Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.
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Speaker 1: Member SIPC, We are back with another edition of the
Speaker 1: Frida Egg Podcast. Today I am joined by twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: US Midam champ Lucas. Michelle. Lucas is in Australian. He's
Speaker 1: the first international player to win.
Speaker 2: The US Midam.
Speaker 1: He won it last week out at Colorado Golf Club.
Speaker 1: He is from Perth originally but went to school in
Speaker 1: Melbourne and we get a little bit on Lucas's background
Speaker 1: is how he got into golf and how he got
Speaker 1: to the US to play the Midham and his plans
Speaker 1: for the next year as well as a little bit
Speaker 1: on the Midham. Enjoy the episode. Lucas is a golf
Speaker 1: course architecture nut in fact, he's now texting me pictures
Speaker 1: of a seaside course that he found in Perth sand Greens.
Speaker 1: He's definitely he's just a golf tragic. So it's an
Speaker 1: interesting conversation and really looking forward to seeing Lucas play
Speaker 1: the next year on TV in the US AM Masters
Speaker 1: and US Open. So, without further ado, here is Lucas Michelle.
Speaker 3: The fried egg requires a different technique. What you need
Speaker 3: to do is actually square the face so they'll dig
Speaker 3: down underneath that bad lie and propel that ball right
Speaker 3: out onto the green.
Speaker 1: Here's it's a playing out of a buried lion of
Speaker 1: bunker is completely different than playing out of a night
Speaker 1: and clean lion of greenside bunker. You need to be
Speaker 1: aggressive on any shop, whether it's sitting cleanly or it's
Speaker 1: Friday Egg.
Speaker 2: Well, we've all made the dreaded Frida egg not to
Speaker 2: be feared though it's actually a pretty easy shock to hit.
Speaker 1: The best Am events are like the invates at the clubs,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, like I've seen, like I've obviously played a
Speaker 2: few of them now and like I thought, the Northeast
Speaker 2: Am was probably as good as it gets. Really, I
Speaker 2: mean that course is awesome one a moy set and
Speaker 2: then like the club runs it perfectly and they get
Speaker 2: in there, like I think they get in the where
Speaker 2: is it Rhode Island. Yeah, the Rhode Island State Golf
Speaker 2: Association comes in and kind of does the rules and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, but the club still runs the tournament properly,
Speaker 2: and you know, they just they take they take ownership
Speaker 2: of it and they yeah, they just do it right.
Speaker 1: How do you like?
Speaker 2: What? So?
Speaker 1: Like? What made you start playing stuff like Northeast am
Speaker 1: want to moist, like traveling over the US to play?
Speaker 2: I well, I finished my studies at UNI in end
Speaker 2: of twenty seventeen. I'd never been to the US to
Speaker 2: play golf, but I'd always kind of gone around and
Speaker 2: played top level amateur stuff, you know, through Europe and
Speaker 2: the UK and and I don't know, I had a
Speaker 2: pretty keen interest in it all, in playing good courses
Speaker 2: and playing competition golf. So I sort of started out
Speaker 2: I guess. I mean, as a junior you play competition golf,
Speaker 2: and then I kind of got old enough that I'd
Speaker 2: kind of get into some big events back home, and
Speaker 2: then at some point you start wanting to travel overseas
Speaker 2: so my first sort of big ones were when I
Speaker 2: traveled to the UK played the Dutch Ameter at a
Speaker 2: course called Eroinhoven, which is like a good Harry Colt course.
Speaker 2: There's actually a bunch of really good Harry Colt courses
Speaker 2: in in the Netherlands. Then I played the warm Heath Trophy,
Speaker 2: which is I think it's Herbert Fowler walm Heath, but
Speaker 2: it's like great, great old school architecture, really early Golden Age,
Speaker 2: so it's like kind of got kind of it's a
Speaker 2: bit rougher around the edges in terms of the shaping
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, so that's really cool to see.
Speaker 2: And then I played like the North of Scotland. I
Speaker 2: think that was a course called lossy Mouth. Actually it's
Speaker 2: called more a golf club, but it's in losty Mouth.
Speaker 2: And then I kind of just started traveling around and
Speaker 2: really enjoyed the I guess the element of really good
Speaker 2: courses and really good tournaments. And then I sort of
Speaker 2: that was on the way to an exchange for my
Speaker 2: university degree where I did six months in s andrew
Speaker 2: So that was I guess the start of a bit
Speaker 2: more love for links, golf and all that.
Speaker 1: So that that had to be well, got the xtay
Speaker 1: to go spend six months at Saint Andrews. That's one
Speaker 1: of my regrets now, never doing a broad thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was funny, like when I when
Speaker 2: I moved to so I moved from Western Australia. I
Speaker 2: grew up as a kid in Western Australian and I
Speaker 2: moved to Melbourne and I started studying at the University
Speaker 2: of Melbourne and I I didn't kind of realize, but
Speaker 2: Melbourne UNI had this exchange program with the University of
Speaker 2: Saint Andrews. And it took me until my third year
Speaker 2: before I realized it actually was there. And then I
Speaker 2: remember looking online and it said, you know, University of
Speaker 2: Saint Andrews. And I'm like, hold on a minute, like
Speaker 2: that's the St Andrews, isn't it like in Scotland? And
Speaker 2: I looked it up and it was, but there was
Speaker 2: only one spot for an exchange so kind of looked
Speaker 2: looked into it a bit more and applied and I
Speaker 2: just had my fingers crossed and eventually got that spot there.
Speaker 2: And then that was the sort of the trip I planned.
Speaker 2: My first overseas trip I sort of planned was to
Speaker 2: go play some events before I went in and studied
Speaker 2: at Saint Andrews, and yeah, that was sort of the
Speaker 2: leading I played those ones I sort of talked about
Speaker 2: just then, like in the Netherlands and in England and
Speaker 2: up in Scotland, and then had six months over in
Speaker 2: St Andrews, which was I mean, the bit's actually the
Speaker 2: best deal in the world because you're effectively considered a
Speaker 2: town resident. What they call it's a Links ticket, which
Speaker 2: is it's a two hundred pound pass for all seven
Speaker 2: courses of the St Andrews Links Trust, so that includes
Speaker 2: like the Old Course of course, and that lasts a year.
Speaker 2: So you played, you paid two hundred pounds for a
Speaker 2: year's golf on unlimited off on any of the courses,
Speaker 2: including the Old Course. So it's yeah, I made the
Speaker 2: most of that. I think I probably played the Old
Speaker 2: Course in over six months, probably like I'm going to say,
Speaker 2: like thirty times, twenty five times, I don't know, and
Speaker 2: then a new course a bunch and the Jubilee and
Speaker 2: the Castle and all of them. They're all really really good.
Speaker 2: So that was pretty much dream come true for someone
Speaker 2: like me.
Speaker 1: I need to look up like graduate programs at University
Speaker 1: of the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a good it's a good university. I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure they just got like he's got rated like
Speaker 2: number one in the UK for some list. I don't
Speaker 2: know what exactly was, but it's where the Prince, Prince
Speaker 2: and Kate, Yeah, Prince William and Kate Mett. I think. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's a pretty like prestigious uni. But it's yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's an unbelievable deal to be able to
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 1: Were you playing golf at University of Melbourne then?
Speaker 2: And then yeah, back home, like college golf doesn't really
Speaker 2: exist in Australia. It's kind of disappointing. So all the
Speaker 2: golf that I've played has been outside of any university
Speaker 2: or college programs. So I've just the way it sort
Speaker 2: of works back home, is you the guys that I'm
Speaker 2: kind of friendly with that sort of my age a
Speaker 2: bit younger, tend to to play their golf separate to
Speaker 2: any college affiliation. But we've got good state sporting organizations
Speaker 2: that sort of run high performance programs and through those
Speaker 2: it's kind of like a team training environment environment and
Speaker 2: that's how the players get better that in that sort
Speaker 2: of way, So it's definitely a bit different to college.
