WEBVTT - A Preview of Pinehurst No. 2 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.920 And when I find my ball in a fried. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.559 Egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday Frida Egg Egg, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:12.959 Frida Egg bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:13.680 off of the hump. 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:39.120 Welcome back to another edition of the Friday eg Golf Podcast. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.120 I am your host, Andy Johnson, and I am joined 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.920 by one of our other esteemed co hosts, Garret Morrison. 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.800 Garrett two co hosts. Hey, Andy, how's it going. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.040 I didn't call myself a co host. I call myself 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:51.520 a host. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.760 Oh so, so I get the co Well that makes sense. Honestly, 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.400 that makes sense. You did found this company in this pot. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:02.600 How are you. 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.959 I'm doing pretty well. Yeah, just getting going here in 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.319 the morning and thinking about Pinehurst. I've been taking notes 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.000 all morning and getting ready to talk about it. I 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.840 love this golf course and so very excited to kind 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:16.160 of get into detail about it. 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.920 I was thinking about it is like, you know, it's 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.360 obviously one of the great golf courses of America, and 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.120 to me, it's like one of the great golf courses 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.560 that I've played the most. I think I've played it 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.840 six or seven times now, oh really, yeah, And it's 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.039 just you know, it's a phenomenal golf course, and I 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.399 think that it's one it's easy to get to, so 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.399 a lot of people have played it. And yeah, I'm 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.600 really super excited about this championship. So this podcast, we're 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.280 going to go in depth on Pinehurst number two. We're 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.360 going to talk about the golf course, and you know, 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.480 kind of I think in the lens of hosting this 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.440 US Open and where I wanted to kick things off 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.600 was I think just to set the stage like this 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.480 golf course, whether you like Pinehurst number two or not, 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.160 is going to be a prominent figure in the US 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:15.520 Open moving forward. So five of the next twenty five 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.840 US Opens, including that, so that's including this year, are 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.919 going to be at Pinehurst number two. It is really 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:28.880 a I think, like you could say never before frequency 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.360 of a golf course in the US Open. ROTA. I 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.880 know they don't like the term ROTA, but it's becoming 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:42.480 very clearly a RODA. And and this golf course I 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:48.240 think presents a unique challenge to golfers. And I think 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.920 the big storyline because of how much it's going to 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.120 be on the on the schedule, you know, it hosts 0:02:55.120 --> 0:03:00.200 in twenty fourteen. Twenty fourteen was kind of pre this 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.720 modern golf. It was right at this inflection point in 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.280 the game where the game was getting younger, but you 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.720 still had a lot of holdovers from the previous era. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.560 And what I mean by previous era is golfers who 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.360 grew up without track man, golfers who grew up playing 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.680 heads that were smaller than four hundred and sixty ccs. 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.400 And now we have entered this new era of golf 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:31.760 that is extraordinarily youth driven, speed driven, and Pinehurst number 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:37.160 two will be a prominent fixture of this era as 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.440 a US Open course. And I'm very interested to see 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.360 ten years later from twenty fourteen when Martin Kimer potted 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.880 his way around the greens. But also, like you know, 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:53.640 everybody talks about that Martin Kaimer, two time major winner, 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.840 one of players at that time, I mean, this bonafide 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:04.440 great golfer, hall player, and at that time, you know 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.800 like he kind of it was just he blew away 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:11.360 the field like he dominated. It wasn't you know, it 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.480 wasn't It was a tour to force, and in terms 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:21.520 of this year, I'm super I'm fascinated with, like what 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.080 skill sets are going to be you know, like we're 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.480 going to enter this data room, like this data world 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.120 of golf, Like what skill sets are going to be super. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.200 Rewarded now that the game has changed. 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:34.599 Game has changed. 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.279 Yeah, And I think one of the things that's really 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.640 interesting about the number two course is that it's not 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:46.640 really clear which exact skill set will rise to the 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:51.000 top because I think that, as Bill Corr put it 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.280 in the video that we made about Pinehurst number two 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.320 and released a couple of days ago, Pinehurst number two 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.680 allows you to play your game, to try to thrive 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.400 in the way that you thrive as a golfer. I 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.160 could see a shorter hitter competing here. I could see 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:11.320 somebody really making bank with their short game. I could 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.960 see somebody having a great putting week and winning, maybe 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.080 mostly for that reason. I could also see somebody getting 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.640 hot with driver and just hitting it really long and 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.360 straight all week, having shorter approaches into these very tricky 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.600 greens and winning that way. So I think that one 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.440 of the exciting things about Pinehurst number two hosting this 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:37.240 major after the PGA Championship this year at Valhalla, where 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.919 we all knew going in exactly what the dynamics of 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.839 the tournament would be and which skill sets would rise 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.560 to the top. One of the exciting things about this 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.599 course in this US Open is that I'm not totally 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:54.240 sure what the profile of player is going to be 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.040 that ends up at the top of the leaderboard. 