Speaker 1: It's usually sort of hang on for deal life, and
Speaker 1: there's twenty or thirty guys in after Thursday and fifth
Speaker 1: day and after Friday, and then gradually get down in
Speaker 1: the last night hols and there's only two or three left,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's just got that real feel of
Speaker 1: the hoho can hang on. And I just think there's
Speaker 1: something uniquely special about that. I mean, as I said,
Speaker 1: it's probably not that much fun to play, but incredibly
Speaker 1: rewarding to play. Well. Another log on the fire Nobody
Speaker 1: here is give the Time. Hello. This is Alan Shipknuck
Speaker 1: back for another Fire Drill podcast, sitting on the couch
Speaker 1: next to me. Uh. Michael Bamberger, Ryan French beamed in
Speaker 1: from the other side of the world. Jeff Ogilvie shout
Speaker 1: out to the Arcadian Hotel here in Brookline that it's
Speaker 1: our host this week and they've taken care of us,
Speaker 1: and uh, we're very grateful for the hospitality. I also
Speaker 1: like to thank our corporate sponsors who get us here
Speaker 1: and help us keep the lights on. That would part
Speaker 1: points our favorite scoring app. It's quite ingenious. We encourage
Speaker 1: you guys to check it out. A fun way to
Speaker 1: to mix things up. When you're playing with your buddies,
Speaker 1: your family or whomever. And of course I'd like to
Speaker 1: mention our long time corporate partners, Link Soul. Uh. There
Speaker 1: was actually I got swept into this debate on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Someone just randomly tweeted anybody anybody out there still wear
Speaker 1: like cotton clothing on the golf course. I was like, hell,
Speaker 1: yeah to me, it's so much more comfortable. I don't
Speaker 1: want all that synthetic stuff scratching at my skin like
Speaker 1: uh one of my John Travolta wearing polyester now and
Speaker 1: Links Soul, as we know, makes by far the most
Speaker 1: comfortable soft is stuff out there. They do have some
Speaker 1: a few synthetic things if that's your jam, But um,
Speaker 1: you know, we love Link Soul and we all wear
Speaker 1: it and we're grateful. So let's get to this podcast.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the country Club as a venue. Um,
Speaker 1: who joke is it? They couldn't find a better name, No,
Speaker 1: nothing good, Peter Jacobson, they couldn't come up with a
Speaker 1: name that's so great. But it really it's a special place.
Speaker 1: I mean, I hadn't been back on the ground since
Speaker 1: the ninety nine Ryder Cup, and I love just the
Speaker 1: rock outcroppings and the land forms, and it feels like
Speaker 1: this place is as old as time and it has
Speaker 1: a real stateliness. Ryan, I know this was your first
Speaker 1: day at the US Open. You've got to go out
Speaker 1: there and walk a practice round. What were you impressions
Speaker 1: of the course and just just being at the US Open.
Speaker 1: Let's start there. Yeah, I mean, it's it's surreal on
Speaker 1: a personal level. But also I've been to a lot
Speaker 1: of tour events and been lucky enough to caddy and
Speaker 1: see these guys in corn ferre events from Monday qualifiers
Speaker 1: or tour events, and like chipping and putting around the
Speaker 1: green in a practice round is just so common and
Speaker 1: just you don't even pay attention. But today to watch
Speaker 1: players like hit little you know, dribbling shanks and literally
Speaker 1: with and just stumble kind of all over themselves, it's
Speaker 1: just I mean, it's it's what makes the US Open
Speaker 1: the u s Open, and you the few groups I follow, like,
Speaker 1: they all talk about it as they leave the green like, whoa,
Speaker 1: this place is really hard and uh And obviously I
Speaker 1: filed a qualifier, so I was like, Luke, how hard
Speaker 1: is this on a scale of one to tend? He said,
Speaker 1: probably a thirteen. For the listeners who haven't had chance
Speaker 1: to read your story, just briefly talk about the person
Speaker 1: you're following this week and why you chose him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Luke Annon, And I mean just kind of what makes
Speaker 1: the U s open my favorite uh major obviously or
Speaker 1: my favorite event is you know you can be Luke Annon,
Speaker 1: who's a mini tour player. Um, you know, he told
Speaker 1: me in the interview for the story he hasn't won
Speaker 1: since he was a sophomore. An amateur event in Kansas
Speaker 1: is sophomore year in college. And uh, his dad's a preacher,
Speaker 1: and he worked as a janitor from age thirteen to
Speaker 1: four years old and when he turned pro that's how
Speaker 1: he made it for a while before he got some
Speaker 1: financial help. Is he worked two weeks on as the
Speaker 1: janitor at his dad's church and then two weeks playing,
Speaker 1: and then two weeks back as the janitor. And it
Speaker 1: just kind of like what the US Opened to me entails.
Speaker 1: It just is for the dreamers. You're you're gonna look
Speaker 1: up and down the leader board and for the casual
Speaker 1: golf and it's going to be a bunch of no
Speaker 1: names mixed in with a bunch of the big names,
Speaker 1: and it's what makes the U s Open great that, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, does he have a chance? Probably not no,
Speaker 1: but does he think he has a chance, of course.
Speaker 1: And you know I made even as simple as a
Speaker 1: made cut Alan is so huge for this guy. It's
Speaker 1: gonna guarantee whatever last places thirty five th dollars or
Speaker 1: forty thou dollars, and that can keep his dream going.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was out of money at Sectional Space.
Speaker 1: Really he considered. He told me I probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gone if I had got money back if I were
Speaker 1: able to get money back from my flight, but I
Speaker 1: can only get flight credit, so I decided to go anyway,
Speaker 1: and he got through. So it's just, uh, what what
Speaker 1: makes this championship special? From the guys I follow? I
Speaker 1: love that Jeff, your name is on the trophy. I
Speaker 1: know this is a special week for you in your words?