Speaker 2: So through my I studied engineering at Union, and through
Speaker 2: that I kind of didn't really play any golf while
Speaker 2: I was actually at YETI, but I played it all
Speaker 2: on the side in the summers and played all my tournaments.
Speaker 2: There's a good we've got a good amateur circuit in Australia.
Speaker 2: We always get a few top players come down and
Speaker 2: they'll play like the March of the Amateurs. I was
Speaker 2: the amateur and a few of the other big tournaments.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so since you graduated, do you graduate when
Speaker 1: you're twenty two ish?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I did. I started out doing a bat
Speaker 2: floor of science, which took three years, So I finished
Speaker 2: that when I was like twenty one, and that's that
Speaker 2: was when I was doing my exchange and in the
Speaker 2: in the last year of that. And then when I
Speaker 2: finished that, I went straight in and started an engineering
Speaker 2: master's degree because where I was studying it at Melbourne,
Speaker 2: they didn't offer a Bachelor of engineering. Then he did
Speaker 2: the engineering programs through masters and I kind of always
Speaker 2: knew I wanted to do an engineering degree just because
Speaker 2: I was more of like a math, science y kind
Speaker 2: of guy, and so I kind of ended up doing
Speaker 2: another two years there. So I finished when I was
Speaker 2: twenty three, I think, Yeah, so I kind of took
Speaker 2: my time a bit doing it. I think I took
Speaker 2: an extra year and what was allocated, it's only a
Speaker 2: five year program. I took six. Finished when I was
Speaker 2: twenty three and then just sort of didn't really want
Speaker 2: to go into full time work and I felt like
Speaker 2: my golf was at a decent enough level that I
Speaker 2: thought I might be able to put a couple more
Speaker 2: years into it and maybe try a professional kind of
Speaker 2: route with it. That's sort of what I've been doing
Speaker 2: the last couple of years, and it's it's kind of
Speaker 2: it's been up and down, but last week's been pretty good.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, that worked out well last week. But yeah,
Speaker 1: talk about how you've been you know, most people would
Speaker 1: turn pro immediately, but you've stayed amateur. Well, you've been
Speaker 1: working on it and you've been like, how what's your
Speaker 1: life looked like for the last two years?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So, I actually pretty much since finishing university, I've
Speaker 2: I work at a golf driving range, the Melbourne Golf Academy.
Speaker 2: It's called It's Good Driving Range. I just work there.
Speaker 2: I do some caddying, out of Rayal, Melbourne and Kingston Heaths.
Speaker 2: So many of your listeners come down and need a caddy,
Speaker 2: they can just look me out and I'll try and
Speaker 2: jump on the back. But yeah, I do some cadding
Speaker 2: down there. We don't officially have like caddy programs, but
Speaker 2: there's like a sand Belt caddie program that I'm part
Speaker 2: of and and we sort of caddy all over the
Speaker 2: spot in Melbourne. So I've been doing that. And then
Speaker 2: I've got a friend of mine who's opening up another
Speaker 2: golf business that I'm going to be working for soon,
Speaker 2: so that'll probably be a probably potentially give up the
Speaker 2: driving range job to help him out. Yeah, just sort
Speaker 2: of working a lot of nights and then throwing a
Speaker 2: few caddy shifts here and there in the summers, and
Speaker 2: then practicing my game. And and I tried out of
Speaker 2: Australian to a school end of last year to try
Speaker 2: and get a card over here, and I guess try
Speaker 2: and make a bit more money than what I was
Speaker 2: at my caddying and driving range jobs. But I made
Speaker 2: to the final stage, but I missed out by two shots.
Speaker 2: So instead of turning pro, which was kind of the
Speaker 2: plan at that stage, I decided to hold off because
Speaker 2: I knew i'd i'd be pretty close to getting a
Speaker 2: start in that mid amateur, and then because I was
Speaker 2: only turned twenty five at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 2: so it was my first year eligible, so I figured
Speaker 2: I might as well wait for that and give that
Speaker 2: a crack and kind of paid off. I guess you.
Speaker 1: Did you have to qualify for the mid or did
Speaker 1: you get Okay?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was an exempt player based on the World
Speaker 2: Amateur Golf rankings, so I think they exempt thirty of
Speaker 2: the top ranked midameters and I was. I came in
Speaker 2: at like the eleventh ranked midameter or something like that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, luckily didn't have to qualify because it would
Speaker 2: have been a long trip for a little roll of
Speaker 2: the dice to try and get into it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that was sort of the reason I came over was
Speaker 2: because I was exempt.
Speaker 1: So so you came over. Tournament was at Colorado Golf
Speaker 1: Club and common Ground, and came over a little early
Speaker 1: to get acclimated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean Denver's it's like a mile high,
Speaker 2: I think, so I came in on it would have
Speaker 2: been it was the ninth of September, which tournament didn't
Speaker 2: start till the fourteenth, so I had five days or
Speaker 2: so before the tournament started, but we couldn't get out
Speaker 2: to practice until the twelfth, well the eleventh, technically he'd
Speaker 2: use the practice facilities, but you can play the courses
Speaker 2: till the twelfth. So I chatted to a good friend
Speaker 2: of mine, Mike Clayton, who's been on the pod, and
Speaker 2: he he had a good con Yeah, Clayton's yeah, great guy,
Speaker 2: Yeah he is. And he he got me out to
Speaker 2: sand Hills in Nebraska, which I kind of thought it
Speaker 2: would just be like, you know, a couple hours down
Speaker 2: the road or something like that. But it was a
Speaker 2: fair trip out there was a five hour drive, but
Speaker 2: worth every second of driving out there because that place
Speaker 2: is like so cool. I loved it.
Speaker 1: It's funny because like of where it is, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like a couple of weeks ago in eastern
Speaker 1: Nebraska and I was looking at the map and I
Speaker 1: was talking to a buddy. I'm like, I might go
Speaker 1: to sand Hills and he's like, what do you mean.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm faut as close as you can get.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, pretty much. It is literally in the
Speaker 2: middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1: Like d as close as you get pretty much.
Speaker 2: You can get. Yeah, I think Denver and Lincoln is
Speaker 2: the nearest in Nebraska. I don't know, it's like five
Speaker 2: hours either way.
Speaker 1: Is it an amazing driving in to that place? Like
Speaker 1: you're just driving down the road and you look right
Speaker 1: and you look left, and you just see golf holes
Speaker 1: that don't again.
Speaker 2: And every time you're round a cresh you're thinking, where's
Speaker 2: the ocean because because it looks like you're in like
Speaker 2: the sand dunes in Scotland, it looks identical. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's such a cool place. And yeah, like like you said,
Speaker 2: like you're looking left and right and you looking down
Speaker 2: and you almost feel like you're going to drive off
Speaker 2: the road because you're just seeing golf hole after golf holl.
Speaker 2: It's incredible.
Speaker 1: So is that you spent a few days there?
Speaker 2: I spent two, Well I've slept one night there and
Speaker 2: I spent two foolish sort of days. So I played
Speaker 2: the course the afternoon I arrived and then so the
Speaker 2: guy that Mike and you was the course superintendent. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I went out in the morning, Yeah, Carl Heglund.
Speaker 2: So I went out in the morning and kind of
Speaker 2: had to chat with him because I didn't I didn't
Speaker 2: catch up with him the night before and had to
Speaker 2: chat with him ally. So the cutting the grains and stuff,
Speaker 2: which was pretty cool. Talked about it all and yeah,
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed that getting up at sort of sunrise
Speaker 2: and having a walk around, having a look and taking
Speaker 2: some photos. It was. It was awesome. That place is. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I'm convinced sunrise when the when the groundscrews out, it's
Speaker 1: like it's the best, the best time.
Speaker 2: To be on a golf course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like so peaceful and it's just you know, neat.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How would you compare the way sand Hills plays to
Speaker 1: golf and Australia and then also in.
Speaker 2: Scotland, I mean the sand Hills there. I think it
Speaker 2: looks almost identical to what we have down on the
Speaker 2: morning to Peninsula in Melbourne. So like courses like Saint
Speaker 2: Andrew's Beach and the Dunes and Moonal Links and the
Speaker 2: National they're all on almost identical sort of topography and vegetation.
