Speaker 1: We've all been moving through this game together as journalists,
Speaker 1: as players, as caddies, as fans, as you know. This
Speaker 1: all has been culminating to me to this event, this venue,
Speaker 1: this time in the history of the game of golf.
Speaker 1: It's this massive intersection with all of it. Put another
Speaker 1: log on the fire nobody hears given time. Hello and
Speaker 1: welcome back to their Fire Drill podcast. This is Alan Schipnuk.
Speaker 1: I am joined by Michael Bamberger and Matt Janella, who's
Speaker 1: tuned in from the Jigger in here. We're all in
Speaker 1: sant Andrew, but we've retreated to our neutral corners. Of course,
Speaker 1: Matt is somewhere more exciting than our hotel rooms. So, uh,
Speaker 1: what does the scene there, Matt bring it, bring it
Speaker 1: to life for our listeners where I'm at a MasterCard event.
Speaker 1: Trevor Immelman just held court and uh talked, you know,
Speaker 1: poetically about the sort of the nostalgia of being in
Speaker 1: the Jigger in for the one hundred and fiftieth playing
Speaker 1: of the Open Championship and his transition from playing to
Speaker 1: TV and talking about the golf course and how this
Speaker 1: is going to be a really fast week. I mean,
Speaker 1: the ball is going to not stop moving. And the
Speaker 1: only thing he made a great comment about the only
Speaker 1: thing that that the ball is up against his time.
Speaker 1: The only thing that will stop the ball is time.
Speaker 1: And that you know he thinks twenty under is in
Speaker 1: play and that fifty nine is in play. Without elements,
Speaker 1: this golf course is vulnerable. He's justin Thomas to win. Interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been fun to watch the practice rounds.
Speaker 1: It's it's certainly a racetrack, even though we got a
Speaker 1: little shower of this afternoon. But um, it's funny. I
Speaker 1: wish they would just cut all the rough down. That
Speaker 1: there's more rough on the old course has ever been.
Speaker 1: I think in these conditions it'd be more fun if
Speaker 1: if they shaved all the grass down like the old
Speaker 1: Augusta National and really the old the previous old course,
Speaker 1: and just let the ball run forever it would it's
Speaker 1: not gonna stop that winds up in a bunker or
Speaker 1: in the hole. And um, but Michael, what have you
Speaker 1: seen from the golf course that that you like? As
Speaker 1: we're here on the eve of the Open, well, I
Speaker 1: would just say I have a totally different view that
Speaker 1: Trevor Immelman is a lot more about tournament golf than
Speaker 1: I ever could. But to me, an old course that
Speaker 1: plays super fast like this is really really challenging because
Speaker 1: it's so much guesswork. Um, I just I don't see
Speaker 1: how guys could possibly get to twenty under if, if ever,
Speaker 1: if every t shot you're afraid about, you can't stop
Speaker 1: the ball from going into a bunker, and once you're
Speaker 1: in the bunker's all hell breaks loose. You can't stop
Speaker 1: the ball from going over the eighteenth green. You know,
Speaker 1: there's numerous things that every single hole, even the first
Speaker 1: with the burn, every single hole has something that can
Speaker 1: really go wrong. When the course is playing so fast,
Speaker 1: you can't control your golf ball. So I would not
Speaker 1: agree with the assessment that it's playing fast. Therefore we're
Speaker 1: going to have low winning scores well, and the greens
Speaker 1: are super firm, so you look at I mean, Jordan
Speaker 1: Speed said earlier in the week that this is the
Speaker 1: most important week for lag putting there is because even
Speaker 1: a well struck short iron may trickle forty or fifty
Speaker 1: feet pass. You know, you know they're going to be
Speaker 1: using that. One of the defenses of the course is
Speaker 1: the swales and the humps and the hollows on the
Speaker 1: greens and they're gonna put. I'm sure the pins in
Speaker 1: some challenging spots, so there's going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of challenging two put especially if you're putting in the wind.
Speaker 1: So I agree. I mean, I guess the X factors.
Speaker 1: If you can drive a handful of part fours, which
Speaker 1: is certainly possible out here, and you can two put those,
Speaker 1: there are birdie chances. But I think there'll be a
Speaker 1: really wide dispersion of scores. I mean, someone who's really
Speaker 1: playing well and the putter fields good in their hand,
Speaker 1: they could shoot a low one. But I think you
Speaker 1: can see a lot of seventy six and seventy eights
Speaker 1: where guys just are overwhelmed by the precision that's required
Speaker 1: in the patients and all the questions that are asked
Speaker 1: by this golf course. I was talking about these puttings
Speaker 1: and lag putting, and Roddy car is here in the
Speaker 1: crowd and asked Trevor about a player like will Zlaturus,
Speaker 1: who obviously has control of his golf ball, but being
Speaker 1: having sixty seventy foot eighty foot putts could expose that,
Speaker 1: you know, a faulty putting stroke like that's like, that's
Speaker 1: something that these guys aren't used to so and Trevor
Speaker 1: was saying, yeah, that's a really good point. Roddy Car
Speaker 1: obviously son of the great Joe Car who was three
Speaker 1: time British am Champ, and Roddy Car made the winning
Speaker 1: putt on the eighteenth hold of the Old Course to
Speaker 1: win the Walker Cup in front of his legendary father,
Speaker 1: who was the first Irishman to be the RNA Captain.
