Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday. This week's guest writer Cupper for the
Speaker 1: European side, Andrew Coltart won a couple of times on
Speaker 1: the DP World Tour and is a voice at sky
Speaker 1: Sports Golf Now. One of my favorite people, super super
Speaker 1: Smart always has great takes, so was excited to get
Speaker 1: his reaction to the season ending Race for Dubai tournament
Speaker 1: in Dubai on the DP World and talk about all
Speaker 1: things DP World. But before we get to that interview,
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Speaker 1: to a really exciting talk with Andrew Coltart for my
Speaker 1: American listeners, My guest today is not Sean Connery, it
Speaker 1: is Andrew Coltart. Andrew were It's a podcast, so no subtitles,
Speaker 1: so try and give us your your your accent a
Speaker 1: little bit turned down. Okay, So the DP World Tour
Speaker 1: just fit out in Dubai Race for Dubai. You were
Speaker 1: out there on the call for Sky Sports. Interesting year, Andrew.
Speaker 1: For the DP World, the European I still call it
Speaker 1: the European Tour. You joined the European Tour in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, one twice calling it DP World as opposed
Speaker 1: to call it the European Tour. Is just so weird
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 2: It takes a bit of getting used to, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Claude Nikolai Hogard Bertie's five out of the last six.
Speaker 1: I mean, this kid is a this kid is a stud.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a big golf course, that is a big,
Speaker 1: big field. How good do you think this kid can be?
Speaker 1: Because when I watch him hit golf balls and he
Speaker 1: and his brother Rasmus, I mean they look like they
Speaker 1: can win any time anywhere on any tour.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point. Look, I think it still
Speaker 2: just goes to prove that golf is in great hands.
Speaker 2: You know, the next generation is coming through, and goodness me,
Speaker 2: are they good? They are good? Don't you worry about that? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Five or the last six to win with the likes
Speaker 2: of Ram breathing down his neck, hoveling, breathing down his neck.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to take my hat off to him
Speaker 2: because I you know, I questioned whether he deserved that
Speaker 2: picking the Ryder Cup. And okay, Europe went on and
Speaker 2: they won the Ryder Cup. Nicole I only managed to
Speaker 2: get half a point and a half a point. It's
Speaker 2: still huge when it comes to Ryder Cup. It's massive
Speaker 2: in terms of what that means. But he himself would
Speaker 2: possibly have been a little bit disappointed if he was.
Speaker 2: Goodness me, he's got over it quick because if finished
Speaker 2: second in the ned Bank down there in South Africa
Speaker 2: to Max Homer the week before and then went on,
Speaker 2: as you've said, and won our tour championships. And you know,
Speaker 2: the kid and his brother who just missed out on
Speaker 2: a duel card and the PGA Tour next year are
Speaker 2: phenomenal talents that you know we've got over here. They've
Speaker 2: come through Denmark, the Daily System. They won the Eisenhewer Trophy,
Speaker 2: which was the amateur team event, alongside John Axelson. And
Speaker 2: you know, these kids are are the real deal. You know,
Speaker 2: we seem to have quite a few of them at
Speaker 2: the minute.
Speaker 1: Scandinavian golf right now, Andrew making kind of a resurgence.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was that big kind of nineties push
Speaker 1: where there were a factory of players coming out of Sweden.
Speaker 1: But you've got Victor Hall Hoblin from Norway. You've got
Speaker 1: Ludwig Alberg, who's I mean by all like by I
Speaker 1: mean he just looks like he can't miss. And then
Speaker 1: you've got the Hoguard Quins. So Scandinavian golf is really
Speaker 1: really strong right now. I thought it was really important
Speaker 1: for Scottish golf this year Andrew, for Bob Bob McIntyre
Speaker 1: to get on that Ryder Cup team. But I lived
Speaker 1: in Scotland, you and I, I mean, it's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite places. Why don't we see Scottish golf doing
Speaker 1: what we see Scandinavian golf. It has always mystified me.
Speaker 1: I mean I lived in Glasgow for almost five years.
Speaker 1: The weather is is pretty much the same. You've got
Speaker 1: better courses in Scotland. But you see Scandinavian golf just
Speaker 1: constantly doing well and Scottish golf, in my opinion, not
Speaker 1: doing what it should do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well look at you. I mean you and I
Speaker 2: have been discussions around golf coaching for quite some time.
Speaker 2: There was a trend in the sort of early two
Speaker 2: thousands to model every single player's golf swing on the
Speaker 2: one golf swing. You know, if you start to look at,
Speaker 2: you know, all the Scandinavians, you know, in fact, you
Speaker 2: don't need to be a genius to look through any
Speaker 2: of the tools that you see on television, and basically,
Speaker 2: no two human beings swing at the same way. A
Speaker 2: golf swings like a fingerprint, and it's important that the
Speaker 2: golf coach understands how that person interprets the lessons that
Speaker 2: are being made and does so without losing ownership of
Speaker 2: their own golf swing. And you know, Scotland I think
Speaker 2: fell into a trap where they had a central system
Speaker 2: and almost like everything that these players knew and learned
Speaker 2: and grew up with when they got into the national system,
Speaker 2: it seemed to me as if it was sort of
Speaker 2: broken down and said, now that's not how you do it.
Speaker 2: This is how you do it. And my own personal
Speaker 2: view is that that that put quite a few players
Speaker 2: back a little bit. It affected the development and they
Speaker 2: didn't come through. Also, I will say, look, I think
Speaker 2: things are cyclical. Ave and said that Scotland's not produced
Speaker 2: the talent that it should have done for quite some time.
Speaker 2: Has obviously been the odd exception. We're all very familiar
Speaker 2: with Colin Montgomery. But well, you know, I think something
Speaker 2: happened in English golf around about the late eighties early
Speaker 2: nineties when one or two of the players came out
Speaker 2: on to Lee Westwood, Goody's tour card, David Hall got
Speaker 2: he's tour car, to name few, and of course all
Speaker 2: the young English male golfers that had grown up playing
Speaker 2: with him could see that they could play. If these
Speaker 2: guys can get on tour, they can get on tour,
Speaker 2: and that drew a lot more of those players out.
Speaker 2: Your Paul Cases, your Luc Donald's. You know, we know
Speaker 2: what they've gone on to achieve in the game. We
Speaker 2: did start seeing in Sweden many moons ago, no surprise,
Speaker 2: because they were like the first amateur body to adopt
Speaker 2: a professional approach to golf in general. It was happening
Speaker 2: in all other sports, but golf was typically slow and
Speaker 2: lazy to adapt. The Swedes came out partner it, Johansen, Hegman, Headlum,
Speaker 2: all things like that. And now we're just saying again
Speaker 2: the growth of the game in those areas. Thomas biond
Speaker 2: is on Kelton have an awful lot to do with
Speaker 2: the advancement of the Danish golf in there again, you know,
Speaker 2: putting their knowledge back in those young stars being inspired
Speaker 2: by the elder generation starting to see it go. I've
Speaker 2: got to admit in France so stancy an awful lot
Speaker 2: of really good quality of young French players coming through.
Speaker 2: That was evident again in their tour chance. And I've
Speaker 2: got to say, you know, our Scottish kids, there's a
Speaker 2: few more Scottish kids now coming through, and I'm pleased
Speaker 2: to see that they don't all swing it the same way.
Speaker 2: They've all got their own way to do it, but
Speaker 2: they're all you know, they're all developing at at a
Speaker 2: pretty good pace. Obviously, you talked about Robert mcinty and
Speaker 2: he was pretty much the first of this new generation.