Speaker 2: It's kind of it's kind of crazy. Like when I
Speaker 2: was driving in, I was like, oh my god, like
Speaker 2: it feels like I'm down by the dunes or any
Speaker 2: of those courses. So it looks a hell of a
Speaker 2: lot like that's that that sort of golf that we
Speaker 2: probably don't have the quality of a course as good
Speaker 2: as sand Hills, but there's some pretty good golf down
Speaker 2: there in down the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. But I
Speaker 2: mean it plays very similar. Sand Hills is full kind
Speaker 2: of fescue and our course is a bermuda fair ways
Speaker 2: at least the grass greens. But yeah, I mean it
Speaker 2: plays very similar. Firm, fast winds always an element, and
Speaker 2: similar to look aesthetics, spunk cring kind of that wastepunk
Speaker 2: cring kind of looks. So it's yeah, it's very similar,
Speaker 2: i'd say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so after sand Hill's you head back and then
Speaker 1: this first time playing at like major elevation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, i'd played it like I mean, we had one.
Speaker 2: We've got a course in Australia up in Canberra that
Speaker 2: there's always a tournament every year, and that's maybe at
Speaker 2: like one thousand meters, which is like three thousand feet,
Speaker 2: so there's a slight noticeable increase in the distance that
Speaker 2: you hit it. But Denver was a full sort of
Speaker 2: ten percent, So all your numbers whenever you're doing and
Speaker 2: you I rather than kind of adjusting my numbers for
Speaker 2: the week, I kind of just ran them backwards to
Speaker 2: what was my normal numbers and kind of worked off them.
Speaker 2: So like if it was one sixty, then I'd hit
Speaker 2: a I'd take ten percent off, which is sixteen of
Speaker 2: one sixty, and then so it's one forty four and
Speaker 2: just play that number. So that's sort of how I
Speaker 2: approached it. But yeah, I definitely felt like that. I
Speaker 2: didn't know, like I didn't realize at first, but you
Speaker 2: just have to drink so much water and it's so
Speaker 2: easy to get dehydrated. And I had a headache for
Speaker 2: a bit. And it's definitely like has an effect the elevation,
Speaker 2: particularly like it's I've been at C level of my
Speaker 2: whole life. So yeah, definitely took a while to get
Speaker 2: used to. But yeah, yeah, I just got over it
Speaker 2: in the end.
Speaker 1: I was out there a couple of weeks ago for
Speaker 1: a wedding and it's like, you know, you go to
Speaker 1: a wedding and the next morning you're just so dehydrated
Speaker 1: because like, yeah.
Speaker 2: He's so dry in the mouth. It's crazy. It's nute
Speaker 2: and well if you were drinking alcohol as well, you
Speaker 2: would have noticed it, because I had a beer or
Speaker 2: two like on a couple of the nights and felt
Speaker 2: hammered a couple of SIPs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's wild. So did you do you notice
Speaker 1: the ball like goes straighter.
Speaker 2: Or yeah, I didn't notice that. No, I agree with that,
Speaker 2: Like I think I guess it's like there's less air
Speaker 2: resistance against it, so it kind of just like doesn't
Speaker 2: fizz as much with the wind with the spin. And yeah,
Speaker 2: definitely you notice like if you carve one offline, it
Speaker 2: might be like you feel like you just healed it
Speaker 2: or something that should have cut like thirty yards off
Speaker 2: line it only goes like twenty. Yes, you can. You
Speaker 2: can definitely see it sort of floats up a bit
Speaker 2: more and doesn't crazy curve offline.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard, so I heard Colorado was playing like
Speaker 1: really firm.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah it was. It was perfect for me because
Speaker 2: like we play golf like that all summer, all our
Speaker 2: tournaments all summer like that, especially the ones in Melbourne.
Speaker 2: The generally, the I think the Aussie Ameter is in
Speaker 2: Melbourne every second year, so every second year will pretty
Speaker 2: much be on a sand belt golf course. Last year
Speaker 2: was at Woodlands Golf Club, which is one of those
Speaker 2: sort of under the radar kind of sand belt tracks,
Speaker 2: and and that I mean it was exactly like that.
Speaker 2: You know, greens rolling at twelve or thirteen and feather
Speaker 2: to slope on them, and then rock hard greens that
Speaker 2: you have to like a nine eine and you've got
Speaker 2: to account for like six seven yards a roll or
Speaker 2: bounce and roll, and even if you're coming in as
Speaker 2: high as you can, like, it's still going to roll
Speaker 2: out heaps. So it kind of made it the process
Speaker 2: of calculating yardages because you had the ten percent with
Speaker 2: the with the elevation of the site, so you kind
Speaker 2: of go with that. With those numbers, they say that
Speaker 2: one sixty number. Again you go okay, that's one forty four,
Speaker 2: and then it's so and then you go, okay, it's
Speaker 2: going to roll out like six, that's like carrying one
Speaker 2: thirty eight. And then it might be uphill plus four
Speaker 2: or something, so then it's like one forty two. And
Speaker 2: then you're like, oh win, that might be like into
Speaker 2: the wind like and you think it's like tens. So
Speaker 2: then you there was so much to think about, which
Speaker 2: is obviously, I guess makes it more interesting. I think
Speaker 2: when you've got to got to think about what you're
Speaker 2: doing a bit more.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like that plane in that firm conditions
Speaker 1: was a big advantage obviously, like you know, most of
Speaker 1: the American golf is not firm and fast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think I actually think it was a
Speaker 2: pretty It was a pretty big advantage because yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean Ryal Melbourne, you're doing the exact same things whenever
Speaker 2: you're playing there. You never whatever number you shoot with
Speaker 2: your lazy you're always like, it's always different, it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter what so in yeah, you're never carry it to
Speaker 2: the pin at roll Melbourne. So having a lot of
Speaker 2: experience playing that sort of golf, I think, and golf
Speaker 2: where you really have to think about where you are
Speaker 2: going to hit it too, because there was a lot
Speaker 2: of short sided misses as well at Colorado because they
Speaker 2: were so firm and fast. If you did miss it
Speaker 2: in a spot that you know, a bunker that was
Speaker 2: you know, short sighted to a pin or whether green
Speaker 2: ran away from you or in the rough somewhere where
Speaker 2: you just couldn't miss it, like you really have to
Speaker 2: think about where those misses were, and and and I
Speaker 2: guess even from the tee you sometimes had to think about,
Speaker 2: you know, how you avoid that miss by hitting it
Speaker 2: somewhere off the tee. So yeah, it was a lot
Speaker 2: to think about. There was a really good The sixteenth
Speaker 2: hole was really interesting. It was a split fairway hole,
Speaker 2: which is kind of always like you can either nail
Speaker 2: it or you can just screw it up, because you know,
Speaker 2: either everyone goes one way or you know, or they
Speaker 2: get it right, and some people go both ways. And
Speaker 2: I think they got it pretty good because pretty much
Speaker 2: everyone I played with we're going down the wide route,
Speaker 2: which is down the left and hitting probably driver. But
Speaker 2: the angle into that green as a path five was
Speaker 2: so poor that you just couldn't hold the green with
Speaker 2: the firmness of them and the speed. You just couldn't
Speaker 2: hold the green from the left fairway, whereas if you
Speaker 2: went down the right, it was only a three wood
Speaker 2: and it was a shorter route end and you played
Speaker 2: more across the green so it wasn't running steeply away
Speaker 2: from you and you could hold like a seven, nine
Speaker 2: or six iron against it. And I went down the
Speaker 2: right my last two rounds.
Speaker 1: One almost is like a radiance slope from the right
Speaker 1: pretty much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the radan, it's pretty much pretty much looks
Speaker 2: like a radan from the right fairway, and then from
Speaker 2: the left fairway it looks like you're just playing straight
Speaker 2: down like a like imagine a radan. You're just playing
Speaker 2: straight down from the left of the redand you don't
Speaker 2: stop it. Yeah, exactly, So it's yeah, it was effectively
Speaker 2: like that. And I played down the right both times,
Speaker 2: like hit good three woods and I think the six
Speaker 2: iron and a five iron in and made birdie both
Speaker 2: times against Stewart and then in the last round against Joe.
