Speaker 1: It's kind of a weird, weird problem to have. But
Speaker 1: when you've made all the money you're gonna need for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life, unless your grandchildren's life, then
Speaker 1: what are you really left playing for? In other words,
Speaker 1: the money is a great motivator, But if you've made
Speaker 1: all the money, then all you really have left are
Speaker 1: these titles. And of the titles, the only ones that
Speaker 1: really matter to you are the majors. So then you
Speaker 1: have all this outsized emotion attached to the majors. And
Speaker 1: of course it's a killer.
Speaker 2: I got dats in my head. Can't get join not
Speaker 2: the thing what I'm thinking about. He can't get them
Speaker 2: out join not the thing well I'm thinking about.
Speaker 3: Hello, this is Alan Schipnaka. Welcome back to another Fire
Speaker 3: Drill podcast. It is Sunday evening here at Los Angeles
Speaker 3: Country Club. The one hundred and twenty third US Open
Speaker 3: is in the books Michael Bamberger and I are straight
Speaker 3: from the eighteenth Green watching a Star be born. That
Speaker 3: is that proper English, a star was born. We have
Speaker 3: a new star in Wyndham Clark. I mean what just
Speaker 3: ballsy performance? He played great all week, all week and
Speaker 3: especially today. I mean so many middle of the round,
Speaker 3: it looked like he was gonna lose it completely, and
Speaker 3: he got up and down for you know, bogie after
Speaker 3: making an absolute hash of the par five eighth hole,
Speaker 3: a couple other great saves, and then hit the shot
Speaker 3: of the week on the par five fourteenth, threaded that
Speaker 3: three food in between those bunkers. That's about an eight
Speaker 3: yard gap. You ran it up there for the two
Speaker 3: putt birdie that ultimately gave him the cushion that got
Speaker 3: him home. So, I mean, we were talking about this
Speaker 3: the other day. Has definitely one of my favorite swings
Speaker 3: in golf. He's only twenty eight, clearly ascendant. What do
Speaker 3: you like about this kid?
Speaker 1: A strong as an ox, He's unpretentious, he's sea ball,
Speaker 1: hit ball. Get better at golf from the little I
Speaker 1: picked up on on YouTube. His swing has improved over
Speaker 1: the years. I know he's a good college player, but
Speaker 1: he's way better now. And this is definitely you know,
Speaker 1: I realize he's not a household name to people follow
Speaker 1: golf casually, but he is not a one and done
Speaker 1: by any means. This is not Jack Fleck.
Speaker 3: No, And I mean he's only a second tour win.
Speaker 3: But the last one was on a big league ballpark too.
Speaker 3: Quail Hollow was a Major Championships sure, so, I mean
Speaker 3: not a household name, but he's he's edging that direction.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: There's always that moment kind of maybe I don't really
Speaker 1: feel it right now, where oh, wouldn't have been so
Speaker 1: great if Rory could win he you know, win a Major,
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been especially so great, if Ricky Fowler could
Speaker 1: have finally, you know, but Ricky Fowler is coming back.
Speaker 3: Rory is Rory.
Speaker 1: Uh uh, you know, Scotti Scheffer or Scotti Shaffer. He
Speaker 1: can play bad in top five. Uh So you'd really
Speaker 1: have to say that golf is in a very good place.
Speaker 1: But I think the most significant thing for the casual
Speaker 1: fan is to not be at any way dismissive of
Speaker 1: this Wyndom Clark. You know, I guess he sort of
Speaker 1: comes out of the Steve Jones tradition, who is a
Speaker 1: really fine player, not flashy, not charismatic, but a really
Speaker 1: fine player. And we would have heard more from from
Speaker 1: Steve Jones. Was not for injury. Just looking at this
Speaker 1: guy's physic and only goes about his business. There's no
Speaker 1: you can never predict injury. But he doesn't look like
Speaker 1: somebody is going to go south anytime soon.
Speaker 3: That that's all very well said. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: he's he just seems like a sort of a self contained,
Speaker 3: compact player, you know, it doesn't have huge entourage, and
Speaker 3: and there's that throwback feel, like you said, he keeps
Speaker 3: it simple. The golf swing is simple, his approach is simple.
Speaker 3: And those it's like Scotti Seffler, honestly like those are
Speaker 3: the guys they pretty much just keep going. And I
Speaker 3: mean anytime he went and open, anytime a major, especially
Speaker 3: as a youngest player, like your life is going to change.
Speaker 3: But I can see Clark just being one of those
Speaker 3: guys who's like instead of getting lost in the sauce
Speaker 3: and distracted, like you can be a star just by
Speaker 3: what you do on the golf course. You can make
Speaker 3: generational wealth just by what you do on the golf course.
Speaker 3: You don't have to chase all the other things. You
Speaker 3: don't have to try and be somebody or not. As
Speaker 3: far as I know, he has no social media presence.
Speaker 3: I've never come across it anyway, And he just seems
Speaker 3: like like a focused dude who is going to maximize
Speaker 3: his considerable talent. So that's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's something about majors. We spend so
Speaker 1: much time, and now more than ever in the build
Speaker 1: up talking about people that we already know a lot about.
Speaker 1: We never wo Ben Curtis, who possibly would have been
Speaker 1: talking about Ben Curtis, or Steve Jones or Scott Simpson
Speaker 1: or Larry Nelson. I mean, when Larry Nelson went his
Speaker 1: first one. After that, Larry Nelson was Larry Nelson. But
Speaker 1: that's the nature of majors for anybody. I guess it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of talk to anybody who feels sort
Speaker 1: of quote let down by this major, by this championship,
Speaker 1: don't because that's sort of the beauty of nature's you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, as you know, Mike Donald was a great
Speaker 1: friend of mine. Now Mike was playing great going in
Speaker 1: the US, but nobody expected Mike to be eat tied
Speaker 1: with Hiler I went at the end of seven Q holes.
Speaker 1: But that's what happens in major championship playing. It's part
Speaker 1: of the greatness of the game.
Speaker 3: Actually, I mean, that's beautifully said. And you know, the
Speaker 3: bottom line is Wyndam Clark got it done. He made
Speaker 3: the putts he had to make. He hit the shots
Speaker 3: he had to hit. He got himself out of trouble.
Speaker 3: Like you know, Ricky Fowler, it always felt like it
Speaker 3: was going to be too soon for him. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is he's a work in progress still and to
Speaker 3: tiptoe back from the abyss it felt like it wasn't
Speaker 3: going to be his time. But you know, Ricky Folllers
Speaker 3: shot seventy five today and made a bunch of bogies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just pointed one in the last Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: got a I mean, this is such a cliche, but
Speaker 1: from where he was, you know, is Mentionella noted earlier today,
Speaker 1: you know, not even in the field last year's US Open,
Speaker 1: but still game enough to show up there and see
Speaker 1: if Cougie had in waiting on the range all day.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the kind of grit it takes, and
Speaker 1: that we didn't always know that, We didn't always know
Speaker 1: that Rory had does It looked like, excuse me, Ricky Hacks.