Speaker 1: Brought that point up. They were having this ongoing conversation
Speaker 1: about how putting is going to be a huge factor
Speaker 1: this week, and it's not just from five feet or
Speaker 1: ten feet, it's more from fifty feet and seventy feet
Speaker 1: you could say, seventy five yards even, you know guys,
Speaker 1: Will put from way way off the green. Tiger did that,
Speaker 1: willing me think what year was it so dry? I
Speaker 1: guess that would have been No. Five when he one.
Speaker 1: He was putting from wildly far off the green. But
Speaker 1: just a quick note on Will's alad horse. Having watched him,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty closely in the three Majors, so he
Speaker 1: played really beautifully, not really well beautifully. I think lag
Speaker 1: putting is a tremendous strength for Wills alad Horse. It's
Speaker 1: really six feet an end when things get a little dicey.
Speaker 1: But he's got beautiful distance control that I've seen, Allen,
Speaker 1: have you seen otherwise? Yeah, No, he's he's I mean,
Speaker 1: putting stats are actually quite good for the season and
Speaker 1: mid to long range. I agree. He looks really smooth,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's just when the closer he gets
Speaker 1: to the whole, the more the putter can wobble. And
Speaker 1: you know it's purely psychological, right because the stroke looks
Speaker 1: great from twenty five feet so, but even so he
Speaker 1: still makes a lot of them. It doesn't necessarily look pretty,
Speaker 1: but it's like Billy Mayferd. They go in so you'll
Speaker 1: take it. But that's what's so fascinating about this golf course,
Speaker 1: is this this battle between power and finesse and which
Speaker 1: style is going to prevail and everyone can play the
Speaker 1: golf course differently. I mean, we've been talking about it
Speaker 1: feels like for a month since we got here, and
Speaker 1: I just can't wait to see how it's going to
Speaker 1: shake out. I mean, it's the most fascinating golf course
Speaker 1: there is to watch these guys play and what is
Speaker 1: your level of excitement Michael extremely huh. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's really neat Tiger in the press conference yesterday, Like
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talk appropriately this is one
Speaker 1: one hundred and fiftieth playing of the of the of
Speaker 1: the Open Championship or is it one hundred and fiftieth
Speaker 1: anniversary of the first part of me for not knowing,
Speaker 1: But one fifty is the number that we do now
Speaker 1: and and Tigers start in nineteen sixty. So yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that helps. So the one hundred and fiftyth playing of
Speaker 1: the Open and uh, you know, boiler play question to Tiger,
Speaker 1: you know, does this one feel more historic than the others?
Speaker 1: And Tigers like, yeah, it actually does. And I think
Speaker 1: what's happened in this particular Open, there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of emphasis on Bobby Jones, on Jack Nicholas and Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods and winning at Saint Andrew's and Bopa Bopa Bob
Speaker 1: generation generation, and I just feel like the any Open
Speaker 1: at St. Andrews is a cause for golfing celebration. Of course,
Speaker 1: this one is at an even higher level because of
Speaker 1: this number one fifty and because we're really thinking about
Speaker 1: that for American golfers especially, but that line from Jones
Speaker 1: to Nicholas to Tiger Woods as we never have before.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's interesting here, trevel immam and bring
Speaker 1: up Justin Thomas, you know, who would love to win
Speaker 1: his third major championship here and has been getting the
Speaker 1: stick for weeks, if not years, some Tiger Woods about
Speaker 1: you know, when you're gonna win something other than a
Speaker 1: PJA championship. U. So, I think the stakes are high
Speaker 1: and the excitement levels are really really high. What have
Speaker 1: you felt in the air, Matt. You've been sort of
Speaker 1: hopping from rooftop to rooftop and you've been sort of
Speaker 1: behind the velvet rope a little bit here this week again,
Speaker 1: what what what is the what has the atmosphere been
Speaker 1: like that you've been able to partake in? I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm looking I'm literally looking at looking at
Speaker 1: a sign that says everything has led to this. This
Speaker 1: is like a big sort of marketing slant of what's
Speaker 1: what's transpiring here? And but I come back to it
Speaker 1: because it actually feels like for me personally, for my
Speaker 1: love of the game. Michael, you know you got emotional
Speaker 1: even in the previous podcast just talking about sort of
Speaker 1: just this. I keep saying like this, being here, being
Speaker 1: a part of this at the Old Course, the one
Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth, playing all that I've learned about Old
Speaker 1: Tom Morris the last few months as we've been preparing
Speaker 1: these this multi series package on an homage to what
Speaker 1: he's meant to the game, getting to know Sheila Walker,
Speaker 1: his great great granddaughter, me and my life and my career.