Speaker 1: What makes the US Open the US Open? Ryan touched
Speaker 1: on it there a little bit. Um those practice rounds,
Speaker 1: when I mean we start hearing about a month before,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh my god, you've been a Brooklyn yet,
Speaker 1: You've been a Wingfoot, yet you've been This is the
Speaker 1: hardest one we've ever had gone over the top. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be the hardest thing we've ever seen. And
Speaker 1: sure enough, on Monday, the whole field is chipping fifty
Speaker 1: bowls around every grain and walking around and like shaking
Speaker 1: their head and rolling their eyes of their caddies saying
Speaker 1: that done it again. This is really hard. This is
Speaker 1: really hard. But they're fun times. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: I think for those who play, if for that for
Speaker 1: golf is their thing, I mean, competitive golf is their thing.
Speaker 1: It's sort of the ultimate test. Sometimes it's a little
Speaker 1: over the top, but that's kind of part of the fun,
Speaker 1: I think. I mean, it's easier to say now that
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here talking about it rather than doing it.
Speaker 1: It's part of the fun. But um, they're big weeks,
Speaker 1: and it's just on a scale that I mean, the
Speaker 1: Open Championship gets to a little sort of similar sort
Speaker 1: of scale and a different feeling. I mean, the Masters
Speaker 1: is quite intimate in a way. I mean, it's quite
Speaker 1: obviously a massive event. It's not very intimate outside the gates,
Speaker 1: but once you're inside Augusta, it's quite an intimate field.
Speaker 1: The US Open is anything but intimate feeling. It's just
Speaker 1: absolutely massive, big structures, big stands, massive tense tons of people.
Speaker 1: From Monday morning, everybody's there. It's loud, um, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's a loud course. Like it's just it's just hard.
Speaker 1: From the first hole every path forwards like a part five.
Speaker 1: Greens are tough, pins are tough, and it's just it's
Speaker 1: one of those really really really low grinding weeks in
Speaker 1: pro golf that when you actually play well, it's right.
Speaker 1: It's not really I wouldn't say playing well in the
Speaker 1: US Open is fun, but it's infinitely satisfying, probably the
Speaker 1: most rewarding round you can play as anything near bar
Speaker 1: or under. Part of it was open because you've just
Speaker 1: you've come up with some some special stuff eighteen times
Speaker 1: in a row. Like, it's just it's just a great challenge.
Speaker 1: And coming down the stretch, coming on the weekends, they're
Speaker 1: fantastic tournaments. Um, it's sort of battle of attrition, survival
Speaker 1: of the fittest rather than then no one's really running
Speaker 1: away and he was opening very rarely. It's usually sort
Speaker 1: of hang on for dear life. And there's twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty guys in after Thursday and fifth day and after
Speaker 1: Friday and then gradually get down to the last nine
Speaker 1: holes and there's only two or three left, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's just got that real feel of the who
Speaker 1: can hang on? And I just think there's something uniquely
Speaker 1: special about that. I mean, as I said, it's probably
Speaker 1: not that much fun to play, but incredibly rewarding to
Speaker 1: play well. Jeff, this is just a question that I like, obviously,
Speaker 1: outside of winning on that Sunday, did you ever walk
Speaker 1: off of around after around at the US Open and
Speaker 1: field good or do you just like, you know, whether
Speaker 1: where it fits in the field. Obviously you can get
Speaker 1: a feel of like that part is going to be
Speaker 1: great or whatever. But I assume it's just such a
Speaker 1: grind that you're just kind of relief, don't matter like
Speaker 1: that that round us over. You're never obviously you don't
Speaker 1: have that feeling of like sixty three or sixty four
Speaker 1: that you know it was great, you hit it great.
Speaker 1: Did you ever remember walking off and thinking like, wow,
Speaker 1: that was a really great round or does it just
Speaker 1: such a grind? I think first round at Tori, I
Speaker 1: think Fergie actually reminded me M Doug Ferguson. For everyone else,
Speaker 1: um great Apai Roda used to follow us around and
Speaker 1: actually walk around on the golf course, unlike a lot
Speaker 1: of his peers. UM used to enjoy dug out there
Speaker 1: in the Hawaiian Ship. But anyway, I came off. I
Speaker 1: shot under par on the first round at Tory in
Speaker 1: two thousand night, and he came up to me and
Speaker 1: typical fergu fashion, says, you know, you're the only champion
Speaker 1: whoever won the US Open and never shut around under
Speaker 1: par in the US Open, and now you have so
Speaker 1: well done. Um. But I remember really enjoying Tory all
Speaker 1: of it, um, and that first round especially, you will
Speaker 1: have to check the thing. I sat one or two
Speaker 1: under in the first round, and yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: really nice feeling. I mean I've walked off. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Chambers. I shot a few under in the
Speaker 1: last round, enjoyed Chambers Bay Towards the end of that tournament.
Speaker 1: I actually enjoyed Chaine Chambers by a lot more than
Speaker 1: most guys did. I thought that was a real opportunity week.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's not fun. But as I said, it's
Speaker 1: just it's the ultimate test in a way, that grindy test.
Speaker 1: I mean, some golfers love to just play and hit
Speaker 1: beautiful shots of great grass, and it's all about hitting
Speaker 1: the great shots for them. And there's other golfers who
Speaker 1: just love that really hard grind. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: right or wrong, but there's some golfers who just gravitate
Speaker 1: towards that really really hard sort of grinding thing. And
Speaker 1: you guys can relate to these guys, you know, the
Speaker 1: guys when they walk in the media tet, the ones
Speaker 1: who really love the grind. I mean, I was probably guy.
Speaker 1: But there's something really when you're playing well and you're
Speaker 1: having a fight for power on every hole and you
Speaker 1: get it up and down on one hole and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: that's the best up and down I've had a year.
