WEBVTT - Fire Drill 027: A Wild One at the Open 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:06.400 This is a win. Whatever happens tomorrow. It doesn't say 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:08.119 like it's going to be anything, but another day like 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:12.080 this and a good play is going to win the 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:18.599 usg I need to win every now and then put 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:32.919 another log on the fire. Nobody hears given time. All right, 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.280 Hello and welcome back to another Fire Drill Podcasts. It 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.519 is late Saturday evening here at the country club. We 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:42.680 decided to get a jump on things, so the leaders 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.440 are playing their final few holes. It has been a 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.199 war of attrition. The wind came in, the temperature dropped. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.440 I think it's been an absolutely riveting day of golf. Ryan, 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:54.160 you were out there watching. What are your what are 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.600 your thoughts on on this US Open, how it's developed. Yeah, 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:58.160 I mean it's very cool and just to be out 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.960 there for my first time and yeah, I mean it's 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.720 playing very hard. Um it is. Uh, it's just cool 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.759 to be out there. I mean it was a great 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.959 leaderboard obviously. Um. I mean I can't wait to watch 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.000 the finish. I know some of your beloved qualifiers have 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.000 fallen off the board, but here it comes Adam Padwin. 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:24.320 This is definitely big boy golf. M Jeff watching H 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.040 Jeff Ogiley by the ways here Milacael Bapers on my left. 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:28.440 Ryan French is on my right. I should have done 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.920 that earlier. My apologies. M Jeff watching at home. What 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:33.920 are you see out of this golf course and the 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.880 way this tournament is shaping up for the Sunday Finnish? Yeah, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.600 I mean it's been pretty compelling, Hanna. Um looks tough 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:43.559 out there. That's kind of more fun to watch today 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.679 than it would be to play. I think um Will's 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:48.680 played Gride again. I mean, look, it's look, there's a 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.360 little bit of southern hills about Will out there, and 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.040 Fitch Pat Matt Fitzpatrick up there again, and Rom's hanging 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:56.360 in there all it looks like he's about to make 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.440 a boggy, So yeah, fun. Rory's had a tough duy 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:01.880 Scottie out of control there for a bit, and then 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:03.960 as fast as he went up, he went down. So yeah, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.120 I'm just compelling viewing, I guess. I mean, you spend 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.280 your life buying us opens you kind of don't really 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:14.360 understand sort of the joy people get to watch sort 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.919 of play a struggle. But today I've kind of enjoyed it. Michael, 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:20.760 how much do you love the way this course is 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.560 testing the player. It's big, jackular and you know Jeff's point, 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.639 it's not so much really seeing him struggle, it's just 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.520 seeing what what has literally been said for a hundred 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:32.760 years that the best golf courses will produce over seventy 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.200 Joel holes the best players, and we're seeing this, you know, 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.560 all ten names like we saw in nineteen seventy four 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.440 wing Foot, you know, when it was a murderers row. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:43.840 This is a murderers row of the of the game today. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.400 So it must say something about the quality of the 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.440 golfers and the quality of the courses and how they're 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.720 and how they're matching up. It's just couldn't be more fun. 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.639 I mean, there's some thrilling us open bogie's going on 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:56.920 out there, like a lot of guys making six eight 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.600 footers to save bogie, which is monumental something like this. 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.079 And I didn't think the course was set up that 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.200 much more difficult. You know, the greens are still little receptive, 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.320 but this big wind and this cold are came in 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.120 and man, that just changed everything. Yeah, it's now if 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.640 you're on the wrong side of this green, you're praying 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.320 you can tupe. You've got no chance of making there's 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.880 no bombs to be made any downhills. Six footer and 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.720 the wind looks so difficult. It just looks really really 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:27.239 hard in the appropriately hard, not like weird hard, just 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.360 appropriately hard. Yeah, Jeff. And if you rank the things 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:36.160 that players dislike the least from a scoring standpoint, there's brick, 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.840 hard greens, there's long rough. But where does a cold, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.520 heavy wind fit into that? Yeah, that's pretty up there. 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.640 I mean, I think if we have if we have soft, 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.160 if we have soft grains, we generally score pretty well, 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.920 even outside everything else usually, but if you have firm 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.560 grains in a wind cold wind, especially, the ball goes shorter. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.000 Modern equipment seems to go shorter in the cold. The 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:05.040 temperatures set of temperature dependent a little bit. Yeah, wind 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.720 is tough, especially blustery wind, and even hitting shots sometimes 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.320 in the wind you can sort of manage. But putting 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.480 in the wind on fast grains is really really hard, 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.080 maybe the hardest thing. I know. People talk about it 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.280 a little bit, but putting in the wind, especially on 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.240 days like this, when you've got six footers and you 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.360 start really thinking, well, I really want to make this, 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.440 but I really don't want to have six feet coming back, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.159 so you start getting defensive over puts and the balls 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.960 wobbling and you're moving around and stuff. So wind I 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.719 wouldn't say an equalizer the least preferred option for weather. 