Speaker 1: I'm looking around Scott Tally, I've been working with for
Speaker 1: twenty five years, who works with Jack Nicholas, Who's been
Speaker 1: very emotional being here. He got the keys to the city,
Speaker 1: literally getting you know, noticeably and physically emotional about reflecting
Speaker 1: on his time and his relationship with Saint Andrew's in
Speaker 1: the Old Course, Tiger, knowing what we know about Tiger,
Speaker 1: sort of the passing of these batons from this other
Speaker 1: generation to whatever's happening to this next generation. Bumping into
Speaker 1: so many different people, places and things. We've all been
Speaker 1: moving through this game together as journalists, as players, as caddies,
Speaker 1: as fans, as you know. This all has been culminating
Speaker 1: to me to this event, this venue, this time in
Speaker 1: the history of the game of golf. It's this massive
Speaker 1: intersection with all of it and just bumping into Mark
Speaker 1: Mulvoy on the street. Mark Mulvoy, famous legendary editor and
Speaker 1: publisher of Sports Illustrated. Who hired you? Alan, Who you
Speaker 1: worked for? Michael? Who I worked for? Who? Like everybody
Speaker 1: is here, this is all happening, and it just it
Speaker 1: feels like it's one big great massage of the soul
Speaker 1: as it relates to my relationship and our relationship with
Speaker 1: the game of golf. When Matt said, I think we
Speaker 1: both I'm sure we would both completely agree with and
Speaker 1: of course it didn't even need to be said by
Speaker 1: by Map. For our listeners who may not follow a
Speaker 1: game as closely, it's such a time of a people
Speaker 1: in the game, no matter where you think about, no
Speaker 1: matter what you think about live golf or the Department
Speaker 1: of Justice investigation, and there's such you can look at
Speaker 1: in a black and white way, you can look at
Speaker 1: a nuanced way. However, you just look at it. But
Speaker 1: we're going to get a break from all that because
Speaker 1: golf's been played on this golf course for hundreds of years,
Speaker 1: and this tournament has been played for you know, one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty plus one hundred and fifty times anyway.
Speaker 1: And it has nothing to do with the Department Justice
Speaker 1: investigation or live golf or greed or anything else. It
Speaker 1: really is about playing for a jug and that's, you know,
Speaker 1: on a very primitive, weird, funky public golf course where
Speaker 1: this time and night, you know, it's what is it here?
Speaker 1: It's nearly ten o'clock at night as we're doing this
Speaker 1: at Saint Angew's time. I've been on the golf course.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we all have. At ten o'clock at night.
Speaker 1: Weird animals come out of the gorse and the heather
Speaker 1: at this time. You're like animals like you've never seen
Speaker 1: before in your life anywhere. Like they look like rabbits,
Speaker 1: but they've got like a shark's tail, and weird, weird animals.
Speaker 1: It's a weird golf course. None of the holes makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know, as as Fred told me the other way,
Speaker 1: it's like Fred Couples. It's like, you know, Gary Player
Speaker 1: told me I played the course all wrong. It's like
Speaker 1: I didn't know any other way to play it. There
Speaker 1: are so many different routes to the whole. And so
Speaker 1: I think we're in for four great days. I think
Speaker 1: Michael's been smoking the fescue, not just chipping off of it,
Speaker 1: but well share for God's sakes, Jesus. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: funny because one thing that's great about the Old Course
Speaker 1: is these intensely nerdy discussions about the how each hole
Speaker 1: should or could be played. And you see this on
Speaker 1: golf Twitter. You're here in the pubs. It certainly be
Speaker 1: a talking point in the telecast. You know, the bunkers
Speaker 1: are all famous, the whole names, the double greens. You know,
Speaker 1: there literally is three or four different routes to play
Speaker 1: every hole, like you know, say the Principles nose. Who
Speaker 1: would name a trap the Principles Nose. It's fantastic. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so what you think about, Like like when Bethpage
Speaker 1: hosted you having Bethpage hosted the PGA Chamship, there was
Speaker 1: one way to play every hole. You had to try
Speaker 1: and fit it in that the narrow fairway between the rough,
Speaker 1: the long rough and the and the deep bunkers, and
Speaker 1: you just had to hit it to the middle of
Speaker 1: green and try and two put it was. It rewarded excellence,
Speaker 1: but it was boring as hell. And the Old Course
Speaker 1: it's so free wheeling. I mean, all, all three guys
Speaker 1: in the group tomorrow can can play the whole completely differently,
Speaker 1: different clubs off the tea, different lines of attack, and
Speaker 1: so it's just it's such fun viewing for for even
Speaker 1: casual fans, but especially the more so fisticate golfan and
Speaker 1: especially those use who have been lucky to actually play
Speaker 1: the course and we know how we played the whole.
Speaker 1: Like there's just something magic about the viewing experience of
Speaker 1: this tournament on this golf course. But by the way,
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys right now wind at their backs,
Speaker 1: they're hitting three irons to the green off of eighteen.