Speaker 1: And then you've got to do it again on the
Speaker 1: next hole, and then you get to a five part four,
Speaker 1: you've got to do it again. And when you keep
Speaker 1: coming up with the goods, um incredibly rewarding. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed a few rounds at the US Open. I've
Speaker 1: been annoyed, well more than I haven't been, but ultimately
Speaker 1: frustrated usually, But um, it doesn't take sixty three and
Speaker 1: then you should even power or better. And the Open
Speaker 1: generally you're very very happy, and yes you're kind of
Speaker 1: shuffed if you like, you're just you feel a warm inside.
Speaker 1: It's like I did it one more day down. It's
Speaker 1: a good feeling. I mean in some ways is that
Speaker 1: the easiest majors are weird because so many guys are
Speaker 1: beaten mentally and emotionally and they just don't have that
Speaker 1: grind or that that that mental makeup to do that
Speaker 1: four days in a row does how much is there's
Speaker 1: the field thinned out before they've even hit a Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't easiest major to win is the wrong way
Speaker 1: to say it. Certainly the least people to beat. Um.
Speaker 1: I would say there is certainly half the field has
Speaker 1: written themselves off by Monday night, um, and then there's
Speaker 1: probably another half of that the next the last half
Speaker 1: another quarter of it goes after Thursday, UM, and then
Speaker 1: you sort of fighting it out. Chambers was very obviously
Speaker 1: like that most guys had completely written that tournament off
Speaker 1: as a real tournament by Tuesday. Um. It was clearly
Speaker 1: to me going to suit a really really good player
Speaker 1: and look, the best player in the world one at
Speaker 1: the time and the best pattern in the world one
Speaker 1: at the time you put bad you get bad greens,
Speaker 1: and they were atrocious greens really at Chambers. But you
Speaker 1: get bad grains on a setup like that, and the
Speaker 1: best part is going to win, and he did. So
Speaker 1: I don't think you could argue with the champion that
Speaker 1: that tournament got and that was that was the most
Speaker 1: obvious one I ever played. That most people just wrote
Speaker 1: themselves off before the tournament even started. But it happens
Speaker 1: that most use opens um. So yeah, you're right, and
Speaker 1: that there's an element of there's Look, there's other guys
Speaker 1: who just don't think they can, just don't think they can.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's and to be honest, I've played a
Speaker 1: few years opens Earlier's just like I just I don't
Speaker 1: know how they shoot under path or seven to holes
Speaker 1: around there's just no chance um. But then you sort
Speaker 1: of get used to when you get better at it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of guys who just don't really just
Speaker 1: getting hit over the head seventy two times in a row,
Speaker 1: five and a half hours set, four rounds in a row,
Speaker 1: it just wears people out eventually, And like the strongest survival,
Speaker 1: the most peak headed, stubborn survive, really, I think sometimes
Speaker 1: too I wouldn't say easy to win, but I would
Speaker 1: say you've got the least people to beat out of
Speaker 1: probably any tournament in the world, because most guys, yeah,
Speaker 1: they've written themselves off before it starts. Jeff, do you
Speaker 1: think you have an insight into what John ram might
Speaker 1: be thinking right now as the defending champion? Can you
Speaker 1: call your mindset when you went to Oak martin two
Speaker 1: thousand seven as the defending champion. Yeah, I mean he's
Speaker 1: probably feeling up and about. I would have thought I
Speaker 1: felt pretty good about that. I don't think my game
Speaker 1: was quite as good in OH seven as it was
Speaker 1: those six. Um. I played with Tiger and Richie Ramsey
Speaker 1: the first two rounds. That was a pretty memorable at
Speaker 1: Oak Monto. So it was a memorable open, such a
Speaker 1: cool place. Um played quite well. I played well enough,
Speaker 1: sort of midfield after two rounds or something like that,
Speaker 1: and then just sort of didn't really get it going
Speaker 1: on the weekend. Um, But I think you'll be feeling
Speaker 1: all right. I mean it's his sort of goal off, right.
Speaker 1: I mean it's going to be pretty long, as they
Speaker 1: always are. They've seen some pretty long path forwards out
Speaker 1: there on the scorecard. Um, so it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 1: And he's a real grinder too, you know, if he
Speaker 1: gets the short game going, and he's sort of he's
Speaker 1: one of those emotional sort of guys that seems to
Speaker 1: turn those sort of situations in the positive side. I
Speaker 1: think he's better when it gets really really hard and
Speaker 1: really really important. He seems to focus all this that
Speaker 1: emotional energy the right direction. Um. But he's probably just
Speaker 1: excited a little bit. There's a little bit of a
Speaker 1: melancholy feel too that like it's over. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: like I got a better win again. Otherwise they're not
Speaker 1: going to say we're won the US Open this year. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would have said, you're always buying every
Speaker 1: time you go back to somewhere that you've won. The
Speaker 1: next year as a defending champion, it's a good feeling. Um,
Speaker 1: you feel good, you feel confident, and you're the last
Speaker 1: person to have done it. Um, you know sort of yeah,
Speaker 1: And there's a little the first day a little bit
Speaker 1: sort of more nervous than a normal one, probably just
Speaker 1: because I don't know, there's just added stuff to it.
Speaker 1: But he'll be feeling it, right. I would think he'll
Speaker 1: be out. You'll be. It's better to be defending champion
Speaker 1: than not be, well, said Michael. For for both of
Speaker 1: you and I, this is our first time on the
Speaker 1: ground since Ryder Cup, which of course it was Epicum.
