WEBVTT - How will Pinehurst play? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:05.960 Witness insurmountable deficits turn into unforgettable victories at the Travelers Championship, 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:10.680 the northeast one and only PGA Tour signature event. See 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:15.360 Scotty Scheffler, Rory McElroy, Victor Hovlin, Patrick Cantley and returning 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.799 champion Keegan Bradley, as well as other PGA Tour stars 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.720 in all four days of the competition at close by 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.160 TPC River Highlands. The excitement tees off June nineteenth through 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.320 the twenty third. For tickets and information, visit Travelers Championship 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:37.040 dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one. It's 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.560 the Son of a Witch podcast time your host Claude Harmon. 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.440 It is US Open week, the third major of the 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:48.960 year at Pinehurst. I've been on site all week and yeah, 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:50.800 this is going to be an interesting one. I think 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:55.240 every time the US Open comes to Pinehurst, it's just 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.800 a very very unique golf course and I think there 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.600 are a lot of different I think there's a lot 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.240 of different ways to play the golf course. I think 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.480 there's a lot of different strategies to employ. I think 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.080 a lot of it's going to be player dependent, and 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.279 I think everybody is going to be trying to figure 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.080 out how is the best way to get around this 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:20.760 golf course. It's I mean, it's midweek and the greens 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.720 are lightning already and they've had a little bit of rain. 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.360 They're not massively massively firm, but they are very very fast, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.480 and there just isn't a lot of usable area on 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.320 a lot of these putting surfaces. I'll give you a 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.559 great example, so the that's I mean on the front nine, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.119 I think two of the greens that stand out, or 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.720 the second green and the fifth green, And some of 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:51.360 these greens look look very very big on TV. They 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:56.200 they'll look very big in the telecast, but there's very 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.680 little usable area on the greens, first of all, where 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.160 they can pins. So if you look at the fifth green, 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.320 which is a par five, it's a very it's a 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.480 big green. There's a lot of space out there. It's 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.760 a big, big putting surface, but there's really only a 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.960 small part of the green that that it can put 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.760 the pin positions on. And if the balls start rolling 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.400 off the greens, which they are designed and tend to 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:27.480 do here at Pinehurst, you're going to struggle. We were 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.119 out today Brooks and DJ played with Phil Mickelson. Phil 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.840 came so close here in ninety nine and I got 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.560 to kind of pick Phil's brain and talk to him about, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.840 you know, kind of what he thinks about the golf course, 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.000 what he thinks about how to play the golf course. 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.760 One of the big differences is they really have changed 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.440 the areas off the fairways. They've planted a lot of 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.560 fescue grass, and they're kind of in a bunch of 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:03.840 really clumpy pieces of grass. So DJ today one of 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.360 the holes in the background was of fourteen hit the 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:11.520 golf ball maybe a yard and a half left of 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:16.639 the fairway and it nestled down right behind a giant 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:21.600 clump of fescue. He somehow managed to get it on 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.400 the putting service, but it could have gone anywhere, and 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:31.320 that's less than it wasn't even two paces from the fairway. 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.200 So I think that the strategy off the tee is 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:39.800 going to be very important, and I think which strategy 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.360 the players employ will kind of define I think this 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.800 US Open. I saw Victor Hovelin's press conference day VIC 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.160 saying he's going to try and be very aggressive off 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.720 the tee with driver so that he has shorter irons 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.600 in his hands and then can be way more conservative 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.360 with the shorter I think that's a really good strategy 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.200 unless you spray the driver. If you spray the driver, 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.120 you just don't know what you're going to get. So 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:14.760 if the driver goes offline, you're looking at any possibility. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.600 You look at the possibility of making a par you're 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.920 looking at the possibility of bogie, or you're looking at 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.080 some very very big numbers. And that was the interesting 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.920 thing in talking to Phil about the way he kind 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.120 of thinks about this golf course. He said it takes 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.440 a lot of discipline, and what he meant by that was, 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:35.800 if you do hit it offline, how aggressive are you 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.960 on the next shot, because you could have only if 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.160 you bomb one off the tee and it misses the fairway, 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.799 you could have a much shorter club in your hand. 