. I think it's gonna be fun and it adds a new, you know, it'll be interesting to see if like they enforce it coming down the 18th hole.
Dominic Colangelo: yeah, because it's not like they haven't really said that they're stroking guys, as Brooks likes to say, that's literally just, we're just doing this ⁓ as a stat, as a timekeeping stat, just to show you what these players are actually doing. So if that's the case, like you said, Kevin, they're probably gonna make it way shorter than you think. I'm very curious to see what Can't Lay does.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: if you're still playing by then.
Matthew Zampello: I think next on the golf news is how tongue Lee. So if you're in golf, golf media space and you haven't seen the how tongue Lee interview with smiley Govman, ⁓ he is like the best, he was the best sport after his 10, like he went on interviews and talked about it. He's like, ⁓ one of the funniest players of all time. Like he talks about so many funny things like chasing speed with Bryson and, ⁓ the president's cup and all that sort of stuff. Like.
Dominic Colangelo: Mmm.
Matthew Zampello: would highly recommend going and watch Hao Tong Li. He went from like, kind of not really known to being like one of my favorite players to watch.
Dominic Colangelo: Didn't he walk in wearing a robe and goggles? Is that what I saw? Yeah. He's funny, man. Yeah, we need to see him more.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ Yeah, for sure. ⁓ Yeah, quickly on to Zurich today. So Zurich Classic, ⁓ kind of a sleepy event on the PGA Tour. It's the only partners event. So this is the one where you play with a partner. You get some real weird players because I think they can basically bring in anybody from history. So rounds one and three are four ball. And then rounds two and four are foursomes. ⁓ So it's alternate shot and best ball, basically switching off rounds. ⁓ Some notable teams, Aaron Rye and Sahith Agalla. Feel like they're fun. They could be fun to watch. ⁓ The Fitzies, the Fitzpatrick brothers, Alex and Matt. I think if they win, that would be really cool.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Matthew Zampello: Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak Andrew Novak big topic on last week's podcast if I remember correctly ⁓ Defending yeah, and then Austin cook and Jason Duffner ⁓ You don't see Duff Daddy a lot out here along a lot kind of a blast from the past I haven't seen his name in a long
Dominic Colangelo: Heck yeah. Groovy as winter.
Kevin Spisak: Yep. Cleveland guy.
Dominic Colangelo: Blaze Brown, Luke Clinton. That could be cool. That's a big thing too is ⁓ there's a good amount of players that are, if you win the event, you get full PGA Tour card status. So there's actually a good amount of guys. I didn't realize Joel Damon was on that list.
Matthew Zampello: That's a good one. That's a very... That's a very good one. Mm-hmm. who doesn't have PGA Tour status? Yeah, no, has, no, he has like temporary status. Like he's, he did not play well last couple of years.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, does he not have full status? Yeah, kind of like exemptions or whatever. Yeah, it should be, it should be pretty fun. It's always, you know, it's an interesting watch for me. I kind of recently started paying attention to the Zurich. It's one of those where, ⁓ you know, kind of a hangover after RBC, you're kind of like, Hmm, okay. Yeah, it's just Zurich. But then since watching, ⁓ you know, I think the first time I really locked in was a couple of years ago when Rory and Lowry won it. ⁓ and that's, you know, It's way more fun than I thought it was gonna be. So it is pretty fun. I'm pretty excited to watch. Kevin, I know you really enjoyed the course.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, the field doesn't seem quite as strong this year as in the past. In the past, you know, we had like Xander, Cantlay, Rory, Lowry. There's some heavy hitters. And this year isn't quite as strong. But yeah, definitely enjoyed the course. It was very fun. We played it a few weeks after the Zurich a couple of years ago. They use such an intense dyed fertilizer that it dyed my shoes and they Now it is four years later. I still have those shoes and they are still very green. The soul is from walking around there. But I really liked it. The greens were absolutely lightning fast when we played it, you know, and for the munis that I'm used to playing is tough for old boy over here. But I had a good time. It was interesting seeing from the TV, you know, you're used to the grandstand views.
Dominic Colangelo: That's cool.
Matthew Zampello: Hmm.