Speaker 1: What did it feel like to be back? What are
Speaker 1: your first impressions of the country club as a seeing
Speaker 1: with new eyes? You know, I was thinking about what
Speaker 1: Jeff said, and it's it's so correct. The scale of
Speaker 1: US Opens is so overwhelming, and even Open Champions there
Speaker 1: was a big pieces of property, often in big car
Speaker 1: parks and all the rest, but it's nothing like the
Speaker 1: sprawl of US Open. But the first thing that struck
Speaker 1: me when we got here today, Alan was that yellow clubhouse. Jeff,
Speaker 1: have you been here before? Part of me if this
Speaker 1: was asked earlier, have you have you been? I have not.
Speaker 1: I haven't. I'm sure you've seen it on TV and Brian,
Speaker 1: you saw it today for the first time probably, But
Speaker 1: they have this chart. They've got lots and lots of
Speaker 1: buildings here and that looks like high school gyms all
Speaker 1: over the place. But then they had this charming yellow
Speaker 1: clubhouse and as the starting point, like, who would ever
Speaker 1: choose yellow for a clubhouse? But it works so well.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think my first thought was, uh,
Speaker 1: they got a short golf season here, but they got
Speaker 1: a beautiful place to do it. And uh, I was
Speaker 1: with Crenshaw the other week at Memorial and Crenshaw played
Speaker 1: and I believe the nineteen sixty eight U S Junior
Speaker 1: here and he was written up, Ryan, tell me if
Speaker 1: you know this name, I know Jeff and I will
Speaker 1: know this name. Well, would you know the name of
Speaker 1: Herbert Warren Wind? Is that meaningful to you? No, it's okay,
Speaker 1: so it's right or long before your time him and
Speaker 1: but but uh, he really venerated master the Master's tournam
Speaker 1: in the British open the in the US and particularly Benny.
Speaker 1: He's writing about Crenshaw being here in sixty eight for
Speaker 1: the U S. G A Juniors, and Crenshaw said to
Speaker 1: her and her put it in a story about Crenshaw
Speaker 1: many years later. I like the early morning cool and
Speaker 1: how you had to wear a sweater and so like
Speaker 1: you don't think of Oakmont is charming, but like I
Speaker 1: think of that when I saw the Yellow Clubhouse, and
Speaker 1: I thought of that exchange of of her be Ben
Speaker 1: Ben Crenshaw. There's a quality of charm to this place.
Speaker 1: And also all those year round sports curling and kind
Speaker 1: of racket sport. There's a maginabal squash and park tennis,
Speaker 1: every kind of tennis. I'm sure. Yeah. Well, and you're
Speaker 1: right that the scale of the Open is the grand
Speaker 1: stands and and and the build out of the media
Speaker 1: center and the tents and all that. But the golf
Speaker 1: course feels very intimate to me. And you know, these
Speaker 1: really are the smallest greens and championship golf along with
Speaker 1: pebble beat and like you're and the ferries are pretty
Speaker 1: tight and twisty, and you look out there, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: they have to go from here all the way to there,
Speaker 1: and the green is that small, Like how can anybody
Speaker 1: hit that green and regulate it? And just just walking
Speaker 1: around a little bit and seeing that visually, to me,
Speaker 1: it's very intimidating. There's you know that I've got that
Speaker 1: beautiful heather that's not right off the ferry, but it
Speaker 1: frames it and and in your eye, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: it's a To me, it feels a little claustrophobic this
Speaker 1: golf course, and I'm sure some of the players will
Speaker 1: be feeling that on the tea boxes. Jeff is a
Speaker 1: golf course architecture buff. And you in the US Open winner,
Speaker 1: and you look at the list of all the venues,
Speaker 1: do you sometimes think, oh, I'd like to get myself
Speaker 1: to Myopia Hunt or Philadelphia Cricket or or the country
Speaker 1: Club and check it out, or uh that does your
Speaker 1: mind run that way at all? The old venues were
Speaker 1: always the most interesting in the best. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I say, I've talked about Tori before at two and
Speaker 1: Tori was my favorite US Open to play outside of Wingfoot,
Speaker 1: the one that I won, because I don't know, there's
Speaker 1: something about the West Coast and that perfect press seen
Speaker 1: weather and um, I don't know that's because the Opens
Speaker 1: are so often brought with storms and hot, humid weather
Speaker 1: and stuff. And the rest of the country and the
Speaker 1: California was just so nice. But Wingfoot Oakmont. Um, as
Speaker 1: you say up that New England, New England is such
Speaker 1: a beautiful place to play golf. I mean it's where
Speaker 1: it's still got that very English feel about it. Um.
Speaker 1: It was the first place. It was the first place
Speaker 1: golf was played in America. I think brook Line was
Speaker 1: one of the very first clubs I wasn't the first club,
Speaker 1: but it was in the first few painful I think
Speaker 1: um of clubs in the US. And it's just this,
Speaker 1: and it hasn't really been infected with what's infected the
Speaker 1: rest of golf and the rest of the US at least,
Speaker 1: like just the sort of just the blanket perfect green
Speaker 1: and striping fairways and bright white sand and stuff. It's
Speaker 1: still sort of feels like it's probably a bit like
Speaker 1: this a hundred years ago at book Line, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it still feels like that. And there's old places.
Speaker 1: Um Marian was a fantastic open even though that comes
Speaker 1: with a lot of logistical issues, it was a beautiful
Speaker 1: places to play the open um. Yeah, the old ones
Speaker 1: are certainly better, and the courses have quirk, you know,
Speaker 1: and quirk and nuance is really what makes golf special.
