Riptide Rush

We're on a Wednesday drive. Welcome in. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad where we are live inside the media center at the 107th PGA Championship, Quail Hollow, Golf Club specifically, North Carolina.

Our appearance brought to you by our friends at Reese Builders Glorified Body Well Spa and Ty Destiny. Greatly appreciate those folks for helping us get to golf's second major of the year and with golf in mind and the championship starting tomorrow, let's make a pick. Now that Rory McIlroy has his Masters win, it's Scottie Scheffler's turn to win this week.

We talked about it at the onset of this week. Scottie and Rory against the field. Rory McIlroy met with the media earlier today and he was talking about last month's Masters win as if the job was done. The job is finished. The career slam is done.

We have the weight off our back. It didn't sound like it was a guy all that ready to go to battle this week who is hungry to win for the fifth time in 14 starts on this golf course. We could be wrong. He won the Wells Fargo Championship here just a year ago. But believe it or not, the Masters is the only major that Scottie Scheffler has won.

Did you know that? Scottie Scheffler has only won one major championship well he's won two majors but it was two green jackets in Augusta and that's really surprising to hear considering how well he's played in all the majors. His last 15 major starts. He had a runner-up finish at the PGA in 2023, a runner-up in the 2022 US Open as well. But you be the judge.

W.D. we heard from Scottie Scheffler yesterday. Here he sounded, do you think he sounds like a guy who's all that worried about having not won at the PGA?

It doesn't sound like this when this exchange happened. Winning the PGA as opposed to the Masters or you know you've had a little more struggles here than at Augusta. Like what why haven't I won here? Is that what you're saying? Yeah it's a long way of saying that yeah. I mean yeah like you said just a couple shots here and there you know I was close at Oak Hill the year Brooks won. That was as close as I remember being to winning this tournament but I mean it's a good golf for me.

You know we're always playing a great golf course and same thing this week another really good golf course and should be a good test of golf and I'm looking forward to getting the week going. Scottie's one of three guys who are on the PGA tour right now playing supremely well right now. Rory's obviously won. He had wins plural prior to winning in Augusta last month. Scottie he won his last event the Byron Nelson not this past weekend but the weekend before and he has five other top 10 finishes.

Justin Thomas is the third of the three by the way. The last time the PGA Championship was here at Quail Hollow in 2017 he was the one holding up the trophy. He's won three of his last four stops on tour.

If you go to the live guys, Bryson de Chambeau playing really well too. This does feel like a tournament that's going to be won by one of those big guns that are out there and one extra variable is that Scottie he should be playing with a chip this week. He felt that the Masters was very obtainable for him and it was a missed opportunity. If you watch his middle rounds rounds two and three he was subpar for his standard and he still finished top five had the opportunity to win at Augusta did not. The last tournament he played within our state's borders in North Carolina was his worst major start in three years. That was Pinehurst last year where he finished outside the top 40 and don't forget the last time he played the PGA Championship in Louisville last year he was arrested before his second round. A lot of people making jokes here today on practice day as Scottie Scheffler finished up his round will and he was wearing an orange polo wearing orange at the PGA Championship a year after he was arrested at the PGA Championship.

Now to fair to be fair he is a Texas Longhorn Hook'em graduate and it did look burnt orange but something that a lot of folks have been pointing out. Scottie is the pick he is the winner of the 107th PGA Championship he will win the 2025 PGA which will get him halfway to achieving what Rory did last month winning a career slam on X at Josh Graham show and at WSJS radio that is where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton he is the executive producer of this show back in our studios. What was that? Is that the NFL and Fox music? So that's gonna be the sound that you hear throughout the day today when there's there's a schedule drop nugget enough to be so so anytime there's NFL schedule news Carolina Panthers were you just messing with us there or did you actually have Carolina Panthers scheduling news to share with us?

You should know the Panthers Travis Hunter is gonna make his NFL debut against none other than the Carolina Panthers week one. You underestimate you underestimate the audience Will that is five six hours ago news you're not you are not interrupting a show at 306 in the afternoon with something that people could have read at 10 o'clock this morning. Okay you want me to do one even better than that?

I also just didn't know where you wanted to go first. Or I will punch you give me give me the latest thing that you've seen if you're going to do this. Our guy T-Bone of WF&Z. Well if you're gonna do it you better.

Gonna do it you better. So T-Bone of WF&Z he's been a busy man today breaking a lot of these. Travis Hancock you could just call him Bone.

Bone. He went to high school with Chris Paul West Forsythe shout out. The latest we have the Panthers gonna face an old friend on November 24th in prime time. The 49ers Christian McCaffrey.

Ah how about it. So at least one prime time game we know for the Panthers this year. So there's a lot you can mock about the NFL schedule release. We already know who the opponents are going to be yet it's a chore where stuff's leaking out today and the full release isn't until later tonight. But from a competitive standpoint the NFL schedule release actually does matter. From a reputation standpoint it matters.

See the first point of interest is what you talked about there. It's prime time games. It is Carolina didn't receive one last year and that was the league's way of saying we don't care about you. You don't really move the needle.

You're not all that interesting. You're not getting any prime time games. And national perception is generally shaped by how you perform in standalone prime time games.

So we'll see if they get any more than that but even if it's just that Monday night game in San Francisco well that's a start and that's where national perception starts to shape for Dave Canales and shape for Bryce Young and for Carolina. From a competitive standpoint the thing teams care the most about is preparation time. Disparity in preparation time. This is why players hate playing Thursday night games. Very short week that's not the most fun thing to deal with but it goes even further than that. You would like to draw teams coming off a buy or you would not like to draw teams coming off a buy. When you get your buy week you don't want to face a team that's also on a buy the following week.

