Speaker 1: Your mistakes get really really magnified um and it looks
Speaker 1: like it's wide, and you're always chipping off short grass
Speaker 1: and you've got a great line in the bunker all
Speaker 1: the time, and you're rare, very rarely in the trees.
Speaker 1: And I mean Rory was making made a bit of
Speaker 1: Messa thirteen from the middle of the fairway. You had
Speaker 1: a loose shot here, and it just gets harder and
Speaker 1: harder and harder until you get the ball in the hall.
Speaker 1: I got thoughts in my head. Can't get Joan nothing
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about. I got my head, can't get
Speaker 1: them that jo not to think what I'm thinking about. Hello,
Speaker 1: this is Alan Ship, not a Backer Fire Drill Podcast.
Speaker 1: Delighted to have two thousand and six US Open Championjeff
Speaker 1: Ogilvie and Michael Bamberger here to talk about the very
Speaker 1: action packed day at the Masters. The leaderboard is stacked,
Speaker 1: most of the world's best players showed up. Of the
Speaker 1: course played soft that scores were low. There was a
Speaker 1: little tiny bit of controversy. Let's just start there so
Speaker 1: we get out of the way. Michael, you've been a
Speaker 1: caddy on various pro tours. Jeff, we know your credentials.
Speaker 1: So there was this little incident in the fifteenth hole
Speaker 1: where it appeared that Brooks kept because caddy told another
Speaker 1: caddy in the group what club Brooks had just hit,
Speaker 1: and it was reviewed by the Master's committee. They were exonerated,
Speaker 1: but video evidence is pretty clear. I guess there's there's
Speaker 1: the there's the letter of the law, and then there's
Speaker 1: what actually happened in real time in the real world.
Speaker 1: Because it's always been a thing on tour right where
Speaker 1: you'll tip the bags so like other players are, caddies
Speaker 1: can see what club you hit, and it's just sort
Speaker 1: of an accepted practice, but this was a little more blatant,
Speaker 1: and then they denied it, and this is turned into
Speaker 1: a little stink cloud on social media. So I want
Speaker 1: to get both your reaction to what the mini controversy
Speaker 1: involving Brooks and his caddy, and then we can move on.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Jeff, I actually haven't seen the incident.
Speaker 1: Funnily enough, I must have been in another room, so
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't come in on that incident.
Speaker 1: I do know that generally speaking, at least on Path
Speaker 1: three's every player in the group generally knows what every
Speaker 1: other player is hit. We're not getting told. You're just
Speaker 1: work it out either by what it looks like or
Speaker 1: you kind of look, take a look at the bag
Speaker 1: and the six is in there, and the eights in there,
Speaker 1: and the seven isn't, so it's probably a seven. You know.
Speaker 1: It's part of the skill of playing golf is kind
Speaker 1: of trying to work out what club to hit, and
Speaker 1: part of the information is what the other guys hitting
Speaker 1: At nine nine percent at the time. You can tell
Speaker 1: just by what the guy's club looks like. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can tell what someone sicks one looks like just
Speaker 1: by when he's hitting it from twenty os away. Usually
Speaker 1: I didn't see the incident. So if he's blatant, if ricky'splacently,
Speaker 1: is it still Ricky Ricky Elliot? Right, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I didn't see it, so I can't come in.
Speaker 1: But no one ever is telling people what club they're hitting.
Speaker 1: But I mean, if you're on TV, this spot is
Speaker 1: on the side of the fairway. I mean, every the
Speaker 1: caddy's job is to put three fingers up for night
Speaker 1: on or three on or whatever. Whatever. I mean, It's
Speaker 1: like it's this lots of there's lots of ways to
Speaker 1: get that information with that being told. You know, I didn't,
Speaker 1: but I didn't say it so well. I mean, again
Speaker 1: you don't have the full context. But in the clip,
Speaker 1: it looks like he says five, you know, and he
Speaker 1: says it out loud. You know, it's not it's not
Speaker 1: it's not fingers, which might be more of a gray area.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's actually speaking it out into the universe
Speaker 1: to another caddy. They're making eye contact. So would if
Speaker 1: you know, hypothetical, if a caddy were to tell another
Speaker 1: caddy out loud what club is player hit? Michael, would
Speaker 1: you consider that a violation the rules? Or is it
Speaker 1: not a big deal? You know, it flat out is
Speaker 1: violation the rules to to say it. By the way,
Speaker 1: on the other side of things, somewhere along the line, Jeff,
Speaker 1: you you weigh in on this because you'll know far
Speaker 1: than I in my experience as a caddy and haven't
Speaker 1: been around the game something. It is absolutely completely fine
Speaker 1: for another player to walk over right to another player's
Speaker 1: bag and look in the bag to see what arn is.
Speaker 1: That is not a breach about it. Now, to touch
Speaker 1: it is different, but just to look somewhere along the
Speaker 1: line that turned into some sort of breach of etiquette.
Speaker 1: And in my opinion, it's not a breach of etiquette,
Speaker 1: but just quick, Jeff, But you're you're about your opinion
Speaker 1: much more meaningful on that question. What is your opinion
Speaker 1: on that narrow area, on that narrow question. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it goes like you said it, as I said,
Speaker 1: the information's all there, generally speaking and looking picking in
Speaker 1: another player's bag, and generally, as I said, this is
Speaker 1: only really happening on path Threys. It's not often happening
Speaker 1: on the second shot in part five and Pathreys. Everyone's
Speaker 1: there's three bags generally, if it's three right hands and
Speaker 1: they're all next to each other. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: standing there and you're you're you're kind of if you're
Speaker 1: a little bit confused about what club you hitting, you're
Speaker 1: sort of perhaps just looking at the guy's bag and
Speaker 1: you might not see every iron, but you can see
Speaker 1: the six, and you can see the eight and the
Speaker 1: towels over the other ones. And when he reaches into
Speaker 1: the bag and the six and the eight are still there,
Speaker 1: and then you know it's a seven. But that's what
Speaker 1: you're standing right next to the bag. That's just using
Speaker 1: the information that's there. And as I said, most of
Speaker 1: us can just look at the club that look at
Speaker 1: the loft when he's over the ball, and you can
Speaker 1: kind of tell it anyway. But it does, as you said,
Speaker 1: it does get grayer and grayer and it ends up
Speaker 1: very dark if it's blatant sort of shouting across the tea.
Speaker 1: I do remember there was an incident. This was at
Speaker 1: Avenel and the Kemper Open. I think in about two thousand.
Speaker 1: I was not here yet, but Greg Chalmers left hander
Speaker 1: and his whole career because the left hander stays on
Speaker 1: the other side of the tea his whole career, people
Speaker 1: would walk all the way across the tea to look
Speaker 1: in his bag, and he just one day he just
Speaker 1: finally had enough and he's like seven iron guys like
Speaker 1: he just for fifteen years, it's his people have been
Speaker 1: walking across the tea to peek in his bag and
Speaker 1: he just obviously hit a bad shot or something. It
Speaker 1: was just annoying, he said, and he got a two
Speaker 1: sharpenlly for him. Um, I think yeah. I think that
Speaker 1: was the year before I got out here, so I
Speaker 1: think it was two thousand. Um, so there's precedent, I
Speaker 1: guess for a thing, and it's it goes from goes
Speaker 1: from like you said, completely part of the game and
Speaker 1: not even close to a preach of etiquette, um to
Speaker 1: just part of golf. Very white at one end and
Speaker 1: it's very black at the other and there's a gray area.