Speaker 1: They're they're literally having conversations about how two iron is
Speaker 1: too much off the eighteenth tee. Uh. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is this is zaniness right now, Like what's going to
Speaker 1: actually transpire what they're going to be hitting off teas
Speaker 1: or how they're gonna be hitting on Some are saying
Speaker 1: they want to hit less off the teeth so they
Speaker 1: have more club in their hands so that they can
Speaker 1: actually get some spin so they can have a chance
Speaker 1: of stopping the ball on the green instead of hitting
Speaker 1: you know, instead of I don't know, this is I
Speaker 1: just have a feeling this could take on a whole
Speaker 1: new character and life because of what is going to
Speaker 1: be the conditions and the speed of the fairways. What
Speaker 1: Matto said the beauty. What Matto said is that it
Speaker 1: shows that the course is totally counterintuitive in golf's counter intuitive.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, Brian Harmon and Lee Trevino talking
Speaker 1: on the range the other day and they're talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, Brian's lefty, but I'll just say, you know,
Speaker 1: lead foot, rear foot, left, you know, tip right in
Speaker 1: the golfer, left foot, right foot. It's like whatever the
Speaker 1: left foot's doing, the rights doing something else, and everything
Speaker 1: works in counterbalancing golf. So like when the ordinary golfer thinks,
Speaker 1: oh fast course, you can drive it. You know, we
Speaker 1: who drive it to twenty can drive it to forty.
Speaker 1: They hate that. And what Matches said is so true.
Speaker 1: They'd rather hit a longer club in with a lofted club,
Speaker 1: hopefully off some actual grass and possibly well not possibly
Speaker 1: spin it and stop it because that that they can control.
Speaker 1: So you know that, but not everybody's really going to
Speaker 1: have that creative breakthrough where they can where they can
Speaker 1: think that way, which probably means is actually probably a
Speaker 1: very small number of players who have both the golf
Speaker 1: skill and the and the really the intellectual nature like
Speaker 1: Tiger and Nicholas have, and other winners here have had
Speaker 1: over the years, Bobby Jones to be successful here, it's
Speaker 1: probably actually a very short list, right. Well, I want
Speaker 1: to talk about Tiger because there's much focus on him.
Speaker 1: There has been every tournament round he's played this year.
Speaker 1: But I think there is a sense in the year,
Speaker 1: even though he hasn't said it, like this is his
Speaker 1: harah at the Old Course and maybe even for the
Speaker 1: British Open in general and the um because it's going
Speaker 1: to be such a chess match out there. Could is it?
Speaker 1: Can we dream? And it's a flat course, easy to
Speaker 1: walk at warm temperatures? You know Tiger when when the
Speaker 1: temperatures getting the fifties, like you can get it an
Speaker 1: open that's not good for his back. It just seems
Speaker 1: like everything's kind of aligned. Has been almost boughb me
Speaker 1: out there, like can we let her sell dream that
Speaker 1: that Tiger the master strategist and tactician, the greatest thinker
Speaker 1: in the game along with Nicholas, Like is it possible
Speaker 1: that he can just finagle his way into contention? On
Speaker 1: this golf course. I mean, obviously it's possible. There's no
Speaker 1: way it's not possible, So therefore it's possible he is
Speaker 1: tiger fricking I would say it's Tiger's tiger fucking woods.
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's I mean, you know, eighty two
Speaker 1: and fifteen doesn't happen by accidents. So and I think
Speaker 1: there's regardless of whatever he's dealing with physically, spiritually, emotionally,
Speaker 1: like you don't think he doesn't want to make one
Speaker 1: last you know, you know, fist pound on top of
Speaker 1: a table to the rest of the generational stuff that
Speaker 1: he's created. In terms of the competition, I mean, all
Speaker 1: the ribbing that he's giving is actually ribbing himself, Like
Speaker 1: this is the way he winds him stuff up. There's
Speaker 1: tales of him at a dare manner, going out in
Speaker 1: the morning, practicing playing eighteen holes, bally Bunyan, flying back,
Speaker 1: taking a nap, going out hitting balls for an hour,
Speaker 1: then going out and chipping and putting around the greens
Speaker 1: for an hour until dark. Like it's not like he's
Speaker 1: been laying in bed and just saying, oh, I'm this
Speaker 1: is gonna be my swan song. I'm gonna miss the
Speaker 1: cut and I'm gonna wave goodbye. He's like he's spending
Speaker 1: entire days practicing. Today he stopped at seventeen, went back
Speaker 1: over to the range, hit more ball, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: would any of us actually be surprised given all that
Speaker 1: we've just said about the way this course needs to
Speaker 1: be played, how it's going to be a tactician, How
Speaker 1: it's going to have to be someone who can spend
Speaker 1: four rounds without finding a bunker, like he's already done.
