WEBVTT - Takeaways from the 2026 PGA Championship with Trevor Immelman 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.480 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:04.880 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.960 And when I find my ball in a brid egg 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.000 Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida egg, Frida egg 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:11.840 egg Frida egg bride egg. 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.480 Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course game. 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.600 Welcome back to the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.559 Andy Johnson, and today I am excited to be joined 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.400 by Trevor Immulman to break down the twenty twenty six 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.640 PGA Championship at aronom ink Uh. It was a thrilling 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.400 weekend of golf, tons of players in the mix, eventually 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.520 with Aaron Raye getting it done. So we will break 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.280 down what happened. Trevor, of course was on the call 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:06.080 with Jim Nantz and the entire CBS crew from ARONOMNC. 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:12.280 So apologies for the slightly delayed release. You know, but 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.520 obviously coordinating post major with travel is it can be 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.280 sometimes complicated. Before we get to Trevor, let's talk about 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.600 our friends over at Friday Golf Club, which is us. 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:28.280 Friday Golf Club is our membership. It is something that 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:32.320 we have been spending a lot of hours lately discussing 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.800 and working on things to take it into the next 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.520 couple of years. So we do a lot of stuff 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.959 with Friday Golf Club. We have content that is exclusive 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.560 to Friday Golf Club members. 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You had 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:26.320 a busy week. You were at Ironomank. You know, a 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.080 I would say from a broadcast standpoint, it had to 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:34.280 be one of the more challenging weekends that you've ever encountered. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:40.120 Look, Andy, I mean they're all challenging for different reasons, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.160 but yeah, I mean this time, when you've got that 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:50.880 many players with a realistic shot to win, uh, it 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:56.200 is it's an all out sprint man. And you know, 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.120 because we cover so much of the golf at these 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.160 major championship and you're on for you know, let's call 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.800 it seven hours, you've got to have you know, we've 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.160 got two trucks, one that handles the front nine one 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.080 that handles the back nine, and they're you know, working 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:15.119 together constantly trying to figure out which are the right 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.440 shots that need to be shown. They do an incredible job. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.880 I don't I don't know how they do it, to 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.240 be honest. A lot of talented people back there that 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.800 are working their way through it. So yeah, I mean 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:31.640 it's a lot of fun because it's exciting. I mean, 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:33.599 anything could happen. It was. It was. It was a 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.000 pretty interesting week from that standpoint with with so many 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.920 players with a chance and so many different stories like 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:45.040 you know, John Rahm trying to win his third major 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.160 and get the third leg and McElroy trying to win 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:51.560 back to back and Scheffler trying to win back to 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:56.120 back PGAs, and you've got a bunch of guys that 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.480 had never won majors before and guys that had never 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.440 even come close to contending in mages before. So there 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.120 were there were so many different moving parts to it. 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.000 But it was fun. It was fun, and we saw 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.400 some some unbelievable golf. 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:15.120 Man. Yeah, it was. Uh, it was a crazy weekend 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.880 and you know, I think like there will be a 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.960 lot of things remembered from aronom Ink but the kind 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.600 of feeling of you know, generally you could narrow it 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:31.159 down to a couple guys, and it's like Saturday and Sunday. 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.160 It's like, literally anybody could do this, and anybody that 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.160 gets hot and plays well, you know, could get this done. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.880 From your perspective, this is I wasn't plan to go here, 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.560 but I've always wondered, I, you know, from a broadcast perspective. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.279 To me, it's always felt like, you know, if you 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.240 have like six to eight people in the mix, it's 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.800 an ideal situation when you you know, obviously you could 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.040 do stuff with like duels. You know, the blowout gets 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.440 hard because it's like, okay, you have to talk about 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.960 one person all over. And then this week was at 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.440 the other end of the spectrum where there's so many 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.080 people in the mix it's hard to follow all of 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.800 them because you only have a certain amount of time 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.400 and so many shots are happening all at the same time. Yeah, 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.440 and anybody that's complaining about like maybe these were live 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.040 is like, well, like all these things are coinciding at 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:29.320 the same time on different fields of play, where different 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.640 cameras are and you know, so from your perspective, what 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:35.920 is like, you know, if you if you had a 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.080 dream scenario, what does that look like from a broadcast 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.119 perspective of like number of players in the mix? 