Speaker 2: And I was granted Forrest calum Hill. You and Ferguson,
Speaker 2: who's won twice now on the on the DPE World
Speaker 2: to the European Tour, came close in the top ten
Speaker 2: there last week. So it's that belief and that evidence
Speaker 2: that allows the conference to sort of grow in some
Speaker 2: of these players, and that's why we're seeing these countries
Speaker 2: now starting to come on. But trust me, for a
Speaker 2: lot period of time we were scratching our head and
Speaker 2: very very disappointed with the with the you know, the
Speaker 2: the output in Scotland.
Speaker 1: It's interesting Andrew that you mentioned that there was this
Speaker 1: trend and I think there was a trend in a
Speaker 1: lot of the national teams and it was right around
Speaker 1: that kind of Tiger Woods era Adam Scott to where
Speaker 1: everybody was trying to get all the players to kind
Speaker 1: of swing the golf club the same way, right, to
Speaker 1: put the golf club in positions. And you know, having
Speaker 1: grown up and playing in Scotland, I think one of
Speaker 1: the great things growing up in a country like Scotland
Speaker 1: or Ireland or Northern Ireland does is if you're going
Speaker 1: to be a competitive golfer, you have to learn how
Speaker 1: to play golf first and foremost, you have to get
Speaker 1: out on the golf course in very difficult conditions. You know,
Speaker 1: you go out to places like Carnoustie, Mirfield Troon, which
Speaker 1: are golf courses that are very very famous, but they're
Speaker 1: also golf courses that you can play. You can go
Speaker 1: and play these great golf courses. My dad years ago,
Speaker 1: in like the early two thousands, when I first moved
Speaker 1: to Europe, he did a my dad and his brothers
Speaker 1: they did a Red Bull kind of coaching clinic and
Speaker 1: my dad and his brothers they went down to Celtic
Speaker 1: Manor and I think Rory Mcker was part.
Speaker 3: Of this group.
Speaker 1: This has got to be like two and my dad said,
Speaker 1: it's rain and sideways and everybody's out hitting golf balls.
Speaker 1: And he's like, in the US, if it's raining, you
Speaker 1: don't go and hit golf ball. So my point being
Speaker 1: this centralized system that you talked about that I think
Speaker 1: a lot of, and it's something that I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about on my podcast, Andrew, the difference between playing
Speaker 1: golf and the difference between practicing golf and practicing your technique.
Speaker 1: And I think what I hear you saying is I
Speaker 1: think there's it's easy to say two players, listen, we've
Speaker 1: got to treat everybody the same, You've got to swing
Speaker 1: the golf club the same. But if that was the case,
Speaker 1: a guy like Colin Montgomery would have never made it
Speaker 1: out of any sort of system because he had such
Speaker 1: an idiosyncratic but an unbelievably repetitive golf swing, you know,
Speaker 1: in talking about Scottish golf. I mean, listen, we all
Speaker 1: make jokes about Monty that those of us that know him,
Speaker 1: that have to be around him, that that you have
Speaker 1: to work with him sometimes.
Speaker 4: And Monty Munty is an easy, easy target, right, But
Speaker 4: the guy was an unbelievable golfer and I don't think
Speaker 4: he gets I think sometimes because of the way Monty
Speaker 4: is personally and in the public that he doesn't get
Speaker 4: the credit.
Speaker 3: But he's one of the best.
Speaker 1: Golfers I've ever seen, Like, he's one of the best
Speaker 1: golfers I have ever seen pick up a golf club,
Speaker 1: and I just don't think he gets the credit. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he never won a major. But it's interesting, Andrew, nowadays,
Speaker 1: you can be a superstar without winning a major. Back
Speaker 1: in the day, Monty wasn't seen as a superstar because
Speaker 1: he never got that major. But you grew up with him.
Speaker 1: You watched him play a lot of golf. How good
Speaker 1: was he?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he was. He was incredible, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean the consistency just speaks volumes. You know, Wonda what
Speaker 2: it is now? That story buy the order it merit
Speaker 2: eight times you wanted, he wanted seven in a row,
Speaker 2: seven in a row. I mean, you know, you don't
Speaker 2: get an opportunity to have a bad week when you
Speaker 2: when when you do things like that, and callin Colin
Speaker 2: was there and thereabouts carrying the you know, carrying the
Speaker 2: flag for the European Tour, in the global game, playing
Speaker 2: all over the world, and you know, just just the
Speaker 2: level of consistency, the repetitiveness of that's when he was
Speaker 2: out of this world. A great touch, he was good
Speaker 2: in the greens. He just had it all and and
Speaker 2: it was a really interesting temperament though, because you know,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't be the temperament that you would you would
Speaker 2: try to encourage people to have. But but it was
Speaker 2: part of his defense mechanism because you know, as you
Speaker 2: know a lot of players, if it's not working out,
Speaker 2: you sort of find something else to blame. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not me, it's something else. And that way it
Speaker 2: keeps us at a confidence. I wasn't my fault. It
Speaker 2: was it was you know that bub flapping its wings
Speaker 2: and the trees three miles away, you know that that
Speaker 2: kind of thing, or that you know, the baby, the
Speaker 2: baby screaming in the nursery because it needs it's diaper changed,
Speaker 2: or something like something like. You know, I mean a
Speaker 2: lot of people, a lot of people would just be
Speaker 2: able to tuck that away and get on with it.
Speaker 2: And you know, Monty, Monty used it as a way
Speaker 2: of just deflecting the pressure off. But another great one though.
Speaker 2: We talked to Jim Furick. You know, if if anybody,
Speaker 2: if anybody other than his father went near Fury, he
Speaker 2: would never have had it. Dustin, you know, Dustin came out.
Speaker 2: You know when we used to go through a system
Speaker 2: where the club face at the top, as you know,
Speaker 2: needed to be sort of forty five degrees, you know,
Speaker 2: do open shot that kind of thing, and then and
Speaker 2: you know, and anything anything more open and that needed
Speaker 2: to chege. Nobody had ever ever come with a golf club.
Speaker 2: Really it was pointing. The face was pointing straight up
Speaker 2: the sky. Incomes Dustin Johnson, best player in the world,
Speaker 2: blows everybody off the face of the planet for for
Speaker 2: many years and was still they're still playing great golf,
Speaker 2: and it's it's that kind of thing. There was a
Speaker 2: ten plate over here with the PGA system where everybody
Speaker 2: had to teach the same swing, and I think that
Speaker 2: was a massive, massive mistake. You know, when when it's
Speaker 2: it's all very well, when it's it's you know, you're
Speaker 2: teaching a book, or you're just teaching somebody that wants
Speaker 2: to be a good golfer. But when you're teaching somebody
Speaker 2: that wants to be one of the best golfers, you know,
Speaker 2: on poor or on the planet or something. If you
Speaker 2: if you take, if you strip out what is in
Speaker 2: their DNA their golf swing and give them something else,
Speaker 2: they will never ever be that player. There's only one
Speaker 2: man I think has ever come close to doing that
Speaker 2: and maybe and improved, and that was the man we
Speaker 2: all knows as Foulther. He was. He was the only
Speaker 2: guy that was capable of doing that.
Speaker 1: It's interesting you mentioned Justin Johnson played from a real
Speaker 1: plays from a really really shut position, and my dad
Speaker 1: when he worked with DJ didn't change that. When he
Speaker 1: first started working with Tiger in ninety three, Tiger played
Speaker 1: from a super pretty closed position, and my dad weakened
Speaker 1: his grip. They wanted to get the golf club in
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a neutral position, and then
Speaker 1: you've got a guy like Monty. Monty played kind of
Speaker 1: slap fades from a very very open position. I do
Speaker 1: think that we are in twenty three, though, Andrew, because
Speaker 1: of all the technology and because of how much we
Speaker 1: know and how much we can measure. I've never changed
Speaker 1: golf swings less right, I've never changed golf swings. And
Speaker 1: I've said this before on the podcast, but it's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite stories to tell about my dad's brother,
Speaker 1: my uncle Billy. You know, he was in Vegas. It's
Speaker 1: like Tiger in two thousands, are Adam Scott's there and
Speaker 1: every you know, and Tiger and Scotty. I mean, he
Speaker 1: couldn't put the golf club in better positions. But I'll
Speaker 1: never forget this. And my uncle Billy said, you know,
Speaker 1: it's amazing to watch these guys and watch how everybody
Speaker 1: is trying to emulate these two. And they're obviously Tiger
Speaker 1: of being an amazing player, Scotty, but he said, you
Speaker 1: look at two of the greatest ball strikers of all time, Haile, Irwin, Lee,
Speaker 1: Trevino Hale shot, Hale was closed, took it inside, came
Speaker 1: over it and hit cuts. Lee was wide open, took
Speaker 1: it way outside, dropped it under. And my uncle Billy said,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. We don't teach anyone to swing like this.