Speaker 1: I mean, if he's in the final pairing on Sunday,
Speaker 1: we'd all be really surprised about the fact that we
Speaker 1: allowed ourselves to be surprised that he's in the final pairing.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Michael, I agree with. I agree
Speaker 1: with that Tiger can bunt play bunt golf as well
Speaker 1: as anybody. And this is going to be a bunt
Speaker 1: golf course. And I mean, like you showed at Hoylake,
Speaker 1: you know, he took he took much off much, he
Speaker 1: took much less club off the tay to consistently play
Speaker 1: away from the bunkers. I think I think there he
Speaker 1: won seventy two holes without being in a bunker as well,
Speaker 1: and very sell. He very seldom. I know, he had
Speaker 1: no three putts that I can recall, and he put
Speaker 1: it's a fabulous putter in the wind. He's a fabulous
Speaker 1: lag putter. He has said numerous times that you know,
Speaker 1: it's not the putting and the chipping, it's the driving game,
Speaker 1: and that you know gust and National in southern hills,
Speaker 1: but especially gust and National. Without a driving game, there
Speaker 1: really was no chance. Plus the walk, you know here,
Speaker 1: the walk he should be relatively easy and unless it's crazy,
Speaker 1: crazy low, I think he can't contend the way he
Speaker 1: played Royal Melbourne. I mean, you know, his body is
Speaker 1: way more beat up now than it was at Royal Melbourne.
Speaker 1: But he was the best golfer in the field, I
Speaker 1: mean at Royal Melbourne. Numerous people have told us. I
Speaker 1: dont think Jeff Ogilby has sold us that that was
Speaker 1: all guile in golfing, sophistication and intelligence and shot making.
Speaker 1: I only watched on TV, but I couldn't believe how
Speaker 1: how how he played some of those souls and uh,
Speaker 1: you know this this course is Royal Melbourne on steroids. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great point and it's also an interesting you know,
Speaker 1: Tiger went into his press conference and really threw down
Speaker 1: a marker. Not it was about live golf, but it was.
Speaker 1: It was a more. It was also his worldview. You know,
Speaker 1: you gotta earn it, you got to earn everything in
Speaker 1: this game. And he almost seems offended, though I know
Speaker 1: he's offended by this shift in the sport where guys
Speaker 1: are getting guaranteed money and the competitive nature of the
Speaker 1: actual tournaments has been reduced and devalued. And if there
Speaker 1: was ever a week that Tiger's gonna have the red
Speaker 1: ass more than usual, it's this week because he's just
Speaker 1: he's finally kind of taken a stance on I'll live golf,
Speaker 1: and it offends him as the ultimate competitor, as the
Speaker 1: ultimate grinder. And so it's like, if he has one
Speaker 1: last lesson to impart on all these whipper snappers and
Speaker 1: all these guys who have been uh, you know, basically
Speaker 1: subservient to him throughout his career, they're like, you know,
Speaker 1: he wants to remind them one more time, like this
Speaker 1: is how it's done, boys, This is the level of
Speaker 1: desire you have to have. I'll get up at three
Speaker 1: in the morning to get my body work in and
Speaker 1: he's pushed himself really hard. As you said, Matt like him.
Speaker 1: He's walked a lot of holes, he's played a lot
Speaker 1: of golf like he's he's leaven no bullets in the
Speaker 1: chamber like he it's he might shut it down for
Speaker 1: nine months after this. And so he's pushing himself to
Speaker 1: the absolute limit. And it's very admirable and inspiring to see.
Speaker 1: Now you you know, I go back to talking to
Speaker 1: Pat Perez, you know, in that bar that night after
Speaker 1: the JP McManus program and Pat Perez entire would have
Speaker 1: known each other forever, I mean, and Pat Perez is
Speaker 1: like Tiger wouldn't even when when Pat Perez went up
Speaker 1: to talk to him, Tiger, you know, yeah, shook his hand,
Speaker 1: but didn't even look at him when he shook his
Speaker 1: hand to him. And there's a wild, you know, big
Speaker 1: rumor he Deki Matziyama's going to Live right after the
Speaker 1: Open Championship, and that you know that they the Live
Speaker 1: wants a DECKI knowing his global presence and bringing all
Speaker 1: of Asia with them, that that's going to be their
Speaker 1: marquee guy, and that they're going to pay more for
Speaker 1: him than any other player by far, almost double triple
Speaker 1: what they might have paid for Dustin Johnson and Brooks Kepka.
Speaker 1: And the thing that's keeping him from saying I'm in
Speaker 1: is the idea of Tiger Woods, essentially saying you go
Speaker 1: and you're dead to me. I mean, it's pretty obvious
Speaker 1: anybody who goes is dead to him. And this has
Speaker 1: become again Tiger versus Phil. It's gonna always be Tiger
Speaker 1: versus Phil. And at the end of the day, if
Speaker 1: he can use this moment, then the odds saw the
Speaker 1: the the holy ground, uh, to try to make some
Speaker 1: sort of last competitive stand. I mean, I'm not betting
Speaker 1: against him. He has shown throughout his career his tremendous
Speaker 1: pension for making history. Uh. You know, he completed the
Speaker 1: career grand Slam here here at the Old Course. Uh.
Speaker 1: This week, Uh in terms of passing of the torch
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Uh, he's he's won majors. When Jack
Speaker 1: has uh bed farewell to one event or Arnold another
Speaker 1: event um, and and this week, uh, Nicholas is sort
Speaker 1: of making a farewell to uh to Saint Andrew's and
Speaker 1: the Old Course and and became an honorary citizen of
Speaker 1: m of the of Saint Andrew's. Uh, Tiger was made
Speaker 1: an Honorary member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club,
Speaker 1: along with um Rory McElroy and Uh and Paul laurie U.
