Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg podcast.
Speaker 1: For Masters week, we have a special edition with Jeff Ogilvie,
Speaker 1: who's going to talk all things Masters. But first a
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Speaker 1: This should be one of a couple podcasts with Jeff
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Speaker 1: a beat with the Masters. So this is the first
Speaker 1: of a couple podcasts with Jeff this week where we
Speaker 1: talk mostly about his experience playing in the Masters.
Speaker 2: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 2: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in.
Speaker 1: A bright egg Frida Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida
Speaker 1: Egg Egg Egg Egg, bright Egg, Lie I'm about ready
Speaker 1: to run off the course. First, you're here not playing.
Speaker 1: What's the difference in playing versus attending that you've noticed
Speaker 1: so far?
Speaker 2: Uh? Well, yesterday was my first day. Asked the golf
Speaker 2: course Monday and stood under the tree, like and you
Speaker 2: forever the thing that you miss when you play this torment.
Speaker 2: Every time you come, you have twelve friends, twelve guests
Speaker 2: because everyone takes your tickets and you're organizing the ticket
Speaker 2: drop offs and all that, and everybody is excited. And
Speaker 2: every night you get back to the house, everybody tells
Speaker 2: you about how good a date the Masters is. And
Speaker 2: all you've been doing is worrying about how you're hitting
Speaker 2: it and trying to like kind of stay under the radar,
Speaker 2: if you like, Does that make sense? And every day
Speaker 2: you walk through the clubhouse. I don't mean anybody who's
Speaker 2: been to the Masters would work this out, but the
Speaker 2: locker room, you come out of the clubhouse, you walk
Speaker 2: under this big, famous old tree from the clubhouse, between
Speaker 2: the clubhouse and the first tea and you go to
Speaker 2: the pudding green and then you're tee off. You're walking
Speaker 2: through that area trying to not catch anyone's attention because
Speaker 2: you're playing the tournament right head down. I don't want
Speaker 2: to talk to anyone, even though everybody I know in
Speaker 2: the golf world is here. I'm looking at my shoes
Speaker 2: and the way of the putting green. I'm going to
Speaker 2: play because I can't afford distraction, really, And so you
Speaker 2: miss the Masters in that respect, the Masters that everybody
Speaker 2: who doesn't play the tournament. You miss that experience of
Speaker 2: catching up with everybody having a nice tea under the tree,
Speaker 2: having a permentation sandwich or whatever your thing is. Like,
Speaker 2: you don't get any of that when you play the
Speaker 2: tournament because you're just playing a tournament. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's the Masters and it's amazing, but you experience it
Speaker 2: completely from a different perspective because you're concerned about how
Speaker 2: you're playing. Like yesterday it was amazing, and you see,
Speaker 2: I just watched the players walk under the tree head
Speaker 2: down and like try to get past all the journalists
Speaker 2: and the friends and stuff, and I'm like that used
Speaker 2: to be me, And it's kind of nice to just
Speaker 2: catch up with people that I hadn't seen for a
Speaker 2: long time. There's sort of people I would have liked
Speaker 2: to have hung out and talked with when I was
Speaker 2: playing the tournament and I couldn't. Now I can, So
Speaker 2: it was from that respect it was interesting and seeing
Speaker 2: just a whole lot less. There's a level of anxiety
Speaker 2: when you play something like this good anxiety, like nervous
Speaker 2: tension or whatever it is. And the focus the whole
Speaker 2: week is sleep and diet and feeling good and getting
Speaker 2: your game and thing. And now it's like, well, if
Speaker 2: someone's having an extra glass of wine at dinner or
Speaker 2: you have another one, right because you get as I said,
Speaker 2: I'm getting to enjoy the Master's week for what it
Speaker 2: is as opposed to having any concern about playing. So
Speaker 2: from that respect, it's fun, but it's still making me
Speaker 2: a bit jealous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I noticed here is like when I
Speaker 1: come down here, if I it's hard because I have
Speaker 1: to write, It's it's similar. It's not similar at all, actually,
Speaker 1: but where I have to write and do all this
Speaker 1: stuff all week. But you could be out and talking
Speaker 1: to people and networking the whole time. But it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I still have to write stuff. I would love to
Speaker 1: hang out here all night, but I got stuff to
Speaker 1: do at home. How would you say your routine changed
Speaker 1: from the first time you played two thousand and six
Speaker 1: till that till the last time you played twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: It evolved a little bit. I mean, I think the
Speaker 2: first time you play, you hear when they open the
Speaker 2: gates some Monday morning, like whatever it is. And actually
Speaker 2: one of the most incredible things for player the experience
Speaker 2: you can have you because we can get in the
Speaker 2: gate before the gates open, so you go into the
Speaker 2: locker room, you have your breakfast, and the locker room
Speaker 2: is where we have breakfast. It looks out over the
Speaker 2: first tee and down that old range and down the
Speaker 2: eighteenth and across to the second green. You have that
Speaker 2: beautiful view across the golf course and you have your
Speaker 2: coffee and you have your eggs, and you kind of
Speaker 2: you can step out on the balcony as the gates
Speaker 2: open and you see the swarm of humans go across
Speaker 2: the golf course, not running doing that augusta not running
Speaker 2: thing right with all their chairs, and it's just one
Speaker 2: of the best experiences in golf. Like it's kind of
Speaker 2: maybe misty in the morning, and it's like it's like
Speaker 2: it's out of a book, a novel. You get the
Speaker 2: whole course was full in about five minutes, even though
Speaker 2: they're not running right. So the first year I was
Speaker 2: here at that time every day like just get beat.
Speaker 2: I couldn't spend enough time with the golf course. And gradually,
Speaker 2: over the time you start realizing that, hey, look, you
Speaker 2: can't actually be a total Masters fan and play well
Speaker 2: in it as well, you know. So I'd yeah, Monday,
Speaker 2: I'd come up at ten, and I would I ended
Speaker 2: up instead of playing eighteen eighteen eighteen in the practice rounds,
Speaker 2: I would play like nine on Monday, maybe eighteen on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: maybe a little nine on the back, nine on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: And energy preservation became number one because you could very
Speaker 2: easy to just blow it all out of the water
Speaker 2: in the first two or three days because you're just
Speaker 2: so pumped to be here, and you spend all day
Speaker 2: on the range and all day on the punt and green.
Speaker 2: You just want to be at the Masters, right that.
