Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
Speaker 2: When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my.
Speaker 1: Ball in a brid egg Friday Egg the Dread and
Speaker 1: Frida Egg Friday fridagg Bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready
Speaker 1: to run off of the.
Speaker 2: All right, Welcome back to another edition of the Friday
Speaker 2: Golf Podcast. Today I am joined by Joseph Lamanna and
Speaker 2: our esteemed guest, uh the founder, the CEO, the COO,
Speaker 2: the CMO of the Quadrilateral, the golf's only major focused newsletter.
Speaker 2: Jeff Shackelford. Hi, Jeff, Hi, an, nice to see you.
Speaker 1: Nice to see you guys. Last saw you at the
Speaker 1: US Open. And yeah, it's been a great year, hasn't it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Jeff is fresh off a nice flight from from
Speaker 2: Scotland back to California. He's in a joyous mood and
Speaker 2: he's ready to discuss the entire entirety of the Majors calendar.
Speaker 2: We're gonna give some of the big name players grades
Speaker 2: on their major season as well as the venues and
Speaker 2: the governing bodies. So Jeff, big, thanks for coming on,
Speaker 2: and and what you know, before we get into it.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear a little bit about your overall
Speaker 2: takeaways from the major seasons. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we still have one more Women's and the of
Speaker 1: course the Olympics. We don't really count those in the
Speaker 1: major world. I thought it was a fantastic year, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of what you hope for in terms of majors.
Speaker 1: The courses played generally like we thought they would, or
Speaker 1: maybe a little it better. I still have some thoughts
Speaker 1: about Augusta we might get into, but I thought overall
Speaker 1: it was you know, we had really good winners, good finishes.
Speaker 1: You felt like everybody who did well deserved to do well,
Speaker 1: and there were great little mini dramas and spats and
Speaker 1: fun stuff that kept things lively so and and less
Speaker 1: nonsense about world ranking points and live I mean, there's
Speaker 1: still some of that, but I thought it was a
Speaker 1: way above average year when you think about some of
Speaker 1: the years we've had in the past.
Speaker 2: Joseph, your thoughts, I would echo Jeff.
Speaker 3: I think the golf courses, maybe with an exception, were
Speaker 3: very refreshing, and seeing the emergence of Xander Schaffey is
Speaker 3: a huge takeaway for me, and I think an interesting
Speaker 3: story to follow over the next couple of years, Xander
Speaker 3: Schaffley and Scottie Scheffler are starting to establish themselves as
Speaker 3: like the best major championship players of this new generation,
Speaker 3: and it'll be an interesting neck and neck battle to see.
Speaker 3: It's not crazy to think that Xander can actually keep
Speaker 3: up with Scotty at least over the next couple of years.
Speaker 1: So that's a big takeaway for me.
Speaker 2: I always struggle with, like where we where the line
Speaker 2: of demarcation is with with generations, Like does it start
Speaker 2: with when a player comes on tour or is it
Speaker 2: an age thing? Because you have like Rory's thirty four
Speaker 2: and Xander's thirty, like they are somewhat in the same generation,
Speaker 2: but it feels like Rory's of a completely different generation
Speaker 2: based off of, you know, when he came on. I
Speaker 2: think I generally kind of like lend myself to when
Speaker 2: a player's career kind of started. I don't know where
Speaker 2: do you stand on that, Jeff and Joseph.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you there and it you know, it
Speaker 1: used to be a twenty year window from sort of
Speaker 1: when people turn pro sixteen seventeen or after college, So
Speaker 1: we saw a lot of those European guys like Longer
Speaker 1: and Sevy start to flame out a little bit at
Speaker 1: fifteen to eighteen years, and I think it's shortened now.
Speaker 1: And you're correct that, Yeah, Rory's probably on the sort
Speaker 1: of on the backside now and Xander is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a late bloomers. So you're right, they're only
Speaker 1: four years apart, but they seem like they're at pretty
Speaker 1: I guess, just different stages of their career, but they're
Speaker 1: both equally competitive, and so yeah, it's an interesting window
Speaker 1: that I think we're gonna have to watch in the
Speaker 1: coming years because I think, you know, my belief that
Speaker 1: the combination of money and the way the game's played,
Speaker 1: increase in injuries, swinging as hard as you possibly can,
Speaker 1: stuff is going to shorten careers. It's just to be
Speaker 1: expected that we're going to see maybe five to eight
Speaker 1: years and ten years is sort of the normal window
Speaker 1: for a really outstanding player.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like we're going to have to change,
Speaker 2: like how we characterize careers if the trends keep going
Speaker 2: the way they're going, like, it's going to like the
Speaker 2: way we discuss and talk about and and almost weight
Speaker 2: careers now is going to be drastically different than before,
Speaker 2: which one of the fascinating things like, you know, if
Speaker 2: you compare it to like the NBA. NBA careers are
Speaker 2: getting longer, you know for star players because of the
Speaker 2: way they were able to take care of their bodies.
Speaker 2: I think NFL careers are probably shorter and a lot
Speaker 2: of aspects except for you know, positions that aren't you know,
Speaker 2: completely dictated on speed. I think that's like the thing,
Speaker 2: as the sport becomes more and more speed reliant, you're
Speaker 2: going to get shorter careers. And I think that's something
Speaker 2: that's not really discussed in the you know, distance debate,
Speaker 2: and it's kind of missed by the Yeah, I would
Speaker 2: say the savvy, the the savvy executives at Panavidra that
Speaker 2: are you know, really considering every aspect of this distance debate. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they are. That are missing the point of that their
Speaker 2: value in their tour is greatly increased when you have
Speaker 2: generational players that span twenty plus years. You know, when
Speaker 2: you think about the golden years of the tour, the
Speaker 2: best times on tour, the longest careers happen, and the
Speaker 2: more that you the more that speed infiltrates and becomes
Speaker 2: such a profound important aspect of the game of golf,
Speaker 2: the less likely you are to have really long a
Speaker 2: substantial amount of really long careers.
Speaker 1: Well, we know, golf's not the most thrilling sport, but
Speaker 1: one of the things that people love and watching it,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people who watch who don't even play.
Speaker 1: You know, I've talked all the time with people who
Speaker 1: are just fans. And one of the assets of golf
Speaker 1: used to be that you'd get to know somebody and
Speaker 1: you you'd enjoy seeing them over a long period of time.
Speaker 1: And now the the turnover rate, I just think it's
Speaker 1: a huge problem. And to your point, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think that they even think much of it
Speaker 1: at the tour. It just doesn't It just doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to be something on their their radar. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: find that I find that just bizarre.
Speaker 2: They've got more important things to worry, right, I know, like, uh,
Speaker 2: like infrastructure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm getting championship management to run every tournament,
Speaker 1: so the uh, yeah, that those are the things that matter.
Speaker 1: But as a product, it is so bizarre to to
Speaker 1: see that lack of, uh, of real curiosity or or
Speaker 1: contemplation about where we're going and what we should be doing,
Speaker 1: and and the players now being more in charge, they're
Speaker 1: not really the ones to start that conversation. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tiger probably understands exactly what we're talking about and has
Speaker 1: spoken on this issue. You know, That's why he still
Speaker 1: takes pride the cut street because he knows that thing
Speaker 1: has no chance probably have being broken just because of
Speaker 1: the way things have changed. And so, yeah, they have
Speaker 1: some they have some issues. But I've brought it up
Speaker 1: Andy too with the governing bodies, don't you don't you
Speaker 1: in this equipment discussion think about these things? You know,
Speaker 1: do we want to be rushing kids at a younger
Speaker 1: age and swinging harder? And they've just generally kind of
Speaker 1: glazed over when you when you bring that up. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a responsibility of them as well to
Speaker 1: factor that into the discussion when they're contemplating rule changes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Joseph, you know we've took a little divergence there.
Speaker 1: It'll be the first of many. I'm sure.
Speaker 2: How would you, from your perspective a little bit more
Speaker 2: data centric than maybe Jeff Wright, contemplate generations in golf
Speaker 2: and how you divide and tackle them. Yeah, it's difficult.
Speaker 3: I think what I've sort of landed on is, especially
Speaker 3: as I've put more importance on major championships. I think
Speaker 3: the first year that a player plays a full slate
Speaker 3: of majors or three of four majors is kind of
Speaker 3: when I'm viewing the beginning of their active career. So
Speaker 3: I don't know if they toil around for five years
Speaker 3: before making it into any majors. I don't know exactly
Speaker 3: how that should be considered, but I'm kind of looking
Speaker 3: at major championship windows as the majority of their career
Speaker 3: thinking about their windows that way. I don't know if
Speaker 3: that's necessarily comprehensive, but I think it's a reasonable way
Speaker 3: to look at a player's window of relevance.
Speaker 2: Well. That leads us perfectly and our major championship discussion.
Speaker 2: It might be why Jeff's newsletter focuses so heavily on majors.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you knew this going into it,
Speaker 2: but to me, it seems like majors are more important
Speaker 2: than they've ever been because of the division. The division
Speaker 2: in the game has increased the value, interest and overall
Speaker 2: compelling stories that come from majors because it's the four
Speaker 2: times a year that we actually see all the best
Speaker 2: players in the world together. Who knows if that will end.
Speaker 2: It seems seems like we're at a stalemate right now
Speaker 2: in the negotiations and both are kind of sitting there.
Speaker 2: But let's get into the major championship. We're gonna start
Speaker 2: with players. We're gonna go to venues, and then we're
Speaker 2: gonna go to the governing bodies and give grades to
Speaker 2: you know, if we leave a leave a player off
Speaker 2: that wasn't it's not that we don't like them or
Speaker 2: we don't like the tour that they play on. It's
Speaker 2: more a factor of they didn't really do anything that
Speaker 2: deserve to be on this list. And then there's some
Speaker 2: players that didn't do anything and that's why they're on
Speaker 2: this list of players that we're going to run down.
Speaker 2: So let's start it off. We'll start it off with
Speaker 2: the top performer and kind of the toast of the
Speaker 2: town in golf right now, Xanderschoffley. He finished eighth at
Speaker 2: the Basters, first at the PGA Championship, t seven at
Speaker 2: the US Open, and first at the Open Championship. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't want to cut the suspense here, but I
Speaker 2: have an A plus next to Andrew Schoffley's name for
Speaker 2: his major's year. What you know, is there anybody that
Speaker 2: gave him something different? No?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, Joseph I did not.
Speaker 3: The only notes I even really have on him he
Speaker 3: gained strokes in fifteen of his sixteen rounds in majors.
Speaker 3: The only one he didn't he lost a half a
Speaker 3: shot in around at Augusta. I mean gained more than
Speaker 3: three and a half shots around in in all the majors,
Speaker 3: in all the rounds combined. So pretty historic season.
Speaker 1: And you can look at it.
Speaker 3: There's a bunch of stats that have been tweeted about him,
Speaker 3: but unbelievable performance this year. I don't think you can
Speaker 3: give him anything but an A plus.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What really stood out at Truon I thought, more
Speaker 1: than any time I've seen him Andy was how confident,
Speaker 1: relaxed he was. You know, just thinking back to Port
Speaker 1: Rush when he had that little driver controversy with the RNAH,
Speaker 1: just just some of the Yeah, he could get combative
Speaker 1: and and you know he came in for his press conference.
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to go. I had to work on
Speaker 1: some stuff, and one of the RNA people went around
Speaker 1: the room and kind of gave the hint, hint, there
Speaker 1: aren't a lot of people in the room, could you go,
Speaker 1: And of course I know I do that because we
Speaker 1: don't want to have players come and have empty seats.
Speaker 1: And he is the PGA champion, and you just the
Speaker 1: body language, the way he took questions. It was just
Speaker 1: incredible to see how how different he's become. He's been
Speaker 1: a great player in majors from the very beginning, but
Speaker 1: to see that transformation, and then it really stood out
Speaker 1: in the championship when yeah, we had that wind direction
Speaker 1: and he wasn't entirely prepared for it, he admitted, but
Speaker 1: he he also just said that's links golf, that's part
Speaker 1: of the fun of this, whereas other players came in
Speaker 1: and were whining about it, seemed shocked by it. And yeah,
Speaker 1: just a little stuff like that just tells you he's
Speaker 1: in a special place. He's organized, and he's not spread
Speaker 1: too thin off the course. He's just he's just got
Speaker 1: everything going in the perfect direction. And I think he
Speaker 1: plays the game in a way where he's gonna stay
Speaker 1: healthy for a while. So he's spent so good in
Speaker 1: majors from the very beginning, and it's it's great to
Speaker 1: see somebody persist like that and and and break through
Speaker 1: in this in this way.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times with majors, like the
Speaker 2: pressure that is associated when you are close and don't
Speaker 2: have it happen, and he was racked. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: going into the year like he's becoming in terms of
Speaker 2: like weeks in the top ten without a major, one
Speaker 2: of like the most prolific players that hadn't gotten one.
