Speaker 1: The guys from paying. They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters.
Speaker 2: I just love that I can hit any shot I
Speaker 2: kind of want.
Speaker 3: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
Speaker 3: what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the proven Grounds Podcast. I'm
Speaker 2: Shane Bacon. That is Marty Jerts and Marty we got
Speaker 2: a special guest. I've bit excited about this one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Wayne Radar Riley. Yeah, I think that's a good
Speaker 3: place to start. Cheane is wayn Why don't you tell
Speaker 3: us where Radar came from?
Speaker 4: Well, when I was a young boy, I was actually
Speaker 4: playing an apprentice golf profession in Australia. I had to
Speaker 4: work at a pro shop for three years and because
Speaker 4: my parents made me do that in case I didn't
Speaker 4: make it as a golf bro and they would bang
Speaker 4: on and I was in a place called Orange and
Speaker 4: I was camping because we couldn't afford to stay in
Speaker 4: a hotel playing this championship and Wayne Riley it was
Speaker 4: right at the height of a TV show called Mash
Speaker 4: and you're you know, with the helicopters and Radar Riley
Speaker 4: out of mash and it upset me Bactually really I
Speaker 4: was only about fifteen or sixteen years of age, but
Speaker 4: they did me a favor really, So it's, uh, that's
Speaker 4: where I get RADI Riley Nash.
Speaker 2: When you're walking the golf course, do you get radar
Speaker 2: more than when polot you absolute?
Speaker 1: They're always their always screaming, don't you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's in the UK, Yeah, it's it's absolutely, it's
Speaker 4: it's it's it's all Rader, all of it. And in
Speaker 4: Australia it's all Rader.
Speaker 2: So you're from Sydney, Australia, you live in England now
Speaker 2: encourse commentator for Sky Sports. You do an unbelievable job.
Speaker 2: You're one of my favorite listens. How did you get
Speaker 2: into that? Because a lot of people might not know
Speaker 2: about your playing career, How did you transition from player
Speaker 2: to encourse commentator?
Speaker 4: Well, I retired from the playing on the DP World
Speaker 4: two European Tours, I know it as and I went
Speaker 4: back to Australia and I actually bought a nine whole
Speaker 4: part three golf course and what was it, Wayne Riley
Speaker 4: Path three?
Speaker 1: And there you go?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And originally and and and I had that, and
Speaker 4: I got a phone call from Channel seven back in
Speaker 4: Australia and they said, would you like to come and
Speaker 4: do some en course commentary? And I was eleven o'clock
Speaker 4: or nine. I was half a say. I said, sure,
Speaker 4: you got the right right guy usual you know what
Speaker 4: Wayne Grady or someone like that like that. They said, not,
Speaker 4: it's you. We think you can do it, and that
Speaker 4: was it, and then Sky got me and the rest
Speaker 4: is history. I didn't find it very difficult at all,
Speaker 4: and which is which is a bonus. You know, some
Speaker 4: people struggle with it, and but they learned to do it,
Speaker 4: and that's fine. But straight away I just duck the water.
Speaker 4: I'd been in every predicament as a golf pro, up
Speaker 4: trees everywhere, so I kind of knew how to call
Speaker 4: shots reder.
Speaker 3: Do you still own the PO three course?
Speaker 4: No? No no. I leased that out for two years
Speaker 4: to this guy and he started to steal from me,
Speaker 4: so I ended up selling it back to him. I
Speaker 4: sold it to him, I mean true, yeah, I leased
Speaker 4: it to him, and there's ways that I shouldn't say this,
Speaker 4: but he didn't steal, did you?
Speaker 2: You just maybe a bit sketchy, I'm assuming it's not
Speaker 2: Wene Riley P three.
Speaker 4: It's Silver Slvania waters Bath three.
Speaker 1: Now there you go.
Speaker 3: So after you were camping and working as a golf
Speaker 3: pro playing these was it?
Speaker 1: Were they junior.
Speaker 3: Tournaments in Australia you were planning at that time sixteen seventeen, Well.
Speaker 4: No, they were. We call it an apprentice. I'm not
Speaker 4: sure if it's the stay the same here in the States.