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.640 Yeah, I think I think you've got the number right there. 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.320 I mean it's somewhere between five and ten. You know, 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.640 that's going to allow you ample opportunity to get into 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:56.280 strategy and technique and you know, things they're doing, well, 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.400 maybe things that they're fighting or struggling with, and then 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.840 also give you know, a guy like Jim Nance the 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.560 opportunity to start weaving in the storytelling aspect of it, 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.640 of getting into you know, the history of the player 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.120 and what he's done to get to this point, the 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.440 meaning of what this victory could be. But you know, 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.640 it's like when we came on the air on Sunday 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.240 in the on camera, I actually I actually said, you know, 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:30.360 this is this is like an eighteen hole shootout thirty 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.640 players to win a major championship. And that's really what 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:35.160 it felt like. I mean, we had to keep our 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.520 head on a swivel and follow all sorts of things. 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:44.120 I was actually texting with JT yesterday and we were 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.520 kind of laughing at the fact that, you know, when 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.480 he hold out that brilliant pass save at eighteen at 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:55.400 three five pm. You know, for a little while it 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.360 looked like this guy could win or get into a 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.880 play or finishing, you know, as the leader were teeing off. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.720 And so that kind of just shows like the spectrum 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.440 of golf that we had to cover throughout the afternoon, 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:12.960 and I found that kind of funny that, you know, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.080 that might have been the winning putt. We covered a 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.320 three or three oh five, and we went off air 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.120 at about seven fifteen pm, So it was it was 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.640 a crazy day, but an exciting day. 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.680 I you know, what are the aspects of that that 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.800 is particularly fascinating. It's like what he holds that out 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.320 and the play you'd seen in the morning, You're like, 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.959 there's no way five is the number. 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.720 Yeah. I always felt it was gonna be sort of 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.800 hoping for a playoff, but probably be a shot or 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.000 two shy. I mean I said that at the time, 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.640 but it hung on in there for a long time. 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.080 Yeah, and then and then all of a sudden, it's 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.000 like the middle of the back dined and you're like, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:02.040 oh my god, five feels like good because of just 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.240 the nature of that golf course where the back line 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:10.560 was such an ass kicker all week long. It's just like, okay, 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.680 hang on for dear life, and you know, and then 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:16.680 like it turned the way it turned out, if somebody 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.640 just played, you know, really the a ten hole stretch 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.880 of their life to close it out. If you were 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.160 a player in the in the lead up to that 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:32.720 final round in the mix, would you have approached Sunday 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:38.400 differently than say, I, you know, a normal competit like 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.160 in contention round where there's you know, let's just call 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.600 it six to eight players that could win. 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.640 No, I don't think so. And it's partially because of 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.719 the golf course, you know, Like you said, it was 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.640 such a fun week from from an analysis standpoint for 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.600 us as golf fans to try and wrap our minds 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:06.280 around this golf course and understand where the soft spots 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.760 were to be able to attack. I mean, it was 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.679 very clearly the first let's just call it eight of 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.080 the first nine holes you take the eighth hole out, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.559 which was just a menace the whole week. I mean, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.679 what a difficult part three. Even when they were moving 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.920 the tea's way up and it was playing one seventy 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.480 one eighty, it was still just kicking these guys butts. 