You don't want to face a team also coming off a buy because then your preparation advantage is neutralized and there are many more examples such as that. Teams that get the extra three days between Thursday and playing you. Going on the road after you play a Monday night it'll be interesting to see in San Francisco who Carolina's next game is against and when that happens.

And then the rest of it is circumstantial. The rest of it is it's you ideally would like to play the Jaguars on the road in December rather than going to Jacksonville for an afternoon game in early September so that's not great. You might want Dallas early in the season when your offensive line is healthy and you're playing that front. You might want to get teams like New Orleans or Tampa early because Tampa has a new staff on the offensive side and New Orleans has a completely new staff altogether. Same thing for Seattle with the new play caller.

You I mean there are many examples of this. You might not want to go to New England or the Jets late in the year. That might be one early in the season. So it matters the schedule release.

It does. Well Dalton we got a massive show today. We do. Sports center anchor Michael Eaves is going to be here later this hour. We've got also from ESPN Mark Schleyball is going to drop by our set. College football and golf writer, senior writer for ESPN. We have ESPN. We have from the AP.

Our friend Steve Reed is going to pay a visit. Orioles baseball is going on during today's show where just now ground ball to first. First baseman touches first base and there's the final out. The Orioles fall to Minnesota. This is just the pain that we start with. Minnesota having beaten us four straight times now. We get one more between those two that starts in about an hour, 45 minutes from now. However and wherever you're listening or watching greatly appreciate that. Our first guest today though here at the Golf Blursh Quail Hollow in Charlotte, side of the PGA Championship.

It is Carolina Panthers announcer Jim Zocchi. Will WD sound this sounder during our conversation? Will there be new things for us to learn? We'll find out and react.

Just how much does the NFL schedule release matter? Jim Zocchi will tell us next. Instead of just talking, why don't you listen?

That's why you have people call in. Listen for a minute. Ah, welcome back to the happy circle. The drive with Josh Graham. Jim Zocchi, our first guest. Panthers radio network here in Quail Hollow. His turf in Charlotte. We were just talking about the Panthers schedule and it's easy to mock the NFL schedule release because we already knew the opponents.

We need to put this thing in prime time but there is real significance when you talk about rest disparity. How many short weeks? Who do you get coming off buys? How many games in Europe will the Vikings play? How many games will the Vikings play?

Two in a row is the answer and one thing we learned today. Hey, it's better to play in Jacksonville in December like the Panthers did a few years ago than say play in early September week one like Carolina is. So what do you make of the schedule? What are the things that you look at first when you see the slate drop in its entirety tonight? For my third year in a row, first thing I look at is how does this affect my ECU schedule?

That's honestly the first thing. I used to look at my wife's birthdays around Thanksgiving and things like that. Those still matter, honey.

But travel is the back and forth is the interesting aspect of that. So, you know, prime time. People were laughing in Greenville about how many. There's no Saturday games in October, right? So they're all Thursday games and buy weeks and things like that.

So that actually helps in theory because the Panthers don't get a bunch of prime time games. So I think, you know, that's the first thing I'll look at when I get that schedule later on tonight is what are the Sundays? What are the weeknights? What are the buy weeks? How does it match up with the ECU schedule?

That'll be the first thing I look at as far as the football aspect of it goes. I think we have something like the fourth easiest schedule based on last year's record. So hopefully a team that will be hopefully contending for a playoff spot if not making the playoffs this year. See, that's the part that I keep talking with Will about that I worry when expectations are set where, you know, winning five games felt really good considering how it ended and really frankly what the previous six seasons were.

But it's a lot more difficult in my view to go from five wins to eight then going from two to five. And I feel there's a disconnect with the way fans are looking at expectations versus perhaps people in that building. And the thing that set that off was when they released Ja'Davion Clowney last week and you have Dave Canales saying, well, we want to work in younger guys. That does not sound like the mentality of a coach that feels he has a team that's ready to be a playoff team right now.

Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, and I think, you know, you look at each veteran playoff player individually and I think from a money ball aspect, five and a half quarterback sacks for the money they were paying him. They're thinking, well, maybe these rookies, you know, one or one of them and then in combination with some other players can they get, you know, a full season out of DJ Wannam where he came in middle of last year. So it could be a little bit of if Ja'Davion had 11 sacks last year maybe there wouldn't be so much looking at the young players like maybe Ja'Davion doesn't have what he was at one point in his career to be able to do for 17 weeks out there. He'll land somewhere and he'll help a team out there.

So it's an interesting combination of what they do here as far as love Adam Thielen. They want him, it seems like every year he'll play till he's 40 the way we're going right now and then dealing with the fact that you've got a bunch of young receivers with him. So I think you always want at least that one veteran in there but you do have DJ Wannam.