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.800 I would have thought it. If it's raining and it's 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:38.600 coming straight down, it's not so bad. But if it's 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.400 blowing really hard, golf gets really difficult. I mean, I'm 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.560 not sure the average fan understands how much the wind 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.640 can move a ball on the ground when there's so 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.120 little grass underneath it. Right, Because the greens that we play, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.400 I don't feel like wind affects the puts that much. 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.839 But these things are shaped so slick, they're like there's 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.000 no friction there. How like Jeff on an eight foot 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.360 or with a this serious cross went on a really 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.440 fast green. I mean, how much can that really affect 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.320 the role of the put? Oh? I can affect it 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.520 a lot. I mean some greens are some greens to 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.279 sort of sit down below the bunkers, or they've got 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.200 some trees and stuff around, are usually okay, but there's 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.840 a lot of exposed grains around them. You could have 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:19.640 a dead straight part that would break from outside the 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.640 hole in a proper cross wind, for sure, And so 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:24.640 then it gets complicated when you've got a right to 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.919 left part and the wind's buying left to right. If 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:29.440 you've got a downhill put that you have to hit 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.640 really really softly if the ball's blowing. If the ball 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:33.599 is rolling slowly, it's going to get hit a lot 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:36.080 harder than if the ball is rolling fast. So there's 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.000 a lot of complications, there's a lot of guesswork, and 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.120 there's a fair bit of luck involved, I think sometimes 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.640 because gusty wind is up and down and you can 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.200 do all the calculating you want and aim at left 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:47.960 edge if it's blowing left edge, if you just get 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.719 if if the gust lays down, it just to go straight, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:52.640 and if you get a really big gust, it breaks 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.480 more than the whole. So it's a little bit random. 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:57.000 But at the end of the day, when it's like this, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.320 good putters usually hole puts. Anyway, the harder putting gets, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.240 the better putters get further in front. Usually putting is 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.960 a headspace more than any sort of technique probably, and 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.680 great putters have great minds about putting, And yeah, I 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.120 don't know, it's tough. Is there a certain kind of 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.080 putting stroke that lends itself to putting better in windy 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:22.640 conditions like this, you would think, I mean, I mean 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.200 the sort of snetcer thing, which is the extreme end 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.640 of the scale, the really sort of short, firm, sort 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.760 of poppy thing he puts incredibly well on poor greens 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:35.200 and in poor conditions. But yeah, just that solid looking stroke, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.280 you know, the big wavy ben crunchhaor thing. I'm sure 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:38.680 he putt a grain in the wind. I'm not picking 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.719 on bend, but like that big sort of Laura Roberts 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.120 ben crunch or that really slow thing probably doesn't work 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.159 quite as well. But modern modern putters are a lot 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:47.520 bigger and a lot heavier than they used to be. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:50.040 A lot of mallets is a lot more weight in 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.640 putters than they used to be. So the putter, probably 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.080 the stroke is probably less important than just as I said, 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.320 the attitude towards putting the patients. If if your ball 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.239 blows offline or it's wobbling when you hit it and stuff, 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.159 you just gotta have patience and realize that it's happening 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.159 to everyone, and you're gonna mike some and you're gonna 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.520 miss some I love all that. It's so it's so 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.480 insider you Ryan, what did you think the vibe out there? 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.040 Because I feel like the crowds there were significantly larger 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.040 than the first two rounds. I don't think they sold 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.680 more tickets or or what happened, but I feel like 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.920 a major uptick in the energy and and and the vibe. 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.320 What was your take? Yeah, definitely better. Uh, some more 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:32.200 people drinking, so funnier crowds that had some energy. There 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.520 was chance going on. I mean it was, I mean 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:38.000 what I would expect from a Boston crowd. It was. 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:39.760 It was a lot of fun out there. And they're 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:44.000 really adopting, of course, as they would Keegan Bradley uh 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.320 as one of their own. And that's part of the 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.400 greatness of Boston. That's part of the greatness of the 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.119 Open is that you know, at any open, Uh, they'll 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.400 suddenly be a crowd favor And I would say it 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:55.880 right now for sure it's Keegan Bradley. Oh, no question. 