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:02.039 On the weekend, Bill Corr did a tremendous renovation of 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.599 Pineers number two. Restoration, renovation, whatever you want to do it. 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.719 It was, I mean, the way I think I would 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:14.080 like to put it would probably be historical renovation, taking 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.919 the course back to its nineteen forties form, and I 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.920 think it was pretty faithful along those lines. But there 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:26.120 were also some modernizing moves that Corn Crenshaw made, But 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:32.160 I should mention single row irrigation, real deal native. There 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.880 are a lot of like old fashioned aspects of this 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:39.440 golf course that a lot of the newly renovated championship 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.360 courses don't have, and so in this case, restoration might 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.320 actually be close to the proper term for what they did. 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.920 In the lens of the Championship. I think the renovation 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:56.360 thing that I would I you know, I think it's 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.599 pretty fascinating. After I played it this fall, I just 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.480 started think about, like, you know, it gets really narrow 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.520 right where I want to hit the ball, Like right 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.400 where I want to hit it. It gets narrow seemingly every hole, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.120 And I think this is what you're saying. It's like 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:17.120 where you could see a shorter hitter thriving basically on 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.720 every hole at Pinehurst number two, every par four and 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:25.600 par five fairways narrow at about three hundred yards, they 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.120 get narrow and the waste kind of comes in and 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:33.240 they're able to do this narrowing. Very It takes a 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.680 while to realize that this happened, like I've played a 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.120 number of times before I started realized. Then I went 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.720 on Google or started looking at it and I was like, 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.280 oh my god, Like this kind of narrows down at 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.000 every three hundred yard mark, and you know it's pretty wide. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.600 Then it gets really narrow at three hundred yards. So 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.400 it's like it's an interesting golf course in that sense. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.960 I'm super excited to see. Strategically, are we going to 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.239 see a lot of drivers And if you think about 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.840 like even driving distance in twenty fourteen, the number of 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.520 players who could hit the ball over three hundred yards 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.360 and twenty fourteen or averaged over three hundred yards in 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.720 twenty fourteen pales in comparison to basically the entire tour 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.600 averaging over three hundred yards in twenty twenty four So 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.400 are we going to see a lot of drivers you 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.960 take on a little bit more risk. The Native is 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.480 really a cool aspect of the golf course because you 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.440 can get good lies. You can be in spots where 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.280 it's like, oh, this is great, I can still hit 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.240 it at the green and in some cases, like I 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.280 like hitting it out of this because I'm going to 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.120 get a little bit and get some zip on the ball, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.480 Like it's not a bad spot. You could get a 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.080 better angle if you're into the Native on some of 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.679 these holes where like you know, you get over and 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.400 you have like a really nice way to pro a 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.040 very difficult green to hit from the fair away. So 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.000 with the Native, but then also you could get into 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.480 spots where it's like unhittable, like and I'm chipping out 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:16.559 sideways type stuff. So off the tee is going to 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:21.040 be fascinating, Like I, you know, my friend's Zach Blair qualified, 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.520 and I'm curious he's the shortest hitter on the PGA Tour, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.480 but like he's going to be hitting to wider spots 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.720 in the faraway than everybody else. And how does that 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.400 dynamic play out over the week. My hunch is that 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.640 power is going to win, because it usually does. But 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:44.520 I wouldn't be surprised, as you said, to see a short, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:48.480 shorter hitter or a couple shorter hitters contending here. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.760 Some of this depends on how firm the course is, 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:55.680 and I'm not quite sure how that's going to work 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.160 out this time. You know, in the run up to 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.640 the twenty fourteen US Open, it was pretty dry in 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.000 Pinehurst and so the course was baked out in the 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.800 week leading up to the US Open. They did end 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:12.040 up having some rain on Thursday night of that US Open, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.640 and so the course was actually a little bit softer 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.720 than expected. On Friday. Martin Kaimer shot sixty five sixty 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.200 five on Thursday Friday. Some players actually went pretty low. 