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.200 That green complex and the angle that it sits at 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.160 with the wind blowing playing dramatically downhill, was just causing 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.360 havoc all week long. But eight of the first nine 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:43.560 were kind of gettable, and then you had to hang 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.520 on from there. But I don't think that the strategy 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.480 would have changed because of that. I mean, this course 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:52.679 could jump up and grab you the way that it 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.719 was presented to the players. Everyone was talking about how 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.000 wide the fairways were, but they played so much now 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:05.559 arrower with the camber on the fairways. The camber always 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.839 seemed to work opposite to the dog leg or many times, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.000 shall I say, for the most part. You know, you 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:16.480 think about the second hole. These guys are trying to 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.520 take it over the bunker. You've got two options, which 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.240 I love. You can lay short into a flat area 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.000 and then have a longer second, or you can do 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.280 what these players love to do nowadays, which is trying 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.800 and vombit over the bunkers. But then you're landing on 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.920 a side slope. Ninety five percent of them are kicking 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.280 into the rough. There was no first cut. The ball 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.839 would run straight from the fairway into the long stuff. 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:40.840 I mean, you could be six inches off the fairway 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:45.320 and just be in total hack out rough. And so 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:47.920 I don't think because of the golf ware the golf 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.160 course was presented, I don't think you could get too 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.600 far ahead of yourself. It wasn't like you could all 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:57.120 get too aggressive. You had to just play each shot 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.200 on its own merit. You know, let's call that Major 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:06.960 Championship style strategy. And if I was one of those 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.960 players on Sunday, I would have just been hoping that 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:11.800 I was going to get my putter hot. I mean, 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.240 at the end of the day, that was probably what 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.120 it was going to boil down to, who could get 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.040 their putter hot and find a way to run the tables. 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:25.440 And you start to look at Aaron Ray's last ten holes. 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.080 I mean when he bogied the six and the eight, 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.720 he was three back. Yeah, and then you know he 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.480 goes six under his last ten, starting with the eagle 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:41.240 at nine. And you know, I really hope that people 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.600 in the coming weeks and months and years appreciate the 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:51.280 greatness of that stretch of golf. You know, if Tiger 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.679 had done that, if Rory had done that, if Rahm 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.040 or Scheffler you know, any of the guys that we 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:00.360 love to root for, if any of them had done that, 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:06.160 we would have been like fainting from excitement and talking 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.240 about this is why these guys are so good, This 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:10.920 is why they're the best players in the world, this 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.760 is why they're multiple major champions. Like, these guys just 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.080 have another gear. They can get it done. And I 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.719 rarely do hope that Aaron Rai gets the same respect 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.520 because that stretch of golf and the shots that he 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.160 hit rarely from the ninth hole all the way through 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:33.000 finishing was such high quality, and many of them had 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.800 such a high degree of difficulty. You know, you zoom 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:41.720 in on like the bunker shot on thirteen and the 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:47.400 way he played fifteen and even sixteen, and he's one 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.320 of the only players to hold the ball in the 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.760 fairway being able to hit the tight drawer to kind 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.200 of curve it against the slope and get it to 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.360 hang in there. I mean, these shots were just like 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.760 seriously elite level stuff. And that's what I really hope 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.840 is is remembered about this PGA Championship. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.080 Yeah, you know, and if you look at the board 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.840 and it's impossible to take somebody out of it and say, like, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.520 you know, thirty guys could could have conceivably gone out 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.240 and won the tournament, maybe more given where JT came from, Right, 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.000 there was one person who went out and did it 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.520 and emphatically did it. It was not close. It wasn't like, 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.480 you know, if this didn't happen, or you know, had 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.320 he not hold the eagle putt on on on nine, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.280 like obviously all these things don't happen in a vacuum. 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.920 I think, like golf is such a momentum sport. But 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:52.320 you know, with Ray, like he absolutely just won out. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.240 He went out and took it. And I think your 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.640 point about the other other players, you know, if Scotty 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.520 had done this, you know, if Scotty had just played 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.360 the back nine of Aaron Rye and Aaron Rye played 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.400 immediate pedestrian back nine and Scotty wins the tournament, we 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:13.760 would be just going insane about it, and especially the 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.800 manner in which he did. He did it with the 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.920 shot making as you as you just alluded to, was 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.520 there a point in that round where where you were 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.400 like you kind of were like, I know, this guy's 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.320 getting this done well. 