Speaker 1: We teach everybody to try and swing like Adam Scott
Speaker 1: and Tiger Woods. He's like, look at the way Nicholas putted.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever tried to reproduce or emulate the way Jack
Speaker 1: Nicholas putted. And he without other than Tiger, he's the
Speaker 1: greatest putter of all time. And it's funny how you're right,
Speaker 1: things are cyclical, and I do think we are. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at a kid, you know, like Victor Hovlin,
Speaker 1: hobby doesn't have a Adam Scott beautiful textbook type golf swing.
Speaker 1: Ludah Olberg, Okay, I like some of the things about
Speaker 1: his golf swing, but he's got a little bit of
Speaker 1: a move at the top where it looks like he
Speaker 1: takes it off and it can get a little bit
Speaker 1: laid off, and then the whole guard twinds me. None
Speaker 1: of these guys Bob mckett. None of these guys are classic,
Speaker 1: classic swingers of a golf club, but they all have
Speaker 1: very very good golf swings. And do you see a
Speaker 1: trend more so now in a kind of a swing
Speaker 1: back to the old days where we are seeing some
Speaker 1: some Paul Aisinger type type grips, see some idiosyncratic golf swings,
Speaker 1: be really really good right now?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that goes back to what you're playing. These
Speaker 2: are these are players that have learned it's it's the
Speaker 2: game is not called swing. The game's called golf. You've
Speaker 2: got to play golf the whole, all the all the
Speaker 2: these ingredients come together. You can have a great golf
Speaker 2: swing and be a be a crack golfer. You know,
Speaker 2: you know, you know what I mean. But you've got
Speaker 2: to learn to play. And these people have understood and
Speaker 2: know how to play and how to be confident with
Speaker 2: what they've gone. And I've got to take my hat
Speaker 2: off to their coaches that have just allowed them to
Speaker 2: go and and progress and improve and maintain that level
Speaker 2: of positivity and confidence without without stripping it away, without
Speaker 2: destroying it, without giving them somebody else's golf swing to
Speaker 2: work away at and it's allowed them to develop at
Speaker 2: a different rates. But it's also allowed them to, you know,
Speaker 2: focus on other things that contribute to being to being
Speaker 2: a world class golfer. I mean, if you know you
Speaker 2: can have a very game. I remember one time I
Speaker 2: got my I swing looking really really good on video.
Speaker 2: It looked great. I was really happy with how it looked.
Speaker 2: I had no idea where that where the club face
Speaker 2: was at impact. And trust me, when the golf ball's
Speaker 2: going left and it's going right and you get no
Speaker 2: idea how it's going there, confidence tends to dip off
Speaker 2: a little bit. It doesn't matter how good any other
Speaker 2: aspect of the games playing, it's rubbish.
Speaker 1: Andrew, you mentioned your own career. You turned prone in
Speaker 1: ninety three. You were part of the Walker Cup team
Speaker 1: in ninety one with Padrick Harrington and Paul McGinley were
Speaker 1: on that team for GB and I and then David Duvall,
Speaker 1: film mcle and Bob May on the on the US side.
Speaker 1: So amateur career then pro. You won twice on the
Speaker 1: European Tour back then in Qatar in ninety eight the
Speaker 1: Great Northern Open in one played the Ryder Cup in
Speaker 1: ninety nine when you look back on your playing career, Andrew.
Speaker 3: Kind of grade would you give it?
Speaker 1: And if you could go back and do anything different,
Speaker 1: would you go back and do anything different? Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you got the most out of kind of
Speaker 1: your game and your career?
Speaker 2: Good question, but good question. And I remember sitting an
Speaker 2: exam in my little school, my town which had two
Speaker 2: thousand population of high school. It was I couldn't even
Speaker 2: tell you what exam I was sitting. I was that
Speaker 2: board sitting it. But I remember dreaming while I should
Speaker 2: have been trying to figure out the answer for something.
Speaker 2: If I just, you know what I would give to
Speaker 2: just have a tour card. If I just had a
Speaker 2: tour card for one year, you know, and I'd thrame
Speaker 2: it up on the wall and I could say that
Speaker 2: I'd be a European Tour player. Well, that would just
Speaker 2: be it to me. That would be you know that
Speaker 2: that would at that stage, when I'm seventeen, eighteen years old,
Speaker 2: I'll just make my life, you know. I can brag
Speaker 2: about that, you know, forever, tell stories about that year
Speaker 2: that I played it. I'd be called the European Tour player.
Speaker 2: Then you get on tour and then of course. You know,
Speaker 2: you look around and your goals change, your aspirations change,
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of things change, and you
Speaker 2: know you push yourself, you push yourself even further. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I got into that Rider Cup side. I want I
Speaker 2: want a couple of I want a couple of two events,
Speaker 2: which was great. That was that was crucial to me
Speaker 2: because you're when you're always played, you always question whether
Speaker 2: you're good enough. You never really know you're good enough
Speaker 2: until you win a championship. So when you win a
Speaker 2: European Tour championship and you become a winner on tour,
Speaker 2: that's a great feeling. And then obviously to get the
Speaker 2: NOD and to represent my continent and a Ryder Cup,
Speaker 2: well that was just incredible. And and even though when
Speaker 2: I was playing, and when I subsequently played from that
Speaker 2: point at I given myself and minus or an F.
Speaker 2: When I look back now, having finished my career and
Speaker 2: moved into the media world, I look back now and said,
Speaker 2: you know what, you know where I came from little
Speaker 2: golf course that had three hundred members. It was only
Speaker 2: six thousand yards long in the middle of the hills
Speaker 2: in the south of Scotland, and I did pretty good.
Speaker 2: I did pretty good for myself. I was, you know,
Speaker 2: not a lot of people managed to get out of
Speaker 2: the village, get out of the area. I managed to
Speaker 2: get out of the area. I managed to travel the
Speaker 2: world and very very fortunate for those opportunities, made a
Speaker 2: tremendous amount of great people along the way. And I'm
Speaker 2: very very lucky. So when I was playing, as you know,
Speaker 2: I was always incredibly miserable. Nothing and nothing much has changed.
Speaker 3: That is true. You mentioned Andrew.
Speaker 1: You know, it's easy you look at your career you've
Speaker 1: only won twice. But you know, I coached Pat Perezum
Speaker 1: around Pad a lot, and everybody goes, oh, you've only
Speaker 1: won four times. And Pat always says we'll try winning once, right,
Speaker 1: And he says that because it's it's easy to look at.
Speaker 3: You have a.
Speaker 1: Career, you play, you know, you play for a very
Speaker 1: very long time. And I think the great ones, right,
Speaker 1: the Scottie Scheffler's of the worlds, the John Rahm's of
Speaker 1: the world, who win every single year, they win multiple times.
Speaker 1: They can somewhat somewhat make it look easy to be
Speaker 1: a perennial winner. It is incredibly, incredibly hard to win
Speaker 1: That's why when I look at this kid, you know,
Speaker 1: Ludwig Alberg, I mean, Ludpig's playing college golf.