You got some other guys have been around the league for a while at the edge positions. It seems to me, going back to the schedule, the league's way of telling you you matter is primetime games and it seems that they're nationally speaking people don't know who Dave Canales is. They don't know really what's happening with Bryce except from what he did against the Chiefs and the Eagles and a few when you play some of the top teams and he played well in those games but really public perception is set when you have standalone games when you play in primetime. How much do you think that is going to be a central focus? I think it's always one of the first things I think fans look at and people talk about it on shows so to me I think you're right it's usually an indicator mostly what you did last season unless you've had a really interesting off season and so I think when you add interesting pieces that changes how people feel about what you're going to be doing this year even if you weren't as good the year before. I think for the Panthers they had a really solid free agency class a really solid draft class but nothing that was like you know national attention to your point so I think from that standpoint I'm not expecting big things as far as the national primetime schedule out of what Carolina's going to get. Jim Zokey's with us here we're at Quail Hollow PGA championship starts tomorrow in the queen city we'll get to your ECU pirates our ECU pirates in just a bit one more on the schedule though you let me know if this is a ridiculous premise WD mocked me for it okay but if I've learned anything about the NFL this is telling me where we're headed the NFL draft is it's it drew 600,000 people in Wisconsin people showed up 600,000 people over three days to watch someone step to a microphone and read names mostly that they don't know and hold up jerseys with now people who are millionaires that's the entertainment vehicle that's the NFL for you they put the combine in primetime television workouts are we getting to a place is it a stupid is it a ridiculous idea that soon the schedule release is going to be protected and in like embargoed the way that like the NCAA tournament bracket is and they're going to make this a an event that is a spectator event hey come to Charlotte uptown where 32 stars like one from each team is going to come out and read the team's schedule team by team I could see that no I don't think he should not be mocked for that I'll say that how far does the enough I guess the ultimate question are they breaking it into a three-night television event how far does the NFL have to go they make they're making the old men the 70 and 80 year olds give their hall of fame speeches at 10 o'clock at night not in the middle of the day anymore right they're going to put that in primetime how far how far did they have to go before we say this is kind of ridiculous ridiculous well we're there no we're there no we've been there josh that's it's not a future question at what point was that decision made where it became stupid and ridiculous at everything I mean I used to love getting up on Saturday waiting for Mel Kiper at noon to do the first round of the NFL draft we have the opponents right we're waiting till 8 30 to do the whole want to know is it going to be at that one or four I mean there's really it's not a lot more there's not a lot more to it than that but it's a lot and the combine like to me the combine is the most ridiculous thing because it is so much television event coverage and there are so many key players that don't even compete in that so to speak again the thing that matters most is behind the scenes right it's not but the pro day's bigger and then you know the the wonder lick so it's like yeah it's it's it's too much already as it is but uh yeah more is always more and by the way these schedule leaks these are not leaky leaks I mean the league wouldn't leak them unless they wanted all the attention and the build up with some of these things oh yeah real journalism happening with us here okay so East Carolina opens up with NC State I took issue in the college basketball season when North Carolina won at NC State with Jalen Washington doing the wolf fingers and then going down with them and some said oh he's championed the wolves down no no no that was East Carolina in the bowl game so I'm just wondering over under zero and a half wolves down for ECU football players at Carter-Finley Stadium week one this season over right yeah it's over I think you know we I asked Blake Harrell at the Canes game on Saturday yeah if he was tempted in the home of the wolf pack for basketball before doing the siren to hit him with the wolves down he said no that his wife not in Raleigh that his wife said we want to actually stay at the game yes it's in Raleigh not there but he's going to be in Raleigh week one he's going to be but that's the time to do it not not in months and months in advance there but no I think you know and as you would expect NC State doesn't view it as the same level it's a rivalry regardless it is a rivalry whether they have it as a 10 on the meter or not but I think for ECU it does mean more obviously it's a power four thing it's just it is what it is I get that chip on the shoulder of you know the smaller opponent versus the bigger conference and that kind of the money all that kind of stuff but I think ECU threw that gauntlet down at that bowl game and so the anger and just the the pushing and the shoving and the barking it's going to be it's a great way to open the season I was a little surprised honestly NC State took that game because they get to choose if they're going to be in that bowl game right now so knowing that that was going to be the opener I was kind of surprised they took that as the game heading into what'll be an opener here could not work out any better for ECU and the only way to solidify it even more is to do it again and to see if they can go into Raleigh and do it on a regular season game and that would boy that would give you bragging rights for generations to come. Since we're here at Quail Hollow Jim Zokey with us here let's close with golf what do you view as being the biggest story this week whether it's local national golf related city related what are you most interested in? To be someone that that lives here and works here and does shows here every day having it here is such a big deal it was here obviously in 2017 to me whether Rory wins it or Scheffler wins it or Xander Shoffley wins it will be less of a storyline than the fact that this is going to be just a fun week of golf we're gonna have great we're gonna have great weather after today I think it's clearing out right now for the rest of the week so you know as we know this is a regular season event usually that plays like a major every few years it is a major so this is exciting to have this happening here and that's the story to me is that Charlotte is big enough and it's done with Johnny Harris and everybody involved with this such a great job with us through the years to make it an ongoing in rotation it'll be back again a major golf tournament here so to me that's the biggest story to have something of this this magnitude Tim Zokey really do appreciate you being here buddy he was never voted most likely to succeed you're such a loser but then again were you the concept is unimaginable you're on the drive with josh graham here at the pga championship quail hollow in charlotte where we have a very important question to ask what's in