Slip Under The Covers with us like the slippery snake you are. Lets chat about Cameron Young and his prototypes. Then we get into the Copperhead Course for the Valspar Championship next week.
Transcript
Dominic Colangelo: Hello and welcome back to Under the Covers golf podcast where we deep dive into the most recent PGA Tour winners golf bag talk about the club choices, review specs and really just talk some golf. We are your hosts. My name is Dominic and I'm alongside
Kevin Spisak: So Dominic, am alongside three hours of sleep. Thanks Southwest for delaying my flight yesterday twice, letting me board and kick me off twice.
Dominic Colangelo: Matt is also here.
Matthew Zampello: Hey Dom, thanks for having me tonight. I really appreciate it. I said last week spring has sprung in Texas. It's 35 degrees here. I'm very upset. I also would like to let everybody know after months and months ⁓ of toying with mallet putter, I'm back to my blade. So we're back in the saddle the spring. Yeah. The blade is just, I mean, it's just, there's so much more feel. You can't give up. Yeah, I know.
Dominic Colangelo: Is this breaking news? Wow. Did you just hear, you just heard our conversations about mallets and you just like, now let me, let me go back.
Matthew Zampello: When everybody zag.
Dominic Colangelo: I respect that. Yeah, we'll have to hear some updates throughout the season. That'll be fun to follow. See if you're on par with all the other pros out there. So Cameron Young is our winner of the Players Championship at TBC Sawgrass. This is just his second career win. He had a couple on the Cordon Ferry Tour, but second as a PGA Tour winner. Started off with a opening round of 68, 67, 72, and that's 68 to kind of close out Matt Fitzpatrick at the end there for a 1300 to finish. This is kind of an interesting FedEx points run in the beginning of the season. feel like in previous years, and correct me if I'm wrong, but there's kind of some more repeat winners by now. it's really just whoever's winning kind of gets up to that top three spot. So Cameron Young is at number two. Am ⁓ I there? Isn't there normally more repeat winners?
Kevin Spisak: Maybe Scottie Scheffler.
Matthew Zampello: Yet
Dominic Colangelo: Exactly.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, that's probably the reason why you think. Yeah, but J.K. isn't Jacob Richmond, number one in the FedEx Cup right now. Crazy. But Jacob Richmond is like came out of nowhere, right? Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: He's number one, so camera's number two. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he's had some good weeds.
Dominic Colangelo: I know it's awesome. Yeah, so he's he's been. I don't think he's been under. Or sorry, I don't think he's been more than 20th place in these all these tournaments, so he's always up there getting points and then Occha was one last week. So then Occha fell Cameron Young jumped up. It's it's kind of just a battle going on.
Matthew Zampello: feel like the craziest part about Cam Young winning the players is, does it feel like he had to qualify for the US Open last year? Like he wasn't in the US Open field by default.
Dominic Colangelo: feel like he's had some struggles.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, he win like a two for one or a three for one playoff spot at like a US Open qualifier last year and ⁓ just feels like like it feels like when you're when you're like on the Ryder Cup team you shouldn't have to qualify for a US Open spot but it's crazy it's crazy that he did
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Right.
Kevin Spisak: After his first win I thought he was gonna be an absolute stud and we were gonna be seeing his name like over and over and over again and then he kind of like fell off on the leaderboards for a little while and then I think it was like on TGL I was like I saw him there I was like ⁓ yeah like he's sick where has he been
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I was so worried about the team room for New York Golf Club because Cam Young and Matt Fitzpatrick play on the same team, you know, it doesn't wreck the chemistry there between the two of them. Stupid.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it looked like they were cordial after the winning putt.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, that was he's a Fitzpatrick is a class act. Did he go up and hug like all of Cameron Young's family to like he was just very I think he was just happy to be there. I like Fitzpatrick a lot. His his crosshand chipping is something to be studied, but I appreciate his game. So Cameron Young.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Ahem. Yeah. And and that he wears Skechers. Yeah, he's sponsored by Skechers.
Dominic Colangelo: Does he really? ⁓ dude. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. Could you imagine the green jacket with the Skechers logo underneath it?
Dominic Colangelo: That'd be so sick. Imagine the marketing from that.
Kevin Spisak: Ugh.
Matthew Zampello: Ha ha ha!
Kevin Spisak: I think in the real world, the only people who would tell you cross-handed chipping is the way to go also wear Sketchers.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah All right, so Cameron Young, Kevin, give me an insight. What's under the covers?
Kevin Spisak: So he's got a fun bag. His driver, Titleist GT3 11 degree, little higher lofted than most Tour pros, it's ⁓ of their lower spinning heads. The GT4 would be the lowest spinning, but GT3 pretty low spinning. Diamana PD60TX, pretty stiff, but relatively light, so trying to swing fast and really crank it.
Dominic Colangelo: So I think talked about, we've talked about a bunch of daemonic shafts. What is the PD? I don't think we've had that come up yet.
Matthew Zampello: I think PD is there is last year. WD or whiteboard I think is there.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it's there. It's their low launch. It's low launch, low spin. So yeah, we've had a lot of whiteboards. According to Mitsubishi, ⁓ lowest lowest spinning fifth generation Diamana shaft. ⁓ interesting it's the 60. That seems pretty light for a guy as strong as him, especially when we get to his irons.
Dominic Colangelo: We've had a lot of whiteboards. Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: But since it's so low launching, low spinning, that probably explains the 11 degree. So he's just really trying to haul off on the driver and apparently it worked this week.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I think he recently switched from the GT2 into the GT3 so definitely looking for like a bit of a different profile most of those a lot I think the GT2 has been more popular on tour than the GT3 So GT2 might be a generational driver GT3 maybe not as much but interesting that it seems to work for him ⁓ Well, cranking it obviously so
Kevin Spisak: Yep. I've been really wanting to get a GT3 for myself, but I'm just so hooked with my ping ⁓ and just the ping lines in general. It's like, you know the meme where it's like the couple walking together, but the guy is looking back. It's like me and my ping are walking and I ⁓ keep staring over at the GT3. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Dude, that thing rips. I actually had a quick question for you. So I'm curious if you all have any insight here. I feel like, I wanna say, let's just say it was five years ago. I don't know when it was, but it seemed like a lot of these pros, they were hitting like four or five or six degree drivers. Like they were all super low, but nowadays ⁓ seems to be back up to like eight plus. Is there any correlation there?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. ⁓ not yet, not quite. I think you're just remembering Bryson DeChambeau. He played like a five degree driver and he's about the only one. know, you would, you would maybe hear a couple like seven and a halfs, but eight or nine would be pretty typical and, probably has been for awhile.
Dominic Colangelo: Was it? ⁓ ⁓ really? thought like a spieth had a really low, I might have just not really been in the club, the golf club spec know how back then, but yeah, I'm probably just wrong.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, if you were thinking of putters, putters would have only a couple degrees loft.
Dominic Colangelo: You might be right.
Matthew Zampello: I feel like when I saw, remember the SLER from TaylorMade, I feel like that was the first driver where we saw a ton of pros go up and loft like a lot. that driver was like a knuckleball, it didn't spin at all. So like they need to get it up and down.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Mmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that you had That one was wild when it came out. The CG was so far forward that a lot of players or really skilled ⁓ players were playing a 12 degree driver. ⁓ ⁓ see the entire face behind the ball almost look like a three wood sitting behind there. That was a wild one, but they had a lot of success with that.
Dominic Colangelo: And now they're kind of back to that with the mini driver, that smaller phase.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. yeah, moving along to his three wood titles GT1. So he's looking for a little bit more forgiveness and he jumps up to the Diamant PD80TX. So he's going from the 60 in his driver to 80 in a three wood with some more forgiveness and the GT1 instead of like a GT3.