Speaker 1: And as I said, I didn't see this specific incident,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like it's somewhere between one end and
Speaker 1: the other end. Um. Yeah, we don't have all the context.
Speaker 1: Maybe you still one said Ricky, you know what time
Speaker 1: we can have breakfast tomorrow? He said five? Like you
Speaker 1: just you don't know. There's there's things that we're not pretty.
Speaker 1: Maybe the spotter for CBS was putting his hands up
Speaker 1: in the air saying what what what? What was that?
Speaker 1: What was that? And he was yelling that passed him
Speaker 1: or something. I don't know, like yeah, yeah, well we'll
Speaker 1: get more information tomorrow probably, But because every caddy has
Speaker 1: to every caddy has to give, what I has to
Speaker 1: is kind of requested by TV to signal the spotter
Speaker 1: on the side of the fairway what the guy's hitting.
Speaker 1: So so I'm finchy can what he's hitting into the grain.
Speaker 1: I mean that happens on every single hall on a coverage,
Speaker 1: and that's probably happening for almost every group in the Masters,
Speaker 1: where the caddy is having to signal to somebody what
Speaker 1: he's hitting. So it's kind of the informations out there. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Did you see it yourself? I've seen the replay, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh it's it's it looks like the caddies are communicating,
Speaker 1: but as Jeff is saying, he could be talking to
Speaker 1: someone on the other over the caddy's shoulder and they're
Speaker 1: both kind of walking and moving and it's like two
Speaker 1: ships passing. So um, but they all the players and
Speaker 1: caddies were interviewed by the committee. The committee exonerated them,
Speaker 1: so we know what the Masters. They tend to side
Speaker 1: on on with the players in a gray area. So
Speaker 1: it's an interesting subtlety to the sport, I guess. But um,
Speaker 1: let's talk about this leaderboard because it is stacked like
Speaker 1: uh I was. I wrote my story about Victor Hoveland.
Speaker 1: I've always everyone loves Victor Hoveland. He's like he's like
Speaker 1: a golden retriever, you know, he just bounds around with
Speaker 1: a big goofy smile. And he's always had a spectacular
Speaker 1: long game, and he's really been working hard on his own.
Speaker 1: His rare to have a world class player who has
Speaker 1: a glaring weakness like Hovelin's chipping and pitching was But
Speaker 1: he spent the last three months revamping his action and
Speaker 1: he made some incredible says. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: guys saw what he did on the tenth hole. He
Speaker 1: was short sighted, had had to go over the bunker
Speaker 1: downhill side. I'll god and Tiger Woods are waiting to
Speaker 1: bear witness against him, and he had it to like
Speaker 1: four feet. I thought that was the shot of the day.
Speaker 1: And after shooting thirty one on the front nine and
Speaker 1: he was off and run and he kind of he
Speaker 1: set the pace at minus seven. And then of course
Speaker 1: Kepa Cottam and John rom Jeff, you've talked that length
Speaker 1: with us through the years about how difficult the first
Speaker 1: green is. Scariest first green probably on planet Earth along
Speaker 1: with Oakmont. John Rom four puts the first green and
Speaker 1: then plays the next seventeen holes in nine under in
Speaker 1: like a controlled rage. And so three guys at seven
Speaker 1: on a soft golf course. But what did you think
Speaker 1: of the leader or Jeff Oh yeah, it's everyone, and
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's incredible. Everyone played well. Ram score
Speaker 1: is nuts. When you come in you double the first,
Speaker 1: you don't shoot many sixty five to the double on
Speaker 1: the first. It looked a bit soft. I mean I
Speaker 1: was out there a little bit today and I walked
Speaker 1: and looked gettable. The pins didn't look easy, not the
Speaker 1: ones that I looked out and study them all, but
Speaker 1: they didn't look super easy. And maybe there was a
Speaker 1: little bit of fire. I mean, if if August it
Speaker 1: was at its fieriest. I didn't think Victor's kind of
Speaker 1: hit that pitch on ten that he did. I think
Speaker 1: there's been years where that was not a possible shot,
Speaker 1: but he came up with it. Um. I I was
Speaker 1: out there till one or two o'clock and came back
Speaker 1: and watched the broadcast. I thought Keptkin looked as good
Speaker 1: as I've ever seen him. Look, he just looked the
Speaker 1: best player in the world today, to be honest. He
Speaker 1: just looked like it was easy. And he bokeep thirteen
Speaker 1: I think, didn't he and still shot sixty five. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's as bad as doubling the first. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I thought he looked amazing. I mean Cam Young, I
Speaker 1: think it was probably not talked about enough for the tournament.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Cam Yunk's built for this tournament.
Speaker 1: I mean Xander Lowry, I mean, Larry's just sitting there
Speaker 1: like no one's even talked about him. I mean, Jason
Speaker 1: Day seems to be back looking like he did a
Speaker 1: few years ago. Yeah, it's pretty and everybody's there, I
Speaker 1: mean even Rory. It'll be fair. I mean, we know
Speaker 1: he's probably going to shoot. He's probably gonna average under
Speaker 1: seventy for the next three days. That's his tradition here,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And if it gets really
Speaker 1: really hard, I mean less than seven under could win
Speaker 1: this tournament with a forecast. I mean it's probably unluckly,
Speaker 1: but I mean if it gets like I did in
Speaker 1: O seven there on the Saturday in OH seven, there's
Speaker 1: not gonna be many people shooting under par on Saturdays.
Speaker 1: So massive advantage of the guys who sort of you
Speaker 1: want to go red before you go black. Right, he
Speaker 1: as far red as you can go before it gets
Speaker 1: really really narly. And when you get a north wind
Speaker 1: here and he gets cold, it's going to be incredibly tough.
Speaker 1: So nothing's been decide, but it's a really impressive leader board.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think if you are running a tournament
Speaker 1: and you had this at the end of day one
Speaker 1: and you looked at it, you'd be pretty happy with
Speaker 1: the result of your leader board. Yeah, and you didn't
Speaker 1: even mentioned Scottie Scheffler, who's right there too, defending shout
Speaker 1: trying to go back back. He actually looked awful today,
Speaker 1: to be honest, for him, and he probably was the
Speaker 1: most impressive today because he looked like he left about
Speaker 1: five or six shots out there and he's only three
Speaker 1: back and you know he's not going to put like
Speaker 1: that four days in a row. So I mean he's
Speaker 1: in a great spot. Jeff, do you ever look at
Speaker 1: Scottie Sheffer think he looks great? No, that's fair. But
Speaker 1: the shot tracer is so good for Scottishcheffler. If you
Speaker 1: didn't have shot tracer, you can't work out how he
Speaker 1: does it. But shot tracer seems to match up the football.
Speaker 1: It all seems to make sense when you see the
Speaker 1: ball take off straight and now this little drawers a
Speaker 1: little fate. It's a great thing for Scheffler and he
Speaker 1: just seems to I mean, he doesn't handle it. He
Speaker 1: was getting pissy. I mean, he comes off at the
Speaker 1: end and says, I handle my emotions really well and
Speaker 1: all that he does. He was certainly like pretty frustrated
Speaker 1: out there, it seemed, but he seems to hit a
Speaker 1: good shot out like he's one of those guys who
Speaker 1: seems to just use that frustration and get more focused
Speaker 1: or get better on the next tile. And that's the
Speaker 1: sign of the best player on when I was telling
Speaker 1: the people we had dinner with it. Um, when you're
Speaker 1: playing really really well every week and you're really high
Speaker 1: ranked up, you come off and you think you play
Speaker 1: awful every day and you're sitting top ten, and people
Speaker 1: are like, oh, you're not playing bad, you're playing really great.