the box what's in the box bill bella check the latest coach to send a box to john gruden's house where he opens it up shout out to bill bella check it's just content galore you can this is a good opportunity to watch us on youtube twitch or x but the sound is just as good wd how many of these clips do we have i have three clips let's hit the first one bill bella check can you imagine how exciting that is the greatest coach of all time coaching at north carolina i never did understand bella checks defense i can't understand how they taped up this box either this is this is an exciting time for north carolina football coach bella check coming in legendary status a lot of great players at north carolina try lawrence taylor i'm gonna show you his jersey in a minute perhaps the greatest defensive football player ever i would even use that word perhaps another great tar heel that gave me fits julius freaking peppers we used to blast them with tight ends running backs we used to double team them nothing mattered fun fact julius's middle name actually is freaking julius that was not will dalton let me guess that was sarcasm i don't like you sometimes you're very sharp uh i'll tell you what man yeah yeah will dalton thought julius bepper's name was actually well you said julius freaking peppers man you said it was such conviction it's a fun fact yeah yeah let's get another piece of this john gruden bill bella check carolina football box masterpiece god it makes me feel like i'm playing in a four corner offense for dean smith hey worthy james worthy sam perkins remember that guy shooting i mean that guy was phenomenal phil ford guitar heels man you like these sweet isn't it got some shoes man when do we get past the point where the primary way you reference carolina basketball is with the four corners offense we're not there yet because it still comes up on broadcast and all the time people bring it up when does that finally age out where people say carolina four corners dean smith 20 years 15 maybe i mean there needs to be something to replace it with phil ford you remember sam perkins we're getting i was really good yeah all right one more and that hampton kid that the chargers just took first rounder out of north carolina he can play the game this is very nice right here this is awesome very nice right here you like it yeah how about drake may matt traviski what's what's it oh it's the lid look at i got some sweat i'm surprised coach bella check didn't write a note like hey gruden we used to kick your ass every time we played don't come to the ac seal we'll kick your ass again this is a very nice wristband right here i love it did he just call was it mike or matt travisk matt traviski see mike would be somewhat understandable because at least you got the first two letters right not even close matt traviski matt traviski baby incredible remember when that was a story mitch or mitchell his mom wanted him to be called mitchell yeah he went by mitch apparently we all decided nope he's mitch we're gonna call mitch traviski well the same thing happened with tetrone mcmillan i was about to ask are we his mom doesn't want him to be called tet does that mean we stop calling him tet i mean i'm cool with tmak that rolls off the tongue nicely yeah but tmak sounds like you're referring to a 12 year old i mean listen i don't hate it yeah we got tmak who's drinking some drinking some fanta oh listen tmak i'd get some high c tmak i think you're sleeping on it a little bit that's like calling christian mccaffrey's cmac i don't hate that either no we called him cmc or christian or cmc is better but cmac getting bad either tmak just not a huge fan of tmak or the draft pick frankly but uh i guess we'll talk more panthers now per joe person so remember i told you week two would be a home the home opener against an nfc south team we've got the team september 21st atlanta falcons of course you got to play atlanta either week one or week two yep and apparently joe person went on to say there's going to be like three buccaneers games like sandwiched in towards the end of the season or something well or something like that you only play the bucks twice so probably not probably not going to be playing tampa okay twice in the last three weeks is what i meant to say i thought that sounded that makes a little bit more sense i thought it sounded a little a lot more sense yeah that makes okay let me get to some observations us being on the course today would you like that would you like that will i'd love it since we're here we might as well tell you some of the things that are happening the course is pretty darn wet it is gonna impact play tomorrow so you're gonna watch scott vampelt or whomever and you're gonna watch coverage some of the featured holes west west durham as we referenced with mark sleeballs here he's gonna be calling some uh a featured group i think the oberg group he's gonna be calling and especially those who are teeing off in the morning tomorrow are gonna have to deal with it they're gonna have to deal with a lot of mud balls and that's something that isn't going to get right for a little bit there are celebrities out here will do you have this tweet from earlier what tweet is this that i sent out some of the news that i broke oh let me uh let me find this about who is in attendance here in charlotte not talking about scott vampel we know scott vampel is here that's pretty cool ran into scotty had a chance to catch up with stanford steve stanford steve he's going to be part of a betting simulcast which is fun on espn2 tomorrow he did give me a long shot that we will ride in our best bet segment in just a little bit this is pretty cool here larry o'brien a celebrity on the course just walking around here or being carried around here if you don't know who larry o'brien is larry o'brien is a celebrity on the course larry o'brien is larry o'brien is the nba championship trophy insert all your charlotte hornet jokes here that this might be the first time ever that larry o'brien has been in the queen city and last it might be the last time maybe larry o'brien got a memo that he was going to go wherever cooper flag was supposed to go and instead going to be rerouted to dallas i don't know larry o'brien in the house here and then visited the merch shop will we got a bag of things here did you got a bag if you got where's the shirt at oh got got a couple hats got a shirt there's a game that you play will i was unfamiliar with this game until walking into the merch shop earlier today would you like to know what the game is called i love games let's do this the game's called the game is called the game is called the game is can you leave without spending 200 i bet it's tough i did not achieve this mission today no you didn't i i didn't win that game oh man because there's so many options i get so many things and you're there you want to live it up and you know get souvenirs and stuff i get it trust me so yeah i can only imagine what it looks like at augusta or heck what it looks like on a non-practice day going into the merch shop but i failed at that game today the can you leave the merch store without spending 200 the drive is brought to you by our friends yes will glorified body well spa they've helped but they've helped us get here at the pga championship between work family and list to do list it's easy to forget to take care of yourself will glorified body well spa the premiere wellness destination offers curated holistic therapies for rejuvenation and recovery including