Speaker 4: You have to work in a pro shop for three
Speaker 4: years to become fully qualified, gotcha. Yes, you could fall
Speaker 4: back on being a club pro if you didn't make
Speaker 4: it on the circuit. So that's what I did, and
Speaker 4: I did the whole three years, which was almost like
Speaker 4: a jail sentence, basically selling Mars bars to the members
Speaker 4: and cleaning their golf clubs and all that. I did
Speaker 4: the whole lot. Do your lessons, No, I wasn't. You're
Speaker 4: not allowed to us apprentice. Yeah you can now, But
Speaker 4: when my day, it was, you know, thirty dollars a
Speaker 4: week I used to get when I first started, and
Speaker 4: it was it was very interesting. But I started that
Speaker 4: when I was fifteen. It was a decent golf even
Speaker 4: when I was fifteen. So I did it for three
Speaker 4: years I was out at eighteen, but I'm fully qualified.
Speaker 4: Never had to use it, but so it's been as
Speaker 4: good as an Astronia motorbike. It's been useless really, but
Speaker 4: I'm still a fully qualified golf brother.
Speaker 3: So you're a PGF Australia member of the.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely, they always have been and pay it every year.
Speaker 4: So whether they know I am.
Speaker 1: You pay your dues, I do.
Speaker 3: Wait, what what year did you turn pro and what
Speaker 3: was the what were the early days like of your
Speaker 3: professional career.
Speaker 4: Well, that was around nineteen seventy seven when I had
Speaker 4: to go and work in the pro shop, and but
Speaker 4: I was out at about nineteen eighty one. I started
Speaker 4: to play pro am. We've got an unbelievably good pro
Speaker 4: am circuit in Australia where Wayne Grady, a major champion,
Speaker 4: Ian Baker Finch, Greg Norman back in the day played
Speaker 4: this pro am circuit. We all honed our game on that.
Speaker 4: You know, playing five thousand dollars was a total person
Speaker 4: If you won, you won seven hundred dollars and you
Speaker 4: could just keep on going on to the next event.
Speaker 4: They were all year round, except when the big tournaments
Speaker 4: in Australia were happening. So it was a great place
Speaker 4: to hone your game. Every single day. You'd finish, you
Speaker 4: get in the car and you go to the next
Speaker 4: one and they all in the same vicinity as each other,
Speaker 4: so off you'd go, and then you'd play on the
Speaker 4: proper tour when it started like October through December, and
Speaker 4: then they'd start up again and the finish late February
Speaker 4: with the Australian Masters, and then when you got your card,
Speaker 4: you go and play in Europe or you play in
Speaker 4: the States. So Australia's and it's still got a great
Speaker 4: it's a great honing ground for young pros, but there
Speaker 4: aren't big championships. We used to have like thirteen or
Speaker 4: fourteen big championships and now they're basically is the Australian
Speaker 4: PGA and the Australian Open. Because of the world schedule.
Speaker 4: Now it's a world schedule. People go, why haven't we
Speaker 4: got big championships down in Australia. When I go back
Speaker 4: to Australia, But it's very difficult now because you know,
Speaker 4: the same time as Australian Open, Tiger's got his event,
Speaker 4: the Hero and so many things going on now. Sponsors
Speaker 4: aren't interested anymore unless you've got great fields. Basically Scottie
Speaker 4: Smith if they had at leash and these are kind
Speaker 4: of great Australian players. If they aren't playing, sponsors aren't
Speaker 4: really interested.
Speaker 2: When did you start to show signs of being a
Speaker 2: very good golfer? I'm always interested in when people see
Speaker 2: a clicking, or when they start to see the results,
Speaker 2: or if somebody tells them, hey, you've got some serious game.
Speaker 2: When did you start to see your abilities click?
Speaker 4: About nineteen to twenty I started to sort of win
Speaker 4: these pro am events and then start top tens on
Speaker 4: the on the circuit, and I won my first tournament
Speaker 4: when I was like twenty one, being in Baker Beating
Speaker 4: and Baker Vench in a playoff, a big event Victorian
Speaker 4: PG eight and yeah, it just went on from there.
