WEBVTT - Need A 4th?! Ep. 11 with Mike Clayton 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:09.680 Golf is the thing. Anything in golf that doesn't change, 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.200 anything that changes the best in playing? Does this man 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:14.920 a one time winner on the PGA Tour? The point 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:20.560 Alan is he didn't go Hollywood. You need a fourth 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.000 Before we get to the episode, we should tip our 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.720 caps to echo our corporate sponsors here. And of course 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.120 Lydia Co the New World Number one is a long 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.199 time Echo ambassador. Michael, do you do you know my 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.199 affection for Lydia and I share it? Just a charming 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.720 person and an outstanding golfer. You've done her far better 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:43.760 than I. What can you tell us about her? Well? 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.080 I still have her hat from the Olympics in Rio 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.040 is his gorgeous New Zealand hat, and asked her I 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.240 could keep it. She said yes. But one time I 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:52.720 was talking to her, I said, where does your power 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.120 come from? She says, it's from the ground. You know, 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.440 It's like a really old school thought. And she has 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.880 beautiful footwork. And I always you're seeing the club and 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.160 she's like she's dancing. And as I'm as I'm observing this, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.520 I always noticed her her Echo biome shoes like they 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.679 just seem to give her superpowers. Have you observed anything 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.960 along those lines. Well, you know what the great teachers say, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.160 there's only one thing that connects you to the ground 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.240 in this game, and that's your They don't say your 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:21.959 echo shoes, but in this case it is her echo shoes. 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.360 So that's pretty cool. The secret to Lydia Ko's success 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.360 along with many other talents. But she's wearing the right 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.640 footwears all right back to need a fourth Okay, so 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:38.880 fun guests today. He uh, it's a hey, has one 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.080 on the European Tour professional golf, has one on the 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.240 europe and two, has one in Asia, has one professional 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.760 golf tournaments in Australia, and it's currently I think you 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.800 guys know who this is. But Um ranked by Today's 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.520 Golf and Magazine a seventy nine most influential person in golf. 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.040 Um one behind one behind one behind um Alan Actually, 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.520 well is not committed the entire list to memory, you know, 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.080 and had a tattooed on my forearm. That makes it easier. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:12.400 But Gulf Coast architect Great Rota, one of the more 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:17.919 intelligent voices in golf, Well, this gets easier, Jeff, because 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:22.400 we know about your your design history and your friendships 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:26.720 and is this person the tournament director of the sand 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.760 Belt Classic, your founder, very very involved in the sand 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.920 Belt invitation. That would be one Mike Clayton. Clayton, welcome, 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.720 thank you. Interesting. What's been going on? What do you uh, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.400 what have you been doing? Um? Well, it's January and Melbourne, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.560 so nothing happens, right. So I've been watching a bit 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.840 of tennis. I went to the key On Classic Tennis 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.280 Tolman last week and watched Andy Murray play dam at All. 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.840 And I watched Taylor Fitz, big tall guys. I was 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.960 sitting with someone I knew about tennis. Taylor Fitz, that 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:12.120 American kid was from California, right was playing Alexei Popper 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.880 in Australian Russian. Australian who was I'm gonna said, this 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.360 is a future of tennis. Six ft five long limbs, 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:24.519 just smashing it. So, um, it's kind of I always 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:28.520 liked watching tennis. It's fun. I watched Keon was the 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.880 first place I heard an American accent. And I heard 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:35.680 Billy jen King say grass when I was like nine sixty. 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:37.760 I was not knowing sixty four. I've never heard an 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.120 American accent because we we didn't have a TV at home. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.040 So Billy Jane King was the first American accent I 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.120 ever heard of Kong. My mom took me there and 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.920 like the mid sixties probably, So I went there a 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:50.160 lot and watched the Strand Open. There are a lot 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.920 of watching You can play corners, and so that's what 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.760 I've been doing, really, and playing golf in s Andrew's Beach, 0:03:55.800 --> 0:04:00.920 which is always fun. Page plays golf every day usually 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.600 still every day. Yeah, most days. I mean even if 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:06.600 I go and play five or six holes, you know, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.360 jumped the back fence and Sandraw's Beach and duck out 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.600 in the twelth hold and play five or six holes, yeah, 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.640 because I just I've got an old set of ram 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.400 golden Ram irons stuck in the bag last week, which 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.280 is kind of They're fun Tom Watson style Tom Watson 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.120 grinder with a square toes and high toes. Yeah. So 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.920 I've been playing with them, which has been interesting. Three 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.359 I like crop of three irons. Good. They weren't that 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:33.840 hard hard to hit that? No they're not. I mean 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.400 you smash it. No, they're not that hard to hit 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.320 it already. And all this modern stuff just