Speaker 2: So I guess playing that strategy of taking a more
Speaker 2: aggressive T shirt which was a bit narrower and a
Speaker 2: bit harder to hit the fairwell and paid off for me.
Speaker 2: So I found that interesting.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm looking at the whole. I haven't been
Speaker 1: out there. I'm looking at the whole, and I feel
Speaker 1: like this is like a classic case of like an
Speaker 1: example where you know it's way wider left right, but yeah,
Speaker 1: if you look at the right, and like example, if
Speaker 1: you just take away the left, like if you just
Speaker 1: put that fareaway on any other golf hole, people would
Speaker 1: be like, oh, that's fine. It's just like you just
Speaker 1: have to lay up to the right and then yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's like it's funny how like just the giving
Speaker 1: somebody a wider option, they're always going to take it,
Speaker 1: even though like if that if you just took away
Speaker 1: the left side of the faraway and made that, everybody
Speaker 1: would hit it there and have no problem with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I really wanted to get Scott force It's opinion
Speaker 2: of it, because he was playing this week. It would
Speaker 2: be interesting what he said, because I'm sure he would
Speaker 2: have said go left. But sure, when when you play it,
Speaker 2: it's like hold on a minute, Like when you see
Speaker 2: the firms of that grain and the slope which you
Speaker 2: can't see from an aerial, you go, okay, like the
Speaker 2: right is definitely better, I think anyway. But I would yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean yeah, because especially with it being a part five,
Speaker 1: I imagine like if you don't hit a great drive, you're
Speaker 1: just laying up, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I hit it in one of the rounds.
Speaker 2: I hit it like so the middle of the fairy
Speaker 2: like a little creek you can kind of get on
Speaker 2: the banks of it, and I just went down the
Speaker 2: I hit it down the middle, I like pulled it
Speaker 2: and caught the bank. So it was kind of luck.
Speaker 2: You'd been rolling in the creek and I just hit
Speaker 2: like a nine nine out. But the wed shot in
Speaker 2: was so so hard, like the pitchure that I had
Speaker 2: to hitt in, like you actually have to nail the
Speaker 2: pitch shot or you could even wedge it off the
Speaker 2: green like. So it kind of made sense to go right,
Speaker 2: I think, and then have the opportunity to go for
Speaker 2: it because if you're playing as a three shotter down there,
Speaker 2: which a lot of people had seen to do, they'd
Speaker 2: go left and then they played as a three shotter,
Speaker 2: it just you still had you still had nothing with
Speaker 2: that wed shot in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. It reminds me a little bit. There's
Speaker 1: a hole like it at Sand Valley, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of flipped the other way. Yeah, okay, so it's it's interesting.
Speaker 1: It's the corner cruncher. Definitely have some like holes that
Speaker 1: they use.
Speaker 2: That boomerang. Yeah, they love the boomerang. That That Colorado
Speaker 2: that's the fourteenth hole was a boomerang green actually in
Speaker 2: the final round, it was quite cool. It was a
Speaker 2: drivable part four, so kind of like I ate at
Speaker 2: sand Hills. I think it's the same. Yep, yeah, so driveable.
Speaker 2: I hit it. I had a three wood. I could
Speaker 2: get a three wood there because it's a little bit downwind,
Speaker 2: and I hit like a great shot. But I've hit
Speaker 2: it to the left left boomerang to a right pin
Speaker 2: like front left to a front right pin, so completely look,
Speaker 2: it looks like I'm completely screwed. And I kind of
Speaker 2: walk around and I'd sort of heard somewhere where cor
Speaker 2: said every time there's always a way to kind of
Speaker 2: get it around. I kind of looked at it and yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: I looked, and I'm like, old on, Yeah, I actually
Speaker 2: can get this like pretty close. So we went down
Speaker 2: there my caddy, and we sort of walked around it,
Speaker 2: and I looked at if I got it close enough
Speaker 2: to the bunker, there was almost like a like a
Speaker 2: little valley where you could feed it in like just
Speaker 2: on the edge of the trap where it wouldn't I
Speaker 2: wouldn't roll into the trap either, it would just kind
Speaker 2: of like feed into this this little valley trench kind
Speaker 2: of around the bunker. And I just rolled it in
Speaker 2: there perfectly, and I went down to about five feet
Speaker 2: and the crowd couldn't believe it obviously because they just
Speaker 2: thought it was dead. But that was that was a
Speaker 2: cool shot to be able to play and made dirty
Speaker 2: and half the hole with with Joe. So yeah, that
Speaker 2: was that was really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh, it's so curious. I think this all
Speaker 1: the time. Sometimes I think it hurts me. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: think it helps me. Do you think you're You're obviously
Speaker 1: have a key interest in golf architecture, You're a you're
Speaker 1: a golf golf magazine panelist. You know, you've played a
Speaker 1: lot of great places. You know, play on the sound belt,
Speaker 1: and you understand the principles of architecture. Do you think
Speaker 1: it helps you as a good player understanding architecture.
Speaker 2: I think I think it can. I kind of I
Speaker 2: feel like I try to understand architecture and then I
Speaker 2: kind of try to in the same vein kind of
Speaker 2: understand what makes you play good golf. And I think
Speaker 2: they kind of they cross over, like like force it
Speaker 2: stuff kind of makes sense. I like force and stuff
Speaker 2: the decade stuff like I'm interested in it, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of his stuff's correct, but they definitely
Speaker 2: overlap in parts to making making you play better, I think,
Speaker 2: but I haven't really thought about it too much. What
Speaker 2: definitely hurts is when you have to play a terrible
Speaker 2: golf course, which, luck luckily, like in amateur golf, we'd
Speaker 2: actually don't play too many terrible golf courses. We play
Speaker 2: much better golf courses than most of the tour tours play.
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite Ogilvy things was he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was when I was coming up, but you know,
Speaker 1: I was playing all the great amateur events and then
Speaker 1: I turned pro and I'm playing in Germany and all that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, these places are complete ship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not really you know, if the pro career
Speaker 2: does take off, Tampro and all that, I'm kind of
Speaker 2: not looking forward to that aspect of it. It would
Speaker 2: be interesting because I haven't really had to play that
Speaker 2: much shitty golf in my life. It's been all pretty lucky,
Speaker 2: pretty good stuff.
Speaker 1: It's funny, I kind of like enjoy playing tournaments on
Speaker 1: golf courses that offend me. It's like I have like
Speaker 1: that a little bit of that where the you know,
Speaker 1: it's right in front of you, it makes it really easy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it just becomes execution.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you kind of I suppose you probably appreciate
Speaker 2: the good stuff more if you play some of the
Speaker 2: bad stuff as well. It's kind of a bit of a
Speaker 2: bit of that too.
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Speaker 1: conversation with Lucas Michelle. You went to Australian Q school obviously,
Speaker 1: now you've got you've got some pretty good exemptions coming up.
Speaker 1: What are the plans. I assume you're staying amateur for
Speaker 1: the time being playing the Masters in US Open.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I'm staying am obviously until the till the
Speaker 2: after the US Open, and then I kind of kind
Speaker 2: of depends if I play. Really if I say I
Speaker 2: lead leading am or something like that in the in
Speaker 2: the Masters US Open, it kind of opens a few
Speaker 2: doors for a professional career for sure, But I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's kind of it's all sort of up in the
Speaker 2: I don't like, I do want to turn professional eventually.
Speaker 2: That that was always a goal of mine as a kid,
Speaker 2: was to you, I always dreamt of playing professional golf.
Speaker 2: But the more I play amateur golf, the more I
Speaker 2: kind of love it. But at the same time, I've
Speaker 2: got a good degree as well, So if I don't
Speaker 2: kind of make it as a golfer, I probably I
Speaker 2: don't know if I can see myself as a career amateur.