Speaker 4: And then twenty two I came over and got my
Speaker 4: card in Europe and off you go.
Speaker 3: Was your first big win the ninety one Australian Open, No.
Speaker 4: The PGA. But see, as I say, the thirteen tournaments
Speaker 4: we had back in Australia, Yeah, they are all big events.
Speaker 4: You know. We've got like Bob Shearers and Jack Newton's
Speaker 4: blust from the past Baker, Finches. You know, all these
Speaker 4: guys played in the events that we won, but they
Speaker 4: don't hear of them now. But they are big events.
Speaker 4: But my big yeah, the Australian Open would have been
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety one was my first big on. Everyone wants
Speaker 4: to win the Australian openers in Australia even now it was,
Speaker 4: but it was back then. You know there were three
Speaker 4: and out of the four major champions in it. I mean,
Speaker 4: it was a huge event in Australia Open. It is
Speaker 4: it true?
Speaker 3: You went birdie, birdie, birdie, and tell us about that
Speaker 3: putt on the last hole or the last the finishing
Speaker 3: stretch of that tournament.
Speaker 4: Well, it's an interesting story because in nineteen ninety I
Speaker 4: started with ping and and I won the Air New
Speaker 4: Zealand Open by seven shots. And anyway, I hope we've
Speaker 4: got all day and I got. I go back to
Speaker 4: Europe in nineteen ninety one, and I parted it up
Speaker 4: so badly. It was incredible with a short buttter. Nothing
Speaker 4: to do with the part I just didn't line up well.
Speaker 4: The holes were open and I found it hard to
Speaker 4: square them up, and I thought I've got to start again.
Speaker 4: So in about September, two months shy of the tour
Speaker 4: finishing in Europe, I went back to Australia and I said, well, okay,
Speaker 4: I'm going to start and I'm going to become a
Speaker 4: child again in the respect of I'm going to get
Speaker 4: a long putter and I'm going to go out there
Speaker 4: and find something that's different than using the short putter.
Speaker 4: So I went back for seven weeks and I practiced
Speaker 4: so very much with the long part. It didn't hit
Speaker 4: a shot seven weeks, just parted every single day. And
Speaker 4: I went to defend the Air New Zealand I don't work,
Speaker 4: which I won the prey previous year in nineteen ninety
Speaker 4: by seven shots, and I ran about thirtieth and I
Speaker 4: didn't put very well. I thought, oh jee, I just
Speaker 4: wasted seven weeks. Next week, next week I get to
Speaker 4: the Australian Open and I played unbelievably like I had
Speaker 4: all year, but wasn't partying very good. And I'm on
Speaker 4: the about third down on the board going into about
Speaker 4: the five holes from the end of the championship, three
Speaker 4: shots back and I'm winging and whining, and my caddy
Speaker 4: then Lindsay, she said it was a lady's great caddy,
Speaker 4: good player herself. And she said, if you don't stop
Speaker 4: whinging when you burdy these last four holes, you're not
Speaker 4: going to remember it.
Speaker 1: And I said, come come on, it's creak caddy advice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's all right, Shane. But then I hit
Speaker 4: it to fifteen feet on the fifteenth miss of the game.
Speaker 4: I said, what were you saying? So anyway, the next
Speaker 4: path through I hit a five iron up there to
Speaker 4: about nine feet behind it. Did then I hit a
Speaker 4: one iron over the back of the green on a
Speaker 4: par five seventeenth at Royal Melbourne, chip it down to
Speaker 4: thirty feet because it was in a tangy light. It
Speaker 4: was a good shot to get at thirty feet Ray
Speaker 4: Melbourne Green's really fast in with this long part, absolutely marvelous.
Speaker 4: So then all of a sudden I sling this six
Speaker 4: iron right around the green on eighteen under the whole
Speaker 4: thirty three feet. Well she didn't touched the sides in
Speaker 4: she went as well, so and then they all started
Speaker 4: to make a few boges, said coda. Uncle Rada prevailed
Speaker 4: with the new putter. I mean you all should get
Speaker 4: the long partter. It was a b ninety.