Speaker 2: And to emphatically just launch yourself into a whole different
Speaker 2: stratosphere of how your thought of as a player in
Speaker 2: you know, three short months since the PGA, two really
Speaker 2: like two months since the PGA is incredible.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Speaking of that press conference, I thought that was the
Speaker 2: best press conference he's ever done. Like great he's been.
Speaker 2: He can be like very short, a little combative almost,
Speaker 2: and in that press conference he expanded and gave more
Speaker 2: insight than I've ever really seen from him or heard
Speaker 2: from him or read, you know, if you read a
Speaker 2: lot of press conferences, but like the there was a
Speaker 2: lot of substance in those in the answers that he gave.
Speaker 2: And I and I think, like you know, when you
Speaker 2: look at him set up. You hit on it, like
Speaker 2: the no injuries, the consistent improvement, the all around nature
Speaker 2: of his game. I I think he's got he's set
Speaker 2: up for, you know. I hate to get like too
Speaker 2: far up ahead and like a lot changes in short
Speaker 2: windows of time in pro golf. And we'll talk about
Speaker 2: some players like that, but to me, like three for
Speaker 2: the next three years, he's gonna be one of the
Speaker 2: pre eminent three four players in the game of golf.
Speaker 2: We started this year in the major season it was
Speaker 2: rom Rory and Scottie and Brooks, and I think now
Speaker 2: you have to consider Xander in those five players of
Speaker 2: true major championships stalwarts, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yeah. And the other thing we because we
Speaker 1: obsess about golf courses and like to look at them,
Speaker 1: the winning on two completely different tests within a few
Speaker 1: months is just as pretty spectacular as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: Valhala couldn't have been more different than true and we
Speaker 1: know that's just the I think that's for a player,
Speaker 1: that is something maybe a lot of fans don't think about.
Speaker 1: But the pride you have to get from that and
Speaker 1: the confidence of conquering essentially a birdie shootout on lush
Speaker 1: green versus a crazy weird and it was a really
Speaker 1: weird week in terms of the wind shifts at at
Speaker 1: Troon and how the helping wind really was almost as
Speaker 1: hard as as playing into the wind. If It's pretty
Speaker 1: funny when you look at some of the scorecards, guys
Speaker 1: turning in down win, down, win supposedly, and they didn't.
Speaker 1: They almost played worse. And so to do that, and
Speaker 1: as you know, essentially at the start of the year
Speaker 1: he was the best player never to win a major,
Speaker 1: and that was starting. You're starting to wonder this was
Speaker 1: going to be a thing that would would linger, and
Speaker 1: he certainly answered that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now we now we have that questions like wide
Speaker 2: open again. We probably can get into that in a
Speaker 2: little bit. But any any parting thoughts Joseph found Xander
Speaker 2: Schoffley before we move on.
Speaker 3: I think we covered most of it. It's interesting to
Speaker 3: see him as a little bit of a late bloomer.
Speaker 3: And we have some of these other golfers like Bryson's
Speaker 3: showing flashes this year in majors, but he was an
Speaker 3: elite amateur player, and so to see Xander Schaffley ascend
Speaker 3: and do it sustainably, there aren't too many other players
Speaker 3: who've really done that recently. Brooks Koepka might be the
Speaker 3: other one who didn't have quite the resume as an
Speaker 3: amateur and as the collegiate player. But we'll see what
Speaker 3: the rest of Brooks' major career looks like. It's interesting
Speaker 3: to see Xander rise onto the scene and do it sustainably,
Speaker 3: so yeah, we'll see what happens from there.
Speaker 2: I think there's also like a little undercard with Xander.
Speaker 2: I mean, he barely got his PGA Tour card and
Speaker 2: then he gets on tour and immediately becomes this major
Speaker 2: championship force. And I think something that maybe isn't talked
Speaker 2: about enough and something that I'm going to dive into
Speaker 2: probably a little bit more in the coming weeks, is
Speaker 2: like the corn Fairy Tour is not a good indicator
Speaker 2: of PGA Tour success, and I think Xander Schaffley would
Speaker 2: be like a poster boy for that because the golf
Speaker 2: courses they play just aren't demanding. It's harder for a
Speaker 2: player of the quality and talent level of Exander Schaffley
Speaker 2: to win and separate themselves and tournaments on courses that
Speaker 2: aren't demanding, you know, Like there it's all I think
Speaker 2: for a lot of these players at the top, it's
Speaker 2: easier for them to win a major than some of
Speaker 2: the bottom tier tour events at really nothing golf courses,
Speaker 2: or if they went and played on the corn Ferry
Speaker 2: Tour at some of these golf courses that are you know,
Speaker 2: have been are just like not really high quality golf courses,
Speaker 2: like it would be harder in a way. I think
Speaker 2: for Xander to go down and win on the corn
Speaker 2: Ferry Tour than it would be for him to win
Speaker 2: a US Open in some regards, which is a crazy
Speaker 2: thing to think about, but it shows how much how
Speaker 2: important venues are, because at these majors, it's amazing to
Speaker 2: see how the cream rises and it's just like it's
Speaker 2: a different I don't think it's necessarily that much different
Speaker 2: than a week in, week out in terms of their mentality.
Speaker 2: It's just these venues allow them to separate. And Xander,
Speaker 2: Scottie and you know, they are great examples of players
Speaker 2: that like when the golf course is really demanding, it's
Speaker 2: almost like they're playing twenty people, not one hundred and forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Brooks had some of that too. I would
Speaker 1: also just throw in as a proud southern California. That, yeah,
Speaker 1: you add Lily Avou and of course you think of
Speaker 1: starting with Tiger and Phil, but this is quite an
Speaker 1: interesting run of great players from southern California who are
Speaker 1: essentially public golf course players were not milled at the
Speaker 1: AJGA factory, and you just I don't know how you
Speaker 1: measure that, but I think there's something too growing up here.
Speaker 1: I mean, he made a joke at the Open, I
Speaker 1: was kind of surprised about the lack of wind, but
Speaker 1: you know, actually you play some really great wind in
Speaker 1: the afternoon here off the ocean in San Diego and
Speaker 1: southern California, and you play pola greens and cocula and
Speaker 1: it's weird, but in a way, it's also got an
Speaker 1: element of toughening you up. But to your point, he's
Speaker 1: somebody who's from the beginning embraced tough golf courses, and
Speaker 1: Scotty seems to thrive on those and speak there there
Speaker 1: are people who just who it just brings out something
Speaker 1: different in them.
Speaker 2: Another anecdote of another Californian. I remember talking to Sahith
Speaker 2: after he played really well at the Old Course, and
Speaker 2: I asked him about like was it tough?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: You know, how are you handling the lies around the
Speaker 2: greens and the turf? And he was like, this is
Speaker 2: not really much different. I grew up playing baked out
Speaker 2: drought drought brown fairways, and I learned all these crazy
Speaker 2: shots because I grew up playing on like effectively dirt. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And you know, it's like there's an advantage. I think.
Speaker 2: I think there's a genuine I think I don't. I'd
Speaker 2: be curious if there was ever able to do a study,
Speaker 2: but I think there is like a genuine advantage maybe
Speaker 2: not early in life, but later in life of a
Speaker 2: professional golfer for someone who grew up playing maybe not
Speaker 2: the best conditioned golf courses or the you know, different
Speaker 2: golf courses. Then someone who grows up from just a
Speaker 2: pure country club setting where everything's immaculate. I think there's
Speaker 2: a certain a certain mindset that's created when you when
Speaker 2: you grow up playing a little bit scruffier public golf.
Speaker 1: It used to be the Texans, the hard scrabbled Texans
Speaker 1: who would play, you know, in the Hogan Nelson era
Speaker 1: and then and and after that same thing. And there's
Speaker 1: no question that it helps you in those kinds of conditions.
Speaker 1: I mean, Side's played El Prado and yeah, he played
Speaker 1: some beauties. And I don't know what the answer is
Speaker 1: if you're trying to raise a great golfer, but but
Speaker 1: it does harden you in some way, I think.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, it's just an expence. I remember Putch
Speaker 2: just wiggling around, and you know, greens that were like
Speaker 2: sponges and brutal makes you not really care about what
Speaker 2: any greens are after you've played most of your life
Speaker 2: on that, you know. All right, let's go to Bryson
Speaker 2: de Shambo, another Californian who now lives in Texas, you know,
Speaker 2: a pre eminent YouTuber, you know, making waves with his
Speaker 2: latest video T six second first Cut. What do you
Speaker 2: guys got for grades and thoughts on Bryson to Shambo,
Speaker 2: go ahead, Joseph, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I have an a for Bryson. He missed a cut
Speaker 3: at the Open, and I think that's a big tournament
Speaker 3: to keep an eye on over the next few years,
Speaker 3: and how Bryson deals with different wind patterns and how
Speaker 3: high he hits it and if you can figure out
Speaker 3: those elements. So really strong year for him, two top two's,
Speaker 3: I think that's been done thirty times in the twenty
Speaker 3: first century, so like a historic year in some ways.
Speaker 3: And then also the one the own blemish of needing
Speaker 3: to figure out one of the four majors that he
Speaker 3: just hasn't had a lot of success in. So unbelievable
Speaker 3: year for him, especially off the course and some of
Speaker 3: building his public profile. But I think what keeps him
Speaker 3: from an A plus obviously is that missed cut, which
Speaker 3: will be something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to drop into a B plus, it
Speaker 1: would have been an A year, but uh, the way
Speaker 1: he came into the open was was a little bit
Speaker 1: shocking to me. Uh, for the the artist that didn't
Speaker 1: seemed totally ill prepared for for truon and what was
Speaker 1: thrown his way, and and even in the practice rounds,
Speaker 1: you know KVV was out there watching him and he
Speaker 1: was just just going bonkers with the flight scope and
Speaker 1: all this, you know, like this is this is links man?
Speaker 2: What do you?
Speaker 1: What do you know? What do you I should have
Speaker 1: rushed to William Hill and and bet against him when
Speaker 1: I heard when I when KVV described the scene out
Speaker 1: there of what was going on with the with the
Speaker 1: team and getting annoyed with with the readings and the day,
Speaker 1: like what do you you're on Royal true? Man? What
Speaker 1: do you are you looking at the at that point?
Speaker 1: What are you looking at the machine for? And then
Speaker 1: when he comes in and so I just really wasn't
Speaker 1: prepared for rain and it's colder than I thought, and like, dude,
Speaker 1: what do you where did you think you are? And
Speaker 1: it just seemed odd to me that he I don't
Speaker 1: know if he was just busy doing videos between the
Speaker 1: US Open and this or Valderama kind.
Speaker 2: Of Nashville and Valdorama.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry I overlooked Nashville.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are the places you play to get ready
Speaker 2: for for Royal Trend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that really did not serve the live guys well.
Speaker 1: And I saw I saw where Ram is advocating for
Speaker 1: a links a week before and uh, to join his
Speaker 1: other list of things he's advocating for, would live and uh,
Speaker 1: I just I I that that surprised me that Bryce
Speaker 1: and he should know better by now, but he's always
Speaker 1: had he's always been in an odd place when he
Speaker 1: comes to the Open. It just seems to put him
Speaker 1: in a weird, a weird headspace. And and he's he's
Speaker 1: just not equipped for it right now, but he's young.
Speaker 1: There's time. As we know many great players, it's taken
Speaker 1: them a while to figure it out. And I just
Speaker 1: don't know if he has a shot to flight it
Speaker 1: occasionally to handle that kind of golf when it when
Speaker 1: it blows.
Speaker 2: You know, best case scenario for Bryson is that somebody,
Speaker 2: some sponsor pays him exorbitant amount of money to to
Speaker 2: do a links Links series on his YouTube page. That's
Speaker 2: how he becomes, you know, a great links player is
Speaker 2: he has to take his YouTube page there and his
Speaker 2: his team and they has to do like a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks over there, and that's yeah, that's what'll you know,
Speaker 2: breaking fifty at u at uh Anstruther or that's the
Speaker 2: nine holes May it's Bake breaking twenty five.
Speaker 1: At breaking twenty five. There you go.
Speaker 2: I think I gave Bryson today. I think I could
Speaker 2: get talk myself into an A minus. I think the
Speaker 2: Augusta T six it was a big finish in the
Speaker 2: sense of like he's he finally did something well in Augusta.
Speaker 2: But I also want to just point out it was
Speaker 2: like one good round and he got off to a
Speaker 2: hot start and then as that golf course got tougher
Speaker 2: and tougher and it got ratcheted up. It was it
Speaker 2: was pretty mediocre from Friday on. It was fun to watch.