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.160 Did you hear anything funny out there? Yeah? John Ram 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:03.560 got called chunky but handsome. Um, I mean there's always 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:08.800 I mean, I'm always amazed that people like are so 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.080 dedicated to like just yelling at another adult. You know, 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.520 it's just like what the hell are you doing? Like, okay, 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.160 you want to like go John? I mean I was 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.800 walking on four and John Ram was like here to 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.080 the camera away from us and go John, Go John, 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.240 over and over and over and over and over again. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.880 And John is like just looking straight ahead and just 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.480 like I mean there's no way Jeff can maybe tell us, 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.360 but like there's no way that doesn't annoy the shit 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.920 out of you. Like okay, dude, I got it. Seven, 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:42.680 let's joke. Let's go John to go, And the discipline 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.320 not to even look over there, just like that's impressive. 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.319 I mean, how much at a big tournament, Jeff, when 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.440 the fans are well lubricated and getting rowdy, Like, how 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.520 can that really affect a player and get in their 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.520 head and irritate them? Or how easy is it to 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.000 drown that out? I mean, well, like in Boston and 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.600 New York, it's very hard to drown out. Phoenix would 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.640 be another one too. Look, it's fun if it's in 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.080 a good spirit. I think I think most guys enjoy 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.560 the good spirit. I think when it flips a little negative, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.480 I think guys that can really get under their skin. Um, 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.360 it's fun. I mean, Phoenix can be one or the other. 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.680 You know, in New York, I think's the best place 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:20.240 that if you if there's if there's a guy doing 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.000 that and they yell loud. In New York and Boston's 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.040 probably pretty similar. If you turn around and acknowledge them, 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:26.760 they get happy and then they get quiet. You know, 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.679 they just want to be acknowledged. I'm here, Yeah, you're 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.360 you're part of this show, like, well done, thanks, riding 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.640 on and then just quiet and down place. Um, look, 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.760 I don't know, it's tough. They get very loud. You 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.120 understand that they're having fun. But if it's positive, I 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.480 think it's great. If it gets negative, it gets a 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:48.079 bit aggravating. Yeah. One of the other stories in my 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.520 book at All is Amazes Me win at the Atlanta 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.840 Athletic Club when Michelson two thousand one PG Championship against 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.480 David Thoms and gets down to the seventieth hole. He's 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.439 got this long part and some fans yelled, uh something 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.480 about the break. Phil. It's it's really slow put you know, 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.120 and on some level the fans know what they're talking about. 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.000 If you camp out around a green for an hour 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:11.520 or two and you see a lot of putts and 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.800 you're you're a golfer. You can kind of get a 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.640 fuel for it, like you have some information. And Phil said, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:18.920 like he heard it and it hit his subconscious and 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.080 so he hit his putt harder. It went eight feet by, 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.200 he missed the comebacker, and in a lot of ways 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.559 it cost him the PG championship. I give him credit 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.439 for actually saying it and being honest about it, But 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:30.920 I mean, is that a thing, Jeff, where like fans 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.559 will will shout out information that might or might not 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:39.960 be relevant, and like has it ever affected you? Absolutely? Um? Yeah, absolutely, 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:42.560 Like Brake's left, Jeff. It Brake's left, Jeff. And then 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.079 you sort of think, well, I know it breaks left, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:45.480 but does it make more than I left? More than 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.360 I think? And now I hit it high, and now 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:48.760 you don't want to miss it left, because then they're 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:50.200 all going to get into your saying, I told you're 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.440 broke left, so you may be hitting a bit too high. 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.040 And yeah it's I mean, they like you're right. They do. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:56.880 They've been watching pots old eye and may people have 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.320 been missing it left old eye. Then they're just trying 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.280 to help all, as I said, to be part of 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.120 the show or whatever. But then you start thinking, well, 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:04.440 if I miss it left, they're just going to give 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:05.920 me the I tell just so, so I better give 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:08.080 it a bit more than I can see. And maybe 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.760 I'm saying what it was anyway, And yeah, it's um it. 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:13.959 Generally it happens a few times. You generally get pretty 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:15.560 good at drowning it out and just doing your own thing, 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:20.679 but you certainly listen, and it certainly happens a lot, Yeah, Jeff. 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.599 When the USJ committee meets side to side on the 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:27.319 course setup, they have of course an idea of what 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.400 they want for Sunday, probably going months back. To what 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.920 degree would they adjust at all in terms of actual 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.920 position tea markers, actual position of the whole at what 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:41.880 point to what degree would they make late weak adjustments, 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:48.000 if at all, depending on whether leaderboard or otherwise, I 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.320 don't know. I think the USGA is probably pretty set. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.319 I hope they're fluid with the weather forecast. They have 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.520 sort of contingency sort of ideas. Certainly, t I think 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:01.600 tea positions would be pretty fluid depending on conditions the pins. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:03.520 As you said, they probably decided that three years ago 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:04.839 where they were going to put the pins, you know, 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.600 during the week, and hopefully there's contingencies for crazy winds 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:10.600 and stuff. I would have feel like the USG has 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.000 a sort of organization that wouldn't have contingency plans for that. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:17.599 I mean, Augusta certainly is very Augusta certainly seems to 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.000 move the course around depending on the week. You know, 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.880 they seem to set the course up each day as 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:24.760 appropriate to how it's playing and how it went the 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:29.559 day before. USGA. I don't know. I think Matis probably 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:30.800 can move around a little bit, but I think the 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.040 pins are probably set in stone. I would that would 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.160 be my guests. Hopefully there's contingency, but I don't know. Well, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.040 tomorrow will be interesting because the highest forecast now for 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.719 fifty nine. It's gonna be cold, and you know, we 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.319 saw a big wind blow through here. You know, I 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.439 feel like they've not really pushed this course that hard. 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:51.760 You know, we're talking about they put water on the 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:57.719 greens yesterday, so cold weather. Could they would they tip 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.440 it out and really like let's make this a allbuster 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.400 or are they afraid of going too far in one direction? 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.439 So I think we'll get some of the some of 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.559 the answer to your question tomorrow. Michael. Yeah, how tough 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:09.679 they set up knowing that it's gonna it might be 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:10.959 at the end of the day. We've got one or 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:16.000 two guys under part exactly, so um as we're sitting here. 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.280 Fitzpatrick just Birdie the seventeenth hole. He's a solo leader 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.360 at five under. And he's a really interesting case. Like 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.079 you know, he's always been known just greedy, grinder on 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.079 dangerous on tough courses, didn't hit it far enough to 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.880 be a serious contender. But over the last couple of years, 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.679 like he's embraced the stack system. He's added excuse me, 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.520 a lot of horsepower and a lot of speed, and 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.319 like he's hitting it really far for a guy his size. Now, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.880 I mean, Jeff, can you talk about a similar evolution? 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.360 I mean, how hard is that for a short hitter 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.839 to become an above average hitter? And when you have 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.760 that skill set like he has and then you add 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.120 another whatever ten fifty twenty yards, Like, how dangerous does 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:58.079 that does that make a guy like Matt Fitzpatrick. Oh yeah, 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.160 I mean he's the real deal now. And he was 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.800 quite short when I first played with him, and I 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:05.719 thought he was going to struggle at big courses. But yeah, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:07.240 he's got longer. I don't know he used to. I 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:08.640 think it's a lot easier than it used to be. 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:10.679 I think the science is really good now. I think 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:16.680 golf has been overscienced from a playing perspective in most areas. 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.360 But I think the physical stuff like that, the sort 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.560 of sort of fine tuning the gym programs, and the 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.720 sort of the light clubs and the heavy clubs and 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.640 the speed stuff that people do, I think is pretty 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.160 good now. I think there used to be whenever someone 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:33.800 chased a bit of distance, it was usually that was 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.240 the end of their career and they would go off 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.400 the wrong way. But I think now it seems to 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:42.040 be pretty well worked out. Everybody's doing it. I mean, 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:47.120 I think it's a little bit sort of overrated just 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.240 gaining more distance. You still need to make parts of chip, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.800 and Tiger won all the major hitting two arms off 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.640 the tea and stuff, so I still think it's a 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.840 fraction overrated, but it's a much It's a much more 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.360 exact science now, and there's a much better understanding of 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:07.560 how to create speed without trashing your golf game and equipment, 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:08.960 so you can you can do so much more with 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.360 equipment set up now to maximize what you're doing. Whereas 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.800 before it was just find the best club you could 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:16.400 and work out to hit that one far. Now you 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:18.320 can really sort of there's so many shafts and so 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.320 many head options, and so many weights you can do 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.520 in the club, and so many different things that they've 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.360 learned R and D wise with drivers and golf balls 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.640 that it sort of compliments the physical stuff you're doing. 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.200 That's that's fascinating, Jeff, because it seems to me, if you're, 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.080 if you're really really good at golf, you'd much rather 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.240 change your shaft in your head than change your body. 