WEBVTT - Five Things About the 2024 Open Championship with Andrew Cotter 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.920 And when I find my ball in a fried Egg 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.760 Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday, Frida fridagg Bride. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:13.400 Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.280 Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Golf Podcast. 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.800 I am your host, Andy Johnson, and we're here final 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.360 major of the year, The Open, a lot I think 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.920 from a golf romantic standpoint, probably the most romantic major 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:56.400 of the year. It is is a special major, returning 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:00.320 to you know where golf started. And this year we've 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.680 got a great tournament on on deck for Royal Troon. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.600 It is a It's hosted a lot of opens, a 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.920 lot of great opens, and uh it's gonna be I'm 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.880 pretty excited to watch. The storylines are incredible. So it 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:18.840 is uh is Sunday before the Open. I was lucky 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:24.959 to be joined by a Trouon native, Andrew Cotter. Andrew Cotter, 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.440 for those in America probably aren't familiar, he has a 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:34.319 prominent broadcaster uh in in the UK. He works primarily 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.720 for the BBC. He was he was kind enough to 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.680 join me from Wimbledon, his brother's caddie and a number 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.600 of opens. He was a a scratch player there growing up. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.640 Uh so, a lot of knowledge of truon and you know, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.520 he has his own golf podcast called The Chipping Forecast, 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.880 which he hosts with Eddie Pepperrell. It is a great 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.480 listen as well, so well was checking that out. And 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.080 of course he's the owner of Olivia Mabel for those 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.320 that remember that book during COVID they he wrote and 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:07.960 the fun he had there. So I was a big 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.919 thanks to Andrew for joining on a busy week of 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:15.280 his And we'll get to the five things, but first 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.360 let's talk about our partner, good Walk Coffee. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.160 It is coffee golf season. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.079 It is the best time of year and good Walk 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.040 Coffee is the official coffee partner of Frida Egg Golf. 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.640 We partner so much that we have our own collaborative blends. 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.720 We have the Shotgun Start Blend, which is a dark roast, 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.040 and we have the Frida Egg Blend, which is a 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.519 light roast. It's a medium light roast, so all of 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:46.520 your needs are there. 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So if you want to check 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.799 it out, go to Goodwalkcoffee dot com slash frieda Egg 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.959 to learn more and use that promo code fried Egg 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.280 no spaces at checkout to save thirty percent on your 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.400 subscription or twenty percent on your entire order. Get some 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:38.200 good coffee for for this week. Treat yourself and check 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.320 out the Friedagg Blend or the Shotgun Start Blind. All right, thanks, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:49.520 now let's get to Andrew Cotter. All right, I am 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.520 excited here to welcome in Andrew Cotter, a truon native, 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.360 a you know, a legendary broadcaster in his own right. 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:03.560 For this five things episode about the Open Championship. We're 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.200 heading to Royal Truon. This will be the tenth time 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.440 that Truon hosts the Open. The last time we saw 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.240 it was actually the Women's Open Sophia pop off when 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.000 the Women's Open that year. It will always hold a 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.680 special place in my heart. Truon will because it was 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.840 I was in a hospital room during COVID with my 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.839 one to two day year old daughter watching Royal Truon 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.479 at the wee hours with her sleeping on my chest. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.040 I will never forget Royal True because of that. I 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.720 have warm and fuzzies even though I've never been there 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.480 for Royal Truon because of the pop off Women's Open. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:48.200 But a pretty solid list of winners when you roll 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:51.200 through there, even underrated ones like weiss Cough. I think 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.520 Stenson in twenty years will be an underrated winner at 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.480 Truon to go along with some big big name winners 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.760 at Truon such as Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer. And 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.600 I mean Bobby Locke was a was a big time 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.640 player as well, so I think Andrew starting off, I'd 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.120 love to hear a little bit about the dynamic of 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.280 growing up in Troon and and and what it's like there. 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.479 Yeah, so roll troun. I just call it true, I can't, 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.160 you know, Yeah, it's it's where I grew up. And 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:25.800 I grew up just a couple hundred yarms from the 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.719 first tea, and so I was a junior member there. 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.080 The junior section when I was a junior was absolutely terrible. 