Speaker 2: I think that was the real start of the rehab
Speaker 2: tour in terms of his image, and that's where you know,
Speaker 2: he started to come off. I remember vividly like text
Speaker 2: messages like do we still do we hate Bryson? Like
Speaker 2: is this a permanent thing? Because that's where he started
Speaker 2: to really interact with fans and everything. And then obviously
Speaker 2: you know the PGA, the US Open, was it. I
Speaker 2: think that was an interesting one in the sense of
Speaker 2: like I think there were a lot of questions about
Speaker 2: how he how that would set up for him going
Speaker 2: into it, and I think like in the past, that
Speaker 2: wasn't necessarily a dream set up. Sure he could hit
Speaker 2: driver everywhere, but that firmness and the nature of the
Speaker 2: ball on the ground off those greens was a was
Speaker 2: not something that really was in the Bryson mold. There
Speaker 2: was no thick rough. But I think like what over
Speaker 2: wrote it and maybe you look at uh and we
Speaker 2: could probably get to in Pinehurst, is that that like
Speaker 2: that was a golf course that really allowed long long
Speaker 2: hitters to to thrive and succeed, assuming they kept the
Speaker 2: ball on the planet, which both of both Rory and
Speaker 2: him did for the most part. And then uh yeah,
Speaker 2: I think with with Truon, uh, don't you know he's
Speaker 2: got to eventually figure it out. I think what what
Speaker 2: would be the live link site? Would it be Turnberry?
Speaker 2: Would Turnberry do that?
Speaker 1: Uh? My understanding is no, because they they don't want
Speaker 1: to taint it for a possible return to the RODA.
Speaker 1: But I think that's that's kind of silly, uh to
Speaker 1: think that way. Uh, Trump Aberdeen would be the other one,
Speaker 1: but for some reason they've been very strange about wanting
Speaker 1: to go to either of those places that has nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what it is. You know, they do
Speaker 1: have to do some very extensive disclosures there about the
Speaker 1: financials compared to here, So I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: related to that or if it's related to the courses
Speaker 1: asking for too much, but they definitely need to play
Speaker 1: links the week before. I mean, you just heard it
Speaker 1: in Xander's comments, you heard in other player's comments. Even
Speaker 1: though Renaissance is not quite the same as the Open
Speaker 1: Road of courses because the wind doesn't influence it quite
Speaker 1: as much. It's just the whole thing that, you know,
Speaker 1: the turf. I mean, I think going back to Xander,
Speaker 1: I tried to ask a little bit about it in
Speaker 1: the press conference that shot on sixteen. He had, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you just it's just a tight lie over a huge bunker,
Speaker 1: totally chunkable, and it just takes a while to get
Speaker 1: used to those shots. You just aren't playing those any
Speaker 1: other place in the United States or really in the world.
Speaker 1: And even though Truon was a little greener, still such
Speaker 1: a tight lie the moment so easy to to just
Speaker 1: miss it a little bit. And and Xander described that
Speaker 1: essentially how he went about that shot, And he thought
Speaker 1: of Florida for some reason as a way to kind
Speaker 1: of dig at the ball just enough to make sure
Speaker 1: he didn't chunk into the bunker and suddenly open the
Speaker 1: door for Justin Rose, who had an eagle putt. So
Speaker 1: you just have to be over there playing some of
Speaker 1: that golf and just getting used to the time zone
Speaker 1: and the late finishes and everything else, and the lack
Speaker 1: of darkness at night. It can really impact your sleep
Speaker 1: and jet lag and all that. So yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know they have a lot of other issues to deal
Speaker 1: with too, though, so just getting courses.
Speaker 2: Bryce's major career has been a very you know, it's
Speaker 2: kind of like a chart that just goes up and down,
Speaker 2: and there's peaks and a lot of peaks and valleys.
Speaker 2: Do we think he's going to sustain this peak? Personally?
Speaker 3: I think there are golf courses that will continue to
Speaker 3: not set up particularly well for Bryson. And when you
Speaker 3: compare him to a player like Xander, where I don't
Speaker 3: have that concern Xander hasn't finished what outside the top
Speaker 3: fifteen in a US Open. I mean, I don't have
Speaker 3: any concerns about what you throw at Xander Bryson. When
Speaker 3: wide misses get penalized in that driver, he's hitting it
Speaker 3: at a ridiculously high ball speed and it's not clicking.
Speaker 3: You're gonna see some missed cuts. And then the Open
Speaker 3: Championship he hasn't quite figured out. I would not be
Speaker 3: taking Bryson against Xander over the next five years. So
Speaker 3: I think a lot of those sort of tight but
Speaker 3: the thick, rough, tree lined setups where you can kind
Speaker 3: of spray it a little bit like winged foot. Bryson's
Speaker 3: going to be a formidable, top name, but then there's
Speaker 3: gonna be these majors where you don't really consider him
Speaker 3: too much in the top tier, and the Open Championships
Speaker 3: might be an example of that, especially when it's windy.
Speaker 3: So I think the up and down is something to
Speaker 3: expect to continue into the future. What do you think, Jeff? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Same, And I mean Oakmont is going to be really
Speaker 1: fascinating next year if he starts playing down other fairways,
Speaker 1: because he can't get away with what he did at Pioneers,
Speaker 1: sitting thirty two fairways which were pretty wide fairways and
Speaker 1: he still missed a lot. But he you know, I
Speaker 1: just did bombing gouge and it worked and he got
Speaker 1: lucky a few times, just enough, And Oakmont could go
Speaker 1: either way. It could be a disaster or it could
Speaker 1: be wild where he starts trying to take advantage of
Speaker 1: other parts of the course when you have that option.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you. I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: up and down, and that's not a terrible thing. But
Speaker 1: I would love to see him adapt to links golf
Speaker 1: a little bit more, just try to figure it out
Speaker 1: and try to just put the machines away for a
Speaker 1: little while. And because he does have great natural instincts.
Speaker 1: I think that's what's fascinating about him, is there there
Speaker 1: is a creative side, and I just don't think you
Speaker 1: can bring that to certain golf courses, and so I
Speaker 1: expect more. And I don't know if that's the worst
Speaker 1: thing to be up and down, as long as your
Speaker 1: ups result in wins or seasons like this where he
Speaker 1: was pretty spectacular for two of the majors.
Speaker 2: All right, genre, let's go to John rom next t
Speaker 2: for misscut at the PGA WD at the US Open
Speaker 2: with his foot lesion not legion thirteen legion and T
Speaker 2: seven at the Open Championship. What are we given the
Speaker 2: big Spaniard here?
Speaker 1: C plus and only because that nice Sunday at the Open.
Speaker 1: I actually bet him Sunday morning. I got him at
Speaker 1: one twenty five to one, just thinking the forecast had
Speaker 1: forecast was all over the place. But it was one
Speaker 1: of those I thought if he went out in sixty
Speaker 1: five or four, he had a great chance. And then
Speaker 1: the wind just didn't do much for the leaders. It
Speaker 1: was still not nice out by the way, it was cold.
Speaker 1: It was just kind of dank on Sunday. The conditions
Speaker 1: were not easy and then the wind did flip, but
Speaker 1: that was about the best thing he had all year
Speaker 1: in the majors. Otherwise, the mojo just wasn't there. And
Speaker 1: it just feels like the move to live has thrown
Speaker 1: him off a little bit in terms of the golf courses,
Speaker 1: the four rounds, and it's in his head, and we
Speaker 1: know that's a problem for him when he starts thinking
Speaker 1: a little too much about these things and getting annoyed
Speaker 1: and getting caught up and everything that could should be happy.
Speaker 1: I mean Valhalla, he remember, he was a basket case.
Speaker 1: He even the clubs, and so I don't think it
Speaker 1: was a good year for him, and I'm sure he
Speaker 1: would not disagree.
Speaker 2: I've got him as a d I just think that
Speaker 2: this is the worst year of his professional I'm going
Speaker 2: to take out twenty seventeen when he was a fresh
Speaker 2: yeah pop going around these places for the first time,
Speaker 2: all of them. I think this was a disaster. And
Speaker 2: I think you hit on something like John Rahm thinks
Speaker 2: about a lot of stuff. He likes to have things
Speaker 2: set up his way. I think like you could probably
Speaker 2: say he's a little bit of a control freak. I
Speaker 2: think that probably is a lot of these these players,
Speaker 2: and now he's put himself in a situation where he
Speaker 2: has almost no control of how he prepares for majors.
Speaker 2: I think, like it's human nature probably to take your
Speaker 2: foot off the gas when you get a big pile
Speaker 2: of money. I think that he probably didn't come into
Speaker 2: this year in the same type of form or have
Speaker 2: the same hunger. You know, there's that famous same saying,
Speaker 2: hungry dogs run faster than, you know, than fed dogs.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's I think he came into this year a little bit,
Speaker 2: a little bit you know, ill prepared compared to years past,
Speaker 2: and it showed early on, and I think by the
Speaker 2: time he got in gear, he was in a situation where,
Speaker 2: you know, like he there's a reason he's advocating for
Speaker 2: the Links thing before because he didn't think he was ready.
Speaker 2: And that's a terrible way to play major championship golf.
Speaker 2: And I think, like, what's going to happen. It could
Speaker 2: either shift and he could be fine next year he'll
Speaker 2: be more prepared than ever, or this thing, this lack
Speaker 2: of control, will continue to eat at him and he'll
Speaker 2: get more and more frustrated, and it's going to be
Speaker 2: harder and harder for him to play in these majors, Joseph,
Speaker 2: I gave him a C.
Speaker 3: I thought the T seven at the Open from the
Speaker 3: wrong side of the split was a legitimately impressive performance,
Speaker 3: so I couldn't go all the way to D. But
Speaker 3: if he hadn't played well at the Open Championship, I
Speaker 3: was prepared to give him a very bad grade.
Speaker 1: Andy. I mean, I agree with.
Speaker 3: Everything you're saying, absent the legitimately impressive performance at the Open.
Speaker 3: This is his worst year since twenty seventeen, and the
Speaker 3: PGA performance at Valhalla is the most lost his game
Speaker 3: has looked in a long time, and I do think
Speaker 3: it further underscores how different major championships feel right now
Speaker 3: than regular seasons. And he hasn't finished outside of the
Speaker 3: top ten on live and that just feels as irrelevant
Speaker 3: as ever. And to be fair, the same side for
Speaker 3: PGA Tour results in a lot of these soft fields
Speaker 3: that guys are racking up top tens and then can't
Speaker 3: show up in majors. So I think Rom's that perfect
Speaker 3: embodiment of the difference between major championships and regular season events.
Speaker 2: And yeah, see it's a C for me.
Speaker 1: He's also got some weird stuff going on with the
Speaker 1: European Tour and trying to sort out these four events
Speaker 1: and not wanting to pay the fine, and the fine
Speaker 1: I think live even it's in his contract, there's a
Speaker 1: belief that they have to pay it. And he's just like,
Speaker 1: what are you wasting your energy on this? You have
Speaker 1: to play four times if you want to be Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup eligible, and he's trying. He's making it more of
Speaker 1: a drama, as I understand it, than he should. So
Speaker 1: I don't know what that's about.
Speaker 2: It'll be I think this makes for a really fascinating story.
Speaker 2: The next nine months is when you think about it,
Speaker 2: just what where he is when he comes back to
Speaker 2: Augusta because he's in the meat of his career. We
Speaker 2: talked about how short careers are. Now, you know, did
Speaker 2: he just waste one of his five golden years? And
Speaker 2: I think that's a If he did, it's it will
Speaker 2: be something that you know, kind of like maybe why
Speaker 2: he didn't get to four or five majors and he's
Speaker 2: at three, or you know, like I think I would
Speaker 2: get I would bet on him winning another one. But
Speaker 2: I think the you know what he did this year,
Speaker 2: was he you know, you only get so many bites
Speaker 2: at the Apple in a career, and he just took
Speaker 2: a significant percentage off the table this year. So all right,
Speaker 2: let's go to Scotty Scheffler win at the Master's T
Speaker 2: eight at Valhalla and with an arrest from Officer Gillis,
Speaker 2: our friend T forty one at the US Open, a
Speaker 2: lot of a little bit of moaning about the native there,
Speaker 2: and a T seven at at Royal Troon with that
Speaker 2: had him extraordinarily impressive ball striking associated with it, but
Speaker 2: maybe lackluster putting.
Speaker 1: Well until the eighteenth hole on Sunday where he did
Speaker 1: reach for his back. So I am I've been wondering
Speaker 1: how he's doing there, but he seems to be in Paris.