Speaker 2: Gradually the shine never wears off this tournament, but it
Speaker 2: does a little bit in the respect. After a few
Speaker 2: years you get to treat it just like a normal
Speaker 2: tournament again, and that's when you can start playing well.
Speaker 2: I guess. So that's what it changed. I just the
Speaker 2: golf fan. After you've been in the gates twenty or
Speaker 2: thirty times and you've played the course a lot and
Speaker 2: it's not new anymore, I started treating it a little
Speaker 2: bit more sensibly, I would guess.
Speaker 1: Would you attribute some of that kind of nervous energy
Speaker 1: of that, treating it not like any other tournament to
Speaker 1: why typically first time or struggle here.
Speaker 2: I would think, I mean, it's like Disneyland for a
Speaker 2: grown up, right, if you're a golf fan, I mean
Speaker 2: it's and you've waited your whole life. And there's a
Speaker 2: bit of a superstition amongst good golfers that golfers who
Speaker 2: think they're ever going to play well in the Masters
Speaker 2: or go to the Masters don't want to come here
Speaker 2: until they're in the Masters. Like it's kind of a thing,
Speaker 2: which is weird to me, but I would have been
Speaker 2: a little bit the same. So you hold it in
Speaker 2: such a steam, such a high regard that it's hard
Speaker 2: to just not be like a kid at Disneyland that
Speaker 2: first couple of years. So it's what a tournament. It's
Speaker 2: just such a mystique about it, and you've actually you've
Speaker 2: got no sense of what the place is going to
Speaker 2: be like you think you know exactly what it's going
Speaker 2: to look like, but you're so excited to get in
Speaker 2: the gates, and you get in the gates and you're
Speaker 2: just looking at everything. First year, it's just an amazing
Speaker 2: experience the first couple of times. Every time it's an
Speaker 2: amazing experience, but the first couple of times it's a
Speaker 2: completely mind blowing and incredible and everybody's happy. The spectators
Speaker 2: are happy, like everybody's having the best day of their
Speaker 2: life when they first go to the Master's right, and
Speaker 2: it's just incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, the people that work like the geates are
Speaker 1: the nicest people of any sworrying event I've ever been to.
Speaker 1: Like usually you're like walking through the gates of saying
Speaker 1: in a football game and everybody's barking at you. Here
Speaker 1: they're just like smiling, have a nice day, have a
Speaker 1: nice day. It is different than everything everything else. Did
Speaker 1: you have any superstitions about Masters playing?
Speaker 2: Not really, No, I'm not ever been a superstitious guy.
Speaker 2: I think it's just learning the week and learning your
Speaker 2: way around the kind of the best way to manage yourself.
Speaker 2: And as I said, time, it's very easy to spend
Speaker 2: nine hours at a golf course, it's something like this,
Speaker 2: and it's way too long, right, because you come out
Speaker 2: and you spend a little bit too long on the
Speaker 2: range because all the manufacturers floating around and all that.
Speaker 2: Anybody who's anybody in golf is here this week, and
Speaker 2: they all want to be associated and be standing next
Speaker 2: to the players and talk to them, and like everybody
Speaker 2: wants to kind of be on the inn in the masters, right,
Speaker 2: So it's really easy to get out here at seven
Speaker 2: or eight and leave it six every day because you
Speaker 2: just kind of want to be out here and you
Speaker 2: get kind of distracted and caught up in the whole thing.
Speaker 2: No superstisions. I just had to get a bit more
Speaker 2: disciplined about doing my thing, you know, like, and that
Speaker 2: takes a couple of years, I think, to just do
Speaker 2: your thing. So first time, it's also the first time.
Speaker 2: I think. The course is very The course forces you.
Speaker 2: It makes you nervous one because of what it is.
Speaker 2: But even if you just came here for a if
Speaker 2: it was a muni and you came and just dropped
Speaker 2: from balls, it's a nervous making course because there's trouble
Speaker 2: everywhere and there's some crazy places to miss it, and
Speaker 2: they're difficult shots that you can only play well if
Speaker 2: you're not nervous, but the course makes you nervous. It's
Speaker 2: kind of the genius of the course. So it does
Speaker 2: take quite a long time of hitting these shots to realize.
Speaker 2: Like the second shot to fifteen, then everybody knows it's
Speaker 2: the most ridiculous shot. You would never take it on
Speaker 2: anywhere else in the world, but you have to take
Speaker 2: it on here. And it takes it ten times of
Speaker 2: hitting that shot to free up and put a real
Speaker 2: free swing on it, because when you're hitting it, you
Speaker 2: know you shouldn't be hitting it, but you just have
Speaker 2: to hit it anyway. That for the first time is
Speaker 2: the hardest thing. I think putting proper swings on twelve
Speaker 2: and putting a proper swing on it on fifteen, and
Speaker 2: like really difficult shots, you know, four irons from downslopes
Speaker 2: into the tenth Green, which probably don't hit four irons
Speaker 2: very much anymore, but it's really not a very big green,
Speaker 2: like it really isn't from the ball way above your
Speaker 2: feet and way on a downslope. It's a hard shot anyway,
Speaker 2: and if you miss it left, you make a double
Speaker 2: and if you miss it right, you'll probably make a bogie.
Speaker 2: And the only way you'll hit it on the green
Speaker 2: is if you put a free, not nervous, completely loose
Speaker 2: kind of swing on it. That's really difficult to do
Speaker 2: the first time.
Speaker 1: I think that's a genius of the whole design. Though
Speaker 1: it's like a lot the downslope long iron into ten.
Speaker 1: It's a long par four. Your fifteen handicap isn't thinking
Speaker 1: about that. They're just like they can make an easy
Speaker 1: five there.
Speaker 2: I think sure. The true genius of this course, like
Speaker 2: pretty much all the best causes in the world except
Speaker 2: for maybe like PV and Oakmont, is that the worst
Speaker 2: you are, the easier it is almost the better you
Speaker 2: are harder. It is like it brings the eighteen handicapper
Speaker 2: and the scratch handed cap a really close together. Augusta,
Speaker 2: Like an eightien handicap guy could break ninety every day,
Speaker 2: who's life here if he played it sensibly and smart
Speaker 2: once you kind of worked it out a little bit.