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:34.640 I thought the bunker shot on thirteen was gosh, that 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.560 was so gutsy. You know, we saw other guys in 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.360 that bunker, and I'll zoom in on Cam Smith. I'll 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.400 use him as the example because you know, when you 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.080 think of Cam Smith, what do you think about You 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.960 think about a guy with maybe the best short game 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.920 in the world when you take you know, pitching and 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:58.000 bunker shots and putting into account. He had almost the 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.240 identical shot, and there were two ways to play it. 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.000 You could try and go for the chunk and run 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.640 and get it to run up that big slope onto 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.120 the plateau where the hole was located, or you could 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.640 fly it up there. You had eight steps to work with. 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.000 Cam went for the chunk and run just because it's 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.360 such a risky, difficult shot. I don't blame him for 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.840 one second. I'm just saying that Aaron Rye decided to 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.360 go the other way, and he decided from you know, 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:34.480 he called it forty yards on a slight upsloping lie 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.840 to go ahead and just take a full rip at 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.480 it and fly it up there with a ton of 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.240 spin to stop it. I mean, that is just that's 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.200 meeting the moment, is the way that I would describe it. 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.360 But the whole back nine, you know, thirteen, we're getting 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.880 to a point now to where like the choke factor 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.080 starts to come in. But you think about the up 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:59.040 and down at ten, the wedge into eleven, the up 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.080 and down on twelve where he chips instead of putting, 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:04.760 which completely caught me off. God, then he gets it 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:09.359 up and down on thirteen, and he just starts, you know, 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.320 taking the tournament by the scruff of the neck. Really. 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.440 But once he got it up and down on thirteen, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.800 I was like, gosh, this is this looks pretty good 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:21.439 here right. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:27.080 Now, I think, you know, I I've never really enjoyed 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.360 watching Aaron Rye play golf, and I think a lot 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.960 of it was a center around the pace of which 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.760 he plays. I don't have much patience for slow players, 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:40.119 and he's a little deliberate out there. But when he 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.960 hit the shot on thirteen, I like what I sat 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:46.679 up in my chair and it was like that moment 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.040 of like what they say is like I was not 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.520 aware of, you know, of like the game that you 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:58.639 possessed here and like really the stones, the idea and 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.160 that because we want people all day to your point, 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.520 using Campsmith as the example, all day, hit the chunk 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.639 and run out of that bucker. It's just the safe shot. 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.080 It's the okay like if I hit it, really, if 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.680 I execute it perfectly, it's going to run up there 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.080 and I may have a good look. But if I don't, 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.080 I'll get out of here with a four. And if 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.200 you go for the go for the broke, the big shot, 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:29.320 the high spinner, all of a sudden, you're bringing everything in. 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.520 Oh yeah, because the way that the way that green 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:34.919 is designed, you know, it's like a it's like a crown. 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.800 I mean we saw that. We saw that so often 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:43.320 at Ernomink, with these whole locations like on top of 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:47.280 ridges and on top of like little knolls almost to 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.440 a certain extent, and that one, you know, if he 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:55.679 had hit that bunker shot two and a half steps father, 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:01.040 it's it's running over the back and these probably making five. 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.360 I mean, we saw we saw McElroy coming down there. 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.679 We saw a couple other guys really struggle on this 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:11.800 driveable part four. So yeah, that was that was That 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.320 was like I said earlier, that was him meeting a 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:19.119 massive moment. And I bet you you know as we 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.560 start hearing from him and he starts processing how the 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.159 day and that second nine unfolded. I bet you he 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.919 talks about that shot because that I'm sure would have 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.000 given him a ton of confidence and his belief level 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.199 probably jumped up a few notches after getting that up 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:37.600 and down. 