Speaker 1: But that's just what happens when you when you're playing
Speaker 1: really well, you know you're bad days, you're still doing
Speaker 1: better than most you know. Um, And there's there's absolutely
Speaker 1: something about this tournament that if you've won it before,
Speaker 1: it's a massive advantage, you know. I mean, it's hard
Speaker 1: to win the Masters for the first time, but it
Speaker 1: seems quite a lot easier to win it for the
Speaker 1: second time because there's all that you know, you can
Speaker 1: do it, you know, and he's got that on his side,
Speaker 1: and he's probably the most informed player in the world.
Speaker 1: So we'll see. I finally have the definitive answer, by
Speaker 1: the way to a question in which I know we
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Speaker 1: have them be a part of what we're doing. And
Speaker 1: their sets are on the way from my son and
Speaker 1: daughter and wife and look for are breaking him in. Michael.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about KEEPCA a little bit more because it
Speaker 1: was such a it was such a big plotline coming
Speaker 1: in can Ay. These live guys um make you know,
Speaker 1: plant their flag here at Augusta and salvage their honor
Speaker 1: and their entire tours. And Brooks is such a contrarian
Speaker 1: it's easy to imagine in winning this just to spite everybody.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, he comes and ranked one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighteenth in the world, which is really an indictment
Speaker 1: of the world, ranking more than Brooks. But what what
Speaker 1: did you see out of him? And what do you
Speaker 1: think is going to happen going forward? You know, it
Speaker 1: was almost like a non Chalan sixty five. I mean,
Speaker 1: sixty five is a low, low golf scorer and uh
Speaker 1: uh and as Jeff said, he basically made a double
Speaker 1: bogie on thirteen because he drugs in anywhere in play
Speaker 1: it's a six iron, and uh so he's very likely
Speaker 1: going to make a four there instead of a six.
Speaker 1: And then he missed three short cuts. So I mean,
Speaker 1: you're talking about a sixty five that people say this
Speaker 1: all the time, but just it's actually true. He shot
Speaker 1: a sixty too, had that easily could have been a
Speaker 1: sixty two without even making bombs just by playing let's
Speaker 1: call it sixty three sous. As Jeff was alluding to earlier,
Speaker 1: You've got to get read because Black's coming. Nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: shoot in these conditions. I don't think anybody's gonna break
Speaker 1: part four consecutive rounds. Maybe Rory break part for three
Speaker 1: more rounds, given what he tends to do around here.
Speaker 1: But he's put himself in a tremendous position, and he
Speaker 1: has that sort of not swagger nonchalance we've seen in
Speaker 1: every major that he's won or contended in. He just
Speaker 1: treats it all kind of the same. So I think
Speaker 1: of all the low rounds today, I think was his
Speaker 1: was the most impressive. The thing that we don't know
Speaker 1: about him right now is is he sort of out
Speaker 1: of practice for playing seventy two whole golf tournaments. It's
Speaker 1: one thing to win three round golf tournaments and something else,
Speaker 1: you know, as Tony Finnou and Molnari showed us a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, and anybody else to do it
Speaker 1: for four straight rounds, and of course that's what you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to do here. And we don't know if
Speaker 1: this shot him in Mighty Human go into Mondays, but
Speaker 1: right now. Of all the play that we've seen, I
Speaker 1: would say kept because it was probably the most remarkable.
Speaker 1: And he's just the perfect anti hero. You know, he's
Speaker 1: not gonna he's he just doesn't give you that much
Speaker 1: out there on the golf course. He's hard to read,
Speaker 1: and he's a little brooding. He's a little mysterious, and
Speaker 1: he could kind of be a dick and all these things.
Speaker 1: I think he inspires conflicted feelings people. He's kind of cool,
Speaker 1: but he's heart it's not easy to root for. But
Speaker 1: then it's fun to watch him play. But how does
Speaker 1: he says he's burning to win, but you can't really tell.
Speaker 1: Like he's just so enigmatic, Like he's almost the perfect
Speaker 1: embodiment of live golf for me more than any anybody
Speaker 1: else in this field, Like he would be the perfect
Speaker 1: winner at this very complex moment in professional golf. And
Speaker 1: you have a lot of live support among the former winners.
Speaker 1: I mean, we saw it when Tiger won, all those
Speaker 1: former winners. You know, the club within the club. We've
Speaker 1: talked about a million times. It's a real thing. The
Speaker 1: club within the club, whether you're Larry Miys and Bernhard
Speaker 1: Langer or Patrick Read and Sergio Garcia. But he's got
Speaker 1: the support of a lot of guys who were already
Speaker 1: in the club. And I think that he doesn't. As
Speaker 1: he said today's press conference, you know what he shows
Speaker 1: and when he asked him, you know how he feeled
Speaker 1: about the next Netflix series and revealing them more vulnerable side,
Speaker 1: and he said basically help you know, adding a few
Speaker 1: words here that there's a disconnect between how he projects
Speaker 1: himself publicly in these tournaments and what he's really like. Um.
Speaker 1: But presuming that's true, there's no reason to doubt it
Speaker 1: to have the support of the Sergio Patrick Read, Bubba Watson,
Speaker 1: Phil Mickelson. I don't see how that couldn't be meaningful.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Jeff? What is what is your
Speaker 1: take on Brooks up guy? I don't know how you
Speaker 1: feel like him as a player or a personality in
Speaker 1: the game. Well, I mean the guy. I think the
Speaker 1: guy's good. I think he's misunderstood because he doesn't give
Speaker 1: you guys much, right, which is fine. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of guys who don't give you guys much. You know,
Speaker 1: he's so good. I mean if if I mean we're
Speaker 1: always sort of every golfer does it I mean you
Speaker 1: watch other golfers and you kind of get heavy as
Speaker 1: it's like I wouldn't mind that golf game, you know,
Speaker 1: like I wouldn't mind that swing, I an't wind that
Speaker 1: punning stroke. Whatever Brooks is that I watched him play today,
Speaker 1: and every time I watch him, players like, well, that guy.
Speaker 1: I like that guy's game. You know, he just looks
Speaker 1: he looks really really good. And I mean we're not
Speaker 1: anywhere near that yet because there's a long way to
Speaker 1: go and the weather's going to get weird and um,
Speaker 1: but he's got a pretty good track record of when
Speaker 1: he gets up there and if he if he gets
Speaker 1: within twenty seven holes or so of the end of
Speaker 1: this tournament and he's right up the top of the
Speaker 1: leader board, he's not going to go anywhere, you know.
Speaker 1: It says sort of this stubborn no, I'm just better
Speaker 1: than you guys. I'm just going to beat you, you know,
Speaker 1: which is what the best do? You know? They just
Speaker 1: happily refused to lose. And he has a he's probably
Speaker 1: driving a better car than most. You know, he's just
Speaker 1: the machine of Brooks kept as a proper golfer, you know,
Speaker 1: really really good, and it looks as good as it's
Speaker 1: looked ever to me today, at least. So, I mean
Speaker 1: I like the guy just because he doesn't he give
Speaker 1: you guys that much doesn't mean Um doesn't mean much.