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.479 But Bill was saying that he thinks the strategy and 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.800 the mind games that this course plays is Okay, you 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.000 missed the fairway. You've got a short club in your hand, 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.640 and you think, okay, well, let's say I'm only one 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.040 hundred and twenty yards one hundred fifty yards away. It's 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.520 probably going to be a wedge. Maybe for a lot 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.919 of these long hitters, and they're going to say, okay, 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.760 do I need to be aggressive here and try and 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.880 get this on. The problem is if you miss the green, left, right, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.000 or over the green, it's very very difficult to get 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.360 those up and down. It's very difficult to make pars 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.320 from there. So what Phil was saying was he likes 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.400 the strategy of if you get in trouble off the tee, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:33.080 then lay it up short. And he was thinking, and 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.560 I talked to a lot of the players. You know, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.159 so far this way you can score from the front 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:43.680 of these greens. You can. It's very difficult to score left, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.039 right or long. So the play if you are going 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:52.520 to miss a fair way is lay it up short. 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.159 Then you can run it up a lot of these slopes. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.479 But like I said, if you miss these greens left 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.120 and right or long, I mean sometimes you can be dead. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.839 I mean sometimes you're staring at you know, double triple 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:10.320 quad by just missing the green. Because depending on where 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:12.839 they put the pin positions, you could miss the green 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.080 to left, to the right, over the green and basically 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.240 have no shot. Try and hit a great chip. But 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.120 the slopes here, the speed of these greens or are 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.480 so fast that you could hit it over the green 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.280 and then hit it all the way off the front edge. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:29.200 If you're on the left side of the of the 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.520 green and miss it, you could chip it up to 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.360 certain pin positions and it could run all the way 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.880 over to the other side. So I think a lot 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.240 of the strategy this week will be how disciplined can 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.920 you be off the tee, and then how disciplined can 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.880 you be if you miss the fairway, Because I think 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.719 the winners here tend to be the guys that drive 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.159 the golf ball the best. They tend to be the 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.640 players that hit a lot of fairways. If you get 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.600 the ball and play, then you can somewhat be I 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.600 don't know if you can be aggressive, but you can 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.320 somewhat try and take advantage of a good drive. I 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.760 think good shots this week you were going to see 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.080 a lot of really good quality iron shots that if 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.760 you can get them pin high left, pin high right, 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.840 twenty feet, twenty five feet, sometimes thirty feet. Sometimes just 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.080 getting the iron shot that you've got to stay on 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.840 the green is going to be a good shot. So 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.840 I think this is very much a USGA US Open 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.040 style of golf course this golf course is going to 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.800 play very, very different than the last major we saw 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.640 at Valhalla, where it was soft, it was very easy, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.120 everybody was shooting low, everybody was having good rounds. I 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.000 just don't think we're going to see that. So depending 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.640 on the way they set the golf course up. I 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.760 asked you a couple of the players, if they gave 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.720 you a score and said, okay, right now, you could 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.040 not tee it up, what score would you take, not 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.240 even teeing it up and take your chances? And I 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:12.400 heard anywhere between even par to one under to two under. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.760 But you just don't know. I mean, somebody could go 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.920 out and just light it up and shoot you four 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:25.680 five six under. And I could also see even par 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.760 one over, maybe two over. I could see that winning. 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:34.400 And I think we could see some gaps between where 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.960 the leader is and then where the guy in second 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.199 and the guy in third is. We saw that in 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.079 fourteen when Martin Kimer won here. There was a big 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.760 gap between what Martin was doing and then what the 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.239 rest of the field was doing. So I think strategy 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.439 has been vital in the practice grounds. The players and 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.920 their caddies are all talking about okay, how far up 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.160 do we want to push our drive? Do I need 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.839 to hit drive here? And then what are the consequences? 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:08.040 What is the risk reward of smashing driver? But if 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.880 you miss it at all, you just don't know what 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.000 you're going to get. You could get a decent lie, 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.560 you could get a very very sandy lie, and then 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.680 you could get a lie where you're struggling to advance it. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.800 You might have to chip it back sideways, you might 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.559 have to go backwards. So I do think the buzzword 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:32.000 for this week for every player is disciplined. And I 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:36.040 think that the USGA and the US Opens like to 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.960 test the player's minds as much as they like to 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.960 test the players golf swings and technique. And I think 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.400 that is the fascinating thing about the venues that they 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.120 choose for US Opens. I think that's the fascinating thing 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:52.400 about the way the USGA sets up these golf courses. 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.280 It is as much a mental test as it is 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:03.000 a physical test, as it is a techn test. Give 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.080 Dad the gift of more golf this Father's Day with 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.800 the Rapsodo MLM two pro. Whether Dad is trying to 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.079 shoot lower scores or just play more golf. The MLM 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.280 two Pro is a mobile launch monitor and golf simulator 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.720 that you can easily take to the course or set 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.320 up at home to play and practice. 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In looking at the interaction between the players 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.280 and the caddies, there's a lot of conversations on the 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.960 tea box. Okay, what are we doing here? How far 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.760 up do we want to push this? Can we just 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.200 hit the fairway here? Hit an iron off the tee. 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:26.080 In Brooks's case, Brooks and in his caddy Ricky Elliott 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.280 Brooks has got that driving Nike. It's a driving iron, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.599 it's a three iron. He can probably hit that to 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:38.600 forty to two fifty in the air. So Brooks is, 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.440 I think, is going to hit a lot of I 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.600 mean his driving iron off the tee. He's going to 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.680 hit some three woods off the tee. He is going 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.640 to hit driver And I think the longer hitters do 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.000 have an advantage here, but they only have an advantage 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:53.760 here if they hit the fairway. If they don't hit 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:58.760 the fairway, it's it's it's crapshoot. You just don't know 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.439 what you're going to get. Who are the favorites this week? 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:09.360 I mean, wow, you would think that this is a 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.400 ball striker's golf course. You have to be able to 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.320 control the flight of your golf ball, the curve of 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:22.280 your golf ball, control the trajectory, control the spin. Ricky Eleduo, 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:26.360 caddy's for Brooks, Keka said he bought that you have 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.720 to play this course through the middle of the greens 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.079 because if you're trying to come in on angles, and 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.800 that was something that I heard a number of players say, 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:38.840 you have to hit a lot of straight shots here 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.040 because the way the slopes are the way the runoff 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.240 areas are. If you overdraw that. If your drawer of 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.280 the golf ball, you're right handed and you overdraw it, 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.120 it's going to go left and then go further left 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.400 down these slopes. Does it go down into the runoff 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.560 area or does it keep going and go all the 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.840 way down into where these fescue bushes have been planted? 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.439 Are you on hard pan? DJ had a drive on. 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.679 They started on the tenth hole today, par five. It 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.160 was a little into the breeze and he just said, listen, 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.280 there's no real reward for me trying to go there, 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.560 trying to get there in two. So he tried to 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.000 lay it up, blocked it just a little bit. It 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.320 was there's a bunker to the right of the first 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.600 or right of the tenth green, and he wasn't in 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.600 the bunker. He was kind of on the top of 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.800 the right side of it. And it was basically as 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.920 hard as a cart path. It was like concrete. So 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.920 that's the other thing is some of the areas around 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.760 these greens they're baked out. It's warm here. I don't 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.720 think we're going to get a ton of rain. So 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.400 this golf course is going to play very very firm. 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.280 This golf course is going to play very very bouncy, 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:55.880 and I think we are in for a four day 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.480 USGA US Open kind of war of attrition. You know, 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:04.800 do you have the game to manage this golf course, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:11.840 but do you have the mental side to manage the misses? 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.240 Because you are going to hit the players here this week. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.240 They will hit bad shots, they will hit bad drives, 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.720 they will hit bad approach shots. It's what you do 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:24.520 when you hit a bad one. I think that is 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:30.000 going to be what how the whoever holds the trophy 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.600 on Sunday, in my opinion, is going to be the 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:38.960 player that manages their game the best. So who are 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:43.120 the who are the favorites? I mean, you gotta think 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.840 Xanderschoffle is a favorite. Is just coming off winning his 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:51.960 first major championship. Scotti Scheffler. I saw Scotty and his 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:55.800 Kattie Teddy Scott on Tuesday. They were just walking around 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:00.640 the front nine with just a bunch of club and 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:05.000 a putter, so they weren't even hitting any t shots 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.720 or iron shots. They were just going out and going 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:12.880 directly to all of the green complexes and then having 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.800 balls kind of run off and then go play them. 