Matthew Zampello: You know, I love my three woods. ⁓ so I think this is, ⁓ this was the prototype to what we now know as the GT one tour, which basically came out, ⁓ with a, basically a direct competitor to the QI 10 and the QI 35 core, essentially, bigger head doesn't spin a lot. just a little bit more forgiving off the face and everything. So, I think this is probably like, basically what you can go get off the shelf now, which is actually pretty cool. So.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Then in his hybrid, he has another GT1 and also has the PD80TX. So in a hybrid, you typically see that shaft get a little bit heavier than their 3 would. But McCam-Young, not the case. But he's ⁓ swinging hard and trying to get distance. And the GT1 would give him some, ⁓ you ⁓ the long help on launch and some stopping power, know, versus something maybe lower spinning. Then on his irons, he's got Titleist T200 4-iron, T105, and Titleist 631CY prototype. So I assume that means Cam Young prototype on 6 through 9. The wild thing being his shafts are the Dynamic Gold X7s. So the stiffest, lowest spinning that Dynamic Gold makes, you know,
Dominic Colangelo: Insane.
Kevin Spisak: The X100 is super popular, know, for recreational, you know, high swing speed players and tour pros alike. The X7, I think, became pretty famous for Jason Day about 11 years ago when he was at the top of his game. A rip to his round. ⁓ A rip Jason Day's Sunday round, but we'll get there. But yeah. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Not anymore.
Matthew Zampello: Dom, you want to know what X7 feels like, go to your local middle school, take the flagpole out of the school yard, put that on your itunes.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha.
Dominic Colangelo: I have been curious, I'll work on that.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that would just be incredible. Like the amount of like strength you need to have and swing speed to be able to swing one of those. It's just wild. I was looking them up and they actually came out in 2005 and they were not released to the public until January of 2016. the dynamic goal like True Temper had
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ wow.
Kevin Spisak: people reaching out who wanted them and they were typically like collegiate players or pros and they would work with them but when they thought that it would be a compliment to the x100 there just weren't enough recreational golfers who could possibly like handle them and now nowadays you know it's a little bit different versus 2005 there's some more athletic you know long drive type of players who can handle them you know but 21 years ago and then came out, not necessarily. So moving along to his wedges, we've got some SM11s, got a 48 degree F grind, 52 degree F grind, 56 degree F grind, and then a 60 degree K grind. He's got the X7s all through to 48 through 56. And then he drops down to an X100 on the 60 degree. So he's got some stiff boys in his wedges.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, he really softens it up going to the X 100s in his wedges ⁓ I Believe he plays the K star which is ⁓ which is a pretty sick wedge One that I have in my bag Love it very much. I would it the ultimate bunker club. It is ⁓ So good of the bunker. I mean you can swing as hard as you want Open the face up as wide as you want and it just comes out like a soft pillow ⁓ I will say
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: What a loser. Mmm.
Kevin Spisak: Huh.
Matthew Zampello: Sometimes too soft, sometimes I've left a few in the bunker since I've gotten it, but I've gotten better. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: Haha, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: And is that just a test to the grind, like the actual grind is what's doing that or something with the bounce too?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, it's the balance, right? So it's a super wide soul and so it just glides through the sand super well. And the K-Star is like a triple grind soul. So it's got like some leading edge relief and then some trailing edge relief and then it kind of just is a big, much wider than like your normal soul you'd get. But yeah, it's like stealing one of the bunkers if you can get used to it.
Dominic Colangelo: Mmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I'm thinking of these Missouri municipal courses I play where the bunkers are just all clay and I would just be skulling the hell out of that thing. I'd have the 200 yard bunker shot greenside every time.
Dominic Colangelo: You It always blows my mind how pros and, you know, even scratch golfers, they can bend their clubs a degree and it makes that much of a difference. Like they're that dialed. Do you have any of those Matt, where you're kind of like changing the degrees or lofts or anything?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I go 50, 54, 58 and they're actually 50, 55 and 59, technically. Mostly that's just for gapping, but also like I wanted to hit my 58, like 80, 85 yards, right? And when it was a 58 degree, it was going like 90.
Kevin Spisak: Okay. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: 85 shot so I bent it down to a 59 and it kind of flies between 85 and 87 now which is like perfect for me.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, let's get into this a little bit. Are you ⁓ your wedge game? Are you kind of the three quarter swing ⁓ of guy with your wedges? Are you taking full swings with those?
Matthew Zampello: I'm a pretty big three quarter swing guy. I don't hit a ton of full wedges. But when it gets super firm in Texas, you have to kind of be able to hit a full wedge, right? And sometimes that higher loft, like I know a ton of guys are down here that use a 62 or some even use a 64 for ⁓ when gets so soft there, they can hit that like full kind of 60 yard shot and they're basically hitting like a full wedge.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Dang. Okay.
Matthew Zampello: But they can have a ton of spin, right? But for where you live, like in Minneapolis, right? In the summers, it's going to be super soft for you. So you'll just you'll hit like rip and goos all day off the front of the green if you have like a full if you hit like a full 64 in there.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've been trying to do. really don't hit my 60. Past like half like has 50%. I just don't think it's smart for me. Like I I'd rather just kind of play around my 54 and just do that. But yes, it there's a lot of chunks with all the snow. It makes that ground rule real nice and real nice and soft.
Kevin Spisak: I'm
Matthew Zampello: Right. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: In the words of Ben Hogan, show me the man who hits false shots with his wedges. That's who I want to play for money.
Matthew Zampello: That's right.
Dominic Colangelo: What a quote.
Kevin Spisak: So I was very, very excited to see this putter break into the victory circle here this week. Scotty Cameron phantom 9.5 R tour prototype. So circle T putter. Dom, what do you think the R in 9.5 R stands for?
Dominic Colangelo: Ralph.
Kevin Spisak: Close. It is it is rounded. So the the Phantom the Phantom line is pretty like blocky, rectangle-y. You know, there's a lot of sharp edges and you know, I personally like that. I like the look of it. The Phantom line has been pretty successful recreational and on tour. But with some tour feedback, they've come out with the 9.5 and 9.2 R.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ I was close.
Kevin Spisak: So the outer edges are just rounded and has like a little bit softer look to it. then if you look, you know, front on on the face, the corners will still be a little sharp, but the top corners are totally rounded, have a nice radius there. But very putter. I'm quite excited see this one win and not another spider.
Matthew Zampello: the full chainmail ⁓ link on
Kevin Spisak: I think so. think the face of his has the chain mill, or however you say it, the milling. Chain mill milling.
Dominic Colangelo: So you mentioned it before his. ⁓ 3 wood I think maybe he changed from a 3 wood that's a prototype and then he also has a couple more prototypes in his bag and like the his 6 or 9 wedges there are the 6 3 1 point see why for a Cameron Young is this just something that he's been working on with titleists like is he Or is this just something that titleist does with their athletes where if they have a prototype they name it after like their initials and kind of give them
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Adam Scott has had some like AS prototypes and had some JT prototypes like things just what they do ⁓ ⁓ I think all the tour players have thing or another that's like custom to them. And ⁓ ⁓ of the times like we just don't know about it because just keep it under the brand name, ⁓ you quantum or whatever dumb ass name that they're using. Particularly Taylor wants you to think that we're playing the exact same thing when we're really not.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, mean, Rory has what the Roar is proto and is his iron. They're basically the tailor made blades. Usually I feel like it has something to do with either the either have like the groove pattern is different to get a different spin profile that they're looking for, or they've done some custom bounce along the leading edge or trailing edge to make it more how they want it to go through the turn.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah, I would love to know if Rory's like Roar's proto is actually the ones that you can buy from TaylorMade or if they just, you know, took that and marketed as a brand new blade. they have their, know, some sort of MB line every year and then, you know, they've got the TW, ones that
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Scotty Sheffield plays, does he play the ones you can buy? Does Tiger play the TW ones you can buy? Are they nothing alike? It'd be interesting to know. But like, Titleists, they do all these protas and they're things that you can't buy. They're not hiding behind this is for a tour player.
