Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00We are about to really hit the main events of golf season for 2025 and get things rolling.
00:06So of course, we are going to be bringing back every week our man Smiley Kaufman.
00:10You can check out the Smiley Show right here on SportsGrid.
00:14Back from Hawaii, he was out there doing those tournaments.
00:17Smiley, great to see you, my man.
00:19How are you?
00:20What's up, Mike?
00:21I hear you got some winners already at the beginning of the calendar year.
00:23Good for you, man.
00:25Yes.
00:26Good start to the year so far, Smiley.
00:28As yesterday, Sepp Straka wins the Amex out there at PGA West.
00:33I was going to ask you about him because I feel like, I know he's not at that level yet
00:39with the top, you know, the big dogs in a game, the biggest names that we hear.
00:43But after winning yesterday, he's now won each of the last three years.
00:47He's got three wins on the PGA Tour.
00:48He's been in the mix, some top 20s, top 10s at majors.
00:52I feel like he's one of the most underrated, undervalued guys that's out there on the tour.
00:58Well, I think when you look at just major championships and trying to find guys who've
01:02not won a major that's under the radar, he would be on a list of about five guys.
01:09I would say for me, Sepp, you know, really over the last 10 years too, Mike, there's
01:15been a major winner that's never won before.
01:18So it could be a guy like Sepp Straka that gets it done this year, but heading into the
01:23year, it all looks like, you know, how many was Scotty going to win?
01:26How many Zaner going to win?
01:27And so far this year, you know, Scotty Sheffler hurts his hand at Christmas dinner.
01:33And then Zaner Shaflae now announced today, not playing next week at the Farmers, which
01:38is where he's from in San Diego.
01:40But it's also being rumored and announced that the Riviera that's being moved to San
01:44Diego.
01:45But Zaner's got off to a slow start this year.
01:47So without, you know, Scotty and Zaner to start out the year, kind of getting the PGA
01:51TOUR season rolling, we've kind of, it's been an awkward start to say the least.
01:58It has been an awkward start.
01:59And really, I feel like sometimes everybody's kind of got their own marker smiling.
02:04Some people probably say pebble, some probably say waste the week of the Super Bowl.
02:09Some might even say this week with Torrey Pines, where I think the more average viewer
02:14or watcher or better golf starts to get more involved.
02:18We're obviously there every week.
02:20Let me, you know, you look at Torrey this week, and this is different this week, guys,
02:23they go Wednesday to Saturday, not the traditional Thursday to Sunday with what the coverage
02:29that they're going to have playing these early tournaments, whether it was you played or
02:33the guys playing now.
02:35How weird is it in different when you have to play these events where you're playing
02:39three courses, like last week, PGA WEST, two courses this week, two courses at pebble.
02:45What does that do for you prep wise, getting ready?
02:48What is that like?
02:49Well, it's when experience really matters, you know, the guys that have played these
02:52events year after year, there's value in that, and especially at the American Express, where
02:56you play three courses like you just talked about, but playing three golf courses, preparing
03:01for that in Palm Springs, and then driving up the road to San Diego, and then you got
03:06to learn two more golf courses.
03:08So for the rookies, it's already a very difficult start to the year, you know, you're trying
03:12to get your feet wet, and you're learning all of these golf courses.
03:15So with that being said, it's a good point.
03:18But for me as a player, when I was on the tour, I always felt like their year really
03:21started in San Diego, it just felt like, you know, the crowds, they're always incredible.
03:28It's a it's a really, you know, you can have us opens out there, like we've seen some of
03:32the more famous golf tournaments.
03:34And you typically have a really good finish in Torrey Pines.
03:37It's almost pretty much guaranteed you turn around on Sunday, it's something cool is gonna
03:40happen on that 18th hole.
03:42So it's gonna be a fun week.
03:44But it's not as strong the field as we typically would see seen a lot of top players pulling
03:49out mainly because they don't want to play Torrey Pines two out of three weeks, which
03:53is what it would be.
03:55Yeah, you were just mentioning Xander, Colin Morikawa, a few other guys have all backed
04:02out for this week.
04:03But we do have some names here, Smiley Ludvig's gonna play you have Matsuyama.
04:07I mean, Sanjay plays every week.
04:09So it's hard to say Sanjay, you can never not find Sanjay at a tournament.
04:12Finau's playing, Jason Day off of playing really well last week.
04:15So still some good names.
04:18Who are you looking at for the farmers this week out at Torrey?
04:21Well, I got a bone to pick with Sanjay.
04:23He was my pick last week at the Amex.
04:27He had finished top 25 in that event every single year.
04:31He made so many birdies when I was on the coverage watching him at the first, you know,
04:38the capital Lou and I'm just thinking, man, he's rested.
04:40He's going to go out and have a great week and just lays an egg on me and just misses
04:44the cuts.
04:45But who am I?
04:46That's a great question.
04:47Ludvig's a great start.
04:49This is a golf course.
04:50You want guys that can hit it long, but carry it a long way that are strong enough to get
04:54it out of the thick rough.
04:55You know, Harris English is always a guy that you got to look at this week.
04:58I know he's a guy that you don't look at.
05:01Maybe undervalued a lot of weeks, but this week in particular, he's always played well
05:05here.
05:06I start at the driver and work your way back.
05:09Tony fee.
05:10Now it's another player.
05:11If he could putt well, which he did a capital like him, there's some other under the radar
05:16guys like Jake Knapp, who played well there last year, hadn't really gotten it quite going
05:21since the West Coast last year, but he loves this golf course.
05:24He's a player that could play well.
05:26Like really under the radar is a guy named Trey Mullinax hits it as far as anybody.
05:32And it's had some success in this golf course coming off of a surgery this past year.
05:37He's one of my favorite first round leader guys.
05:40Smiley.
05:41We always love guys like Mullinax.
05:42They start fast and sometimes unfortunately fade away in the weekend, but we like those
05:47guys for first round.
05:49You know, we've got, you mentioned Sheffler before and he's always the most talked about
05:52guy.
05:53Is there any concern that he's going to miss a lot of these early tournaments?
05:57I know it's just a cut on his hand, but he's not playing golf.
06:00He had such an amazing year last year.
06:03You think that it'll take them a little time, whether it's pebble, whether it's waste, when
06:07he finally comes back to kind of get in the groove before the players.
06:11I think so.
06:12Definitely.
06:13It'll take a minute, right?
06:14Because, you know, you can't replace reps that you don't have.
06:17I know he's how, how well he has played Mike.
06:20And I think we, we don't question a guy that, you know, he came off of the tour championship,
06:26went straight to the president's cup, however many weeks later that was and looks like it,
06:30you know, he had missed a beat.
06:32But with any type of injury like this, he always have a little bit of question marks
06:36on kind of how he's going to come out personally for me.
06:40He's never been a guy that's putted incredibly well on Poanna.
06:43So for him to miss some of the stretch doesn't really worry me because it keeps his confidence
06:48high for when he does get over to the East Coast and he plays a Bermuda, overseeded Bermuda
06:54and putts really well on it.