0:00

H m

0:03

hm hm

0:09

hm. I'm

0:12

gonna tell it like it really is. We

0:16

know Haney doesn't give us silencing

0:19

ridics and then the name missus

0:21

too chips never except on

0:24

shoulders to get better. Everybody

0:26

knows the name read about it

0:29

or Golf Teachers Hall of Fame. Never

0:31

doubt that it's time for the truth. He is

0:33

our Do you listen in the Hany?

0:37

You listen in the Hany, You

0:41

listen in to Hany. It's

0:45

time for the truth. Here is our dude.

0:47

You listen in the Hani listen

0:51

to m

0:53

hm h

0:59

m hmm. All right, Welcome to the Hank Any Podcast.

1:02

I am recording here on nofilter

1:05

dot net. You can find the hank

1:07

Any Podcast on iHeartRadio

1:10

wherever you get your podcasts as

1:12

well. You can see a video

1:15

version either at nofilter dot net,

1:17

which is a phenomenal place

1:19

to view podcasts, or

1:22

you can also find my YouTube

1:24

channel hank Any on YouTube.

1:27

So this is the Masters edition. It

1:30

is Masters Week, This is

1:32

the big week. This is the week

1:35

that the golf season kind of gets kicked

1:38

off. Every year, it just kind of feels like this

1:40

is this is the beginning of the season,

1:43

especially if you live up in the

1:45

north or northeast, like

1:48

like I currently am in Chicago area,

1:50

this is this is the big one. It's it's

1:53

it's the Masters. It's the number one major there

1:55

is, Make no mistake about it. There's four

1:57

majors, US Open, Open Championship,

2:00

the Masters, and the PGA. The number one

2:02

major by far, not even close. The

2:05

Masters. It's the one that everybody wants to

2:07

win. Players would love to win any major, but

2:09

if they could win the one major, it would

2:11

definitely be the Masters. So

2:15

I think, in light of that

2:17

this is my Master's podcast, I have to

2:20

share with you something. So for those of you that are watching

2:22

this on video, I'm going to show you

2:24

a little some here. This is a

2:27

picture that I had framed. This is the

2:29

that's the Masters clubhouse, and

2:31

that is the menu right there. Can

2:34

you believe that is the menu of when

2:36

Markomira hosted and

2:38

this was that he won in nineteen ninety

2:41

eight, and he hosted the

2:43

Master's Dinner in nineteen ninety nine,

2:45

and he signed this for me, this little

2:48

the invitation and gave

2:51

it to me Master's Dinner.

2:54

Let me see what April sixth,

2:57

nineteen ninety nine, What did marko

2:59

Myra have for dinner that day? I

3:01

was listening, I was looking at the John Ram

3:03

dinner. He's got this whole Spanish food going.

3:06

I couldn't understand anything they were serving, but I

3:08

understand what Mark served. So

3:11

Mark had sushi and

3:13

shashimi. I

3:16

don't know how I put all this together, a caesar

3:18

salad. I think he just picked everything he likes,

3:21

the best steak and chicken, fajits,

3:24

rice and refined beans. It

3:27

says, served in honor of mister

3:29

Mark o'meira. And then they

3:32

had grilled filet mignon,

3:34

grilled Pacific salmon and

3:37

broiled chicken, hot rolls,

3:40

trio dessert twice

3:42

baked potato, crab cocktail,

3:45

graber olives and fresh

3:48

asparagus. And that was. That

3:50

was Mark's dinner. Pretty cool. And he signed

3:52

this picture to me. It says, Hank, thanks

3:55

for helping me live my

3:57

dreams. You're the best. Mark Omearra. That

4:00

was That's something I'll never forget. Helping

4:03

somebody live their dreams is uh,

4:06

that's a dream come true for any coach. And

4:09

when Markomera won the Masters in nineteen

4:11

ninety eight, I'll never forget it. I was there

4:14

for the whole week. And

4:17

this is a great master's story right

4:19

here. So Mark's done with the first

4:21

round. I forget what he shot the first round. I think he shot like one

4:23

over par of the first round and

4:27

he shoots the one over par and

4:29

he comes off the he missed a pot

4:31

I think on eighteen and he I

4:34

mean he might have shot two overpar. I don't want or two overpart

4:36

anyway, So he comes off the green on eighteen

4:38

and he's steaming. He's not he's not happy.