Speaker 2: That kind of that kind of lifestyle doesn't really exist
Speaker 2: that much in Australia. That career amateur sort of mid
Speaker 2: am you know, crump cup kind of you know, circuit
Speaker 2: life doesn't really exist in Australia too much. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll probably I think I probably will give pro golf
Speaker 2: a crack after all that's done next year and and
Speaker 2: try to make something of my golf' that's pretty likely.
Speaker 1: Talk about nice lane up. You get Augusta, you get
Speaker 1: Wingfort and if you stay for the US AM you
Speaker 1: got Bandon.
Speaker 2: Yeah abandoned as well. I saw that. Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 2: of a because I get I get actually two years
Speaker 2: exemption to the to the U s M, so I
Speaker 2: could play Oakland the following year too if I wanted to.
Speaker 2: But I can't really see myself staying staying amated that
Speaker 2: long unfortunately. But I mean, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty good.
Speaker 2: It's a pretty good little lineup. I'm going to be
Speaker 2: playing I think the Aussie Open as well, which is
Speaker 2: at the Australian Golf Club in Sydney, which is that's
Speaker 2: it's a good golf course, but it's a great event.
Speaker 2: And then I've got a bunch of tournaments here in
Speaker 2: the summer, just amateur stuff, Australian Master, the Amateurs, which
Speaker 2: next year is at Victoria Golf Club, which is obviously
Speaker 2: a really good sand belt club used to be at
Speaker 2: used to always be held at Royal Melbourne, but with
Speaker 2: the presence carp and all that, I think they've moved
Speaker 2: it this year for the to Victoria, which is just
Speaker 2: across the road. Victoria's just don't Yeah. They just did
Speaker 2: a big Oakley Clayton cockingmead CCM. They did a big
Speaker 2: green replacement sort of program. They had Polana greens for
Speaker 2: ninety years, like they were never quite up to the
Speaker 2: standard of all the other sand belt clubs, so they
Speaker 2: did they replaced all those with a new bank grass
Speaker 2: and they did some design tweaks to some of the
Speaker 2: ones that have been tweaked over the years by other
Speaker 2: architects just to get them back to I guess what
Speaker 2: they were supposed to be like when they were first built.
Speaker 2: So I'm looking forward to it. I've played it a
Speaker 2: couple of times since it opened, and that'll be that'll
Speaker 2: be really good. And then the Australian Amateurs up in
Speaker 2: Queensland at Royal Queensland Golf Club, which is a really
Speaker 2: good track. Actually, it's like a it's another ogleby Clayton.
Speaker 2: Of course, they redesigned it in like two thousand and
Speaker 2: eight or nine, I think, And that's I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to that. I've not played that one, but it looks
Speaker 2: really fun. And then I think I'm in the vic
Speaker 2: Open as well, which is a pretty cool event. That's
Speaker 2: I think. I think it should be still an LPGA
Speaker 2: slash European Tour. Yeah, they run them run the LPGA
Speaker 2: and the European Tour event same same So it's a
Speaker 2: thirty six hole venue, so the same courses over the same.
Speaker 1: The beach, the beach of course down in Morrington.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, well that so this one's actually the Bellerine Peninsula.
Speaker 2: So there's the Mornington Peninsula and the Bellerine Peninsula and
Speaker 2: they both hook around Melbourne. The Bellerin's on the west side,
Speaker 2: which is where Thirteenth Beach and both courses there are,
Speaker 2: and like bar and Heads is another one out there
Speaker 2: and Port Fairies kind of more further down the road. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so Thirteenth Beach is the host of those, which is
Speaker 2: the Bellerine Peninsula, which is I mean it's another course
Speaker 2: that looks quite a bit like sand Hills, Nebraska, to
Speaker 2: be honest, a little bit flattered though, and it's a good,
Speaker 2: really good track actually thirty six hold track. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: that'll be really good to be part of that. I've
Speaker 2: played that tournament, played a couple, played it twice before
Speaker 2: a few years ago before it kind of got big,
Speaker 2: before it got to European, to a status I got in.
Speaker 2: It'd be good to play with much stronger field for
Speaker 2: next year.
Speaker 1: So back to the midam, I was just thinking, obviously,
Speaker 1: like winning has a lot riding on it. When when
Speaker 1: did you feel like thinking ahead became like a big
Speaker 1: thing that you had to stop yourself. You always hear
Speaker 1: people talk about staying in the present, and obviously like
Speaker 1: you yeah, like, well, at what point where you were
Speaker 1: did it really like you start to think like if
Speaker 1: I win this, I get to play in the Masters,
Speaker 1: I get you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So from the start of the week I had
Speaker 2: like a it's kind of a good sort of outlook
Speaker 2: on it because if I didn't win, based on my
Speaker 2: performance in the Australian to a School the year before,
Speaker 2: I still had a bunch of events that good players
Speaker 2: as a pro at the end of this year, and
Speaker 2: then if I did win, I was playing the Masters.
Speaker 2: So it was kind of like a positive, positive sort
Speaker 2: of situation. So in the first few rounds of match Player,
Speaker 2: I kind of wasn't really thinking about winning, Like I
Speaker 2: was kind of just like, oh yeah, like keep playing
Speaker 2: and playing well and kind of keep getting through. And
Speaker 2: then like when I was like a couple down, I
Speaker 2: was like, ah, now this is okay, and didn't really
Speaker 2: take it too seriously. To be honest, like I was
Speaker 2: taking it. I was playing as well as I could,
Speaker 2: but in terms of like the consequences of playing poorly,
Speaker 2: I was like not really thinking too much about it.
Speaker 2: And then it was really when I got to got
Speaker 2: to the quarters and then the semis, I started thinking, okay,
Speaker 2: like hold on, like you've got a really good chance
Speaker 2: here to win this tournament and get all the everything
Speaker 2: that comes with it. And then that's sort of when
Speaker 2: I had to take that in a positive way to
Speaker 2: sort of make me play better rather than potentially make
Speaker 2: me play worse. So I kind of had to use
Speaker 2: that as an incentive to play well rather than also
Speaker 2: like be mindful of it affecting my performance in a
Speaker 2: negative way. So the night before the final, I was
Speaker 2: obviously getting quite a few messages of good luck and
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff, but I did not touch my
Speaker 2: phone that night. I just like refused to touch it
Speaker 2: because I just felt like any extra kind of you know,
Speaker 2: messaging someone to say thanks or whatever, I was just
Speaker 2: going to kind of put extra pressure on myself in
Speaker 2: me realizing the magnitude of what I was sort of
Speaker 2: about to do potentially. So, yeah, I didn't touch my
Speaker 2: phone the night before. Thankfully. I was staying with a
Speaker 2: family sort of friends of friends, and they didn't know
Speaker 2: anything about golf. They knew I was in the final,
Speaker 2: but they kind of didn't realize the magnitude of it either.
Speaker 2: So I just sort of had a nice dinner with them,
Speaker 2: had a chat, and then try to get an early
Speaker 2: night and went off at nine o'clock. So bed and
Speaker 2: kind of actually slept pretty well because I wasn't really
Speaker 2: overly stressed because yeah, the family was really just didn't
Speaker 2: really realize what was happening.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask, you know, like being in Australian, hey,
Speaker 1: everybody's got obviously all the Americans probably had buddies there.
Speaker 1: You know, you'd know people from your state Golf Association
Speaker 1: or other tournaments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, were you?
Speaker 1: Did you have any friends there early in the week.
Speaker 2: So there was really only one person I knew in
Speaker 2: the whole field, and it was an American guy whose
Speaker 2: names of Bull Davenport. He's from It's from Florida. He's
Speaker 2: a pretty he's a good player. He went to Yale,
Speaker 2: had a pretty good college career up at Yale, and
Speaker 2: then he went into work. He works for Boston Consulting Group.