Speaker 3: Six months ago. I mean he's playing college golf.
Speaker 1: Six months ago, and he's on a winning Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: team and then wins his first PGA Tour event. Okay,
Speaker 1: Obviously when you look at him, and I think everybody
Speaker 1: has seen this coming, right, and we got to see
Speaker 1: kind of his coming out party at the Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: in Rome to where he played fantastic and when he plays,
Speaker 1: you look at the stats, you look at this. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's no surprise that he has won the last tournament
Speaker 1: of the year based off of how he's played since
Speaker 1: he's turned pro, but that getting that first win is
Speaker 1: such a hard thing to do. How important, Andrew do
Speaker 1: you think it is from a playing standpoint to get
Speaker 1: a professional win on a tour early? What do you
Speaker 1: feel that does and what do you feel like are
Speaker 1: kind of some of the traps that you can fall
Speaker 1: into when you win early.
Speaker 3: I think we've.
Speaker 1: Seen that with with Matt Wolf Right, he won his
Speaker 1: second professional event, but he hasn't won a tournament four years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really interesting. Obviously, of course Lidwig.
Speaker 2: Right before the Ryder Cup, when there was pressure on
Speaker 2: and people were looking at him as a beck captain,
Speaker 2: Donald was saying, listen, this guy is good. I've played
Speaker 2: with him. You kind of going, well, that's all it's
Speaker 2: gonna be more. You know, where are the results? Where
Speaker 2: where are the numbers? And of course he hadn't played
Speaker 2: enough events for stat numbers for those sort of count
Speaker 2: but the European guys had been all over them and
Speaker 2: any one up the mountain and crown so sire on
Speaker 2: the DP world too. So he won that. I mean
Speaker 2: justin Rowe the great stars first that we use. I mean,
Speaker 2: he can't find anybody certainly the last eiry of forty
Speaker 2: years that has termed professional and one both on the
Speaker 2: PGA the PGA two and I don't yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: that that to be able to go out and do
Speaker 2: that is out of this world. It's just it's just
Speaker 2: sensational that he's managed to achieve that, and it's and
Speaker 2: it's great, and that it's all got to do with
Speaker 2: his upbringing. It's all got to do with the people
Speaker 2: run about him. It's all got to do with all
Speaker 2: the great work ethic at college and the state. It's
Speaker 2: all got to do with, you know, how he how
Speaker 2: he is with himself, and how he thinks about himself,
Speaker 2: and how he thinks about the game. And you know,
Speaker 2: as we've said, as we've said throughout this podcast with
Speaker 2: some of these players, you know, the sky really does
Speaker 2: appear to be the limit. Because one of the good
Speaker 2: things I like about all these guys, particularly over is that,
Speaker 2: you know, winning, winning for somebody could be the absolute
Speaker 2: icing on the case. And as a result of that,
Speaker 2: they could take the food off the gas and well,
Speaker 2: I'm a winner and I've achieved something that I didn't
Speaker 2: never have a thought was possible, and I've managed to
Speaker 2: do that, and you know that that could have an
Speaker 2: impact on it. These guys don't look like that. These
Speaker 2: guys look like, you know, they expected it. They expected it.
Speaker 2: If it wasn't going to happen soon, it was going
Speaker 2: to happen sooner or later. Nothing, It wasn't going to
Speaker 2: only take a long time to win. Now they've got
Speaker 2: the win under the belt, like it does look like
Speaker 2: they're going to kick on nobody. I guess only those
Speaker 2: closest to the likes of Matt Wolf would maybe know
Speaker 2: what it was like for him and how he was
Speaker 2: dealing with this new life. Because you are living in
Speaker 2: a goldfish bowl. You know, you can't hide away from
Speaker 2: everything your Your whole life is now under the microscope.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of someday. You know, Tom Lewis
Speaker 2: over here, did it in you? It be won in
Speaker 2: Portugal to think and one of his first g out
Speaker 2: and then struggle. Matt Wallace hasn't one for five years,
Speaker 2: a year that he won three just before the twenty
Speaker 2: eighteen Rider Cup. Comparently one car put the CanYa this year,
Speaker 2: but but it had taken him sort of five years
Speaker 2: before you get back into the winter circle. You know
Speaker 2: other other people, you know they can they can push
Speaker 2: too hard, too fast. They can they can you know,
Speaker 2: the expectation can be abud and if you expect too
Speaker 2: much without keeping yourself grounded, that can put an inordinate
Speaker 2: amount of pressure on yourself that that you know, that
Speaker 2: can constrict you. And as we know, when you play golf,
Speaker 2: you never want to feel tight, you never want to
Speaker 2: feel edgy. Some of the other things, of course, is
Speaker 2: that as we know, all the terrific facilities, you know
Speaker 2: they're there and they're around us, can get used, can
Speaker 2: get exploited players can They also start tinking a little
Speaker 2: bit with golf clubs. Somebody comes along now that they've won,
Speaker 2: and you know, their contracts up with a certain manufacturer,
Speaker 2: let's change equipment and it all. It all sounds juicy,
Speaker 2: and somebody's going to chuck a million bucks at you.
Speaker 2: You think that's great, but when you know, when you
Speaker 2: think about it, that million could actually cost you five.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe it's not such great business. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's loads, there's loads of those things that that they've
Speaker 2: got to look out for watch out form. But I
Speaker 2: would have thought based on what you know, Albert has achieved,
Speaker 2: and certainly the Hoy girls have achieved the doess enough
Speaker 2: people round about them. That's some that are pretty clued
Speaker 2: in to understand how all these things going to protect
Speaker 2: them from falling into these traps. But again the other
Speaker 2: thing is Claude, Wait, we've got to watch out and
Speaker 2: we're going to We're going to be measured with our
Speaker 2: expectations of these players. I mean, all birds had a
Speaker 2: fantastic career in a few months. You know, you know,
Speaker 2: he's got he's got twenty he's got twenty years out
Speaker 2: there at least, you know, let's let's not pile so
Speaker 2: much pressure them that the guy can't breathe. And that's
Speaker 2: something I think us, as you know, as the media,
Speaker 2: have a responsibility just to look out for a little bit.
Speaker 1: The obvious question with with lud big because he is
Speaker 1: so talented and has had this kind of me yorick rise.
Speaker 1: I mean, all of a sudden now people are saying,
Speaker 1: is the is he the next Tiger Woods? Is he
Speaker 1: the next Roy McElroy. That's a lot to put on
Speaker 1: a really young kid. And having gone through this as
Speaker 1: a player, how how how do you keep your feet
Speaker 1: on the ground Andrew, Because all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: he's gonna get a lot of he's gonna get tons
Speaker 1: of media requests, he's got the limelight, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: companies throwing lots of cash at him. And he's had
Speaker 1: a breakout year in twenty twenty three. But to me,
Speaker 1: the big year for Ludwig Alberg is twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: He's never played in the major before, he's a he's
Speaker 1: a winner on the PGA Tour. What do you see
Speaker 1: as the ceiling and what do you think his schedule
Speaker 1: is going to be.
Speaker 2: Like, well, I think you know, any any events that
Speaker 2: he's not eligible in, you know, everybody will want him
Speaker 2: to play in that team because he's a bit of
Speaker 2: a golden ticket. But he also is also an incredibly
Speaker 2: nice and choirman young kid, which which is you know,
Speaker 2: is also a fantastic attribute. His schedule will be very busy,
Speaker 2: he will have to deal with an awful lot of
Speaker 2: these questions because he's certainly not somebody that's going to
Speaker 2: be able to fly under the radar. Your great point,
Speaker 2: how did they react to a year like like last year?
Speaker 2: Very difficult to go better than that, but it wouldn't
Speaker 2: wouldn't surprise me if he is looking. Yeah, again, I
Speaker 2: don't want to do what I've just said we shouldn't do,
Speaker 2: but clearly the guy has got talent to win majors.