4:41

And at that point, you know, his friends

4:43

are around and his wife's around, and

4:46

it's like, Hank, go talk to Mark.

4:49

Of course, that's my job. That's what I was going to do, is going to

4:51

turn and I go and talk to my Marcus. He

4:54

said I can't play with the darn here.

4:58

I think he said something a little strong than

5:00

that. Okay, Uh, this

5:02

course gets me. Uh, you

5:04

know, I can't stand this place. Maybe

5:07

it was I can't stand this fucking place something

5:09

like that. Uh, And

5:11

I'm like Mark, Mark, but I

5:14

said, hey, it was a tough day

5:16

out there. He shot one over par. You

5:18

know, you're you're you're okay. You know,

5:21

let's just okay. He goes,

5:23

okay, what do you mean, I'm okay? He says, I can't even

5:25

make a fucking putt from two feet

5:28

and I like, of course, he was exaggerating,

5:30

like he was prone to do a lot. I said, well, let me take

5:32

a look at your stroke, let's see, let's see what you're doing,

5:35

and uh, you know, let's

5:37

figure it out and we'll go get him tomorrow. And

5:40

we went over in the putting green, and

5:43

uh, I watched him make a couple of strokes,

5:45

and you know, told him, told him a little something,

5:48

you know what. I can't remember what it was. I told him.

5:50

I think it was about keeping his eyes more square.

5:52

His eyes were lined up too much to the right, so

5:54

I kept his head more straight.

5:57

And you know, sure enough he

6:00

plays his way in position. And then on

6:02

Sunday, I'll

6:04

never forget. On Sunday he

6:06

had a chance. You know, he's still pretty

6:09

far back, but at least he was in the vicinity.

6:12

And his wife came up to me and

6:14

she said, Hank, she said, don't

6:16

tell him anything before he's off. Tell

6:19

him just to keep doing what he's doing, you know, something

6:21

to that effect. And I was thinking to myself,

6:25

what the fuck are you talking about. I mean,

6:29

you take care of being

6:31

the wife, you take care of the kids,

6:34

and I'll

6:36

take care of the coaching. Okay. Like

6:39

my regret would be I saw

6:41

something on the range and

6:45

I didn't say anything, And

6:47

that never happened many times. By matter

6:49

of fact, I only think of one time my career that

6:51

happened when Tiger was playing the

6:53

PGA at Baltistrow and I was, you

6:55

know, I'm going back and forth, should I say

6:57

something, should I not say something? Should I say something? Should

7:00

say something? And I ended up

7:02

not saying something. And the reason I

7:04

didn't say something is because I knew the correction

7:06

I would give him would

7:09

maybe eliminate the right ball,

7:11

but it would maybe put the left ball in

7:13

play in the first hole at Baltistrawl

7:16

had out of bounds left and I'm like, oh, man, I

7:18

tell him that, and he flashes

7:20

it out of bounds in the first hole and the tournament would

7:22

be over. Anyway. That was

7:25

my only regret, not saying something, so so I

7:27

never I never did that with Mark. I

7:29

always I would always tell him of

7:31

things more and he was expecting me to tell him of

7:33

someone. But anyway he was he was swaying

7:35

good, he was hitting the ball good, and

7:38

that just happened. The last day

7:41

happened to be his day. The

7:43

one thing I've always will say, like to

7:45

win Augusta, you

7:47

have to be able. Generally speaking. It's not this

7:50

doesn't happen every year, but generally speaking, you

7:52

have to make putts on two of

7:54

the last three holes. And

7:58

Marcomera could always

8:00

make the last putt. Now like he

8:02

didn't win, you know, he didn't win the most about

8:04

of tournaments on the PGA Tour, although he did make

8:07

it to the Hall of Fame and won two

8:09

major championships in nineteen ninety eight.

