Preparing for the Masters!

Gary Williams from Five Clubs Golf has too many Twitter handles, but he's got at Gary Williams one up at Five Clubs Golf.

You can also, I guess it's not at he's not at at Sirius XM PGA Tour radio, but he's part of Sirius XM PGA Tour radio. I thought it would never get here. Masters week has arrived. I could not be more excited. I got my juices flowing actually Saturday watching the women's amateur.

And is it? It can't be just me. The women's game is light years better today than it was, I think, even five years ago.

Yeah, no, first of all, it's always good to chat with you. I'm with you. I think that, you know, what we're seeing is, you know, the women's game from a global perspective, 90s kind of had their, their, you know, lighting of the match moment in terms of the game, really reaching, you know, all corners so that there was a, just this incredible abundance of young talent that over the last, you know, 20 years, but specifically like what you said the last, you know, five years. And what's interesting is that a lot of, a lot of players who normally would just go directly into the professional game are making the choice to play some college golf. So there's, you know, even to the degree that you have a little bit more from the familiarity with some of these players who may not be American born, um, I think the women's game is, is not only in a good place, it's going in a really good direction. Not that the men's is not, but the game of golf is, is on fire right now. And the only way it stays that way is that if people, you know, continue to not be complacent, not get arrogant about it, but yeah, look, the fact that Augusta national Adam has created this, this event that concludes on that golf course on Saturday, the kids over on Sunday, it is, it is evolved into this global festival, like renewal of golf, where people are not only thinking about golf, they're now starting to play a little bit in most reaches of the United States.

And it gets through so lattered up for master's week. They don't get many things wrong. They've nailed it on this thing.

Oh, there's no question they have. It may be the best women's amateur event in the world. It may, it may have surpassed. I could be wrong here, but it's possible that it has surpassed or at least come close to the U S women's amateur, Gary Williams, uh, five clubs golf is joining us here on the Adam gold show.

All right. So we're here at master's week. The elephant in the room are the 18 golfers who play on the live tour, including, I don't know, more than a half dozen former champions, including a three time champ in Phil Mickelson, in Phil Mickelson. How does, how, how much animosity is there flowing?

Do you think within the walls of Augusta national? I don't think there's a lot of animosity. I think there's some, I think there's going to be some awkward moments. Uh, and these are going to be private awkward moments and there's no, look, there is real friction between some people and, and that is going to be whether it's going to be addressed as they see each other for the first time. And in a while, I mean, these guys, you know, they're traveling to circus and then members of the circus go off and go with the new circus company.

Um, you don't see it for a while. And I think when you don't see somebody and you're speaking through the media, even though you can read what somebody said, it's like playing the game of telephone by the end of the message. It's like, not even really what they said. I think that though, I think this week's going to be fine. Like for instance, tiger today has already broken the seal on the idea that we're two camps. We're not going to tell her of all people to say, look, we're just going to it's master's week. There is some, you know, some, some feelings that they've been hurt, but I think some relationships have absolutely, I know it has been fractured, but I do not think it's going to manifest itself in, in dust ups that are going to be played out through the media or in pre-tournament press conferences. What I'm interested in Adam is, is where are the live players placed in terms of the key sheet for, for the first two days?

I'm, I'm, I'm really interested. I mean, you just made a really important point. I mean, these are not like past champions who are just coming back to enjoy the champion at dinner on Tuesday night and a couple of ceremonial rounds. You have players who I think in particular, a couple who legitimately could contend, where are the, are they going to, are they going to group all 18 of these guys together? They're not going to do that. I'm, I'm, I'm interested where cam Smith, where Dustin Johnson, where Brooks Koepka, where Patrick Reed, who they plan with the first couple of days. That's interesting to me. You don't think Patrick will play with Rory?

I'm just kidding there. I'm pretty sure that they, the master's committee won't do that, but they could put Rory and Sergio together who were very good friends. And I think probably still will down the road relationship. One of the casualties of the live PGA tour fracturing that relationship is totally frayed. They, they are not on speaking terms that will not be apparent. That's kind of upsetting. And I don't know, I'm not, you know, inside enough to know who's at fault there.

I mean, Sergio certainly has a history of being a little bit petulant. So I don't really, I don't, I don't know what to make of that. That is cause I know that they were very close for a long time. Yes, absolutely. You know, they both have spoken about it. It's interesting. You use the perfect word to describe Sergio from the age of 19, when he burst onto the scene, uh, the U S Hammond and then the rider cup in 1999, petulant is that he called Rory. He said the way that he handled this is he's being immature, which is, which is irony, just running a buck. Um, so yeah, I don't know, again, Rory's going to speak tomorrow.

That's the other thing, Adam, is that, you know, there's a difference here. How much, how much discussion and questions are going to be posted? They've been asked a lot about live players.

There's only one lead players. We've got a pre-tournament presser and that is Kim Smith Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to being in the room for that.