Speaker 1: I don't think you know, the guy behind, the guy
Speaker 1: in between the ropes and everyone sees on TV and
Speaker 1: players and in the media center and the guys in
Speaker 1: the locker room that it's they're very often different, you know,
Speaker 1: the public persona and the real person. He just wants
Speaker 1: it really bad, and he might maybe be a little
Speaker 1: bit hesitant to sort of show that he wants it,
Speaker 1: you know, but he wants it really really bad, and
Speaker 1: he gets grumpy like the rest of us when it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. You know. Um, No, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: Brooks fan, absolutely. I mean I'm a fan of um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm a Brooks fan. You know, Jeff I
Speaker 1: was with Watson, Tom Watson in two thousand, I think
Speaker 1: it was two thousand, summer of that, let's see, summer
Speaker 1: when was the Ryder Cup in Paris? Sound eighteen Okay,
Speaker 1: so it was the summer before that, and and Watson
Speaker 1: was already saying what Jeff was saying, you know, the
Speaker 1: question was among the young players, who's the best? Maybe
Speaker 1: it was eighteen, and Watson said, it's Cup. He's got everything.
Speaker 1: And part of that everything is he hits it a
Speaker 1: mile high. Now, that might be less important this week
Speaker 1: than with the course playing soft, that it might be
Speaker 1: other other weeks, but I mean, like big Jack before him,
Speaker 1: when he hited a mile high and it will stop
Speaker 1: on these greens, that's a huge advantage. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's easy to say now because we have because he
Speaker 1: played such an impressive first round, but also because he
Speaker 1: has him playing well on the Live Tour, and also
Speaker 1: we haven't seen a lot of them of late, and
Speaker 1: because as Jeff Nody, he doesn't quote give us a
Speaker 1: lot he's thought obligated to and he may not even
Speaker 1: be capable of. But there's a lot of reasons to
Speaker 1: think that this actually could be his week. And then
Speaker 1: the ramifications of that for golf are huge, and then
Speaker 1: it sort of gets you know, then you really then
Speaker 1: that really tests what fred Ridley said the other day.
Speaker 1: It's like, can there be a thawing golf? Can there
Speaker 1: be a thowing between the Live Tour and the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: And given some of the retoric that we refer from
Speaker 1: Tiger and Rory early on, which would seem like, no,
Speaker 1: there can't be. But that's not really a very No
Speaker 1: is not a really in life in general. No, it's
Speaker 1: not really a very sustainable answer when you're talking about
Speaker 1: complex relationships. And maybe that can actually be It's weird
Speaker 1: for me to say it, but maybe it can be
Speaker 1: a good thing. If if a lived player, particularly this
Speaker 1: particular lived player, wins this thing, well, it's It's has
Speaker 1: been an open question what does a win on the
Speaker 1: live to or mean in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker 1: No one's been able to really define that. But Brooks
Speaker 1: haven't won two of the last six events over there.
Speaker 1: If he takes this green jacket, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: those winds become elevated and they have more value. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: well this was this, those were the building blocks, and
Speaker 1: you can stay competitively sharp and beating guys or there
Speaker 1: does have meaning. So yeah, there's a lot at stake.
Speaker 1: It's all this is a talking point Eler in the week.
Speaker 1: Was all theoretical, but now it's here. Brooks looks like
Speaker 1: he's gonna be tough to beat, so that's obviously something
Speaker 1: that we're all going to focus on. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to Rory, because you know, there was He've been playing
Speaker 1: great for so long, career best second place last year
Speaker 1: at the Masters. You know, walked out of here with
Speaker 1: his head held high, feeling great about his chances. And
Speaker 1: you know he came out today and he just looked
Speaker 1: flat and he didn't he didn't look he just didn't
Speaker 1: look sharp, he didn't look focused. He was missing left,
Speaker 1: which is always a red flag with Roor. And you
Speaker 1: know he double bogie's the seventh hole, which, uh, it's
Speaker 1: not it's not the easiest hole, Augusta. It's it's probably
Speaker 1: an easy bogie, but I mean that's tough to take
Speaker 1: a six there. He fights all the way back, he
Speaker 1: gets it back into two red numbers, and then then
Speaker 1: he bogie seventeen and he's he's in thirty seventh place.
Speaker 1: I mean, the course was very gettable today. And to
Speaker 1: your point, Jeff, if seven or eight under is going
Speaker 1: to win this thing, um, he gave up a lot
Speaker 1: of ground today. I don't he didn't quite lose it,
Speaker 1: but he put himself in a really disadvantaged position. So
Speaker 1: it's just that the annual Rory drama. What what did
Speaker 1: you see, Jeff? If anything that makes you encourage you
Speaker 1: can find it, or what's your analysis of where it
Speaker 1: went sideways? Like let's just let's just talk about Rory
Speaker 1: for a little while. Well, firstly, um, the scores are
Speaker 1: really good, but there's nothing easy about breaking pirate the
Speaker 1: Masters ever. Um, so I don't think it went sadways.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people went low. I don't
Speaker 1: think it went sideways. I mean, he's beaten his first
Speaker 1: round average I think by a couple over the last
Speaker 1: you know, so he's improving. I mean nobody, well Tiger
Speaker 1: knows and there's about what two three people living who
Speaker 1: know what it feels like to try to close out
Speaker 1: the career Grand Slam. I mean, and I can't think
Speaker 1: of a harder place to do it than here, Like
Speaker 1: same course every year, the place that's going to create
Speaker 1: scar tissue. I mean, all the other three majors, you've
Speaker 1: got a different course. One of them is going to
Speaker 1: suit you, and one of them is going to work.
Speaker 1: You know this one. You're going to come back to
Speaker 1: the same place. You're going to think about the same
Speaker 1: course and the same shots and the same stuff every day.
Speaker 1: It's got to be the hardest place to close out
Speaker 1: the career. Grand Slam. Everybody wants to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Every question he ever gets in a month leading up
Speaker 1: to this for the last ten years has been greer
Speaker 1: Grand Slam. What do you think it's hard to carry
Speaker 1: that with you? I mean, there's just so much golf
Speaker 1: goes the best, and Scheffler shows this. It seems to
Speaker 1: show this that when everything when it's all simple, when
Speaker 1: life is simple and it's all balanced, and life at
Speaker 1: home is good, and you don't have a whole lot
Speaker 1: of worries and there's not a whole lot to sort
Speaker 1: of you're not trying to live up to any expectations
Speaker 1: and you're just sort of doing your thing. Golf is
Speaker 1: a lot easier than when you Rory's carries a lot
Speaker 1: of extras that a lot of other guys in the
Speaker 1: field don't. And I wouldn't even include all this sort
Speaker 1: of spokesman for the PGA to a sort of role
Speaker 1: that people are sort of handing him or he's sort
Speaker 1: of taken on. I don't think that's it. It's just
Speaker 1: you live your heart. I mean, it's an unbelievable thing
Speaker 1: to win three four multiple majors. To win all four
Speaker 1: is just what's has only been done five times, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's a hard thing to do.
Speaker 1: And I just think the weight of that. And there's
Speaker 1: the longest three days of the year is Monday, Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Wednesday at the Masters, like it's just get me to
Speaker 1: the first tea, you know, I mean, and his Monday
Speaker 1: Tuesday Wednesday a way longer than everyone else's. And he's
Speaker 1: shown that he clearly plays this course as well as anybody.
Speaker 1: He just puts himself behind the eight ball with fifty
Speaker 1: four half to play and then it beats the field
Speaker 1: for the last three rounds. He kind of seems to
Speaker 1: do that a lot, so, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And in a day, I mean, it's very it happens
Speaker 1: very quick. I mean, he's going along fine, then he
Speaker 1: doubled seven, and then all of a sudden there's three
Speaker 1: guys at seven under part. It's like, you really haven't
Speaker 1: done that much wrong, and you know, you run a
Speaker 1: couple of parts over the edge of the hole and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're nine behind, and now you
Speaker 1: need to force it. And now it's really difficult, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know how much you can
Speaker 1: read into it. I mean, he's obviously their class golfer.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether it ever win it or not.