Kevin Spisak: And then just a couple of weeks later when all those grandstands are gone, the course like looks almost like nothing alike. I had a hard time like recognizing holes from TV to playing it in person.
Dominic Colangelo: interesting.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ So you guys want to get into trivia time?
Matthew Zampello: Heck yeah!
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, let's do it.
Kevin Spisak: Here's another question that I'm scared about. think I just feel like Matt's going to know it because he knows absolutely everything, but we're going to ask it anyways. So as always, the stakes are one of the two of you gets it right. Me and the other person will chug a beer as ⁓ a penalty.
Matthew Zampello: I'll finish my glass of wine.
Dominic Colangelo: Hmm
Kevin Spisak: No, it's got to be a full chug. Follow the rules. So, TPC Louisiana, 2004. They had a sighting of an alligator, pretty famous alligator who lived on the course for almost 20 years with three legs. What was his nickname?
Dominic Colangelo: God. Alligators nickname?
Matthew Zampello: 2004.
Kevin Spisak: That's what that was his first sighting. So it was like up through, you know, there's like stories about him as recently as like 2020 time.
Matthew Zampello: Mmm.
Dominic Colangelo: geez. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: I thought you would know this immediately, man.
Matthew Zampello: three legs. Ugh.
Dominic Colangelo: I don't even know if I have a guess.
Matthew Zampello: No, I don't even know. mean, I was gonna say like, I was gonna pull some like happy Gilmore thing and it was like chubs or something.
Dominic Colangelo: I was thinking that too. That'd be a fun one.
Kevin Spisak: Good guess, good guess.
Dominic Colangelo: I always think of ⁓ Swamp People. You remember that show? Toy. Toot Toot ⁓ Lindvus! ⁓
Matthew Zampello: I'll go check.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Is it a golf themed name?
Kevin Spisak: tell you after. We need Dom's guess.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang it. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: I'm gonna not overthink this one.
Kevin Spisak: You're going to be kicking yourself when you hear the answer. He's three legged and his nickname was tripod.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ that's a good one. I thought you were gonna Eileen.
Matthew Zampello: That's a great one.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, all right. So yeah, he hasn't been seen in a while. ⁓ In recent tournaments, there's been ⁓ an alligator that's been going across the fairways and stuff that players see, but he's got four legs. So maybe it's the end of old tripod. Yeah. Exactly.
Dominic Colangelo: Try. It's like a... It's like mini me in Awesome Power.
Matthew Zampello: That was a good one, was a stump, that was a stump. I wouldn't have got that one. I- I- Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Finally got him.
Kevin Spisak: I'm ⁓ not to be chugging this week.
Dominic Colangelo: Finally got the trivia master. That's impressive. So I think that's a good time to also bring up our one and duns. Very exciting one and done week. Once again, we all had pretty solid guesses. Yeah, Matt's was okay. Matt.
Matthew Zampello: That's right. Pretty solid.
Kevin Spisak: Does Matt's even count? I don't think Matt's pick even counts.
Dominic Colangelo: I don't think so. Just kidding. Matt Fitzpatrick was Matt's one and done pick. It was excellent. He deserves all the glory. He gets one point this week. Massive. That brings his total from 517 to 518. Woo!
Matthew Zampello: Why?
Kevin Spisak: you you Ha
Matthew Zampello: You're a bad guy. You're a bad guy. All hail the queen for Matt Fitzpatrick.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ you're incredible, Matt. Yeah, I hope you don't let us hear the end of it because the first win. Like, is Kevin, you got so close our second week, you had Shane Lowry, you got ⁓ who kind of choked and got second place, but it's pretty fun that we got a winner. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen, but congrats, Matt. That's awesome. ⁓ Kevin had Russell Henley and he ended up 25th place. And that brings us total of three thirty two.
Matthew Zampello: Thank you.