Speaker 2: He will, he will hopefully find his own pace. Well,
Speaker 2: like I said, he already he already seems to be
Speaker 2: very pragmatic. He already seems to be incredibly laid back.
Speaker 2: He wouldn't be able to have achieved what he's achieved
Speaker 2: in these last few months if he wasn't. Look, I
Speaker 2: think they understand now, you know, when when when I
Speaker 2: was playing, and it was all about, you know, if
Speaker 2: measuring the amount of top tens you had from a
Speaker 2: year to year, that's not how things have done now,
Speaker 2: you know, you measure performance on certain levels and on
Speaker 2: the tiny little minushai that a fantastic cycling coach over
Speaker 2: here was so David Brailsford was always talking about just
Speaker 2: you know, shaving tiny little bits off of here, and
Speaker 2: their tiny little improvements here are their main massive differences
Speaker 2: at the end, And there'll may be not that perspective,
Speaker 2: and they maybe don't necessarily mean that he'll jump up
Speaker 2: another couple of spots. Well he's going to because of
Speaker 2: where he started, but in the world rankings or whatever,
Speaker 2: but very very soon those things will start to take
Speaker 2: shape and take hold. Yeah, he's going to get an
Speaker 2: awful lot of opportunities. He's going to be someday that
Speaker 2: would be comfortable in major championship settling into those even
Speaker 2: looked like he took the pressures of the rider company stride.
Speaker 2: It's very very embryonic his career, and I think we
Speaker 2: just all need to sit back, not put any pressure on,
Speaker 2: not putting too much expectations on, and just just watch this.
Speaker 2: You know, watch this guy start the shine.
Speaker 1: Someone who has gone through what ludvig Aldberg is about
Speaker 1: to go through. Rory McElroy wins the Race for Dubai,
Speaker 1: which is the equivalent of the DP World FedEx Cup
Speaker 1: for the fifth time. He continues to be one of
Speaker 1: the most interesting people in our sport. Made the decision
Speaker 1: at the end of this and said last week he's
Speaker 1: going off the policy board on the PGA Tour. He
Speaker 1: has been, in my opinion, the PGA tour spokesperson for
Speaker 1: the last two years. I think they've asked him to
Speaker 1: do that. I think he volunteered for that. What kind
Speaker 1: of grade do you give Rory McElroy for twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Three, Yeah, that question was asked of him and he
Speaker 2: said seven out of ten. The horrible thing, the horrible
Speaker 2: thing for Rory is that you know, by the time
Speaker 2: he was twenty four, he'd won four majors.
Speaker 3: That's that's that's a burden. Culty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well, I know, I know. I was just thinking,
Speaker 2: in fact, I forgot to ask him for a loan
Speaker 2: of five quick the other day there. But yeah, so
Speaker 2: so he's not done too badly for himself. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2: But everybody, all the all the guys talk about major
Speaker 2: championships being the measure, and you know, I know he
Speaker 2: will be incredibly disappointed. You know he actually in fact,
Speaker 2: you know, did he not? Did he not say back
Speaker 2: on the that full swing thing, that he's not one,
Speaker 2: He's not one another major for a while, and it
Speaker 2: feels like the next time he does it, it'll be
Speaker 2: like he's going to try and win the first major.
Speaker 2: So that just shows you what it's like. It's pretty
Speaker 2: tough to get to get back in that saddle again
Speaker 2: and and feel comfortable in it. But he did come
Speaker 2: close obviously the US Open La Country Club this year.
Speaker 1: What do you see, Andrew, because you follow I mean
Speaker 1: obviously for Sky, you do all the majors, you watch,
Speaker 1: you do a lot of American golf, you do all
Speaker 1: the European Tour golf. So you see Rory play a
Speaker 1: lot of golf, and you watch him play a lot
Speaker 1: of golf in the majors when you watch the way
Speaker 1: he played, and you watch the way he putted in
Speaker 1: Rome at the Ryder Cup, and you look at the
Speaker 1: way he has putted and played on Sunday when he's
Speaker 1: had chances to win majors in the last decade. I
Speaker 1: mean happy by Farrell was number one in the charts
Speaker 1: the last time he won a major on And that's
Speaker 1: how long ago this is. And I would have thought
Speaker 1: in fourteen when he won his last major, if we
Speaker 1: were in twenty three, I think conservatively, I would have
Speaker 1: thought the number would been at least ten. So what
Speaker 1: do you see when you watch him play? Because I
Speaker 1: think he is other than I never saw.
Speaker 3: Jack Nicholas play.
Speaker 1: I grew up watching Greg Norman and then Tiger, so
Speaker 1: I watched Tiger felt. I mean, I look at Rory
Speaker 1: McElroy and that's including Brooks and DJ that I've been
Speaker 1: lucky enough to work with other than Tiger Woods, I've
Speaker 1: never seen a player like him that has everything you
Speaker 1: could design.
Speaker 3: He's like DJ. Right.
Speaker 1: If you were going to design a golfer, you would
Speaker 1: design someone like DJ. Tall, hits at miles. If you
Speaker 1: were going to design a different type of golfer that
Speaker 1: wasn't six foot four, you would design Rory McElroy. Tons
Speaker 1: of speed, big, big heart, big guts, can shoot low.
Speaker 1: But why are we sitting on four majors for someone
Speaker 1: that is just so good?
Speaker 2: Look at yes, I think that that two things. I mean,
Speaker 2: we've got to be realistic sometimes you've got to be
Speaker 2: in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 3: But he's always in the hot for majors.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like rarely is he not in
Speaker 1: the hunt when it.
Speaker 2: Came well, a few too many times he shot himself
Speaker 2: out of it and then come back in and created it.
Speaker 2: And that, you know, that to me, I think is
Speaker 2: him trying too hard and not allowing his game to
Speaker 2: because he knows how desperate you know, we all desperately
Speaker 2: want him to get back and the winner's trails. Nobody
Speaker 2: wants it more than he does, of course, because he
Speaker 2: knows he's going to continually get asked this question, and
Speaker 2: you know it's it's records and historian and all that
Speaker 2: stuff will mantle to him. And I think, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just looking at it there. I mean, statistically,
Speaker 2: you know, he's the only person to have fifty four
Speaker 2: hole leader of major championship, one hundred and fiftyeth Open Championship,
Speaker 2: hit all greens in regulation and lose and that was
Speaker 2: because of Cameron Smith's absolutely brilliance. Although I We'll say
Speaker 2: again there was so many opportunities and the puttle, just
Speaker 2: the puttle.
Speaker 1: Just I couldn't believed. I couldn't believe at St. Andrew's
Speaker 1: by the time we got to the fifth old because
Speaker 1: DJ was a couple of groups in front, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: by the time we get out to the turn, Rory's
Speaker 1: going to have birdied four out of six, four out
Speaker 1: of eight. He's going to be making the run. And
Speaker 1: it didn't happen. Andrew with all of the landscape of
Speaker 1: where professional golf is and everything that's happened over the
Speaker 1: last two years, with the tour and live and kind
Speaker 1: of the professional golf world being turned upside down. I
Speaker 1: said earlier that Rory is is the spokesperson for the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. He volunteered for that. They were happy for
Speaker 1: him to do that. But from a major standpoint, how
Speaker 1: much do you think everything that he's taken on board
Speaker 1: over the last two years has affected him when it counts,
Speaker 1: Because also he's going into every major championship press conference.
Speaker 1: Haven't answer the question you ever want a major in
Speaker 1: ten years? And when are you going to major? And
Speaker 1: then he's going into every press conference and people are
Speaker 1: going PG Tour live. That's a lot for one human
Speaker 1: being to have to deal with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's exhausting, Claude, it's absolutely exhausting. I think he's
Speaker 2: I think his colleagues took advantage of him in that regard.