Speaker 1: This place seems to get into people's heads. I mean
Speaker 1: it gets into the head before it gets into everyone's head.
Speaker 1: That's kind of part of the charm of the place.
Speaker 1: And to carry the sort of self expectation that he
Speaker 1: would be carrying this stuff. I don't know. I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, I still think you'll finish great, You'll still
Speaker 1: finish up high. And I think it actually helps him.
Speaker 1: I mean it helps him. I think that it's going
Speaker 1: to get tough because he knows. I mean, shooting aid
Speaker 1: In Under for the next three rounds would be quite difficult.
Speaker 1: But if he's only got to shoot seven, you know,
Speaker 1: you can craft that out. You know, you can sort
Speaker 1: of have nine holes where you don't make a birdie
Speaker 1: and it's okay. But if it was going to be
Speaker 1: Aiding Under and he went front nine tomorrow and didn't
Speaker 1: make any birdies, then he's probably not getting to aid
Speaker 1: In Under, you know. So um yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I think we're a bit hard on him.
Speaker 1: I think it's a really really hard thing to do.
Speaker 1: What he's trying to do around a place that's the
Speaker 1: hardest place to do it. I think we've got to Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people are going need to lay off him
Speaker 1: and just realize how hard this thing is to do.
Speaker 1: And he' still pretty impressive because you even part around
Speaker 1: a really hard course. I mean, I'd love to see, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a tough golf course anyway, So i'd
Speaker 1: love to see him play. Well. Golf is better when
Speaker 1: Rory's up there. It's so it's so fun to watch
Speaker 1: play well, maybe the funnest to watch play well, you know,
Speaker 1: the bouncy walk and how free years and um, it'd
Speaker 1: be fun to see him get in these. He just
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to ever really quite be there with non
Speaker 1: Hall topply and it would be really fun to say
Speaker 1: that sort of fun fault. So I kind of just
Speaker 1: miss it. I don't really, I just wouldn't. I just
Speaker 1: want to say that as as a golf fan, Jeff,
Speaker 1: can I ask you a question? It loots to somebody
Speaker 1: Alan was just talking about a minute ago. I think
Speaker 1: one of the most pretentious phrases in golf is, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a really good second shot golf course. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what the actually don't even really
Speaker 1: know what it means. But to Alan's point about the
Speaker 1: third that Victor Hobbam played today and whether you could
Speaker 1: play it under dry conditions, I mean that exact sh
Speaker 1: shot you couldn't. But what about some of the third
Speaker 1: shots you do play on this golf course, some of
Speaker 1: those finicky fiddly shots, what are some of them? Really?
Speaker 1: Like that third shot on ten if you miss that green,
Speaker 1: like the third shot on one, if you miss that green,
Speaker 1: the third shot on fifteen, if you don't go for it,
Speaker 1: can you talk from your experience of having played it
Speaker 1: about to use the pretentious phrase, I'm just inventing Augusta
Speaker 1: National is a third shot golf course? Well, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean Augusta nashvill Is is a golf course that
Speaker 1: every shot, the higher quality of the shot you hit,
Speaker 1: exponentially makes the next shot easier. If you like, So,
Speaker 1: if you had a really good drive, your second shots
Speaker 1: relatively easy. If you had a great second shot, your
Speaker 1: third shots really is. If you'd have a bad t shot,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it gets it. You make mistakes,
Speaker 1: get magnified. Really really fast. But the third shots of
Speaker 1: stuff around the green. I mean I I watched minmir
Speaker 1: lead to day drive it right next to the third
Speaker 1: grad where he drove it right up on the third
Speaker 1: graen where you second shot where he was putting, and
Speaker 1: he made five. And it happens so fast you don't
Speaker 1: do anything wrong. You just leave the part of first
Speaker 1: the first part just a little bit short, and now
Speaker 1: you're put for a birdie is a fifteen foot part
Speaker 1: that if it misses, it's going to go six feet past.
Speaker 1: So it really he's hit it. He's hit it sort
Speaker 1: of half a foot too short, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he's making five after driving it basically on the green.
Speaker 1: That is possible on every single hole. And we saw
Speaker 1: Tom I don't know on the team on the board
Speaker 1: garden from the fifteen hit his bunk shot in the
Speaker 1: right bunk round fifteen he just hit at the water.
Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden he's playing his fourth
Speaker 1: shot from the from the layups. But it happens really
Speaker 1: really fast. So I think that's probably realistically really where
Speaker 1: the experience is. I think when you get those tricky
Speaker 1: little shots around the greens and you understand the ones
Speaker 1: that you know what, I can kind of try to
Speaker 1: get this one close and worst case I make bogey.
Speaker 1: But there's there's shots on every hole out there with
Speaker 1: certain pins and you're in certain spots that you really
Speaker 1: have to say it, right, how do I just not
Speaker 1: make double here? You know, I can't really try to
Speaker 1: take this on really sort of take the long view
Speaker 1: on stuff, and how do I get this down in
Speaker 1: three at the most? It's really really tricky. As I said,
Speaker 1: the real sort of thing about this is the worst.
Speaker 1: You just your mistakes get really really magnified and it
Speaker 1: looks like it's wide and you're always chipping off short
Speaker 1: grass and you've got a great low in the bunk
Speaker 1: all the time, and you rare very rarely in the
Speaker 1: trees where you can kind of hit it anywhere. But
Speaker 1: you can't really because the higher quality shot you hit,
Speaker 1: the easier your neck shot is. And it's um you
Speaker 1: miss it in some really tricky little spots. And when
Speaker 1: we saw the mess, I mean, Rory was making made
Speaker 1: a bit of mess at thirteen from the middle of
Speaker 1: the fairway. It's very easy to do to just sort
Speaker 1: of you eh to lose shot, loose shots every week
Speaker 1: and then you just hit it out the ten feet
Speaker 1: and you make it, or you don't. You hit a
Speaker 1: loose shot here, and it just gets harder and harder
Speaker 1: and harder until you get the ball in the hole.
Speaker 1: You know, it's um, it's part of the genius at
Speaker 1: a place. So like you say, there is no such
Speaker 1: thing as a first shot course or a second shot course,
Speaker 1: or I mean this course is a sort of it's
Speaker 1: the direct proportion. The better you hit every shot proportionately
Speaker 1: or exponentially, really, the easier your neck shot is, you know,
Speaker 1: all the way right, even even putting, even putting like
Speaker 1: you've got a thirty foot part, the better your first
Speaker 1: thirty foot part is, the easier your part part is.
Speaker 1: If you missed that thirty foot a bad part. Or
Speaker 1: now you've got to part put the one alm, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to make alm. I'm not going to four part.
Speaker 1: You know. That's the chet's really the mental challenges. It
Speaker 1: never never lets you go. Even on a simple little
Speaker 1: fifteen foot up hill part. You've given a bit too much.
