WEBVTT - Olympic Golf Is Great (But Could Be Better) 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:10.160 Today's episode, I am joined by ESPN's Kevin van Valkenberg. 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:13.960 Kevin is back on the golf beat, but you know, 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.720 I wanted to talk about the Olympics, and I figured 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.840 I should talk to somebody that's got, you know, some 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.040 experience in clout and other sports. Kevin wrote one of 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.320 one of my favorite pieces and any any sports piece 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.040 this year, about Simone Biles earlier this year and taking 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.760 his daughter to Olympic trials. Highly recommend that read if 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.040 you have not read it yet. We talk about Olympics 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.839 and golf state in the Olympics, and you know, I 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.640 think I think both of us really enjoy golf in 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.360 the Olympics, so seeing where it can go in the 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:49.600 you know, we only have to wait three years for 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.120 the next Olympics. Where it can go in the next 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.480 three years and hopefully get a little bit more creative 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.959 with the formatting and hopefully more top players play. As 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.320 a quick reminder, if you haven't been to a Friday 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.720 Egg event, I highly recommend him. Obviously I'm a little biased, 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.880 but super fun days. I think anybody that's been to 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.479 one will testify that we we it's a really fun 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.200 day out at some world class golf courses. So we 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.120 have three left on the calendar. For the rest of 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.400 the year. We are sold out. In Lancaster. We have 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.480 a few spots and Prairie Dunes on October fourth, and 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.920 some spots at White Berr Yacht Club on September thirteenth. 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.240 So two magnificent golf courses with Prairie Dunes and White 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.080 Berr Yacht Club. I would highly recommend seeing both of them. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.360 Really fun, different golf courses and world class courses in 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.839 their own right. So, without further ado, here is Kevin 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:45.679 van Valkenberg. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.520 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.880 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:51.840 And when I find my. 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.680 Ball in a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.840 Egg Frida, Egg Frida, egg egg Frida egg bride egg. 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:21.639 Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf Kevin, 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:22.840 welcome back. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.359 It's been a while, it's been much too long. I'm 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.799 excited to be back in the golf podcasting world. 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.680 You know, I gotta I gotta one of those like 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.200 X number of years ago, things popped up on my 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.960 phone the other day and it was of us golfing 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.440 in Saint Louis uh pg a bell Reeve and I 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.359 brought it brought a smile to my face. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.080 That's fabulous. I uh yeah, that. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.720 Was a hot day, this extremely hot day. 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:55.359 Gosh. I was definitely sweating my face off when we 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:55.960 were doing that. 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.560 So sounds like you got one of those ahead of 0:02:58.600 --> 0:02:59.040 you today. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.240 Yeah, it's very possible. It's like the heat index hair 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.280 in Baltimore is like one hundred and four, and I've 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.760 somehow been talked into some sort of golfing adventure. So 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:10.080 pray for me. 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.520 Hey, when it's January and it's like ten degrees, you're 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:15.760 gonna be praying for the one hundred and four. That's 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.200 what I always tell myself. When it's really hot. 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.400 I'm going to be like, hey, guys, just just plus 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.519 for second. Last time, I was sweating my balls off 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:24.400 like this. Andy wanted me to point out the various 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.720 layers of the and the bunkering here and Mike Cart 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.400 has none of that, So let's just imagine what it 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:31.519 looked like if it did. 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.800 Hey, I really enjoyed your piece as a you know, 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.240 not really recent girl, dad, but a girl dad, a 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.600 blossoming girl dad. I guess that's probably a weird word 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.520 to use, but I enjoyed your piece about some of 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.080 Biles and going to the trials with your daughter. I'm curious, 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:51.720 you know, we're going to talk about the Olympics today 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.360 and golf in the Olympics, but I'm curious in a 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.480 larger sense, does your daughter, at age ten eleven, you know, 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.880 kind of revel in the Olympics more so than other sports? 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.360 Does she understand like the significance is that. Do you 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:09.080 think there's something that when you're younger, the Olympics mean 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.240 more than say, other, you know, sporting championships. 