8:11

But the one thing that Mark could always do is

8:13

he could always finish. But a lot of people didn't

8:16

realize, and you know, you got

8:18

to be kind of a golf historian to know this, but

8:21

Markomehra had one of the best finishing

8:24

rates of any player that ever played

8:26

the PGA Tour. Honestly, I think Jack

8:29

Nicholas, Tiger Woods,

8:31

Ben Hogan, and Mark Omeraz right

8:33

in that category two in

8:35

terms of finishing off

8:37

a victory when they were on the lead

8:40

or tied for the lead. Somewhere

8:42

on Sunday, Mark's record

8:45

was absolutely amazing. If he was ever

8:47

on the lead or tied for lead on Sunday,

8:50

his win percentage was very,

8:52

very high, like up there in the top five

8:55

of all time. He had a good pairing

8:57

on Sunday. I'll never forget this. He had a good pairing. He was

8:59

playing with Fred Couples and he's good friends

9:01

with Freddie. They came out on tour the same

9:03

time. I went to tour school

9:06

together and they'd been friends for a long

9:08

time. So and Fred's the kind of guy that if you

9:10

when you got to play with Fred, it was gonna

9:12

be a relaxed round. There's gonna be a lot of talking.

9:15

And you know, for a player like Marco

9:17

Mera, who was one of the nicest guys you ever want to

9:19

meet, that that's something

9:21

that is an advantage. You know,

9:24

if you go and playing with a guy out there that's an

9:26

absolute you know, Dick and

9:29

you know there's nobody's talking

9:31

at all. It just puts more tension

9:33

in the whole the whole round. Anyway,

9:35

it was a great pairing with Fred Couples and Mark

9:38

ended up, you know, making some

9:40

good putts, made a big, big putt I

9:42

remember on

9:44

number four, the part three minute

9:46

bomb there and anyway, you know, he just

9:49

got the villain. Maybe this could be his day. I'll

9:51

never forget though I had to. I had

9:53

to leave the tournament I

9:56

had. I had a teaching

9:58

seminar schedule Wisconsin

10:01

PGA. Never forget nineteen ninety

10:03

eight Wisconsin PGA the Monday

10:06

after the Masters and

10:08

the last flight that I could get out out

10:11

of Atlanta left at such a time

10:13

that that I guess I didn't wasn't

10:16

planning that Mark was going to be in the last group, or I

10:18

figured if he was in the last group, I'll figure it out

10:20

when I you know, when the time comes.

10:23

But I had to leave when he was like on the

10:26

sixteenth hole. I think he was on the sixteenth

10:28

hole, and I had to leave the golf course to make it to

10:30

that commitment that I made in Milwaii

10:33

and my lifelong student. I didn't

10:36

get to see him finish out the Masters. But

10:38

I was driving in the car and never forget driving

10:40

in the car back to the Atlanta airport

10:42

from Augusta, Georgia, and I'm talking

10:45

on the phone to my friend David

10:47

Abbott, and he he is

10:50

going through the whole round

10:52

with me the last three holes. You know, a good drive

10:54

here, he's a good iron shot, you

10:56

know, you know, just missed the pot

10:58

or whatever. And you know, and then and he gets on eighteen

11:01

and market

11:03

a good drive and hit on the green and David's

11:06

telling me that he's got like fifteen foot pot

11:08

to win the Masters. And

11:10

he goes and you know, I'm waiting,

11:12

and you know, he's getting ready and he's taking

11:15

me through the whole thing like he's an announcer, and he's he's

11:17

getting rid of pot, you know. And then

11:19

he hits a pot and he goes, he made

11:21

it, he made it, he made it. And to David was a good friend

11:23

of Mark's and a big fan too, and he goes,

11:25

he made it, he made it. You know, I'll never forget it. Man.