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.680 We remember that Open as being brutal, but it was 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.720 really only very brutal on the weekend when the course 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.559 did dry out. And so I've looked at the forecast. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.640 There's a little bit of rain in the forecast, and 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.640 so we might get a softer version of Pinehurst number two, 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.120 And I kind of wonder how the course would play 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:49.680 for these players now ten years later, a little bit soft. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.800 I think some players could go low here and that 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.960 we could see more of a power game start to 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.240 dominate at the course, because that's just what happened when 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.439 the conditions are a little bit softer. It doesn't matter 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.600 what the course is now. I think that there would 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.360 still be some really interesting dynamics to the course, some 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:13.120 really interesting holes where power players might have to make 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.439 decisions that they're uncomfortable making given the way that they're 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.840 asked to strategize the game. Now. It's just hard to 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:25.560 moneyball this course. I think it's not a simple solution 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.720 using the methods that tour players now use to solve 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.760 most courses. As you say, if you just wail away 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.760 at driver, you're often going to find yourself in the 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.600 worst position on the whole, and so that has to 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.560 be on your mind in some way. So you're going 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.280 to consider clubbing down, You're going to consider choosing some 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.320 kind of weird line off the tee that might be 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.559 a little bit uncomfortable. You have to do some different 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.440 things at this course than you normally do at even 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:03.400 major championship venues, and so the details of players' strategy 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.800 should be very, very interesting, even if it is a 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.840 little bit softer and slower out there this year than 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:12.080 it was ten years ago. 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.880 I think it's important to note, you know, there's gonna 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.520 be a lot made Like the best draining golf courses 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.520 are built on sand, and you're gonna hear about the 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.079 North Carolina sand Hills a lot this year or in 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.760 and around the tournament. And so pineher'st number two is 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.760 built on sand, but it is not like the world's 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.960 best sand, So you know there are different I don't 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:36.600 want it's. 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:38.920 Like sand. 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:40.960 Yeah, I don't want to get two in the weeds here, 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.760 But like you know, a lot, a lot of golf 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:48.120 courses before they're built measure percolating rates of water to 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.280 understand how good the sand is. And I would say 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.760 that Pineher's Number two is a lot better than a 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:59.520 dirt or clay based golf course at draining, but it 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.319 is not at like the at a Scottish Links level, 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.319 like that sand has a lot higher percolation rate than 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.959 Piners number two. So this golf course can recover from 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.920 some rain and still present firm, but it is not 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.880 like out of this world. And and I think the 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.280 main and obviously we're we'll get to this, but the 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.760 greens are the main defense of this golf course or not. 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:28.319 I'd say probably the star defense of this golf course, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:32.000 especially for the modern game. Those targets and why they's 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.560 the defense is that the targets are so small and 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:40.680 they repel, often repel in all directions. And when those 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.360 greens are soft, the targets just get bigger. And that 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.760 if they if they let's just say, the softness creates 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.160 a twenty percent bigger target. It just makes such a 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.040 such a huge impact on how comfortable the best players 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.280 in the world are going to be. And I think 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:00.520 Jeff Ogilvie in the video that we get that you 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.280 you and Cameron put together on this had just like 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.080 a great quote about Pinehurst that I think is really 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.960 really true. The more you play it, the more it 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.880 scares you. The more times you play there, the more 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.440 times you hit great shots that you think are like 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:21.440 really good and end up in bad places. And what 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.640 it does is it builds scar tissue. You start to 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.560 think about that and that's when targets start to feel 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.280 smaller and smaller because you think about, oh, I hit 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:33.960 that shot so good the other day and it rolled 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.480 off the right side here, like I need to move 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.080 my target two yards left, And I think what you 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.240 were saying about the modern game the strategy. This is 