Speaker 1: It looked like things came so easily to him. But
Speaker 1: he does have it, and he's shown it. And you
Speaker 1: can't in mid career make the significant changes he made.
Speaker 1: Parting with the Caddy that you're really close to going
Speaker 1: back to Butch Harmon saying, you know, whatever they said,
Speaker 1: but basically I should have never left in the first place,
Speaker 1: and so he's got to feel he really should feel great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for him, this is a building block
Speaker 3: that you'd have to say this week as a success
Speaker 3: without a doubt. To everyone else on the board other
Speaker 3: than Wyndam Clarket, it's hard to feel that great about
Speaker 3: I mean, Harris English, he hadn't sniffed too many majors,
Speaker 3: so okay, maybe he can build on this. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know him, you know, I mean twenty nine yesterday,
Speaker 3: he's finished his eighth. But I mean, you go down
Speaker 3: the board. We got to talk about Rory because, weirdly,
Speaker 3: even though he was only one shot back at various
Speaker 3: times throughout this round, it never felt like he was
Speaker 3: going to do it. It just never felt like he
Speaker 3: was going to do it. No, even though he was
Speaker 3: playing on some level perfect you best open golf. I mean,
Speaker 3: he made what eleven pars in a row in the
Speaker 3: middle of his round after birding the first like that
Speaker 3: is off. That's how you he seems fall into your lap.
Speaker 3: It often feels like he gets the absolute least out
Speaker 3: of his rounds. I mean it was just two putt
Speaker 3: after two putt after two put They got him a
Speaker 3: birdie on the first hole. Okay, did what he had
Speaker 3: to do. But after that he didn't nothing. He never
Speaker 3: made another birdie and it was just it felt defensive.
Speaker 3: And you know what happened on the fourteenth hole. Did
Speaker 3: you get to see that in person when you're out
Speaker 3: there walking? No? I actually couldn't see it from where
Speaker 3: I was because he was on the other side of fifteen.
Speaker 3: This is kind of Rory's last decade in a nutshell,
Speaker 3: it's a he's one of the greatest drivers of the
Speaker 3: golf ball in the history of the sport. He's in
Speaker 3: the thick of the United States Open. He nukes his
Speaker 3: drive into the rough like way left miss is a
Speaker 3: faerry by fifteen yards on TV. You know John Wood,
Speaker 3: who's a former caddy and various stute observers, so I
Speaker 3: think he could go for it with this lie. Rory
Speaker 3: elected to lay up. Okay, fine, he's got a wedge in.
Speaker 3: He dumps it in the bunker like from the middle
Speaker 3: of the ferry, from a perfect lie, from a perfect distance,
Speaker 3: and it's just the worst swing of the day by
Speaker 3: any contender. And then it embeds, so they give him
Speaker 3: a free drop, which is the break of the tournament.
Speaker 3: Now he's got a nice lie in the bunker, he's
Speaker 3: got a chance to hold it. He's certainly gonna make par.
Speaker 3: But he hits a mediocre shot and then he misses
Speaker 3: like a nine footer makes a six. I mean it,
Speaker 3: it's so exasperating, Like it's exasperating for you Alan imagine
Speaker 3: when it's like for Rory.
Speaker 1: But really, I mean Saint Andrew's Canadian Open, US Open.
Speaker 1: Those are three of the biggest titles in this game.
Speaker 1: You know, people forget what a big title is. People,
Speaker 1: if you're Roy Mountroy, if you're Tiger Woods, if you're
Speaker 1: anybody in the game, you'd like to have a Canadian
Speaker 1: Open And to not get it done three times the
Speaker 1: name of the game. To be a superstar, you really,
Speaker 1: really really want to be a superstar. You got to
Speaker 1: get it done. And he actually is not. And I
Speaker 1: mean shocking to think, what is it now in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: since he's won a major.
Speaker 3: It's a long time, whole decade. Yeah, it was interesting
Speaker 3: because you know, I understand Rory's emotional fatigue. I mean,
Speaker 3: his buddy Jimmy Dunn and Jaymon Ant like tore open
Speaker 3: his chest cavity, ripped out his heart, stamped it on
Speaker 3: the floor, Like what this turnabout with with the live
Speaker 3: public investment fud Merger like that, that's a body blow.
Speaker 3: And I understand why he ran out of gas in Canada,
Speaker 3: and he was very dude. He was very flat this week.
Speaker 3: And you know, the last couple of days he didn't
Speaker 3: talk to the media on Thursday at all. He may
Speaker 3: not have been drug tested, which is you know, that'd
Speaker 3: be bad luck whatever. But the last two days, five
Speaker 3: questions and four questions, that's all he did. It was
Speaker 3: like short answers, answers, no emotion. It was kind of
Speaker 3: like old school Tiger, like give you nothing other than
Speaker 3: I have to show up. I'll fulfill my obligations. And
Speaker 3: I get it, like he's been battered and scarred emotionally
Speaker 3: through all of this, and he's talked so much. He's
Speaker 3: put himself on the line, Like I understand why he's gunshi,
Speaker 3: But at the same time, by retreating into that shell,
Speaker 3: he's going against his fundamental nature, which is to be gregarious,
Speaker 3: to be open, to be giving, and I don't think
Speaker 3: it serves Rory well to try and turn into Ben Hogan, right,
Speaker 3: Like that's just not who he is. And hopefully this
Speaker 3: is just a little phase he's going through because it's
Speaker 3: been such a rollercoaster emotionally, but this is he could
Speaker 3: be seriously damaged by the way this has played out
Speaker 3: and disillusions and add that decade long streak of all
Speaker 3: these near misses and all these heartbreaks. Like I'm not
Speaker 3: suggesting Rory's going to retire tonight, but it just feels
Speaker 3: like he's at a real crossroads here, and uh, it
Speaker 3: was painful to see. And then even after all those
Speaker 3: cock ups, it's like Clark makes back to back bogies,
Speaker 3: Rory actually guts a really important, say six footer on sixteen.
Speaker 3: So now he's one back and he goes to seventeenth hole,
Speaker 3: which is a long toughel and he hooks his drive
Speaker 3: like fifty yards left into the wrong fairway.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm curious about that. I was, I was
Speaker 1: on the golf course. I actually was right on the chae.
Speaker 1: I thought he was good. That did that? Willfully?
Speaker 3: Did they say on TV?
Speaker 1: It was a mistaken.
Speaker 3: I don't think so, because the way that green is cantied,
Speaker 3: he has no worry. You got to get drawshot in there,
Speaker 3: and you can't get it no angle, there's no cutch.
Speaker 3: He right the flag beautles, and of course it ran
Speaker 3: over the green because it was no angle. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: would make no sense strategically.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He looked totally contempt to pick it
Speaker 1: up that tea, So I really couldn't tell but two.
Speaker 1: But I would like to know the answer to that,
Speaker 1: or does.