float cryo compression therapy infrared sauna sessions they got it discover the ultimate escape at glorified body well spa opening soon in clemens ask them about pre-opening specials we got five bets to hand out best bets for the 2025 pga championship here at quail hollow golf club and we hand out those picks next on the drive so just race to grab a drink will if your options are pepsi sprite or i guess starry gatorade or water what are you picking uh on a daily basis i'm going water because i'm healthy guy but if it's a special occasion i might grab me a pepsi dadgummit for those watching on youtube twitch and x you don't have to wonder what i picked got the blue gatorade little reptide rush at least that's what rush that's the the flavor name at least that's what no it isn't riptide rush that's what it looks like there what is riptide rush it's a blue gatorade flavor read it what does it say this says cool blue well okay i also hear of other blue flavors that have iceberg in it or something i've never heard riptide rush somebody get in the comments and tell me you know what riptide rush is now there's glacier freeze too i know what cool blue is that's a good option but riptide rush i'm telling you you're gonna have to pull this up video wise i want to see riptide rush because i'm a known drinker of gatorade yeah when i played soccer i exclusively trafficked in the blue gatorade would you look at here let me different types of blue gatorade and i am unaware of riptide rush see right there buddy rip what color is that will it's blue that is purple am i blind i'm or are you color blind i'm a little color that is can you make it as big as possible as big as possible yeah let me let me see what riptide rush i have a blue gatorade right here and then you chime in uselessly with is it riptide rush i'm thinking there is no blue flavor that's riptide rush and now as we can see hopefully bigger than what we have yeah it's as big as i can get it that is purple yeah it is purple i i'm a little color blind when it comes to these things sometimes that's one way to put it our phone lines are lighting up by the way take them three three six seven seven seven one six hundred i've never been more passionate about a topic than i am right now some would think josh is most passionate about cooper flag and the draft lottery or conviction on rory mcelroy or scotty schaeffler here at the pga championship or the nfl schedule or bill belicheck or any of that no i'm passionate about blue gatorade and cool blue who am i going to on the line here doug and winston doug are you with me is this a no turn down your radio first hold on a sec turn down your gatorade at all turn to oh it's like calm down turn down your turn down your radio very quickly and then tell me about riptide rush the riptide rush go ahead what do you have on riptide rush hello yeah we have you can you hear me hello oh i think will he can't hear me but he can hear you so this is the part where you put him on mute and then you either play translator or we do something else can he hear us now will doug hey can you hear me now doug yeah i got you man okay now so you got the radio down tell him tell us what we need to know about riptide rush i mean if you drink any kind of sports drink especially gatorade because you know there's power a gatorade all that stuff everybody knows about riptide rush riptide brush has been around has been around a long time but it's not blue doug this is not an indictment on riptide rush it's an indictment on the suggestion that riptide rush should be confused with glacier ice or with cool blue not to say that's three different colors three different flavors what did you what color would you like riptide rush to be see i i'm fine with it being purple i'm saying will dalton looked at my blue gatorade that i'm eating right or drinking right now and said oh riptide rush i'm like what are you talking about riptide rush is not blue this is the only problem i have you and i are aligned doug riptide rush is fine i went to east carolina they are purple it's in the chant like i'm i'm not against riptide rush i've had plenty riptide rush but i'm i i'm just saying would you like one don't confuse it with blue yes i do what do we have we got matt in um puff off town matt and papa puff off town we know it's pronounced come on man we know i've been here i've been around i can make these jokes i don't call it king we call it what will kang kang we do it the way it's supposed to be done here what do you have matt come on man riptide rush is the bomb you gotta check it out hold one second hold one second everybody you're getting piled on right now and i love i said i never heard of riptide rush okay i've heard of the purple gatorade yeah this is not that it is that that no it's not that's great a little different it's not great it might be getting that out of here pop town it might be a shade of purple like a light purple but it is not the other flavor of purple can you look great i don't think there is a great gatorade will good grief this is a very educational program it really is as you're looking this up can i hand out bets real quick because steve reid's gonna come over here in a few minutes and i'm still gonna not have handed out any bets i'm not a betting duck care to make it interesting you know you do you're on call me in on this your best bet but my money from the other team this is josh's best bets man the most random of topics hit on this show they do i swear okay we have five bets will five that we're handing out for the pga championship at quail hollow are you ready to take notes let's do it let's start with just to win the tournament scotty scheffler four to one there's not great value there but that's who we have winning the tournament so that's where we start we're going to have at least one bet down on that send me that cash out fam the best value to win the tournament among the players that can win this tournament best value is justin thomas at 22 to 1 in terms of guys who are playing the best golf this guy's won three of his last four majors or not three of his last four majors three of his last four starts and the last time there was a major here at quail hollow it was the pga in 2017 and who won it yes justin thomas so he's a hot hand and 22 to 1 is good value send me that cash out fam next up top 10 finish our guy will ludvig uber plus 210 so a little bit better than two to one odds to finish in the top 10 his time's coming soon he has the his game's so smooth cleanest swing on tour best swing on tour his time's coming he could win this week so top 10 is what we're looking at for ludvig oberg at plus 210 send me that cash out fam and wd just because stanford steve told me i had to do this who's going to be doing the espn bet espn 2 simulcast tomorrow of the pga championship he told me andrew nowak plus 320 odds as a long shot to finish in the top 20 top 20 plus 320 andrew novak so better than three to one to finish in the top 20 who's andrew nowak you might ask well he's from woofer grew up in raleigh so a north carolina kid and he won a pga tour event in new orleans three weeks ago so he has a hot hand he's somebody that knows the course pretty well and he uh is somebody that uh well i think that pretty much covers it pretty well and he's playing pretty well and the last one i'll give out wd we have to do it just because we do it every major now cory conners send me that cash out 65 to 1 inevitable to win it yes there's our long shot to win as we welcome in our next guest to