Speaker 1: I believe that I see, or maybe that was just
Speaker 1: somebody posting I give him a name minus you know,
Speaker 1: you won the Masters, So uh, it's it's a great year.
Speaker 2: Players, I know.
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, I forgot to mention that. Yeah, that helps
Speaker 1: his all number one total.
Speaker 2: Number one in the FedEx Cup too, Ah.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yes, So, you know, the US Open is
Speaker 1: the one that I think when he I think he
Speaker 1: already has assessed as as a mistake, having to play
Speaker 1: the Memorial the week before. He just you could just
Speaker 1: see he was gassed when he got there on on
Speaker 1: what was it, Monday afternoon, And of course he went
Speaker 1: right out to the course. He probably should not have,
Speaker 1: probably should have shut it down for the day. He
Speaker 1: basically played a US Open back to back, and in fact,
Speaker 1: you can almost make the case in a lot of
Speaker 1: ways Nearfield Village might have been even more intense from
Speaker 1: what I saw when I was at Pioneers looking up
Speaker 1: to the screen. You know Jack doesn't they you know
Speaker 1: they the Tour doesn't really control the setup there at
Speaker 1: his tournament. And he looked, he looked worn out. And
Speaker 1: you saw what he did before the Open. He skipped
Speaker 1: the Scottish he went and played some Links golf and
Speaker 1: tried to roll in in a better way, and he
Speaker 1: had a he had a good week. Other than you know,
Speaker 1: he just couldn't putt at all. And the greens were
Speaker 1: they were really slow compared to what a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys are used to.
Speaker 3: It.
Speaker 1: It's just a totally different mindset. It's so hard to
Speaker 1: hit the putt as hard as you think you need to.
Speaker 1: And I think that, but it showed that he did
Speaker 1: the right thing. He got there, he prepared, and I
Speaker 1: think you're going to see next year he will not
Speaker 1: play any week before a major unless they come up
Speaker 1: with some mandatory rule. And I think that's smart. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of guys need to a lot
Speaker 1: of guys this off season need to assess both what
Speaker 1: they do the week before and whether they go and
Speaker 1: do a scouting trip. And we can discuss that more,
Speaker 1: but you know, I think Shane Lowry was at a
Speaker 1: huge advantage and very few guys went to Troon at
Speaker 1: some point in advance. You know, with all the private
Speaker 1: jet access. It's we used to roll our eyes at
Speaker 1: all those pre tournament scouting trips, but they really should
Speaker 1: be doing it if they have that kind of access,
Speaker 1: and they value easing into the tournament more with rest
Speaker 1: and getting the hard work done Sunday Monday kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and then being ready to go with a lot of
Speaker 1: energy on Thursday. And I think he showed that's going
Speaker 1: to be his modus operanda the next year, and that
Speaker 1: would be smart.
Speaker 2: I think that was a big takeaway for me.
Speaker 1: Jeff.
Speaker 3: Hearing Xander talk about the benefits of playing the Scottish,
Speaker 3: I know it's a little different than what you're saying
Speaker 3: because he did play the week before, and you're suggesting
Speaker 3: Scott he might have been worn out from playing weeks before.
Speaker 3: So there's different ways to approach it. But getting your
Speaker 3: body clock correct in playing two to four rounds of
Speaker 3: competitive golf in Europe on the way in. I think
Speaker 3: the body clock is a huge part of this, and
Speaker 3: the difference between how other sports approach preparing in different
Speaker 3: time zones versus some golfers is striking to me. Like
Speaker 3: NFL teams, if they're going to be playing at altitude,
Speaker 3: they sometimes practice at altitude and get there as soon
Speaker 3: as they can, and they have techniques to get their
Speaker 3: body clocks adjusted. I do wonder if Scotty handled that
Speaker 3: properly coming into the Open Championship, so I gave him
Speaker 3: an anus as well. I think that with the win
Speaker 3: at the Masters, it's a ridiculously impressive legacy defining win
Speaker 3: and that particular setup, which I'm sure we'll talk about
Speaker 3: in a little bit. It was one of the most
Speaker 3: demanding versions of a gusta we've seen, So that's one
Speaker 3: that's going to stick with me for a long time.
Speaker 3: But Scotty's having one of the best seasons of the
Speaker 3: modern era, and he was really only in the mix
Speaker 3: at one of the majors. He was kind of in
Speaker 3: the mix at Truon, totally acted at Pinehurst. I don't
Speaker 3: think he can look at this as a season that
Speaker 3: was an A or and A plus considering he hit
Speaker 3: the ball unbelievably and really had one chance to win.
Speaker 3: So that's why I land on it all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he had a chance to win Troon. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think I'd give him two chances. I haven't been
Speaker 2: as an A minus two. I think the uh I
Speaker 2: think when you're the I think one of the things
Speaker 2: that will stick with me is the the almost like
Speaker 2: the disdain for the Pinehurst thing. I talked about this
Speaker 2: a little bit, but like when you are head and
Speaker 2: shoulders the best ball striker, you cannot let something like
Speaker 2: a little tuft of grass and tofts of grass in
Speaker 2: the native area impact you. You need to understand I'm
Speaker 2: better than everybody at this and I think that was
Speaker 2: just like a rare chink in the armor of Scottie.
Speaker 2: And obviously I think the PGA situation was interesting. That
Speaker 2: will deliver us one of the most memorable moments of
Speaker 2: the year, whether he you know, he didn't win, but
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I think the putter is an
Speaker 2: interesting thing. Like I always have thought that putter changes
Speaker 2: are short term, short term solutions, And I wonder did
Speaker 2: Truan true and eliminate or illuminate another the same issue
Speaker 2: that hasn't been fixed since before the switch to the mallet,
Speaker 2: you know, And are we back at this precipice and
Speaker 2: then what's the next thing, Like you see mediocre putters
Speaker 2: they switch the way they put a lot, and what's
Speaker 2: the next thing for sky Scheffler if this kind of
Speaker 2: Truon type performance continues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he blamed the greens a little bit of
Speaker 1: Truon or he suggested that they weren't very true and
Speaker 1: I thought the ball rolled really well there, So he definitely.
Speaker 1: I chalk the Piner stuff up to fatigue and kind
Speaker 1: of cranking. But yeah, he's definitely that that he's one
Speaker 1: of those players. We've seen them where they just hit
Speaker 1: so many greens and it gets in their head. And
Speaker 1: he managed to overcome it a few times this year
Speaker 1: at the right time. But and it's the energy I
Speaker 1: think that he puts into the misses, you know, that's
Speaker 1: the other thing, you just the amount of energy into
Speaker 1: the reaction and the glares of Ted Scott and that
Speaker 1: it's not it's it's a little concerning, I would say,
Speaker 1: But all in all, he's in a pretty good place
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna win an Open championship and
Speaker 1: Port Rush should be phenomenal for him next year if
Speaker 1: he's in good for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Port Rush. I think we could save this
Speaker 2: for later, but I'd be curious where where it would
Speaker 2: rank in the in terms of the links the links courses. Now,
Speaker 2: all right, let's do a last really big name. Rory
Speaker 2: McElroy t twenty two at the Masters, T twelve at
Speaker 2: the PGA, second at the at Pinehurst and miss cut
Speaker 2: at Truon. Who wants to start? You want me to start? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll give him a bee. I think that's the floor
Speaker 2: of when you have a major championship in the palm
Speaker 2: of your hand on the seventy first hole. I think
Speaker 2: a lot of these grades come down to, like I think,
Speaker 2: you know, I've got some grades down for people that
Speaker 2: didn't really have the chance that Rory had at higher marks.
Speaker 2: I think if you were going to critique his major year,
Speaker 2: I don't think he necessarily was really prepared to play
Speaker 2: at the Masters. I think that that he was really
Speaker 2: trying to still figure out his golf swing and probably
Speaker 2: that that trip to c Busch probably should have been
Speaker 2: two three weeks earlier. If you remember, he had that
Speaker 2: kind of odd for Rory pre shot rehearsal where he
Speaker 2: was doing the like setting the club and it just
Speaker 2: you know, looked uncomfortable as a as a as a spectator,
Speaker 2: it looked uncomfortable, and I think it showed that, you
Speaker 2: you know, showed that there was a little discomfort in
Speaker 2: the swing, and it was quickly removed from the pre
Speaker 2: shot routine after and I you know, I obviously now
Speaker 2: we're at ten years of of no majors for Rory
Speaker 2: and maybe the biggest question, the biggest micro microscope that
Speaker 2: he'll ever have, is going into the Masters next year
Speaker 2: because of what happened at Pinehurst, the finish of Pinehurst
Speaker 2: and and the really poor showing it true.
Speaker 1: Well, he played a lot going into the Masters too,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna guess he's going to reevaluate that again.
Speaker 1: I think it was a good idea, it was worth
Speaker 1: a try, and but as you say, maybe it was there.
Speaker 1: There should have been a little more time to work
Speaker 1: on the swing if he was having an issue. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the swing was in pretty good form at Pinehurst and
Speaker 1: was not an issue. I'm a bee as well, and
Speaker 1: the only I'm down it would have been a B plus.
Speaker 1: I I the trend performance was a shocker for me.
Speaker 1: I mean, ibviously Pinehurst was incredible, and I went back
Speaker 1: and watched the fifteenth hole sequence after Smiley started saying
Speaker 1: stupid things, and you know that shot on fifteen was
Speaker 1: was ten maybe twelve feet too far. It's a goofy
Speaker 1: green that it was a really well played shot, and
Speaker 1: Smiley did say it on the air that maybe a
Speaker 1: little adrenaline god him. He didn't say anything else about
Speaker 1: questioning the club. In fact, he validated the club for
Speaker 1: Patrick Cantley. I don't know where Rory and Patrick are
Speaker 1: on seven irons, but he wholeheartedly endorsed the seven iron.
Speaker 1: There was no questioning of Harry Diamond. It's not Harry's fault,
Speaker 1: and I mean that it's just one of those killers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously the two the short miss on sixteen was was
Speaker 1: just it just is what it is. It was just
Speaker 1: it didn't feel good. Over. It didn't look good. Eighteen,
Speaker 1: you know, put himself in a bad spot. But the
Speaker 1: shot on fifteen was really good and off a birdie.
Speaker 1: You know, he was criticized at LA for not making
Speaker 1: any long putts. I think you know, you and I
Speaker 1: might have even talked last year. Any of the last
Speaker 1: blong putt was the one he made on twelve. It
Speaker 1: seemed like on Thursday, well, he made a ton of
Speaker 1: long putts at Pinehurst putted beautifully and so yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's just a tough one. But Truon was shocking for
Speaker 1: me in that he has the ability. He should have
Speaker 1: gotten there sooner. If you look, I asked in the
Speaker 1: press conference about the wind change forecasts and he kind
Speaker 1: of started describing the prevailing and I didn't know if
Speaker 1: I asked didn't correctly. And then sure enough, you know,
Speaker 1: he went out there and he just didn't seem prepared
Speaker 1: for it. And if he had gone there in advance,
Speaker 1: he would have had some time on those screens which
Speaker 1: are just so different and take some time getting used to.
Speaker 1: And Shane Lowry did any he would have heard from
Speaker 1: the locals at that south wind and the summertime has
Speaker 1: become very common whether it's climate change or whatever, it's
Speaker 1: just become a more common thing. And it was sure
Speaker 1: enough there. We really had it three of them, four
Speaker 1: days in some form, and as he said, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to love of me, he said,
Speaker 1: I didn't adjust, And I just wonder playing the Scottish late,
Speaker 1: rolling in Monday. You know, I've watched Harry Diamond work
Speaker 1: and he he really picks a part of golf course
Speaker 1: and you know what does that do when you're rolling
Speaker 1: in on Monday afternoon, you're a little tired after a
Speaker 1: long week at the Scottish How much can you you
Speaker 1: get done? And I just didn't get a sense. And
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of stuff going on in the personal
Speaker 1: life and all that, and so maybe it just wasn't
Speaker 1: an opening to get there. But I think he benefits
Speaker 1: from because he's trying. It feels like he's trying to
Speaker 1: do this sort of a little more of a don't
Speaker 1: overthink it zen approach. I endorse that, but there is
Speaker 1: some basic stuff you have to do or let your
Speaker 1: caddie do in his case, and he didn't do it
Speaker 1: at true, So that was kind of the one bummer
Speaker 1: there that said he would probably if he were sitting
Speaker 1: Harry and say, well, yeah, I didn't really do a
Speaker 1: lot of recon work at Pinehurst, and I was right there.
Speaker 1: I lost the two of them by two short shots.
Speaker 1: So there is a place for what he's doing. But
Speaker 1: I'd love to see him just do a little more homework.