Speaker 3: I didn't Well, I didn't. I didn't you know you
Speaker 3: and I ran in here to pod so I haven't
Speaker 3: heard his comments. If he says he meant to do,
Speaker 3: I don't believe it, because it could have gotten caught
Speaker 3: up in the trees and on a firm green, there
Speaker 3: was needing a birdie at some point, probably to catch Clark.
Speaker 3: It's not the right play.
Speaker 1: You would actually have a better chance of making a
Speaker 1: three from the front bunker than you would from holding
Speaker 1: it in where he was.
Speaker 3: You played it on the right side of the correct fairway.
Speaker 3: You can sling a draw in there and feed the
Speaker 3: ball back to that flag. Strategically would make no sense.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you could hit a cut shot from the
Speaker 1: right side of that fairwe with that hook wind, hit
Speaker 1: a cut shot into it, hold it and maybe have
Speaker 1: a chance. It's just like that was a curious play.
Speaker 1: I'd like to know what was going on there. But
Speaker 1: literally the bounce in his step is gone. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was like that was his trademark. And I remember Jeff
Speaker 1: Olily commenting on that when he was a rookie. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that bouncing that step is a real thing. People
Speaker 1: pick up on it, and he picks up on it,
Speaker 1: and it can be a halp. You know, it's no
Speaker 1: way to calculate it, but you could call it a
Speaker 1: half shot over the course of four days whatever whatever
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 3: So yeah, like a being right, it was just something.
Speaker 3: There was a joy to it. And I get it,
Speaker 3: like he's been kicked around so much by not by
Speaker 3: the game, just by the majors. Even he's still winning
Speaker 3: tons of tournaments, He's winning FedEx Cups and Race to
Speaker 3: Dubai's and like it's like he can't finished or he
Speaker 3: can't produce. It's just he can't do it when it
Speaker 3: matters most here And like the last writer cut up
Speaker 3: and it's just like it. It's there's a there's a
Speaker 3: there's a fragility there, and we just see it when
Speaker 3: the stakes go this high.
Speaker 1: There's it's kind of a weird, weird problem to have.
Speaker 1: But when you've made all the money you're gonna need
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life, unless your grandchildren's life,
Speaker 1: then what are you really left playing for? In others,
Speaker 1: the money is a great motivator, you know, for us,
Speaker 1: for anybody in life, for plumber. But if you've made
Speaker 1: all the money, then all you really have left are
Speaker 1: these titles. And of the titles, the only ones that
Speaker 1: really matter to you are the majors. So then you
Speaker 1: have all this outsized emotion attached to the majors, And
Speaker 1: of course it's a killer unless you're Tiger, you know,
Speaker 1: and you've got just the mentality of all mentalities. So
Speaker 1: he's got to be you know, he's a big reader.
Speaker 1: He's a teleguy, working with Brad on the putting free up,
Speaker 1: free up this, that Jimmy Dunn hang out, hang out,
Speaker 1: place them and oh blah blah blah. But I don't
Speaker 1: know what it's really adding up to in terms of
Speaker 1: the most important thing in his professional life. Now, if
Speaker 1: he's lucky. He seems lucky. He's got a great wife
Speaker 1: and a great young daughter and you know, and is
Speaker 1: happy and contented. But of course professional golf means so
Speaker 1: much to him. It's it's it's perplexing. We can see
Speaker 1: it weighing on him. Yeah, you know, Mac Barnhard's made
Speaker 1: this point. No one's ever played better after pouring their
Speaker 1: heart and soul into poor politics than they did before.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's happened to get him, not not often. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, at some level this is weird to say.
Speaker 1: And you tell me what you think. When the players
Speaker 1: allowed themselves to become political people in their own profession,
Speaker 1: it can be dehumanizing because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: they have a very singular talent, but it doesn't really
Speaker 1: translate to understanding the world at large. I think that
Speaker 1: it does, but it really doesn't. Like an agent told
Speaker 1: me this week, if they were really smart, they would
Speaker 1: just turn it over to Ed Hurley, just at Hurley
Speaker 1: multist done. Yeah, it's not their mentality, it's not anybody's
Speaker 1: mentality to do that. But somebody be said for it.
Speaker 3: I mean, who's the biggest OAF in professional golf? It's
Speaker 3: Grayson Murray. We all know that poor Rory here has
Speaker 3: been fighting for the tour for a year. He's at
Speaker 3: this player meeting Kada and Grayson Murray tells Rory fuck off.
Speaker 3: It does not get more thankless than that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I didn't really believe that story because I
Speaker 1: don't think Worry would be rude enough to say that.
Speaker 1: Was this where Rory said, play better?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is that songing Rory macrdy.
Speaker 3: Well that's the whole point. I mean, Rory's had a
Speaker 3: little bit of an edge in some of these meetings
Speaker 3: because he also said, and this is I'm stealing tough
Speaker 3: on my book now, Like in one of these board meetings,
Speaker 3: no one pays money to watch Peter mal Naughty play golf.
Speaker 3: You know Peter mal Naughty is is now a board
Speaker 3: member and he's won once in his whole career. And
Speaker 3: I think there's an exasperation now. I think Rory's clearly frustrated.
Speaker 3: That was that was why he would lash out. Also,
Speaker 3: Grayson was like talking a lot and being a total
Speaker 3: idiot in this meeting, and Roy had had enough and
Speaker 3: he actually was defending Jay Monahan. But the point is,
Speaker 3: like Rory doesn't need that he does not need Grayson
Speaker 3: Murray of all people like drop an f bombs on him,
Speaker 3: and that that's a position to put himself in, and
Speaker 3: it's gotta be so disillusioning.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, you know, there's ative strength in
Speaker 1: the Peter Palm Peecher mal Nazis. And this is really
Speaker 1: the whole point of live golf versus the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: or what used to be the PJ Tour. We don't
Speaker 1: know what it'll be next year. That collectively, Tiger's got to
Speaker 1: beat all those guys, worries got to be all this
Speaker 1: John John Rahman and by the way, prior to this week,
Speaker 1: Wyndam Clark was one of those guys, you know. But
Speaker 1: it's really the collective strength of all these good players
Speaker 1: and then beating the collective straint that makes you a
Speaker 1: start in the first place. Otherwise you just really do
Speaker 1: have a glorified all star tour, which to me is
Speaker 1: what what live golf is. But as you point out
Speaker 1: many times, the PJ Tour is now following the model.
Speaker 1: I got to ask you a question about this live
Speaker 1: tour because I've asked various people this. I asked Walter
Speaker 1: Driver this question today, I've asked agents this question wise,
Speaker 1: old golf people, what are the Saudis investing in?