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:35.400 I mean it was They had no time for juniors 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.400 at all. Colman Gummery's father was the secretary at the time, 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.320 and I got on famously with him. Now he's, you know, 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.320 a really nice guy, but as a secretary, he was 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.200 just he was he was. He didn't like I don't 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:50.279 think anyone liked juniors. It's like quite a lot of clubs. 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:51.560 I don't know what it's like in the US, but 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.039 they frown upon juniors. And so I was a decent player, 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.240 not you know. I was playing off about one or 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.320 two when I was sixteen seventeen, and I never got 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.599 to play the Old Course. We weren't allowed to play 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.720 the Old Course. So we used to play the Portland Course, 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.520 which is you like this, And it was originally well 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.360 it was Redone by Aston Mackenzie, so it was and 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:12.080 then it kind of got lost in the Second World 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.040 War a little bit and became a bit of a 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:16.280 corruption of that. But it's a really good course. But anyway, 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.480 we weren't allowed to play the old course, so I 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.840 went and joined clemar at Brassey, which had amazed. It's 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.960 the other side of true an amazing junior section like 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.480 Gordon Sherry. Do you remember Gordon Sherry won the Amateur 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.440 to huge guy six foot eight ginger hair. He won 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.560 the Amateur Championship and playing the Masters, and Alan Reid 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.280 won the Scottish Amateur. Anyway, I'm digressing a little bit. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:39.240 So all tune was it's kind of where I grew 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.680 up and where I started the game, and so I've 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.760 been a member pretty much for since the age of 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:48.200 three or four. I think my parents joined me up 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.080 when I was three or four. That's when I started playing. 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.520 And I've never really got any better than when I 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:54.960 was five or six anyway, so I've plateaued at that 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.599 that age. But Truon is, yeah, Trouon's home. I don't 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.120 live in Scotland anymore. I've lived in England for twenty years, 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.920 but I'll for the Open. I was staying in the 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.360 house I grew up in two hundred yomps in the 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.400 media center. It's just a dream. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:12.600 That's amazing. That's amazing. 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.800 Do you have any good Colin Montgomery father stories? But 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.720 to your point, I think there was like a seismic 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.360 change in the way juniors were treated in American golf 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.480 after Tiger Woods. But like there was, like I think 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.160 that was one of the hurdles for the game. It's 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.680 so funny when you think about like the evolution of 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.720 the game of golf in America, because I think it 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.480 was it was super welcoming early on, like it it 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.720 became this people were worried it was gonna be America's 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:52.160 pastime over baseball. But then I think the World War, 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.720 the Great Depression, everything stalled it and it came out. 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.000 I think that's where American golf went wrong in nineteen 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.480 fifty or whatever. It came out of this like hibernation, 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.600 and it was a game that is so far away 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.160 from I'll just call it your game, the Scots game. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.240 And that's where we got this warped as a Scottish, 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:16.040 isn't it. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.000 Yes, sports a big, big business and sponsorship, and that's 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.160 when it became in America and certainly. You know, that's 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.680 aside to it in Scotland. In the UK as well, 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.840 it's for a lot of people. It's at aspirational sport, 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:30.440 not as much as it would be in lots of 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.520 other countries around the world. Like in Troun, for example, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.080 there are six golf courses. You know, it's a town 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.360 still of only about fifteen thousand people, but there are 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.679 six golf courses and three of those are munis. You know, 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.360 there's a there's a Darley Locker and Fullerton. So I 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.439 grew up playing those courses as well. So golf is 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.360 as much for the people playing in jeans and T 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.680 shirt and just car you know, heading out to play 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:53.040 in the muni as it is for the people who 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.040 want to be the members of Royal Troon or whatever 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.280 it might be as a sort of aspirational thing. You know, 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:01.880 having been to Scotland, if you go to the East 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:06.800 Coast as well, Sam Andrews, it's a sport for all. 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:09.240 It's very different to sort of down around London the 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.199 Home Counties as we call them in the UK. Well, 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.199 it is quite an aspirational sport. It's about being a 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.040 member of a club as much as playing the sport. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.880 But I'd like to think that still in Scotland, it's 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.199 about just people going knocking a ball around the field, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.120 you know, And that's what that's what I like about it. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:26.640 I mean, to be honest, I've never really been into 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.719 being a member of a club. So I'll just go 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.079 and change my shoes in the car park and head 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:32.760 out and hit some balls or whatever. I don't think 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:34.120 you know how to change your shoes in the car park, 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.320 but I do it away from the clubhouse. But yeah, 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.559 that's what I think. That's probably what golf is for you. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:41.600 Isn't it just about the joy of hitting a golf ball? 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:42.439 It is? 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:43.000 It is. 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.880 I think that's when you think back to the roots 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.600 of the game. I have a friend Kevin Moore, who 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.600 says that he said this once and it sticks. 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:52.679 It sticks with me. 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.560 Is like when you think about the origins of golf, 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.360 it was the whole point of golf was here are 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:01.959 your sticks, here's the ball, that's where you're going go 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.800 get there right Like there was none of this pomp 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.000 and circumstance that a circumstances that we've we've filled the 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.800 game with and all these like I just think, like 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:13.960 It's interesting when I you know, this is. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.040 An Open Championship preview and here we are discussing, uh, 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:18.480 the origins of golf. 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.240 But you know, when I think about like where America 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.000 golf is going, it's like every every day, seemingly every 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.200 day it's about like the next new high end, lux 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.559 private club in America golf. And it's like, you know, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.959 the vast majority of people grow up playing golf. Like 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.360 I I just visited my the course. 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:39.079 I grew up playing. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.160 I've been at home, and you know it is it's 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.880 just so it's amazing to me, Like what what I 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.080 I like, my memories are are amazing. From there, there's 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.360 like a number of golf entrepreneurs that all that I 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:54.720 played high school golf with that are all that all 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.439 grew up playing this golf course. And what what what 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.720 sticks with me is like, Wow, this place of provided 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:05.679 me with a golf course to play for one hundred 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.280 and ninety dollars every year. It was one hundred and 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.680 ninety dollars for a junior past and I could play 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:12.000 all summer long. 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.680 And like I mean, like the. 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.000 One of my best friends growing up, he grew up 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.080 up the street from me. He owns a golf bag company, 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.080 and I you know, started this and we grew up 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.079 riding our bikes to this public golf course every day 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.200 in the summer and just shipping and putting and then 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.480 waiting till three o'clock when we could go play golf. 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.319 And and that was like my summer is like just 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.800 and it's like would either of us be in golf 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.760 without that? That is the version of golf like to 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.640 me is like where Yeah, That's what golf is to me. 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.240 And I think everything else around it is a little 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.000 bit trivial to a certain extents. Yeah. 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.480 Oh, And I mean in the last couple of years, 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.640 it's gone so far away from what to what we 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.080 think of as golf, you know. And but and again 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.319 we've talked about this on own golf podcast and it's 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.160 quite a lot. Is that is that, you know, whatever 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.920 happens in the professional game with living, the separation and 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:08.640 the nonsense that goes on. And you know, I was 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.040 listening to the Shotguns Start today and what was Xander 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:13.920 Schoffley talking about could we get you know, just a 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.080 couple fewer dinners at the Rider Cup? And I'm thinking 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.320 this is so far from what I think of as golf. 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.120 If you ask about me what golf means to me, 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:25.200 it means the memories of summer evening playing just hitting 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.320 the balls until dark, or playing with my uncle, whatever 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:29.679 it is. So I think everybody's got that association with 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.719 golf that is really detached from what the professional game 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.240 has become. But you're right here, we are previewing the 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.439 Open Championship and how great the professional game is and 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.760 how you know, just waxing lyrical about what golf means 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:44.240 to us. But then when I go to Troun, I'll 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.319 see where I was hitting. You know, we had a 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.640 tiny patch of tough to hit balls on as juniors 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:52.240 at Troun, and it's pretty much underneath where the where 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.800 the practice ground will be for the Open Championship. And 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.120 I'll see these guys pounding balls three hundred and thirty 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.080 yards and I think that's where I just spent ages 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.480 trying to hit a you know, just a nine arm 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.959 or something like that. But when you see how big 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.120 the Open Championship is now as well, it's become it's 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.280 become so vast, and I noticed it really for the 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.920 first time properly at Hoylake last year. Which I didn't. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.680 You know, I'm actually a big fan of the RNA, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.959 But I think the Open has become can something be 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.959 too big or too commercial or something. I just think 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.360 it's interesting because you know, you can't go back to 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.679 the past and you can't get stranded in nostalgia. But 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:30.839 I look at all the Open Championship I've been to 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.199 as a fan and then as a broadcaster, and it 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.920 seems quite a different beast now. It seems to be 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:41.240 a sort of almost almost sort of a money making 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.800 thing with golf attached to it, you know. But I'm 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.079 and again, my memory goes back a long way. My 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.600 first opening I can really remember wasn't the first one 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:51.320 that I was at. The first one I can really 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.760 remember properly was the nineteen eighty two Open at Troon 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.800 when I was eight nine years old, and I just 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.040 remember running here and there, and we used to have 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.040 think called the Exhibition, and it was all these local 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.040 golf traders, not local small golf traders would come and 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.960 you know, they'd be people who'd sell headcovers, or people 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.559 that would sell golf snacks, or people would sell a 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:15.040 thing they'd invented themselves in a Garnet or that, but 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.360 it was just such good fun and then running out here, 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.120 there and everywhere and watching Tom Tom Watson, Nick Price 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.240 blow it with a dodgy mustache. But yeah, I hope 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.040 that for youngsters watching it now it's still maintains that 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:32.320 charm because it's a huge event and the machinery around 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.280 it now and the infrastructure that's built. But I hope 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.280 it still maintains that sort of charm that can drag 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.560 in youngsters watching it to say, you know, this is 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:40.360 quite special. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.040 I mean, I think you hit on some interesting points 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.160 and this wasn't you know, we traditionally do five things. 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.680 But like, I think one of the most compelling aspects 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.240 of the Open in general is like where it's going. 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.080 And obviously in America, I think we have the opposite 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.760 problem of like knowing exactly where the US Open's going 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:01.160 for the next fifty years. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:04.880 What was it Pinehurst in the year thirty three, twenty 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:05.880 seven or something like that. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.520 But meanwhile in the Open, it seems like we're at 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.960 this stage where it's like how many venues can conceivably 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:20.840 whole host this tournament? This becomes so big its size. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.400 Well, Lithm's gone that's Lithm's gone for that reason. Turnbury, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.440 irrespective of the Trump thing, Turnberry had gone really before 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.920 Trump took over because it wasn't getting the spectator numbers 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.160 and it didn't have the accommodation around apart from the 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.000 hotel there at Turnbery there's nothing. And it's the best course. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.960 It's in port Russia, probably the two best courses, but 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.000 it won't host another Open Championship. And you're right, it's 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.840 become a thing where you've just got it right. What 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.120 course has got the best roads coming in, the best rail, 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.920 the best air access, and what has got the most 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.120 space that we can put all these things on? So yeah, 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.280 that those are the determining factors for venues. 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.800 Now, Yeah, and I think you hit an an awesome 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.360 thing with the the idea of like just like a uh, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.520 someone who who has a gadget coming in like an 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.280 exhibitor's tent, Like you know, they have all these tents, 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.720 but they're all for very high purchase amounts. Right, it 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.560 has conceivably lost, it has without a doubt, lost some 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.960 of that charm. I think, you know, I you know, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.440 I hope I I I just when I think about 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.920 the Open, I think about being a kid on summer 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.040 break in America and waking up way earlier than I 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.960 ever would conceive in in the summer to run down 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.400 and turn on golf and just laying on the couch 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.320 all morning watching golf, and I think, I think, you know, 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.760 you see, you see like kind of that charm. Like 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.800 I think about like the Saint Andrews Open, where while 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.560 while the finish is happening, people are jumping over the 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:59.160 over the burn, maybe breaking legs doing trying to do it. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:00.360 But run up that. 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:04.680 I think there are moments of it, but it does, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.040 you know, And this is this is true about every major. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.359 I mean, this is this is one of the US 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.040 opened conundrums. It's like they're you know, Pineher's a great 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.080 venue because we can put tons of people out there, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.359 right and you know, other places maybe don't have the 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.040 infrastructure space. The Ryder Cup would be a perfect example 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.560 of this where they have gone from you know, you 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.280 look at the early Ryder Cup golf course hosts to 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.280 what they where they host now and it's like what happened? 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.200 Oh no, The Ryder Cup is just extraordinary and they've 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:36.280 got too many Dennos for the. 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.919 Players, right it's just you know, I've been in one 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:41.280 of those. 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:43.960 I've been in one of those crushes, in one of 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:45.560 these challenges down in the eighteenth I mean in a 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.840 couple of them actually, but the one I really remember 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.440 was eighty six at Tunbrey, which is obviously just you know, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.800 half an hour forty minutes south of trun And when 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.080 when Greg Norman won and he was caught in that crush, 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.240 and I remember seeing him. He was just a sort 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.400 of coming up just beside me in this us trying 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.160 to push his way through to merge with his hands 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.920 held up in his shock of white blonde hair and everything, 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.159 and I just I just been so excited by it. 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.920 It was incredible. Yeah, they don't really, I think so Andrews. 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:15.680 You can get it, but you'd struggle to get the 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.760 because everything's so barricaded off in the seventy second hole. 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.080 Now they have barricades, I mean pretty much down the 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:22.960 length of the hole. 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.360 It's like you don't have the right media credentials. 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.800 Seventy second whole accreditation in your armband that has done 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.680 you for the whole tournament won't do you for the 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:37.119 seventy second hole. So that's another thing. As well. That 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.880 true because Trune is actually the course on the open 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:43.639 Rota where you see the sea the most. It's the 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.040 most you know, if you think of all the other 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.639 courses in the Rota, you know, because Turnberry is not 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.560 on anymore. Where you really are right by the sea, 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:51.760 you don't you hardly see the one. You buy the sea, 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:53.840 but you don't see it, whereas in True in the 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:55.639 first few holes you're right beside the beat. I mean, 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.640 the first tier True now is is fantastic. It's right 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.119 on top of the beach almost. But they have to 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:04.960 build a fence all the way along the first six 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.919 holes because otherwise people just wandering off the beach and say, 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.000 I'm not gonna pay, I'm just gonna I'm just going 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.359 to wander in and see if i can see some golf. 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.680 So yeah, it just becomes I think all courses that 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:19.000 host big tournaments become so different to the courses you know, 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.359 they become almost unrecognizable. I mean, I've been up there 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.679 quite a lot over the last three months, and you've 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.560 seen the stands going up and everything getting ready, and yeah, 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:31.040 when I go back this week, it's going to be 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.320 it's going to be quite something, But it's are you going, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:37.520 You're going over there that I'm not gone? You know, 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.320 is Brendan going? Is anyone going from the now? 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:44.840 We are? We are now? 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.320 You know we're dropping the ball. It's been a busy year. 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:50.600 I had to get some well exactly, I suppose that 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.600 is the case. But they usually get a house sponsored 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.760 by someone. So I'm just filling the shoes. 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:02.720 Could you're remember, uh there's good a good little spots 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:06.159 for plug there. But uh, the I think, like, you know, 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.080 what's funny about what you said, getting at the core 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.040 of this is that, ironically, like when I think about 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.320 like my youth, I stuck my way into a fair 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.240 amount of tournaments, like you find you find like there's 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.560 a housing, a cult to sack and they don't fence there. 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.879 We can sneak in over here. You know. 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:30.680 What I think is is the people that are sneaking 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:32.680 in on the beach or the exact people that you 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.119 want at the tournament to invoke that local charm. You know, 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.200 nobody's nobody's coming up from London, you know, or flying 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.760 over from America without the tick and say it's okay, 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:44.200 we're going to sneak in from the beach. 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.440 You know, it's it's like there's a couple. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.000 Of weeks the railway line. That's the thing. Triuns protected 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.240