Speaker 2: This isn't twenty twenty four though. I mean, there weren't
Speaker 2: a lot of long putters out there. I mean, this
Speaker 2: is this something somebody built for you. You go have
Speaker 2: to go find it. I mean, how did you get
Speaker 2: your hands on something like that?
Speaker 1: What in the early nineties.
Speaker 4: I looked at rock O Mediate, really mediate, he had one.
Speaker 4: They were already Peter Sing and Sam Trans were already
Speaker 4: using the chin one, only two of them. But Rocco
Speaker 4: had this thing in his chest, yes, and anchored, you
Speaker 4: bet you we were anchoring and it was it was like,
Speaker 4: you know, I thought that really and then I grabbed
Speaker 4: it and I clawed it and it was like and
Speaker 4: I just kept on thinking, TikTok, like a grandfather clock, TikTok, TikTok.
Speaker 4: And it worked. It was brilliant.
Speaker 3: You see a lot of the you know, now the
Speaker 3: stigma's gone, the ego's gone with the long putter, right,
Speaker 3: it seems that you see a younger players doing it,
Speaker 3: Folks struggling with the hebgb's doing it or not or
Speaker 3: not the hebgb's. I mean, it's just a different technique.
Speaker 3: I personally use it as well. It's not easy. There's
Speaker 3: a skill to it. You need your stuff to do
Speaker 3: a lot of things very mechanically with it, temple wise,
Speaker 3: very important the pressure you apply to it. What advice
Speaker 3: would you have for somebody that wants to try it,
Speaker 3: they've never used a long putter, any technique things, and
Speaker 3: any tips or tricks to somebody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, as long as you do get over that, as
Speaker 4: I said, the Grandfather clock, as long as the putter
Speaker 4: does hang vertically, I feel almost like the toe heel
Speaker 4: up just a little bit and it hangs down. And
Speaker 4: you can get that thing just given it the TikTok,
Speaker 4: the old Grandfather clock. If you can give it that,
Speaker 4: and you know, it's almost as well with the long putter.
Speaker 4: You know, in my day it was almost showing off,
Speaker 4: Like you get onto the green and people go, look
Speaker 4: at this guy, what's just thing? Not many people, so
Speaker 4: they're already looking at you. Yeah, they're looking at you.
Speaker 4: They were looking at me, and I was going, yeah,
Speaker 4: here I am. You might be looking at check what
Speaker 4: I've got here. You know, So all of a sudden
Speaker 4: you've gone from the short part of where you didn't
Speaker 4: want people to watch because it was like a live
Speaker 4: rattlesnak in your hand and now you've got this, you've
Speaker 4: got this TikTok thing go and you hold them from
Speaker 4: everywhere and they're all going whoa. And we went through
Speaker 4: that stage in the nineties where everyone started using it
Speaker 4: and then it stopped.
Speaker 3: It's coming back, though, Yeah, it is coming back.
Speaker 2: Rad Are you you went rattlesnake there? I mean you're
Speaker 2: from Australia. You could have picked any other of the
Speaker 2: most poisonous snakes in the world.
Speaker 4: You read belly black Sune, We've got a red bit.
Speaker 1: You're talking to the American audience.
Speaker 4: Well, that's what it's all about. Yeah, to know where
Speaker 4: that came from.
Speaker 2: Jake, twenty years on the European Tour. Now we've heard
Speaker 2: so long about the European Tour and kind of the
Speaker 2: fraternity that is the European Tour. I can only imagine
Speaker 2: what it was like in the eighties and nineties. I'm
Speaker 2: assuming you've got a couple of good storre worries about
Speaker 2: touring for twenty years on the euro tour with some
Speaker 2: of your buddies and stuff. So if you could share
Speaker 2: a couple of well of those.
Speaker 4: Types, it's just it's the stories are just you know,
Speaker 4: because Basically, we didn't have courtesy cars like on the
Speaker 4: PGA Tour. If you're a player, you get given the car. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you pick it up from the airport, I suppose, and
Speaker 4: you drive around. We used to have to get picked up,
Speaker 4: you know, or catch a cab. And I remember it
Speaker 4: was so strange to play on the European time. I
Speaker 4: remember playing in Madrid once. So I'm playing in Madrid
Speaker 4: and you had to get a golf club called Club
Speaker 4: de Campo ported a hero, great course in Madrid. And
Speaker 4: I get up and I jump in the cab on
Speaker 4: Sunday morning, running about tenth in the championship, you know,
Speaker 4: going in the week and not gonna win, but gonna
Speaker 4: have a decent week. Get in the cab by myself. Anyway,
Speaker 4: see all these people up the road, and I've got
Speaker 4: an hour and a half until I head off. And
Speaker 4: I stopped and I go, what's going on here? Matathon?