the show um steve reid there's a lot going on you got we're here at the pga championship the nfl schedule is dropping bill belicheck is in the news and acc spring meetings down in amelia island we have the all-star race down in north wilkesboro this weekend there's the draft lottery just happened so you might be surprised to learn that the thing that most people are commenting on in the chat and are calling wd to discuss are the best gatorade flavors really and it's because i just started the segment saying hey will you you go to a fridge you see pepsi you see gatorade you see starry you see water what are you picking and i said i picked the gatorade and i got just a cool blue gatorade here and wd chimed in and said oh riptide rush i said what riptide rush and apparently they're that just set off the floodgate where it's a real tight riptide rush on the internet and via the phone lines we've just taken two phone calls from people saying that riptide rush is the real deal what is grape see that is riptide rush is that no that's my favorite no you could not have segued any better no without knowing what the conversation just was this wtrd hasn't pulled up is because i said there is no grape it's just riptide rush yes there's a grape there's a difference here there's a difference here that's what i'm taking also i should know that there's a great flavor because there was like a run of three or four straight years where the gatorade cover color was pure purple for the super bowl the coach getting doused right yep absolutely but that's not why you're here but it could be it could it could be the reason you're here uh gatorade enthusiast steve reid from the associated press is here uh the last couple days you've heard what scotty had to say bryson rory many others what have you found to be most interesting the last couple of days well i i think you know coming into this to me and it hasn't changed i mean i think this is rory's tournament to lose i mean he he's been fantastic here right um he's won four times at the wells fargo championship which is now what the truest championship which will be something else in a few years um but it's just it seems like it never ends the name change but um no i think he this course fits him so well because this is a course it's for bombers it's a bomber's delight as bryson said you know it's it's this whoever can hit the ball long is going to be at a huge advantage so it plays to rory's strengths um the way he can hit some fades around some trees and he's just got immense confidence here i mean he feels like he can hit any shot and if you were here for the wells fargo last year on sunday i mean it was unbelievable the way he played i mean finished so it was you know he's he's he feels so confident here i feel like it's his tournament to lose but there is some good you know listen scotty shaft was coming off a remarkable 31 under holy that's that's like uh golden tee golf right i mean he was unbelievable and uh you know bryson can hit the ball a long way and he's going to be a factor as well you never know i mean i heard just before i came on the segment some long shots well you know i was a little surprised to see justin rose was a hundred to one i mean he's he's finished second the last two master or last two majors right the british open and the masters you know he's he's a long shot candidate um you know and and there's other guys you know zander shawley and you know and justin thomas is playing some of his best golf as well and finally got that monkey off his back who do you think you you have a pulse of north carolina sports fans about as well as anybody out there last year being at pinehurst you just sensed that in that final round most of the people were rooting for birth and bryson won over rory but you know this city specifically better than most with rory having won at this course four times like if if the same scenario played out sunday who are more people rooting for bryson or rory i think rory i think just because of the history here and people just you know have seen him and are so used to him now bryson i think he's only played here once in the last six years because he's been on the lib and um a couple years like he played like four years ago and then he hadn't played two years before that so he has not played here a lot so it'll be kind of interesting to see his reception and what what it is but i just think there is a strong rory fan base here in charlotte and i think you know there's a lot of people that want to see him come come in and and win this thing i you know and possibly go on to you know who knows maybe win the grand slam and you know the same year people want to see history all the time right um you know could he do it in the same year who knows we'll see but uh what was it i think i saw was like uh really the odds weren't long to that it was like 81 or crazy 101 it's like really not that long considering i mean that's a really incredible thing that you know would have to accomplish but no i think i think the fans here in charlotte um now granted this you're going to have a wider fan base too i mean you're going to have more than just charlotte people this is people around the world that are going to be here but you know i think rory is going to be a a strong favorite with that in mind this being a major and it being in charlotte we know about the history of pinehurst that goes back to the moment of pain stewart in 99 what i was there yeah what do you make about this event what does it mean to charlotte and what identity do you do you see since the future of this course presidents comp and you know maybe another pga not too long what what identity does this course have nationally well i think it's it's strong you know i've you know i've heard some recent complaints in the last couple days you know hunter man one of the former golfers was criticizing it but i i think it's a terrific course i think it's a good test of golf um three strong closing holes and it's something charlotte needs i mean it's it's it's a you know a course that is up there with many of the courses that are ranked high in the in the nation and i think it's going to continue to be a site for the pga championship you're going to continue to see you know the the president's cup things like that will they ever get rider cup here probably that'd be tough but um but you know i don't know but it's it's going to be definitely on the pga championship schedule i think for a while and it draws well too that's the other thing is is you know the sales here have been good for you know merchandise uh it is you know it's going to be a sellout and you know they're going to pack the place so you know it's it's a strong thing for charlotte to have and you know they they've done a great job here i think ever since uh you know redoing this course and bringing it up to a level of being a top national course last thing getting to the panthers what does it tell you we now know that the panthers have at least one prime time game they're going to play the 49ers in november on the road on monday night football what's it tell you that the panthers are not going to be shut out in prime time games this well that's a change right yeah yeah feels like it's been a while i mean uh but you know it's this is a team that's still very young still has a lot to learn still has a lot to grow but you know um i you know i like their first round pick i know a lot of people in charlotte did not it was widely critical you you were probably among you i like this kid