Speaker 2: You know, one or two of the others should have
Speaker 2: stepped up to the plate. It was noticeable by their
Speaker 2: absence that they didn't want to do that. Then then
Speaker 2: I look at somebody arguably the best that there's ever been, Tiger.
Speaker 2: Would Tiger River done that? I don't think so. He
Speaker 2: was there to do a job. His job was to
Speaker 2: focus on those events. But but let's be let's be
Speaker 2: honest here with this. Though Rory McElroy gives all of
Speaker 2: everybody in the media, you know, headlines and stories and
Speaker 2: something worth writing, because he is himself in those things.
Speaker 2: He doesn't he doesn't straight back to everything. He doesn't
Speaker 2: just give it the old cut cliches and look at
Speaker 2: his watch and wish to get out of there in
Speaker 2: thirty seconds. If there's a talking point in the game,
Speaker 2: he'll offer his opinion. And you know, we're almost taking
Speaker 2: advantage of that, that niceness about Rory McElroy. But but
Speaker 2: at the same time, he was doing that over the
Speaker 2: last two years. It was exhausting. He was looking around,
Speaker 2: nobody else was backing him up. As you quite rightly said,
Speaker 2: he was there to step into his office, and he
Speaker 2: was being called into the wrong kind of meetings at
Speaker 2: the wrong time. And and of course then ultimately as
Speaker 2: well as having stood there and did that, then all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, he was he was sideswiped by the
Speaker 2: by the announcement that that you know, they decided to
Speaker 2: sort of work together and amalgamate to look at the
Speaker 2: prospects of of putting things together, which I think came
Speaker 2: as a bit of a shock term. I think, I
Speaker 2: think this is the right move. I think this is
Speaker 2: absolutely the right move for him. It's it's it's a
Speaker 2: shame it's taken this long. But I've also got to
Speaker 2: take my hat off to him and say that respectfully,
Speaker 2: he did, he did what was expected of him in
Speaker 2: difficult times. And you know, yeah, again you've got to
Speaker 2: absolutely admire that matter. And I feel for Jordan who's
Speaker 2: now just taken that on, because Jordan's going to have
Speaker 2: to understand what that's like to deal with. And it's
Speaker 2: the questions are just insessant, Claude, These these major championships
Speaker 2: which mean the most to them. It's not the golfing press,
Speaker 2: it's the world's press, and the questions are just incessant
Speaker 2: and very very emotive and very very taxing.
Speaker 1: So twenty twenty three, given the landscape of everything that's happened,
Speaker 1: you are, I mean, you're a European tour guy, right,
Speaker 1: I mean you were never one of the guys that
Speaker 1: moved to You never moved to America. You played, you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't start in Europe and then play full time
Speaker 1: in the US. Where do we think the DP World
Speaker 1: Tour is in twenty twenty three? We've got these ten
Speaker 1: players now with this new system that are coming to
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, which I'm excited to see what these
Speaker 1: players do. But there is a narrative out there that,
Speaker 1: given the kind of the way that Keith Pelly and
Speaker 1: the DP World Tour have kind of hitched their wagon
Speaker 1: to the PGA Tour, right, what where is the Where
Speaker 1: is the DP World Tour in twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: where do you think it goes in the next two
Speaker 1: three years?
Speaker 2: I think I think, maybe surprisingly to you, I think
Speaker 2: the DP World Tour is actually in a pretty strong
Speaker 2: place that, you know, the opportunity for these players, the
Speaker 2: strategic alliance that's that's available to both tours, you know,
Speaker 2: the package that we set up in order to to
Speaker 2: create that union, the amount of money that the DP
Speaker 2: World Tour players are playing for. Just now, the opportunity,
Speaker 2: as we've seen for ten to go over there to
Speaker 2: the PGA Tour. I think we get five, don't we
Speaker 2: from from outside the top one two, five or something
Speaker 2: from from the PGA Tour. I think come in at
Speaker 2: any one time to other it's an opportunity for them
Speaker 2: to get back onto the PGA Tour. I think, I
Speaker 2: think it is what it what it is. You know,
Speaker 2: we're kidding ourself. There's absolutely no way it can it
Speaker 2: can go toward at all with the PGA Tour, that's
Speaker 2: for sure. But I don't think the negative argument about
Speaker 2: being just a feeder tour for that is justifiable. It
Speaker 2: may look like that to some, but I think it's
Speaker 2: still a very very good, strong tour and it's own
Speaker 2: merit and hopefully as well. We'd like to see when
Speaker 2: the when the FedEx finishes, the FedEx Cup finishes over
Speaker 2: there in the PGA Tour. We'd like to think that
Speaker 2: you know, some of America's major stars would maybe like
Speaker 2: to cement the position in world golf by coming over
Speaker 2: to the DPA World too and proving it. We're certainly
Speaker 2: a very hospitable tour and we welcome these guys to
Speaker 2: come over, and we absolutely love them coming over. And
Speaker 2: if they want to play a little bit more like
Speaker 2: they didn't do at the Ryder Cup or just before
Speaker 2: the Ryder Cup, then then more than welcome to come
Speaker 2: along and do that.
Speaker 1: I knew I was going to ask you about the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup. I knew i'd get you started. We did,
Speaker 1: we did some TV together. I mean, obviously, it looks
Speaker 1: like in hindsight, Luke got at one hundred percent right
Speaker 1: and Zach got a lot of things wrong. If if
Speaker 1: you could go back at the beginning of the week
Speaker 1: and advise Zach Johnson, hindsight's great. But going into that week,
Speaker 1: what do you think the US could have done differently
Speaker 1: excluding the fact that other than Dustin Johnson, nobody played
Speaker 1: golf in other than or excuse me, other than Brooks,
Speaker 1: nobody played golf, I mean, nobody played any golf.
Speaker 2: No. So so, first of all, that's alarming. I've got
Speaker 2: a question the players that have done that, because would
Speaker 2: they do that at any of their own individual major championships.
Speaker 2: Would they take that amount of time off just before
Speaker 2: one of their majors and think that it was honestly
Speaker 2: going to give a good account of themselves. No? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: My other question is you've got Stuart Sink, Jim Fury,
Speaker 2: Davis Love the Thub Streves, Steve stre Zak, Johnson. I
Speaker 2: hope I've not missed anybody else out at least thirty
Speaker 2: couple five very couples. Of course, at least very five
Speaker 2: or something. It's ryder cups under under all, under all
Speaker 2: their belts and this task force. And no, nobody's going
Speaker 2: to hang on the second, lads, No, just's playing. Nobody's
Speaker 2: playing hang on a second? Why? Why is? Why is
Speaker 2: nobdy playing? I also want to question the players and say,
Speaker 2: why do you not want to play for these captains
Speaker 2: and vice captain? Shoot? You know, because this is not
Speaker 2: just about if you want to let yourself down, you
Speaker 2: can go ahead and let yourself down. I don't care,
Speaker 2: that's fine. The European's lapdot up. You want to let
Speaker 2: your teammates down, you want to let your captains down.
Speaker 2: Where's the respect for Zach Johnson and that task force
Speaker 2: that you can't be bothered playing for five weeks prior
Speaker 2: to our Ryder Cup. It's not just you you're letting down.
Speaker 2: What about the American fans? What about the people that
Speaker 2: paid the trip to get over there to Rome to
Speaker 2: support you, and you're only going to give it a
Speaker 2: half baked opportunity And it was no surprise it. Guess what,
Speaker 2: you started to play more like you can play at
Speaker 2: the end of the week when it was basically all
Speaker 2: but lost. I mean, I just don't understand. There is
Speaker 2: no sport that I know that any professional athlete would
Speaker 2: conceivably take that and much amount of time off before
Speaker 2: what is one of the biggest the Olympics or whatever,
Speaker 2: the winter, any of those things would conceivably take that
Speaker 2: kind of time off and and expect to perform anywhere
Speaker 2: near that optimum level. I thought it was really really poor.