Speaker 3: Well, they are, They're not investing in live golf. They
Speaker 3: are Live golf is going to remain this parallel entity
Speaker 3: for as long as y'all all over my and wants
Speaker 3: it to. But they are investing in this new company
Speaker 3: that's going to try and find new opportunities. And you know,
Speaker 3: Monahan talked about sports betting, talked about the TPC network
Speaker 3: and real estate, talked about the proprietary data, and so
Speaker 3: the whole point is to try and find new revenue streams.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're also investing in the tournament and therefore
Speaker 3: getting access to all of these blue chip sponsors. You know,
Speaker 3: there's always been certain number of companies that wouldn't do
Speaker 3: business with the saudiast or felt squeamish about it. Now
Speaker 3: they have the official stamp of approval. They bought the
Speaker 3: approval of the PGA Tour and therefore Corporate America. So
Speaker 3: now if you're the CEO at you know, pick a
Speaker 3: tour title sponsor and there's there's now Yaser and his
Speaker 3: people have access to this guy and vice versa, and
Speaker 3: so they're they're investing in new industries, They're investing in
Speaker 3: new new initiatives we can't even imagine yet. They're also
Speaker 3: you know, they also get the goodwill and the name
Speaker 3: recognition of being a tour sponsor and being very visible.
Speaker 3: And you're probably going to see a lot of guys
Speaker 3: on the Peachytort wearing Golf Saudi logos, and you're going
Speaker 3: to see public investments fund signage at tournaments and it
Speaker 3: just becomes this normalizing thing that person has been paying
Speaker 3: close attention to this. It's like, oh, okay, so how
Speaker 3: do you guys are cool? I mean, look, they're sponsored
Speaker 3: my favorite tournament and the beer prices went from six
Speaker 3: dollars to three dollars, and you know, my favorite players
Speaker 3: were wearing their logo, so that I like those guys.
Speaker 3: That so what they're investing in, I mean, part of
Speaker 3: its public relations. But you know, Yaser said in that
Speaker 3: in that interview i'd see in with Monahan, it's his
Speaker 3: only public statements. He's like, we don't we don't do charity.
Speaker 3: I'm paraphrasing. He said, we want things to be self
Speaker 3: sustaining and profitable, and we see a path to profitability here.
Speaker 3: I mean, the Public Investment Fund is now worth over
Speaker 3: seven hundred million dollars. The goal is to get to
Speaker 3: a trillion by twenty twenty five. Yasser's boss, who's very
Speaker 3: exact being and demanding, he wants the fund to be
Speaker 3: at three billion, at three trillion in twenty and thirty
Speaker 3: three trillion dollars. And so you don't you don't get
Speaker 3: that by doing expensive pr campaigns like they they have
Speaker 3: a they have a mandate here to make money, and
Speaker 3: they see opportunities, so you know you can. It obviously
Speaker 3: becomes a vehicle for I mean, why does AT and
Speaker 3: T sponsor the Pebble Beach Tournament so they can create
Speaker 3: all these relationships, they can host all their VIPs, they
Speaker 3: can The business that comes out of that week is
Speaker 3: worth the twelve million dollars they put into the purse.
Speaker 3: And it's not about having their name. It's about the
Speaker 3: relationships and the access and all that. And so that's
Speaker 3: part of what the PIFF is paying for. And now
Speaker 3: they have access to the entire PGA, to a roster
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: Could that PIFF money actually wind up in t or purses.
Speaker 3: Or yeah it could, Oh yeah, definitely, I mean that's
Speaker 3: going to have to, because that's the whole reason that's
Speaker 3: happened is Monahan wrote a bunch of checks he can't cast.
Speaker 3: You know, he promised the player's twenty million dollar elevated evans,
Speaker 3: He promised him player impacts money and the tours, and
Speaker 3: he was asking, he was squeezing the sponsors for more
Speaker 3: and more money, and they're like, we're out. It doesn't
Speaker 3: even it doesn't even pencil out for us at nine
Speaker 3: million dollars. Now you wants to pay twenty and so
Speaker 3: it's a win for the sponsors. They can just pay
Speaker 3: the old rate. The public Investment Fund can bridge the gap,
Speaker 3: the players can get paid. Monahan's not gonna have a
Speaker 3: rebellion on his hands. So it's a great deal from
Speaker 3: the tour and that the only thing that costs was
Speaker 3: Monahan's soul. That's it. They they secured hundreds of millions
Speaker 3: of dollars of free money and the only thing that
Speaker 3: it costs was Monahan's reputation. It was a good deal
Speaker 3: for the tour.
Speaker 1: Do you think this would be a significant thing if
Speaker 1: they wanted to develop a a golf tourist industry? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: And now, but now you're literally going to put the
Speaker 1: PJ tourist stamp with you know, Payne Stewart's swing or
Speaker 1: whoever swing that is in follow through, and then that's
Speaker 1: going to create the message to the world that.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean I get into all this in the book,
Speaker 3: I mean one of the thirteen and we're getting we're
Speaker 3: going we'll get back to us open. Don't worry. But
Speaker 3: the you know NBS has staked his whole reign on
Speaker 3: this vision twenty thirty. There's thirteen pillars, thirteen sectors that
Speaker 3: they want to grow, and tourism is one of them.
Speaker 3: In sports is one of them, and golf combines both
Speaker 3: and so yeah, you're gonna have TPC read and that
Speaker 3: becomes a way to draw golf tourists and right.
Speaker 1: They're going crazy football.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you want to get you want to you
Speaker 3: want to get Marriott to come in to build all
Speaker 3: the resorts and invest in it. You want to get
Speaker 3: you want to get Hurts, you want to get four
Speaker 3: seasons like the you know, Windom, like all these these companies,
Speaker 3: these in the tourism sector that have long relationships with
Speaker 3: the tour Now the Saudi's have them too, So that's
Speaker 3: a big part of what they're paying.
Speaker 1: For as Wyndam Clark traded off his given name in
Speaker 1: any way.
Speaker 3: I'm sure by tonight the deal get signed. But when
Speaker 3: we go back to this US Open leaderboard, I mean
Speaker 3: we got to talk about Scotti Scheffler, like he just
Speaker 3: he falls out of bed and finish his third. Now
Speaker 3: it's incredible level he's playing at. I don't know how
Speaker 3: many six and eight footers he missed this week, but it.
Speaker 1: Was He's actually got to be kicking himself.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, only three backs, Yeah, I mean, seventy was
Speaker 3: the worst he could have shot today. But it's interesting
Speaker 3: because his putting is now becoming a thing, and now
Speaker 3: it's now he's gonna have to talk about it and
Speaker 3: answer questions about it. You know, it's not just a
Speaker 3: week or two now, he's now he's turned into a
Speaker 3: bad putter, and so anything holding him back from winning majors.
Speaker 3: So yeah, gets in your head and people talk about it,
Speaker 3: and the fans there's energy. Every time he misses a
Speaker 3: six footer, there's that whistling and buzzing like, oh not again.