Speaker 1: It does have to do a lot, but just a
Speaker 1: little bit more.
Speaker 3: I guess I feel a little bit different. I have
Speaker 3: a B minus fer Rory. I think he's way too
Speaker 3: good of a player to only be in the mix
Speaker 3: at one major in the prime of his career. He's
Speaker 3: been one of the most consistent players over the past
Speaker 3: ten years in majors. Obviously hasn't won, but he's been
Speaker 3: in the mix a decent amount a lot of top tens.
Speaker 3: Hasn't had a ton of chances to win. But this
Speaker 3: year Valhalla set up very nicely for him. He finished
Speaker 3: T twelve but was completely non competitive, didn't really show
Speaker 3: up at the Masters again T twenty two but was
Speaker 3: never in the mix, and then it was closer to
Speaker 3: dfl at Royal Truon than contending. So I agree he
Speaker 3: was great at Pinehurst, but I think if you look
Speaker 3: at this body of work this year to me, a
Speaker 3: B or a B plus feels a little bit generous
Speaker 3: given that three of the four majors were closer to
Speaker 3: being disasters than being strong performances. So I think it's
Speaker 3: a BE minus for me. And this was this year's
Speaker 3: kind of a missed opportunity despite the good run at Pinehers.
Speaker 2: What what would be your grade if he had finished
Speaker 2: first at Piner, same resilt, same exact result, given the
Speaker 2: monkey off the back narrative, probably all the way up.
Speaker 3: To an A.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so, I mean he didn't like the he
Speaker 2: did he did, you just can't it was.
Speaker 3: Within his control down the stretch, the three pot sixteen
Speaker 3: like that wasn't something that was just completely taken out
Speaker 3: of his hands. So I would I think it's legitimate
Speaker 3: to penalize him significantly for that.
Speaker 2: Jeff. I think that the homework thing is an interesting aspect.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, to me, like with these majors,
Speaker 2: I mean, these guys probably are starting to realize baby,
Speaker 2: started to realize, this is what your your legacy of
Speaker 2: a player is. And for somebody that's really you know,
Speaker 2: for any player that's really into the legacy, the major
Speaker 2: should be the way that you prepare and I think
Speaker 2: Rory probably thinks that he prepares best through the no show,
Speaker 2: you know, the show up. Treat it like a normal week,
Speaker 2: we do this, you know. I just wonder, like I
Speaker 2: know these a lot of these guys don't play fun golf,
Speaker 2: but like I wonder why sometimes they don't just say
Speaker 2: we're gonna go. I'm just gonna go spend a weekend
Speaker 2: or three or four days playing golf. Like if he
Speaker 2: wasn't played truon for four days, you'd encounter probably a
Speaker 2: lot of different weather and you'd enter that like it,
Speaker 2: just go play for fun, you know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I always like I'm interested in, like why that doesn't
Speaker 2: happen more. It's like if they do go do it.
Speaker 2: It's like we fly and play one day, Like why
Speaker 2: not just play a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do it at Augusta because it's sort of
Speaker 1: a more of an experience and they can bring people.
Speaker 1: And it used to be a thing with Tiger and
Speaker 1: Phil and when they started flying private and they could
Speaker 1: do that, and then it's it sort of died down.
Speaker 1: And again Rory's different, but a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: now have somebody else tell them how to play the course,
Speaker 1: look at Google Earth and and chart out t shots
Speaker 1: and it's just laughable. And and you ask the people
Speaker 1: a true and they were sort of shocked at how
Speaker 1: few players came early and even for just a just
Speaker 1: a day or or Shane was two days. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he's kind of a regular guy. I heard he went
Speaker 1: into the into town and you know, got his coffee
Speaker 1: and did a little betting on on the I can't
Speaker 1: remember what sport it was now, anyway, he just kind
Speaker 1: of hung out, got the vibe of the thing. And
Speaker 1: and I think that I think he would benefit from
Speaker 1: those returning to doing those trips if he's going to
Speaker 1: play the week before and play in and obviously bring
Speaker 1: his his caddie who does a lot of the homework.
Speaker 1: And I think more players will do it going forward,
Speaker 1: just because we had enough examples this year of guys
Speaker 1: realizing they probably should have should have somehow gotten there sooner,
Speaker 1: and then also so realizing where things are headed. If
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep having these signature events a week before,
Speaker 1: they're gonna they're gonna roll in on Monday, and and uh,
Speaker 1: that works for a lot of people, But you have
Speaker 1: the money and the resources to to to get there,
Speaker 1: and again, the golf courses are usually closed now two
Speaker 1: to three weeks before the event, and you'll have it
Speaker 1: to yourself, which is kind of fun, you know, if
Speaker 1: you like the game to have a major venue to yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's the thing, is, Like, I think
Speaker 2: I might take the approach of it's super fun to go, like,
Speaker 2: really learn this golf course and and you know, uh,
Speaker 2: embrace it a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Uh well, right, and you're also doing it. You're doing
Speaker 1: it a little in advance, and then you're turning your
Speaker 1: focus to something else, so it's not like you're obsessing
Speaker 1: about it. You're gonna you're gonna record all that data
Speaker 1: in your brain and then you're gonna you're gonna go
Speaker 1: play somewhere else. And it's not like you're trying too hard.
Speaker 1: I think that's what Rory's trying to get away from.
Speaker 1: It feels like he just doesn't want to try too
Speaker 1: hard because he's such a naturally gifted, you know, golf savant.
Speaker 1: But I really think it was exposed as true that
Speaker 1: that he just wasn't prepared for what it threw at him.
Speaker 1: And it was hard. I mean, it was a it
Speaker 1: was a brutal wind and it was hard to adjust,
Speaker 1: but some people did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you saw it from the first iron shot. It
Speaker 2: came up like ten fifteen yards, Like when do you
Speaker 2: ever see world class player come up that short?
Speaker 1: And it was like whoa.
Speaker 2: So anyways, Brooks Kopka, we'll move on T forty five,
Speaker 2: T twenty six, T twenty six, T forty three. You know,
Speaker 2: fourteen months ago it was can we get could Brooks
Speaker 2: get to ten? Now? Where are we at? What was
Speaker 2: his grade? And where are you at with Brooks Kupka.
Speaker 1: C minus Just just a dreadful year for him and
Speaker 1: just just I just have to wonder if the live
Speaker 1: life is is is getting at him. You know, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of little signs that he really doesn't
Speaker 1: enjoy it that much being a leader.
Speaker 2: Track up this here?
Speaker 1: Right? Is this a contract here? Geez? Maybe he's just
Speaker 1: focused on playing well and live then you know how
Speaker 1: it is forget the matrix this year?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: What team is he captain again? Smash slash smash GC Yeah, sorry, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got to get the GC in there to
Speaker 2: Laura's captain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but another guy just feels like the mojo is
Speaker 1: just not quite the same and and uh and all
Speaker 1: that stuff at Pinehurst about the bad questions and what
Speaker 1: are you so surly about at this point, geez, Luise,
Speaker 1: come on, man, So I I I think these were
Speaker 1: great venues for him this year. And I'm kind of
Speaker 1: shocked that he because otherwise, you know, I don't have
Speaker 1: any reports or any signs that he's having any health issues.
Speaker 1: And I don't, you know, I don't know how I'll
Speaker 1: still explain it. Or it could just be that he's
Speaker 1: he's hit his peak and and he's just not the same.
Speaker 1: But I mean, just won the PGA last year.
Speaker 3: So I also to C minus, this is one of
Speaker 3: three years in his career that he doesn't have a
Speaker 3: top five in a major, and he didn't finish in
Speaker 3: the top twenty five of a major. So pretty simple
Speaker 3: for me. As a dreadful year for Brooks. And he's
Speaker 3: somebody that we're talking about as one of the great
Speaker 3: major championship players of the past twenty five years, this
Speaker 3: year was not a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: So I'm with Jeff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I echo that I've got him at I've got
Speaker 2: him at C minus as well. You just wonder it's
Speaker 2: I think that these careers. How many years you have left,
Speaker 2: you know, And that's that's where we're at with Brooks.
Speaker 2: The other thing i'd throw in, I think this is
Speaker 2: just an adjustment that anybody that's a dad goes through.
Speaker 2: You know, he's he had, he had his kid out there.
Speaker 2: Like life changes, like you're you know what, like the
Speaker 2: people we love to make fun of the perspective thing,
Speaker 2: but like your life changes. And I wonder like if
Speaker 2: this might have been just a year where he's, you know,
Speaker 2: figuring out. And I think naturally for a lot of
Speaker 2: people that become dads, it's it's easy to take your
Speaker 2: eyes slightly off your job, and I think that could
Speaker 2: be it because you just want to be there. You
Speaker 2: want to be a part of the part of the
Speaker 2: that moment. And I wonder if that's part of it
Speaker 2: as well. All Right, Klin Morricawa really pretty strong year
Speaker 2: here T three at the Masters, T four at the PGA,
Speaker 2: T fourteen, at the US Open, T sixteen at the
Speaker 2: Open Championship. I have it as a B plus. I
Speaker 2: think like it's a B plus for a lot of
Speaker 2: players this that with what Klin Moricow has done over
Speaker 2: the last two years, I think a lot of players
Speaker 2: I would move this into an A category, but Klin
Speaker 2: Moricau has two major championships and at one point we
Speaker 2: were talking about him as a potential, you know, six
Speaker 2: time major winner, and this year kind of left me
Speaker 2: left me wondering, does he have the gas pedal still
Speaker 2: to win majors?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I think we saw him in the heat of battle
Speaker 2: in the in the Masters and the and the PGA,
Speaker 2: and it just seemed like he didn't have what his
Speaker 2: competitors had. And that's kind of where I'm at with
Speaker 2: Colin Morkaal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be, but I think it's a I'm somewhere.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of teetering between a B plus and a
Speaker 1: minus because last year he wasn't so great in the
Speaker 1: majors and this year he was there and steady, and
Speaker 1: I think he's going to continue to be a force
Speaker 1: and hang around a lot, and as we know, that's
Speaker 1: that's half the battle and the majors and just being
Speaker 1: there and that just things are going to happen, and
Speaker 1: they're going to be fluke winners and people have crazy weeks,
Speaker 1: and the fact that he was there again, I don't
Speaker 1: know what the whole drama was with rick sssing out,
Speaker 1: so why he had to make a change and that
Speaker 1: was that was a mistake and he fixed that, and
Speaker 1: it seemed like he was just kind of back to
Speaker 1: what he's been doing and hanging around and you're not
Speaker 1: going to win every one of them. He got in
Speaker 1: the final group of the Masters, probably the Major we
Speaker 1: think he's least likely to to win, but that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: And I just think you're gonna if he stays healthy
Speaker 1: and kind of doesn't the same thing with Scotty maybe
Speaker 1: on the putting is still not great, and if he
Speaker 1: doesn't let that get in his head too much, I've
Speaker 1: seen no reason he doesn't win another one or two.
Speaker 3: Two players finished in the top twenty in all majors
Speaker 3: this year, x Andaner Schaffley and Colin Morikawa. It's a
Speaker 3: B plus for me. My opinion of him went up
Speaker 3: this year. Short games come a long way, by far,
Speaker 3: the best short game season of his career, and I
Speaker 3: think looking forward, yeah, Colin Morrikala is going to be
Speaker 3: a force in major. So super strong year, and I
Speaker 3: agree with you Andy. If he didn't have two majors
Speaker 3: to his name, we'd probably be talking about this as
Speaker 3: like an A minus or an A. But he's not
Speaker 3: Russell Henley, He's Colin mor Kawa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, I think that's I think we're all
Speaker 2: pretty much in cadence there. All right, let's take a
Speaker 2: quick break to talk about our partner, the us For
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Speaker 2: a USGA member today. All right, let's get to Victor Hoveland.
Speaker 2: High expectations for VIC this year cut third place at
Speaker 2: the PGA, the return of Joe Mayo, and then cut
Speaker 2: cut C.
Speaker 1: Minus for me, just I, you know, just again the
Speaker 1: energy is just bizarre, schizophrenic or I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just crazed. He's just it's just an intensity that's just
Speaker 1: not going to work. I don't understand it, and I
Speaker 1: don't understand what happened between last year and this year,
Speaker 1: the bringing, you know, getting rid of Mayo, bringing him back,
Speaker 1: and then yeah, I Sawda Riviera earlier this year, it
Speaker 1: was like, what is going on here? This guy is
Speaker 1: just a basket case on the course, like chill out,
Speaker 1: and of course the contrast with Ludwig is unreal to
Speaker 1: watch how he approaches the game and you just think, well,
Speaker 1: this is not sustainable. You know, there are people who
Speaker 1: have been kind of high energy, neurotic golfers who've done well,
Speaker 1: but it I got to watch Victor winns US amateur
Speaker 1: at at Pebble Beach and he's just a totally different
Speaker 1: person and he was, you know, intense, but then off
Speaker 1: the course he was chill and he was reading a lot.