Dominic Colangelo: I went with Patrick Cantlay. Again, I'm going with heavy hitters and it seems to be working so far. Let's see if I can hold it up. He finished T8, so I'll redo these totals. So Matt, incredible, 518. Kevin, 332. Dominic is at 194, coming up on 200 finally. So this is kind of an interesting one for our one and done's. We can either... ⁓ I think a good route is choose a team to win, clean slate for this one week. If you've chosen this guy before, you can choose him again and it won't count towards future tournaments. So we're just picking separately and we'll take the placement as well. So Matt, who do you have this week for the Zurich Classic?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, man, I was thinking about a lot of different teams. ⁓ I just couldn't. I I am going to go Brooks Kepka and Shane Lowry. I hate it. It pains me to pick Shane Lowry. I hate Shane Lowry, I think they're the best team in the field. think Alec. I just don't, you know, I don't like his whole shtick. He's like, oh, I'm a funny Irish guy. And then he says.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang it. All right. Why do you need to know that already?
Matthew Zampello: book this golf course every time he sees one and then he's like, ⁓ but I'm Irish, I can do that.
Dominic Colangelo: That's fair.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yeah, I don't like him either. I agree with you, Matt.
Dominic Colangelo: Alright Kevin, yeah you did, but that's okay. I think Kevin probably would chosen after me, or after you. Kevin, who'd you got?
Matthew Zampello: Sorry, don't pick your pick.
Kevin Spisak: This is a tough one because the field is so different from years past but I'm gonna go with guys you mentioned before and go Aaron Rye and Sahith Tigala.
Matthew Zampello: That was my second pick. They were good. That's a good pick.
Dominic Colangelo: Nice, nice. Okay, those are all good people. I have to kind of.
Kevin Spisak: Matt Fitzpatrick is playing with his brother, Wouldn't that be a pretty solid one?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, and know, ⁓ Alex, he also won this year on DP World Tour, which is very fun in India. So I'm going between, I have three people I'm choosing from and it's Finaal Greyersman and that's essentially Matt Zampello, because they have the same exact golf swing, which is very fun. I was gonna do potentially the Fitzpatricks or Ryan Gerard and Yelima Jarut.
Matthew Zampello: in India. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: That guy's been, Yellow Majar has been sick lately. Like he's always, you know, he's making cuts, which is awesome. But that one seems very like, seems a little bit too out there.
Matthew Zampello: Mount Yellowmanjaro, as I like to call it.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with my boy. I want to buy his putter. Give me Finau and Greyersman.
Matthew Zampello: You're gonna go with 20 feet now? He came DFL by five strokes at RBC Air.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay.
Matthew Zampello: All right, we're closer to Dom this week. We're getting closer to Dom this
Dominic Colangelo: Potten heater went dead last and then he ended up being what T10? I don't know what he was. We'll see what happens. Maybe something changes here. It's probably not the best choice, but.
Kevin Spisak: If he goes top 10, you got to buy his putter.
Dominic Colangelo: I'll take that deal. How beautiful. Anything else, boys?
Matthew Zampello: I Kevin wanted me to quickly hit on my member guest experience. Oh, you're still on time Dom, so we'll hit it. Ask me anything, I'll give you a quick recap. So played in the Colonial member guest on Thursday and Friday of last week. I'm explaining it as it's a science experiment for very wealthy Texas men. It's a lot of drinking. It's a lot of food. It's a lot of golf. It's very fun. The course is in great condition. It was awesome because all the stands were up. So you're kind of playing in like the PGA Tour arena a little bit. was very cool. The greens were icy fast. Everything about it was good. ⁓ Yeah, don't think I don't have a bad thing to say.
Dominic Colangelo: that's fun.
Matthew Zampello: It is a, it's, it's a, it's a cool place. The course, everybody says Colonial is kind of easy. It's not, it's freaking hard. It's there's a lot of rough, a lot of small greens, very undulating. So it's good stuff. the course has been completely redone. I think the greens firmer. So now have subair underneath the greens. So basically that's a big fan underneath the greens that they have where they can control the firmness. ⁓ yeah, ⁓ it's how they control. Because in ⁓ have bent grass greens. And so ⁓ you have bent grass greens in Texas, have to control.
Dominic Colangelo: What?
Matthew Zampello: the moisture and the temperature. so they have big fans underneath all the surfaces to keep them the temperature that they want essentially.
Kevin Spisak: That's wild.
