Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday.
Speaker 2: The Pot is back. Took a couple weeks off, took
Speaker 2: a much needed holiday last week.
Speaker 1: I've been in Europe. This is week four on the
Speaker 1: road for me. So and I am at the Open
Speaker 1: Championship Hoylake for the last major of the year. And
Speaker 1: what are we going to get? John Ram wins the Masters.
Speaker 1: We have brooks Kepka winning the PGA, Wyndham Clark winning
Speaker 1: the US Open and now Hoylake. Who is going to
Speaker 1: lift the claret jug defending champion is cam Smith. Cam
Speaker 1: one recently about a week week ago on Live and
Speaker 1: Roy McElroy won on Sunday at the Scottish Open. So
Speaker 1: they were the two that were fighting down the stretch
Speaker 1: at St Andrews last year. They're both coming in here
Speaker 1: in fantastic form. Are they going to make a run?
Speaker 1: I think obviously everyone is expecting Roy McElroy.
Speaker 2: To make one, make a run.
Speaker 1: He won here in two thousand and fourteen. He comes
Speaker 1: off of winning the Scottish Open and he got it done.
Speaker 1: I think the way that he won the Scottish Open
Speaker 1: very very windy link style golf course which believe it
Speaker 1: or not, hasn't always suited Rory's game. When he did
Speaker 1: win in twenty fourteen, obviously it wasn't the kind of
Speaker 1: Classic Open championship conditions, but.
Speaker 2: He got it done.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a really big win for him,
Speaker 1: coming off the way he played at the US Open,
Speaker 1: and I think Roy's got a point to prove. I
Speaker 1: think with everything that's happened over the last year, all
Speaker 1: the stuff that happened with Live, the current situation, with
Speaker 1: where we are today, which if you can tell me
Speaker 1: where we are today in professional golf more than I do,
Speaker 1: because I still think we're a lot in the dark
Speaker 1: as to what actually is going to happen. But I
Speaker 1: definitely think Rory comes in here playing some amazing golf.
Speaker 1: And I had a ringside see I was down at
Speaker 1: the Live tournament and watched Cam Smith. He shot sixty
Speaker 1: three one day and hit nine greens his short game.
Speaker 1: But the way he puts the golf ball, I just
Speaker 1: don't know if you can find someone that puts the
Speaker 1: ball better than him right now. He is a pure,
Speaker 1: pure putter, very similar to the runs that we've seen
Speaker 1: Jordan Speith get on. Cam has this amazing ability to
Speaker 1: make twenty five thirty footers when he needs to. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's for Birdie, sometimes it's for Parr. And I think
Speaker 1: because he puts so well, it kind of overshadows how
Speaker 1: just ridiculous his short game is, which is it's pretty dirty.
Speaker 1: His short game is unbelievable. He played a practice round,
Speaker 1: so yesterday Tuesday, played a ninth hole practice round. It
Speaker 1: was Brooks Koepka, the Ryder Cup captain, Zach Johnson, and
Speaker 1: then Adam Scott and Cam Smith and I got to
Speaker 1: walk nine holes, got to watch Cam and I talked
Speaker 1: to him a little bit about his putting. And I
Speaker 1: think it's something that anytime you're around someone that does
Speaker 1: something so well, I want to try and ask them
Speaker 1: as much as I can about how they do it,
Speaker 1: why they do it. And I've heard Cam before talk
Speaker 1: about how he doesn't have a lot of mechanics. But
Speaker 1: his coach, Grant Field, who I had on the pod
Speaker 1: about month month and a half ago, if you haven't
Speaker 1: had a chance to check that one out, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: But Cam kind of does the same thing every time
Speaker 1: when he warms up. He uses a putting mirror for
Speaker 1: his eyeline.
Speaker 2: But in talking to Grant.
Speaker 1: One of the things that he works really really hard
Speaker 1: on is aiming the putter and consistently aiming the putter
Speaker 1: for the line that he's choosing. Yeah, so obviously everyone
Speaker 1: listening is going to say, yeah. I mean, of course, you.
Speaker 2: Can be a good putter if you aim the putter.