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:20.840 So I think Scotty's strategy. Listen, it's not even close. 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.320 He's the best player in the game right now. He 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.800 has the most confident of any player. He's coming in 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.760 here off another win at Memorial, which is a very 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.960 very difficult golf course, but it's a completely different setup. 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.560 But the other thing that I think is always going 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.520 to be a question at US Opens and the US 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:44.920 Open venues is the setup. How fast does the usj 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.280 want to get these greens? Wyndham Clark was saying on 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.800 Tuesday night or Tuesday in his press conference that already 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.280 the greens were borderline. Are they going to put water 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.760 on them? Are they going to let them bake out? 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.360 And I think the USGA likes they like even par. 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.880 They don't have a problem if even par wins major championships. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.880 There are a lot of people that like that style 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.640 of golf. They don't want to see a birdie fest. 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:15.000 They don't want to see ten, twelve, thirteen under win majors. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.960 They want the test to be tough. Listen, this test 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.160 is tough. I think a lot of these greens and 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.600 they have been redesigned, but the green complexes. The original 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:31.160 green complexes were never designed to be at the speeds 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.000 that the modern day golfers and the modern day setups 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:40.240 set up. They just weren't. These greens were originally designed 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.560 when they would roll six, seven, maybe eight on the stemp. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.440 If these things get over ten eleven, we are going 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.680 to see some carnage. The other thing is with how 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.880 much back and forth. I think there will be around 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.960 these greens where you'll see players mis agree. They'll be 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:05.679 down in a runoff area if they've short sighted themselves. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.920 They know that if they if they hit the golf 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.800 ball too far, it could run off the other side, 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.920 or run down the front, or run down the back. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.600 So do they try and get quick or try and 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.640 get cute and not judge how far they hit it? 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.880 And I do think we are going to see players 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.919 chipping around these greens and get it on the putting 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.720 surface and then it's going to roll up. A good 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.120 example is the fifth Green, the par five. The pin 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.119 on Tuesday in the practice round was kind of front 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.280 ish to the right. I saw some players lay it 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.560 up over on the right hand side, chip it up, 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:49.680 not chip it far enough, and then it basically went sideways, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:53.560 did a big loop, went sideways, went all the way 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:57.200 down the left side, down into the bunker. I saw 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.960 some players chip, some that didn't get up to the flag, 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:04.679 same thing, rolled all the way up, then started to 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.720 come back down on the left hand side, missed the bunker, 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:13.200 rolled all the way down to the runoff areas, got 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.320 behind a bush and they're staring on a par five 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.680 where you're trying to make up ground here. I mean, 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.359 there isn't a lot of There aren't a lot of 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:26.879 birdie chances here, right. That's that's something that all of 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.520 these players are going to have to deal with. I 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.040 think the hard holes out here, the ones to watch 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:40.440 are going to be two six eight, eleven, sixteen. If 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:46.200 you could somehow for the week play those five holes 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.199 and even or one under for the week, you are 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.480 going to pick up maybe a stroke and a half, 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:58.280 maybe two strokes against the field. So everyone out here 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:03.240 knows what the hard hole are, they know what the 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.359 test is, and they know where they're going to need 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:11.840 to try and just hang on. I think every us 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.800 OPENED and the USGA likes this, right. They love a 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:21.679 very very difficult test, and they love hard holes, and 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.280 they know that everyone knows kind of what the hard 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.760 holes are. So, like I said, I think on the 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:33.080 when we look at the hardest hole, I think one 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.160 of the hardest holes is going to be the sixth hole. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.359 I think sixteen is going to be a very very 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:44.320 difficult hole. The second hole, based off of that green 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:52.080 complex is difficult. Eight is no bargain. Eleven the second 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.000 hole on the back nine Again, you get out of 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:59.720 position there and you're really really going to struggle. The 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:04.120 only two fives on this golf course are five and ten. 