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:40.200 Because you've change your body, your swing is going to 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.360 have to change as well as you saw a tiger 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.120 as you soon braced Shambo and Rory, lots of people 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.120 over the years. But if you're just used the shaft 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.240 in the head, it's more organic with it. Would that 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.840 be largely a accurate or Yeah? And I think and 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.480 I think, look, a lot of it is confidence too. 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.840 Like when you feel confident with a golf say a driver, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.520 you're trying to hit it far. When you feel confident 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.680 with the driver, you just hit it harder. You just 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:05.600 do because you feel better about it. And if you 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.520 feel that the driver's going a bit skewy, you start 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.280 slowing down because you're just not sure where it's going 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.240 to go. So there's a lot to that. There's a lot. 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.480 It's a lot more of an exact science getting drivers 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:16.560 into people's hands, and there's more of an understanding of 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.040 sort of what stuff will allow you to sort of 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:22.400 see the shape that you want. If you see the 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.040 shape that you want in the ball flight that you want, 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:25.920 you get more confident. So you just naturally hit it 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.440 harder anyway because you're more confident. So that all sort 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.280 of compliments that the physical stuff you're doing. So I 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.440 think it's it's pretty well understood now. It seems to 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:37.320 be all the attention in golf the last sort of 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:39.040 ten years has gone on how to get guys to 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.800 hit it further. And when you get smart minds on things, 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.120 good things usually happen. I still think, as I said, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:45.680 I still think it's a fraction overrated. But for a 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.320 guy like Matt, it was probably necessary to compete on 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:51.880 the big on the big courses because he's got every 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.960 other every other part of the game. So he gains 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.000 ten or fifteen yards, he's going to be He's pretty dangerous. Right. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.960 He reminds me of the bastall player who's got all 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:02.680 the skills and then all of a sudden he grows 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.640 like eight inches one summer and he's like, now he's 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.320 he's the best player on the court. Like it's really interesting. Um, Ryan, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.200 Adam Hadwin just finished office round. He's tied for third. 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.840 He seems like, you're kind of guy. Yeah, I mean 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.840 he's had some success. He's not I mean, he's he's 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.080 a nice dude. He's not really a like a grinder. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.960 I mean he's done pretty well. Yeah, I mean, Ryan, 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:27.760 can I ask you, what do you mean he is 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.240 or isn't grinders? The greatest grinder in the history of 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:35.520 golf is Tiger Woods. So what exactly? So my my, yeah, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:40.399 I mean obviously he grinds. I think Tiger grinds the greatest. 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.719 But a grinder is like Hayden Buckley, like wasn't supposed 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.399 to be here? Who says, So you're you're using it 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.520 as an adjective or a noun. He's using it as 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.119 a genre. He's talking about scrappy dude coming from the 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.280 minor leagues. I understand. Yeah, to me, a grinder or 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.880 someone like they are so desperate to stay in this game, 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.720 they will do whatever they have to do, hopefully within 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.040 legal bounds, to stay in the game. I totally agree, 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:10.640 except they don't have the talent that Tiger has. I'm 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.159 not I'm not discounting that Tiger was grinded Tiger Tiger, 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.520 but you know, Buckley, grind off the charts and talent 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.080 off the charts. You got Tiger Woods. We've never seen 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.119 anything like it. Hayden Buckley like what you know, I mean, 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:27.159 obviously very talented, but like has to work harder or 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.600 as hard, doesn't have the skills to do it. So 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.680 he's he might win one or two PJA two events 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.119 in his entire life. I see some of our colleagues 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.080 eating pizza. What's up with that? Do you think pie 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.440 is being served? Yes? Stay focused, Michael, oh, yes, say? 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.280 Can I ask a question for all three of you? Jensen, 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.080 you know, and when Jeff first came on too, of 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.280 course this wasn't the case. These major seasons are short 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.520 and intense, and this year in particularly to go from 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.400 augustin National Scottish Shuffler, a Great PJA Championship at Southern Hills, 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.159 a great US Open here, and then we're going to 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:02.760 the Old Course. There are no bad opens up the 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.520 Old Course. What do you all think about? You know, April, May, June, 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.200 July bam bam, bam bam, and then we're out. I 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.080 like it. I mean, it's kind of it's just like 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.119 you get into this rhythm and then you throw the 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.600 players in there in March too. Yeah, you just have 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.359 kind of a five month run, four month run that 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.480 really defines the whole golf season. And then then you 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.800 come into the FedEx Cup and we don't care about 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:27.840 that much, but it kind of puts a cherry on 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:29.639