Speaker 1: He loves to rise to the occasion. No. One of
Speaker 1: his dad's phrases of life was you know, let the
Speaker 1: legend grow. He's done that his entire life, and this
Speaker 1: would be incredibly fitting. It also would give him eighty three.
Speaker 1: He he you know, he'd bump Sampson head off that list.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, he already has. But you know if technically,
Speaker 1: if you look at the list, they're both tied to
Speaker 1: eighty two, and it would be really really fitting. And
Speaker 1: I think those things do factor in to Tiger's mindset
Speaker 1: in ways that are you know, don't lend themselves to
Speaker 1: actual real analysis, except for it shows up at the end.
Speaker 1: I love Jack saying your career is not complete unless
Speaker 1: you went and open at Saint Andrew's, which is kind
Speaker 1: of a dickiest thing to say, because he's he's you know,
Speaker 1: taken out Watson, he's taken out Palmer, He's taken he's
Speaker 1: taken out a lot of these guys who had all
Speaker 1: of fame careers who had five career doesn't matter because
Speaker 1: he hasn't one of the old. Yeah, he's devaluing Phil.
Speaker 1: I mean it's easy to say it when you got one,
Speaker 1: but you know it's it's kind of funny. But there
Speaker 1: is that element and you know that. I mean, it
Speaker 1: is the It is the holiest of the holy if
Speaker 1: you can win here. And how much would Tiger love
Speaker 1: to deny all these guys deny a Rory, deny jt
Speaker 1: to deny Speed, Like there's an element of I have
Speaker 1: something that you don't have, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: share it. And I think that's a factor too. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tigers just love to win. He loves to beat guys.
Speaker 1: He likes he likes to like take their manhood and
Speaker 1: this is this would be the ultimate flex. I mean,
Speaker 1: so anyway, that's a factor. I think it's really a
Speaker 1: nutty comment. Now, Nicholas, I'm sure you know that's all.
Speaker 1: Nicholas got it from Jones, and Nicholas gave it to Tiger.
Speaker 1: And of course it's easy for Tiger to talk about
Speaker 1: it now because he's got to him and big jacket
Speaker 1: to him. But it is another little thing like winning
Speaker 1: a green jacket for the first time. As Molinari and
Speaker 1: Tony Finou and all those other guys found out, it
Speaker 1: is a lot harder to win a green jack for
Speaker 1: a green jacket for the first time than it is
Speaker 1: for the fifth time. That's what we found in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: And it's a lot harder to win your first Open
Speaker 1: championship at an old course and it is a third time.
Speaker 1: So down this stretch it's another little psychological I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been so long since we've really thought about Tiger
Speaker 1: that way. Tiger the mind game player. But Tiger plays
Speaker 1: mind games like nobody's business. Chiefly goes he's so much
Speaker 1: better than everybody else where he was, you know, in
Speaker 1: his long heyday. But also because to the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that we're talking about, I already got mine. You
Speaker 1: think you're ever gonna yours? Probably not, And so I
Speaker 1: think I think there's something to all that where you're saying, O, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great stuff. Well, we could go on down the
Speaker 1: list of contenders, but our heart's not in it like that.
Speaker 1: That's for lesser podcast. We're just here to celebrate the course,
Speaker 1: the tournament, capture the essence of it all. I think
Speaker 1: we've done that. Do you guys have any any final
Speaker 1: thoughts before we get we light the candle on on
Speaker 1: this open well. I mean, I'm staying at the Rusicks Hotel.
Speaker 1: I'm hanging out in the new revamped deck overlooking this
Speaker 1: incredible venue. It's like the giant aquarium in which you're
Speaker 1: just sitting there watching the world go by, and players
Speaker 1: play these shots and hit these puts to the eighteenth
Speaker 1: green and chip around this. Then we went up to
Speaker 1: the top of the rooftop at the Hamilton Hall, and
Speaker 1: now we're down here at the jigger in I mean
Speaker 1: you you are. You can't take four steps without bumping
Speaker 1: into these little slices of why all of this is
Speaker 1: so special, Why Saint Andrew's and the Old Course is
Speaker 1: the greatest venue in golf. Why when people ask me, oh,
Speaker 1: Scotland or Ireland, and I say, look, you got to
Speaker 1: do both. But if you only have to pick one,
Speaker 1: check the box of Saint Andrew's, Bandon or Saint Andrew's
Speaker 1: Like I love man, I named my son Bandon. But
Speaker 1: you go to Saint Andrew's and you walk around this town,
Speaker 1: you queue up and you in that box like you
Speaker 1: and I did Alan in the nineties. You get on
Speaker 1: that list, you get this round of golf under your belt,
Speaker 1: you experience what this is, what this is, and then
Speaker 1: you come back at a time like this and you
Speaker 1: just let it all shower all over you, like we
Speaker 1: are all doing for the next few days, experiencing just
Speaker 1: the greatest game, the greatest venue. The people you meet
Speaker 1: in this game, they're all here right now, bumping into
Speaker 1: them every five feet. I'm just grateful. I'm really appreciative
Speaker 1: and grateful that whatever I've chosen as my career in
Speaker 1: life has led me to this moment right now. And
Speaker 1: I'm honored to be on with you, guys. I'm honored
Speaker 1: to be able to talk to the game with you guys.