Dominic Colangelo: Hmm, for amateur use only. We need to get that hashtag back. TM from under the covers.
Kevin Spisak: Yes. I should rewind a little bit when I said that a spider didn't win because this putter is probably the most knockoff that's got a camera makes ⁓ but still It's fun to see the circle T in the winner circle So Matt, what do you know about this Pro V1 X prototype ball? He's using
Dominic Colangelo: You
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, basically a Oh gosh, man, am I excited to talk about this? So if you remember, take you back a year, back to Quail Hollow last year when Bryson, after the final round came out and said, man, I just, really need a ball that doesn't spin as much, right? Which is like the epitome of the rollback and the whole thing of whatever, But basically Titleist developed the Pro V1X double dot. which is like a super low spinning golf ball. And yeah, now Cam Young plays the double dot, is AKA the Bryson ball. I'm looking to get my hands on a few, ask my pro if he can order me a sleeve of it. do some R &D testing this weekend with it. So we'll see what we can cook up.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, I'm personally a big fan of the left dash, but haven't played any of the dots. I know they've had a couple different ones over the years.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I found a regular Probi 1x dot the other day, but I haven't seen a double dot in the wild before, so I'm excited to try it out.
Kevin Spisak: I think the first time I played a left dash was like when I like found, you know, while playing and then when I started using it I was like this thing, it's impossible for it to not go straight. Like it's so low spin like you don't even have side spin with it, it's nuts.
Matthew Zampello: you Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: So were you just pushing it right or pushing it left? Because it wouldn't draw back in.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I mean, no matter which way I hit it left or right, was just staying there and it wasn't hooking or slicing.
Dominic Colangelo: Cheers.
Matthew Zampello: It's like the epitome of what the whole rollback conversation is about is like the ball goes straight, the club heads go straight, right? Ludwig hit one, if you saw the picture that was floating around Twitter, he hit one like way off the toe. I think it was on like 11 or 10 or something. And it went, think they said it went 296 straight down the middle and it was like off the end of the club, right? It's like, ⁓ is why they want to roll back the golf ball.
Dominic Colangelo: I think so, speaking of Ludwig, I feel like it's time to kind of go through just the players in general. He to have kind of a stranglehold on the entire field for most of the tournament. And then, you know, he had what a three stroke lead going into Sunday.
Kevin Spisak: So,
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I think it was three. I think it was three over Michael Thorburn Thor Brinton Thor Bjornson.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, it's a name we probably can't pronounce.
Matthew Zampello: He was out of it pretty early. yeah, Ludwig collapsed, Just just had some bad swings in the back nine. Some some.
Dominic Colangelo: Unfortunately. It would have been so cool to see them to kind of battle it out. Just, this is mainly stemming from the storyline that the announcers were giving. I'm not sure if you're already able to listen too much, but so ⁓ and Ludwig, they, did they go to tech together? They basically grew up playing golf together and were always competing, always having that like fun friend camaraderie. And then his first time playing players he gets to second place with his buddy in the final round and then he he just acts like one of us and gets a four I mean a quad bogey and then just gets out of it immediately
Matthew Zampello: think Thor went to Stanford, but they both won the whatever the best player in college award is. The first year it was Ludwig and then the next year it was Thor. were both the ⁓ players in college. They played a ton together. both guys, which is interesting ⁓ in final. But ⁓ the thing I saw about Ludwig is he moved so fast on the golf course. Like if you watched him, that was the big storyline of like
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: It would take him three seconds between the time he sat down to like hit the golf ball. And when he started hitting it bad, I feel like it got faster and he couldn't slow himself down. It was like. It was he needed to like take a breath and like, like, all right, I need to think about this or do whatever. And it was just like when it's going well, like it did on Friday or whatever, when he shot 63. Yeah, course, it's going to work. But when it's going bad, he needs to figure out a way to like.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, it's like.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: walk slower, just do everything a little bit slow.
Dominic Colangelo: Which seems that could even be one of the jobs of the caddy. It's just kind of getting his head a little bit like, Hey, let's take a breath. Think about it for two, two more seconds instead of one second, you know.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, like it's like what is he doing while he's waiting, you know, as long as Brian Harmon's in front of him He knows he's gonna have to wait on a bunch of these shots. So he might as well take a little bit more time
Matthew Zampello: Wow, Kevin doing shots at left, he's tough. He must really hate Brian Arm-
Kevin Spisak: Hey, he's short so I can throw a shot at him. No, I actually like Brian Harmon, but some of those videos are brutal to watch.
Dominic Colangelo: Dude. Yeah. The I was going to say it's it's he's trying to be like Dustin Johnson a little bit where just really plays fast. But is where and it's such a funny debate when people talk about this. But it's like are dumb dudes ⁓ best at golf because you don't overthink anything like the guy who's saying just fade it when you're trying to fade it is like and so fast doesn't think about it. He's just ⁓ of the better players out there. But then Ludwig, who's so technical. is a robot essentially and then now he's in contention has more time to think that kind of seems like a little bit of a down downturn.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I mean, I think we also have to remember he's still pretty, he's still sorta young. I mean, he's a little bit older than some of those guys and I think everybody's like, ⁓ it's Ludwig Choker or whatever. Like if it was me, I'd put my money on Ludwig winning the Masters in two weeks. Doesn't this feel like, doesn't this feel like you lose the players and then you come back and do something better? Right? One of those story.
Dominic Colangelo: Ooh, okay.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: just makes sense, right? I don't know. I feel like I just, I see it happening.
Dominic Colangelo: God, I hope we can clip that in two weeks. Put it black and white, it, show them with a green jacket on, that'd be awesome.
Matthew Zampello: That'd be sick. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: That would be amazing. I love his swing. If I could steal anyone's swing onto her, it would be 100 % his. It's just so simple and so powerful.
Matthew Zampello: I tweeted it this weekend. I mean, if you really look back in history, Adam Scott, Tiger 2000. Ludwig Like it's from like a swing aesthetics point of view Maybe Jason day 2015 you throw in there with like just like a really great. I mean he had a pretty good golf swing back
Dominic Colangelo: Question mark? ⁓ yeah. We get it, you like Jason Day.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, 2015 he was amazing 2026 I don't know he's more of a fashion guy now
Matthew Zampello: But I would put Ludwig up there with some of the best swings. I mean, Roy McElroy 2010, you put him up there with that swing. Ludwig has the potential to have a generational aesthetically pleasing golf swing, for sure.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dominic Colangelo: Absolutely. And to go back to what you saying before where is he a choker? Like that's what kind of people are kind of talking about online. I would say this is the first time he's really choked something this crazy. So I don't think he's considered like, he can't win. know, like he doesn't have that many options or opportunities.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: You know what? Put it down for my one-downs right now. Ludwig wins master.
Dominic Colangelo: Ooh, all right. No changing. No takesies, backsties.
Kevin Spisak: Dang. he might have been my pick, so ⁓ to snag him a little early.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ towards the end there, when when Lugby was more out, it very fun to watch Cam Young and Fitzpatrick battle it out. I never realized that an Englishman has never won the players. And that's a very important distinction. I was texting my British friend. I told him a Brit has never won. And he said, and he kind of listed off a bunch because, you know, when you say Britain, it's all those countries in Great Britain. Never thought of it like that. So it's an Englishman has never won the players. So this is a very fun chance for Matt to kind of pull ahead. But man, it just got to him, I guess.
Matthew Zampello: you're going to get roasted by all of our European listeners that take for not knowing.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha ha ha.
Dominic Colangelo: We're international. ⁓ dude, Americans. We're not good at European geography. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: I think we need to talk through, I mean, again, go back to his GT3, 375 off the 18th T. That's nuts. I think Dom, you texted in our group chat, you were like, you know, 325, and I was like, no, I think it was 370.
Kevin Spisak: Unreal.