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:09.159 That's it. Those are the only two real legit birdie 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.240 chances I think you're going to have. And then the 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:17.080 rest of it is just you hang on. You just 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.960 try and get it to the house. Uh. Seventeen today, 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:26.320 which is the par three, five irons, four irons for 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:30.640 some of these guys. And yeah, that's well in excess 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.920 of two fifteen to two twenty. And DJ hit a 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:39.320 shot today in the practice round, hammered a four iron 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.920 thirty feet left of the flag, just barely stayed on 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.600 the green, didn't go down into the left green side bunker. 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.359 We got up there and we're thinking, this is a 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.239 very very good golf shot under these conditions. Now, the 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.560 best players in the world don't think thirty feet is 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:03.240 a good shot. They just don't. But us opens sometimes 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:08.159 pin high, or sometimes anywhere on these greens, twenty to 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:16.080 thirty feet are going to be good quality shots. Witness 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:21.280 insurmountable deficits turn into unforgettable victories at the Travelers Championship, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:26.000 the northeast one and only PGA Tour signature event. See 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:30.680 Scotty Scheffler, Rory McElroy, Victor Hovlin, Patrick Cantley, and returning 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.120 champion Keegan Bradley, as well as other PGA Tour stars 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.040 in all four days of the competition at close by 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.439 TPC River Highlands. The excitement tees off June nineteenth through 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.640 the twenty third. For tickets and information, visit Travelers Championship 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:50.919 dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one, so 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.680 I think this week is a lot about managing the expectations. 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.440 I think the rounds are going to take forever. I 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.040 don't think we're going to finish. I think there. I 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.480 don't think people will finish on On I certainly don't 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.360 think people are going to finish Thursday. The field's too 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.439 big and the golf course is just too difficult. You 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:14.920 are going to see guys playing hockey, ping pong around 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.639 these greens. You know, miss a green, try and go 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:20.680 for it, run it over the other side of the green, 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:23.399 and we're going to see some big numbers and the 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.200 pace of playof I think we're looking at in excess 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:32.080 of five hours. I think we could get into six 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:36.920 hour rounds this week because the test is just so difficult. 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:41.080 That's what the USGA wants. They want this to be 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.240 the toughest test possible. What does Rory McRoy do this week? 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:49.480 He's saying that he's never felt better. He's saying that 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.240 he's never had a better opportunity, he's never been more 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.840 ready to win his fifth major. And we've talked about 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.640 it on the pod before. I think it's just it's 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:04.919 shocking to me given how great a player Rory McElroy is. 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:07.560 He's hitting on the range today, he was hitting balls 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.000 next to DJ and I mean it's hard not to 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:15.800 watch him, right, I mean, he's hitting balls. He's just 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:23.600 got everything. He's just so impressive as player. And yeah, 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:26.160 I could see him win this week. I could see 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:31.160 him get his fifth major. But if he doesn't get 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:33.640 off to a good start he's I think That's been 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.359 one of the issues that Rory's had in trying to 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:42.000 win that elusive fifth major championship is sometimes in these 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:44.520 majors he doesn't get off to a fast start. This 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:47.560 is not a golf course. This, I'll say it again, 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:50.399 This is not a golf course you can play offense on. 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.440 This is a golf course where you're trying to play defense, 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:58.040 and rarely are you going to get opportunities to play offense. 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:01.840 But the problem is, and I'll keep saying this, this 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:05.080 golf course, the setup, and what the USGA likes is 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:08.359 they like to have players play defense when they should 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:12.040 be playing offense. And they love them. They love them 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:16.120 to play offense when they know they should be playing defense. 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:22.440 And so great ball strikers, yeah, great ball strikers will 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:26.240 really really like this place. And if you are coming 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:29.359 into this tournament this week with a lot of really 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:33.960 really good form, I think you would think you would 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:37.560 have a chance. I do think that on golf courses 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:43.560 like this that are this difficult, where the test is 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:47.359 so penal if you miss shots, you could also see 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:53.159 not a household name leading on the leaderboard, go leading 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:56.960 on Thursday, not a superstar, not someone that anybody would 0:24:57.000 --> 0:25:01.320 have picked in their fantasy. They could be leading because 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:04.159 in a lot of ways, they just don't know anybody. 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:06.199 They don't know how hard the golf course is, so 0:25:06.920 --> 0:25:11.760