Speaker 4: I said, what, So there's a marathon. Okay, so I've
Speaker 4: got to get through this marathon. But I'm not allowed
Speaker 4: to get through this marathons on there's police everywhere.
Speaker 1: They're blocking off the roads.
Speaker 4: So I've got the clubs in the boot of the cab.
Speaker 4: Everyone's honking their car. If you've ever been a midman,
Speaker 4: Madrid a magical place. So I ended up making my
Speaker 4: Titan by three minutes. I had to run through and
Speaker 4: a marathons. They shut a marathon down, and it's really wide.
Speaker 4: It just isn't the street, it's the footpath people can run.
Speaker 4: So I ran through a marathon with hundreds of people
Speaker 4: with my bats ping of course on my back. I'm
Speaker 4: running through all these people and they're all going, what's
Speaker 4: going on? What's this guy doing running? But this is
Speaker 4: the sort of thing we used to do. We didn't
Speaker 4: get courtesy cars or go round marathons. They go, right,
Speaker 4: today's a marathon, we've got to go around, so book
Speaker 4: your car early. I had to run through things like that.
Speaker 4: We used to have. Tuesday nights were legendary. We shouldn't
Speaker 4: go into those too much. A little red eyed on
Speaker 4: on Wednesday pro Am Day. But it's all The game's
Speaker 4: changed so much for the better. But I wouldn't change
Speaker 4: the days we used to. We used to play. If
Speaker 4: you had an ordinary week, you wouldn't win that much money.
Speaker 4: You had to play well the next week as well.
Speaker 4: It was we didn't play for that much money back then.
Speaker 4: It's changed. It's changed dramatically. These guys playing for twenty
Speaker 4: five million a week and twenty million a week, it's
Speaker 4: all and they're still winging.
Speaker 2: Still, they're silf whining they can win, are still whining.
Speaker 4: It's like, unreal. I can't get in that. We'll play
Speaker 4: better man, go and play. Oh well, you have to
Speaker 4: go back. You can't play for the twenty million with
Speaker 4: the designated great events. You have to go and play.
Speaker 4: Oh poor you, you have to go and play for seven.
Speaker 1: Really, I think you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of people should take a good
Speaker 4: hard look of themselves and see how how lucky they are.
Speaker 2: When Rory got the Curtis the police escort at the
Speaker 2: Ryder Cup that one time and made his tea time
Speaker 2: by about half an hour? Were you sitting there going
Speaker 2: there's no stress in that.
Speaker 4: I was there on that first jarge. I think it
Speaker 4: was half an hour.
Speaker 1: Show a little quit, little tighter.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I'd say he he parked ten minutes before. Okay,
Speaker 4: it wasn't much more because I saw him walk on
Speaker 4: the tea and they cheered him and he smiled and
Speaker 4: madonah it was I was right. I just laughed. It
Speaker 4: was just unreal.
Speaker 1: Flashbacks to Madrid.
Speaker 4: Evans knows what he was doing that night.
Speaker 3: Radar, tell us a little bit going back to equipment.
Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit about what ball driver. You
Speaker 3: know you played in the eighties and nineties and and
Speaker 3: and what your experience has been now you've played such
Speaker 3: a broad spectrum of equipment much golf ball driver, metalwood, standpoint,
Speaker 3: tell us all the job though.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the old driver, it's been so long ago. What
Speaker 4: was the silver driver that Ping used to have. They
Speaker 4: used to have a three with the same Yeah, there
Speaker 4: you go, yeah, those but back when I started with Ping,
Speaker 4: you you you had? It was great, it was the best.
Speaker 4: I mean, you had to use thirteen of the fourteen clubs.