Speaker 3: And now all the brad Faxtes of the world and
Speaker 3: be up in his business trying to give him tips
Speaker 3: and that's no place you want to be. I mean
Speaker 3: that that was Sergio Garcia. There's a lot of great
Speaker 3: players who couldn't putt and it it's it's a total
Speaker 3: mind fuck.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, no, he hits it great, but with a
Speaker 1: funky move. So those two things in combination. But from
Speaker 1: from what I've heard of the guy, when I've been
Speaker 1: around the guy, he doesn't seem like someone is going
Speaker 1: to be put off to it. You know, if they're
Speaker 1: dissing his putting on Golf channel, do you think Scotti
Speaker 1: Scheffer is going to care?
Speaker 3: Not really. He definitely has a lot of dustin in him,
Speaker 3: which is a compliment, you know, that ability to just
Speaker 3: let it all go and just focus on what matters,
Speaker 3: which is the next shot. But I mean he knows
Speaker 3: internally he's putting bad and he's missing I don't know,
Speaker 3: so you know it's a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, let me ask you this if I may,
Speaker 1: what'd you think the La Country Club North Course?
Speaker 3: I think I would love to go play it tomorrow
Speaker 3: and every day after I played tonight. You know, we
Speaker 3: got about an hour and a half a daylight. Michael,
Speaker 3: I meant, I wouldn't want to be a member of
Speaker 3: the club. Like I hate clubs like this that are
Speaker 3: so up uptight and stuffy, but I would love to
Speaker 3: be a permanent guest. But I think it's incredibly fun
Speaker 3: golf course. We saw so many cool shots and there's
Speaker 3: no question the USJA was timid on the setup the
Speaker 3: first two days. And you know, Wyndam Clark was one
Speaker 3: under on the weekend, Rory was one under on the weekend,
Speaker 3: Scheffler was two under. You know, those are your top
Speaker 3: three guys. Like it played really exactly how you want
Speaker 3: to US Open to play on the weekend. The first
Speaker 3: two days it was it was a little soft and
Speaker 3: vulnerable and the scores went really low. But you know,
Speaker 3: look at look at Xander. I mean he was five
Speaker 3: over the last three rounds. Ricky was three over the
Speaker 3: last three rounds. So it's it was a great test.
Speaker 3: I understand, you know, they never had an event here.
Speaker 3: I understand why the usg was a little cautious, but
Speaker 3: that definitely affected perception, like it was too wide in spot.
Speaker 3: So you and I were when we're walking back into
Speaker 3: this podcast, we still on the tenth tee. I mean
Speaker 3: you said it looks like sheep rand I mean it's
Speaker 3: the widest fairway in the world. Guys are driving at
Speaker 3: three eighty and just having a wedge in, Like, where's
Speaker 3: the challenge there? I mean, they put the pin in
Speaker 3: some tough spots, but when the greens weren't super firm
Speaker 3: like today, it was accessible and there was a lot
Speaker 3: of holes like that. So yeah, wide fairways can be
Speaker 3: cool and provide a lot of different strategic elements. But
Speaker 3: this is the US Open, and we want part to
Speaker 3: be an absolute premium And I'm not obsessed with part,
Speaker 3: but I think it's kind of fun and this one
Speaker 3: week where guys are pushed to the limits and to
Speaker 3: the breaking point, and that there's danger on every swing
Speaker 3: that you know, if you hook your drive ten yards
Speaker 3: and you're in the rough, you're probably gonna make a bogie.
Speaker 3: Like that's the tension starts before you even put the
Speaker 3: tea in the ground, and then if you do hit
Speaker 3: it into the rough, then it us a battle all
Speaker 3: the way through here. You could spray the ball in
Speaker 3: a lot of the holes and you were still fine.
Speaker 3: And so it just it just didn't have that oppressiveness
Speaker 3: that you want.
Speaker 1: It really makes no sense to set up a golf
Speaker 1: course this way for US Open, because this is an
Speaker 1: organization that's desperate to dial back the ball. The single
Speaker 1: most effective way for right now to dial back the
Speaker 1: ball at this level of play. You used to take
Speaker 1: driver out of the hands, so then we can drive
Speaker 1: out of the hands. Has given a really narrow fairway.
Speaker 1: So for eighteen, for anybody today with the breeze in
Speaker 1: your face, to be able to step up there and
Speaker 1: hit a hard slice into the wind. You know, I
Speaker 1: understand I didn't see it, but I said where to
Speaker 1: finished Whendam Clark's shot on eighteen everyone was bad, Well,
Speaker 1: it was fine by the time it settled. You know.
Speaker 1: It must have been that second shot a little bit
Speaker 1: came up short. But the point is, you know, my
Speaker 1: friend Mike Donald made this point eighteen and we saw
Speaker 1: out a wingfoot. We've seen it almost every US Open. Eighteen.
Speaker 1: You should be sweating bullets trying to drive from the fairway.
Speaker 1: Just try to find a place. And there's really no
Speaker 1: challenge in inning eighteen, ten, eight, numerous other fairways. You know,
Speaker 1: the fifteenth it was cute, not really, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not pebble. You know, I don't know when I just
Speaker 1: have one hundred and forty yard part three, but it
Speaker 1: was a little too much. I don't I don't mind
Speaker 1: experimenting and trying stuff, and I love the you know,
Speaker 1: the risk ward part for short part fours that's neat.
Speaker 1: But just yeah, when you say too timid, I think
Speaker 1: that's exactly the right word. It's like the USGA is
Speaker 1: kind of afraid to really take the reins here. And
Speaker 1: even with the ball. We heard it in the USJA
Speaker 1: press conference. I said, do you know we're going to
Speaker 1: rain back this ball? Well, really, even what you're saying,
Speaker 1: if you could get it, is not really raining back.
Speaker 3: The ball five nothing, It's a nothing.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's close to nothing. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel I think between rivi Era and La
Speaker 1: Country Club North, I mean v is rev it's great.
Speaker 1: If I could only play one of the two courses,
Speaker 1: I'd rather play here now, as you say, change your
Speaker 1: shoes in the car park and go to the first day.
Speaker 1: That'd be fine. By the way I have played it once.
Speaker 1: Have you ever put it? It was a fantastic experience
Speaker 1: at it Frida egg sandwich at the Turn years ago
Speaker 1: with avocado, very thin, soft, like one of the best
Speaker 1: sandwiches certainly the best sandwich you ever had to turn
Speaker 1: them up.
Speaker 3: I mean it's really everything I do.
Speaker 1: They do well here. It's not you know, your style
Speaker 1: or my style, but Riviera. It seems to me like
Speaker 1: a US Open course. I'd be shocked if there's not
Speaker 1: a another US Open Riviera before.
Speaker 4: To know.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're already committed to coming back here and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, sixteen years what here's it? Twenty nine thirty nine? Why?
Speaker 3: I just hope?
Speaker 1: Why are you making these crazy long term commitments? I
Speaker 1: mean my philosphe in life now is commit to as
Speaker 1: little as you possibly can. Well, we're going out of
Speaker 1: the way to commit to things they don't have to
Speaker 1: commit to.