Speaker 1: Most of my peers would disagree, but because it seems
Speaker 1: to take the fairness out of it. But it's just
Speaker 1: part of what makes golf great is just every single
Speaker 1: place you ever play is different, every whole you play
Speaker 1: is different. And when you go to places like Brookline
Speaker 1: and in regions like New England, is just full of
Speaker 1: quirk and different stuff. It's old. They're unashamedly not going
Speaker 1: to change it from how it's always been. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, girls been there and sort of made it,
Speaker 1: sort of re established a lot of the stuff they
Speaker 1: used to do, but it's got a lot of length
Speaker 1: that it didn't have before. But it's still going to
Speaker 1: feel like it did a hundred years ago. And I
Speaker 1: just think that's beautiful out of place like that, And
Speaker 1: that's just part of what golf is. Golf is such
Speaker 1: a great sport. I mean, all the other sports they
Speaker 1: just player and newer and newer and newer stadiums and better,
Speaker 1: better surfaces, and everything is perfect. I think golf we
Speaker 1: do that a lot too. But I think one of
Speaker 1: the enduring charms is that every now and we can
Speaker 1: go to a course that's over a hundred years old
Speaker 1: and with a yellow clubhouse and um, different sort of
Speaker 1: textures is alan referenced out the course with all the
Speaker 1: different grasses and textures in different shapes and stuff. And
Speaker 1: you can go and place place like that and we
Speaker 1: play the biggest tournament in the country on it, in
Speaker 1: the world maybe on it, which is fantastic. When you
Speaker 1: when you go to Madonna, Um, can you use the
Speaker 1: words quirk, a nuance and uh and still still and
Speaker 1: still get the job. I mean they're they're they're good words,
Speaker 1: aren't they in the sales pitch? But um, there's a
Speaker 1: big difference between people thinking they want quirk and then
Speaker 1: when you actually do it, do they actually really want it?
Speaker 1: You know? Um, it's look, it's something sometimes you can't
Speaker 1: it's hard to create quirk. Quirk is the golf course
Speaker 1: has just naturally been put in a place where you've
Speaker 1: just got to go around something quirky, like a stone
Speaker 1: wall or something interesting. So we certainly love to try
Speaker 1: to introduce quirk in our golf courses and that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, but it's sometimes received well sometimes not. Sometimes
Speaker 1: quirk has been a bit watered down in modern days
Speaker 1: to sort of modern golfers, like the idea of the quirk,
Speaker 1: but not necessarily the reality. It's like it's like corporate
Speaker 1: corporate quirk. Um, well, let's talk about some of the
Speaker 1: players in the field, Ryan, are they tell our our
Speaker 1: listeners and probably Michael and Jeff and I as well.
Speaker 1: Who are some other fun stories among the qualifiers And
Speaker 1: as you said, these guys might not factor on Sunday,
Speaker 1: but they add a lot of heart to Thursday and Friday.
Speaker 1: So who should we be watching out for it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: a couple of guys that I think might have a
Speaker 1: chance to um make the cut uh and play well.
Speaker 1: M J. Duffy on the corn Ferry Tour, a legendary
Speaker 1: Monday qualifier, got through twelve of twenty in UH in
Speaker 1: two years prior to this, prior to having status, So
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone would be too surprised if he
Speaker 1: played well. And then I tweeted today Sam Stevens kind
Speaker 1: of a mini tour legend. UH dominated in all the
Speaker 1: All Pro Tour, which no one's ever heard of, of course, UM,
Speaker 1: for three or four years after college, and then finally
Speaker 1: got status. UM. A couple of good stories. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk to Brady Caulkins tomorrow. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of a legend. UH has dominated the Dakotas Tour and
Speaker 1: has a lot of fun on the Dakotas Tour and
Speaker 1: UH many stories of him partying till wee hours of
Speaker 1: the night and then UH and then showing up and
Speaker 1: shooting sixty four. A quick story a player missed the
Speaker 1: cut and was going to caddy for him went out
Speaker 1: with Brady and party till three in the morning, and uh,
Speaker 1: couldn't even get out of bed. And he just assumed
Speaker 1: that Brady had withdrawn from the final round because there's
Speaker 1: no way that Brady could have, you know, even got
Speaker 1: out of bed. And Brady shot sixty three and one
Speaker 1: by seven. And and this Caddy former player, current player,
Speaker 1: but was catting that day, was like, I've I have
Speaker 1: no idea how he's done it. So Brady is kind
Speaker 1: of a legend, is super super talented, So um, we'll see. Uh,
Speaker 1: but there's many uh. I mean again, for a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys, making the cut is going to at
Speaker 1: least prolong their their career for an extra year or whatever,
Speaker 1: that forty or whatever. For last places, it goes a
Speaker 1: long way. So we want to send you the Safari Tour,
Speaker 1: but you clearly need to hang out in the Dakota Storks.
Speaker 1: Remember you tell me, isn't there some dude who like
Speaker 1: took his baby to a strip club on the Dakotas.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Kodas Tour is the by far the hardest.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's not a lot to do in you know,
Speaker 1: far off distances, like you know, remote towns in the Dakotas.
Speaker 1: So it's just a legendary tour with a lot of
Speaker 1: lifers out there. And uh yeah, when babies go to
Speaker 1: strip clubs it. I mean, that's a place you need
Speaker 1: to visit. So we'll do it right and stop talking
Speaker 1: about just getting getting a van and do it. But
Speaker 1: that's a sidebar. Um, Michael, who who are you curious
Speaker 1: to watch this week? Would have just followed up on
Speaker 1: something I would actually encourage it. Well, no, not on this,
Speaker 1: not on the script club. But Jeff, I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: had this experience, and Tiger has had it many times
Speaker 1: and he's always a great sport about it. But at
Speaker 1: a U s Open especially, you can get some really
Speaker 1: random pairings on a Saturday or any day, but in
Speaker 1: your status, more likely on a Saturday guy makes the cut.
Speaker 1: You've literally never heard of the guy in your life.
Speaker 1: You don't know what tour he's playing on. How many
Speaker 1: holes does it take for you to know if the
Speaker 1: guy has any chance of ever making in professional golf
Speaker 1: or not? Can you tell right away or or how
Speaker 1: long does it take? Um? You get it? I think
Speaker 1: in one haul. Thanks believable. What are some of the tells.