11:27

It's like that. That was like one of the

11:30

coolest moments ever. You know, one of those times

11:32

when you're you know that place and time

11:35

and it's a lifelong memory. And

11:37

that was that was one of

11:39

those from from Auguscoe,

11:41

somebody you know, they did came

11:44

in did an article. Gary

11:46

Van Sikel did an article about

11:48

me moving back to Chicago for the Chicago

11:51

District Golf Association magazine,

11:53

and he asked me, he said, what are your best

11:56

Master's memories? And

11:58

that was That was Umber one on my list

12:00

for sure right there, because

12:04

to see a great guy fulfill

12:06

his dreams, there's nothing

12:09

better than that. That was. That was That

12:11

was really really cool. So

12:13

that's my little Masters story to start

12:16

off the Masters

12:19

show here, and I want to talk about

12:22

who I think is going to win the Masters. Here's

12:25

what I always say about who's

12:27

going to win the Masters. I

12:30

always say that I'm

12:33

gonna pick the best player. So for years

12:35

and years and years when I was coaching Tiger,

12:37

I would always pick Tiger. I picked Tiger

12:39

to win every tournament, and I was

12:41

right about half the time

12:43

when Tiger would would win upwards

12:46

of fifty percent of his tournaments. So I

12:49

always pick the best players. It

12:51

is such a crapshoot picking golf. Now,

12:53

I have a pretty good track record

12:56

picking after around

12:58

or after two rounds, or three rounds,

13:00

or in the middle of the fourth round, you

13:03

know, going on one of those betting sites. I go

13:05

on there and I'll make a little money picking who's

13:07

going to win, because I'm pretty good at predicting that.

13:09

Once I see what's going on. But to pick

13:12

a winner before the tournament starts,

13:14

it's so hard to do. You know, you don't know how

13:16

anybody's going to play. You

13:19

kind of know how they've been playing, but you

13:21

don't know how they're going to play. Half the guys that

13:23

you think are going to win or have a chance to

13:25

win, are going to be out of the tournament after one day.

13:27

Oh that the TV and the radio and everything,

13:30

they'll tell you, Oh, this guy's still got a chance.

13:32

You know, he's only he's only two over par

13:34

and he's a good round tomorrow. But the reality

13:36

of the situation is

13:39

is that players

13:41

that are in the top ten after the first round,

13:43

second round, third round, they win. They

13:45

win the tournament. And the number

13:48

is really high as

13:50

players that are top ten after the first round,

13:52

somebody in the top ten after the first round

13:55

the greatest percentage of the time will end

13:58

up winning the tournament. So these plays

14:00

that are over par and fighting

14:02

back to get in and Mark did it, It did it in

14:04

nineteen ninety eight, Marco Meredith. But it

14:07

just doesn't happen very often. It doesn't,

14:09

and you get off to a bad start, you're

14:13

fighting it uphill climbing your margin frere

14:15

goes down to absolute zippo,

14:18

So it's hard to pick a

14:20

winner. I always go with

14:22

the best players, and

14:25

the best players at the Masters this year, I

14:27

mean, some of the guys aren't going great.

14:30

I mean, Rory McRoy is one of the best players there.

14:32

He's going for the career Grand Slam, but he hasn't

14:34

played very good all year. Went

14:36

for emergency lesson out to Butch Harmon and

14:38

Butch can work some miracles, so you never know. I

14:40

mean I give him more than no chance

14:42

for sure. But I got to go

14:44

with Scheffler. I mean, he's far

14:47

and away the best player in the world right now

14:49

with his statistics. It just

14:51

boils down to his putting. Kenny

14:54

putt well enough, but he has put it well at Augusta

14:56

and having those memories and knowing the greens,

14:59

that's a big thing. The pins are in the same place

15:01

every you know, every year, and they're in the same

15:03

place. I mean, they might throw in one new pin placement,

15:06

but they ain't gonna throw in ten new pin placements.

15:08

They're gonna be in the same place. You don't know what day they're

15:10

going to be there, but they're going to be in the same place

15:12

every year. You know, the four pins. When

15:14

you walk up on the green, they know the greens,

15:16

they know the putts, they know where to practice

15:18

from and uh, you

15:21

know, and you have a history there. And Scheffler

15:23

won the green jacket, you know,

15:26

a couple of years ago. That's a you know, he's

15:29

he's at the top of the list if he if he putts,

15:31

but you can say that about you know a few players

15:33

if he putts.

15:35

The next player I look at is John

15:37

Robb because these are these are the best players they want. Rom's

15:39

are defending champions hard to go back to back,

15:42

but Rom's the kind of guy that could do that. I mean, he's

15:44

just he's a quality, quality player,

15:47

and there's there's no two ways

15:49

about it. And you

15:51

know he's he's done it before and

15:53

he can rise the occasion. And then the third

15:55

player to me is Brooks Capcat because you can't deny

15:58

Brooks Kepta's major championship prowess.