Speaker 2: But the scratch handicap to break par that's tough because
Speaker 2: you've got to hit some really brave shots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the challenges get are subtle in the sense that
Speaker 1: the eighteen handicap doesn't even know how hard the shot
Speaker 1: they're looking at is. But the batter you are than
Speaker 1: the harder the shot is. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Almost the more advanced the shot you want to hit,
Speaker 2: the harder it is. The second shot ND. Nine, it's
Speaker 2: complete genius, the night till right, negative canbers, reverse Cambers,
Speaker 2: I should say. So the ball is below your feet
Speaker 2: on a shot you want h a draw, and it's
Speaker 2: very hard to hit it in a good spot on
Speaker 2: the ninth green without hitting a draw. But the ball
Speaker 2: is significantly below your feet and a significant downslope.
Speaker 1: Which is because of the pitch of the green, because of.
Speaker 2: The pitch at the angle of the green and the
Speaker 2: pitch of the slope. The slope is making you want
Speaker 2: to hit a low fade. Yeah, and almost the only
Speaker 2: shot you can hit from the ninth fairway is a
Speaker 2: low fade. But the only way you can hit the
Speaker 2: green is hit a high draw. So and that is
Speaker 2: something you can't capture until you actually try to do that.
Speaker 2: And that's all over the course. Like thirteen, it's a
Speaker 2: drawer off the tee, But the only real sensible way
Speaker 2: to hit the second shot is a fade. But you're
Speaker 2: trying to fade it with the ball significantly above your feet,
Speaker 2: like six inches above you a long way like surprise,
Speaker 2: people would be very surprised at how far aby your
Speaker 2: feet the ball is on thirteen and so it's for
Speaker 2: the average guy who's not going for the thirteenth green,
Speaker 2: it's actually an easy stance. The ball above your feet
Speaker 2: and carriages a drawer. You just aim it out to
Speaker 2: the right. You've got one hundred yards a fairway your
Speaker 2: wedge on the green. You're like, I don't see what
Speaker 2: all the problem is. But for the guy who's trying
Speaker 2: to hit a four on the green with a ballway
Speaker 2: above his feet, you have to hang it out over
Speaker 2: the water because the stance is making you start the
Speaker 2: ballder the right and all you want to do is
Speaker 2: start the border to the left, but you can't. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's a really and fourteen. It's kind of you
Speaker 2: want to draw it, but the balls below your feet,
Speaker 2: it's all around.
Speaker 1: The course's thirteen to two. With a long iron that
Speaker 1: lie typically draws less than you expect it to too.
Speaker 1: Always like you're always surprised at how little it druk
Speaker 1: because like it's the same thing with a lab wedge,
Speaker 1: it goes way left because the laft.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's it's ingenious in that sense. Do you
Speaker 1: think that's why form coming into the Masters is so
Speaker 1: important because you have to be so daled inn at
Speaker 1: you know, you go through these grooves where you're swinging
Speaker 1: really well or then you're a little off. And does
Speaker 1: that those uneven lies and those difficult shots really accentuate
Speaker 1: who's who's striking it well and who's you know, maybe
Speaker 1: in between swing thafts.
Speaker 2: I think, And definitely it's a form course. You have
Speaker 2: to be and I said, i'd like mentally, so you
Speaker 2: have to be swinging it free. You have to believe
Speaker 2: in what you're doing. You don't have to. You shouldn't
Speaker 2: be trying to force a drawer down ten to eleven
Speaker 2: and thirteen off the tee because if you're forcing a
Speaker 2: drawer usually struggling to hit a draw right with that
Speaker 2: drawer to be coming out nicely off the tad like,
Speaker 2: so you can swing it free and not have to
Speaker 2: worry about it. And those free swings, as I said,
Speaker 2: like second shots like ten and thirteen and nine and
Speaker 2: sixteen on that front right pin and fifteen the second shot.
Speaker 2: And I mean, all these shots out there, you can
Speaker 2: only hit them if you're loose. Yet the course and
Speaker 2: the atmosphere and the course with the trouble you can be,
Speaker 2: and the atmosphere of the tournament, and the whole mystique
Speaker 2: and the history and all of your history and the feelings,
Speaker 2: it all makes you apprehensive and nervous. Yeah, the only
Speaker 2: way to play it well is to be loose and free.
Speaker 2: So the guy who's going to be the best at
Speaker 2: getting loose and free is the guy who's been playing
Speaker 2: the best up to that point. I would think, who
Speaker 2: feels the best about his game. And it was like
Speaker 2: a Phil Mickelson paradise, right, because he, if anything, has
Speaker 2: always played loose and free.
Speaker 1: Irrational confidence almost.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you kind of have to be like
Speaker 2: irrationally confident. And we've seen them in some incredibly great
Speaker 2: players struggle out here just because they're either not in
Speaker 2: form or the shots just don't fit their eye. The
Speaker 2: thing is, the shots don't fit anybody's eye. A lot
Speaker 2: of them, as I said that, they're counter of the
Speaker 2: slopes are going the wrong way for the shape or
Speaker 2: it was very very cleverly laid out this course, probably
Speaker 2: with a little bit of luck involved too, that the
Speaker 2: serender it as placement of everything. It just worked out.
Speaker 2: You have to be really confident, and the putting is
Speaker 2: I would go against what everybody says that here relatively
Speaker 2: easy if you're putting well once you learn the greens.
Speaker 2: The greens are so perfect if you get it online.
Speaker 2: It goes in once you work out the slopes, which
Speaker 2: are a little bit weird and extreme, like the slopes
Speaker 2: are extreme. Once you get realized that there's six foot
Speaker 2: it's actually not that hard a part. You just have
Speaker 2: to start at two feet outside the left. But the
Speaker 2: thing does funnel into the hole if you do start
Speaker 2: in the right place. Once you work the putting it
Speaker 2: if you're confident with your putting, you can make a
Speaker 2: lot of parts. But if you're if you're not confident
Speaker 2: with your putting, you're going to get that Ernie El's
Speaker 2: thing on the first green. And I've had a couple
Speaker 2: of years where I've been off with my putting here
Speaker 2: and it's just get me off the course. I don't
Speaker 2: want to hit these parts. It's just too scary because
Speaker 2: you can't guarantee the next one is going to go
Speaker 2: in because they're so.
Speaker 1: Fast, they actually have the slope and the speed, which
Speaker 1: is rare because most of the time, if their speed,
Speaker 1: they're not going to put it in the spars that
Speaker 1: they put.
Speaker 2: It in it no, And I think the advantage they've
Speaker 2: got is they've had this tournament for so long that
Speaker 2: they know their golf course so well that when the
Speaker 2: USGAS to pick on the USGA just for a second,
Speaker 2: their greens don't really get I mean, they probably get
Speaker 2: a little bit bumpy and beaten up because of the
Speaker 2: courses that they're playing on and the amount of play too,
Speaker 2: at amount of playing how much they've forcing them to
Speaker 2: get fast here, they're not force them to get faster.