dumbs us 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.000 down right and you think in some ways big head 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:43.760 of drivers that are just like, I mean, you hit 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.839 a good driver to say, yes, so what But someone said, 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:48.159 what you're driving it? Well, I said if I was, 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.120 if I was seeing these drives with my old Cleveland Classic, 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.640 I would be driving it. Well, this doesn't count. This 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.240 is cheating hitting it with this thing. It's true. But 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.040 if you saw a four handicap or a tin handicap 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.840 hit a modern driver next to Rory mcarrowy hitting the driver, 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.040 you still realize there's a fast skill gap there, like 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.359 it's still quite hard to drive. Oh yeah, that's just 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:10.520 it's ridiculous. How sure I hit it. I might play 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.320 with these the old guys I play and I think 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.200 I'm kind of a reasonable hitter. And I go and 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:15.720 played with Lucas or you and they hit at a 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.400 hundred yards past me. It's like, it's ridiculous. Yeah, anyway, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.560 So that's what I've been doing. Good fun. January is 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:25.600 always great in Melbourne because it's tennis and the weather 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.400 is nice and it's kind of every one's a holidays 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.960 and the golf courses are great because it's the best 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:31.640 time of the year for the golf course. So it's 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.279 and people visit the people down. Lawrence Donnegan was down 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.240 with his son playing the Master with the amateurs, so 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.600 we played a bit and in fact he came down 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:42.160 for Christmas, so we played the Sand Belt Tom and 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.359 then stay for Christmas and then played Southern and I 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.480 had to go back to school, which was unfortunate. Probably 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:51.800 better in Melbourne and Scotland and January. Um so more importantly, 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:57.400 how good a caddy with Michael Bamberger. Well, he never 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.480 caddy for me, but um, it was always it always 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.480 seemed very competent. You know, I think there were um 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.000 which has already had to be right unless you're a squirrel. 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:10.960 I mean, I mean squirrel cave for me quite a lot. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.560 Then he came for you obviously for years. But there 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.000 are a few guys like that who were great. But um, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.719 if you weren't in that great category, then competent, nice 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.799 guy who turned up and was arrived was already needed. 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.960 Right for the listeners set the scene? I mean, what year, 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:30.080 what tour like? When did you get a glimpse of bamburger? 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:36.679 You know as a looper? Is this really necessary? I'm 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:42.159 trying to remember. I'm pretty sure because Steve Elkington and 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.080 I traveled a bit that year he played in Europe. 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:48.279 In fact, we were we were rooming together in Sweden 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.800 watching the We didn't get out on Sunday night and 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.360 we were watching the the Bob Toy Bunker shot it 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.280 and that was six It was am I right, it 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:03.400 was a Bob. We watched the Bob Twin Bunker shot 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.240 against Greg Norman in a hotel room in Foster Borow 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.520 and Melmo and Swade were playing it Falster anyway, So um, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.480 I think I remember Michael, it wasn't there long. You 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.360 were riding the Green Road home right when you were 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.840 cutting for facts and you came to Europe for a bit, 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:24.040 and were you in then in five Saint George as 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.760 I was yeah, yeah, ready six five right, yeah eighty five? 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.720 Yeah you qualified synt Ports now, I believe it or not. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:34.640 I was the exempt. I've made the top twenty on 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:38.520 alisy Ere before, so I was come on totally there 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.480 the one time. I wasn't example very often. But so 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.120 who did you work for there? Jimmy Hall who was 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.000 an American. He was on his honeymo when he was 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.600 twenty two and Royal synt Ports is you guys must 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:57.520 know it. Uh, you're Jeff great golf course. Uh. We're 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.200 trying not to use the F word in a in 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.880 abusive ways here, but I have to share one abusing thing. Uh. 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.560 One of the years they were playing at some ports 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.360 I think it was here, Darren Clark one so many 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:12.480 years later, whenever that was. And Mike Donald's, you guys know, 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.120 was a great friend of mine, and we were playing 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.920 at Saint Ports and Mike never played there before. In 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.240 Mike's port fan but in a very humorous, in appropriate way, 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:23.360 he says, I don't know what the funk they got 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.160 next door here, but there's no fucking way it's harder 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:33.600 than this fucking golf course. Do you guys remember the caddy, Lauren, 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.240 what you would I don't think you took Alan might not, 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:45.280 but Mike definitely. Lauren Duncan of course, Yeah we still um, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.560 we still yeah, we still message each other a lot. Uh. 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:53.839 In I was saying, I think the checkers in it 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.000 was a little motel right on the same ports course, 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.600 and then went out one night for for evening golf 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.800 and Dave mcneally Lauren Duncan were on the course a 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.280 three old road again and again. You know, literally stays 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.560 light till mont Derby, almost probably ten o'clock at night. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.319 And I've been around a lot, and but for whatever reason, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.520 I've only seen Lauren Duncan once in my entire life, 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:19.280 and it was that evening in a Royal Simports. So 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.439 just last year I was moved to right to Lauren 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:25.880 and asked him if he remember that evening. Dave McNeilly, 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:30.280 I've seen hundred plus times since then, and I said, 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.800 by any chance, to remember that evening and he said, 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.880 not only remember the evening. We started the evening at 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.400 we started the afternoon at Royal St George's. Amon Darcy 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.640 gave mcneili and me a lift from Royal St George's 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.480 to our caravan park and we took this back road 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.000 and you guys might know the back road. It's very 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.000 rural and Amon Darcy stopped the car to look at 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.560 a cow with a large head. It's like, how random 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.240 can't you be that I selected one night of thousands 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.959 and thousands, said you remember that a Dorsey stopped the 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.080 car to look at a calibl lark. But I shared 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.439 the story because Mike especially would appreciate that really was 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.040 that little story probably captures a lot about the European 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:16.040 Tour because Duncan cared there are a lot he was 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.800 for obviously standard in that. Remember he dressed up in 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.679 the plus fours in the bow tie when he came 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.839 for Stadler in three, when he played with Watson the 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.240 last day, and I mean, Dunk was great. He came 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.000 for me a lot. He was a really interesting guy. 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:31.400 I was told him, you should have been a school teacher, 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.400 had been an amazing school teacher because he was really 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.360 smart and he just had a great personality and I 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.959 could explain stuff and had a great view of the world. 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.959 And he came from it. Was a terrific guy. And 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.480 he's living in he's getting ready to play golf. Last 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.160 week when I was messaging him, he's living in down 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:52.640 in Scottsdale. So um, he's going. Well done. I wish 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.199 he came more, but he's kind of done with it. 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.680 He's fed up with it. I mean that that's such 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.040 a romanticized era in Gulf kind of the eighties. On 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.280 the European Tour, you had all all these Hall of 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:07.160 famers coming through and the Ryder Cut became, you know, 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.679 the super Bowl of golf and it still feels like 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.040 it was a little wild and wooly out there. I mean, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.480 was it as much fun Mike to be a part 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:17.960 of it as as it is for those of us 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.640 to kind of look back and try and and try 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:25.319 and recreat it and imagine what it was. It was. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.480 You don't realize that at the time it was luck 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.480 the Australian Tour at the same time when Greg was 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:33.840 playing in the tour was flying and the Graham Marsh 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.440 and David Graham and I'm share are lots of great 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.160 place down here. But yeah, Europe was um, I'm gonna 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.240 trouble was much better organized. By the mid eighties, Randy 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.079 Fox was Randy had everything pretty organized. We would turn 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.800 up a terminal one that you know, six thirty on 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:56.520 Tuesday morning, British wise and fly to somewhere Stockholm, madrad Ord, 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.400 Paris and pick us up in a bust and tuck 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:01.200 us the golf course when to play a practice around 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.040 and go to the hotel. And it was fine. It 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.559 was We didn't know it was pretty organized, but it was. 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:13.120 Looking back, it was great fun. And you don't realized 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.360 how great that era was until you look back on 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.720 it and when you had you know, savvy fellow lil 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.920 Anger was he Monty a little later a Lazabel just 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.520 to touch later. But there are amazing players. It was 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.360 a great era and lots of Sam Tyrens and Mark 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.439 James and Ken Brown and Darcy and you know that 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.199 the second tier in Europe was it was a it 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.920 was a busloader Gordon Brandon Jr. Because we were really 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:40.920 good players. So it was a fun area to play. 