Speaker 1: I missed Jeff Ogilvie. I wish he was on, and
Speaker 1: we're going to here from later in the week. I
Speaker 1: just I'm in. I feel like I were you were
Speaker 1: Michael the other night. I'm literally gonna cry. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is this is the good stuff, and um, I
Speaker 1: can't wait. But Matt, you've buried the lead. What did
Speaker 1: Mulvoy shoot today? Oh, Michael, I shot seventy one and
Speaker 1: seventy two. I had an afternoon round, I chased the
Speaker 1: sun and made seven birdies, missed two putts. And anyway,
Speaker 1: enough about your game, let me telling you about a
Speaker 1: bit more more about my game, the great Mark. Only
Speaker 1: the three of us know how good that is. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: you know that was perfect. That's so good. That was perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I wrote I wrote this for the Firepit
Speaker 1: Collective dot com. But um, you know, we've all been
Speaker 1: doing this for a long time. And actually, young Dan
Speaker 1: Rapford asking me at the US Open, he said, you
Speaker 1: still get excited when you show up for these things,
Speaker 1: you know, meaning the major championships, And I had to
Speaker 1: think about it. I've still been thinking about it, and
Speaker 1: I get excited on Sunday that the adrenaline of the
Speaker 1: last round, the energy of writing on deadline, like that's
Speaker 1: what really fires me up. And sometimes, you know, early
Speaker 1: in the week opening round, I gotta, I gotta, I've
Speaker 1: got to get there. But it's a different feeling, like
Speaker 1: I want to go to sleep as soon as we
Speaker 1: take this podcast so I can wake up early so
Speaker 1: I can get out there. Like it is really um,
Speaker 1: like you know, the first it's like Kwanza morning. We're
Speaker 1: just so excited, like to open the presence and um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it's it's it's absolutely a different feeling, um
Speaker 1: than anywhere else. And Michael's eloquently captured that all week
Speaker 1: in his stories, and um, you just feel it in
Speaker 1: the air. I mean though the players are excited, the
Speaker 1: fans are excited, the town's on fire. Is this gonna
Speaker 1: be one heck of a week? By the way, did
Speaker 1: you guys see the the two pictures I tweeted out
Speaker 1: where you see in midday where you don't see any
Speaker 1: of the younger elations on the eighteenth fairway, and then
Speaker 1: at twilight afternoon when the shadows are exposing sort of
Speaker 1: like literally the ground looks as though it's risen risen up,
Speaker 1: you know, two three feet knobs, and it's it's like
Speaker 1: it's almost like it comes to life as the day
Speaker 1: comes to rest. It's it's like the ocean. I always
Speaker 1: say that, like when you know, if you stand on
Speaker 1: the sixteenth tee and that whole often gets overlooked because
Speaker 1: you know your head and the next next up is
Speaker 1: the roadhole everything, but that, to me is one of
Speaker 1: the most amazing fairways in golf. It's just like rolling
Speaker 1: waves and it's not massive dunes and huge undulations. It's subtle,
Speaker 1: but you stand there and you just look at it
Speaker 1: and it's such a special piece of ground. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw that picture, those pictures you posted, Matt. I
Speaker 1: thought it was really cool to how much it does
Speaker 1: come alive. It would be it would be neat to
Speaker 1: run those pictures in conjunction with the text of what
Speaker 1: Jeff Ogilvie said on our podcast the other day where
Speaker 1: he introduces the idea of what the old Course is
Speaker 1: and why it's so great. Because when when Jeff so
Speaker 1: those a couple hundred words so us the other day,
Speaker 1: it felt like he'd been waiting his whole life to
Speaker 1: express that, or maybe he has many times before, but
Speaker 1: he absolutely captured the essence of it, including talking about
Speaker 1: playing it just as a you know, a regular Joe golfer,
Speaker 1: you know, a highly skilled one, but celebrated Joe golfer,
Speaker 1: you know, rolling up to the starter set to try
Speaker 1: to get a tea time with his dad and then
Speaker 1: you know, later having a tea time in a British open,
Speaker 1: which of course is part of the huge magic of
Speaker 1: this whole thing. Unlike Augusta National is that literally hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of people around the world, we'll have had
Speaker 1: the experience of having played the old course and watching
Speaker 1: it in person or on TV, and having you know,
Speaker 1: a really deep understanding of what it is to try
Speaker 1: to do this, try to win this thing, or just
Speaker 1: actually play in the thing for four rounds. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: there are goals and goals. You know, we're so we
Speaker 1: emphasize the winner so much, but just to get in
Speaker 1: the field is such a journey. You know, we have
Speaker 1: a whole separate podcast or a whole separate series devoted
Speaker 1: to that idea, but just the dream. There are so
Speaker 1: many players in this field who have almost no chance
Speaker 1: of making a cup, but they got some chance. But
Speaker 1: just getting in the field itself is such an accomplishment
Speaker 1: one that they will literally help hold onto for the
Speaker 1: rest of their lives. So there are layers and layers
Speaker 1: and layers of the thing. And if I could just
Speaker 1: follow up to your point about you know, that's a
Speaker 1: very thoughtful question on from from Dan Rapp report to
Speaker 1: two and a very thoughtful answer. And for me it's different,
Speaker 1: like because what I see is, you know, we've all
Speaker 1: read a lot of golf history and we've covered a
Speaker 1: lot of golf, and the game is going to go
Speaker 1: on way after after we're gone, and it's just neat
Speaker 1: to know that there's a bunch of names in the field,
Speaker 1: names that we don't even know. And some of those
Speaker 1: players will turn into Justin not many, but one or
Speaker 1: two of them will turn into Justin Thomas and Wills alators.