Speaker 2: It is naturally fast, and they've got all year with
Speaker 2: no traffic to do that. But they've had seventy or
Speaker 2: eighty years to realize that. You know what, when the
Speaker 2: greens are at fourteen or whatever, they are tournament speed.
Speaker 2: When we put the pin there, it's perfect, but you
Speaker 2: move at six inches the other way, it's not going
Speaker 2: to work. And almost every hole they have so wired
Speaker 2: that they have greens that are probably in a lot
Speaker 2: of respects completely out just not playable. In some respects,
Speaker 2: but they know those little patches on the greens where
Speaker 2: they can play it, where they're actually playable, and so
Speaker 2: that that's the advantage of having the tournament at the
Speaker 2: same course every year. They've got it so dialed in
Speaker 2: and so worked out that they never get it wrong,
Speaker 2: and it would be so easy to get wrong. They
Speaker 2: set up of this course, the greens, at least the pimpositions,
Speaker 2: but they never get it wrong. They've completely got it right,
Speaker 2: and no one walks off thinking those pins were outrageous ever.
Speaker 2: But if they were some in some cases a foot
Speaker 2: or six or twelve inches in a different spot, they
Speaker 2: would have been completely unplayable. But they just get it right.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Last year, it was amazing. I was out late one
Speaker 1: afternoon last year and I was watching the whole competition
Speaker 1: committee out there setting up pins, and it was it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about, like, how the USGA and my
Speaker 1: mind does it. I don't know, but I mean, there
Speaker 1: was like twenty five guys out there, and all of
Speaker 1: them were hitting parts from all different directions to like
Speaker 1: the spots that they were looking at. And I think
Speaker 1: that they, like you said, they know it so well,
Speaker 1: and then they they take so many precautions with like
Speaker 1: the setup, like they were looking at a cup like
Speaker 1: I saw them like moving the cup from four inches
Speaker 1: left to four inches right, and you could see them
Speaker 1: putting like. I mean, I sat there for they were
Speaker 1: on the second green for thirty minutes and I sat there.
Speaker 1: I was just watching them. I took like one hundred pictures.
Speaker 1: I never used them because I was like, what am
Speaker 1: I going to use these for? But it was it
Speaker 1: was really interesting to watch them them put put together
Speaker 1: the course. So you never missed a cut at the Masters.
Speaker 2: Nah, that's a pretty good little stat.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't be many guys that play made
Speaker 1: a significant amount of them and it suits.
Speaker 2: Look, I was I always played well where I wanted
Speaker 2: to play well, if that makes sense now, That not
Speaker 2: just I mean like you enjoyed playing, enjoyed the big things.
Speaker 2: I always played better in the bigger ones. For some reason.
Speaker 2: I get little tournaments I'd play awful. I just whatever.
Speaker 2: For whatever reason, the course suited me. The putting here
Speaker 2: is very similar to putting at Roll Melbourne or on
Speaker 2: the sand Belt, big sweeping breaks and having six footers
Speaker 2: at break from two feet outside of the hole. Is
Speaker 2: is not abnormal in Melbourne or at Royal Melbourne especially,
Speaker 2: that's kind of abnormal at a lot of places. You know,
Speaker 2: not a lot of people grow up with crazy fast
Speaker 2: bent greens that if you miss it low it goes
Speaker 2: twelve feet past. Like that's growing up in Melbourne, so
Speaker 2: you really naturally my misses would just I would put
Speaker 2: bad swings on it, but would always be a bad
Speaker 2: swing under the whole, Like it's just the way you
Speaker 2: grow up. You don't short side yourself. You go under
Speaker 2: the hole in Melbourne, otherwise you just you're going to
Speaker 2: have a bad day and it becomes part of your
Speaker 2: instinct or you feel. So there was that the putting
Speaker 2: didn't take. It suited my feeling about putting, Like the way.
Speaker 1: You look in vision as a putt was where when
Speaker 1: you have a big sloper you brought in it was
Speaker 1: fast when you probably understood how to use the slope
Speaker 1: to slow it down.
Speaker 2: It just matched my eye. Whereas we go to the
Speaker 2: slow green flat place, flat green play, we go to
Speaker 2: the bob Hope and they're not slow, they're perfect right
Speaker 2: and the desert but they're dead flat and you've got
Speaker 2: these twenty foot is from right edge, Oh hopeless. I
Speaker 2: couldn't never, And a lot of other guys out there
Speaker 2: are making everything because they seem really easy, like straight
Speaker 2: puts from twenty feet, But for me, I needed a
Speaker 2: to when I got two feet break from twenty feet
Speaker 2: like Capellura, I played great. That was the same big
Speaker 2: sweeping breaks.
Speaker 1: So it's funny I grew up playing a course with
Speaker 1: like big breaks like the greens were very undulating, and
Speaker 1: I always struggle playing courses with really subtle breaks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really to this day, I struggle with a
Speaker 2: straight twenty foot I'd much rather a twenty foot of
Speaker 2: that broke two feet. Yeah, it's funny, it's I guess
Speaker 2: it's just your natural eye. It's like I struggle with
Speaker 2: pitching on soft greens too. I struggle flying a pitch
Speaker 2: shot to the hole because I grew up having to
Speaker 2: land pitch shots twenty or thirty feet short to have
Speaker 2: them skip and roll up because of the firm greens.
Speaker 2: As much as I practiced my pitching, I still still
Speaker 2: my brain could never fly a pitch shot to the whole,
Speaker 2: really have trouble with it unless there was a bunker
Speaker 2: short of the like unless I had to, but that
Speaker 2: I just wanted to play well. Here I happened to
Speaker 2: be playing well my first I was in a sweet
Speaker 2: spot of form, Like usually when you start getting in
Speaker 2: the Masters, you've been playing pretty well, you've been winning
Speaker 2: two events, so you're top fifteen in the world. I
Speaker 2: was in form and leading up to like that was
Speaker 2: in the period that I was. I started well, won
Speaker 2: the US Over and some WG seas and stuff, so
Speaker 2: I was playing it in the right.
Speaker 1: I noted in my career, I noticed that like a
Speaker 1: couple of years you were in unbelievable for him coming
Speaker 1: in one year you won the match play and then
Speaker 1: second at the Houston Open. I was surprised. I didn't
Speaker 1: remember if two thousand and six was your first one
Speaker 1: then you won your next major at the US Open.