Speaker 4: That's what cast has said. He said, you got to
Speaker 4: use thirteen of the fourtune and I used fourteen, and
Speaker 4: you had to use the putter. If you had a
Speaker 4: Ping bag, There's no using someone else's butter, because that's
Speaker 4: what Ping. It was the daddy of the butter. You know.
Speaker 4: That's what and still is everyone's truck. If you look
Speaker 4: at Scotty wats his name, I'm not going to mention
Speaker 4: his second name. We're not even going to go there.
Speaker 4: But if you have a look at that, it's a
Speaker 4: copy of the answer, right, Tiger's putter that he hold
Speaker 4: everything with that red dot. It's it's you just look
Speaker 4: at it when it was down there. Well that's an answer.
Speaker 4: So how how someone? I'm sorry, I'm not taken. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm not upset in the apple card here, It's just
Speaker 4: it is fact. I mean that. Well, you can't copy
Speaker 4: what Carston did, but there it is, and everyone's going
Speaker 4: Scotty's really really well, he's a few years late, I feel.
Speaker 4: But I used all the clubs you had to and
Speaker 4: it was an incredible time and I still do all
Speaker 4: my clubs though I haven't got anything else in it.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't dare because why there isn't anything as good.
Speaker 3: And you had the big white staff bag, right, that
Speaker 3: was the classic and that still is with the brand today.
Speaker 4: You know what, Yes, I've got that big white staff
Speaker 4: bag with my thing that I do I think called
Speaker 4: round with Raider that comes out. But when I won
Speaker 4: the Australian Open, I had a lady cat in for me, Lindsay,
Speaker 4: and I had a little white bag that was the
Speaker 4: same material. I'm not sure they still do it. I
Speaker 4: really don't know, but it was the most unbelievably good bag.
Speaker 4: It had the big Ping on there.
Speaker 1: Yeah you still have it, you start it at home?
Speaker 4: No, no, I don't. I might have gave it to Lindsay.
Speaker 4: I probably did. But it's a beautiful bag and it's
Speaker 4: not the big one. I've got the big one. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but now you know, there's so many bags you can get.
Speaker 4: I've got this little light bag that I carry around
Speaker 4: when I'm in England and go and play it come,
Speaker 4: you know, with a strap over. They're like, I'm wearing
Speaker 4: a bra and you know, and I walk walk around
Speaker 4: the golf course and it's you don't even know you've
Speaker 4: got it on your back and it's you know, there's
Speaker 4: so many golf bags that you can get now, and
Speaker 4: you know Ping at the forefront of that as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ping's still the best bag out there, that is
Speaker 2: for sure. You mentioned around with Radar. How did that
Speaker 2: come about? Because it's been a really really entertaining series.
Speaker 2: I know people really enjoyed online.
Speaker 4: Dominic Griff is the main man in the UK for
Speaker 4: the truck and he came up with the idea. He says, well,
Speaker 4: let's do a series of and go and play with
Speaker 4: some some ping staffers. And we've done that in Europe
Speaker 4: where we're yeah, you know, going to get some guys
Speaker 4: over here on the PGA too. It's just hard because
Speaker 4: I'm in the UK. And however that works, will make
Speaker 4: it work. But yeah, it's been it's been great fun.
Speaker 4: It is great fun filming and is unbelievable. Get the
Speaker 4: drone out and it's watch it on YouTube. It's around
Speaker 4: with radar, ping around with they're they're great fun. I've
Speaker 4: done him and as I've gone so many good players
Speaker 4: and it's they're brilliant that take us long to do
Speaker 4: and every and we've got one little we've got one
Speaker 4: camera and we've got a drone and all that sort
Speaker 4: of stuff and the sounds great. People go well, a
Speaker 4: many camera and it's it's incredible the way it's done,
Speaker 4: and it's and it comes up and they're so popular.
Speaker 4: If I come to America through Sky because you don't
Speaker 4: watch Sky over here. The other thing you get on
Speaker 4: Sky over here as the Formula one and and the
Speaker 4: golf goes back to the UK. But when I come
Speaker 4: over here, most people the Americans come up to me
Speaker 4: through around with radar and they I've never heard one
Speaker 4: person go to you that rad of around with radars crap,
Speaker 4: it's we love it. So that's positive.