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:17.200 There's definitely the case with my girls. My oldest in particular, 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.839 she adores the Olympics and will just kind of soak 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.280 up as much gymnastics as she can possibly do. Like 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:30.360 the Peacock people like, we got our money's worth out 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:33.720 of all the gymnastics stuff this year because we were 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:40.640 watching it at all hours, various preliminaries and men's gymnastics 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.719 and women's gymnastics. I don't know what it is about 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:48.080 it exactly. Both of my girls like golf, but they 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:53.680 have a special kind of affection for the Olympics, and 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.920 I think, you know, I was watching Lydiaco get all 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.200 emotional were in that bronze, and I was thinking, like, 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.240 I get it, like my girls see this as something 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.719 bigger than like, you know, I don't even they don't 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.839 even think like the avy On is like a They 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:10.839 couldn't even tell you that's a major, you know, like 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.320 most people, I bet they know of the women's majors. 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.520 They know the US Open and in the Open Championship, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.719 and that's about it for the women. And they love golf. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.000 They're like in the one percent bracket for girls their 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.280 age of who were into golf. So I'd say, yeah, 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.239 the Olympics does have a sort of a special appeal 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.120 for them, and I if anybody's no, Like I took 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.560 my daughter to the gymnastics trials because I had promised 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.000 her that I was going to do that for like 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.000 a tenth birthday present, and then the gymnastics trials got 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.880 canceled like everything else because of COVID, and so we 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.640 ended up going this year and it was a really 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.800 kind of surreal interesting experience. Is the first sporting event 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.320 that I had been to in like eighteen months since 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.200 the Super Bowl when the Chiefs and Niners played. So 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.480 I wrote a little thing about for ESPN, just about 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.400 the kind of whole experience of being a parent and 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:04.600 trying to take your kid back out in the world 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:09.040 and them, you know, someone like Biles being there her hero, 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.839 and just kind of trying to understand what it meant 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.280 to Biles to be in this position. And it's sort 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:22.359 of time of divisiveness and racial unrest, and Saint Louis 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.720 provided a very interesting backdrop for all of that. Uh, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.640 And yeah, it was, it was really it was one 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.040 of the more emotional moving things that I ever written, uh, 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:34.760 and just kind of spilled out of me. 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.480 I think it's you know, it's a great piece. Everybody 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.920 should read it, whether you're a fan of gymnastics or not. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.320 All you have to do is google Kevin van Valkenberg, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.280 Simone Biles. It pulls right up. That's I find the 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.520 easiest way to find anything these days. It's just to 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.880 google the publication that you know it's in, and or 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.680 the author's name and the topic. But you know, it's 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.680 on a little website called the ESPN doc In case 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.520 you hadn't heard of it. But I think about the 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.719 Olympics in you know, golf's got had an interesting start 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.560 to the Olympics, just in terms of like I don't 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.160 think it's really been fully embraced as much as the 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.600 golf organization say they're fully embracing it. I don't think 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.760 they necessarily have really thrown their weight behind it. But 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.600 I think back to like me being a kid. Your 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.440 piece about your daughter made me think about, you know, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:31.640 the significance of Olympics as as kids, and I thought, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.320 you know, we had weady boxes like you get you know, 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.520 the Olympic medals. You know, the weady box was such 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.480 a big deal. And and I just I remember watching 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.240 all the sports. You watched, figure skate, you watched, you know, 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.480 I'd watched figure skate with my mom and sister. I'd 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.720 watched gymnastics, like that's what they wanted to watch. I 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.920 wanted to watch the hockey in the winter of the Olympics. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.600 In the summer Olympics, I wanted to watch basketball, you know, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.520 like it's uh, you know, it's really interesting, but there's 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.160 that it definitely when you're a kid, and it's and 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.600 still is almost like I think, like a habit in 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.880 you and throughout, Like I remember even in college when 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.960 I would fall out of watching, Like, you know, I 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.360 didn't watch every major when I was in college of golf, 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.560 but you know, I always remember distinctly watching Olympics when 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:20.880 I was in college or what I was in the summer, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:22.920 when I was in maybe the worst state of my 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.280 human being, you know, I still carved out time to 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.320 watch Olympics because it was something that like I think 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.680 obviously the scarcity has a lot to do with it. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.920 I think in probably some of the pageantry, which you know, 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.719 somehow they pull it off. I think probably because of 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.959 history they pull it off. But like if if golf 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:42.959 had an event with the amount of pageantry that the 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:44.920 Olympics had, we would just crush it. 