Speaker 1: I was, you know, twenty eleven, you were in the
Speaker 1: thick of it and the back nine. Is there another
Speaker 1: one where you were like were you think think back
Speaker 1: to maybe a stretch of four or five holes or
Speaker 1: a nine that you're like, God, if it hadn't been
Speaker 1: for this, it would have.
Speaker 2: Been you know, Zack Johnson's year two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: it was like the most horrific weather ever. And it's
Speaker 2: hard to imagine this week because it's kind of humid
Speaker 2: and stall me right, But it was in the thirties
Speaker 2: most of the week, especially Saturday, it was blowing forty
Speaker 2: and thirty four degreeses. I mean, I mean, it was
Speaker 2: just outrageously cold and windy and difficult. And I think
Speaker 2: Zach ended up winning what one under one over or something.
Speaker 2: But that year I was I'd got about I think
Speaker 2: I was about two or three back on fifteen on Saturday,
Speaker 2: like a pretty good shape right, two or three back,
Speaker 2: with twenty two holes to play. I lay it up
Speaker 2: and this was one of my lessons that I had
Speaker 2: to learn the hard way. I laid it up on
Speaker 2: because it was straight into the wind and you couldn't
Speaker 2: get to fifteen, or I couldn't. I don't think anyone
Speaker 2: did that day. I laid it up on the right
Speaker 2: with a pin on the left that left low pin
Speaker 2: on the left, because I figured, well, you laid it
Speaker 2: up to the right for a left pin, and I
Speaker 2: did that classic lands right on the front, skips up,
Speaker 2: spins into the water, drop again, skips up, drops in
Speaker 2: the water. I made nine, and then I think I
Speaker 2: had a couple of bogies coming in it at like
Speaker 2: seven or eight behind really with eighteen holes, and completely
Speaker 2: ruined the tournament on that moment. And I don't know
Speaker 2: if I would have won, but I was in the
Speaker 2: mix with twenty two holes to play, and with twenty
Speaker 2: one holes to play, I was completely out of it.
Speaker 2: You know, that was a really I had an opportunity.
Speaker 2: I was playing really well on a tough day.
Speaker 1: You came into that year really great for him too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was playing really well, and that was kind
Speaker 2: of the period. I'd won the US Open the year before,
Speaker 2: and I was like feeling it in the majors and
Speaker 2: every major I'd played since, I felt more and more comfortable.
Speaker 2: And it was just one of those moments, and like
Speaker 2: everybody has one of them at Augusta. Most people, if
Speaker 2: you play here for long enough, you have five of
Speaker 2: those moments, right, And it taught me that fifteen at least,
Speaker 2: you have to lay it up as far left as
Speaker 2: you can, because then your pitch shot, if from the right,
Speaker 2: you're landing it on a down slope because the Greeners
Speaker 2: really effectively slopes from front right to back left, if
Speaker 2: that makes sense. It's almost a doubt that makes sense. Almost.
Speaker 2: So your wedge from the right is taking such a
Speaker 2: big first bounce that that's why we see all these
Speaker 2: wedges at land near the pin and just go one
Speaker 2: bounce over the back. But when you're on the very
Speaker 2: left edge of the fairway, you're landing it on quite
Speaker 2: an extreme upslope and you can just bail it out
Speaker 2: twenty feet right of the pin and actually spin it
Speaker 2: back towards the pin from left and it's a flat
Speaker 2: of light. But anyway, that wasn't really because I just
Speaker 2: needed to be really conservative for my wedge and hit
Speaker 2: it to forty feet and realized that today's a good
Speaker 2: day to make five on fifteen, and I didn't. I
Speaker 2: tried to bite off more than I could chew and
Speaker 2: got stubborn on the second one and tried to do
Speaker 2: it again, made a nine and ruined the tournament. But
Speaker 2: that one left a bad taste in my mouth. Twenty
Speaker 2: eleven I left. I mean, I was tied for the
Speaker 2: lead on seventeen. On Sunday seventeen ten and n burdied
Speaker 2: like a bunch of holes in a row playing with
Speaker 2: Freddy on Sunday, and we both hit at stiff on sixteen,
Speaker 2: and it was just outrageous, like it just the most
Speaker 2: amazing moment ever. Crowd didn't sit down from when Freddie
Speaker 2: and I hit it close on sixteen, both those cool
Speaker 2: ones up on the slope and they were rolling down
Speaker 2: like looking like holing ones from the team. They didn't
Speaker 2: sit down until we got to the seventeenth t because
Speaker 2: it's Freddie, right, yeah, and we both made Bertie and
Speaker 2: Tiger had set the day up by making thirty, shooting
Speaker 2: thirty on the front and people were burning everywhere and
Speaker 2: Schwartzel was holding shots and I was time lad on
Speaker 2: seventeen part of the last two and lost by four.
Speaker 2: Adam made a couple of birdies and he was two
Speaker 2: in front with two to play part of the last
Speaker 2: two and lost by two. Schwartzeor just went and birdie
Speaker 2: the last four holes. It was just the most outrageous tournament.
Speaker 2: And that was the Sunday with the most raws and
Speaker 2: the most noise that it was like, wow, this is
Speaker 2: a special, special tournament. Yeah, so that one I didn't
Speaker 2: leave with any regrets at all because I played great
Speaker 2: and whatever. But seven times you.
Speaker 1: Played great and you yeah, that's like the goth you know, and.
Speaker 2: There was ten guys who felt like they should have
Speaker 2: won that tournament, you know, when Schwartzell was probably one
Speaker 2: of the ones that no one He was just another
Speaker 2: one man. I think Adam and Jason Tiger and a
Speaker 2: bunch of guys were up there with.
Speaker 1: A chance that back nine feel, especially you're playing with
Speaker 1: Freddy and the roars. Is there anything else in goth
Speaker 1: that's ever come close to that?
Speaker 2: No, not even close. I mean there's some of those
Speaker 2: fun holes on tour, like Phoenix. Obviously if you hit
Speaker 2: one close and I've made some long puts on sixteen
Speaker 2: and that's louder probably that's kind of fun, but that's
Speaker 2: fun in a goofy kind of carnival way. You know.
Speaker 2: This is the build up to this tournament is so immense,
Speaker 2: and it goes for so long. It really goes from
Speaker 2: the PGA right traditionally. I mean, there's people are thinking
Speaker 2: about this for a really long time, and especially from
Speaker 2: January onwards. It's Golf Channel and the magazines and the journalists.