Speaker 1: But ask yourself how diligent and how constant you focus
Speaker 1: on aiming the putter. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are worried about their stroke. They're worried about the mechanics
Speaker 1: of their stroke. But you've got one of the best
Speaker 1: putters on the planet and one of the best putters
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, and he doesn't really have any mechanical thoughts,
Speaker 1: and he focuses a lot on aiming the putter consistently.
Speaker 1: But I think we were on the sixth or seventh
Speaker 1: green yesterday and I said to him, he was, you know,
Speaker 1: hitting some putts, and I said, you know, what do
Speaker 1: you think about when you putt? And he said, I
Speaker 1: don't really think that much, but what I do think
Speaker 1: about a lot is the speed that the ball is
Speaker 1: going to go in the hole. And again, that's another
Speaker 1: kind of comment that sounds like a throwaway comment.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Obviously the speed at which the ball goes in the
Speaker 1: hole is important. But for a guy like Cam, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's focusing on aiming the putter consistently, and he's focusing
Speaker 1: on the speed at which the ball is going in
Speaker 1: the hole. He said that he likes to pick out
Speaker 1: a spot and kind of putt to that kind of
Speaker 1: general area of where that spot is. But when you
Speaker 1: watch his stroke, he definitely doesn't have that long follow
Speaker 1: through that I see a lot of players struggle with.
Speaker 1: There is definitely a hit. It's something that my dad
Speaker 1: believes very very strongly in I think Tiger Woods, who's
Speaker 1: one of the greatest pure putters of all time, as well,
Speaker 1: there is a definite hit. And I think if you're
Speaker 1: struggling with your putter, one of the thoughts that you
Speaker 1: could use is creating a consistent collision between the club
Speaker 1: and the ball how you strike the golf ball when
Speaker 1: you putt. And Cam hits a lot of really good putts,
Speaker 1: as all great putters do. And one of the other
Speaker 1: things that my dad always says about great putters is
Speaker 1: their putts have the go in look. Cam's putts always
Speaker 1: have the go in look. They always look like they're
Speaker 1: going in. So I think he comes into this week
Speaker 1: as defending champion on good form, having just won. He
Speaker 1: knows how to get it done. He knows what it
Speaker 1: takes to win a major championship, and he knows what
Speaker 1: it takes to win a Claret Juck. As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: Rory comes back twenty fourteen. He won here seventeen under.
Speaker 1: Ricky Fowler finished fifteen under in twenty fourteen, Ricky just
Speaker 1: coming off I think one of the most important wins
Speaker 1: of his career. He'd gone three years without a win.
Speaker 1: It's the job done a couple weeks ago at Rocket
Speaker 1: Mortgage in Detroit, and I think that was a huge,
Speaker 1: huge win. He's finished second here before. Does Ricky now
Speaker 1: find some form in the major championships? But I think
Speaker 1: Rory will come here with a lot of self belief.
Speaker 2: He'll obviously come back.
Speaker 1: Here knowing that he is won here before and lifted
Speaker 1: a Cleric jug. I think the I wouldn't say it's
Speaker 1: the difficulty, but the constant theme with Rory McElroy is
Speaker 1: he won two majors in twenty fourteen. He won here
Speaker 1: at Hoylake and then he won the PGA at Valhalla.
Speaker 1: And I've said this before on the pod. I've said
Speaker 1: this before in interviews. If someone told you in twenty
Speaker 1: fourteen that in twenty twenty three, when we came back
Speaker 1: to Hoylake, that brooks Kepka would have more majors than
Speaker 1: Rory McElroy, I think people would be surprised. I don't
Speaker 1: say that because like coach brooks Kepka. I say that
Speaker 1: because to me, that's a testament to the greatness of
Speaker 1: Roy McRoy. I think most people in twenty fourteen when
Speaker 1: he won here at Hoylake, I think most people would
Speaker 1: have they never would have believed that he didn't win
Speaker 1: double digit majors by now. That's how prolific his talent is.
Speaker 1: That's how dominant Rory can be. But it has been
Speaker 1: nine years since he's won a major championship. And I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a question of if Roy McRoy is
Speaker 1: going to win another major. I think it's a question
Speaker 1: of when. But when that happens, I think it's important.