Speaker 1: I don't know that. It's like it's all those areas
Speaker 1: of gray that I don't know. It's just you can
Speaker 1: just tell. You can tell where the heads out, how
Speaker 1: they hit it. You can tell by the strak of
Speaker 1: the bowl with a lot of guds. You can tell
Speaker 1: the sort of the visions they make in one hole.
Speaker 1: You can generally tell. Look, there are surprises, there's outliers
Speaker 1: to that. There's some guys everything. There's some guys who
Speaker 1: have made it today who I'd never talk about now.
Speaker 1: Um that I still don't know how they're making it.
Speaker 1: You know, so there are there's no exact science to it,
Speaker 1: but you can generally tell. I mean, you could use
Speaker 1: you could tell seventy five of it by just looking
Speaker 1: at the warm up on the rage probably, um, And
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is. I think it's just
Speaker 1: that we see so many great players so often that
Speaker 1: there's some of these sort of undefinable hallmarks that they
Speaker 1: all have, even though they all do different. Stuff's got
Speaker 1: nothing to do with their swing or nothing to do
Speaker 1: with anything else, just the way they carry themselves, the
Speaker 1: way they strike the ball off the club face of
Speaker 1: the way they hold their golf bag, the way they
Speaker 1: lean against their partner. I don't know. There's there's all
Speaker 1: these sort of things that you can tell Stria that like,
Speaker 1: you know, the golfers that I've seen who made it,
Speaker 1: they all do those things and you're not doing any
Speaker 1: of them, so you're probably not making it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. The p g A, you get some
Speaker 1: interesting to put the p g A pros in the
Speaker 1: PGA A quite interesting because they're really really crafty golfers
Speaker 1: who play money against them against play for money against
Speaker 1: their members all the time. Their craft, but they don't
Speaker 1: act like tour players. Um because as I said that,
Speaker 1: these are all indefinable qualities. But um, players who make
Speaker 1: it generally have a certain sort of checklist of sort
Speaker 1: of mannerisms or sort of as as a hallmarks, And
Speaker 1: you can usually tell pretty quick if he doesn't. And
Speaker 1: you can tell that you can it's often a mental thing.
Speaker 1: You can tell they're out of their depth by just
Speaker 1: how they're trying to see the ball up in the
Speaker 1: first two You know, um, and you feel for them
Speaker 1: because I bet you you like that when you're young
Speaker 1: as well. Um. It's this fast. That's why us are
Speaker 1: so good. I mean, it's it's it's the biggest assault
Speaker 1: on your sensors as a golfer that there is, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean the Masters and sixteen of Phoenix, and there's
Speaker 1: some moments that are really sort of stressful in progolf,
Speaker 1: but the Open is the ultimate stress test and it
Speaker 1: will expose every sort of weakness that you've got and
Speaker 1: every sort of mental frailty that's in there, and it
Speaker 1: just comes out for all to see. And it's it's
Speaker 1: like watching a car reckon. It's that you can't really
Speaker 1: look away, Like you don't really want to say it,
Speaker 1: but you can't look away. It's it's fascinating to watch.
Speaker 1: When you were when you were starting to get really
Speaker 1: good at golf and you were thinking about the four majors,
Speaker 1: did you think of the U S Open is the
Speaker 1: one that you had the best chance to win. No,
Speaker 1: I thought the US was the least chance. To be honest,
Speaker 1: all Australia, I think there are a chance, at least
Speaker 1: once you grew up in Melbourne. I think there a
Speaker 1: chance at the Master's because it's very similar to Melbourne.
Speaker 1: UM the golf you have to play, UM, the Open
Speaker 1: Championship is the one that sort of Australians have always
Speaker 1: sort of had a big affinity for, again because we
Speaker 1: grew up with firm golf and bouncy stuff and we
Speaker 1: don't actually play links golf, but Australian golf is quite
Speaker 1: a lot closer to link style golf than it is
Speaker 1: in the US. And the US Open I tended if
Speaker 1: I did have any sort of weaknesses growing I probably wasn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't drive the ball the straightest, and historically growing
Speaker 1: up watching US Opens and the way everybody talks about
Speaker 1: them still to this day, well maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: since Bryson sort of got involved, but um, everybody still
Speaker 1: thinks it's a straight hidden contest. It is just just isn't. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a short game contest. It's a short game and
Speaker 1: a patient's contest. An a little bit of strength throughout
Speaker 1: the Brooks, Dust and Tiger sort of the strength out
Speaker 1: of the rough. But um, it's a short game contest.
Speaker 1: And I didn't really realize that until I won. When
Speaker 1: I finished, It's like nobody hits fairways out here. They're
Speaker 1: so narrow that even straight hitters can't hit fairways. Um,
Speaker 1: and I don't I think the Bryson theory is just
Speaker 1: a little bit too extreme, Like you can't miss every
Speaker 1: fair way either, I mean you have to. It's some um,
Speaker 1: but it really is a test of you're going to
Speaker 1: drive in the rough five six seven times a day,
Speaker 1: five six seven times a day. At best, you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss grains probably more so you've got to get up
Speaker 1: and if you want to shot even part for the week,
Speaker 1: that's thirty forty up and downs, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: tough up and downs are gonna have to make in
Speaker 1: a week if you want to get anywhere near the lead. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, um, in hindsight, and my short game was
Speaker 1: outrageous there in that sort of period. In hindsight, it
Speaker 1: was the most obvious one for me to win. But
Speaker 1: before getting there, I thought, no, I thought was the
Speaker 1: lowest chance. Well, and that's why people who are baffled
Speaker 1: by Phil's Nicholson's record in at the US Open aren't
Speaker 1: paying attention because and I was just saying this earlier
Speaker 1: today to Michael, like these greens are so small, everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna miss the green. So it does become a chipping
Speaker 1: contest even more than other venues for the Open Lake.