Speaker 2: They're all talking about the Masters and the Masters and
Speaker 2: the Masters, and it's maybe the first golf tournament a
Speaker 2: lot of people in the country or the well watched
Speaker 2: for the year. It's just such a big deal. And
Speaker 2: Tiger goes out and shoots thirty on the front after
Speaker 2: he hadn't won for a while, and it was like
Speaker 2: kind of that period that was had been rough for Tiger,
Speaker 2: and that just set the crowd up and it was
Speaker 2: so loud, and then it was you just heard. There's
Speaker 2: five or six significant leaderboards that the masters for anyone
Speaker 2: haven't been there, those old school ones where they pull
Speaker 2: it down and they flip the number up and everybody
Speaker 2: always reacts to it. But you hear theose little reactions
Speaker 2: here and there, and when you're putting on we're hitting
Speaker 2: off on the twelfth tee, sometimes you hear it the
Speaker 2: one on eleven get locked up and Phil's made a
Speaker 2: birdie and everyone kind of, oh, that's cool. But this
Speaker 2: was like out and out raws every time the leaderboard
Speaker 2: got changed, and you could hear, oh, that's the one
Speaker 2: on eleven, just saw that Tiger made eagle. Oh that's
Speaker 2: the one on fifteen that just Tiger just made an eagle,
Speaker 2: And you could hear the reaction from his eagle. You
Speaker 2: heard the real eagle, and then you heard the echoes
Speaker 2: of his eagle three or four times across the course
Speaker 2: in the next two minutes. It was just I can't
Speaker 2: even describe it. I mean, everybody in the gate that day,
Speaker 2: on that day would have just they had a good day.
Speaker 2: It was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: That's the cool thing with Augusta with the no phone,
Speaker 1: is that, especially now, it's a throwback. Where as a player,
Speaker 1: it's probably different too because there's not real time leader
Speaker 1: boards all over the place. Were you a leaderboard watcher
Speaker 1: when you were in the thick of it.
Speaker 2: I didn't study leaderboards, but I always knew what was
Speaker 2: going on. I had to know what was going on.
Speaker 2: I didn't study names or scores, but I always thought
Speaker 2: it was valuable knowledge to know or look, everybody's bogied fourteen.
Speaker 2: There must be something weird about that, like just pay
Speaker 2: extra attention. So I always thought there was an advantage
Speaker 2: to knowing that, an advantage. Sometimes you feel like it's
Speaker 2: really tough and that everybody's making birdies on the leaderboards.
Speaker 2: Well maybe I'm not playing for it. It was a
Speaker 2: measure about how you were playing too sometimes, so I
Speaker 2: watched leaderboards. But it's different here, but you still know
Speaker 2: what's going on. It separates the field a little bit.
Speaker 2: It's usually not like a regulator, and there's twenty guys
Speaker 2: on Sundays sometimes that can win, and you really have
Speaker 2: to try to play well, and it's just a complete
Speaker 2: kind of shambles and it doesn't really take shape until
Speaker 2: the last few holes, right, because there's people playing well everywhere,
Speaker 2: but this one you've got a pretty good sense of
Speaker 2: who the major players were in the tournament. There's a
Speaker 2: guy two groups in front, and you know who's in it.
Speaker 2: And there's a guy the group behind you. You know
Speaker 2: who's in it, and you can kind of hear the
Speaker 2: roars and feel how he's playing. And you know, I
Speaker 2: don't think you've missed out on information as a player
Speaker 2: here just because no digital leaderboards. But it's you're right,
Speaker 2: it's for everything annoying, Like we all come to the
Speaker 2: Masters and get annoyed about the old school policies with
Speaker 2: the no phones and it's frustrating. It's so much better.
Speaker 2: It's a throwback to a better period, right, Yeah, the
Speaker 2: cheap food and the no phones. And I'll meet you
Speaker 2: at twelve o'clock under the tree over there on the
Speaker 2: second green, and so I mean it's just it's nice.
Speaker 2: It's just a nice kind of throwback to like probably
Speaker 2: a better time to watch the sporting event in some ways.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, the I mean they have to instad now.
Speaker 1: You see everybody with their phones out and they aren't
Speaker 1: even watching. They're like getting a video to watch later.
Speaker 1: I always find it funny. It happens at concerts too.
Speaker 1: I said to it. I went to a concert the
Speaker 1: other day. I said to my wife, I was like,
Speaker 1: a take it to video. I'm like, this is a
Speaker 1: video I'll never watch again in my life, you know,
Speaker 1: yeah what.
Speaker 2: Am I doing?
Speaker 1: And the same thing happens at the events. And I
Speaker 1: think with like, there are some clubs that don't allow
Speaker 1: cell phones now and I'm always annoyed when I pull in,
Speaker 1: but then I leave my phone in the car and
Speaker 1: I like have the best day on the golf course
Speaker 1: that I have. You know, a few times a year
Speaker 1: that I go to those places. It's like that's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It's like those are I think they hit on something
Speaker 1: with that, with the tradition, and everybody gets annoyed by
Speaker 1: tradition if it inconveniences them, but then they realize, like
Speaker 1: Oh man, this is really good. How often would you
Speaker 1: come down to augusta non tournament weeks.
Speaker 2: I always came once every time I played. I think
Speaker 2: every time I played. I came once before the tournament,
Speaker 2: usually bouncing out of the Florida Swing, the old school
Speaker 2: Florida Swing usually finished about three weeks before the Masters.
Speaker 2: We'd play like, yeah, wherever we finish Tampa or bay
Speaker 2: Hill or something, and I'd be going back to Scottsdale
Speaker 2: for a week, and it's three weeks before the tournament,
Speaker 2: and that would logistically geographically for me, I would just
Speaker 2: come and stop by here, usually arrange with Scotty. I
Speaker 2: did it with a few times, and whoever was going
Speaker 2: back that direction. How you want to stop at August
Speaker 2: and play for a couple of days. I did it
Speaker 2: every single time. To me, that the best privilege about
Speaker 2: getting an invite to the Masters has been able to
Speaker 2: do that because it's the Masters is a special week
Speaker 2: and it's really amazing. But being in this, being having
Speaker 2: access and being allowed to play when there's nobody in
Speaker 2: here is even better. No, It's really incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how much different is the course three weeks before
Speaker 1: than it is for the tournament?