Speaker 1: I think the longer he goes without if he goes
Speaker 1: another cycle this year in twenty twenty three, with everything
Speaker 1: that's been going on, with everything that he volunteered, for
Speaker 1: with the PGA Tour, with everything that the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: asked him to do. I think it's interesting that no
Speaker 1: press conference at the US Open. I don't think he
Speaker 1: had a press conference at Hartford. There was no press
Speaker 1: conference last week at the Scottish Open, and I don't
Speaker 1: think he's done a press conference yet here at the
Speaker 1: Open Championship now. For someone that has been a very,
Speaker 1: very vocal spokesperson for the PGA Tour, I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that someone that has been the
Speaker 1: most vocal person in the game has chosen not to
Speaker 1: do press conferences.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to read into that.
Speaker 1: Rory said it Hartford he was just going to get
Speaker 1: back to playing golf, didn't want to answer a lot
Speaker 1: of the live questions that he was constantly getting asked,
Speaker 1: and then in Scotland last week said if liv was
Speaker 1: the only tour that he was going to play on,
Speaker 1: he'd retire. So I think the longer Rory goes without
Speaker 1: winning another major, the louder the drums are going to beat.
Speaker 1: And I think he is one one of the favorites
Speaker 1: this week. I think he's I think you can tell
Speaker 1: that he feels like he is out to prove something.
Speaker 1: He's out to prove that he is Rory McElroy. And
Speaker 1: I also think that in his mind, Rory sees himself
Speaker 1: as kind of the leader of the PGA Tour and
Speaker 1: if he wins, and if he wins major championships, I
Speaker 1: think he It's just my opinion, but I think he
Speaker 1: thinks that's a win for his cause, which is the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. But I think he will come in this
Speaker 1: week with a lot, a lot of.
Speaker 2: Buzz.
Speaker 1: I think he's every I mean, obviously Golf Channel, all
Speaker 1: the people on social media, they're gonna they're gonna paint
Speaker 1: him as as the favorite, and I think you can
Speaker 1: make an argument for that. So I want to thank
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Speaker 1: a dozen RPT golf balls. I was here in twenty
Speaker 1: fourteen and I wanted to share an interesting story.
Speaker 2: It was funny.
Speaker 1: We went out yesterday and played a practice round and
Speaker 1: we were waiting for the group in front of us
Speaker 1: to go off on the first hole and Adam Scott
Speaker 1: was there and Brooks was there, and Scotty and Brooks
Speaker 1: were there first and they said, hey, you want to
Speaker 1: play and Scotty said yeah, I've got cam Smith to
Speaker 1: join us. And I was like, Brooks was like cool,
Speaker 1: and then Zach Johnson joined. Who's the Ryder Cup Captain?
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people read into that yesterday.
Speaker 1: That wasn't by design. I was walking up to the eight,
Speaker 1: walking up to the first t and Zach Dunton was
Speaker 1: walking along beside me and he came up and said.
Speaker 2: Are you go?
Speaker 1: Are you guys going out? His Brooks going out? I
Speaker 1: said yeah, he's going out right now and he said,
Speaker 1: oh cool, I'll join up. I thought it was really good.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of really good conversations. They talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the Ryder Cup, and they talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the selection, which I think you'll you'll all
Speaker 1: be hearing more about as we get closer to the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup. But I think it was really important. You know,
Speaker 1: Zach made a comment that the Ryder Cup is the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup. It's not the PGA Tour Ryder Cup, It's
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup, and he wanted the best players from
Speaker 1: the United States playing on that team. So whatever side
Speaker 1: you're on of this live PGA Tour debate, you're going
Speaker 1: to see pretty positive you're gonna see Brooks kept on
Speaker 1: this team. And I wouldn't be surprised if you see
Speaker 1: on the American side, if you saw another live player.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people listening that won't like that.
Speaker 1: But unless they changed the rules, brooks Keepka most likely
Speaker 1: is qualified for that team. And I think Zach is
Speaker 1: going to look at other players and how they are playing,
Speaker 1: and if that player is playing on live. It seemed
Speaker 1: to me that Zach didn't seem to be against picking
Speaker 1: players that are playing well, regardless of where they're playing. So,
Speaker 1: but in twenty fourteen, I had set up I was
Speaker 1: working with Ernie Els at the time and had set
Speaker 1: up for Ernie Els to play.