Speaker 1: Now you've got four feet coming downhill and now wow,
Speaker 1: now I could actually Now I've got to careful that
Speaker 1: I don't three part this three foot four foot. Um,
Speaker 1: that's a fantastic course like that. Yeah, the third shots
Speaker 1: are very interesting. That's probably the funnest ones to watch
Speaker 1: as a spectator if you're at the golf course, to
Speaker 1: stand around the greens and to watch the stuff that
Speaker 1: happens around the greens, because it makes everybody's scrap. We're
Speaker 1: all scratching our head around the greens. I mean, how
Speaker 1: about John rams to do in that first green, that
Speaker 1: third shot? You know, after that he was cooked, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean in that first green especially. I mean we've
Speaker 1: talked about a lot, but that first that's it's one
Speaker 1: of the that's gonna be the fattest first hole in
Speaker 1: that we play regularly. Um, it's it doesn't look that scary.
Speaker 1: And in the the practice around he had all the parts
Speaker 1: are around and it's all very good. And then the
Speaker 1: tournament that it seems to get us a little bit
Speaker 1: faster on Thursday morning usually and all of so they
Speaker 1: know their pins. I mean there's pins that's if you
Speaker 1: move it a foot to the right, everybody makes their
Speaker 1: six footers, but you move it just to that spot
Speaker 1: that they know. Everybody overreads it, misses it high or
Speaker 1: everybody you know, it's it's incredible how they can put
Speaker 1: these pins. It really looks like it's going to break
Speaker 1: a cup and it just doesn't break at all. You know,
Speaker 1: they know this course so well. Nobody sets up a
Speaker 1: course better, and it just they they can make you.
Speaker 1: You can walk down the first fairway, I think you're
Speaker 1: playing really well, and I'm putting really well, or I'm
Speaker 1: doing this really well, and by about the third hole
Speaker 1: you feel like you've never played golf before. And that's
Speaker 1: what it does, you know, and that's why it's such
Speaker 1: a mental test. Yeah, it's a yeah, it's just good.
Speaker 1: It's great fun to watch, and it's great fun to
Speaker 1: play when you do it well. And it's just really
Speaker 1: incredibly sort of deflating when you sort of get caught out.
Speaker 1: I don't forgive me, please, I'm enjoying it. Keep going.
Speaker 1: But but Jeff, you know, the last time we got
Speaker 1: to really do a deep dive on a golf course
Speaker 1: like this, three of us together, was the Old Course.
Speaker 1: We all love the Old Course. I mean, I can
Speaker 1: get emotional talk about the Old course and now to
Speaker 1: hear you talk about a ghost to Nashville almost the
Speaker 1: same kind of way. But you know, you don't have
Speaker 1: that experience with your dad like you do at the
Speaker 1: old course. But of course we know that Jones thought
Speaker 1: a lot about the old course when he and McKenzie
Speaker 1: were designing this place. But how did the two play
Speaker 1: out in your mind? In some ways they're very similar.
Speaker 1: Of course they're very different too, but just as iconic
Speaker 1: golf courses, how do you think about the two at
Speaker 1: the same time. Well, I mean, there's the similarities are
Speaker 1: harder to see now. I think because of the way
Speaker 1: it's presented. I think early days, back in the thirties
Speaker 1: and forties, it would have been fairly less irrigation on
Speaker 1: the fairways. It would have been sort of but mute,
Speaker 1: pretty firm. You had to run the ball up on five.
Speaker 1: I mean five and fourteen look like they've been pulled
Speaker 1: straight from the out course those two grains. It would
Speaker 1: have been in more of a ground game. And I
Speaker 1: think over the years, as everything's got better, everything's got better,
Speaker 1: it's more of a game in the air and you're
Speaker 1: sort of flying it onto five and four. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: even consider trying to run it up on five and
Speaker 1: fourteen anymore. And some of the other stuff it it
Speaker 1: plays different than probably Jones's intention, to be honest, because
Speaker 1: he couldn't have envisioned how we were playing golf now,
Speaker 1: I don't think or agronomy and those sort of things.
Speaker 1: But they both, as I was sort of saying before
Speaker 1: about it, sort of exponentially, like the further you get
Speaker 1: off track, the harder it is to get back on track.
Speaker 1: You know. The courses both do that, they do that
Speaker 1: in different ways. I mean, this is an elevated test.
Speaker 1: This is like playing snooker on a full size table
Speaker 1: compared to playing pool in the pub. You know, it's
Speaker 1: quite simple. Everybody, you have two or three beers, you
Speaker 1: go to the pub and your whole five or six shots.
Speaker 1: So it's like I'm really good at Paul. And then
Speaker 1: if you went on to get on a really like
Speaker 1: the full size the big thing, or it would be
Speaker 1: like driving a stick shift Porsche race car from the
Speaker 1: seventies compared to like driving a you know, a nice car. Now.
Speaker 1: It's like it's just an elevated skill level. You've just
Speaker 1: it's so much more. There's so much more nuance and depth.
Speaker 1: There's depth to the test, you know, I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got your second shot on ten, and you're downslope. The
Speaker 1: better your t shot, the flatter your lie. But you're
Speaker 1: generally offered downslope with a ball above your feet and
Speaker 1: eleven the balls above your feet, thirteen the balls weigh
Speaker 1: above your feet. Fourteen you have to hit a drawer
Speaker 1: into the green, but the balls below your feet. You know.
Speaker 1: Nine you have to hit a drawer into that green.
Speaker 1: But the balls weigh below your feet. We don't ever
Speaker 1: have that. We don't often have that in regular golf.
Speaker 1: That's that's why the cream rises to the top because
Speaker 1: lots of us can hit a seven nine from five,
Speaker 1: hit it straight off a flat line and a nice
Speaker 1: soft green. But you get a firmish green and the
Speaker 1: balls below your feet and you actually have to hit
Speaker 1: a drawer to hit the green. This is like elevating
Speaker 1: the test like it's a deeper It's a deeper test.
Speaker 1: It's a test with more depth. And the old course
Speaker 1: does it, The great courses do that. It's not because
Speaker 1: this is such a historic, famous tournament why the cream
Speaker 1: rises to the top. They rise to the top because
Speaker 1: the test is more difficult, and it makes unless you
Speaker 1: are one of the best players in the world, you
Speaker 1: just can't possibly do shoot these scores. I mean, people
Speaker 1: don't have any idea. Even today, everyone's like, oh, August,
Speaker 1: it was easy today. They have no idea. It's really not.
Speaker 1: These things are really it's a really really hard course.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a really as is. The best word
Speaker 1: is more depth. There's more depth to the test, and
Speaker 1: that's what the old course does. It's irrelevant the score
Speaker 1: under par, it's totally irrelevent. The shots you need to
Speaker 1: shoot eighteen under here or eighteen under at the old
Speaker 1: course for four days. Shots not everybody can hit. And
Speaker 1: it's a variety. As I said, balls below your feet,
Speaker 1: balls above your feet, down slopes, up slopes, decisions. You've
Speaker 1: got to be brave. I mean the old course to
Speaker 1: do it well, you've got to take the outer bounds
Speaker 1: and the bunker is on a little bit here. You've
Speaker 1: got to take the water and you've got to you've
Speaker 1: got to hit some shots that are just not shots
Speaker 1: that we're not used to hitting. I mean, the second
Speaker 1: shot on fifteen is just not a shot we would
Speaker 1: take on anywhere else. But because it's here and because
Speaker 1: we know we have to take it on, you have
Speaker 1: to take it on it forces you to hit shots
Speaker 1: that you're uncomfortable hitting, but the only way you can
Speaker 1: hit them well is to not be uncomfortable where you're
Speaker 1: hitting it, you know, if that makes sense, Which is
Speaker 1: which is why it's a great course for Keepkat, you
Speaker 1: would say, And it was fantastic for Phil and fantastic
Speaker 1: for Tiger because they loved that sort of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to take this on. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a course that makes you want to play conservative, but
Speaker 1: the only way to play it well is to play
Speaker 1: it aggressively and have the skill set to play all
Speaker 1: these uneven lies and understand slope and it's really hard
Speaker 1: to imagine some of the breaks and so how high
Speaker 1: you have to hit some of these. I mean, as
Speaker 1: I'll pick on Tom again. Tom Kim's the best, and
Speaker 1: he's probably going to play here for a really long time.