Speaker 1: So I don't. I'm not saying Phils are gonna win
Speaker 1: or maybe even not contend given everything else that's going on,
Speaker 1: but this this place to his strength and you know,
Speaker 1: other other players like that. So that' isn't that the
Speaker 1: funny thing though? That's the irony is like everybody thought
Speaker 1: that Fred Funk was like the U s Open like specialist,
Speaker 1: right and anyone who hits all Calvin Pate, Fred Funk
Speaker 1: based straight hitters of it, fairways all day. Actually, the
Speaker 1: best US Open record outside of a guy who for
Speaker 1: a guy who didn't win one is Phil for the
Speaker 1: last twenty or thirty years. And the guy really has
Speaker 1: never hit very many fairways, and he's had an outrageous
Speaker 1: short game, and he's had the best US Open record
Speaker 1: in the last twenty years. It's a thirty years incredible.
Speaker 1: But then there's Hall Ruin and uh, Scott Simpson and
Speaker 1: a lot of guys who were you know, fairway and
Speaker 1: green golfers. But I think the nature US Open has
Speaker 1: changed over time as well. Yeah, well for sure, And
Speaker 1: you know that was that was the Brooks template, like
Speaker 1: as as Jeff was saying, instead of hitting two iron
Speaker 1: off the tree, tea and trying to thread the fairway.
Speaker 1: Just smash driver, get as close as you can to
Speaker 1: the green and then you can muscle a wedge up
Speaker 1: onto the pudding surface or nearby like there's no there's
Speaker 1: no benefit and thrilling back off the tea because you're
Speaker 1: gonna hit just as many with your driver as you
Speaker 1: are with with with another club, and then you might
Speaker 1: as well just put yourself as close to green as possible.
Speaker 1: And obviously Bryson took that to the logical extreme. So
Speaker 1: you know, Phil has always been a power player, so
Speaker 1: he kind of he kind of figured that out as well.
Speaker 1: And just just smash driver and then go chase it
Speaker 1: and and see what happens. Um, here's an odd thing
Speaker 1: for everybody. Um, it was hard not to watch that
Speaker 1: Canadian Open last week and see, you know, always it
Speaker 1: going to be some kind of referendum on the greatness
Speaker 1: that the PGA Tour. And now isn't it lucky for
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour that Rory Mcarey one the thing because
Speaker 1: he's the poster child for the PA Tour. Is is,
Speaker 1: you know, is golf and it's best. Um, I wonder
Speaker 1: if there'll be any of that this week here um,
Speaker 1: you have a sense of that. Yeah, we talked about
Speaker 1: that in in our Phil Mickelson UH press Conference reaction podcast.
Speaker 1: But the majors have never been more important than they
Speaker 1: are right now as the tours getting watered down and
Speaker 1: a lot of big names are playing in a four
Speaker 1: whole exhibition, the meaning of the majors are just elevated.
Speaker 1: They're just they just are that much more important now
Speaker 1: as a measuring stick as bringing all the top players together.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if, if these guys don't get to
Speaker 1: play in tour events, which means World Golf Championships or
Speaker 1: the players, there's gonna be four times a year the
Speaker 1: best players are in the same place. It's just the
Speaker 1: majors and that's it, right. So then to that are
Speaker 1: and Jeff please try them in here if you care to.
Speaker 1: But are you playing is a little bit in additional
Speaker 1: all the things that you're trying to do to us
Speaker 1: open and it's so difficult. Are you playing for country
Speaker 1: as well? And country in this sense is the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour or you know, fly the flag for the pH
Speaker 1: A Tour, fly the flag for live golf. To be
Speaker 1: crude about it, I'm not in the locker room at
Speaker 1: the moment, So I'm out of that feeling. You certainly
Speaker 1: are playing for country, um Australians. For an Australian, generally,
Speaker 1: when we play overseas, we always feel like we're playing
Speaker 1: for country. I mean, look at the way Scottie reacted
Speaker 1: at the Masters, the way Cam carries himself leash. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just that's what we do. And certainly the American
Speaker 1: players playing for country in the US open Um, it
Speaker 1: seems to have a definite it's very elevated sort of
Speaker 1: national pride for the for the American guys when they
Speaker 1: play the U s open you can sense it and
Speaker 1: you feel it amongst the guys, the two of a
Speaker 1: to a thing. I don't know, golfs in a really
Speaker 1: interesting phase at the moment um. I think everyone's getting
Speaker 1: a bit reactive to this whole thing. Let's just I'll
Speaker 1: stay out of that. But yeah, you're certainly playing for country.
Speaker 1: And we saw less hear what John rom I mean,
Speaker 1: he he went to seve A and uh, you know
Speaker 1: the great other the other great Spanish players that pursuded
Speaker 1: him very very quickly and very beautifully, very meaningfully. I mean,
Speaker 1: the depth of it, uh, really struck me. And Uh,
Speaker 1: one of the things that struck me going to a
Speaker 1: lot of US Opens over the years is just how
Speaker 1: much US Open means to person. I think, I think
Speaker 1: it's struck me the most when uh when when for
Speaker 1: the most. The first time I felt that the most
Speaker 1: was Ray Floyd when at Schanica Hills and here's the
Speaker 1: son of a clip pro, uh winning on this historic
Speaker 1: golf course. And it was you know, it's the Venturi quote,
Speaker 1: My god, I've won the Open. Yeah, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: It's just that's why we love these tournaments so much,
Speaker 1: is because guys don't break down in tears when they
Speaker 1: win the Canadian Open like they might throw a little
Speaker 1: shade like Roy did or you know, but there's just
Speaker 1: something so meaningful about about these weeks. That's always been
Speaker 1: the case. They only become a bigger deal. Um, just
Speaker 1: just as a parting thought. I mean, um, you know, Ryan,
Speaker 1: I love you're talking about how how this weekn can
Speaker 1: change a guy's life. Um, for all of us as
Speaker 1: golfens is there is there one U S Open, just
Speaker 1: as a fan that you remember the most. I like
Speaker 1: the Ray Floyd, but I want to hear yours. I
Speaker 1: mean I think Lucas Glover because he was a qualifier.