Speaker 3: I know it's true. The listener should know that. Michael
Speaker 3: often just books a one way flight and I'll say,
Speaker 3: how are you when you when you fly out, He's like,
Speaker 3: I don't know. This is like on the day after
Speaker 3: the tournament and he just wings it. So yeah, you're
Speaker 3: you're you're true to your words.
Speaker 1: Well, why why is usual doing this? Do they think
Speaker 1: they're going to start selling tickets for Mary twenty fifty
Speaker 1: one now or twenty fifty whenever it is?
Speaker 3: I think I think think it's just a negotiation. L A. C. C. Said, Well,
Speaker 3: if we're gonna go through all this trouble, we want
Speaker 3: to US opens, not just one. We don't want to
Speaker 3: be a one off. And so like, okay, fine, we'll
Speaker 3: give you, We'll give you this one, and we'll just
Speaker 3: put one way out there. We'd have to think about
Speaker 3: for a while. It'll be interesting, I'm sure that. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's one of my favorite subplots is the pride of
Speaker 3: the members is always damaged when when at the open
Speaker 3: and in the part of memberships at Shinna Kock, membership
Speaker 3: at Shinnecock kills be like, we don't know about this. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's a long time to recover. And and so I'm
Speaker 3: sure there's there's a lot of bitter, you know, white
Speaker 3: shoe lawyers running around the clubhouse, raging against the USGA.
Speaker 3: I would be curious what kind of philosophy's changed for
Speaker 3: the next setup if if everyone's having buyers remorse and
Speaker 3: because this was not a the winning score does a matter.
Speaker 3: It was just a sense it didn't feel like a
Speaker 3: US Open. And part of that was the crowds. It's
Speaker 3: been talked about a lot. We don't have to go
Speaker 3: deep on it, but it just it just didn't didn't
Speaker 3: have the electricity you want. It was a nice crowd
Speaker 3: there on eighteen, but that was only because of the
Speaker 3: buildout down the first fairway.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if it might be sellers for remorse.
Speaker 1: I wonder if I wonder if the Country Club was
Speaker 1: going to be, like you say, buyer's remorse. Did you
Speaker 1: mean the USGA.
Speaker 3: I kind of meant they're both. They're they're essentially both
Speaker 3: buyers and sellers in this transaction. And yeah, I kind
Speaker 3: of meant both.
Speaker 1: You're right, but I could imagine I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know the membership. I really don't know this club at all,
Speaker 1: but I could imagine the club saying it was nice,
Speaker 1: but we don't need it again. You know, you're giving
Speaker 1: up a lot, you're giving up your south course that
Speaker 1: speed up parking and all the rest. It's kind of
Speaker 1: it's not like Marion where it's so much part. It
Speaker 1: should the tradition have these USJA competitions, and especially us
Speaker 1: opens like they can have other competitions here that aren't
Speaker 1: so demanding.
Speaker 3: And it's all subject to reevaluation. And I agree twenty
Speaker 3: and thirty nine could wind up at Chambers Bay or
Speaker 3: Aaron Eils.
Speaker 1: You see, Chambers Bay could be much improved. Reason why
Speaker 1: I couldn't cool. But it's a beautiful piece of land.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's probably in some ways Wyndham Clark was
Speaker 3: the right winner for it just kind of fits like
Speaker 3: like a good but not a great winner. A from
Speaker 3: the popular perception. Did he earned it? He played lights
Speaker 3: out all credits Wyndham Clark. But the casual fans are
Speaker 3: going to kind of be like, I wish we had Rory,
Speaker 3: I wish we had Ricky, and it just I guess
Speaker 3: it seems sort of fitting somehow, like he was the
Speaker 3: right man at the right time. And I don't I
Speaker 3: don't mean that disparagingly, Like he hit the shots, he
Speaker 3: won the tournament, but it's not going to be remembered
Speaker 3: as a transcend it open. You know, if Rory had
Speaker 3: won this and then went on to win six more
Speaker 3: like this would have been in the timeline of his
Speaker 3: career and e golf. It would have been deeply impactful.
Speaker 3: And if Ricky had won, it would have it would
Speaker 3: have been larger than life. The would have been thirty
Speaker 3: guys on the green to mob him, you know, and.
Speaker 1: So did you feel what a wait, what was your
Speaker 1: impression of that moment? We were watching Ricky just standing
Speaker 1: on that putting grun standing on that agent green waiting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that was cool. I don't know if
Speaker 3: the cameras caught this. So Clark taps in winds the open,
Speaker 3: celebrates lustily as he should, lots of hugs, lots of kisses,
Speaker 3: and Rory just throw on the back of the green
Speaker 3: it still as a statue, just the picture of dignity.
Speaker 3: And if you say, did you said Rory or Ricky?
Speaker 3: Oh I met Ricky and I say, or I'm not sure,
Speaker 3: but Ricky it was Ricky. My yeah, if I said Rory,
Speaker 3: I met Ricky And and it was just neat. It
Speaker 3: was just it was like it was the right thing
Speaker 3: to do. He wasn't pouting, he wasn't moping. I mean,
Speaker 3: he just played a mediocre around and lost the US Open,
Speaker 3: and and he was totally cool about it, and and
Speaker 3: we had a great look at it. It was just
Speaker 3: it felt right in the moment.
Speaker 1: And what does feel right? And so much doesn't kind
Speaker 1: of feel right in golf right now. It was just
Speaker 1: nice to see do you feel, you know, as a
Speaker 1: golf fan, do you feel any lived PGA Tour divide
Speaker 1: when you're looking at a board as so you're rooting
Speaker 1: for who he might be rooting Forcus. Unlike the Masters,
Speaker 1: which was very very much live versus sture, and the
Speaker 1: PGA Championship to a slightly lesser degree but still was,
Speaker 1: this one didn't have that feel at all. Now, part
Speaker 1: of it so why the board shook out, but part
Speaker 1: of it is just the news of last week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally agree, that's completely mellowed out. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know Cameron Smith, well you have he had the
Speaker 3: low round of the day among the guys he went
Speaker 3: out late. There was a couple early sixty five, you know,
Speaker 3: for like John Rahm, the ultimate back door top ten,
Speaker 3: but Cameron Smith was the hottest guy on the course
Speaker 3: when it really mattered. But he ran out of holes.
Speaker 3: But he looked great. You know he's gonna wind up.
Speaker 3: This is fourth and Dustin. Every time they showed Dustin,
Speaker 3: he was hitting it to six feet missing the putt.
Speaker 3: Like I'd like to see his putting stats this week
Speaker 3: because you know, he finished tied for tenth and I
Speaker 3: it's gonna be one of the worst punt performances of
Speaker 3: his career from what I saw, So they were there,
Speaker 3: they're in the mix. But yeah, I feel like that
Speaker 3: that subplot has has completely mellowed out, even though it
Speaker 3: remains very unsettled what next year is going to look
Speaker 3: like in golf. There's been a lot of speculation lation
Speaker 3: Jimmy Dunn has fueled it. You know that jay Monhan
Speaker 3: is going to shut down Live Golf, Like, I don't
Speaker 3: believe that for a second. I don't think he has
Speaker 3: that power. It's going to be Yoaster's decision. But because
Speaker 3: of the anti trust reasons, because of the contracts that
Speaker 3: all the commitments they've made, I feel very certain they'll
Speaker 3: be Live Golf in twenty twenty four. After that, they'll
Speaker 3: reassess it. But so you know, yeah, there still will
Speaker 3: be a divide in the game, whether whether they can
Speaker 3: make peace and get and the live guys can take
Speaker 3: sponsors exemptions and play certain number of events on the tour.