Speaker 2: A practice round with Brooks.
Speaker 1: And you know, Ernie was a big, you know, big
Speaker 1: star at the time, had won they had won his
Speaker 1: fourth major in twenty twelve up at Mirfield, and he
Speaker 1: was a four time major champion, and any time that
Speaker 1: I could get Brooks out with a guy like Ernie El's,
Speaker 1: it was a great learning experience for Brooks. My dad
Speaker 1: used to do that for Tiger Woods when he was
Speaker 1: growing up, when he was younger and qualifying for all
Speaker 1: these majors. He'd set up for him to play with
Speaker 1: Greg Norman, He'd set up for him to play with
Speaker 1: Sevi Bias Steros, He'd set up for him to play
Speaker 1: with Raymond Floyd, some of the old school, old guard guys.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the ways I think Tiger learned.
Speaker 1: He learned how the greats of the past did things,
Speaker 1: and I think it was a huge part of Tiger's
Speaker 1: learning curve. That was something that was really important for
Speaker 1: me at that early stage of Brooks's career. But obviously
Speaker 1: Brooks idolizes like everybody does. They idolized Tiger Woods. But
Speaker 1: Brooks's real idol and he had a serious man crush
Speaker 1: on him and still a little bit does today. Was
Speaker 1: Adam Scott. I mean Scott, he has always been you know,
Speaker 1: the golf swing, the way that Adam care himself, the professionalism.
Speaker 1: Adam is a very, very classy classy player, and he's
Speaker 1: a classy person both on and off the golf course.
Speaker 1: So I knew that Adam was going to join us
Speaker 1: for that practice round, but I didn't tell Brooks. And
Speaker 1: it was so funny that day back in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: Adam walked onto the he was walking towards the first
Speaker 1: tea and Brooks was like, is Scotty joining us? And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, Scotty's joining us in the group,
Speaker 1: and he was pretty nervous. Adam had never met him,
Speaker 1: and I asked Brooks and I asked Adam yesterday, who's
Speaker 1: the fourth in the group. And I'm drawing a blank.
Speaker 1: They're drawing a blank. I'm sure it'll come back to
Speaker 1: me at some point. But they played a match and
Speaker 1: Ernie said, what's the team's and Scotty said, well, I'll
Speaker 1: take Brooks. And so it was raining, it was blowing.
Speaker 1: Adam had Stevie Williams on the bag and so everybody
Speaker 1: got up. First hole is a little dog leg from
Speaker 1: right to left. I mean, one of the things about
Speaker 1: Hoylake is it is it favors long hitters, and it
Speaker 1: favors people that can drive the golf ball. And you're
Speaker 1: going to need to drive the golf ball well this
Speaker 1: week if you're going to have a chance to win,
Speaker 1: because you can get it in a bunker up against
Speaker 1: face and you're looking at making double. You can hit
Speaker 1: it offline, get a bad lie, hit it in a
Speaker 1: gorse bush, hit it in the thick, thick rough and
Speaker 1: you're staring double bogie in the face. So everybody gets
Speaker 1: up and hits Ernie gets up and hits Adam the
Speaker 1: other player.
Speaker 2: Drive me crazy. I can't remember who this is.
Speaker 1: And then Brooks got up and just absolutely hammered a drive.
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, not everybody hit their best drive
Speaker 1: on that first hole back in twenty fourteen. But Brooks
Speaker 1: stood up and just hit a hammer fade. And we
Speaker 1: were walking down the fairway and Stevie Williams looked at
Speaker 1: me and he said, where's this kid play? I said, well,
Speaker 1: he's just finished fourth in the US Open at Pinehurst
Speaker 1: that Martin Kimer won. He was on the Challenge Tour,
Speaker 1: and you know he's playing, you know, half in Europe,
Speaker 1: half in the States. And Stevie said, man, that's sound
Speaker 1: with the driver. That's a different sound. And I think
Speaker 1: Brooks knocked it stiff on the first hole. Birdied the
Speaker 1: first hole and Scotty said, well, that's my partner. And
Speaker 1: you could just see that that Brooks was some of
Speaker 1: the nervousness that he had.