i've watched him on film i think he can make plays i think he's going to be a difference maker um i think he's going to end up starting if not to the season opener then a few weeks in he will be the starter i like that he brings big playability um he's got a good catch radius i think he's going to be i think people are going to be surprised at how productive he is and i think he's got a good chance to to win offensive rookie of the year we'll see i think i could be wrong but i i i just i have a strong feeling about this one i i haven't had a strong feeling about a lot of their picks over the years but um i think i think he's going to be a player i really do josh i don't even think it's an indictment on him as a player i i think it's more what are you setting out to do and where you started your answer saying like hey this is a very young team still that's what i heard when dave canalis was talking about the rationale of cutting jadevi and clowny hey we want to get some of the young guys in there and that doesn't sound like a team that's ready to win the way that some fans are talking about yet and i think there's a disconnect between the way that some media that aren't here day to day are talking about the panthers because of their finish and fans and maybe how the staff and the gm views it yeah i think you know also there there is there is a faction of people that just want them to add some pass rushers and some defensive linemen right that's where that's the camp i thought if you were trying to contend now i get yeah and you know but i they did a little bit of work in free agency so they answered some of those needs um did they answer all of them no but you're yeah i mean you're going into you know you picture a dam and you're trying to you know plug all the holes in the dam you know and you only got so many fingers and toes and so many draft picks to do it right and you're so i think you take the guy and you know it's it's coach gms always say you know hey best player available i think he was the best player available on that board at that point i think he really was um so you you take them and then you build around that and i think you get bryce young another weapon and i think there is a strong sense from ownership that they want to do everything they possibly can to make sure that that bryce young pick was a good pick and not a failed pick because halfway through the season last year none of us were really thinking that way right no i mean you know he was benched i mean this wasn't that long ago you know he was benched for andy dalton a journeyman backup quarterback and well who had been a starter but you know at the time had been journeyman backup quarterback and so there was a lot of you know people including me who wondered if guaranteed they were going to pick a quarterback in this draft right because there was a lot of questions about bryce young and then all of a sudden the turnaround started to come you started to see him mature and grow and and really stunned a lot of people including myself playing extremely well down the stretch stevie thank you for being here it's good to have you on the show associated press and we'll follow your work in the ap anytime you're on the drive with josh graham michael leaves joining us espn sportcenter anchor when you're anchoring sportcenter i imagine that story prioritization is a very important skill understanding what the top story is and that's where things begin so when you're looking at the 107th pga championship here at quail hollow in charlotte what's the first storyline you point to roy mccarroy and it's not even a question um and i made this comment earlier on our coverage over on espn plus that you know i don't root for teams or individuals i don't other said other than my mama marta kentucky i don't root for teams but as a as a fan and also as a journalist i do love a great story and the best story coming in here is roy mccarroy because of what he did last month at augusta national now if he were to win here to win two straight majors and halfway to a calendar grand slam just think of the momentum we would be taking into oakmont at the u.s open so he is by far uh the best possible story that could develop by the time we get to sunday evening and it's so interesting uh michael schleyba uh or mark schleyba excuse me he's going to be with us in a little bit we were talking about this after rory spoke today there are two ways you can view the masters win last month you can view it as the relief and the weight off your shoulders and now he's just going to soar and just continue to win tournaments or after listening to him today he kind of had this vibe of all right i i did what i set out to do i achieved what i set out to do this is the greatest thing i've done in my life and that's not what sounds like a hungry dog ready to go this week and to get another championship where do you side on that i think he's i think he's more on the on the first narrative that you laid out there the one of the best things about rory mccarroy as a professional athlete he has oftentimes given us insight that is very honest that other athletes would not um freely admit publicly the way he has right and so when they do that then you're like oh wait is that doubt as opposed to awareness for him i just think it's awareness we saw that after augusta correct right so he he absolutely accomplished the one thing he wanted to accomplish most in his career right so in his mind everything else here is gravy right but maybe he really likes gravy right so now he's gonna go out there and be even more inspired to keep winning and add to that legacy to become one of the all-time greats maybe one of the top four players of all time i do think that drive is still drive is still there but i do think it was relief we saw that on the green he got he balled his eyes out and then there were literal tears of joy so he did both of those things and i think he's going to be free and go out here and play really well it's such a good point that you bring up michael because the last time we saw rory up close was at pinehurst last year and when you watch what happened on the back nine you're thinking well this might be the low point of his career and then we're waiting in the media center and then we hear this right but for anyone who knows rory very unlike him at all but that just goes to tell you this is a guy whether it's positive emotion or negative emotion wears it on his shoulders he was devastated right and he was feeling that devastation in front of the entire world i'm not sure if you remember the movie friday or some of your listeners do the classic scene when the chain got snatched and it was grandmama's chain he ran to the car and what did smoky say you gotta run with your arms yeah he gonna cry when he gets to the car rory mcelroy cried when he got to that car i i believe that one thousand percent and you can understand why i mean that was utter devastation because he didn't think he got beat he thought he gave it away and that's a different sense of loss um but look how well he's played since then three wins already no one's on tour one more than that we'll see if uh someone can debo the trophy from rory mcelroy maybe maybe be bryson again uh what have we learned uh what have you learned about this golf course upon arriving upon being here doing sports center talking to folks what have you learned about quail hollow fortunately for me i was able to play the golf course last october so i got a pretty good sense of you know a lot