Dominic Colangelo: Unreal. I know I thought I heard it. was like, God, that's insane. I can wait hits 375 Jesus
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ Is that the double the double dot, you know went down when it just fucking cruises
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, and I can't remember when Ricky won. Ricky won the players. It was early 20, 20 tens or something. But if I go back like cam shot on 17 was good and his putt was elite. But I would I would chalk it. think Ricky's birdie. Ricky was right of that pin, which is crazy. If you if you like really think about it, like Ricky landed on the right side of that flag, which is nuts.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, wasn't Ricky, didn't he like birdie five out of the last six holes or something? Didn't he just like explode and catch fire?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, he went like insane 16 or yeah 14 15 16 17 18 coming in to win which is
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I'm still so disappointed. He's never won a major. I love Ricky.
Matthew Zampello: Well, you know, he did win the players, could make it a major, right?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: That's true. Give a little asterisk. Do we think he's going to win a major?
Matthew Zampello: Rick Ear Cam.
Dominic Colangelo: Ricky.
Matthew Zampello: No.
Kevin Spisak: And now, it's too late now.
Matthew Zampello: Do you think Cam wins a major?
Dominic Colangelo: If he can stay hot.
Matthew Zampello: How many, how would you, would you say over 1.5?
Kevin Spisak: over. Don't you think he can kind of have like a not not necessarily to this magnitude but don't you think he can kind of be like a Brooks Koepke type where he can just like power his way through some golf courses like you know he just hits it so far and yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: think if he figures his putting out. Because his putting has been kind of the issue lately, if I remember correctly, so then this this the tournament he kind of was on fire on the greens.
Matthew Zampello: he is year. He's really improved his putting since like basically I think around the Ryder Cup is when he like really started improving his putting a little bit. I would go ⁓ under point five. I think he I think he clips like a US Open or like a PGA.
Kevin Spisak: I think he'll win two PGA championships.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay. I'll just be different and say zero. Because I don't have an opinion.
Kevin Spisak: Wow, because you hate him? What do you have against Kamion?
Dominic Colangelo: fought for America in that last round, so he's got my vote.
Kevin Spisak: He, so far of the what, like what's in the bag under the covers that we've done, I think he's like by far got my favorite equipment. And he's sponsored by the MLB and it looks sick on his collar and he's just, he's yoked. So it just makes it look like he's just hitting dingers the whole time.
Dominic Colangelo: It's so cool. with the, he doesn't have any buttons with the necklace.
Matthew Zampello: He's got all the chess lettuce out. It's sick.
Dominic Colangelo: You gotta love it. He looks like he's 12 years old with a grown man beard. It's impressive.
Matthew Zampello: Talk about somebody that looks 12 years old. We gotta get to Matt Fitzpatrick. That's gotta look 12 years old.
Dominic Colangelo: This poor guy, man. What was, so can you explain to me, I didn't get to see too much of it, but what was the thing about the fans being horrible? It was something related to Pittsburgh, right?
Kevin Spisak: Peace.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, so I had some people text me like on 16 when he made the like three footer he had come back for par. I had like a couple of people were like, did you hear the USA chants? And I was like, not really. And then when he was walking to 17, you kind of heard in the background like USA, USA, like they kind of brought into like a little bit of a Ryder Cup thing. And Fitzpatrick was kind of laughing, which I thought was cool. But then it got into like on 18.
Kevin Spisak: I'm
Matthew Zampello: You know, they were telling him, like, don't shank it, don't hit it in the water. And it's like, come on, like, got to feel bad for the guy, right? Like he's just trying to win a golf tournament. It's not his fault. ⁓ But. Yeah. Ryder Cup, guess it's fine, but even like, yeah, and I feel but he he took it on the chin and then he kind of had some funny comments afterwards when he was like, ⁓ was child's play compared to what they said to me at the Ryder Cup. So. Yeah, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, that's cool in the Ryder Cup, but not in a real tournament.
Kevin Spisak: Okay. Okay.
Dominic Colangelo: Oh really? Oh that's great. At least he's a good sport about it. He's not, you know, pulling a maracada.
Kevin Spisak: From the neck down, Mathis Patrick looks like he's 75. And from the neck up, he looks like he's 12.
Matthew Zampello: Ouch.
Dominic Colangelo: See you in a- Ha The weirdest case of Benjamin Button disease.
Kevin Spisak: Like, just kind of has that like frumpy body and he's wearing sketchers. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: But dude, he freaking roasts the ball off the tee. If you were watching today on Saturday on Sunday, hasn't come up from the thing.
Kevin Spisak: You
Dominic Colangelo: You
Kevin Spisak: I'm sorry, that's better.
Dominic Colangelo: with the Skechers! ⁓ my god.
Matthew Zampello: He was freaking driving it like a stallion though. He hits his driver so hard. And he gained a ton of speed too.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ he's so good.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, he's he's very good. I'm sure he's a nice guy.
Dominic Colangelo: Oh yeah, he's an incredible player and like the full swing doc, I was a huge fan. But it is funny.
Matthew Zampello: The big thing though is I think he's kind of like yours truly. He went back to his blade. He was in a mallet for a little while and now he's back to his blade that he won the US Open with.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Isn't that the yes putter that he's had for a really long time? I had one of those back in high school. Those were fun.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: What is the yes part?
Matthew Zampello: RIP to yes.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. What's that?
Dominic Colangelo: What is the yes putter?
Kevin Spisak: It was a brand, I think they got bought out by, was it Adams? And then TaylorMade bought out Adams and basically shut them down. Then they had a brief like resurgence, but someone bought like the patent for the Seagroove face. So the Yes Putters had, you know, it's like a upside down U. They call it the Seagroove, but you know, it was like a rainbow arc.
Matthew Zampello: that not. Right.
Kevin Spisak: And that was their that they said if you mishit it, the that are angled going downward would kind of realign you or put some spin to straighten the ball back out. ⁓ And if you hit it right in the middle, you got rainbow arc at ⁓ where it would parallel to the ground. So then that would give you a nice roll going forward. So supposed to just help get the ball rolling with that face friction. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: What?
Kevin Spisak: If that makes any sense, hopefully I'm explaining that like simple enough. yeah, yes, putters were really cool. They had some like fun names and fun designs and all that. I had like the the really classic, you know, like single wide blade like the Phil Mickelson 8802 type of blade. And that ⁓ I think they all named after ⁓ like they were names. I don't know the story behind it, but.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, my dad has the Cali at home, ⁓ sitting in his, in his, I always putt with it when I'm in, when I'm in his office or whatever, go down there. I think he was a, okay. think our, ⁓ one of those ones where he went and got fitted for it ⁓ got, he went to some like thing at his club and like, you know, there was somebody trying to sell yes putters and he hit like five putts and he's like, this is going to make me the best putter ever.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yeah, I, the Sophie.
Dominic Colangelo: That's awesome. That is awesome.
Matthew Zampello: I don't think it's left his office for 15 years. yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: It's a great office putter. So I think when we're talking about putter changes, there was one pre-notable putter change that is kind sweet.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, absolutely massive news here with Jordan Spieth. We probably could have talked about this a couple of weeks ago because it's been, it had been at the waste management where he made the change, but his play kind of kept him under the radar a little bit. But, you know, there's a few pieces of equipment that you expect to see, you know, week in and week out and the people don't change. You know, Tiger's, know, Tiger's, Scotty Cameron, Brooks Koepka's, Vapor Pro 3 iron, what else? There's all sorts of putters that don't leave people's bags. Jordan Spieth was one of the most famous ones with his 009 that he went on his major run way back when with. And now he's in T.P. Mills, J.S. Proto. I assume that's the answer to Jordan Spieth, but Matt, what do know about T.P. Mills?