Speaker 2: But there I think the rain really.
Speaker 1: Came in that day, and I think what we played
Speaker 1: played one to three four.
Speaker 2: I think we played.
Speaker 1: About five six holes and Brooks never missed a shot
Speaker 1: and it was blowing twenty and it was raining sideways
Speaker 1: and there was a par five I want to say
Speaker 1: six maybe and straight in the wind. Brooks hammered a
Speaker 1: drive and he hit this low bullet stinger three two
Speaker 1: iron underneath the wind, got it up on the front edge.
Speaker 1: And Stevie Williams, who you know Caddy Tiger for all
Speaker 1: of his major championships, just said the majority of them
Speaker 1: except the one in twenty nineteen, just said, man.
Speaker 2: That's different.
Speaker 1: And in later years Stevie went on to write an artist,
Speaker 1: you know, got asked about, you know, good players, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, the quality of strike that he
Speaker 1: saw Brooks kept at a very very young age, and
Speaker 1: I think it was really interesting, you know, coming back,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about that practice round and in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, a lot yesterday when we were in the
Speaker 1: practice round with Adam scott and we were talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, just I was talking with Scottie about how
Speaker 1: crazy things have become and how everyone's lives have changed
Speaker 1: and where everybody was in twenty fourteen versus where they
Speaker 1: are in twenty and twenty three, and it was pretty special, man.
Speaker 1: It was a proud moment for me and and looking
Speaker 1: at you know, that was right at the beginning. I
Speaker 1: think I was two years in and working with Brooks
Speaker 1: and to think that, you know, almost a decade later,
Speaker 1: he's got five majors and has done all the things
Speaker 1: that he's done and gotten to number one in the world,
Speaker 1: and you don't get those moments off in life, those
Speaker 1: those moments to kind of reflect, and Scotty and I
Speaker 1: talked a lot about it yesterday. You couldn't talk about
Speaker 1: Hoylake without two thousand and six. I was here for
Speaker 1: that Open Championship as well. Tiger Woods won eighteen under
Speaker 1: one driver the entire week. It's one of the hottest
Speaker 1: major championships that I've ever been to. It was a
Speaker 1: absolute heat wave here outside of Liverpool. There were no
Speaker 1: fans to be bought. Everyone was there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of air conditioning in the houses that everyone's staying in
Speaker 1: in the hotels, and it was a heat wave.
Speaker 2: It was in the mid nineties.
Speaker 1: Every day the golf course was like concrete. It was
Speaker 1: the fairways were like runway. The balls were bouncing, the
Speaker 1: balls were rolling, and it was ridiculously hot. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of wind, and other than the first day.
Speaker 1: For the last three rounds, Tiger, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: I don't think Tiger he had one driver all week,
Speaker 1: and I think it was in the first round. So
Speaker 1: for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, he never hit a driver.
Speaker 1: He basically just hit a lot of stingers, a lot
Speaker 1: of irons. The ball was going miles And in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, I mean that was when Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: was you know, head and shoulders above the rest. He
Speaker 1: was in full kind of old school Tiger mode. Was
Speaker 1: working with Hank Haney at that time. His win percentage
Speaker 1: was through the roof and it was not long after
Speaker 1: his father died. And I think everybody remembers if Tiger
Speaker 1: on the last hole when he putted out kind of
Speaker 1: you know, collapsing in Stevie Williams's arms and you know,
Speaker 1: crying his eyes out because it was the first major
Speaker 1: championship that he was going to win without his father
Speaker 1: being able to see it. And I think it showed
Speaker 1: a very very human side of Tiger that you know,
Speaker 1: not of people have ever really gotten to see. So
Speaker 1: two thousand and six Tiger Woods eighteen under, twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: Rory McElroy seventeen under. I mean, we went out today.
Speaker 1: I was in a practice round today Wednesday. It was
Speaker 1: Brooks DJ and Gary Woodland and it was raining when
Speaker 1: we teed off, and you know, I thought maybe they
Speaker 1: would play only nine holes, but everybody said, listen, we're
Speaker 1: probably going to have to play in the rain unless
Speaker 1: it's lightning.
Speaker 2: They don't really stop.
Speaker 1: Play at the Open Championship unless it's really really high winds.