Speaker 2: But he went he did a transfer down into to Melbourne,
Speaker 2: the Melbourne office in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, and he
Speaker 2: came down and played a couple of events down there,
Speaker 2: and actually met him playing one of our small sort
Speaker 2: of local circuit events, and we hit it off really
Speaker 2: well when he was down there. And then when I
Speaker 2: went over last year, I caught up with him because
Speaker 2: he was doing grade school up in Philly. We went
Speaker 2: and played Philly cricket together and and yeah, kept hitting
Speaker 2: it off. And then so when he when I got
Speaker 2: into the mid Am, he also qualified through whatever you
Speaker 2: call him, you know, the normal qualifiers. He qualified in
Speaker 2: through one in Philly. So he was the only guy
Speaker 2: I knew in the field, but he kind of introduced
Speaker 2: me to a few guys that were playing the event.
Speaker 2: We played practice rounds together and then he made the
Speaker 2: match play actually, and he played stew Agastad in the
Speaker 2: first round. He lost like four and three to stew
Speaker 2: and I. I was carrying my bag all week. I
Speaker 2: carried it first two rounds of stroke play stroight play rounds,
Speaker 2: and I carried it first round of match play as well.
Speaker 2: When when Will got knocked out, he said, oh, you
Speaker 2: can't be carrying a bag, come on, man. So he
Speaker 2: jumped on the bag for the for the rest and yeah,
Speaker 2: I was going to probably get a caddy from about
Speaker 2: the quarters, but then he off and up and I said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that'd be that'll be awesome, And I mean, yeah, he's
Speaker 2: really good. He was so good on the bag, so
Speaker 2: much fun. I don't know if you saw the celebration
Speaker 2: at the end, there's a video on Twitter, but we
Speaker 2: had a pretty good celebration at the end. But there
Speaker 2: was actually more to that. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: heard about the last hole what happened there.
Speaker 1: I saw that someone went out explain for the listeners
Speaker 1: that didn't didn't see the story.
Speaker 2: So there was. So the more I thought, the more
Speaker 2: I think about it now, the more I'm like, hold
Speaker 2: on a minute, like this guy was definitely trying to
Speaker 2: do something like a bit dodgy here. So Joe Drainy,
Speaker 2: who I played. We got to the thirty fifth hole,
Speaker 2: so two holes to play, and it was Dormy in
Speaker 2: my favor, so two of the two player and then
Speaker 2: we both hit the green. I headed to thirty thirty feet.
Speaker 2: I parted up to about three feet. He had a
Speaker 2: twelve footer, which if he hold it was for Bertie.
Speaker 2: And we went to the eighteen obviously because he won
Speaker 2: that hole. If he missed, then I would have to
Speaker 2: hold my three footer to halve the hole and win
Speaker 2: the event. Well, when he missed his twelve footer, he
Speaker 2: took off his hat and started walking over towards me,
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, like, gee, that's a generous gimme that
Speaker 2: he's given me here, but I'm also thinking, hold on,
Speaker 2: like what's going on. So he comes over, extends out
Speaker 2: his hand and said I can't remember exactly what he said,
Speaker 2: but he said like like I'm making you part this
Speaker 2: source or something along those lines, like like it's not
Speaker 2: a gimmy kind of thing, but good luck kind of
Speaker 2: like shaking my hand as if like yeah, good luck
Speaker 2: kind of thing rather than like yeah, thanks, good game.
Speaker 2: And mean, meanwhile, like the USGA official basically thinks it's done,
Speaker 2: so he's running over with the trophy like towards me,
Speaker 2: and then I have to go like, oh wait, no no,
Speaker 2: no no no, Like he's like he's saying no, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's like it's not it's not good. It's not good.
Speaker 2: I've got to put this. That's like like wave them off.
Speaker 2: And then I'm like, ah, alright, like shit, like this
Speaker 2: is a bit weird.
Speaker 1: That's so strange.
Speaker 2: I mean, like you take.
Speaker 1: Your hand off.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, apparently Joe explained it to the USGA guys,
Speaker 2: because the USJA guys obviously asked him afterwards, and he said, oh,
Speaker 2: like I just got confused by the situation or something
Speaker 2: like that was his explanation. But like the way he
Speaker 2: spoke to me about it seemed like kind of knew
Speaker 2: what he was doing. But I don't know if you
Speaker 2: just said that to I don't know anyway. To me,
Speaker 2: it seemed like he was trying to maybe create something
Speaker 2: a bit of you know, a bit of confusion himself
Speaker 2: to maybe put me off a little bit that that
Speaker 2: was my impression, but I don't know if that was
Speaker 2: his intention.
Speaker 1: Geez, that's really weird. I mean, like, I can't I
Speaker 1: can't think of it. It's almost like, yeah, a kicker,
Speaker 1: Like it's so out of like it's that like he
Speaker 1: took his hat off and said that before any other
Speaker 1: putt right.
Speaker 2: No, no, exactly. It was so weird. So it'd be
Speaker 2: interesting that there was camera crew out there. They went
Speaker 2: recording it live for Fox Sports or anything like that,
Speaker 2: but there was a camera crew out there, so I'm
Speaker 2: assuming there's going to be like some sort of condensed
Speaker 2: sort of package of the of the finals, So it
Speaker 2: be interesting if they I'd love to see it again
Speaker 2: because it was really weird. I'm sure he definitely took
Speaker 2: off his hat and he definitely shook my hands, so
Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to watch what it looks like if
Speaker 2: they if they end up putting it up.
Speaker 1: Man, that's strange.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was really weird, but I just I've heard
Speaker 4: in a yeah, so so then I've got three feet
Speaker 4: to win effectively, and I'm like shitting myself because kind
Speaker 4: of I would have been sitting myself anyway, but I've
Speaker 4: got I've had a few extra minutes to sort of
Speaker 4: think about it all, and thankfully I just sort of
Speaker 4: rolled in the right.
Speaker 2: Edge, kind of snuck it in there, and and then
Speaker 2: that was the celebration with Will, where I just ran
Speaker 2: over it and kind of kind of brushed brush Joe
Speaker 2: off a bit and just I'd already shaken his hand though,
Speaker 2: so I was okay, ran over to Will and had
Speaker 2: a good hug and yeah, celebration with him.
Speaker 1: So that's that's crazy. Well, I mean, standing over that put,
Speaker 1: you probably were.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, I was trembling, like my hand like I was. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was about as nervous as I've ever been, for sure,
Speaker 2: because every every as much as I'd been able to
Speaker 2: kind of block everything out before that, it's got to
Speaker 2: become real at some point. And that's that's when it
Speaker 2: came became pretty real when I told fairy Foot for
Speaker 2: the for the Master's.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's uh, it's that's crazy. You see, Ivy,
Speaker 1: you were you were down and both those matches kind
Speaker 1: of in the in the final match you were down
Speaker 1: three and then and the match with Stu, you were down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a you know, did you did you feel like
Speaker 1: the being down almost like locked in a little bit more?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I didn't. I certainly didn't mind being
Speaker 2: down for the final because I think it's hard. It's
Speaker 2: it's hard to lead all day. It's I just feel
Speaker 2: like there's more, it's more to lose. You feel like
Speaker 2: you're you feel like you're in a position to lose
Speaker 2: rather than a position to win. So kind of didn't
Speaker 2: mind being down most of the day. In the final,
Speaker 2: I was actually against and he fought back and got it.