Speaker 1: He was really into getting his mind focused on some
Speaker 1: other stuff just to get off the golf, and I
Speaker 1: just look at it now and it's like he just
Speaker 1: really needs a vacation and a and a reset and
Speaker 1: somebody to tell him, Hey, you're immensely talented. Just calm
Speaker 1: down and uh, get your act together here, because you're
Speaker 1: you're you're in your prime and you've got several years
Speaker 1: ahead of you if you if you don't waste so
Speaker 1: much energy on I I don't even know what it's. It's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of entertaining to watch, except that you like,
Speaker 1: you don't like seeing somebody who's got that much talent
Speaker 1: be so bizarre on the golf course at times?
Speaker 2: Do you think it's just expectations? It's the first year
Speaker 2: as a professional where you know, because I think last year,
Speaker 2: going into last year, it was kind of like, is
Speaker 2: Victor Hoblin going to do stuff in majors? Then he
Speaker 2: has this great year in majors almost wins, and then
Speaker 2: this year he's a you know, a favorite like something
Speaker 2: that you know going into the Masters, that was, you know,
Speaker 2: talking about Victor Hovlin in the great major year last year?
Speaker 2: Could it just be expectations and how that can change
Speaker 2: your entire mentality and attitude as a golfer.
Speaker 1: I don't know, because I even remember watching the year
Speaker 1: prior riv where he was. You know, it's early in
Speaker 1: the season, and I interviewed him after this, but I
Speaker 1: was watching him on the range and he was just
Speaker 1: going nuts with the ping guys on his driver and
Speaker 1: it was just again, it was just so much energy
Speaker 1: wasted on on and it just didn't feel like good energy.
Speaker 1: And it just feels like he's been trending in this
Speaker 1: direction and it worked out well in terms of winning
Speaker 1: the FedEx Cup and the Great second Half, but and
Speaker 1: then who knows what happened. But I mean it could
Speaker 1: be but I I he may just be putting a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on himself. But it just feels like
Speaker 1: he's he just somebody who needs a vacation more than anything.
Speaker 3: I have to tip my cap to Jeff. I was
Speaker 3: pretty high on Victor Hoblin going into the US Open,
Speaker 3: coming off a third place finish at Valhalla, and when
Speaker 3: he contended, one of the best players in the world
Speaker 3: to end of last year, looked lost and looked like
Speaker 3: he'd found it a little bit. And talking to Jeff
Speaker 3: before Thursday, you were citing how demonstrative he was in
Speaker 3: his practice rounds and how his head just looked cluttered,
Speaker 3: looked out of sorts, and therefore you were pretty bearish
Speaker 3: on how he was going to play.
Speaker 1: Yeah you won, Yeah, Yeah. With Matt Fitzpatrick, I won.
Speaker 1: I get a beer out of it because it was
Speaker 1: Fitzpatrick versus Hoblin. Yeah, so you won on that endure you.
Speaker 2: I think there's something to the.
Speaker 3: I've probably gained an appreciation, especially hearing from you how
Speaker 3: a player looks on Wednesday, not necessarily the shots they're
Speaker 3: hitting in practice rounds, because I don't think you can
Speaker 3: always glean very much from that, but if they look
Speaker 3: out of sorts mentally, it could be a little bit
Speaker 3: of a signal. And so I think that's a good
Speaker 3: point to bring up with Victor Hobbins. So I gave
Speaker 3: him a CEE three missed cuts in a third place.
Speaker 3: If it hadn't been a third place, we're looking at
Speaker 3: a grade that's much lower. But he did actually contend
Speaker 3: of Valhalla, which uh mc three mc mc might be
Speaker 3: more of an indictment of Valhalla than just about anything else.
Speaker 2: All Right, I'll give him, I'll give him a C.
Speaker 2: He had a chance to win a major, and I
Speaker 2: think that very disappointing rest of the year. Let's kind
Speaker 2: of fly through the next ones, all right, Ludvig Aberg
Speaker 2: or Berg, I'm probably mispronounced his name. I blame I
Speaker 2: blame everybody for butcher four times off the start. He
Speaker 2: went second at the Masters, miscut at the PGA, T
Speaker 2: twelve at the US Open, and a cut at at
Speaker 2: the Open. I'm giving him an as it's his first
Speaker 2: time around. He was sensational at the Masters, and going
Speaker 2: into the weekend at the US Open, it was real
Speaker 2: like is he going to win? And for me for
Speaker 2: first time or going around. I think this was a
Speaker 2: really great debut year for lud Big. I know that
Speaker 2: miscuts are would but this is not a apples to
Speaker 2: apples comparison to other players first time around. Really great
Speaker 2: opening major season for lud Big.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I almost give him an a just because
Speaker 1: of that. Being a rookie. The only thing I see
Speaker 1: is he's very reliant on his data people and his
Speaker 1: caddy to tell him how to play a course. I
Speaker 1: just would love to see him take a little more responsibility.
Speaker 1: But otherwise, what an incredible rookie year in the majors
Speaker 1: and just nothing but upside and just needs to I
Speaker 1: think own how he plays a course a little bit
Speaker 1: more and not rely on others. And he may do that,
Speaker 1: it may have just been a first year thing to
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 3: I'll give him a B plus second augusta super impressive
Speaker 3: two missed cuts. I feel like it's the type of
Speaker 3: year where he would take the results but not be
Speaker 3: thrilled with them. So I don't feel too differently than
Speaker 3: either of you do, all.
Speaker 2: Right, j T cut Tha cut T thirty one. I'm
Speaker 2: going C minus. I think the TA was completely non competitive.
Speaker 2: Fly in on on up the leaderboard Sunday I might.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go deep plus.
Speaker 3: I have D plus Andy he got a little bit
Speaker 3: into the mix it truon and then blown out to
Speaker 3: see immediately hits the ball out of bounds on the
Speaker 3: first te He's in the prime of his career. He's
Speaker 3: thirty one.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it is the prime. I think
Speaker 2: his prime was twenty four or twenty two.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, he should theoretically, thirty one should be at
Speaker 3: a time where you're playing good golf, And yeah, maybe
Speaker 3: that's a better way to put it.
Speaker 2: But I go deplus.
Speaker 1: What about you Jeff, Yeah, I would d plus is
Speaker 1: about right. I just you know what we now know
Speaker 1: it wasn't Bones's faults, and I just there's a I mean,
Speaker 1: he was really good pre truon and then you look
Speaker 1: at as I watched him play a few holes with Tiger,
Speaker 1: and spirits were good and I was hitting beautiful shots
Speaker 1: and and everything seemed great. I just those scorecards though,
Speaker 1: are just bizarre. That true. They're just wacky what he
Speaker 1: was doing out there. And just what is this volatility
Speaker 1: all about? I don't know, but I think that I
Speaker 1: do think he is sort of past his peak years,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean he can't still contend. And it
Speaker 1: feels like the drive is still there. And maybe it's
Speaker 1: maybe there's almost too much and maybe another player who
Speaker 1: just needs to take a little break. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but there is some there is something odd and the
Speaker 1: energy around kind of his group and with dad and
Speaker 1: mom out there. Yeah, I just don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: So but I would not write him off yet as
Speaker 1: somebody who is, you know, totally over the hill. I
Speaker 1: think he still has the chance if he stays healthy
Speaker 1: and all that the usual stuff to contend and win
Speaker 1: a major.
Speaker 2: All right, last, but not least, Tiger Wood's sixtieth cut
Speaker 2: cut cut. I have this as a bee and I
Speaker 2: have it as a bee because he set another record
Speaker 2: to his long list of records. The maid cut streak
Speaker 2: at the Masters is now his to be completely fair
Speaker 2: since the car crash, I don't think it's fair to
Speaker 2: have any expectations of Tiger Woods being a real competitive
Speaker 2: golfer with the with the leg issues and the lack
Speaker 2: of ability to play real golf. But how many more
Speaker 2: chances does he have to set records, you know, career
Speaker 2: records and add to the r a illustrious career. He
Speaker 2: did it. Making the cut of the Masters is a
Speaker 2: huge accomplishment for a golfer with his circumstance. What about
Speaker 2: everybody else?
Speaker 1: C plus For me, I don't really know what to say.
Speaker 1: It was so bizarre because he put in the effort,
Speaker 1: it felt like at most of the Majors, and really
Speaker 1: put in the effort, played more in practice than you
Speaker 1: would expect a time games. Every time I watched him.
Speaker 1: The ball striking was good, obviously, the putting is starting
Speaker 1: to get, you know, to that point like a forty
Speaker 1: eight year old and a major. The stroke is a
Speaker 1: little bit different in competition, and I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's just an age thing or rust element.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's working that hard on his game
Speaker 1: at home. And he shows up and he still looks presentable.
Speaker 1: So and the walking was sensational and true, and I mean,
Speaker 1: he's barely a limp, and I I just can't write
Speaker 1: him off yet. I don't. I don't know why he's
Speaker 1: wasting his time on all this tour stuff. Same with
Speaker 1: Jordan Speeth. I mean's it's more it's it's criminal in
Speaker 1: Speed's case what he's doing. Tiger's older, and yeah, like
Speaker 1: I said, he does. I don't think he works that
Speaker 1: hard on his game at home. He's just found that
Speaker 1: place where he knows what the swing is doing, and
Speaker 1: it's a matter of finance. I think he still has
Speaker 1: an open championship in him, a contention in one. Don't
Speaker 1: forget Greg Norman. You know, spend people who contended at
Speaker 1: an old age. So I think that's very possible. I mean,
Speaker 1: I did get a laugh at the comment about the
Speaker 1: stamina that these people have to do all these meetings.
Speaker 1: You know, I guess he's got to work on his
Speaker 1: zoom meeting stamina here now, and he's going to get
Speaker 1: a lot of reps. It sounds like in the coming
Speaker 1: coming weeks.
Speaker 3: I guess we finally found one that we all feel
Speaker 3: very differently about. I have Tiger as a D plus.
Speaker 3: He was DFL at the Masters of Players who made
Speaker 3: the cut and has three missed cuts. I kind of disagree, Jeff.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty comfortable writing Tiger off of contending ever in
Speaker 3: a major again.
Speaker 2: It is I'm like physically uncomfortable to save it for
Speaker 2: the library.
Speaker 3: I'm like physically uncomfortable watching him play golf. I don't
Speaker 3: know the last time he's put two good consecutive rounds together.
Speaker 3: I agree he looks physically better than in previous years,
Speaker 3: but in an era trending more towards speed. Until Tiger
Speaker 3: puts together two, maybe three good rounds in a row,
Speaker 3: I think he's very far from contention. And I agree
Speaker 3: Andy very impressive with the cut streak. But it's hard
Speaker 3: for me to look at DFL and three missed cuts
Speaker 3: and take away too many positives. I like the car
Speaker 3: accident and stuff that's all important context, but it's not
Speaker 3: a good year.
Speaker 2: I just I mean, I guess I think our expectations
Speaker 2: are just completely off the board, Like I kind of
Speaker 2: now expect miss cuts. You know me too, So you know,
Speaker 2: the fact that he made one made was you know,
Speaker 2: I think it's amazing when I think it's amazing that
Speaker 2: a guy didn't play in competitive golf for nine months
Speaker 2: from the last time he played and then went in
Speaker 2: and made a cut, like, you know, just if you
Speaker 2: take everything out, I think that's impressive. And then when
Speaker 2: you consider that he was walking on like you know,
Speaker 2: you know, a partial leg effectively, you know, it's that's
Speaker 2: where I'm at. All right, let's talk venues. Augusta National
Speaker 2: the host of the Master obviously, I think it was
Speaker 2: it was a banner year for Augusta National in terms
Speaker 2: of the weather. It finally got great weather it hadn't
Speaker 2: had it for years. We saw firm and fast Augustin National.
Speaker 2: Thoughts on overall the venue.
Speaker 1: I'm not thrilled with the way certain things are trending,
Speaker 1: this sort of you know, the deepening of the bunkers,
Speaker 1: the chiseling out of these areas around the greens, taking
Speaker 1: away some of the the bump and run shots that
Speaker 1: that I think are still there or were the way
Speaker 1: they mow the grass around the greens because it's a
Speaker 1: different mowing pattern than Yeah, I think you and I
Speaker 1: and he looked at it was it was that this
Speaker 1: year I was with you or we were just looking
Speaker 1: around the ninth green. It was so tightly cut and beautiful,
Speaker 1: and then you look at the fairways and they do
Speaker 1: that thing to push it towards the tea and it's
Speaker 1: not as good of a cut, and so you still
Speaker 1: have those shots around the greens, but they're increasingly taking
Speaker 1: those away, so it just it's still yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the one behind six was weird. There might have been
Speaker 1: a drainage thing there, but that they can justify it as.