Speaker 1: These are link style golf courses, so there's no water
Speaker 1: that's going to collect on any of these greens because
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're so sandy, and that's one of
Speaker 1: the great things about links golf. But it was windy today.
Speaker 1: It was really windy yesterday afternoon for the practice.
Speaker 2: Round that I walked, and then.
Speaker 1: Walked eighteen today and it rained pretty much NonStop, not
Speaker 1: torrential rain, but the umbrellas were up, just a steady, steady,
Speaker 1: that kind of Open Championship rain that we've seen in
Speaker 1: the past where you know, the telecast comes on and
Speaker 1: the conditions aren't good and everybody knows the conditions aren't.
Speaker 2: Going to be good.
Speaker 1: So the caddies in the group, Butchi who caddies for
Speaker 1: Gary Woodland, Ricky Eliatoro caddies for Brooks, and then Austin Johnson,
Speaker 1: a J who caddies for DJ. They were talking about
Speaker 1: where the wind was. They were talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: with their respective players. A lot of it was what
Speaker 1: were the carry numbers to the bunkers, what were short
Speaker 1: numbers to the bunkers, and that.
Speaker 2: I've said this before. I love the practice runs.
Speaker 1: I love going out and being able to watch the interaction,
Speaker 1: especially on a difficult day today where the caddies, you know,
Speaker 1: the caddies are soaked, right, the player takes the umbrella.
Speaker 1: There's only one umbrella on the bag and the player
Speaker 1: is going.
Speaker 2: To take it.
Speaker 1: So I always had practice rounds if we're walking around,
Speaker 1: try and get the umbrella over some of the caddies,
Speaker 1: and they all said today and don't bother because I'm
Speaker 1: already soaked and I'm not going to get any dryer.
Speaker 1: So but it was really really windy. It was it
Speaker 1: was rainy, and it's it's this is a difficult golf course.
Speaker 1: You have to drive the golf ball in play off
Speaker 1: the team, obviously, I think everybody knows that. But when
Speaker 1: the conditions get really, really tough, when the grips are wet,
Speaker 1: when it's windy, when the umbrella's up, when the umbrella's down,
Speaker 1: when the players trying to get underneath the umbrella to
Speaker 1: get the club and the caddies are trying to get
Speaker 1: the towels keep the towels dry, it gets dicey out there,
Speaker 1: and I think you can you can hit some bad
Speaker 1: shots just because it's hard to get one hundred prepared
Speaker 1: in the time that you've got because of all of
Speaker 1: the things that you're trying to do from a playing standpoint.
Speaker 1: You're trying to get the yardage, you're trying to keep
Speaker 1: the clubs clean, it's raining, you're trying to keep the
Speaker 1: umbrella up. So I think that's one of the difficulties
Speaker 1: in playing in this But I don't think it's going
Speaker 1: to be warm enough over the next four days for
Speaker 1: there to be really any lightning, and so they are
Speaker 1: into play and they were going to play through whatever
Speaker 1: the conditions that are out there or out there. So
Speaker 1: I think the forecast as always is late early the break,
Speaker 1: or is early late the break.
Speaker 2: You'd never know.
Speaker 1: And I think out of all of the major championships,
Speaker 1: this one can somewhat be down, not so much to luck,
Speaker 1: but based off of if there is severe weather, there
Speaker 1: is probably going to be one morning or one afternoon
Speaker 1: where the weather is better where the front is blowing
Speaker 1: in in the afternoon or the front blew out in
Speaker 1: the afternoon. I'm looking outside right now and it's not raining.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look very windy. So today would have been
Speaker 1: an example of a day to where it rained pretty
Speaker 1: much NonStop until gosh, we went out to hit balls
Speaker 1: and it just started. DJ just started to hit balls
Speaker 1: right around nine thirty ten o'clock this morning, and halfway
Speaker 1: through that he was teeing off with the guys around eleven,
Speaker 1: and really about halfway through that warm up, it basically
Speaker 1: just started the rain. So the umbrella went up and
Speaker 1: it basically rained from about eleven until they teed off
Speaker 1: at eleven, and it rained solid until we got to
Speaker 1: around the fourteenth fifteenth hole. We finished right around three
Speaker 1: o'clock this afternoon. So there's an example of let's say
Speaker 1: you teed off late. Let's say you're one of the
Speaker 1: afternoon players. The guys in the morning are just gonna
Speaker 1: stay and play in constant, steady rain, and the guys
Speaker 1: in the afternoon might get conditions to where the rain stops,
Speaker 1: the wind dies down, and the golf course then becomes
Speaker 1: wet and it becomes somewhat gettable to where there's pins
Speaker 1: that you could go at that maybe you couldn't go
Speaker 1: out in the morning. I think a lot of trying
Speaker 1: to aim for the center of these greens, not worrying
Speaker 1: about where the flag is. And then there's there's some
Speaker 1: quirky things about this the third hole, all the way
Speaker 1: down the right hand side, there's basically directly off the
Speaker 1: right side of the freeway there's internal out of bounds.