Matthew Zampello: don't know a ton, honestly. I know they have some pretty cool standing patterns and they're getting more more popular, but other than that, I'm on this change because I feel like what would Scotty not make Jordan that he would go to a TP Mills with? Scotty Cameron would make Jordan anything he wants.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I was reading about it and it was like one of Jordan's friends reached out to T.P. Mills and was just like, hey Jordan's like thinking about toying around with something, can you make him one? And they made I guess a few heads and sent it to him and that was like over a year ago and he was just kind of toying around with them and you know doing the whole like basement putter thing and then just decided to put it in play when he was playing really poorly and he's a He has putted like extremely well with it since he put it in the bag. that's wild. Yeah, I definitely would have guessed Scotty would do anything to ⁓ him there. But T.P. Mills has been around like forever. So to David Mills is, I guess, the son or one of the sons of the original T.P. Mills. And so he'd be the one who's like doing the work right now, David, but Truett P Mills Senior founded the company in 1963 and it was all like playable works of art was the slogan. So they don't advertise. They don't like. push or sponsor or pay any tour player, but they've had a huge presence across the tour ever since it was founded. Like Phil Mickelson has played it. I want to say he was like Jack Nicklaus. I think Arnold Palmer had one. ⁓ Some big names have played these putters. And I knew I had recognized the name, but I feel like I hadn't really dug into it until... seeing Jordan make this switch.
Dominic Colangelo: Has there been... ⁓ Obviously there's been major club switches, like, I feel like, like you said, Jordan's been so heavily on Scotty, like has there been a bigger transition ⁓ club manufacturers or putter manufacturers here?
Kevin Spisak: I guess what do you mean by bigger transition? Because there's definitely been some ⁓ catastrophic or big explosive changes. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Like... that's what I'm trying to kind of weed out here, because he was so ingrained in the Scotty era, and then now he's just switching. So what other switches has there been?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. The biggest one that sticks out to me is probably Tiger when he switched from his Scotty over to the Nike Method line. ⁓ was huge. so Nike tried to remake it and they, you know, how many major wins did he have with that one putter? And then how many major wins did he have with the Nike putter? I don't know, maybe one? ⁓ ⁓ all his, know, majors, nothing to sneeze at. But like for someone like Tiger...
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, for sure.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-mm.
Kevin Spisak: that putter is like, you know, it's the elder one, that you don't mess with it.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, if you've ever seen close ups of tigers, tigers Scotty, it's like beat to shit. Like it's like it's got guffs all over it, dents on the face like, but it's got some magic in it for sure. I mean, Brooks just switched from his that he's been using for since was in college. Yeah, his button back and he's in a spider now. I think a pretty big change.
Dominic Colangelo: So funny.
Matthew Zampello: mean Scott again even Scotty Cantor Scotty Scheffler going from his Scotty that he played I'm pretty sure Scott he's played that he's had that since like high school when he's now in a spider so yeah there's a couple big change but ⁓ seems like I mean it's been kept pretty under wraps like I didn't notice it until you guys sent me something about it and obviously Titleist is gonna try to keep it as much under the wraps as they possibly can especially now that it's getting better too.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, definitely. I've always wondered this on broadcasts, why the manufacturers don't talk about what the players are using mid-round. that's obviously why we're here now. But I'm always really interested to know what is this guy playing with and why does he want to play with that? What is his thought process? You know, and they all have like a different story and a different reason for what they want to do. I feel like that would really add a lot to the broadcast, but you know, they don't. And it's probably because when they make these big changes that, you know, they, they don't want to, you know, show their, you know, their flaws or any, you know, bumps they have when, when a guy replaces, you know, his one driver for another brand or the putters are probably the one that changes out the most.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: But one more example that comes to mind was when Rory was younger and on his tear, I think he had a 009 as well. then when he switched to Nike, he also fell off the face of the earth with the Nike clubs, ⁓ he had titleist everything and went to Nike with that massive deal. You know, that was, I that was pretty comparable to Tiger also using the Nike method putter.
Matthew Zampello: kind of moving on to the golf course, ⁓ TPC sawgrass. I talked a lot of shit last week about TPC sawgrass, you know, Sawgrass showed out. Super long rough, firm greens. The tour did a good job with setting it up. It really was a good test and tested the guys. They had some good pins, some new pins that we don't normally see. So 16 and 18 on Sunday. Normally they are front right and front left for 16 and 18. And this time they were both in the back. for both 16 and 18. 17 was its normal Sunday location, kind of all the way there on the right. But cool to see some new pins. And the pin on 16 was insanely tough. You saw Bob McIntyre just like hack it out of the rough and hit it in the water. That was so hard. And the pin on 16, usually when it's sitting there on the right, I wouldn't say like it's an automatic birdie, but like if you have like an iron into the green, you can kind of...
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, dude.
Matthew Zampello: hit it out there to the left and hit a good chip down there and you usually have a good look. If you hit it to the left side of 16, you did not have a shot to get back to that pin and then you had like a 40 footer for birdie, right? So I really liked to see the pins. It made 16 a really good birdie and 18 was, I think 18 was like the hardest hole in the golf course with the back pin, was pretty cool.
Dominic Colangelo: I'm actually curious if Kevin has those stats of the hardest hole, because I think at one point they said the final round of Sunday, I think it was hole eight that was the hardest hole.
Kevin Spisak: I do. 18 was the hardest hole so far this year on the PGA Tour, averaging 4.338 ⁓ shots. So that replaced Torrey Pines South Course number 12.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay. Nice. Hell yeah. Let's go. That's massive.
Kevin Spisak: I said it first on my end.
Dominic Colangelo: his flower.
Matthew Zampello: I only remember that because I snap hooked one almost into the wind farm over there on the left side of that hole when I played it. Not good.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ jeez.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. What's the third hardest hole of the 2026 season?
Dominic Colangelo: out of all courses or is it at Sawgrass?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, of just this season, the whole season, but there's not been that many courses. Big famous course.
Dominic Colangelo: Would it, I'm gonna guess it's gotta be a bear trap hole. That ate people up this year.
Kevin Spisak: No, we've talked about the bear trap not being hard.
Dominic Colangelo: Well, this year was tough.
Kevin Spisak: It wasn't.
Dominic Colangelo: Jesus, Kevin, chill.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓
Kevin Spisak: You're wrong!
Dominic Colangelo: You dumbass. Okay, I'm going to guess Bay Hill on the rainy day. It's going to be one of those.
Kevin Spisak: No, I mean this is like all rounds. This is all rounds scoring average.
Dominic Colangelo: I'm still guessing that one. I have no idea. This is going to be my guess.
Kevin Spisak: Okay.
Matthew Zampello: Tan and Pebble.
Kevin Spisak: Nine at Pebble.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ I was between nine and 10.
Kevin Spisak: That's a good guess. Good guess, good guess. ⁓ Yeah, interesting stuff. yeah, we'll come back to hardest holes when we do our Valspar preview.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, Matt!
Matthew Zampello: Damn it. Shout out to my dad again, I think he made like a 15 on number 10 when we played it.
Kevin Spisak: Nice.
Matthew Zampello: That was tough scene. OK, moving on, moving on some news and headlines for the week. Bryson picks up his fourth win Liv. Congrats to him in ⁓ If you didn't see it, must watch TV. Richard Lee missed a two foot putt in a ⁓ a playoff. That was ⁓ good. ⁓ not good. And Bryson even was like, I I didn't want to win that way. ⁓
Kevin Spisak: worth.
Matthew Zampello: That was that was a bad scene he I mean he hit that two foot putt it was that putt was he that's the same speed you hit a 25 footer like he because it hit like I'm it hit it hit the inside left of the hole and and lived all the way out like he must have just smoked that putt but congrats to Bryson will see him in South Africa this week again
Dominic Colangelo: that sucks. Richard Lee.
Matthew Zampello: Liv plays in South Africa and Phil is finally back after three weeks of missing tournaments for personal reasons. ⁓ Mickelson is back in Liv, South Africa. And I almost forgot, Brian Rollap announced the new schedule this week. If you listened, you can go listen to our ideal PGA Tours We were pretty dang close, ⁓ if I ⁓ so myself.
Dominic Colangelo: We love lefties. That was good. Yeah, credit you.