of things the players say you can't feel until you've done it yourself uh it's a big boy golf course there's no question about that uh the longest layout ever for a par 71 in pga championship history um and it suits bombers obviously um so you can see a lot of drivers a lot of drivers and guys are gonna try to figure it out from there and that includes rory mcelroy and that's why he's won here four times it suits his game but the thing that's really been impressive to me is how firm the greens have still been in the wake of all this rain and granted they got the sub air systems under the green to suck out the moisture but the greens are also relatively new in terms of how long they've been in and so it's going to be a challenge hitting from wet surfaces to hard greens so i want to see especially uh thursday morning and thursday afternoon how the players adapt to those conditions around here when the week started we just thought to ourselves this week's insane it's the pga championship right down the road it's the nascar all-star race at north wilkesboro the nfl schedule release is happening in real time even though everything will officially drop tonight we had the draft lottery earlier this week the canes playing the washington capitals uh around here the story was who didn't get the pick charlotte had tied for the best odds and cooper flag of course goes to dallas nationally it seems the team that got the pick is the primary story what do you think about cooper flag with dallas now that that is a reality removing the controversy i think cooper flags have been absolute stud in the nba um and i felt that since the first time i saw him play in high school i thought when he came out of the when he came out of high school his senior year he could have been the number one pick in that in last year's draft right he's that good of a talent and for dallas to come out of this whole luka debacle to get him to replace an all-time great there in dallas to pair with anthony davis and kyrie irving like if you tell me that the dallas mavericks are in the western conference finals next year right now that would not be an insane prediction it really wouldn't be now grant he's going to be a rookie he's got to learn things of that nature but to go into a situation where he doesn't have to be the man right off the jump like kate cunningham did and some other players of recent note or zion williamson obviously going to new orleans he doesn't have that same pressure because he's got two all-stars and two future hall of famers on his side right so i think that's only going to speed his development but i think that he's going to be an absolute stud yeah it also strikes a balance where he isn't having to be the savior to put it one way but also he is the guy that they're likely going to build around which wouldn't have been the case if he went to san antonio for example so it does in that case for cooper it's going to be a good destination getting to um another nba note so we got pacers um already through to the eastern conference final second straight years uh the nicks and the celtics it's game five tonight let's assume that the team up three one doesn't blow a lead especially when jason tatum is injured for the next little while long while uh who do you give an early edge between the pacers and nicks these are teams that met each other in the playoffs a year ago i know your brain probably immediately goes where many of us go reggie miller and spike lee in the 90s there's so much history there but that history was so long ago these players weren't born right which is kind of insane when you really think about it but the question you posed was not a question i ever thought i'd have to consider who now had the pacers in the next particularly in the eastern conference finals cleveland and boston where 10 games are better than the rest of the no one thought this would be the matchup we would get um so with that being said i don't really know um look the nicks i think jaylen brunston is he's perfect for that team in that city uh but you've got carl anthony towns who's so dynamic at his size to be able to do things both uh inside and outside and then you have the role players who fit perfectly with that squad whether it's og ananobi or uh mikael bridges like they just have the pieces to complement what they have but you look at the pacers well bro they're really good too right i mean tyries halliburton is a solid player and everything feeds off of him they won the series last year correct and they're complementary players also support what they have collectively and oh by the way uh their head coach is really damn good he's a phenomenal coach he's already won a championship um rick carlisle can out coach anybody and to see him and tom tibbitt to go head to head is going to be very interesting i let me say this i'm going to give the edge to the pacers because nicks fans get on my nerves yeah they just do man uh what's crazy is going to your point about us not expecting this could ever happen this series while you were talking i was like going back and forth who has home court again if those two teams won because you just never right thought like the nicks do so the nicks would have a home court uh in that hypothetical mike leaves is with us from espn last thing uh in the spirit of um storylines and figuring out what the top storyline is bill belicheck spring meetings acc spring meetings that's one thing i forgot to mention and things that are happening this week where how high up on the list is bill belicheck in chapel hill in terms of college football storylines like it's just college football saturday and you're having to pick okay what's in the a block here do you think that chapel bill is going to be in the a block more times or not yes um all right let's take out the personal life for just one second yes the greatest nfl coach of all time going to college was a huge story to begin with like bill teaching college kids and have to do recruiting things of that nature like that that's a story within itself just for the for the football nerds out there so that would have been like his first game that would have been an a block by the time we get to september regardless and it will be when you talk about eight o'clock monday night labor day gcu at carolina 100 right but now you add in the intrigue of his personal life that's having him on tmz and being discussed on the today show and good morning america that's a whole different thing but it just adds to it right i mean when have we ever asked bill belcheck about his personal life right and he's been he's been having to answer it so much in the last several weeks and that just adds to the entry yeah and also uh i mean he's been a company man for disney and espn i'll tell you what been on macafee his first interview was with marty smith he was on yesterday with sports center he's going to be on gma this week yep like he sat down with carolina's radio guy one time really the only time it didn't go well was when he he didn't do an espn interview right he was with cbs that's what he gets keeping the family that's what i'm saying so come over here to disney we got you michael leaves when we will next see you on television uh tomorrow we have obviously our coverage begins seven o'clock tomorrow morning i'm doing interviews plus sports center coverage and then wrapping up the end of the day for sports internet night so all day tomorrow thank you so much for being here michael leaves of espn joining us here we really do appreciate that