Speaker 2: Wow, there's all the stories about that, like on Wednesday night,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, like Thursday morning, it's all faster
Speaker 2: and stuff, And that's kind of true. The fairways are
Speaker 2: a little bit longer. They're trying to make sure there's
Speaker 2: just plenty of grass and like it's not quite as
Speaker 2: sharpened up I would say, but it's still it's incredible.
Speaker 2: The greens are great. I mean, they might get two
Speaker 2: feet faster tournament week, you.
Speaker 1: Know, pens are a little bit more accessible.
Speaker 2: Pins are accessible, but it's still Augusta and it's very quiet.
Speaker 1: There's always that's got to be weird, right, how quiet
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: It's incredibly quiet. Yeah, it really is. And Magnolia Lane
Speaker 2: is really kind of special that week because it's when
Speaker 2: there's no tournament, because it's very frequent, you're the only
Speaker 2: person to drive. There's only a person drives up at
Speaker 2: once an hour or something, you know, and it's just
Speaker 2: a real kind of it's almost like your own golf club.
Speaker 2: It's a I don't know, it's just a really special thing.
Speaker 2: And you have you have breakfast and they make you
Speaker 2: anything you want, and then you play eighteen and you
Speaker 2: have some lunch and maybe you go play another nine,
Speaker 2: you take an Augusta caddy. You kind of one of
Speaker 2: the dealers. You can come with your cat, but he
Speaker 2: just walks and kind of can take notes. You have
Speaker 2: to take an Augusta caddy outside of the Master this week,
Speaker 2: which is the best thing they do for us, because
Speaker 2: those guys are great. I mean, some of them trying
Speaker 2: to tell you things that you probably already know, which
Speaker 2: is fine, but some of them have got wisdom about
Speaker 2: the course. It's just incredible, and you learn something new
Speaker 2: off them every time. And they've got all they tell
Speaker 2: all a lot of the stories and maybe some of
Speaker 2: the stories they're probably not supposed to tell about the Masters,
Speaker 2: and you kind of you learn a bit of the
Speaker 2: inside gossip from the caddies. And it's just a nice experience.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've usually done it with another tour player
Speaker 2: or two the odd member here and there. It's just
Speaker 2: an incredible It's just a just one of the best
Speaker 2: privileges in golf. If you can get that invite to
Speaker 2: the Masters. You can come here pretty much from when
Speaker 2: you've got the invite. I don't think you could camp here,
Speaker 2: but you come here a couple of times and practice.
Speaker 1: Just move in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you feel like you want to a little bit.
Speaker 2: It's just one of my favorite things in my career
Speaker 2: was coming here early, so I never missed it. I
Speaker 2: always did it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you play your practice rounds typically with the
Speaker 1: same guys or same that you have, like a core
Speaker 1: guys that you did it with and then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not really here maybe on tour a little bit.
Speaker 2: It was the regular tournament. It was my peer group
Speaker 2: that the people my age which I would the names
Speaker 2: that everybody knows. It would be like Justin Rose, Trevor Ummerman,
Speaker 2: Adam Scott, I don't know, Carl Petterson, like all my
Speaker 2: age group that I grew up with all the way
Speaker 2: through amate A Golf, you would usually gravitate towards your
Speaker 2: peer group like everybody else. Right, the Justin Thomas plays
Speaker 2: with Jordan's Beith because they've grown up together and that
Speaker 2: doesn't change in any age group. But the Masters, everyone
Speaker 2: has their own schedule at a major. You know, some
Speaker 2: guys want to play eighteen every day. Some guys want
Speaker 2: to play nine. Go hit balls, go play nine. Some
Speaker 2: guys want to chip and put around the greens for
Speaker 2: forty five minutes on every green. Everybody has a different program.
Speaker 2: I would usually just get to the first tea and
Speaker 2: hope there was an older guy there to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, like someone who'd played here a lot. And
Speaker 2: I played with a lot of fun guys in practice rounds,
Speaker 2: you know, like Ian Wusnam and like Freddie and you'd
Speaker 2: play with Ben Crenchaw for nine holes or I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just anyone who'd been here a lot. I felt
Speaker 2: was you could only just not only ask questions, just
Speaker 2: listen because usually when the experience plays at Augusta, they
Speaker 2: just start talking because it's fun to talk about the
Speaker 2: little stories I've had about I missed it here one
Speaker 2: time I made a seven, or I did this and
Speaker 2: did that. Little stories and you just gradually pick up stuff.
Speaker 2: And I really enjoyed getting to the first team and
Speaker 2: just seeing who was there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is there like a story that one of
Speaker 1: the older guys told you that like clicked made you
Speaker 1: think differently about either a hole or shot or the
Speaker 1: course overall.
Speaker 2: No, but when you come here, the caddies all talk
Speaker 2: about the grain, like and there isn't any grain on
Speaker 2: the greens per se. Wow, there's bent grass has a
Speaker 2: bit of grain, but it's not the grain. It's they
Speaker 2: When they say the word grain, they really mean everything
Speaker 2: breaks towards the twelfth green, really like they're always saying, oh, well,
Speaker 2: it break the grains that way, the grains that way,
Speaker 2: the grains that way. And I didn't work it out forever,
Speaker 2: and then someone I can't remember who it was a
Speaker 2: time me, they said, twelve is the low point eleven Green,
Speaker 2: and twelve is the low point Rays Creek. If in doubt,
Speaker 2: the ball will go that way. And I'd never noticed
Speaker 2: it before that, and you kind of people talk about
Speaker 2: it the kind of the grain thing, and I never
Speaker 2: really clicked for me. But then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I kind of went through it one day and I thought, right,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna work out where twelve is in the
Speaker 2: book like in my head, and just just watch where
Speaker 2: the putt breaks. And it's actually true, like a straight
Speaker 2: a part that looks straight, and most of Augusta will
Speaker 2: kind of want to go that way, doesn't. It's not
Speaker 2: obvious and it's not every part, and it's not so
Speaker 2: blatant that every partner the course breaks that way, but
Speaker 2: it's if in doubt or if it's a part that
Speaker 2: breaks away from twelve, it'll just break away just a
Speaker 2: little bit less than it looks, you know, there's just
Speaker 2: a natural slope that way. And gradually over the years
Speaker 2: of Caddy's drumming it into me and old school players, well,
Speaker 2: of course it breaks that way. It always breaks that way,
Speaker 2: like it's just picking up little throwaway comments for me
Speaker 2: rather than actual out and out advice.