Speaker 1: I mean, like so brand again, like if you go
Speaker 1: to a qualifier, I don't know how many you've been
Speaker 1: to or if you've ever been to it, Like it
Speaker 1: is what a lot of people don't see about pro golf. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean there's no one there. It's on you know
Speaker 1: often okay, to nondescript golf courses, whether it's a Monday
Speaker 1: qualifier or in this case the sectionals. Uh, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's the true grind. There's no you have to
Speaker 1: find your own motivation. There's no fans, there's no scoreboards,
Speaker 1: there's no nothing. Uh, you have to you know, you're
Speaker 1: looking at the scoreboard on your phone. Um. So you know,
Speaker 1: Lucas is a pretty quiet, not a huge personality. But
Speaker 1: the fact that he went from playing and I don't
Speaker 1: know where he played, I assume Columbus and then onto
Speaker 1: the U S Open is is pretty sweet. What's it's
Speaker 1: obviously Lucas Lucas is accomplished, but it's what gives all
Speaker 1: these guys hope. Uh, they're not out there trying to
Speaker 1: play pro golf thinking that when they get to this point,
Speaker 1: they're just happy to be here. You know. I asked
Speaker 1: Luke in like, straight up, can you win the Open?
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I can win the Open? Is it true?
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. He believes it. That's awesome. How about you, Jeff,
Speaker 1: is there is there an early U S Open memory
Speaker 1: that sticks out for you? Um? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean I watched them all when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I mean Hyler running around the grain at Madonna. I
Speaker 1: think it was pretty cool. Um, that was a pretty
Speaker 1: cool one. But McDonald, I mean Tiger in two thousand,
Speaker 1: that's pretty etched in the memory, even though I was
Speaker 1: already played up and playing by then and he was
Speaker 1: a peer at that point. Um, that was pretty outrighteous,
Speaker 1: just from how do you possibly do that? And we'll
Speaker 1: never say that, Well, you never say never, but it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine we'll ever say someone went and
Speaker 1: open by fifteen shots again, um, and then four weeks
Speaker 1: later went and opened by nine. I mean he beat
Speaker 1: the best golfers in the world over eight rounds by
Speaker 1: twenty four shots. Like that period for me is the
Speaker 1: most memorable. Yeah, incredible. Yeah, for me, it would be
Speaker 1: the eight two US Open at Pebble Beats you know
Speaker 1: that was I was living fifteen miles away. There weren't
Speaker 1: a lot of golf fans in in my family, but
Speaker 1: for some reason it was on the TV and I
Speaker 1: just got caught up in it. And you know, big Jack,
Speaker 1: this beautiful head of hair, and they're wearing stylish sweaters
Speaker 1: and I can still remember and bouncing out off the
Speaker 1: flag in h I'm sorry, noisy too. That's seventy two.
Speaker 1: I got my my opens mixed up. I was watching
Speaker 1: those highlights were on and that got sucked. We got
Speaker 1: sucked into it. And then eighty two was Watson and
Speaker 1: like his his sprint around the green like I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't know they did that in golf. That was cool,
Speaker 1: Like he uh, he was really into that, and you know,
Speaker 1: I thought golfers were so stated. I had actually probably
Speaker 1: been to a couple of Crosby clam bakes at that
Speaker 1: point and never see anything like that. And so it's
Speaker 1: kind of like what you're saying with Jeff with Hail Irwin,
Speaker 1: like you remember that the emotion, you remember that, the joy,
Speaker 1: the exuberance, and uh, I said that that Watson moment
Speaker 1: was cool, Like how about big Jack congratulating on Colin Montgomery.
Speaker 1: I'm winning that US Open when he's sitting Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: were you watching that, Jeff? I remember that? Yeah? You finished?
Speaker 1: He finished what two or three hours? Yeah, the wind
Speaker 1: came up and went crazy, but then kites went you know,
Speaker 1: he actually kept his ball and play a little bit.
Speaker 1: It was amazing that when I was a spectator and
Speaker 1: I was out there watching Dr Gil and he was
Speaker 1: hitting some of the coolest little tricky knockdown long iron
Speaker 1: and running it up to the greens, and it was
Speaker 1: like that was a memorable open too. I mean, Pebble's funky,
Speaker 1: but it's had some good open you know. Someone at
Speaker 1: the U. S J Museum told me that this single
Speaker 1: most covided club that they would want for their collection
Speaker 1: is Watson's Sandwich from that seventy. First of all, he
Speaker 1: won't give it up. It's worth millions. Yeah, that's all
Speaker 1: that's on brand to UM. All right, Well, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna ask for picks because we don't care and we
Speaker 1: don't do that. We're we're a different kind of podcast.
Speaker 1: But uh, this has been another fire drill. We be
Speaker 1: doing these all week long. UM. Jeff, thank you for
Speaker 1: your time and your insight and uh Ryan French. We
Speaker 1: always appreciate your contributions. Michael Bamberger, second podcast today that
Speaker 1: we've done. It's a rare pleasure. So this island ship
Speaker 1: nuk Um. We do want to tip our cap to
Speaker 1: our venue here which is the Arcadian Hotel in Brookline. Uh.
Speaker 1: They it's a nice host for us and they helped
Speaker 1: us out with the help help get us all here,
Speaker 1: So thank you to those. It's fine folks, and we'll
Speaker 1: we'll be doing this all week long, so appreciate you
Speaker 1: all you guys listening and more to come. Put another
Speaker 1: log on the fire and we hear is get the
Speaker 1: time