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.079 Yeah, I was just talking about this. I was thinking 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.480 about I hadn't thought about this in years, but I 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.480 remember as a eleven year old like sneaking down to 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.679 stay up and watch the men's volley ball gold medal 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:06.560 match in South Korea in Seoul. This is nineteen eighty eight, 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.160 and like Karch Karai and Steve Timmins, two dudes who 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.679 I would have never otherwise like had any knowledge that 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.680 they even existed, were like these heroic figures in my life. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.680 I was like, oh my god, these guys are so awesome. 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:22.959 I want to be like karch Karai and probably like 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.960 went outside and practiced volleyball, which wasn't even a sport, 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.599 you know, in in Montana for me growing up. And 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.880 so that that's like the weird appeal of the Olympics, right. 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.400 I remember Greg luganis hitting his head on the diving board. 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.640 I you know, I exactly felt the same way. I 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:42.480 can vividly remember where I was when I remember when 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.360 the Dan and Dave thing was playing out, and Dan 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:51.200 didn't make the he like didn't make the next round 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.920 of it. He like you know, couldn't clear the h 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.240 the pole vault in one level whatever, And so it 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.240 was like the whole rebox hole like super duper ad 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.240 campaign like fizzled out. These two dudes who are supposed 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.559 to be like the best you know, have athletes or 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.360 pen athletes in the world, where we're not going to 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.280 have this showdown. Like all of that is vivid or 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.360 memories of my childhood. And I couldn't tell you, like 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.280 who won a single major in nineteen eighty eight without 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:18.360 looking it up and golf. 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.760 So was that maybe Bob Tyat Andverness was that eighty. 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:26.400 Eight that's extremely memorable. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.720 I just said in nineteen eighty eight. You say nineteen 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.880 eighty eight fell, that was fella those masters eighty nine 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.320 ninety right, yep, So it wouldn't have been Fell though masters. 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.679 But you know the interesting thing too with what you 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.560 just talked about, like the instigma, like you're an eleven 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.040 year old, you go down, you sneak down and watch 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.440 volleyball because it like you wanted to see if they 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:55.319 won the gold medal. And ironically the medal count, like 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.040 the gold medal count, the US has thirty nine gold medals, 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.880 China's second with thirty eight. US got two gold medals 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.679 from a pretty new sport in the Olympics, golf, and 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:08.520 would have been a big story if China had more 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.080 gold medals of the US. Yes, but that that bargin 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.680 to victory. The reason they you know, the difference between 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.760 first and second, and that that count is golf, which 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.560 is really and you think there there could have been 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.760 whether it happened or not, there could have been kids 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.560 that were really obsessed with the with the metal count 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.080 and Nelly Corda's win coming down the stretch like at 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.599 that kind of the tail end of the Olympics was 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.280 a big deal when it came to that metal count. 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:36.720 It's true it made me think of like I would 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.439 it would be so fun to have like an INCAA 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.080 tournament style pool of like who you pick who the win? 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:43.920 My remember sports ill trade used to run like this 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.079 big you know, prediction of who would win medals, and 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.400 so I would like study it, like how it would 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.040 be super fun of that was like a mainstream thing 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:54.599 nowadays where you would sort of have to guess and 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:56.480 do like research as to all right, who's going to 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:00.560 win the medal in skateboarding or you know, synchronized swimming. Okay, 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.719 it looks like Ukraine is really strong this year. I'm 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:04.760 going to pick them, and like that was as important 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:06.959 as picking like a first round upset in the in 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:08.760 a pools like that would be awesome. 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.160 We need to get a Joe Lonardi type of character 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.839 on the on the feat true bracketology. We got to 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:18.400 come up with a catchy name. 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.000 Tell NBC to you know, get Steve what's that guy 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.079 who does the election stuff? He was nacky guy. Be 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.719 the predicting of all Right, looks like Nelly Corda is 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.120 the favorite and the gold medal match this week, so 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:31.640 lay your money down on that. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.040 So you know, zero again. On golf, What did you 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.280 watch a bunch of the golf in the Olympics, and 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.280 if so, what were kind of your big takeaways. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:44.600 I watched a little bit of it. I didn't get 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.720 to watch as much as I would have otherwise because 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.280 I was traveling during a bunch of it, but I 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.080 did peek in on it whenever I could and sort 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.360 of would talk and touch with my girls about Oh, 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:57.839 you know, did you see that that Nelly Corta is 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.040 leading by a bunch because they're My guest is super 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.320 into goolf and she wants to be either Nelly Korda 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.640 or Lexi Thompson for Halloween this year, and this may 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.640 have tipped off her. She's not she's short, she's not 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.439 tall like Nelly, but she this may have tipped the 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.600 scales to her. Wanted to be Nelly Korda for How 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.640 exciting that? Yeah, she gets the dire hair blonde either way, 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:21.920 so she's pretty excited about that. 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.280 You know, if she wants if she wants to be 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.600 Lexi make sure she knows how to mark her ball. 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.319 I think she's a better chipper than Lexi right now, 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.679 you know. Look, yeah, there has definitely been some discussions 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.599 as Lexi. The long fade during the s Open was 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.200 was kind of crushing, and we had to talk about how, oh. 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.200 My god, that had to be brutal with your daughter, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:50.320 Lexi fan. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.200 Yeah, it's pretty brutal there. But they they they haven't 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.400 quite they can process like sports failure. But like I 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.120 was really worried about how my oldest would process the 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:04.920 Simone Biles news when she didn't compete. But mostly they're like, oh, 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:06.840 I just hope she's okay, like I. You know, they 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.400 don't don't have quite the crushing like when the Lakers 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:11.640 would lose when I was a kid and I'd go 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:13.720 up to my bedroom and just cry for ten minutes 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:15.679 and then be done with it. They don't quite look 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:16.720 at it like that just yet. 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.760 So it's or like how I feel when the Bears 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:22.600 drafted to a quarterback. 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:25.720 Exactly true. 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:31.440 Yes, something I've kind of like watching a good amount 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.720 of it. I feel like the Olympics, it doesn't it's 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:39.160 not like a regular tournament. It's definitely elevated, especially on 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.480 the weibi's side. I felt like coming down the stretch 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.960 of the tournament, players played noticeably differently, whether it was 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:51.320 you know, the bronze medal contention, silver gold, you saw 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.360 the type of things you see in large tournaments, maybe 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.280 even more so than even majors, because I think the 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.480 significance of second and third led to more players feeling 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.200 that pressure not to take Azinger's term, but feeling that 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:12.320 uncomfortability in the moment. You know, like, how would you 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.000 assuming golf continues to be a major part of the Olympics, 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.960 where do you see it going and being when we 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:20.320 start to talk about careers. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.400 I think it's going to get more wait as things 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.840 go forward. I've I don't know if I came around 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:31.600 a little bit more on it this year, Like the 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:35.360 first year of it, I was sort of more on 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:40.040 the rory side of things where I didn't really think 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.480 like Justin Rose and Matt Kocher like winning medals and 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.120 Hendrickson like you could have. I had to look up 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.840 that Hendrick Stinson was one second in Reo Olympics. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:51.200 I did not. 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:53.920 It's not something like a performance that stood out to 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.400 me as like a big historical thing. But you know, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.640 this time around, like I thought it was a lot 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.760 more you know, compelling, and it feelt it had a 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:07.000 better field. It felt like it had a little bit 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:08.520 more history to it, just in the sense of we 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.600 already had one Olympics and so now we're adding to that. 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:14.080 The thing that kind of just stuck out to me 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.800 thinking about the Olympics this year is just how few 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.880 things there are in golf where history is what you're 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.400 playing for, not money, because at some point money just 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.520 becomes kind of like background noise. Like you could, no 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.520 amount of money is going to change Rory McElroy's life, 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:34.520 like you could. You could have a tournament for a 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.320 billion dollars and he could play super hard, but it 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.120 would affect his life like maybe one percent at all, 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:42.120 Like he'd be able. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.520 To own it, yeah, maybe own a plane, right. 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.280 Yeah, yeah, and his wife gown another plane like that. 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.240 There's nothing really that would change that. But honestly, like 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.880 if he had won a gold medal, it probably would 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:02.600 make him further kind of delve into identity and like 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.359 what does it mean to be an Irishman or a 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.440 Northern Irishman and what does it mean to have. I 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.240 think you saw some of that when when the Open 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.720 Championship was at Port Rush, right, because the weight of 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.040 all those things was super heavy on his shoulders and 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:21.640 all this idea that like Rory McElroy could unite a country, 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.680 even if only briefly, that had experienced, you know, hundreds 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:30.280 of years of secular divisiveness, and he just couldn't, like 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:32.480 his brain kind of short circuited during that. And so 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.879 I think those kind of things are rare in golf, 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.119 and like the US Amateur is one, like it's a 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:40.879 meaning that's part of the reason why we love it. Right, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.080 So these guys aren't just being handed a big check. 