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.760 And the courses were we play. We're playing Portmarik and 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:48.360 Walton Heath and Stangingdale and Shawn Ty and Foster bro 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:50.360 and put it the Hero in Madrid, so we put 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.760 a lot of good golf courses too. So it was 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.040 what was you know, no one apart from the real 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.880 stars made any great great amounts of money. It was 0:12:59.920 --> 0:13:02.880 a great ear to be a part of. And not 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.559 just great players, but like big personalities right like these 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.920 are these are Hall of Fame talkers and racing tours 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:15.160 and I mean it was was the camaraderie you know 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.760 that uh palpable. I mean, obviously we're trying to beat 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:20.760 each other, but it seems like you kind of moved 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.040 into caravan and there was there was there was a 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.480 lot more hanging out and a lot more together and 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.959 it's yeah, there was. I mean the Australians all we 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.360 were boringly. We all finished up buying houses and Bagshot 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.240 just just ten minutes down the road from Sangandale. But 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.040 that wasn't until the late eighties really, So in the 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.360 mid eighties when Michael was there first, we were just 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.599 on the road. Every week. We would go to the 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.839 Holiday Inn in London. We would check in at the 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.640 South Africains John Bland and David Frost and Bioki and 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.720 Petter Fowler and Nobelow and Turner. We were just checking 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:55.839 into the Holiday And in London on Sunday night and 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.040 go out and it on Monday Tuesday, and so we 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.400 so no one really took a week off because what 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.120 else were you going to do? So I played in 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.120 I laugh at these guys who were tired. After three 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:14.800 weeks we started in the Tasmanian Open in Milton, Tasmania. 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:20.200 Obviously in January I played twenty three out of twenty 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:28.120 four weeks in seventeen countries, because um, what else were 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.400 we going to do? So we went four or five 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:39.640 in Australia, then straight to Asia and went from Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, career, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.360 Japan and then straight to a week off when stayed 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:48.280 with Jamie crowin San Diego, when Tom and Jamie was 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.400 still living in San Diego and Cobra was well, Cobra 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.760 was four, so Coba was sort of just getting going 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.400 then really you know that he was making some great clubs, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.880 and so we had a week in San Diego and 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.080 and then we went to Europe and started playing over there. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.840 That was Jamie's first year in Europe, so it was 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:09.880 um and we just kept playing. So it was kind 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.600 of wild, really, Jeff, do you I feel like you're 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:14.400 born in the wrong era because I kind of picture you, 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.680 you know, as one of a throwback guy who would 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:19.840 have loved Barnes drolling around and playing with the old 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:24.840 equipment on its wild and wily courses like H twenty 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:29.120 four doesn't sound any fun, um, but I played Europe 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.640 late nineties and you could see what it was like. 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:37.000 It's still kind of was that. Uh, it was just 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.480 a group, the players and the caddies and even the 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.600 equipment reps and the rules officials. We all just you're 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:44.800 all in a foreign country together, right, So you're all 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.240 together and you just everyone stay in the same hotel. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.120 There'll be a caddy hotel and a player hotel and 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:51.760 all the players. You just go down to the bar 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.680 and the hotel at some point at six thirty or something, fine, 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:56.080 three or four people and go out to dinner. It 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.240 might be different people every night, So within three months 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.000 you know the whole two and you're sort of part 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.760 of it. It's sort of probably why the Ryder Cup 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.720 has been so strong from the European side, because they're 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.960 just together. You know, that's not a team, it's not 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.600 a tour of individuals. At least it wasn't then. Um, 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.280 it was just great fun. You know, you'd land on 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.840 the plane, you'd fly from Heathrow, There'll be fifty people 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.480 on the plane, players and caddies and you landed zero 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.520 Airport or something and going to Crown and there'd be 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.560 a coach bus trying to take us to the course 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.440 two hours. And once people are on the bus, especially 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:30.600 the caddies, they're like just telling the driver, who's some 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.240 Swiss guy, just go, just go. Everyone's here, just go. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:35.840 So if you didn't get your bags first, you could. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:37.760 The bus would just go and you would just be 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:39.600 stuck two hours away from where you were going to go. 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.480 Stuff like that. Um, and you're getting sixty people on 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.960 a forty seat bus and people are sitting on golf bags, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:47.800 and you know, there's this really what I wanted to do, 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.160 But it was just incredible fun. Um. As good as 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:52.600 it is to get handed the keys of a brand 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.400 new car every week and stay on your own and 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:57.440 do your own thing, it's way more fun to do 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.080 it the old schoolway. So yeah, it would have been 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:05.040 brilliant fun. But I'll take my era. Yeah, in Switzerland, 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.160 I got. I hated that golf course. Just the most 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.200 beautiful place in the world. That view from the seventh 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.440 hole is probably the best, most beautiful view in golf 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.320 looking down the mountains. I don't know how many miles 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.080 you can see from from that. To you, it must 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.600 be tens of miles down that, but one of the 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.280 worst holes we've ever seen. It's just a heart miserable. 