Um, he's very likable. It's not like the media is going to be looking at a pound of flesh out of him, but the whole thing looked at, like you said, it is the elephant in the room, but there's no better environment for them to navigate this than the people who run the tournament and the club. Gary Williams is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. Masters tease off on Thursday. Scotty Scheffler is the, is the defending champion. He's been on the PGA tour, at least the best player so far this year. Maybe I shouldn't even put a caveat there on the PGA tour. It just seems like Scotty is on the top page of the leaderboard at the very least every single week. I guess he's the man to beat.

So how do you assess how he is going into this? Although it's kind of funny to watch he and Rory play the consolation match a couple of weeks ago in which neither guy looked very happy to be there. No, both of them look Rory was too up and, and they've got his match, you know, flipped by Cameron young and Scotty Scheffler, Mr. Five footer, uh, to end his semi-final match. Uh, so I think that, you know, yeah, I think it's a consolation match no matter how, how you lose your semi-final is, you know, there's a reason why the NCA, you know, you know, got rid of the third place game. We don't have that on a Monday night tonight. Do you think that's how you would like to go out on the court tonight and play a game at six 30?

Uh, no, they wouldn't. So, but, but back to your, your question about just Scheffler, I'm picking him this week. He's my pick to win. I think he's built to defend not only because of his form, but because of his manner. But Scotty Scheffler is never going to have like a clumsy phase of his professional career. He wore slacks when he was 12, because he wanted to be a professional golfer. He's not some active social media guy.

He's not wrapped up in, in the outside noise and he's informed. He won the players. He made a great run at the match play. The guy is the guy is the best player in the world right now.

And we've seen, you know, just a couple of times players go back to back. This guy is, this is a really good chance for somebody to do that really hard, exceptionally rare, but I'm picking him to do it. Make the case for Rory McIlroy. Uh, there's not much that, that, that I could say that wouldn't be, you know, positive and, and I'm very bullish on him.

I'm going to lean on the intangible aspects of the gravity of, of the consequences or the circumstances by which he finds himself in. And it's not just try to complete the career grand slam. Yes. Sharon did it when he did it in 35. Nobody knows what he was doing. It was a, it was a no cut event. It was, you know, around 50 players. You know, it was, it was in its second year, you know, so this is, this is massive in, in the weightiness of what he's trying to do.

And I'm the Adam, the other part of it is that he is not one of major since July of 2014 in Louisville, Kentucky, this vortex has gotten very thick that he tried to break back through. So I think that that's a ton and we've seen, I think eventually he's going to do it. I'm going to say it won't be this year, although again, he showed himself very, very well at the match for, I think the things that he's done to shorten the shaft of his driver, to make the change of the putter that he's got in his bag, which was the style of putter he used when he was winning major championships.

I like the look of it. I like his stroke with it. I'm just going to say that not this year. And as the years creep along, we sort of Ernie Els and, and we saw Tom Weiskopf. We saw a Greg Norman built to win here, not once multiple times, never crossed the line at Augusta national. If he's that generation's guy who doesn't do it, you know, look, he has had, you know, it'll be interesting because Ernie and him and Roy have the same number of major championship victories. I think he'll get more than four. I think eventually I think eventually does it, but there are tons of reasons why people should think you can do with this this week.

I'm just going to say it doesn't happen, but we'll be at very little surprise if he does final thing for Gary Williams. And I didn't realize no cut in 35 for Sarah's in 50 players in the field. Jean Sarah's and was the first live golfer who knew final thing. What is a successful masters for tiger woods? I think if tiger, look, I think any cut he makes is pretty damn impressive because he doesn't play competitive golf anymore. So every time he shows up, like he's knocking rust off against guys who are fitter, more focused, deeper fields than he's ever had to, you know, wrestle against, I think if tiger has a top 25 week, that's a, that's a very good week. I understand the way to, you know, the expectations that people have of him, no matter where he plays. Um, I think that he finishes in the top 25 Adam, that's a really good week. And I think that people should be encouraged that he's got some competitive golf left in him based on the speed that he showed at LA. But my concern about people talking about, well, eventually he's going to win again.

How does it build to that achievement? Because the infrequency of his play lends itself to always being off form because he's not building on the prior start. The plan of sport was two months ago. And then the next start we hope is in a month in Rochester where it could be 48 and flurries the third week in may.

Um, I think that these mix and cut finishes in the top 25. That's a hell of a week. My gosh. It's like a win. Uh, my, I think his next win will be at the PNC championship with Charlie Woods, lugging him around the golf course.

I totally agree with you. I I've never put anything past him, but winning to me now is, is, is borderline it's borderline impossible. This is not 2019. He almost lost his life and his lower right leg a couple of years ago. He is even more physically compromised than he was when he won in 19. And I walked every step on that Sunday when he shot 70. That was summit for the last time. In my estimation, I hope I'm wrong. Yeah. I mean, we all would love to see him win again.

I thought he would win again after that, but obviously after the injury, after the car accident, that is completely a complete game changer. Gary Williams at Gary Williams, one up five clubs, golf, Sirius XM PGA Tour radio. Enjoy the Masters, sir. I'll talk to you soon. Adam. Thank you, my son. Talk to you soon.