Dominic Colangelo: I've never heard that before.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Yeah, lot of like Augusta's famous for having some air.
Kevin Spisak: were
Matthew Zampello: it's a cool spot, though. I'm I'm a big fan. ⁓ They do a great job. ⁓ The golf staff is is unbelievable.
Dominic Colangelo: That's where you showed Aaron and I the F1 race.
Matthew Zampello: That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they put on a good event. I think it's just funny. You're in just, ⁓ there's just all types of personalities. You have people that are super competitive, you have the people that are just there to drink and have fun, you have the people that are there for the business connections, I guess you could call it, right? ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: How much did you drink?
Matthew Zampello: Yes. Well, not not too much, but they did have some good whiskey there. So me and my partner. But the good thing is my partner, he wasn't really he's not expecting to win. He's more there for the vibes. So it was very, very vibes driven, which was good. was more just we got to kind of hang out, hit some good golf shots, made a few good birdies, made a few bogeys. It wasn't like competitive. It wasn't like. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ there you go.
Matthew Zampello: really want to go win this. don't I don't think that was that was the vibe at all, which is nice because ⁓ you never wanted to get like awkward or anything or anything like that. Like we were we were middle of the pack the whole way, so I wasn't too worried about it.
Dominic Colangelo: Was it, ⁓ like, what was the format? Is it best ball?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, just basketball. So I had to give two strokes back to the field, which was tough. I don't understand handicap the way they have to do the give two strokes back because I had to give I had to give strokes back on number whole number two, which I understand number two is an easy par four. I totally get that. So three for four there if I made birdie and then I had to give a stroke back on number 16. And number 16 is a hundred and eighty five yard part three with water right and water left. And I was hitting two from the tea box. I was like, this is bullshit. This is bullshit. What, Kevin?
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ my god.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Is that being so good?
Dominic Colangelo: Well, I'm assuming a lot of
Kevin Spisak: I stop being so good.
Matthew Zampello: No, I know, I know. I'm a true vanity handicap right now. That's why I'm taking a sabbatical.
Dominic Colangelo: yeah, well you should just keep playing so you bring your handicap back.
Matthew Zampello: I know I need to start posting. need to start. I like I think I shot like 75. I think I went 75 73 and the golf course is par 70. So five over and three over which for there is respectable for not really playing it that much. But still like I think that should bring my handicap handicap up a little bit. I don't even know if they posted it. I don't know if they auto post the the gin scores. I'm afraid of you Strickler but He'll find me if I'm sandbagging.
Dominic Colangelo: Sometimes they do. So in the Midwest, we have a time limit. You can start posting in April, and you can't post after November 5th or whatever it is. Is that similar in Texas? I can't remember. ⁓ OK. You dirty dog. Gnarly. Any more questions, Kevin?
Matthew Zampello: No, you can post all year round.
Kevin Spisak: No, I don't think so. Thanks for sharing, Matt. That sounds like an awesome time.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, it was a fun event. So hoping we run it back next year. So it'll be good.
Dominic Colangelo: You gonna buy that three wood with your clubhouse money?
Matthew Zampello: The... No, I bought this hoodie. A little Grayson hoodie. I would never spend $250 on a hoodie. ⁓ But when you have some Pro Shop credit... ⁓ why not? Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Heck yeah. I love it. Well, beautiful. ⁓ Yeah, I think ⁓ great recap. lot of Liv news. We don't normally talk about Liv, but you know, got to get creative whenever there's a repeat winner on the PGA Tour. But if you wanted to see Matt Fitzpatrick's under the covers, go check that episode out. It was the Valspar Championship. ⁓ We call it the frumpy heavenwood. So please check that one out if you want to hear it. But besides that, thanks for listening. Go follow us on all of our social Spotify, Apple, YouTube, at Under the Covers Golf. Can't wait to see this very classic. And I think what we're gonna do next week, potentially get into the women's major, maybe do some LPGA coverage. All right.
Matthew Zampello: That's That's right. MBS if you're listening, please keep a little live. We like talking about it. It's kind of fun. It's almost it's almost so bad. It's funny.
Kevin Spisak: you
Dominic Colangelo: It's good for the tour.