Speaker 1: But I just feel like it's still trending too much
Speaker 1: in the direction of defensive golf. And you know, the
Speaker 1: shaving of the banks this year kind of turned fifteen
Speaker 1: into a freak show and I didn't like that. So
Speaker 1: we'll see what they do in the off season. I
Speaker 1: think they would probably agree that fifteen got a little
Speaker 1: too extreme, And I just I don't like seeing August
Speaker 1: to get to where it's defensive golf so much. And
Speaker 1: I get the lengthening, I get all the other stuff.
Speaker 1: Why they do it. But that's the part where I
Speaker 1: think they need to be careful, that you just get
Speaker 1: players tiptoeing so much that they can't quite put on
Speaker 1: a show. And I'm afraid it's still in the name
Speaker 1: of getting to a certain winning score. But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, if we're grading it, I gave it an as.
Speaker 3: I thought this was one of the best versions of
Speaker 3: a guest seen recently, and a lot of that's the conditioning.
Speaker 3: We got some wind and it was firm, so that's
Speaker 3: not really addressing the same points that Jeff just did.
Speaker 3: I mean, I hear you on how unnatural it's become
Speaker 3: and how contrived not to put words in your mouth,
Speaker 3: but I think to an extent, professional golf and modern
Speaker 3: technology has imposed such a challenge on any golf course
Speaker 3: that I don't know if it's excusable, but you can
Speaker 3: at least understand where Augusta is coming from.
Speaker 1: On some of that. So I hear you.
Speaker 2: But I thought it was a very very.
Speaker 3: Good test and the best test we've had at Augusta
Speaker 3: in quite some time. So I gave it an a minus.
Speaker 2: I'll give it a AUS. I think I echo what
Speaker 2: Jeff said. I think It's like Augusta National is just
Speaker 2: such a great representation of the tenuous strain between technology
Speaker 2: and golf courses and how how do you maintain some
Speaker 2: sort of reference point on winning score and legacy of
Speaker 2: your tournament without completely you know, dismembering your golf course really,
Speaker 2: you know. And I think it's it's just such a
Speaker 2: tricky tricky aspect is like you know, you I think
Speaker 2: these they watch some people might watch people putt from
Speaker 2: off the green and be like, we should take that away,
Speaker 2: We need to make them chip that right. And it's
Speaker 2: not necessarily the right thing, you know, it's just a
Speaker 2: it's a very hard delicate balance to reach. But I
Speaker 2: would echo Jeff like just generally like the recent changes
Speaker 2: have centered around it. So and I think there's like
Speaker 2: a lack of artistic nature to the work where it's
Speaker 2: kind of very scooped out and manufactured on a golf
Speaker 2: course that was supposed to be built with like supreme artistry.
Speaker 2: And from everything you read about Alison Mackenzie's writing and
Speaker 2: his thoughts on things, for everything to blend into nature,
Speaker 2: it really doesn't. It's not doing that. The new work's
Speaker 2: not achieving that. So let's go to Valhalla. I'll open
Speaker 2: this one up. I'm gonna give it a D. The
Speaker 2: only reason it's passing, the only reason it's getting its yeah,
Speaker 2: d's get degrees, Jeff, get degrees. The only reason it
Speaker 2: gets a D is because of the fine people of
Speaker 2: Louisville that turned out and the fans showed up. This
Speaker 2: golf course in its current form should never host a
Speaker 2: major championship again. It is a isn't is a bad
Speaker 2: golf course. And uh, there we go. I'm I'm done,
Speaker 2: I'm setting, I'm stopping there and uh, you know I, uh,
Speaker 2: this is not about Louisville. The fans came out. I
Speaker 2: supported the tournament, but I'm good. I'm good on Valhalla.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's harsh. I I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: I I can't call it a as bad of a
Speaker 1: golf course as you did. I I it's not. It's
Speaker 1: not ideal, and I was disappointed. The Zousia conversion almost
Speaker 1: had it maybe softer than it's been, but I and
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to host for a while.
Speaker 2: But it it.
Speaker 1: Produces drama, it produces interesting finishes. It's another course where
Speaker 1: you know the way with technology, it's just difficult to
Speaker 1: keep up. You know, the the Island Fairway hole was
Speaker 1: one where everybody played to the Island, you know, the
Speaker 1: first few times nobody dared. I mean, the things change.
Speaker 1: It's hard to keep a golf course relevant. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have anything mysterious about it. It is very straightforward, as
Speaker 1: they all like say, it's right in front of you.
Speaker 1: And that's disappointing. But I do think it asked for
Speaker 1: players to hit a lot of different shots. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go see minus just because I think
Speaker 1: it produced another compelling finish and and and you're right,
Speaker 1: the people at Louisville is a great city for a
Speaker 1: minut major and uh, it never disappoints. And so I
Speaker 1: don't I wouldn't write it off completely. Do remember we
Speaker 1: have Quaile Hollow next year and Frisco and uh what else? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I mean we've got some I think you may
Speaker 1: be wishing your valhalla here.
Speaker 2: Uh at least I love I love that you feel
Speaker 2: so different, different than me, and you gave it a
Speaker 2: C minus you really value.
Speaker 1: Now that to me is a passing grade. I had
Speaker 1: a D plus is not a What school did you
Speaker 1: go to these are.
Speaker 2: Passing Illinois University of Illinois.
Speaker 1: Well, actually I did get some d's and religion classes
Speaker 1: at Pepperdine and I and I have a degree right
Speaker 1: there to show, so I guess I should.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, Joseph, I have I have C minus.
Speaker 3: I think Andy, you'd written about this well and that
Speaker 3: Valhalla asks questions that were answered decades ago, and the
Speaker 3: long I kind of disagree with Jeff a little bit
Speaker 3: that it asks a lot of different shots. I think
Speaker 3: it's a lot of driver and stock shots. The one
Speaker 3: ready quality for me about Valhalla is the length, which
Speaker 3: if if you had a short wedge Fest, it would
Speaker 3: have been much worse than a long birdie fest. So
Speaker 3: the greens aren't particularly compelling. And the defense's length and rough.
Speaker 3: And that's just again questions that were answered decades ago
Speaker 3: by track man Golfer. So the game changes and Valhalla
Speaker 3: doesn't stand up to the test.
Speaker 2: I hate spending other people with money, but I'd be
Speaker 2: okay with Valhalla if they if they underwent a significant redesign. Well,
Speaker 2: I mean maybe they should have shouldn't have hired Jack again.
Speaker 1: You know, actually he did not really, you know, that
Speaker 1: was kind of a lightly reported element. He did not
Speaker 1: really get consulted much on these latest changes. It's part
Speaker 1: of that whole o the Nicholas. He kind of gave
Speaker 1: away at some point that he hadn't been there in
Speaker 1: a long time in a few interviews. So it was
Speaker 1: that whole Nicholas company's thing and the new owners and yeah,
Speaker 1: so what would you do? I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I start from scratch. I think they'll
Speaker 2: just do you just take it and act like nothing's there.
Speaker 2: You act like nothing's there, and you start rebuilding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well, good luck with that. I don't think
Speaker 1: the new owners are going to do that after spending
Speaker 1: all that money on the grass conversion.
Speaker 2: But all right, Pineer's number two A minus.
Speaker 1: You know, as a week war on, I yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought they did a great job. It was greener than
Speaker 1: last time, but when you listen to what people said
Speaker 1: watching it, it was better that it was a little
Speaker 1: bit greener, and it was just a little much the
Speaker 1: first time. Plus I just didn't have great weather going in.
Speaker 1: I As the week went on, though, I really started
Speaker 1: to get a little annoyed at a few of those
Speaker 1: greens that I think were altered by either Rhys Jones
Speaker 1: or Jack Nicholas and one of the various green rebuilds
Speaker 1: where they just they just are they're just too much.
Speaker 1: And I wrote after that, you know the barometers should
Speaker 1: be Now. I know nobody plays a run ups anymore,
Speaker 1: but you should be able to look at some of
Speaker 1: those holes and say, well, if I have to, could
Speaker 1: I land one short and run it up? Because Donald
Speaker 1: ross yeh made a pretty big deal about that in
Speaker 1: his design there, wrote about it, talked about it, spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time on the approaches, and a few
Speaker 1: of those greens just just discouraged that. And there's about
Speaker 1: five of them, maybe four for sure, that they just
Speaker 1: need to be deflated. They're just up too much, and
Speaker 1: they'd still be difficult, but they'd be better holes and
Speaker 1: and that so that that's the only reason I don't
Speaker 1: give it an A. But I thought the setup was
Speaker 1: super I thought the sandy areas. I was a little
Speaker 1: nervous when I heard about the extra plannings and that
Speaker 1: the superintendent planned planned to get a bunch of those
Speaker 1: out right the Monday after the open to begin getting
Speaker 1: rid of them. And I didn't find them to be
Speaker 1: offensive or tricked up or feeling like you were trying
Speaker 1: too hard to manufacture hack outs or something. I thought it.
Speaker 1: I thought it the setup, everything was came together beautifully.
Speaker 1: They wisely kept the greens soft enough so that those
Speaker 1: goofyer greens functioned well. And I thought that was a
Speaker 1: real testament to the USBA. It's not something that normally
Speaker 1: we would love to see, but they had to do that,
Speaker 1: and I thought they really highlighted what a what an
Speaker 1: interesting golf course it is with their with their setup,
Speaker 1: which is certainly not something we always say with the USGA.
Speaker 2: Apparently there was no wiregrass to be had in that
Speaker 2: part of the country. Apparently the USGA bought all the wiregrass,
Speaker 2: so you could not if you were trying to get wiregrass,
Speaker 2: you could not get it because that was it was
Speaker 2: all bought by the USGA.
Speaker 1: It's like Augusta buying semi mature pines. You just yeah
Speaker 1: that they hoard them, and understandably I gave.
Speaker 2: It nay Andy.
Speaker 3: I thought they really nailed the conditioning and the trade
Speaker 3: off between the greens being receptive enough but also being
Speaker 3: fast that I thought played wonderfully. I do agree with
Speaker 3: Jeff that some of the greens I think specifically the
Speaker 3: fifteenth is a little bit out of control. Six and
Speaker 3: too Yeah, six six, fifteen really stands out to me.
Speaker 3: And I think when how distance friendly this test was,
Speaker 3: a lot of people are harping on you could just
Speaker 3: hit it anywhere, which I don't really agree with. I
Speaker 3: think a huge part of why it was distance friendly
Speaker 3: is when you're a long hitter, you're hitting a higher
Speaker 3: lofted club coming into these greens and they're perched up
Speaker 3: and they're like fifteens a great example, and you saw
Speaker 3: what happened when you're rory and you're off by a
Speaker 3: little bit. So the difference between hitting a seven iron
Speaker 3: and a six irons massive. So I thought overall played
Speaker 3: very well. The danger around all the greens and the
Speaker 3: level of precision that that demanded on shots from around
Speaker 3: the green and iron shots was wonderful to watch and
Speaker 3: a complete departure from most tests that we see weekend
Speaker 3: and week out.
Speaker 2: So I give it a Yeah, I think I give
Speaker 2: it a I think you can nippick with the greens,
Speaker 2: and I don't know, if you know, the big question
Speaker 2: would be would they would they lower the greens now
Speaker 2: because they have such an almost aura with the you know,
Speaker 2: sadistic golf fan at this point, and I don't think
Speaker 2: they will because of that. I would I would like
Speaker 2: them too. I think they I mean, having played there
Speaker 2: a handful of times, like it's you hit the You're
Speaker 2: just like where do I even land this? And this
Speaker 2: is when the greens are soft. I mean they keep
Speaker 2: them so soft for people. Number two another one, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: where do Yeah? It's and and I think the other
Speaker 2: thing is like with with stuff like number two is
Speaker 2: like they've they've sneakily narrowed fairways at at yardages, like
Speaker 2: they're way narrower than they should be. And like with
Speaker 2: number two, Yeah, if I could get up the left
Speaker 2: side a little bit more, I would it would be
Speaker 2: okay because I could get the angle. But sometimes they're unafforded.
Speaker 2: That being said, I went into the week kind of
Speaker 2: bummed out about how often Pinehurst is going to be
Speaker 2: there the next twenty five years and walked away with like, Okay,
Speaker 2: if one course is going to be in here, this
Speaker 2: is pretty fun one to watch golf on. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I can't say the same about Pebble, but whoa, that's.