Speaker 1: But he had that bunker shot on fifteen and he
Speaker 1: just didn't respect the slope enough and very quickly he's
Speaker 1: got a nice greenside bunker shot and all of a
Speaker 1: sudd he's in the water. That doesn't happen in a
Speaker 1: normal place. You know, that doesn't happen, and it kind
Speaker 1: of maybe looks unfair, but Tiger would have hit that
Speaker 1: bunker shop six feet right of the whole, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's just a fantastic test of a golfer that
Speaker 1: just challenges us to a much higher level than a
Speaker 1: general course, and the old course does the same as
Speaker 1: a score relative to part is completely irrelevant here. I
Speaker 1: think it's asking you you just have to beat the
Speaker 1: other one hundred and fifty six players or the other
Speaker 1: eighty seven players or whoever at the field. To do that,
Speaker 1: you have to have all the shots in your bag,
Speaker 1: and not everybody. I mean, there's really only handfuls of
Speaker 1: guys in the world who actually have all these shots. Well,
Speaker 1: there's the metaphysical aspect, because you talked about this last
Speaker 1: year so beautifully, where they're scary shots and there do
Speaker 1: or die, and the only way you can execute the
Speaker 1: is to be fearless and to be free. But everything
Speaker 1: in your nature wants you to be conservative and holds
Speaker 1: you back, and it's that that inner battle. Can you
Speaker 1: just let the club go the way you have to
Speaker 1: to execute it? But and that's you know, when we're
Speaker 1: talking about Rory, like we know he has all the
Speaker 1: skill sets, but it's almost like it almost like he
Speaker 1: was holding on the club a little bit today, you know,
Speaker 1: all those left misses and some one hand finishes. He
Speaker 1: just didn't have his usual rhythm and he's been swinging
Speaker 1: it beautifully. So again, is that is that just more
Speaker 1: of a mental thing where he's just trying to be
Speaker 1: a little too careful, he's a little afraid of the
Speaker 1: miss and just that that two percent hang on which
Speaker 1: he usually never has. That makes the difference. And that's
Speaker 1: why it's such a fascinating riddle, not just for Rory,
Speaker 1: but for all these guys. And of course it only
Speaker 1: gets as you get closer to the finish line and
Speaker 1: that you're so close to getting getting that jacket, like
Speaker 1: it just becomes even more tantalizing and more tortures. That
Speaker 1: that's why this course is so much fun to watch
Speaker 1: because it, as you're saying, Jeff, it requires so much
Speaker 1: physical skill, but then it takes just as much on
Speaker 1: the mental side. I mean, it's just so stressful, and
Speaker 1: that's why it's just such fascinating stage. I think, Alan,
Speaker 1: what you said is he's and Jeff was saying same thing.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely absolutely true for sixty three holes the course,
Speaker 1: the course, and what it will yield to guys who really, really,
Speaker 1: really know how to play golf, meaning the Alathaballs of
Speaker 1: the world and the Sevis of the world and the
Speaker 1: Tigers of the world who have every shot through. Is
Speaker 1: that that someone can play. But and I would say
Speaker 1: this is why it's more than the course. It is
Speaker 1: this particular tournament. When it comes to late on Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 1: there really truly are whether you're whether you're like a
Speaker 1: golf historian or you know, you know who do you
Speaker 1: mean to merit and Byrnilson, or whether you do or
Speaker 1: you don't, you still know that you're that if you
Speaker 1: can get that, if you can get to the house
Speaker 1: and when the thing, you're in the club forever. And
Speaker 1: that has to I'm sure way to Mulinary's mind. I
Speaker 1: remember asked Mollinary this. I said, you know, when you
Speaker 1: woke up Sunday morning, could you imagine could you not
Speaker 1: think about the idea of how the shirt's going to
Speaker 1: go with the coat? And Mulinary said, super honestly, you
Speaker 1: said you would love not to think about it, but
Speaker 1: you can't not. And at some point that I think
Speaker 1: that's why so many people who aren't even interested in golf,
Speaker 1: get interested in this tournament because the course, the course,
Speaker 1: the course and then everything that it means come late
Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon. And that's why it's just spectacular every
Speaker 1: which way. Well, I mean, Scottie Scheffler crying in his
Speaker 1: wife's arms Sunday morning last year, he's one of the
Speaker 1: you said at Michael, it's one of the all time
Speaker 1: great admissions about the pressure of tournament golf and him
Speaker 1: him saying to Meredith, I don't think I'm ready for this.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I don't think I can do this,
Speaker 1: and he's like sobbing in her arms like that is
Speaker 1: that is the test, that is that is the challenge.
Speaker 1: And of course he overcame it, and he's been on
Speaker 1: a heater or ever since because he proved to himself
Speaker 1: that he could do it. Then that's what's so compelling
Speaker 1: about this, and it's true in any major championship. But
Speaker 1: of course Jeff knows this because he's done it. But
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look, even if you look at
Speaker 1: at what Keepka did at Bethpage I mean he was
Speaker 1: decimating that long, difficult Bethpage Black course until Sunday Sunday,
Speaker 1: he looked kind of ordinary and he was playing the
Speaker 1: Harrold Varner if I recall and harm Varner went for
Speaker 1: a number and Keevica sort of went for a number
Speaker 1: and it was good enough to win. But that's all
Speaker 1: it really was. And so no matter what kind of
Speaker 1: golf Brooks Kevica plays, you know, on Friday and Saturday,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine going south. He's playing too well, but
Speaker 1: bikes on the afternoon. There are going to be other things.
Speaker 1: There are going to be other factors that were part
Speaker 1: of It's going to be up and playing fifty four
Speaker 1: hold tournaments. But the bigger part of it is I'm
Speaker 1: going to be in the club forever. Yeah, that's well said.
Speaker 1: Just a weather update because Jeff has a references a
Speaker 1: few times. So Tomorrow is actually gonna be warm. It
Speaker 1: gonna be eighty degrees but eighty percent chance of rain
Speaker 1: and thunderstorm. So if we can get in a full
Speaker 1: eighteen holes for the field, that would be remarkable. And
Speaker 1: then Saturday, the temperature plummet's high of fifty one one
Speaker 1: percent chance of rain, so it'll be a war of attrition.