Matthew Zampello: New York, Boston, all the big stuff, maybe a little match play thrown in there, DC, hitting the big areas, so.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, the big markets was a good call by you. Like, I think that's, it's just a good business decision, you know?
Matthew Zampello: So Brian roll up, did a whole thing, talked about kind of the, the signature events are going to kind of go away as we know them. Right. Right now the signature events are, 80 guys, no cut or really small cut. It's going up to 120 players. So bigger fields with an actual cut line. So that's going to be good. ⁓ we'll get to see some more players in there, but yeah, I think, ⁓ and going to double the amount of events. So going from eight or 10 or however many cities we have now to. around 20, which is a lot of events, but be a busy.
Dominic Colangelo: bigger feel, bigger cut, that's gonna be hell for you on one of Don's.
Matthew Zampello: I know, I know, I know, but.
Kevin Spisak: I love match play. I hope we just get all sorts of match play.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, and it looks like some of the is coming to the end of the season. So we'll get some primetime golf in August, which will be sick. So that's news for the week.
Dominic Colangelo: That'd be so fun. Ooh. I love it. So I know I think we should just roll right into the preview for the Valspar Championship. Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, the Copperhead course in Palm Harbor, Florida.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, this course is super cool. It's super different from normal Florida golf. A lot of normal Florida golf is houses on both sides, super flat, lots of water. This does have a good amount of water, but it's also really hilly for where it is. So pretty, different type of golf than you usually get. And a lot of the tour pros really love this golf course. If you ask historically, what are the, you know, what are the favorite courses that tour pros play? A lot of them will actually say like Colonial, Pebble, ⁓ and Valspar. Copperhead actually comes up quite a bit ⁓ on some the favorite golf courses that they play all year.
Dominic Colangelo: Really?
Kevin Spisak: to Innisbrook's website that said the PJ Tour ranked it the 7th hardest course in total on tour. I couldn't find ⁓ the rankings but we'll take their word for it. 7th hardest pretty legit. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Don't worry, Kevin will think that wrong.
Kevin Spisak: What? need to make sure that it's not some like marketing mumbo jumbo. ⁓ didn't get that award in like 1991 and they just kept it.
Dominic Colangelo: That's fair, that's fair. I'm sad, Kevin, you can't use Hovland. You already use them for your one and done.
Kevin Spisak: I didn't use Havlund.
Dominic Colangelo: You didn't? Maybe you were just hyping, maybe you hyping them up one week. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: Yes.
Kevin Spisak: No, I love Victor Hovland. He's probably my favorite golfer in total right now, but no, I haven't used him.
Dominic Colangelo: Okay, sick. I am perfect. Yeah, I know, that's awesome.
Matthew Zampello: He's the defending champ here too. defending champion, one of out of nowhere last year, he was kind of in no man's land and then kind of pulled it out, pulled a weird victory out and he's in no man's land again right now. So maybe he'll win again this week.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. He went against my motto.
Dominic Colangelo: Is there any, ⁓ so leading up to the Masters, are these two tournaments in between kind of like a weird field? Like are players taking it easy? Are they like pushing harder to kind of just work some things out? Like what are they doing?
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, a lot of guys will go. Some guys like to play the week before the Masters, which will be Houston this year. And yeah, some guys like to play leading up in. This is definitely not a signature event. So you're going to get some, know, you're going to get the kind of mules of the PGA Tour more in this event, but you'll have some big players here for sure, especially it's so close to the players. It's not that long of a drive. You probably get less players in Houston. There's a chance we see Rory in Houston just to
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Zampello: He likes to usually play the week before the Masters,
Kevin Spisak: let me tune up.
Matthew Zampello: Famous holes here though, if you follow closely to the bear trap, now we got the snake pit. 16, 17, and 18 at Copperhead. Dom's favorite thing to do in college was...
Dominic Colangelo: you or the Copperhead Road dance. My favorite song in the club.
Matthew Zampello: That's right. I did a ton of Copperhead Road. I always found my way to the back of the bar whenever the Copperhead Road came.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ my god, it was too much, dude. Too much.
Matthew Zampello: So yeah, we have another, and I'd love to know, is, know, maybe going, we can look at it at some point, Kevin, is 16, 17 as hard as, 16, 17, and 18 as hard as they say, you know?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, that'll make its way into trivia time. Yeah, the snake pit kind of cracked me up with the name, you know, again, with the bear trap and PJ West has Alcatraz and, you know, everyone wants to have their own Amen corner, but there's only one of those. Yeah, the snake pit is actually pretty hard. The 16th hole was in the 2025 season.
Matthew Zampello: All right.
Kevin Spisak: was the 34th hardest hole on tour. So you'd say like 34th, like, that's kind of far down the list, but they play a shitload of holes throughout the season. anything that finishes above par for these players is a tough hole. You're talking about 16 being 4.298, so basically 4.3 shots. where the hardest hole is 4.5. ⁓ So, .2 shots difference between that many holes, so that's some tough golf there. If you scroll down the list, actually 17 and 18 are not the next hardest based on the 2025 season. But I this has more credibility than the bear trap, which we covered. You know, the bear trap wasn't even the hardest on its own course where the snake pit actually is. ⁓ you want to get into trivia time talking about snakes and slithery, sneaky snakes. ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ I thought you had the perfect segue in the trivia time. Let's let it rip, go for it.
Kevin Spisak: Okay. Okay, so the snake pit 16, 17, and 18. Obviously the course is called Copperhead, which is a type of snake. Florida has all sorts of snakes and slithery little reptiles. But, number 16, this hole that we're talking about, number 34th hardest according to 2025 scoring averages, is named after what snake? If either of you get it right, the other two will chug a beer.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ I know this. believe it's the Rattler.
Kevin Spisak: No, but you're very close. You're very close. That's 17. That's 17.
Matthew Zampello: Damn. Is that 17? Is 17 the Radler?
Kevin Spisak: That was a really good guess. This is, I did, this is a specific snake though. I mean, this is a type of snake. Where like Rattler's kind of like a nickname.
Matthew Zampello: Did you get scared there for a second?
Kevin Spisak: it done maybe if you want to like pull up a little like snip of the the court or the whole layout. It's like got a lot of it's got a lot of water. It's a dog like right.
Dominic Colangelo: So I'm guessing the type of snake that the hole is named after.
Kevin Spisak: It's the name of a snake. A snake.
Dominic Colangelo: little snag. ⁓ I mean... You already said Rattler. Could we go? Water moccasin.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ nailed it. It's called Markersen.
Dominic Colangelo: YEEEE Pull that out of my posterior baby. I was about to say Cobra. Is it really water moccasin?
Matthew Zampello: I was saying, good
Kevin Spisak: Yes, 16 is called moccasin. In their description, one of the toughest scoring holes on the PGA Tour, the par 4 moccasin will test the player's ability to hit a controlled fade into a tight fairway, if not biased against lefties, a draw.
Dominic Colangelo: Yes! Come on! Let's go baby. massive. Get a beer, Matt.
Kevin Spisak: Alright.
Matthew Zampello: Good job, Dom.
Kevin Spisak: Alright, pause.
Matthew Zampello: don't even know if I have a beer.
Dominic Colangelo: I even had one ready. Quick pause. Free! I I wanna trivia. That's huge!
Matthew Zampello: Alright. The only the only beer I have. The only beer I have is was expired in 2020.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ Matt didn't watch it, damn it.
Kevin Spisak: Beer doesn't expire.
Dominic Colangelo: Hey Matt, I'm a slippery little snake.
Kevin Spisak: You
Matthew Zampello: Stop! I'm jealous.
Dominic Colangelo: I guess you could do a shot too, if that's what you have.
Kevin Spisak: No, you gotta chug that beer. I the beer that I have expired that long ago too.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, what do have?
Matthew Zampello: doing. I'm doing a shot of Ben Holiday, shout out St. Louis.
Dominic Colangelo: Love that.