Speaker 1: And there will be fans like Rory McElroy was, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty plus years ago, who will emerge from out of
Speaker 1: the gallery rope. Someday they'll be in the in the
Speaker 1: field themselves, and they'll try and they'll be trying to
Speaker 1: make a cut and trying to contend and trying to win,
Speaker 1: and the game just carries on and on and on,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's unlike, you know, maybe Jack Willis
Speaker 1: will be back here, but probably probably won't, and there
Speaker 1: will never be another Jack Nicholas. But then Lee Travina
Speaker 1: will rise to the you know, golf's elder statesman. He's well,
Speaker 1: excuse me, there at the same age. That's not a
Speaker 1: good example. But Tom Watson and you know, various others,
Speaker 1: and then another generation and then before you know it,
Speaker 1: Tiger will be there, and you know, and then Tiger
Speaker 1: will be gone and then Royal will be there. And
Speaker 1: this whole path of life that is golf and golf
Speaker 1: triggers so much in all of us in so many
Speaker 1: different ways. That's part of what we're doing here. And
Speaker 1: uh so it's neat to be on the eve of it,
Speaker 1: and uh and it's neat to know in five or
Speaker 1: six or seven years, you know, some group will come
Speaker 1: back and do this all again. It be you know,
Speaker 1: slightly different, but basically the same. Your essay on the
Speaker 1: eve of the Open, which is now Firepit Collective dot com,
Speaker 1: including all the stuff that you've already written and some
Speaker 1: of the stuff you know that will that we've already
Speaker 1: produced leading up to this week is all there. And
Speaker 1: I just you know, I just want to thank our sponsors. Obviously,
Speaker 1: use part Points, It's an incredible app were Links Soul,
Speaker 1: It's an incredible brand. Uh you know, use Dormy Workshop
Speaker 1: makes incredible leather goods. I think we just have to
Speaker 1: say thank you to the people who support us, who
Speaker 1: allow us to have these opportunities. MasterCard. I'm here with
Speaker 1: them now because they funded and supported our opportunity to
Speaker 1: tell those stories we told when we rolled into Saint
Speaker 1: Andrews in February, and I mean, you know, and again
Speaker 1: the Rustick's Hotel for supporting us and being able to
Speaker 1: give us a place to stay for this week. So
Speaker 1: I just guy, I feel like, you know, thank you
Speaker 1: to the people who allow us to do what we do,
Speaker 1: which just tell stories fully endorsed that. Um. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we're all very lucky to be here, and I know
Speaker 1: that none of us take it for granted, and it
Speaker 1: is it is a special part of our life. So
Speaker 1: a shout out to our colleague Colt, who, poor bastard
Speaker 1: young kid loves golf here for the first time and
Speaker 1: shut down by the by the COVID nineteen verse. We
Speaker 1: miss your, Colt, and hope you're feeling better. No one
Speaker 1: is more bumped out than cold. The guy is like
Speaker 1: he's talking about a thoroughbread they got. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: like the thoroughbread when they when they, when they when
Speaker 1: the bell goes off and the gates fly open, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the gates don't fly open. He's the horse that's
Speaker 1: been left back in the gate. The gate didn't open
Speaker 1: for that thoroughbread. He's waiting for his chance to run. Run,
Speaker 1: Colt run, Yeah, I know, it's a bad beat, Well
Speaker 1: we'll sold your on in his honor. So this is
Speaker 1: a fun conversation. I love your guys as a spirit
Speaker 1: on all this and thanks to all listeners out there.
Speaker 1: We are going to be back at it pretty much
Speaker 1: every day now for the rest of this week, maybe
Speaker 1: some surprise guests if we can make that happen. So
Speaker 1: this has been another fire Drill podcast. I'm Alan Schipnak.
Speaker 1: That was Michael Bamberger and Matt Janella. Thanks for tuning
Speaker 1: in and we'll do it again soon. Put another log
Speaker 1: on the fire nobody hears. Get the time