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.600 where Pineher's number two kind of provides some anecdotes to that, 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.120 is that the strategy is like very it's very simplistic 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:58.120 how these guys plays like avoid hazards game towards fat 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.200 sides of the green. But when the targets are smaller 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:06.200 and there's repelling edges in all directions, it becomes harder 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.600 and harder to do that. And there's no water. We 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.720 aren't talking about a place that has water hazards that 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:17.840 you're avoiding. So areas look okay, especially if you're looking 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.840 at it from Google Earth. It's okay to bail right 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:25.000 here and let it repel off. But with the way 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.040 the greens are crowned and the short grass around them, 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.760 and the way the short grass can run into waste areas, 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.240 this is where you can get yourself in a lot 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.200 of trouble because the ball that you're aiming six yards 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.880 left of a or six yards left of a right pin. 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.320 If you tug at ten yards left in my repel off. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.200 So you hit it four yards left of your target, 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:54.400 it can repel off and then run another fifteen yards away. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.360 This is the beauty of the golf course is that 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:02.960 it accentuates mediocre shots. It accentuates the penalty for mediocre shots. 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:04.880 If you hit bad shots, you're going to be in 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.240 like a world of hurt. And if you hit great shots, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.760 you're gonna have great looks a birdie like. That's the thing. 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.920 I think this golf course similar to Augusta National with 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.400 its greens. They're very different greens than Augustin National, but 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.760 in a similar way, they accentuate the level the degrees 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.080 of quality of shot really well. 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:29.960 I think a good example of this is the first hole. 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.680 So this is a three hundred and ninety eight. It's 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.880 a scary hole, it is, but it doesn't appear that 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.520 way no on the scorecard or even maybe when you 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.040 play it the first couple of times. It's a three 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.560 hundred and ninety eight yard par four, which is almost 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:52.960 a driveable par four for the US Open field these days. 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.920 It plays a little bit downhill and so most players 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.080 are going to be actually hitting iron off this tee 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.120 because there is a of that bottlenecking that you talked 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.320 about earlier in the fairway, which by the way, is 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.120 not a Ross design feature. It's not a BILLCRP design feature. 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:11.879 That's a Mike Davis, former CEO of the USGA design feature. 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.760 That's something that he requested from Billcore. In any case, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.439 this hole plays a little bit downhill, it's short. Players 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.200 will hit an iron off the tee for the most part, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.639 and then a short iron or a wedge into the green. 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.479 You can play this hole a couple of times and 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.040 hit the fairway, hit the green, move on with a 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.560 birdier par and say to yourself, that's a gentle handshake. 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.679 That's an easy hole. That's a simple hole. But the 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:44.399 first time you miss the green on that hole, that's 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.760 when the game starts. Say you bail out to the 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:52.240 right a little bit because you're scared of the bunker 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.639 that's guarding the left side of the green. That bunker 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.760 looks really scary, It eats into the green. It looks 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.399 like the place that you don't want to be. So 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.199 you bail out to the right a little bit. You 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.040 try to hit the right portion of the green, but 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.160 you miss and you end up in that little chipping swale. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.800 You discover that there are these little contours, these little 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.200 mounds down at the bottom of the swale that give 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.600 you these weird lies for your chips, and it's all 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.760 short grass, and you try to hit that chip and 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.879 you discover that it's really not easy. Maybe you end 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.320 up hitting that chip over the green into the bunker 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.880 on the other side, and you end up walking away 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.560 with double bogie and you're like, okay, I can't do 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.080 that again. I'm not going to bail out right again. 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.720 So you come back the next time, and maybe you 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.280 miss a little bit left and you end up in 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.320 that bunker. And then then you just start thinking, Okay, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:43.760 where do I play on this hole? Where do I 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.399 miss on this hole? What do I really have to 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.240 avoid on this hole? You have to avoid everywhere. I mean, 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.719 you can miss short like, that's that's okay. 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.159 So I played, I played this hole. We teach it. 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.080 Really it's short though. Actually, come to think of it, 0:18:58.119 --> 0:18:59.280 that's bad too. Sorry, go on. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.000 So it's funny. I the last time we were there, 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.000 we teed off on ten and it was in the fall, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.960 and so this was my tenth hole, and I started 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.479 to play pretty well as I usually do, like you know, 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:17.000 this is a working man's golf game. As you start 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.160 to feel really good about the seventh or eighth hole. 