Speaker 2: I think he got it back to square or maybe
Speaker 2: one in his favor in the back nine, but he
Speaker 2: kind of just mad made a couple of pretty silly mistakes,
Speaker 2: particularly on seventeen. He just completely misclubbed I think I'm
Speaker 2: seventeen in the semi final and dumb one in the water.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but it was I didn't mind coming from
Speaker 2: the position of sort of having almost nothing to lose
Speaker 2: in coming from a couple backs, so it kind of
Speaker 2: worked for me all week. There was a lot of
Speaker 2: rounds where I came from behind, so yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was checked in with a mutual buddy and
Speaker 1: he mentioned that you know your your your golf career
Speaker 1: made event saved by not getting a job as a
Speaker 1: as a growing consultant at a golf architecture project.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's true. Actually I'm interested. Who's spoke cued
Speaker 2: Mike Hacking, So okay, yeah, that's quite funny. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: they're doing a project up at Port Lonsdale. It's a
Speaker 2: new sort of a new golf course. And I in
Speaker 2: the last year i'd sort of sort of I was
Speaker 2: planning to do the tour school, but then I was
Speaker 2: also pretty interested in my golf architecture and my golf
Speaker 2: had been I'd had sort of like a rough year
Speaker 2: with my golf. I'd had a fair bit of success
Speaker 2: early with my with Miami at a golf taking it
Speaker 2: full time, like I won a decent tournament early on,
Speaker 2: and then about yeah, probably a year later, I hadn't
Speaker 2: really hadn't really picked up. It's sort of been all
Speaker 2: kind of sort of mediocre results. And then this came up,
Speaker 2: and I was chatting to Mike Clayton about it because
Speaker 2: they worked together, and I sort of talked about and
Speaker 2: it seemed like it was it was a contract, so
Speaker 2: it was only like twelve months I think, and I
Speaker 2: sort of thought, well, that a to be a cool
Speaker 2: thing to just try and see if I like it,
Speaker 2: because I've always been interested in the golf architecture and
Speaker 2: if I could just try it, you know, it's a
Speaker 2: twelve month contract. It's it's just completely once or twelve
Speaker 2: months up. You're sort of done. There's no like, yeah,
Speaker 2: no time, like you don't have to stay on really,
Speaker 2: and I figured I'll just try it out. But obviously
Speaker 2: I didn't didn't get the role, which probably worked in
Speaker 2: my favor now looking back on it. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: would have been a cool thing to understand and all that,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I missed out unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's a blessing in disguise. That's like life,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's almost like it.
Speaker 1: You know, you missed you missed Australian Q school for exactly.
Speaker 1: It works out.
Speaker 2: It's funny, exactly. Yeah, it is funny. So you never
Speaker 2: know what's going to be around the corner.
Speaker 1: So you've got obviously kind of a busy schedule. You're
Speaker 1: you caddy at Royal Melbourne. Any any thoughts on the
Speaker 1: presence Cup. Has anybody reached out to you about caddying
Speaker 1: or helping with the.
Speaker 2: Vent uh not really To be honest, yeah I would, yeah,
Speaker 2: I to be honest, if someone said, yeah, you want
Speaker 2: a Caddy for someone, so I'd be like, yeah, on
Speaker 2: hundred percent. But yeah, nothing yet did I did say,
Speaker 2: you know, you get your random people onto it are saying, oh,
Speaker 2: they should choose Lucas as the captain's pick because Caddy's
Speaker 2: there and all this. I'm like, OK, calm down, Like
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean I'm gonna go definitely go watch it.
Speaker 2: Definitely be out there watching. I hope they hope. I mean,
Speaker 2: the course is so short, like it's I don't know
Speaker 2: what it is. It's probably like six hundred meters, which
Speaker 2: is like six eight hundred yards. It's like so sure
Speaker 2: for those guys. So it'll be interesting how it plays well.
Speaker 2: I'm sure the greens will be firm and fast, and
Speaker 2: you know, scoring it will still be pretty low, but
Speaker 2: it'll at least be interesting to watch with the firms
Speaker 2: of the greens and the speed and the fair ways
Speaker 2: are so wide, guys will not not kind of not
Speaker 2: know what to do. I think, yeah, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: I think that it'll be really cool to watch because
Speaker 1: you'll see so many of those in between holes where
Speaker 1: it's like you can push driver up to thirty yards,
Speaker 1: but do you really want to do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, my favorite one of those is, Yeah, my favorite
Speaker 2: one of those of the third on the West course,
Speaker 2: which is probably it's kind of comes in at the
Speaker 2: ship point in the round because I think it's the first,
Speaker 2: i think the first of the composite for the Presence Cup,
Speaker 2: and it's like normally when we play it, if I'm
Speaker 2: just playing it with friends, it's just like a driver
Speaker 2: to get it in like the swale short of the green,
Speaker 2: and from there you've got like a pretty okay chip.
Speaker 2: But they play they're going to be playing a teer
Speaker 2: bit further back, which is better because they've just added
Speaker 2: that in. So they'll have the option of either hitting
Speaker 2: like iron or three wood to kind of give themselves
Speaker 2: maybe eighty or ninety yards where they can put a
Speaker 2: bit of spin on it, or they can hit a driver.
Speaker 2: But if they hit a driver, they've got a really
Speaker 2: awkward pitch to a green that completely runs away from
Speaker 2: them that they can't get any spin into. So if
Speaker 2: you hitting driver, you've actually got to go really far
Speaker 2: right off the tea, which the green's tucked around the left.
Speaker 2: You've got to go so far right to try and
Speaker 2: get the angle in to almost hit so the green's
Speaker 2: not completely running away from you, so it's more like
Speaker 2: hitting sideways into it, kind of like that hole. And
Speaker 2: I was telling you about it Colorado. So that'll be
Speaker 2: interesting how they play that, because that is a new
Speaker 2: t since it was their last time. But it's a
Speaker 2: shame that it's the first hole because I feel like they'
Speaker 2: all just hit iron or something. But yeah, that's one
Speaker 2: of my favorites. And then I mean there's a bunch
Speaker 2: of holes that they don't actually play. There's a very
Speaker 2: similar hole on the property on the west course, number fourteen,
Speaker 2: which isn't part of the composite layout, and that that
Speaker 2: holds great because if hid in the if you kind
Speaker 2: of aim straight at the green and which sort of
Speaker 2: ves you into the right roff, you've just got no
Speaker 2: shot from the right ruff. You just can't hold the green,
Speaker 2: whereas you've got to hit it out as far left
Speaker 2: as you can, almost up against the T tree, which
Speaker 2: is right where Jeff Ogley lives actually in that T tree.
Speaker 2: He lives about from that T Tree's about ten meters
Speaker 2: a cross is his backyard. That's the perfect angle in.
Speaker 1: It would about better if he was living in the
Speaker 1: T Tree.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, well maybe he does.
Speaker 1: I don't know, just sitting there watching golf.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but yeah, that's one of the great holes there.
Speaker 1: It'll be really cool to watch. I want to come
Speaker 1: down for that, but I don't want to come down
Speaker 1: when I can't play the golf course. So selfishly, I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna. Yeah, till after that when I.
Speaker 2: Went, yeah, are you gonna because you've not really You've
Speaker 2: seen so much in America, but I mean there's still
Speaker 2: so much probably to say, but you've never really been out.
Speaker 2: Have you been played golf in Scotland or Australia or
Speaker 2: anything like that.
Speaker 1: I'm like an America. I'm just an American golfer. I
Speaker 1: you know, there's this is the hard thing. There's so
Speaker 1: much to see and there is. I kind of felt
Speaker 1: like there was a void in American golf coverage in
Speaker 1: terms of you know what, Yeah, you know, just good
Speaker 1: golf courses to see that don't get a ton of
Speaker 1: pub So it's like, but I gotta go for personal reasons.
Speaker 1: I got to go because you know, you have to
Speaker 1: have like the ability to relate stuff back. It's like anything.
Speaker 1: You probably see it, Like you go and you play
Speaker 1: a course and you're like, oh, this reminds me of
Speaker 1: this hole at this place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's so much of that. Yeah yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean it's kind of like, I mean all those old architects,
Speaker 2: they all went to Scotland and studied the Scottish courses
Speaker 2: and the holes. It's kind of like you kind of
Speaker 2: got to do it. It's just you got to see
Speaker 2: where everyone got their inspiration from. And then and then
Speaker 2: in Australia you've got to see how how different it
Speaker 2: is and how it's still so cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've opened New Zealand Australia this winter and then and
Speaker 1: then a heavy dose of the UK next year, so
Speaker 1: it'll be uh good international bound you know. Yea Campia
Speaker 1: camp a fraud for a much longer. So you thought
Speaker 1: about next year with the who's going to be on
Speaker 1: the bag for Masters?