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:29.560 I hated that golf course. Um. I always about to 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.199 go there and not play, just go there for the weekend, 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.600 just not playing like you remember the remember the course 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:40.120 southside of Florence. I think it was called I remember, yeah, yeah, 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:47.760 I do, yeah, yeah, Colin burn caddy for me. That 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.000 who was Colin was a great friend of Duncan's. That 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.760 Colin Kadi for Goosen when he won both his opens. 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.800 But remember Colin coming for me there. But great ice 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.760 cream in Florence. So it was an US weight great 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:07.360 os cream. Yeah, I think to your point, but both 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.120 jump it and Mike, you know, uh, of course all 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.399 four of us missed, you know, the tour as the 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.200 tour in the US when it was really the tour, 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:19.920 but European in Europe in the eighties, Mike, when you 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:24.080 got definitely was really a tour. And what you're describing 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.520 is is golf without an entourage. The entourage was the tour, 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.560 and all the tour was was you know, John Cardmore 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.920 and fifty caddies and ninety players. Uh, that's about it. 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:39.960 A couple of equipment guys being had an equipment guy. 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.520 But it was and you know, the currency changed every week, 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.920 and it felt like I've been interesting to talk to 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.040 the guys who played in the sixties in Europe in 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.560 the seventies. But I guess Jack was a big style. 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:55.879 But it felt like, yeah, we were playing with some 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:57.600 of the best players in the world, which was probably 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:59.600 the first time that had happened in Europe. Sevy and 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:04.680 transformed that tour through his presence, and you know that 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.600 those other guys fell down and Langer and as great 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:09.920 as they were, got dragged along by Sevy because he 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.560 was he was just the guy every weekend. It was 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.359 everyone loves Sevy. I mean, he was amazing and it 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.280 was he I'm sure he had his moments, his appearance, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:23.600 money fights, and he's you could get a bit cranky 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.760 at times, but you know, there were how do you 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:28.920 imagine how much pressure was on him to being the 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.119 main guy there. Not every didn't play every week, but 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:33.600 every week he played, he was the main guy there, 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.480 like Tiger was, you know, expected to win. You know, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:39.800 you can't miss the cut because all the people are 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:41.280 gonna turn up on the weekend and what you play. 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:44.879 So there's a lot of pressures on him that we 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.480 didn't really appreciate, probably, but he handed it brilliantly and 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.080 it was such a great player to watch. I mean, God, 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:54.560 I wish I could see him play again. What's your 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.560 best Sevy story? There were lots of seventy stories. I mean, 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.800 the best service to there his shots, just watching his shots. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:07.040 But um, we were, you know, we were in a car. 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:08.960 Not that sappens very often, but we're in a car. 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:10.440 One was going back to the airport or something. We 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:12.080 just finished at the same time. We jumped out a 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:16.840 car and at the airport and I asked him, so, 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.560 what was the best shot you ever hit? Without even 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:24.160 thinking about He said the chip at Letham. I said, 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.640 I said, what about the three wood in the Ryder Cup? 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:31.560 He said, the chip was for me. That was for 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.960 the team. The chip was for me, which was you know, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.440 but that is the coolest chip ever though, like, yeah, 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:41.560 well he played it looks like it's going in. It 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.840 just didn't look that difficult and he made it Cain'd 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:46.520 of look easy. But it was in long grass and 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.200 it was a bit grainy, and it was just and 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:49.640 it was the Open, you know, it was the last 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:51.920 hole of the Open. He's Mr Green and he needs 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:53.600 to get up and down. He just and he hit 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.399 it so quickly walked up there, grabbed the club and 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:58.480 just said the most beautiful chip. It was a great shot. 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:02.640 But I remember him playing it wentworth I was an amateur. 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.800 I was over there. I wasn't even playing the Torrent. 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.760 We're over playing the British Amlar. We went out to 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.479 watch the Martini. It was a cold, dark, miserable day, 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.040 thirty six hours the last day because I lost the 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:14.760 day for rain. And the tenth that went was that 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.720 kind of you know, Jeff, the part three were hit over. 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.920 You either go left on the left side of the 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:23.760 green and put across, or you go over the pine 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.159 trees at the flag. And it was back then it 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:32.400 was a three iron shot, and most of the guys 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.720 I've watched were just hitting it left and putting fifty 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.480 ft across the green. A couple of went over the trees, 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.760 and Steady just aimed left. There's slight. He sliced his 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:46.680 three I like thirty yards for twenty yards around here, 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.280