Speaker 1: So if you block a t shot at all at
Speaker 1: the third hole, your reteam because it's going to go
Speaker 1: out of bounds if you hit it to the right,
Speaker 1: and then do you overcompensate for that and pull it left,
Speaker 1: and then you get out very much like a Links
Speaker 1: golf course. This golf course starts right by the clubhouse,
Speaker 1: goes all the way out to the tenth hole, and
Speaker 1: then eleven you turn back. Are you turning back into
Speaker 1: the wind? Are you turning back downwind? I think sometimes
Speaker 1: downwind here at the Open Championship, when the wind really
Speaker 1: does get up, can be as difficult as into the wind,
Speaker 1: because you're trying to figure out how that's going to
Speaker 1: affect is going to knock.
Speaker 2: The ball out of the guy?
Speaker 1: The greens then start to get really, really firm, so
Speaker 1: I think it is going to be a very very
Speaker 1: good test. One of the things that a lot of
Speaker 1: players and caddies and everyone is talking about is the
Speaker 1: redesign of the seventeenth hole.
Speaker 2: It's a short part three.
Speaker 1: There have been a couple of people that have made
Speaker 1: some really I guess controversial comments. You could make anything there.
Speaker 1: You could be trying to hit the middle of the
Speaker 1: green and if you don't stop it, you could land
Speaker 1: it on the putting surface. It could roll off and
Speaker 1: you could make X. You could make bogie, you could
Speaker 1: make double, you could make quad. I think we could
Speaker 1: see people on a short par three. I think you
Speaker 1: could see some eight nines, maybe even some double digit
Speaker 1: numbers because the bunkering is so severe. They've redesigned it
Speaker 1: to where you're hitting up to a plateau and there
Speaker 1: is a tremendous amount of runoff area. To the right
Speaker 1: of the seventeenth hole, there are deep bunkers. There's a
Speaker 1: big cavernous bunker front left.
Speaker 2: In talking to.
Speaker 1: The players today, they thought that maybe the left bunker,
Speaker 1: that is green side, might be the play. If you're
Speaker 1: going to miss it, that might be a better up
Speaker 1: and down. But if you're hitting something and the prevailing
Speaker 1: wind takes this ball down to the right of the
Speaker 1: seventeenth green, you're I mean, do you try and putt it?
Speaker 1: Do you try and chip it? You try and hit
Speaker 1: it into the bank, and there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: room on the green. The green has all of these
Speaker 1: kind of false front there's a big false front at
Speaker 1: the front edge over the back of the green is
Speaker 1: dead because it runs off and then runs into some thick, thick, nasty,
Speaker 1: nasty stuff. Massive fall off to the right hand side.
Speaker 1: Left looked a little bit easier of an up and down,
Speaker 1: but regard depending on where they put the pins, it's
Speaker 1: going to be very, very difficult. I think it's to
Speaker 1: be controversial. There are I've heard some players, some caddies
Speaker 1: that say, listen, it could you could have a one
Speaker 1: to two shot lead and make X make a seven
Speaker 1: and lose the tournament on one hole. A lot of
Speaker 1: players are liking it to the seventeenth hole at TPC,
Speaker 1: meaning that it comes very very late in the round.
Speaker 1: It's a short iron. You're probably only going to be
Speaker 1: hitting regular conditions. I think today it was right around
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty yards, so guys are chipping wedges.