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.639 Yeah, I you know, and then I think, like some 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:46.200 stuff that was just interesting, Like you know, you think 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.639 about the longest part four. I think it was in 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:53.560 major championship history fifteen. Yeah, he's hitting. He's not a 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.359 long hitter, and he hitting three were there, and I 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:04.880 think there is you know, I think he understood the 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.280 value of fair away down the stretch, you know, and 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.639 you know, taking the longer approach. The thing that I 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:17.480 find amazing is I mean that that approach shot he 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:19.960 hid in there, which was really a long approach shot 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:26.879 that was somewhere in there one trickle from being the 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.240 iconic shot that we remember forever. 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:30.880 Oh yeah, yeah, I. 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.359 Mean that thing was so close. But you know, I 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:38.879 think like there there was an interesting dynamic about about 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.720 the whole golf course. And and you know, the fairways 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.160 were wide, as you said, but they played really short. 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.000 And and the idea the way that the game is 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:51.960 now where people play predominantly one shot shape was going 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.080 to create like a number of T shots that were 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.280 really hairy and really difficult. One of the hardest T 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.960 shots on the court is the fifteenth because of the 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:07.199 huge canber in the fairway. He took a lot of 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.240 that risk out by playing to the wide part of 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.000 the faaraway where the three wood would go. Yeah, I 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:18.160 think like where people weren't solving necessarily, And I'm sure 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:23.320 data would maybe refute some of this, but I mean, 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.639 if you played from the fairway at irondom Ink, the 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:31.360 greens were pretty easy to hit, you know, the greens, 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.320 and then from there you're you're gonna two putt. And 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:36.479 I think this is what we saw play out was 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.480 lots of pars and bogies, but the idea of if 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.399 you could go out and hit a lot of fairways, 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.680 you were going to be able to keep the momentum 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:51.200 going through your round. And where we saw people kind 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.800 of lose it was like, oh, they hit it in 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.480 the rough, they had to hack it out short. It 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:00.040 became a really hard up and down and and that 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.320 where you lose the momentum. But you know, just kind 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:06.919 of coming down the stretch. He hit gutsy shots, but 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:12.480 also extraordinarily smart shots into the right spots. 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:18.200 Yeah, look, you saw a guy that had done his preparation. 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:24.840 I mean, you know, anybody that has spent time with 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.399 him before, with Aaron before, knows that about him. I 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.959 think we started to get soundbites and clips from players, 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:40.679 you know, explaining their appreciation for his work ethic. You know, 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:43.560 I mentioned on the broadcast, I remember watching him this 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:47.040 year at the Masters on the Sunday before. I actually 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.080 went out and played with a friend of mine and 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.359 we played through him on the twelfth hole, and he 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:58.000 was standing around the twelfth green. For gosh, we saw 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:00.560 him as we came over the hill at eleven. He 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:04.200 was on the twelfth green and we finished playing eleven, 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:09.879 and then we got to the twelfth tee and he 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.159 was still around the green. He then waved us up, 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.119 we hit our shots, we putted out. He was still 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:17.879 standing on and around the twelfth green, just trying to 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:22.399 unlock and figure out exactly how he was going to 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:25.560 play to every whole location. And that's what he does. 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:27.960 That's what he does every golf course, on every hole, 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:29.679 trying to figure out how he's going to fit his 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:35.119 game in there. And we noticed that on fifteen. You know, 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.199 like you touched on. He's not the longest hit of 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:43.320 any stretch, but you had these wonderful cross bunkers that 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.639 pinched into the fairway right at three hundred, and then 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:50.600 right at that point the fairway sloped severely to the left. 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:54.280 So really they were challenging you to Okay, if you 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:57.600 want a shorter club into this monster of a par four, 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:00.000 go ahead, But it starts to get a little head, 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:01.679 and you can be under the lip, you can be 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:04.119 in thick ruff, you could have all sorts of issues. 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:06.399 He just took all of that out, knowing that he 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:10.119 was going to have a long iron inn, but also 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:14.680 knowing that fifteen was the only green on the course 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:23.399 that to me accepted shots rather than spelling shots. So 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.000 it was like a little bit of a ball, and 0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:30.240 it had a wonderful gap up the front that you 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:32.640