Speaker 1: Why Historically, and I've talked about this in the past,
Speaker 1: but I'd love to get your opinion on this.
Speaker 3: We tend to want to have.
Speaker 1: Captains that have big personalities that that there's been a
Speaker 1: little bit of a move away from that with going
Speaker 1: to strict and stuff like that. But I think the
Speaker 1: europe the Europeans have excelled with captains that weren't necessarily
Speaker 1: super super superstars that didn't other than Faldo, and Faldo
Speaker 1: didn't do a great job because they got killed at Valhalla.
Speaker 1: But all of the other captains have kind of had
Speaker 1: this kind of under the radar approach. And why do
Speaker 1: you think that works? And what do you think the
Speaker 1: US could take from that? Because there's this thing that
Speaker 1: we've got to take proven, proven winners as our Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup captains, right right, We've got to take all these
Speaker 1: guys that have won multiple majors. They've got to be icons,
Speaker 1: they've got to be you know, bonafide, you know, Hall
Speaker 1: of famers, and we don't see that. I mean, we
Speaker 1: just don't see that from the Europeans.
Speaker 3: And why does it work?
Speaker 2: I mean that's centially well, first of all, First of all,
Speaker 2: before we talk about the captains, you've got to take
Speaker 2: twelve players that want to play for your red, white
Speaker 2: and blue, right because I'm seeing what I see is
Speaker 2: that that's not the case. There might be there might
Speaker 2: be ten of them that might have been the case
Speaker 2: this year, might be nine I'm not seeing twelve players
Speaker 2: that want to play for you. Guys had a team
Speaker 2: two years ago Whistling Straits that were meant to dominate
Speaker 2: for ten years. Now I know you were. You were
Speaker 2: arguably more depleted because of Live than the European Tour.
Speaker 2: But the European Tour DP World two this year had
Speaker 2: guys informed at Whistling Straights. We didn't. But you need
Speaker 2: to get twelve players that want to play. I can't
Speaker 2: stand listening to some of these multimillionaires bitching that they're
Speaker 2: pitching up at a Ryder Cup and somebody's not paying
Speaker 2: me any money for it. It's just there's something there's
Speaker 2: something wrong with your psychic and personally, I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: anybody in my team even if they qualified, they did
Speaker 2: not want to play for the Red, White and Blue.
Speaker 2: I find it disgraceful. You go to the DP World Tour,
Speaker 2: every single man will bleed for that team. They will
Speaker 2: pay to play a Rider Cup, not the other way around.
Speaker 2: And until you sort that out, you always going to
Speaker 2: be up against it. Then let's talk about the captains. Look,
Speaker 2: a major winner doesn't make a good captain. You know,
Speaker 2: a great golfer doesn't make a good coach. You've got
Speaker 2: to be able to talk to players. You've got to
Speaker 2: able to to be the the you know, the the
Speaker 2: glue that holds everything together. You've got to be able
Speaker 2: to take the time to understand all the players what
Speaker 2: makes them to Paul McGinley are a very challenging one
Speaker 2: with Victor Dubison, Who's who's an interesting character and McGinley
Speaker 2: managed to work that out. Sometimes if if you're the
Speaker 2: big man, it's one this one that won the next thing,
Speaker 2: then then the Ryder Cup can be about them, not
Speaker 2: about the players, not about the match, not about the team.
Speaker 2: I still I still thought that. Look, I don't think
Speaker 2: Zach Johnson necessarily did a terrible job. I don't think
Speaker 2: he's players pitched up and and like I said, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter how don't listen. You can be you could
Speaker 2: be the best cat in all but if your players
Speaker 2: don't pitch up and forget about it.
Speaker 1: So Coulty, if you're the US, who do you pick
Speaker 1: for the next Ryder Cup Captain?
Speaker 2: Well, you're asking You're asking me an honest question rather
Speaker 2: than what I go to Johnson again, who do we
Speaker 2: pick for the Well? Look, I mean, doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be well, it doesn't have to be taking no absolutely hot,
Speaker 2: well how can it? How how can it not be Tiger?
Speaker 2: But then again, is you know, is that look look
Speaker 2: the players played from at the President's cub when he
Speaker 2: went when they went down to Australia. If any player,
Speaker 2: if any player doesn't step still and listen to every
Speaker 2: single breath that Tiger would make when he's talking to them,
Speaker 2: then the person needs that head looked at. If you
Speaker 2: can't respect that mane, you can't respect anybody. So against
Speaker 2: what I've just said about, you know, some day that's
Speaker 2: achieved so much, and that guy commands the room every
Speaker 2: single time he walks in there, and I would absolutely hope,
Speaker 2: for damn certain the next time up there in Rochester
Speaker 2: that twelve players want to bleed for that man and
Speaker 2: for your country.
Speaker 1: Lastly, Andrew, it's been a crazy two years. Is the
Speaker 1: merger going to happen? Is the merger not going to happen?
Speaker 1: We've got TGL now being postponed to twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: We've got Live that still at the airing of this
Speaker 1: doesn't have a schedule out Where the hell is professional
Speaker 1: golf this time? Next year, give me, give me what
Speaker 1: your wants are, and then give me what you think
Speaker 1: will happen.
Speaker 2: I that's another good question. I I want things to
Speaker 2: come to come together much more sort of globally. I
Speaker 2: think I think everybody does. I don't you know, Live
Speaker 2: went away and did what it did. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: with Jimmy down and and and the people over there
Speaker 2: trying to trying to get everybody to talk, I think
Speaker 2: that's a sensible way forward, everybody involved together to to
Speaker 2: to give up, to give a product that you know
Speaker 2: that is worthy of all that money that's that's being
Speaker 2: chucked around. I think the difficult thing at the minute
Speaker 2: is when everybody's trying to combat everybody else, there isn't
Speaker 2: the money there to carry on doing that. And and
Speaker 2: that's that's going to be an issue. And so you know,
Speaker 2: at some at some point as sooner that gets sorted
Speaker 2: and things get tied up, the better for everybody, because
Speaker 2: at the minute, the way it's going, despite what all
Speaker 2: these players think, you know, in in both America and
Speaker 2: certainly over here in Europe, there is absolutely not a
Speaker 2: bottomless pit of money that they can tap into. And
Speaker 2: if if the game is going to be expanding any
Speaker 2: well near the rate that it has done, then absolutely
Speaker 2: everybody needs to sit around the table and and and
Speaker 2: and talk. Again. You know, the morality aspect of it
Speaker 2: with me, I can't get because you know, we're all
Speaker 2: using plastics here and there and everything and derivatives of
Speaker 2: of of petroleum. So it's it's a difficult argument that
Speaker 2: to have. But you know, we all need to. Everybody
Speaker 2: everybody does does business and and money talks and and
Speaker 2: you know we need to we need to do things
Speaker 2: before that that cash starts to run out.
Speaker 1: I think regardless of what side of the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: Live Battle you're on, and I think everybody is kind
Speaker 1: of entrenched and isn't moving from that. But one of
Speaker 1: the things that I think has been kind of cool
Speaker 1: that Lay has brought back into people talking about was
Speaker 1: the massive success of their trip down to Australia and
Speaker 1: playing in Adelaide. You won twice on the Australasian Tour.
Speaker 1: I think international golf, you're hearing Rory talk now more
Speaker 1: about we need more tournaments internationally. You know, it was
Speaker 1: the running joke that all the WGCs were basically the
Speaker 1: World Golf Championships were all in the US. I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that Lives maybe shone a light
Speaker 1: on is taking golf to places that maybe don't get
Speaker 1: to see great players and I would love to see.