Speaker 1: It's going to be cold and long and nasty, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels like it can feel like Zach Johnson all
Speaker 1: over again. And then Sunday gets a bit warmer, up
Speaker 1: to sixty degrees. It shows fifty percent chance of rain.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a tough three days and possibly
Speaker 1: four ahead. And how guys handled the starts and stops
Speaker 1: and all of that. Let's just let's just end this
Speaker 1: podcast with a winner and a winning scorelet we don't
Speaker 1: usually do this, but we've got some data to go on. Jeff,
Speaker 1: you're the man here. Let's put you on the spot
Speaker 1: while score. It's really hard. I mean that oh seven
Speaker 1: year we had like low forties, similar it was a
Speaker 1: similar forecast, but never as much rain. But it was
Speaker 1: a very cold north wind. I mean I remember hitting
Speaker 1: driver three. I'm short on the first, which wasn't happening today,
Speaker 1: you know, And the part fives are all layups, and
Speaker 1: it was really tough and miserable and cold and scary,
Speaker 1: and yeah, battle of attrition. I from what I what
Speaker 1: evidence I saw today, Brooks looks like the Brooks we
Speaker 1: saw when he was marching along. He it's not talked
Speaker 1: about much, but he spent the first five or six
Speaker 1: years of his life playing Europe, like the Mini Tours
Speaker 1: in Europe and then the Victor in Europe. I mean
Speaker 1: he's played in a rain suit, probably a little bit
Speaker 1: more than a lot of these guys, and he just
Speaker 1: looks really good. And I'm going to say nine under
Speaker 1: Brooks kept goo Shane with a with a not to
Speaker 1: Shane Larry because if he really gets like that, we
Speaker 1: know he's good in that sort of stuff. Michael, I mean,
Speaker 1: Jeff really took the words out of my mouth. But
Speaker 1: I do think it's Kepco. He plays early tomorrow, he's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be one of the guys who gets who
Speaker 1: gets done early. He's probably gonna be leaving this thing
Speaker 1: for thirty six sols. I don't see him going that.
Speaker 1: That's south. Then he gets to play late on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Maybe things I'll have calmed down a little bit then
Speaker 1: wind wise and otherwise. So then he's in the last
Speaker 1: group on Sunday, and guys usually went out of the
Speaker 1: last group. So it's easy to make a case for
Speaker 1: Kepp going to go from strength to strength here in
Speaker 1: Large Park because it's got an early tea time. And
Speaker 1: as for the winning scories at seven, yeah, just to
Speaker 1: not super duplicate. Jeff, I'll say ten, but it's just
Speaker 1: really a stab in the dark. Well, this is how
Speaker 1: we know Brooks Kepa is not going with the Masters,
Speaker 1: because all three of us think he's going to win
Speaker 1: the Masters death on these things. But yeah, it's I
Speaker 1: think it's his time. I think it's his moment. I
Speaker 1: think in this very we didn't even touch on the
Speaker 1: fact that today there was just ruling became official from
Speaker 1: the arbitration case in Europe to live guys lost they're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to play on the European Tour
Speaker 1: and just turns volume up on all this stuff. It's um.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw Keith Palley under the tree, the
Speaker 1: CEO of the European Tour. He was practically doing cart
Speaker 1: wheels like it's it's it's just one more log on
Speaker 1: the fire. I think it's destined for a live guy
Speaker 1: to win this thing. H Brooks would be perfect. So
Speaker 1: I think it's three out of three. Then Alan, how
Speaker 1: many years is he obbligated to play the Live Tour
Speaker 1: And what path could he possibly have to come back
Speaker 1: to the PHA Tour if he even wanted to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I'm trying to nail down whether it's a four
Speaker 1: or five year deal, but it's it's multi um and
Speaker 1: it's definitely it's front loaded. I mean, Brooks and some
Speaker 1: of these guys were clever enough to get more money
Speaker 1: in the first couple of years because of the uncertainty
Speaker 1: that follows. So um. But you know, there was that
Speaker 1: I haven't seen this in I've been pretty to a
Speaker 1: couple of contracts, but I didn't. Some of it's been redacted,
Speaker 1: so um. But there was that news break that Alex
Speaker 1: MASSELLI had about the clawback provision. If you want to leave,
Speaker 1: you have to pay back you know, three or four
Speaker 1: x which you already got, which would obviously be prohibitive.
Speaker 1: So there's leaving on your own. I mean, like Brooks
Speaker 1: is a team captain, he has equity and the team,
Speaker 1: he's recruited, you know, his brother's part of the team,
Speaker 1: all this stuff. I don't think voluntary, voluntary leaving is
Speaker 1: a real possibility. I think, you know, Lee Westwood told
Speaker 1: me that he had this meeting of the minds with
Speaker 1: Rory in Dubai this year, and Rory said, let's just
Speaker 1: sit around a table and figure this out. Like it's
Speaker 1: time for the players to come together and forge a compromise.
Speaker 1: Whether they could get all the big bosses and all
Speaker 1: the egos and all the contracts and all the TV
Speaker 1: stuff in alignment remains to be seen. But we've seen
Speaker 1: how much power the players have. They've taken control of
Speaker 1: the PGA tour. It was the players who really made
Speaker 1: Live come alive. I mean, the players have the power.
Speaker 1: We know that. So if that's if that's what they want,
Speaker 1: and this was an important week I think for for
Speaker 1: those issues. I mean, there's been a lot of kumbaya
Speaker 1: in the press about how it win's getting along and
Speaker 1: all the hugs and all the handshakes, and I pulled
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys aside and like, Okay, I know
Speaker 1: you have to say that publicly, but like, give me
Speaker 1: the real shit. What's really going on? Like give me,
Speaker 1: give me who's been mean? What bitchiness have you seen?
Speaker 1: And to every single one, even under the cloak of anonymity,
Speaker 1: has said, no, it's been great. It's been a really
Speaker 1: nice vibe. Everyone's just been above the fray, focused on
Speaker 1: the masters. Everyone's been been happy to see each other.
Speaker 1: So this week may if they ever reunify the game
Speaker 1: in the next couple of years, like this week becomes
Speaker 1: an important part of it, where all the bitterness and
Speaker 1: all the name calling of last season, I think it's
Speaker 1: dissipated a little bit this week. Now. If if Brooks
Speaker 1: are another live guy wins and they're running around the
Speaker 1: green popping bottles like Greg Norman forecast, you know it's
Speaker 1: a fragile piece, but it seems like they've at least
Speaker 1: forged it a little bit this week. So again, and
Speaker 1: this is about the Masters and all that, but in
Speaker 1: the world we live in, these other issues are inescapable.
Speaker 1: So the answer is, I don't think. I don't think
Speaker 1: anyone's leaven live voluntarily. Either the plug gets pulled in
Speaker 1: a year or two, or the decision makers find a
Speaker 1: way to forge a compromise. But a defection doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to be a real option. Now, you can get relegated,
Speaker 1: you can your contract can expire, and maybe they'll there'll
Speaker 1: be some sort of path if you play through Q school.
Speaker 1: You know, that's different than actually leaving while you're still
Speaker 1: on your contract, But even that has to get, you know,
Speaker 1: figured out. So we'll save all this for next week's
Speaker 1: recap podcastle for now, let's focus on the masters. It
Speaker 1: was a heck of a day at Augusta National, a
Speaker 1: lot of fireworks. The next three rounds are going to
Speaker 1: be very intriguing. We will keep podcasting and U and
Speaker 1: two on them, the fat on all this stuff. But
Speaker 1: that was Jeff Ogilvie and Michael Bambergants is allenship Nuck
Speaker 1: thinks for listening to this fire drill. We back at
Speaker 1: it again soon and that's the end. My bed big
Speaker 1: and I played the win, made a fortune with my
Speaker 1: shot game man. I ran the table, never thought I
Speaker 1: could fall down. The winter time hit me like a cannon,
Speaker 1: the ball and now I can't shake this losing the stream.
Speaker 1: Every road I take is a dead end stream. I
Speaker 1: got thoughts in my head, can't get them out, trying
Speaker 1: not to think what I'm thinking about. I got thoughts
Speaker 1: in my head, I can't get them out, trying not
Speaker 1: to think what I'm thinking about.