Speaker 3: Like how that's going to shake out. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think there will be some cross pollination, but there will
Speaker 3: still be a separation, but it won't be as bitchy.
Speaker 3: And we kind of know that there'll be a reapproachment
Speaker 3: at some point. So it feels like this just gonna
Speaker 3: be a transitional year and then we'll see how it
Speaker 3: all plays out. So yeah, I didn't feel the energy
Speaker 3: at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, uh you remember what a big fuss it was.
Speaker 1: Well at the Masters, absolutely for sure, the whole quote
Speaker 1: golf establishment was praying that John Rahm will get to
Speaker 1: the house and and Brooks Kopka would not and fill
Speaker 1: they're completely dismissive of At the PGA, you know, Kopka
Speaker 1: was so powerful, he's a powerful presence. He's hard to dismiss.
Speaker 1: But there was still the whole thing when Seth Watt
Speaker 1: didn't shake his hand. And Seth can say what he
Speaker 1: wanted to say, and he did, but the fact is
Speaker 1: he didn't shake his hand. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: I know you're talking about. I mean supposedly that was
Speaker 3: not their first go around on the photo then, and
Speaker 3: I think what I heard with Seth and are taking
Speaker 3: a photo with him? He got what You're right, but
Speaker 3: that just became a story whether it was one or not.
Speaker 3: And but you know the difference also is Phil we
Speaker 3: know has been such a muckraker and Patrick Reed, who
Speaker 3: was also in contention at the Masters, Like those are
Speaker 3: worst case scenarios. Brooks is always throughout this whole thing,
Speaker 3: is displayed very little interest in mixing it up. And
Speaker 3: he wasn't part of the lawsuits. He hasn't He hasn't been,
Speaker 3: you know, part of the sniping on social media, so
Speaker 3: he's hive been dust in a state above the fray
Speaker 3: and Cam Smith too.
Speaker 1: Did you make any eye contact with Phil Mickelson this week?
Speaker 3: I did not.
Speaker 1: Do you kind of try to avoid it so you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you're maybe getting in his face where
Speaker 1: he may not want it, or what's your attitude about that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I ever since that thing happened in London where
Speaker 3: I got bounced out as Prescote, I'm trying to give
Speaker 3: him a wide berth because I don't want people to
Speaker 3: think that I'm like trying to insert myself into his
Speaker 3: business or trying to make it myself the story I did.
Speaker 3: I didn't try and ask him a few questions and
Speaker 3: live Mexico at the start of this year because I
Speaker 3: really needed to fact check something with him for the book,
Speaker 3: and he somewhat brusquely declined.
Speaker 1: And that's in a group setting or when I got him.
Speaker 3: Walking off the driving range, just him and I.
Speaker 1: What a weird one of the weirdest years in golf
Speaker 1: when you think about where he was a year ago,
Speaker 1: with that odd press conference before the tournament and then
Speaker 1: some really pretty mediocre play and then a stunning round
Speaker 1: of golf Sunday at the Masters, and then I truly
Speaker 1: now I'm wrong. Often I truly thought he'd come here
Speaker 1: and content. I really really did. Knows the course well,
Speaker 1: knows the grasses, been around here, a lot a.
Speaker 3: Lot of short game action on this course. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: think he did play horribly. He missed the cut by one,
Speaker 3: but it was just and yeah, it was disappointing. I mean,
Speaker 3: I I don't know. The Masters is the most predictable
Speaker 3: tournament of the year. Probably going to play well, you
Speaker 3: still got to do it. But Phil is dangerous there
Speaker 3: in perpetuity. But getting his game to travel it just
Speaker 3: hasn't happened since Kiowa. So I remember, we're now going
Speaker 3: on two years since he really made a run anywhere
Speaker 3: other than Augusta.
Speaker 1: That's that wasn't a run. That was freakishly making four
Speaker 1: birdies at.
Speaker 3: The end of the day. Yeah, I don't know. It's
Speaker 3: it's the mystery of golf. Why do people play well
Speaker 3: when they do and they don't? I mean, how many
Speaker 3: people on planet Earth picked Wyndam Clark this year. You know,
Speaker 3: I'm staying you met my aunt Harriet. I'm staying with
Speaker 3: her and her boyfriend, Myron, who loves golf, and every
Speaker 3: night he's asking who do you think's going to win?
Speaker 3: And he's he's got a bookie, he's placing bets and
Speaker 3: he's doing all this stuff. And no one mentioned Wyndam Clark.
Speaker 3: I didn't. He didn't, You didn't nobody, But shout out
Speaker 3: to Michael Bamber, who did predict the winning score of
Speaker 3: ten under at the start of the week.
Speaker 1: I did predict the winning score of ten under. I
Speaker 1: did not even consider Wyndom Clark. By Saturday night. I
Speaker 1: did think. I thought it would be Wyndam Clark and
Speaker 1: Scottie Shuffer necking it out, neck and neck.
Speaker 3: The most impressive part of his whole package as a
Speaker 3: golfer is the grit. He is so gritty. I mean,
Speaker 3: some of those saves, that that bogie he saved, you
Speaker 3: know on the par five on the front nine, number
Speaker 3: number eight, like that was that was a US Open bogie.
Speaker 3: It looked like he was going to make a triple.
Speaker 3: He sneaked out of there with a six and that
Speaker 3: that was probably the key moment of the final round
Speaker 3: and some superb up and downs. I mean when he
Speaker 3: leaves that, when he leaves that approach on eighteen so short,
Speaker 3: that amphitheater let The crowds were down eighteenth fairly. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of energy, there's a lot of commotion. It's
Speaker 3: like you and I both thought he's gonna have to
Speaker 3: make a five foot or to win the US Open,
Speaker 3: and he knocked up their stone dead like just gritty,
Speaker 3: gritty performance.
Speaker 1: I wonder with that super heavy long grip that he's
Speaker 1: got on the putter, I wonder what that's like to
Speaker 1: I have just I don't know. I mean, I've never
Speaker 1: used one. I kind of tried one. I just think
Speaker 1: it's hard to hit it hard enough when when you're nervous.
Speaker 1: It's just hard to hit it hard enough when you're nervous.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I did expect I thought that would come
Speaker 1: up five feet short.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was great, but it was a great
Speaker 3: But then he didn't waste any time knocking the wead
Speaker 3: the game winner, like, which is smart. Its probably the
Speaker 3: right thing to do. But like it was, people have
Speaker 3: missed two foot putts before and it was it was cool.