Speaker 1: What Yeah, No, it's going in the other direction. I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm with you there. I was like, Wow, this is
Speaker 1: too many opens in a short time, and I think
Speaker 1: that's a credit to the people running Pinehurst. You just
Speaker 1: felt the investment they made. I still don't see I
Speaker 1: still didn't see anything on the USGA side that made
Speaker 1: me understand the anchor concept anymore. But I did see
Speaker 1: it from the Pinehurst side, and I felt like they
Speaker 1: did a superb job of they just having been there
Speaker 1: when they were sort of taking kicking and screaming into
Speaker 1: the restoration and now seeing how much they're buying into it,
Speaker 1: how much they appreciate architecture and its role on both
Speaker 1: the championship but also people wanting to come there and stay,
Speaker 1: and all the great courses that are not also in
Speaker 1: their control that have done work and just effect that
Speaker 1: classic effect we've seen where where it spills out to
Speaker 1: other golf courses. And now what they're doing out with
Speaker 1: Number ten and probably Number eleven, they've just gotten so
Speaker 1: golf driven and focused or almost obsessed, and I love that,
Speaker 1: And so I thought that part of it is what
Speaker 1: made you feel like, yeah, Okay, they've really they've taken
Speaker 1: advantage of this anchor thing and they haven't gotten cheap,
Speaker 1: whereas yeah, I'm not sure yet about Pebble Beach. You know,
Speaker 1: I just saw the aerials of the sixth hole and
Speaker 1: I just went, oh, they just redid the green and
Speaker 1: that's what you got out of it? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I mean, so there's still a I feel like there's
Speaker 1: still a something missing there at at Pebble That that
Speaker 1: the pebble that the Pineers people really have tapped into
Speaker 1: and get. And kudos to everybody, Tom Bashley and the
Speaker 1: whole team on down to the maintenance teams. It's just sensational.
Speaker 1: So fix those five greens.
Speaker 2: All right. Last one Royal Tire.
Speaker 1: I've got to give it an a. I just thought it.
Speaker 1: It was fascinating how it played, and obviously Mother Nature
Speaker 1: came through. We've had a lot of majors lately where
Speaker 1: you're living a little disappointed at at the natural elements
Speaker 1: not delivering a little more wind, and it certainly did.
Speaker 1: It was it was really hard. I just you just
Speaker 1: can't grasp how hard that wind was from the south
Speaker 1: southeast and how it really didn't make any hole easier.
Speaker 1: And I thought the players were asked a lot of
Speaker 1: different questions it was a little green. At the start
Speaker 1: of the week, they were very nervous about Thursday's forecast.
Speaker 1: They managed to get the gravities up. I still don't
Speaker 1: know how that all works, but they did get some
Speaker 1: firmness and speed because the greens were shockingly slow and green.
Speaker 1: The only disappointment was that it was much greener than
Speaker 1: all the other links that I played and saw in
Speaker 1: the area. But the rough was more. I mean, last
Speaker 1: time it was just a lost ball and the rough
Speaker 1: and any of the courses around there, and all the
Speaker 1: courses have really emphasized rough management, so I think even
Speaker 1: when it got super windy, and obviously these guys have
Speaker 1: marshals looking for balls, but it just not having that
Speaker 1: rough be quite as absurd helped. And the bunkers are
Speaker 1: I really gained a new appreciation for a lot of
Speaker 1: the holes there that in the prevailing win aren't very
Speaker 1: interesting in the modern game, and they became the stars
Speaker 1: of the show last week, especially you know those first
Speaker 1: five holes and the stuff that went on there that
Speaker 1: didn't go on before. So I wouldn't want to play
Speaker 1: it every day. I don't think it's much fun. I
Speaker 1: think it's really hard, but I think it's about as
Speaker 1: quintessential and open venue as you can get in terms
Speaker 1: of everything it asked for, and the postage stamp and
Speaker 1: all the and the railway and the sort of the
Speaker 1: pockets and the subtleties and what it brings out with
Speaker 1: a little bit of wind.
Speaker 3: I gave it an ay also, Jeff, I think it's
Speaker 3: even better as an entertainment venue then as a golf course,
Speaker 3: even though I like it as a golf course. But
Speaker 3: I think for fans understanding the directions of the nines
Speaker 3: is distinctive and something that I appreciate about it, the
Speaker 3: distinctiveness of the postage stamp and the eleventh hole, like
Speaker 3: it creates those moments that people can anticipate and have
Speaker 3: some context for before the players get there. Obviously, the
Speaker 3: weather was ideal for this championship, and I'd be curious
Speaker 3: what grades we would give this venue if it was mild.
Speaker 3: But it is on the ocean and you get reliable wind,
Speaker 3: so I think it's a phenomenal place to keep coming back.
Speaker 2: It's an a for me. I think it's it's the
Speaker 2: golf course that has the most elements. You know, it's
Speaker 2: the easiest of the open venues from what I gather
Speaker 2: to rely on the elements, which I think is like
Speaker 2: a huge benefit to it. I think it's probably a
Speaker 2: golf course in the open rota that I thought of
Speaker 2: as a middle of the road, one that gets bumped
Speaker 2: up towards the top top end of the of the rota.
Speaker 2: I think. I think, like the thing that I always
Speaker 2: am taken aback by by by these by the opens
Speaker 2: is is just like how much better golf is when
Speaker 2: when hazards, when bunkers are hazards and they are something
Speaker 2: that players fear, and I don't know what the how
Speaker 2: I don't think that, you know, in a lot of
Speaker 2: cases there are like conceivable ways to accomplish this in
Speaker 2: a lot of American courses outside of going to like
Speaker 2: the revetted pop bunker route. But like the idea of
Speaker 2: my ball being able to run up against that revetment
Speaker 2: and leave me with like no shot or I'm going
Speaker 2: out sideways, that is the ultimate. It's a it's a
Speaker 2: hazard acting as a hazard for the best players in
Speaker 2: the world, which is so rare outside of water and
Speaker 2: out of bounds, where like it's the only way where
Speaker 2: you can put something on the side of the fairway.
Speaker 2: And I think like it was telling watching how these
Speaker 2: guys played the first second holes is like the bunkers
Speaker 2: were real deterrence. It's like they're hitting mid irons off
Speaker 2: the tee because they're afraid of these bunkers. And it
Speaker 2: makes you know, it just like has a ripple effect
Speaker 2: as a three hundred and eighty yard hole all of
Speaker 2: a sudden with it into the wind, these guys are
Speaker 2: hitting like kind of mid irons into a short part
Speaker 2: four And when it was down, when they're still hitting
Speaker 2: nine irons, it's hard to get to the those tuck
Speaker 2: pins behind the bunker that they put that front pin.
Speaker 2: Like to me, I just I just think that that
Speaker 2: bunker in terms of pro golf, and I think it
Speaker 2: just introduces real strategy and I think that's just so
Speaker 2: sorely missed in so many places. And that was, you know,
Speaker 2: one of the things that will last with me from
Speaker 2: from true.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And they the wind made the driver, It just
Speaker 1: made the dynamics different off the tee, which was nice.
Speaker 1: It wasn't quite the emphasis on the driver. The other
Speaker 1: thing of the bunk andy they were it's beach sand
Speaker 1: and they had a pretty deep time and and that
Speaker 1: definitely added. They weren't they weren't, you know, ridiculous, But
Speaker 1: that did not give you many good clean lines, even
Speaker 1: though they do have a bunker raker in each group,
Speaker 1: and certain holes even seem to have a bunker raker
Speaker 1: on their own. The Postage Stamp I think had its
Speaker 1: own crews. So yeah, but they they were they were
Speaker 1: difficult because of that as well. And then they're just
Speaker 1: well placed and they they the setup was it felt
Speaker 1: like it was a little better this time that it
Speaker 1: just felt like there it was a little bit wider,
Speaker 1: but it also brought more of the bunkers into play,
Speaker 1: and and it was fascinating. I mean, it was intense.
Speaker 3: It just it.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. The way they had the cool thing
Speaker 1: was on the Postage Stamp because of the Grand Stamp
Speaker 1: blocking the players. The first day, a lot of guys
Speaker 1: just could not believe the win. But when I was
Speaker 1: out there for a few hours, I realized at the
Speaker 1: end I should have stopped watching the shots because the
Speaker 1: crowds are so knowledgeable there and the people behind the players,
Speaker 1: and maybe even the ones kind of off to the side.
Speaker 1: As soon as the ball got up in the air,
Speaker 1: they would react in a way that if you weren't watching,
Speaker 1: you could guess either it was toast, it was just
Speaker 1: no chance. There was an anticipatory kind of I mean,
Speaker 1: there were all these different little sounds they'd make where
Speaker 1: you kind of knew what the ball was going to
Speaker 1: do because they'd been sitting there a while and they
Speaker 1: just knew when a t shot was bad. And that
Speaker 1: was just a cool dynamic I think. I mean, I
Speaker 1: have mixed feelings about the grandstand impacting it, but then
Speaker 1: if you look the next day, same win, the guys
Speaker 1: accepted it more and the scoring average improved greatly with
Speaker 1: the same exact wins. So it was another element where
Speaker 1: they a little bit of more, a little more trust
Speaker 1: in the golf course would have helped some people. And
Speaker 1: I did. I did find out they did not put
Speaker 1: flags on that grandstand because because of the approaching planes,
Speaker 1: it was not a RNA ploy to deceive the players
Speaker 1: on the wind. But it was spectacular. And don't you
Speaker 1: love every guy saying why can't we have more of
Speaker 1: these halls? We don't need another two hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: yard Part three? I just love that and I'm glad,
Speaker 1: I'm glad they say it they should, because the seventeenth
Speaker 1: was not better another twelve thirteen yards whatever it was.
Speaker 1: The fifth wasn't better getting longer. I didn't think. I
Speaker 1: mean that the location of the team was nice, but
Speaker 1: I do love that the guys call that out and
Speaker 1: it's it's these organizations are just a little too obsessed
Speaker 1: with getting the same exact club in their hand on
Speaker 1: those holes. And that's and it's just not the game's changed.
Speaker 1: The loss are different. There's just different reasons, and it's
Speaker 1: there's just a point where a par three loses something
Speaker 1: and the same thing happened at LA last year. When
Speaker 1: you get too far back, it's just it's just so
Speaker 1: far away. You just you just lose a connection with
Speaker 1: the green and it's just not as much. It's not
Speaker 1: as interesting to play or watch generally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would echo those We were going to get
Speaker 2: to the governing bodies, but it is our time has
Speaker 2: passed here. We'll have to do that at a future point. Jeff,
Speaker 2: thank you so much. Everybody should be that's super interested
Speaker 2: in golf should be subscribing to your substack. The Quadrilateral.
Speaker 2: Is it fifty dollars a year? Still? I'm on fifty
Speaker 2: fifty oh, a little price inflation, and it started.
Speaker 1: I went to fifty four and fifty nine. Now, yeah, inflation,
Speaker 1: I will say it's a bargain.
Speaker 2: It is awesome. The stuff you put out, the perspective,
Speaker 2: the insight, it's something that I've admired. I've read you
Speaker 2: for since I was like a very very for a
Speaker 2: very very long time, and I've always appreciated your insight
Speaker 2: and voice in the game. I think there are very
Speaker 2: few distinct voices in the game of golf, and you've
Speaker 2: been one for decades. We should be applauding your longevity
Speaker 2: for distinctness and voice, and thank you for coming on
Speaker 2: and chatting with us, and we'll look forward to talking
Speaker 2: to you again soon.
Speaker 1: All right, Thanks am.
Speaker 2: All right. That does it for another edition of the
Speaker 2: Friday Golf Podcast. Big thanks to Jeff for coming on
Speaker 2: and PJ Clark for editing and producing this podcast. Thanks PJ.
Speaker 2: All Right. We will be back next week with new episodes.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, check out Club TFE. We've got
Speaker 2: some yoke with doakes coming up. You could we put
Speaker 2: up a call for questions there. I think I'll probably
Speaker 2: put them up on social media, but we'll probably go
Speaker 2: through the Club TF questions first for that podcast. On
Speaker 2: top of you know, I think we're over seventy course
Speaker 2: profiles in there, so big directory of golf courses you
Speaker 2: can dive into and really nerd out on. Join Club TF.
Speaker 2: It's one hundred and twenty dollars for the year at
Speaker 2: the Friday dot com slash membership that goes for a year.
Speaker 2: It's a great way to support us, and big thanks
Speaker 2: to everybody for all the support through major season. Thanks
Speaker 2: and we'll be back next week with another edition of
Speaker 2: the Friday Golf Podcast.