Speaker 1: I think it's great that the PGA Tour is the
Speaker 1: Scottish Open is a PGA Tour event. I think it
Speaker 1: would be great to have some bigger PGA Tour events
Speaker 1: outside the United States, because I mean, the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: has been so America centric that it's like all the
Speaker 1: decisions just get for what happens in the US, and
Speaker 1: I think it's cool. One of the cool things for
Speaker 1: us in Australia that went down to Live Andrew was
Speaker 1: the fans had never seen that many good players, that
Speaker 1: many good players in one place. I mean, all over
Speaker 1: the world you get tournaments to where they bring in
Speaker 1: some of the big guns. That's been going on forever.
Speaker 1: But I think to take a full field PGA to
Speaker 1: our designated event to somewhere in Australia, the crowds and
Speaker 1: the people, it would be.
Speaker 2: Amazing well one hundred percent. But the problem I've always
Speaker 2: seen up until Live being able to do what it's
Speaker 2: done is we create the monster for ourselves you know,
Speaker 2: these animals cry out for more money, we give them
Speaker 2: more money. Then when you give them the more money,
Speaker 2: you go, I'm not doing that unless you give me
Speaker 2: more money. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: they put themselves in a position where they go, well,
Speaker 2: and you know, I don't have to go over there
Speaker 2: because I'm quite comfortable over here. So somewhere along that line,
Speaker 2: a commitment drawn up by the players has to be that, yes,
Speaker 2: they will travel. You have to, you know, do it
Speaker 2: for the You know, if you believe all this retric
Speaker 2: this rubbish that comes out of the mouth, do it
Speaker 2: for the game. Then let these kids in all these
Speaker 2: far flung countries actually see what it's like, top quality,
Speaker 2: best players going head to head. That kind of production
Speaker 2: would be sensational. The world would want that. What I've
Speaker 2: seen over the last twenty thirty years too many players
Speaker 2: that have been paid everything they want, and when push
Speaker 2: comes to shop, they then go, no, I'm not doing
Speaker 2: that now, I'm not wearing a hat.
Speaker 3: He just lost his hat sponsored Do you see that?
Speaker 2: No? Did he?
Speaker 1: Gold Patrick Can'tley, Goldman Sachs not renewing for twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four on the hat.
Speaker 3: We think about that.
Speaker 2: Well there you go, well there you go. I just
Speaker 2: that's that's maybe they just couldn't find enough material. I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: Quickly Scottie Shuffler, is he gonna get this putting turned around?
Speaker 1: I mean, this kid, I mean, this kid is playing.
Speaker 1: He is so much fun to watch play golf. And
Speaker 1: I don't I mean, Brooks played a couple of practice
Speaker 1: rounds with him at the at the at the Ryder
Speaker 1: Cop and I I haven't seen him. I'm seen him
Speaker 1: a close in about a year. But yeah, he's impressive, man,
Speaker 1: I mean he is is legit impressive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I want I'm want to turn the
Speaker 2: clock back a little bit. You know when when I
Speaker 2: mean when he first came out and people thought thought
Speaker 2: he was good, and then then he then he he
Speaker 2: just you know, went like an exossy, like a rocket,
Speaker 2: this right up to the stars. He was sensational. Then again,
Speaker 2: like we talked about with with Ludvegg, you know, how
Speaker 2: did he react? How did he react? He went even
Speaker 2: better and he became world's number one, and he absorbed
Speaker 2: it and he took it in his stride and he
Speaker 2: was sensational. Because that must be impossible almost to deal
Speaker 2: with it, and he was. He was absolutely stunning. And
Speaker 2: how he handled that and what what is required of
Speaker 2: him to be worlds Number one golfer. We've then going
Speaker 2: on to see him, you know, play at such such
Speaker 2: a level, you know, I mean that record what was
Speaker 2: over seventeen strokes gained at the players this year. He
Speaker 2: hit seventy six percent of greens in regulation this year.
Speaker 2: This guy's a stud, an absolute stud. And I'm almost
Speaker 2: in tears at watching him walk off a golf course
Speaker 2: not getting anything like what he deserves with the quality
Speaker 2: of golf that he plays. And it is interesting that well,
Speaker 2: I think it's maybe started to happen now where he's
Speaker 2: almost focusing on that so much that it's becoming a
Speaker 2: bit of an issue. I think he stuck with a
Speaker 2: putter for such a long time. I mean, the definition
Speaker 2: of insanity is you keep doing the same thing over
Speaker 2: and over and over again and eventually and expecting to change,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't. You know, just change, Just change for
Speaker 2: five minutes, just change for a round, and just get
Speaker 2: something different. Subsequently, the event he then did change and
Speaker 2: nothing much happened. But I do not want I do
Speaker 2: not want to see him have to suffer on the
Speaker 2: greens like he has done in the last couple of years,
Speaker 2: and and I don't know what it is. I mean,
Speaker 2: I saw Rory do it briefly for a couple of
Speaker 2: years when he looked like he was scrutinizing every single
Speaker 2: blade of grass on the green, trying to hit the
Speaker 2: perfect part and forgetting just about putting. And I started
Speaker 2: to look thing that that Scotty looks like he's trying
Speaker 2: to do something similar. He's trying to perfect butt. He
Speaker 2: struggles a wee bit with pace. And when the pace
Speaker 2: is off, it doesn't matter whether you pick the line,
Speaker 2: the balls not going on the on the path that
Speaker 2: you're going to send it in. But you know, in
Speaker 2: the in the in the New Years, in the New
Speaker 2: Year's wish list, you know you wish for Scottish chefer
Speaker 2: to actually find something in the greens, just to get
Speaker 2: get something out of this game that that quality of
Speaker 2: golf deserves.
Speaker 1: Well, Andrew, we could talk for another couple of hours
Speaker 1: on everything. Always great to get your take. Two things
Speaker 1: I want I want from you before we leave, best
Speaker 1: Scottish hangover cure.
Speaker 2: Well, just another drink, just keep going just just whatever
Speaker 2: it was from last night, just just just just fill
Speaker 2: up again.
Speaker 1: My go to when I lived in Glasgow was a
Speaker 1: bottle iron brew and square sausage sandwich.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd go for whiskey again.
Speaker 1: Last thing I want you to do for all our listeners,
Speaker 1: Andrew repeat this phrase, shaken not stirred. Give it to us.
Speaker 2: Yes, dear boy, how would you let you? I'll have
Speaker 2: my shaken not stop.
Speaker 1: If the golf thing doesn't pan out the Sean Connery impersonations.
Speaker 1: You can make make a good living doing that, mate.
Speaker 2: Thank you. That's very kind.
Speaker 3: Good to see a pal. Hope we'll catch up soon.
Speaker 1: And you're doing a great job at Scott keep it going.
Speaker 2: Thanks Paul, Love you mate. You take care Okay, all
Speaker 2: of that, bud.
Speaker 1: So that was Andrew Coltart and listen. I'm lucky enough
Speaker 1: to to spend a lot of time over the course
Speaker 1: of each year with Andrew, and he has his finger
Speaker 1: on the pulse of not only the professional game, but
Speaker 1: specifically what is going on with European golf. Like I said,
Speaker 1: played on a Wryder cop one on the DP World.
Speaker 1: He's won all over the world and really really one
Speaker 1: of the great voices in golf. I want to thank
Speaker 1: everyone for listening to the pod. If you haven't gone
Speaker 1: back and looked at some of the old episodes, We've
Speaker 1: got some great ones with some great guests, and as
Speaker 1: the winter months are coming, there's definitely guests that can
Speaker 1: help you with your golf game and keep an eye
Speaker 1: on my social Over the next couple of weeks, we're
Speaker 1: going to be doing some giveaways. But I can't thank
Speaker 1: everybody enough for listening. The pod continues to do well
Speaker 1: and I continue to be surprised how many people listen.
Speaker 1: Son of a Butcher comes to you every Wednesday.
Speaker 2: We will see you next week.