Speaker 3: I mean, I really I do feel like a star
Speaker 3: was born. We started we said that at the top
Speaker 3: of the telecast the podcast we getting We're got heckled
Speaker 3: by KVVS.
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like a star was born. I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, we've identified a super talent and
Speaker 1: I don't think he doesn't. His personality doesn't. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like he wants to be a star.
Speaker 3: Just same question. I mean, can you become a startist
Speaker 3: by winning a lot of golf turns?
Speaker 1: Or is there some other I mean, Scottie Shuffer a
Speaker 1: superstar of any sort? You know, do you think he
Speaker 1: goes into a mall? If guys say I don't, he'll say,
Speaker 1: hia talent plus charisma, Yeah, yeah, you know. I mean.
Speaker 1: Now Ricky is the other side of the thing. He
Speaker 1: has charisma. Now, the resume is sort of a superstar,
Speaker 1: and he was in all those ads, but he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the you know he's got. Now this Wyndham Clark's
Speaker 1: got one more major than he does. What about what
Speaker 1: about John Rahm. Like John Ram, I think has has
Speaker 1: has presence.
Speaker 4: He has presidence. I don't know if he has charisma. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but he's got GRAVI tos, He's got gravitarres. You know
Speaker 4: a word I'm sure he uses all the time. One
Speaker 4: of the agents told me today. One of the Spanish
Speaker 4: agents told me this week that his English is better
Speaker 4: than his Spanish. I mean that is really hard to do.
Speaker 1: English a hard language to pick up the idiomatic nature
Speaker 1: of beautiful.
Speaker 3: He speaks beautifully.
Speaker 1: He's got a huge president.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I mean Cam Smith not a star, incredible golfer,
Speaker 3: not a star, Roy McElroy star, but he flawed golfer.
Speaker 3: He's just flawed. Yep.
Speaker 1: Uh, Sander Schoffley no, Dustin Johnson yes, Harris English no, Rickyes,
Speaker 1: Fleetwood yes, but he needs to do something.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean everyone loves Fleetwood and I mean,
Speaker 3: you shoot sixty three today to finish fifth. It's vintage Tommy.
Speaker 3: You know what was lost? I think Tommy hasn't won
Speaker 3: in three years anywhere in the world. Can you believe that? No?
Speaker 1: I really can't with his iron play, I really can't
Speaker 1: go hits it whole high.
Speaker 3: That's what's so fascinating about tournament golf as theater? Like
Speaker 3: all these guys look at on the rains, most of
Speaker 3: them looking on the practice putting green. But can you
Speaker 3: do it on Sunday with the world watching? That's the
Speaker 3: ultimate question. And today Wyndam Clark did and no one else.
Speaker 1: See a Ricky Fowler top fiving here. That doesn't he
Speaker 1: didn't play his way into the Masters. That's a shame
Speaker 1: for him. In other words, had he gotten up and
Speaker 1: down on eighteen to play his way into the Mastery.
Speaker 3: Hell, I mean he'll be he was already what forty
Speaker 3: fourth coming Oh world ranking, he's good. Say he's got,
Speaker 3: he's got. He gets the Tour Championship. Like, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of ways to do it, but you're right, that
Speaker 3: would have been an easy one, just check the box.
Speaker 3: So yeah, those are the little games in the game.
Speaker 3: It also makes it all the more impressive for him
Speaker 3: that he stuck around like that because there was a
Speaker 3: number of disappointments.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, Butcher's uh had an incredible impact
Speaker 1: on so many golfers tried to there was a vote
Speaker 1: to get him in the Hall of Fame this year.
Speaker 1: I think he missed by one vote from what I've heard,
Speaker 1: and uh, it would have been sort of I think
Speaker 1: made a no brainer. Had he had he taken Ricky
Speaker 1: Vallor from the depths of where he was and helped
Speaker 1: get helped him make make him a US Open winner,
Speaker 1: that would have been a path. Who knows if it's
Speaker 1: meaningful to Butcher not if I've heard that it's quite
Speaker 1: meaningful to him. Uh, to the Hall of Fame. So anyway,
Speaker 1: as you say, there's always there's so many things, and
Speaker 1: that's the pleasure being a reporter in this game. There's
Speaker 1: so many layers and layers and layers of things going
Speaker 1: on that we don't know.
Speaker 3: I never knew.
Speaker 1: I did ever know anything about Wyndam Clark's mother passing
Speaker 1: away years ago and the heartache of that. I did
Speaker 1: not know that story at all until this week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's it's that I had picked up on it.
Speaker 3: I guess around when when he went at Charlotte And
Speaker 3: but yeah, he's and you know it's Father's Day, Like
Speaker 3: how sweet is that? I'm sure it's it's always any
Speaker 3: holiday when you've lost someone is emotional. I'm sure that
Speaker 3: adds an extra layer for that family. And good for them,
Speaker 3: like you got to be happy for them. So well,
Speaker 3: it was not it was not a transcendent US Open,
Speaker 3: but it was a very interesting one. I'm glad we
Speaker 3: got to share it. Michael, Yeah, I am too. And
Speaker 3: it's always it's always fun to talk about this. Sing
Speaker 3: Sunday night, all you folks out there, thanks for going
Speaker 3: on this journey with us. We will we'll see how
Speaker 3: many fire drills are are in store. We have one
Speaker 3: more major.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: We like to keep people guessing when the next one
Speaker 3: will be. But there's always another fire drill.
Speaker 1: So sometimes we say and we're not correct, so probably
Speaker 1: better not to say, and.
Speaker 3: That now that correct. I do want to tip our
Speaker 3: cat before we go to Dormy workshop. Make your a
Speaker 3: beautiful leather goods are the artisan they're there artisanal, yes.
Speaker 3: And if you go to Firepit Collected dot com and
Speaker 3: you click on our pit shop tab, we've got some
Speaker 3: really neat stuff. Dormy actually made the red, white and
Speaker 3: blue one that you'll see, which is kind of inspired
Speaker 3: by the US Open. Now that's exclusive to us, and
Speaker 3: there's some other neat things there. And use fire Pit
Speaker 3: fifteen you'll get fifteen percent off. So Thank you to
Speaker 3: Dormy for their continued support. Michael, it is a pleasure. Ohways,
Speaker 3: And for Michael Bamberg, this is Alan Chipnik. That was
Speaker 3: another fire drill. This is the end.
Speaker 1: I'm Ben Big, played.
Speaker 2: The wind, made a fortune with my ship. Game man.
Speaker 2: I ran the table and never thought I could fall
Speaker 2: down the wind and hit me lack a can in
Speaker 2: the ball. And now I can't shake this losing streak.
Speaker 2: Every road I take is a dead hand street. I
Speaker 2: got thoughts in my head, can't get them out, trying
Speaker 2: not to think what I'm thinking about. I got thoughts
Speaker 2: in my head, can't get them out, trying not to
Speaker 2: think what I'm thinking about.