Speaker 1: But if the wind gets up, you're going to have
Speaker 1: to make a full swing to an elevated green to
Speaker 1: where you can't really see a lot. And will the
Speaker 1: seventeenth hole, which has been redesigned, will that play a
Speaker 1: big role in the outcome of this tournament.
Speaker 2: I think time will tell.
Speaker 1: But this is one of my favorite of the majors.
Speaker 1: It is a true open. I love the fact that
Speaker 1: you've got so many players here from so many different countries.
Speaker 2: It's a good one.
Speaker 1: And you know, I was lucky enough to work with
Speaker 1: Ernie Als in twenty twelve and I got to catch
Speaker 1: up with Ernie. He plays on the champions Tour. Now,
Speaker 1: even though we live in Jupiter, live in the same place,
Speaker 1: I don't really get to see Orny that often, and
Speaker 1: normally over the last four or five years, it's always
Speaker 1: around the Open Championship. So I saw him yesterday.
Speaker 2: It was great.
Speaker 1: Got to give him a big hug, and you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, that Open Championship that he
Speaker 1: won in twenty twelve and how special that was. And
Speaker 1: he was so funny. He made a comment and he
Speaker 1: was he swore and he said, man, Brooks has got
Speaker 1: one more major than I do, and he's got five
Speaker 1: and I've only got four.
Speaker 2: In it you could tell it. It pisses Ernie off.
Speaker 2: He's a great champion.
Speaker 1: Obviously he's happy for Brooks, but you know, I love
Speaker 1: that about Ernie, the competitive spirit. But it was great
Speaker 1: to catch up with Ernie. He's such a great champion.
Speaker 1: He's won a Cleric Drug twice, two time US Open Champion,
Speaker 1: and a two time Open champion, So it was great
Speaker 1: to catch up with him. And like I said, this
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite tournaments of the year. I'm
Speaker 1: a little biased as a coach. It was the first
Speaker 1: major championship that I was a part of on the
Speaker 1: winning side Whin or Anyone here or Royal Live Them
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve. So the Open Championship is always very
Speaker 1: special for me. I prefer it when it's in Scotland,
Speaker 1: which that's controversial, that's controversial, But I think we're going
Speaker 1: to have a great tournament. And like I said, earlist
Speaker 1: by third one that I've been to at Hoylake and
Speaker 1: I saw some great golf when Tiger Woods won. There
Speaker 1: was some amazing golf when Rory McIlroy won in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: Does Rory get to five? Does he get to five majors?
Speaker 1: Does he end the major season this year with the
Speaker 1: major that everybody.
Speaker 2: Wants him to win.
Speaker 1: He wants to win it, The fans want to want
Speaker 1: him to win it. The PGA Tour definitely wants him
Speaker 1: to win it. And I think we're in for a
Speaker 1: great week always, always, always, this Major Championship, more than
Speaker 1: any will throw up a maybe not an unknown but
Speaker 1: maybe not a household name, not a superstar that will
Speaker 1: be on the leaderboard deep into Sunday. And is it
Speaker 1: a Cinderella story? Does someone come out of nowhere like
Speaker 1: Todd Hamilton did it truon in two thousand and four.
Speaker 2: I believe or.
Speaker 1: Do we get the usual cast to characters, but I
Speaker 1: think there are a lot of players playing really really
Speaker 1: well right now, and if the last three Majors or
Speaker 1: anything to go by, I think we've had it a
Speaker 1: fantastic major season here in twenty twenty three. I'm really
Speaker 1: really looking forward to it, and so I hope all
Speaker 1: of you are going to be watching Get Up Early
Speaker 1: if you're in the States, if you're in the UK.
Speaker 1: The great thing about being over here in the UK
Speaker 1: is Sky Sports does an amazing job covering this. You
Speaker 1: turn on the TV at six o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: they share the first shot and the last shot hold,
Speaker 1: so it'll be.
Speaker 2: On all day.
Speaker 1: But I'm really looking forward to it, and I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be a fantastic Major.
Speaker 2: So the pod is back.
Speaker 1: I want to thank everyone for listening. Son of a
Speaker 1: Butcher comes to you every Wednesday.
Speaker 2: We will see you next week.