Speaker 2: Well, Will is the guy that carry for me. So
Speaker 2: before that final round we'd sort of talked about I
Speaker 2: don't know if he brought it up or if I
Speaker 2: brought it up or whatever, because like were sort of
Speaker 2: at some point we started talking about on the day before,
Speaker 2: like catting and stuff in the masses and all that,
Speaker 2: and I told him on the Sami or the quarter,
Speaker 2: I said, oh, look, I haven't committed to anyone. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I said to him, like, you're right up there
Speaker 2: kind of thing, like it's been going great kind of thing.
Speaker 2: And then and then with the success I had in
Speaker 2: the semi, I think I thought about it that night
Speaker 2: and I was like, you know what, like he's been
Speaker 2: so great, he's a good friend. I get along with him. Well,
Speaker 2: we were on similar wavelengths. So the next day I
Speaker 2: told him, you know, in the morning, I said, you know,
Speaker 2: I made up my mind. We're going to Augusta, so
Speaker 2: let's just get this done. And you played to.
Speaker 1: The karma too, you had to, I mean, the guy stayed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, go to work as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He saved me, like you know, one hundred us around
Speaker 2: as well, you know, with a local. Yeah, it was
Speaker 2: you know, he played it well himself and I played
Speaker 2: it well too, so it all worked out that positive
Speaker 2: for both of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that'll be awesome. And then you were wearing
Speaker 1: a wing foot shirt, so you've seen it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I played wing foot. I played it last year
Speaker 2: because I went up I was in the New York
Speaker 2: area because I think I did a USAM qualifier up there.
Speaker 2: It wasn't the one that the one at whipper Will
Speaker 2: this year and I did that this year whipped Well,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think while I was there, I think
Speaker 2: I was up there for a qualifier.
Speaker 1: Where did I do it? It may been the one
Speaker 1: you emailed.
Speaker 2: No, I try to get into that one. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: tried to get into the SX one but it booked
Speaker 2: out so quickly. I ended up doing one at like
Speaker 2: a Asocles up there that was like pretty average, but
Speaker 2: but that was that was where I went and played
Speaker 2: wing foot. And yeah, so I had that picked up
Speaker 2: that jumper, that sort of violet kind of lavender colored
Speaker 2: thing that I was wearing in the morning and it
Speaker 2: was cold. I only brought two jumpers, so sweaters, jumpers,
Speaker 2: what are you want to call them? With me? And
Speaker 2: I wore the green one the day before and it
Speaker 2: kind of didn't kind of clashed with what I was
Speaker 2: playing to wear in the in the final round, so
Speaker 2: I had to put the wing foot one on, which
Speaker 2: is a bit of a flex if I'm honest to
Speaker 2: the guy, just like I am. But he was wearing Joey.
Speaker 2: Joe was wearing a an RBC Canadian Open jacket because
Speaker 2: he played there like a month before so or whatever
Speaker 2: it was, so he was flexing as well.
Speaker 1: So what do you think of Wind?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's really good. Yeah, it's I mean,
Speaker 2: I hadn't seen it before gilt on the work, but
Speaker 2: I saw a lot Yeah, twenty eight in the World
Speaker 2: wrest So I mean it's it's awesome. Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2: I think that the guy I played with sort of
Speaker 2: showed me what they've done, like standing out the green
Speaker 2: pads so you got more sort of interesting pins in
Speaker 2: the corners and taking out a few trees and fixed
Speaker 2: up a few of the morning lines, and I thought
Speaker 2: it was great. I wanted to play the East though
Speaker 2: as well, because that looked really interesting. That looks kind
Speaker 2: of like short, quirky, kind of a good little path
Speaker 2: in the trees. That looked really cool as I was
Speaker 2: playing one of the holes. I can't remember have you played.
Speaker 1: I played it the Yeah, like a week ago. Awesome.
Speaker 1: The Green okay, so cool?
Speaker 2: Do you play both?
Speaker 1: Just the just the West? Just go back just the west. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the same thing.
Speaker 2: I wanted to play east when I get the chance.
Speaker 1: I was looking at the east, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: that looks really neat, you know, like a couple of
Speaker 1: the part three.
Speaker 2: Is that one, Yeah, the.
Speaker 1: One that's right next to nine, Yeah, with no bunker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that was the one. Yeah, just like
Speaker 2: raised green like mounds all around. Yeah, it was. It
Speaker 2: was a cool couple of cool views around.
Speaker 1: I felt like, you know, it's winkfists really cool because like,
Speaker 1: if you play well, you can you can score out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you gotta if you keep it in playoff
Speaker 2: for tea. I think that's the biggest thing. The greens
Speaker 2: are pretty generous. They're pretty wide greens, and yeah, they're like,
Speaker 2: you know, you can have some tricky parts across them
Speaker 2: if you're not accurate with your irons. But I felt
Speaker 2: like I drove it pretty good that day and didn't
Speaker 2: really struggle. But I could imagine if you're hitting it
Speaker 2: into the rough and it's just got to be so
Speaker 2: hard to hit those greens from the rough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's it. It's it's definitely you gotta hit
Speaker 1: you gotta drive it well out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you gotta drive it everywhere, well everywhere if.
Speaker 2: You want to. Yeah, especially I mean, I mean I
Speaker 2: know it's going to be us open conditions and unplanned
Speaker 2: it so the rof's going to be crazy. Yeah, it'll
Speaker 2: be interesting.
Speaker 1: So obviously you get the invitation, you've got to be
Speaker 1: planning a Augusta trip before, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think I'm not going to go like crazy, like
Speaker 2: super early or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You got a little bit of it I think to
Speaker 1: deal with too.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's the issue, Like I'm not I'm only
Speaker 2: going to get there early like but not come back
Speaker 2: kind of thing. So I think I'll probably head there
Speaker 2: like mid early mid March for a trip because at
Speaker 2: least the course will be somewhat representative of what it'll
Speaker 2: be like a month later. So I reckon I'm going
Speaker 2: to do an early ish, yeah, mid mid early March trip,
Speaker 2: stay on because the I think it's the Azalea Invitationals
Speaker 2: the week after like sort.
Speaker 1: Of like late marching Club Charleston.
Speaker 2: Yeah, country Club Charleston. So I reckon I'm going to
Speaker 2: stay and play that because that finishes up on like
Speaker 2: about the twenty fifth of March, and then I could
Speaker 2: have like a week and a half to kind of
Speaker 2: prep for the Masters.
Speaker 1: Yeah you should. You should see the country club, yeah two,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I should see.
Speaker 2: That's close to that's true. Actually I almost I almost
Speaker 2: played that this year, that tournament. They've got a good,
Speaker 2: good amateur tournament there. Yeah, mackenzie, it's really really neat.
Speaker 2: Actually I played the number.
Speaker 5: Four course at Pinehurst and I think it's the that's
Speaker 5: the fifth hole, maybe the third hole, fourth hole, I
Speaker 5: think past three, it's identical to that that hole at Palmetto.
Speaker 2: Ye seven. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I really want to
Speaker 2: get out there, so probably, Yeah, I'll probably head there early.
Speaker 2: You had to, had to be, and then stay on
Speaker 2: and plack up courses and head to Augusta.
Speaker 1: You'll be you'll be acclimated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be uh but uh yeah exactly, it's.
Speaker 1: It's late there. I'm gonna let you go. You probably
Speaker 1: got some jet leg, yeah a little bit. Thanks for
Speaker 1: coming on, and uh hopefully, well we'll talk. So we'll
Speaker 1: see you in uh in the spring, if not earlier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, definitely if you want to get me on again.
Speaker 2: As a as I'm readying for the the event, I
Speaker 2: look forward to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, next one will be in person. Maybe he'll be
Speaker 1: in Australia, who knows.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, perfect, No, that'll be really good. Yeah all right, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll look forward to maybe hosting you out of Metro.
Speaker 2: Then you've been listening to the Fried Egg podcast. We
Speaker 2: do the digging for you.