Kevin Spisak: doing a chug of a Corona Premier shout out low calorie.
Dominic Colangelo: Does anyone have green food dye?
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ it's, it's, it's, it's, ⁓
Kevin Spisak: No, that's for tomorrow.
Dominic Colangelo: Let's see it. didn't think I'd ever be watching y'all chug. I thought I'd always be wrong.
Matthew Zampello: I really enjoyed
Kevin Spisak: That's so cold.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, I really enjoyed that. You got it, Kev. Ooh, right, right.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ so cold, brain freeze. You gotta cut this out.
Dominic Colangelo: Wait, so what is the stipule? Do you always chug, Kevin? When do you not chug? Or is it only when Matt gets it right and I'm chugging?
Matthew Zampello: I think we both have one guess.
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah, but why does Kevin chug every time?
Matthew Zampello: if we get it right.
Kevin Spisak: Only if someone gets it right. trying to not have you get it right, but I want it to be ⁓ but.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. So Kevin chugs with the other person if that happens. Sick. Okay, cool.
Matthew Zampello: Right. I'll go get some beers.
Dominic Colangelo: I know, I need to get some too. Well, that was fun. I think that's a perfect little segue into our slippy little one and done.
Kevin Spisak: Good job.
Matthew Zampello: slide under the covers, you are one and done.
Dominic Colangelo: So. So one of those were fun this week. I think. I going to speak for all of us. I think we were the most confident in our one and done this week than we ever have been, and it couldn't have gone. I think it was it was so bad. It was great. So just to recap. So I went with Minn-Woo Lee.
Kevin Spisak: 100%.
Dominic Colangelo: Matt went with Jason Day and then Kevin with Jake Knapp. I think we were all very excited. We thought these were great picks. Everyone, they always do well at these courses, but Jake Knapp missed a cut. He went to 79th place
Kevin Spisak: Let's say in hindsight Jake I think one of you warned me that Jake Neff ⁓ might have been and that might have actually played into his his play but he ⁓
Dominic Colangelo: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: That Twitter rabbit hole I went down really led me astray there saying that he was like a sure fire, gonna perform well. you know, he, I talked up Ludwig's swing so much. Jake Knapp also has a really sexy swing, but for such an opposite reason, it's long and flowy and just rhythm. You know, where Ludwig is like short and powerful. It's a interesting comparison.
Matthew Zampello: That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic Colangelo: Mm-hmm. Yeah, store my life, short and powerful.
Kevin Spisak: says the tallest guy on Under the Covers. But you can tame anyone's snake.
Dominic Colangelo: I stand by my statement. So anyways, so this was a fun weekend. placements weren't our favorite, but it was very fun because Matt and I were talking mess to each other about Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy. And then they ended up being paired on the final Sunday round. And just didn't end best. Uh, Jason day had a finishing round of 80, which is crazy. How does it even happen? I looked down every time I checked the score, he had more strokes gained. I'm like, what is happening? Um, mainly it wasn't horrible. He didn't do the best, but he did the best out of us three. He ended up being at a 32 placement. so that brings our final totals to Matt is at.
Matthew Zampello: 80! You got 80!
Kevin Spisak: It's a fashion icon.
Dominic Colangelo: 189. He trusted his fellow playing companions a little too much. Kevin is sitting at 150 and I am at 66. So that brings us to our new choices. I know Matt said he already chose a couple weeks in advance for the Masters, but who do you have this week for the Valspar Championship?
Matthew Zampello: am going defending champion Victor Hobble. He's gonna play good, he's got good vibes here. not a ton ⁓ of big players in the field so he can ⁓ his thing.
Dominic Colangelo: All right, there you go. I like it.
Kevin Spisak: You stole my pick again. You're gonna have it for the Masters? No, we said we said you can't have two in the same week.
Matthew Zampello: We can pick the same people.
Dominic Colangelo: We did say that. I was about to be so excited.
Kevin Spisak: You son of a gun. Alright, I gotta make a new pick. No, I got it. I got it ready. The guy who's... He's taming some snakes out here. He kinda looks like a snake himself with how skinny he is. We'll go with my lefty brethren, Akshay.
Dominic Colangelo: if you need to look. Nice. I thought you were going to say my pick. All right, beautiful. Those are two good ones. So.
Matthew Zampello: Did you see he wants to take- he wants to do a video of him putting his shirt off to show he doesn't-
Kevin Spisak: ⁓ he's listening to the noise. Shoot. No, can I go back? Can I go back?
Dominic Colangelo: I love that.
Matthew Zampello: He must be listening. He must be listening. He must be listening to the podcast.
Dominic Colangelo: Exactly. keep saying just, dude, just put on Rory's shirt and you'll be fine. No one can see anything different.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Rory's shirt would be a poncho on him.
Dominic Colangelo: That is true, that is true. So I've been going back and forth on my picks. I was I was heavily thinking Victor just based on previous experience. But I think I've made my decision officially. This this guy has been pretty hot lately and think it's one of those we didn't expect it. And I think I'm going to just strike while the iron is hot. And, you I was going between him and Shafly because Zander's been doing pretty well as well. I'm to go with Jacob Bridgman. So. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: WHA-
Dominic Colangelo: I know, I know he's been playing well. I don't think it's going to last forever. So I'm to use it now when I can. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. This is a fun one. Waste management, T 18, Pebble Beach, T8. Next tournament at the Genesis Genesis Invitational. He won. And the next tournament, Arnold Palmer Invitational, T 18, player championship, T5, top 10. Could he win?
Matthew Zampello: like it, yeah.
Kevin Spisak: It's a good idea.
Dominic Colangelo: I don't know.
Matthew Zampello: Good pick. It's a pick. It's a good one to get off the board, for sure.
Dominic Colangelo: There's some fun streaks, but yeah, the real reason that was just a fun tidbit when I looked at his past results, but he's just been playing well lately and like maybe he just has a good round now. Who knows what happens at the Masters coming up, but he's just been, I'm kind of going with the guy who I think is going to make a cut. And I think that's him. So should be showing on the screen, wanted to share this with y'all. ⁓ This is our resident coder, Matt. He threw this spreadsheet together so we can track all of the equipment manufacturers and their clubs, know, woods, irons, wedges, things like that, and how many wins each manufacturer has. starting with the driver, as you can see, TaylorMade is winning in most of these categories.
Kevin Spisak: . .
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ Three to TaylorMade, two to Callaway, two to Ping, and then one each for Strixon and Titleist. But the most important thing, if you're watching, ⁓ this might be weird as a listener, but the most important stat here is the wins, the total wins. So currently, TaylorMade is destroying the competition with 23 total wins. And for the listeners, the categories are driver, woods, iron, wedges, putter.
Matthew Zampello: I think I think a lot of it's driven by. They've had Scotty and Jacob Richmond, who've won, who've been under tailor made, they're under tailor made deals, obviously. So that's driving a lot of it. But honestly, I think a lot of it is the is is kind of what we talked about a lot on this podcast. The woods write the QI 10. They make they make the best fair woods and woods in the game. And then the putters, the spiders are, you know.
Kevin Spisak: ⁓
Matthew Zampello: just so popular on tour, they keep winning.
Kevin Spisak: Can we add another column for not to be bundled in the total for equipment but like as a bonus point of the specific ball used like we know the title list is going to have the most wins but you know we got a fun one with the double dot and You know, we'll have a left dash here or there, probably one X, probably one, you know, intermixed with some TP fives or Callaway Chrome tours or whatever. It'd be fun to see that just as like a extra credit.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, and think a lot of two is Chris Goddard up, right? He's won twice this year and he plays a spider and he's not a tailor-made staffer.
Dominic Colangelo: so currently I went through the categories. So right now, TaylorMade is at 23 total wins. This is excluding balls. TaylorMade is at 23 total wins. The next closest is Titleist with eight. So 23, eight, six, three, two, two, one, going with a mix of these manufacturers. So TaylorMade, they've kind of been on a tear this year and... The only thing I can think about, unfortunately, their prices are going to skyrocket.