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.920 They're kind of etching their name into history, and they're 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.960 sort of thinking, like Jack did this, and Tiger did this, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.680 and Bryce and the Shamba did this, and so this 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.720 is meaningful to me because I know that my name 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:56.639 is kind of among those things. And I think that 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.840 there is a chance that golf will have some of 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.520 that kind of meaning if if this kind of continues 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.240 to be something that where all the you know, top 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.040 players actually really wanted. The first year, I think it 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:12.880 was just kind of like there was no one even 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.640 knew if the golf course was going to be ready 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:19.040 like three months before the Olympics, and Zekas was either 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.359 you know, a fake excuse for not wanting to go 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.399 or a real concern for some of the guys. And 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:30.000 so Justin Rose in retrospect probably will be seen as 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.280 sort of an important figure in the history of Olympic 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:34.200 golf because he's the first, and he can only be 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.560 the first winner. That can only be one of those 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.879 I didn't love Justin Rose kind of try to shame 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.879 Rory for sort of not competing. Rory had sort of 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:47.000 admitted in one of those Paul Kimmage interviews, you know 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:48.960 that Justin Rose had texted him and been like, Yo, 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.760 the boys, all the boys here want you to know 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.320 you missed out. And it struck me very much as 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.480 like a daft englishman's understanding of what it means to 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.960 be from Northern Ireland. And you know that Rory would 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.200 not be thrilled to sit up there and listen to 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.679 the Tri colors. You see the Tri colors and hear 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.560 the international anthem and it'll be like this, this feels 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:11.000 so foreign to me because this doesn't even feel like 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.320 my country. So I think Justin Rose kind of was 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:17.560 a fool in that sense of looking at it from 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.600 Rory's perspective, But I do understand it from Justin Rose's perspective. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.639 How probably cool it had to sort of seem. And 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.560 these guys, you know, they all grew up watching these 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.480 Olympic moments like we did, and so for them to 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:33.680 get a chance to sort of, you know, feel like 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:35.880 they're a part of that instead of just adding more 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.159 dollar signs to their you know thing. I bet you 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:41.960 that if you took a poll of like, oh, would 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.520 you rather win a gold medal or FedEx Cup? Of 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.280 all the guys who'd never been to the Olympics, THEYD 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.320 probably said like, oh yeah, FedEx Cup, that'd be sort 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.960 of life changing. But of the people who have like 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.480 a ton of money, I would bet they'd say Olympics 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.639 because it's like, what is ten million dollars when you 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.720 have one hundred million dollars? It's really the way the 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:03.879 mount that it changes your life is almost nil. And 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.879 so I do think that will kind of matter. I mean, 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.680 it's if you die and you've won a gold medal, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.040 one of the first lines in your New York Times 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.680 obituary is going to be like gold medal winning Justin Rose, 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.560 who won the US Open and a gold medal passed 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.240 away this year in twenty sixty five. Whatever, that's what's 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.320 going to read in his oh bit. You know it'll 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.200 be you're the one major that you won and the 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.359 gold medal that you won. So I do think it matters. 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.280 Yeah, you know, I think you hit on something that 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.000 I hadn't thought of, is like the purity of the Olympics. 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.520 There's you know, there's no money at stake, and then 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.159 you know, everybody isn't a walking billboard. You know, we 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.720 don't have NASCAR drivers out there filled with logos, and 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:47.239 you know, if Bryson had played, it would have been 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.119 in one. It would have been interesting to see if 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.200 he had thanked his sponsors. But you know, that's one 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.920 of the things, is the purity of it. And while 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:00.159 the golf in the Olympics doesn't necessarily have history, you're 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.720 definitely you're chasing the history of of what you watched 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.680 growing up as a kid, and thinking of all the 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.200 great athletes like you know, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, like 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:15.360 these these transcendent you know, Usain Bolt in recent time, 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.240 like these transcendent athletes, like you become in the same 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:21.879