Speaker 1: That makes sense, yeah, it does. So wrapping up, you
Speaker 1: gotta go to the course. I think we might do
Speaker 1: another one of these this week. What's something about Augusta
Speaker 1: or the Masters that so you just gay it on
Speaker 1: the couch watching, doesn't know? That's really cool, one little insider.
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know. Wha They just do everything perfectly well,
Speaker 2: like they do everything better than every other golf tournament,
Speaker 2: from driving in the gate to leaving. There is no
Speaker 2: stone unturned. There's a I don't know, it's just what
Speaker 2: do they not know? Everybody knows everything, don't they. The
Speaker 2: thirteenth tee is the coolest place in professional golf, without
Speaker 2: any doubt. There's not even a close second. It is
Speaker 2: really a special place to be the thirteenth tee. There's
Speaker 2: a restroom on almost every tea at Augusta that you
Speaker 2: don't know is there for the players.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't see you don't see anime, you know,
Speaker 1: and like.
Speaker 2: When you first play it, you're like, there's nowhere to
Speaker 2: go to the toilet, there's too many people, and like
Speaker 2: and then you kind of learn all these there's all
Speaker 2: these little snecret little I mean, that's silly, but that's
Speaker 2: that no stone unturned for the players. There's a little
Speaker 2: hidden bathroom on almost every single tea that's pretty easy
Speaker 2: to access. It's like, wow, just they look after us,
Speaker 2: you know, it's just brilliant.
Speaker 1: And then people looking for them all you won't see them.
Speaker 2: It's a I don't know. And like every it's just
Speaker 2: that they just don't miss anything. They just don't miss
Speaker 2: a beat. I don't know how to every tournament, every organization,
Speaker 2: almost every in the world, they always get something wrong. Right,
Speaker 2: We've always got something to pick out. I can never
Speaker 2: find anything wrong with this place. It's just better and
Speaker 2: better every year. I'll come back this week and I'll
Speaker 2: see if I can come up with some secrets that
Speaker 2: nobody knows. But there's some secrets that Augusta don't want
Speaker 2: people to know too, right, So it's a it's an
Speaker 2: incredible organization, and I believe unless the there's some players
Speaker 2: who probably just the course doesn't fit their eye and
Speaker 2: it rubs them the wrong way a little bit just
Speaker 2: because they don't play well here, so they're a bit
Speaker 2: jaded about the whole thing. But pretty much across the board,
Speaker 2: this is everybody's favorite tournament.
Speaker 1: MC guy, Ernie just unloaded this year. Did you see
Speaker 1: those comments?
Speaker 2: I think I saw.
Speaker 1: I didn't read them specifically, but it's just he had
Speaker 1: so many great chances. I mean, I had a stack
Speaker 1: guy on my other podcast who's done like all the
Speaker 1: Strokes gain analysis, and Ernie like should have won like
Speaker 1: three or four based off of like how he's played
Speaker 1: like he just happened to be in a year where
Speaker 1: he got beat. He played the best final round from
Speaker 1: strokes game perspective of any player ever, and then he
Speaker 1: phil just happened to Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean I think him and Duval are
Speaker 2: the two players, and Greg Norman obviously West. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: Deval he was in the last group I think three
Speaker 2: years in a row and really didn't do much wrong
Speaker 2: and just didn't win. So someone played better and Ernie
Speaker 2: was the same someone just played better. You know that
Speaker 2: has to have a bad taste in your mouth, But
Speaker 2: I promise you Ernie loves his place and everything about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because his nephew is playing this week, which is
Speaker 1: pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he won the he won the Cham British am
Speaker 1: Jovon Rabula. So but who's your pick?
Speaker 2: Well, I would really love to see Rory win. I
Speaker 2: think he's said, regardless of the whole hype about the
Speaker 2: career Grand Slam, I just think he's a good guy
Speaker 2: and I just think it would it suits And if
Speaker 2: Rory doesn't win the Masters, the golf doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: at some point, right. He's just he's a special player
Speaker 2: and he just looks like he should play well here.
Speaker 2: I think Baba has to be right up there with
Speaker 2: the favorites every time you play here. I think loose
Speaker 2: and free, and if he puts well, he's going to
Speaker 2: be in it because it's it's a long hitters left
Speaker 2: it's a left handed, long hitters golf course.
Speaker 1: I heard so the stats guy, the same stass guy,
Speaker 1: said that last year Baba had the greatest driving performance
Speaker 1: ever in a tournament. He drove it as straight as
Speaker 1: longer and as long as Rory, Yeah, picked up like
Speaker 1: seven or eight shots on the field after tea, which is.
Speaker 2: And he'll do that most years here because it's easy
Speaker 2: to fade a driver. Everybody can faded driver, right, I
Speaker 2: mean most people to stop fading their driver. Even pros
Speaker 2: are happy when they can just carve up a driver.
Speaker 2: And that suits here if you can hit it three
Speaker 2: hundred yards with a left handed fade, which is the
Speaker 2: right handed draw problem solved. But that's that's probably the
Speaker 2: long shot, I guess in the current state of affairs.
Speaker 2: I mean, Dustin's Dustin should be the favorite everywhere. He
Speaker 2: plays as good as he is. Tommy Fleetwood, go, that's
Speaker 2: Tommy Fleetwood.
Speaker 1: Thinking about it, how I like all week I've kind
Speaker 1: of been like Fleetwood, there's something.
Speaker 2: And he's a great de He loves hooking it, loves
Speaker 2: in a drawer. It's a big drawer with his driver.
Speaker 2: And Rory is the only other one who hits a
Speaker 2: really big drawer with his driver. Fleetwood and he three
Speaker 2: or four majors. Whenever a guy wins a major, and
Speaker 2: when Danny Willett one here, people were like, well that
Speaker 2: was a bit out of the blue. But it wasn't
Speaker 2: the two or three previous Majors. He'd been kind of
Speaker 2: putting his head in there, and he actually led Saint
Speaker 2: Andrews a lot the year before, two Majors before, he'd
Speaker 2: been in front for a lot of the tournament. Fleetwood's
Speaker 2: been that guy the last kind of two months. Yea,
Speaker 2: like up there in the Majors and they're deeper it
Speaker 2: on Sunday. Best player at the Rider Cup probably or
Speaker 2: one of the best players at the Rider Cup, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think. And he looks like he's got the bottle
Speaker 2: to do it, you know, like the fire and if
Speaker 2: he gets in the mix, Look, he just plays well
Speaker 2: under that big pressure, right, So Fleetwood, that would be great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well, we'll talk to you again this
Speaker 1: week and uh excited to watch. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2: Good stuff, No worries,