Matthew Zampello: They just they throw a lot of darts at the board, right? They had a lot of guys at the playoff They have a lot of guys that are signed and you know titleists probably doesn't have as many They're pretty up there. But I think you'll see I think last year if we would have done this you would have seen a lot of GT 2s and GT 3s in the winner's circle versus the the Q the Qi 35 or whatever but yeah, Taylor made on a hot streak man, they they have I mean they have Scotty Rory and So they're gonna do well. They're gonna be at the top every year, right?
Dominic Colangelo: For sure.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I wanted to throw in a question. Is it just golf snobbery that seems so stunning to me? Because TaylorMade just seems not as high a quality of club as some other manufacturers. And they're just this marketing powerhouse and sponsorship powerhouse. But to me, I don't think their clubs are as nice as Titleist or Ping or as good performing. You know, but maybe they are. Maybe it's just, maybe I'm holding my nose in the air too much or something.
Dominic Colangelo: think they just choose better players and get better contracts maybe. So here's a better question that I was about to ask. Does Titleist have that strict 14 club deal or can you have a Titleist and a Strixon and all these different clubs where you can see some guys with a bunch of different manufacturers in one bag?
Kevin Spisak: I'll let Matt answer and then I want to throw in one thing after that.
Matthew Zampello: I Titleist has pretty strict 14 club deals. 13 or 14 for sure. don't know if it's...but TaylorMade usually lets you out of the putter if you've used a Scotty for years and years on end. But other than that, think TaylorMade is gonna get you into the driver, they're gonna get you into the wood, they're gonna get you into the irons, and they're gonna get you into the wedges. Except excluding Scotty, they're gonna get you in the wedges.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so with with titleists like this is entirely based off of like a feel I haven't like recorded any of this but there's like some examples that stand out There's so many players on tour who came up the ranks with titleists and then they make it big and then they get the huge paycheck from someone else and then their career falls off like and you know Tiger is like not that example because he obviously played well with Nike stuff afterwards, but he came up with Titleist. Rory came up with Titleist, Ricky Fowler. There's ⁓ plenty of players who still do, but Adam Scott. I feel like I just. Yeah. Right, like Rory, when he switched to Nike, that was like so massive and he was like on top of the world.
Matthew Zampello: Rory! When Rory left Titleist and went to Nike, fell off,
Kevin Spisak: You know, so it'd be interesting like what you're saying, Dom, like if it's all in like the deals like, if 14 club could be a deal breaker or if it's purely money or what, you know, but Titleist almost like doesn't need the, they don't need to throw big money because they have people who win with their stuff anyways. You know, like Cam Young is full Titleist everything. You know, ⁓ Scotty with, before he went over to TaylorMade. I might be making that up.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, but he was playing he was playing kind of a mixed bag. Like if you remember, Scottie used that Nike Covert 3 wood, that red one for years and years and couldn't get out of his bag, which is a six door. But yeah, I don't know. I think Titleist, Titleist has a certain cache with it that it's almost like that they don't need the marketing or they market it in such a different way. They definitely situate themselves as a premium brand like Titleist is a premium brand.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: I think TaylorMade markets themselves as more of a more of an everyday man's category. But then again, their prices are around the same, but somehow they've positioned themselves. Maybe it's because of their barstool stuff. They do a lot of stuff with barstool. Like if you think about it, right, TaylorMade has barstool, is kind of like the more like like that whole side of of the Internet world. The titleist has no laying up, which is like the very club golf course architecture side of the internet. And then you have like good good who's all Callaway, right? And that's a completely different side of the internet. It's almost like they're who they sponsor in the YouTube golf world is a microcosm of who they're marketing to. It almost feels like a little bit.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I could see that for sure like to me TaylorMade feels like US corporation big dollars like Pepsi Coca-Cola type of thing You and I think when you described it as like titleist being a premium brand that's like a perfect way to like describe it like you know, the premium brands don't need to advertise because people want them. And then is like, I don't know, like the goofballs that ⁓ make. They make plenty of like good stuff. It's their names. I obviously like make fun of, but, you know, they make it clubs, but they don't feel like they just like are ⁓ so quite like Taylor made us. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: The SoCal whole thing. It's crazy because if you think about it, who does the, for all of the titleless commercials, it's Jim Nance that's doing talking behind the scenes, right? And I think that's just like a perfect explanation of their ⁓ You Jim Nance's voice, think, you think Masters, you think NFL football on Sundays on CBS. Like it just, ⁓ it they, they've positioned themselves in that way. So.
Dominic Colangelo: prime time of prime times. I noticed you didn't mention Bob does sports ⁓ Brian bros to Como Golf sponsor. What was wrong with him? Yeah. ⁓
Matthew Zampello: Right, right, right. Did I forget that? ⁓ shit, I must have forgotten that.
Kevin Spisak: And as in Garrett also to come out.
Dominic Colangelo: Which actually, I think he is. And you mentioned like Callaway is kind of like the goofy, they, Bobda Sports was a Callaway sponsor for a little bit too. You know, so like who knows what their next club is going to be. It's probably going to be Callaway GPT or something stupid like that. You know, the Callaway club, that's actually, that's kind of cool. I don't hate that one. So we shouldn't give that, we shouldn't give them that idea.
Kevin Spisak: Thank
Matthew Zampello: Yeah. The Callaway Claude, Claude AI. Yeah, it's not bad.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, and like ping ping advertises themselves like less than any of them and I think I think ping is just as premium as title is to me, but they don't have the prestige of the Pro V1 and the Scotty Cameron's to stand behind where like I love my PLD putter and You know, I'd put it up with like any milled putters like ping ping has made all sorts of milled putters through the years
Matthew Zampello: Right.
Dominic Colangelo: for sure.
Kevin Spisak: You know, but like Scotty kind of has that like almost like Rolex like the brand name You know like PLD or whatever ping mill putter doesn't have that, you know, collectors item to it You know, and so it's just interesting looking at the the tracker here ⁓ as get to You know, I don't we're getting close to like a quarter of the way through the season as we're approaching our first major it'll be interesting to see if Tyler made keeps this massive lead that they currently have and you know if that's just all associated with dollars.
Matthew Zampello: for People that play ping love ping.
Dominic Colangelo: I love ping man. wish I had a like if there was a ping knockoff of a spider I might buy it. I love my spider so much but like I
Kevin Spisak: they do on the Hepler.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, the help. If you're listening to this Karsten, send Dom a ping... ping putter.
Dominic Colangelo: Give me one second. I love the old school ping like logo, but like this is one of my covers that I have. This is like the Karsten Patton a putter cover and I love it. So this is beautiful.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Matthew Zampello: ⁓ yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Carson Solheim is like my hero in life. He started his career the same way as me and then like branched off and because he was like a nut about putting, know, and came up with his own design and then, you know, used his engineering background to basically invent like casting to be able to, you know, make irons. The Solheim manufacturing company. Yeah, I actually like use that in like a cover letter as like trying to apply for a job at gang is like I started at GE, GE aviation just like he did. I'm also a nut about putting and I want to be just like him. But I think I didn't make it through the AI resume scanner.
Dominic Colangelo: ⁓ nice.
Matthew Zampello: Yeah, I've been there before, brother.
Dominic Colangelo: Just send them a link to our podcast and then they'll get it. Yes, sir. Well, if you made it this far, we want to thank you. sure to follow us on our socials, Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Twitter, sorry, X at under the covers golf. I think we're all pumped to see the Valspar championship. Very exciting tournament. I think it's more just, you know, we know what's coming.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, like fast forward to.
Dominic Colangelo: the Masters in a couple of weeks, but lot of good stuff coming. I we'll Excited to see what happens this week, and then we can take a look next week at what's under the covers. See you then.
Matthew Zampello: Shout out, Brian. Thanks for saving the PG tour.
Dominic Colangelo: You're my hero.