16:01

I mean, he's just he's so he's

16:03

so good it's ridiculous, and he's

16:06

so good at together. And I point back

16:08

all the time when I'm talking about Kopka, the

16:11

twenty nineteen Masters, which

16:13

Tiger won. He won it

16:16

in a dramatic win, but

16:19

he won it with one three butt and no penalty

16:21

shots the whole whole

16:23

tournament. And you know how I always say the

16:25

key the key to golf, and the key the

16:28

key does every level of the game. But the

16:30

same thing holds true in professional

16:32

golf, and it will really hold true at

16:34

the Masters, is that you

16:37

have to eliminate three things. You have

16:39

to eliminate penalty shots, and

16:41

then you eliminate what I call two chips

16:43

two chips two pitches to sand shots.

16:45

When you miss a green, you got to get the ball on the green

16:47

and one shot. And that those happen

16:50

at Augusta because you miss a green and

16:52

you've got a tough little chip and you try to

16:54

get real cute with it and you run it over the

16:56

green or you leave it short. That happens.

16:59

And then at a gus a big thing is the three

17:01

putts you have to you have to eliminate

17:03

the three putts. And there's a lot more three

17:05

putts out of Gusta then get counted

17:08

because they only count the ones that are that

17:10

are putted from on the green. As

17:12

a putt. But every

17:14

player in the field that putts from

17:16

you know, six inches or foot off the green

17:19

and three putts counts it as a three

17:21

putt, so and I do too. So you have

17:23

to you have to eliminate three putts, penalty

17:25

shots, and two chips. So when Tiger

17:27

won in twenty nineteen, he had

17:30

won three putt no penalty

17:32

shots. If Tiger would have had one

17:34

three putt in the six

17:36

years I taught him, he would have won

17:39

six Masters championships.

17:41

He won one Master championship

17:44

in those six years. He'd have won six

17:46

of them if he had one three

17:48

putt or less in those those

17:51

those years. But it's hard to do. You're gonna have

17:53

three putts, you're gonna have penalty shots. In fact, Brooks

17:55

Koepka, who finished second to Tiger

17:57

in twenty nineteen, had uh

18:00

six three putts and five penalty

18:02

shots for a total of eleven

18:05

eleven penalty shots, two chips and

18:07

three putts. He had a total of eleven and

18:10

he lost the tournament by one shot

18:12

to Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods had one three

18:15

putts, no penalty shots. Koepka, he

18:18

had to walk away from that tournament thinking

18:21

I totally pissed this tournament

18:23

away and this

18:25

this this one, this screen jacket should

18:27

have been mine, but it wasn't. It was it was it was Tiger.

18:30

So so this year at the at the Masters, that's

18:32

what it'll boil down to. It always does. Uh,

18:34

you know, they'll talk about the iron play and how important

18:37

it is, and it is, you got you got

18:39

to hit your irons. You know, driving is important

18:41

because you got these par fives you can get to and

18:43

two if you get good drives. And you know,

18:45

the August was a lot, you know,

18:48

tighter than than it used to be. They put

18:50

trees on eleven. You know, there's

18:52

seventeen is a tight hole, you

18:55

know, fifteens tighter, and it used

18:57

to be. It's it's it's

18:59

not as easy of a driving driving

19:01

courses maybe it

19:04

used to be, especially with the second cut

19:06

of rough. But the big thing is the

19:08

penalty shots and the three putts.

19:10

That's a big thing. So the tournament

19:13

will boil down to this. It will boil down

19:15

to do the

19:17

player keep it out of the

19:19

water on eleven, twelve,

19:21

thirteen, and fifteen, So those

19:23

are your four holes eleven, twelve, thirteen, if

19:26

you take penalty shots somewhere else on the golf course.

19:28

You're not gonna win it. You're not going the Masters. You can just

19:30

take that to the bank, you can book on that. But

19:32

eleven, twelve, thirteen,

19:36

and fifteen, those are the key holes.

19:38

Dumping the water on twelve, not

19:40

going to win the Masters, dumping the water on thirteen.