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.919 So I hit her great drive on one and I 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.240 had like seventy yards sixty yards, like, I threaded it 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.600 right through there and it was the easiest shot I 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.439 had all day. With like a lobledge what I was 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.920 looking at. I was like, God, that green's so small, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.960 it's so so tidy. And I ended up just dump. 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:41.800 I didn't hit it far o. I had like a 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.000 backpin and I was like, don't do not go long. 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.320 Whatever you do, don't go long. And I landed like 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.480 kind of like middle of the green and it spun 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.320 back and spun off the front of the green. Like 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.439 it's just like an interest. Like if you don't if 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.639 you don't make committage swings, there are going to be 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.919 chipping from all day long. Like the only way to 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:09.400 succeed at Pinehurst is getting full commitment over your shots 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.560 because like you cannot. I think, like this is the 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.399 thing that's so interesting with modern golf. Modern golf is 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.600 so much about bailing out like that's half the game. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.880 Half the game is just like understanding I can bail here, 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.119 don't dump it over here like that, That's what the 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.760 game is has become and hit good shots like and 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:34.360 there's like a commitment level that that most golf courses 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.680 allow players to get to understanding where to bail out 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.760 at Pinehurst, Like, the interesting thing is it's like when 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.360 you start to bail out, that's when you get in trouble. 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.119 When you aren't committed to hitting a really great shot 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:53.560 and you're thinking about what you're where, you're misses. That 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.960 is that is like the biggest thing that can get 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.760 you in trouble. There is not stand over the shot 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.240 and saying to yourself, hit a great shot here, And 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.240 I think, like what a golf course. And I don't 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.400 want to dump on this golf course anymore. I think 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:10.600 it's gotten enough abuse. 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:14.359 But talk about golf course again. 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:19.240 What Valhalla allowed was like bail out anywhere, bail out 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:24.400 anywhere you want, and just to avoid and it created 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.560 this this tournament where like you could it was like 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.919 extremely hard to make double bogie because you could basically 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.840 just like as long as you avoided like seven areas 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:39.360 on the golf course, you were going to make pars 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.400 and at worst bogie. If you hit a bad shot, 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:47.439 bogie maybe maybe badge, maybe a bogey. At Pinehurst, I 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:51.280 think like you can hit really good shots and walk 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:53.840 away with like shaking your head, like how did I 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.320 just make a bogie? And the answer usually is like, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.159 you know what, I was a little too cautious with 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:00.159 my target. 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.680 Right, And you know what happens when you bail out 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:10.919 and miss at Pinehurst around the greens is that you're 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.320 left with a variety of chip shots. Right. There's an 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.760 infinite variety of chip shots around the greens at Pinehurst. 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.000 They're so varied and that's part of what makes them interesting. 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.639 But there is a certain brand of chip shot that 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:27.720 you hit a lot at Pinehurst, and that is the 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.520 up and over. You have to hit up to the 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:32.919 level of the green pad, which is higher than you 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.560 are generally when you're chipping at Pinehurst because the greens 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.560 are crowned or turtle back and so you're below the 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:41.560 surface of the green, so you got to hit your 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:46.200 shot up that first slope. But then often, as Jeff 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.960 Ogilvie mentioned in our video, a lot of the greens 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:54.040 have kind of lower middle sections, and so that means 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:58.119 that you have to then judge the rollout of your 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:01.560 chip shot or your putt or whatever you're doing. You 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.840 have to judge the rollout of it on a downslope, 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:08.080 and so you're hitting up a contour and down a 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.960 contour a lot when you bail out and miss at Pinehurst, 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.240 because generally the bailouts are kind of like away from bunkers, 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:17.000 away from hazards, So you're going to end up in 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.359 a lot of short grass if you're playing conservatively. But 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:22.920 then that chip shot that you hit is the one 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.960 chip shot that I think pros really don't like where 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.080 you're hitting up something and then down something because it's 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:32.880 so hard to judge your distance and it's so hard 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:37.920 to like figure out what club to hit. Sometimes maybe 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:40.240 pros hit a lot of lob wedges, maybe they'll just 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:42.920 go for a standard lob wedge shot, but I don't 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.320