19:43

Maybe you can overcome it because you can still get the ball

19:45

up and then and make a par. Dump it

19:47

in the water on fifteen. It's

19:50

going to be tough, more than a total of

19:52

two penalty shot, two chips

19:54

or three putts, and it's very difficult

19:57

to win at a gust, very difficult

19:59

to win any may your championship or any PGA

20:01

Tour event when you have a

20:04

high number penalty shots, two chips, and three

20:06

percent. For a pro, a high number is

20:08

like one around. That's a that's a high

20:10

number. So when you see players that go out there

20:12

and they three putt a couple times the first day,

20:15

and maybe they hit it in the water on

20:17

the second day, and you think, now he's right there,

20:19

he's got a chance at the end of the at

20:21

the end of the week, that's going to come back to

20:23

bite him. Those those penalty shots,

20:25

two chips and three perce. You can you can

20:27

have a two chip with what I would call two chip

20:30

on number three, the

20:32

the the part four because they'll drive it

20:34

down close to the green. They'll try to hit a wedge up

20:36

there. It'll it'll you know, short

20:39

wedge because they'll be you know, thirty forty yards from

20:41

the green and it'll hit on the front and it'll

20:43

roll all the way back down the hill. That's that's

20:45

the two chip. So those are the things you look

20:47

for, and those are determined termin the

20:49

winners. But all things

20:51

being equal, I look

20:53

at ram I look at Koepka,

20:57

and I look at a Scottie Scheffler, and

21:00

but because there's only three players

21:02

there, you know, anything can happen.

21:05

And a lot of players are

21:08

seemingly not playing and not at the

21:10

top of their game, like like Cameron,

21:13

you know Smith, you

21:16

know, I don't know how d Chambeau's

21:18

playing. Dustin Johnson

21:21

hasn't played that good this year. He's the guy that plays

21:23

Augusta really good. You

21:25

know, Bubba's getting a little up

21:27

there in age. Michaelson's probably

21:30

you know, probably

21:33

too old to win Augusta. But I wouldn't

21:35

you know, I don't put anything by Phil, but

21:38

you know, you don't have a lot

21:40

of players playing great. Rory just has not

21:42

played great this year. He's somebody

21:44

that historically is a pretty good,

21:46

good favorite at Augusta. But

21:49

not a lot of guys are running a heater

21:51

going into this thing. So you're probably

21:53

looking at at one of

21:55

those first three guys I mentioned Ron

21:59

Scheffler, and uh, you know

22:01

Kopka or or you know, maybe

22:03

this is the year. Maybe this is

22:05

the year, you know, and I kind

22:08

of got this little feeling this could be

22:10

the year that you see like the

22:12

surprise winner. Marcomurra was a surprise

22:14

winner, Larry Mayes was a surprise

22:17

winner, Charles Schwartzel was

22:19

a surprise winner. You

22:21

know, Mike Weir was a surprise winner. It

22:23

happens, and it hadn't happened

22:25

in quite a while. So this

22:29

could be the year because it's going to happen. I mean

22:31

that's not that you know that it's going to happen again.

22:34

History keeps repeating itself, and you

22:37

know, every once in a while you see somebody win at

22:39

Augusta that you weren't weren't expecting

22:41

to and this this uh this could

22:43

be this. This is setting up for the perfect

22:46

year for that that to happen. If

22:48

it's not one of the big guys, it'll be uh,

22:51

it might be somebody that we we we

22:53

least expect them to win. This guy a first

22:56

time major winner, something like that. All

22:59

right, I hope very If I enjoyed the podcast, make

23:02

sure you check out all the great programming on nofilter

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dot net. Hit the follow button

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23:18

YouTube so you can check it out the

23:21

video version of it. And I

23:23

hope everybody has a great week watching

23:26

the Masters. It is the number one

23:28

greatest tournament in the world,

23:31

and all the best players, well

23:33

not all the best players. They left out a few liv players,

23:36

but most all of the best players

23:39

are playing and golf

23:42

is in need of that for sure. So this

23:44

is going to be a great, great week

23:47

of golf. And the weather looks good, so I can't

23:49

wait for the Masters. Hope everybody

23:51

has a great, great week and

23:54

enjoy the Masters. All the best