Speaker 2: How's your game these days when you're playing with the pros?
Speaker 2: I mean, do you still feel like you can kind
Speaker 2: of get in their kitchen at all?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Okay, not like you.
Speaker 4: I mean you're out there. You know, you're one of
Speaker 4: those wannabe players. I see.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what about that. I'm like your garden with
Speaker 1: the chipping. I'm like captain of the wanna be pro
Speaker 1: the team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's it's like, no, no, not really. I
Speaker 4: played on Saturday and I was I wasn't very good,
Speaker 4: but with my job, without jobs, you know what it's like.
Speaker 4: I mean, you play for three weeks and you start
Speaker 4: to become I'm shooting around par I'm having some funny here,
Speaker 4: and it's it's great. Then you got a way for
Speaker 4: through you don't touch a club and you go back
Speaker 4: and you start again.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: It's literally like you with the long putter, right, It's
Speaker 2: like going back to the first time you learned about golf.
Speaker 4: That's what it's about.
Speaker 3: Shane is such a wannabe pro. It's still questionable whether
Speaker 3: he has his amates status's.
Speaker 4: Right, But I'm loving the us.
Speaker 1: Don't look in at this us.
Speaker 4: I'm loving the back of the garden. The backyard.
Speaker 2: What's the branding for it? Oh the griddle, the grid
Speaker 2: shipping green. Unbelieve Yeah, look, look, you know what, you
Speaker 2: know what. I messed up though. I did the bunker. Okay,
Speaker 2: I did a little bunker off the green. Now I've
Speaker 2: got two little kids, and that's now.
Speaker 1: Just the sand pit.
Speaker 2: Well that's it's it's fine for them to play in it.
Speaker 2: But I come home from a trip like this, You're right,
Speaker 2: sand everywhere. They'll be staying on in the halls on
Speaker 2: the green, and I spend two hours cleaning it. So
Speaker 2: the bunker might not have been a great play, but
Speaker 2: I love having in the backyard.
Speaker 4: Of course you do. Yeah, fantastic. Can you spin it
Speaker 4: out of the bunker? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it's I really don't hit a lot
Speaker 2: of bunker shots there. It's truly a sandbox for you.
Speaker 4: Just when you have people around for a barbecue, it's like.
Speaker 1: I'll break it up and clean.
Speaker 4: Oh you don't go to the bunker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but other than that, it's just the trucks and
Speaker 2: stuff are in there. Where'd the hat come from?
Speaker 4: By the way, My mom my mother, and she said,
Speaker 4: you know you're going to do this on core stuff.
Speaker 4: You know, you have to keep your complexion. You you know,
Speaker 4: you're a good looking man, so you don't want to
Speaker 4: sort of the sun to sort of spoil those rugged
Speaker 4: good looks. So mom bought me a hat, and and
Speaker 4: every time I now she doesn't buy me hat, so anymore,
Speaker 4: I just go and buy one. Every couple of years,
Speaker 4: I just go and and get one. In Australia's an
Speaker 4: Australian hat. And it's it's been great, you know, it's been.
Speaker 4: It's been. I didn't think I at the start, I
Speaker 4: didn't want it to be something to make me known.
Speaker 4: It was just I'm wearing the hat. That's the way
Speaker 4: it is. And now everyone's you know, the hat in
Speaker 4: america's not that cowboy and I'm like, yeah, mate, whatever,
Speaker 4: pretty good American, right, Yeah. Well it's a it's a
Speaker 4: good hat. They're good hats, and it helps you know
Speaker 4: over here, especially the sun shining all the time, and
Speaker 4: it gets a bit hard when you're in Scotland or Ireland.
Speaker 4: That's blowing that you need the string a thousand. There's no,
Speaker 4: it's amazing. It doesn't really come off and it's it
Speaker 4: must be something to do with having a big fat
Speaker 4: head mate.
Speaker 2: You've done encourse commentating for a long time. Can you
Speaker 2: name the three players that you enjoy watching the most
Speaker 2: or when you get their groups you get the most
Speaker 2: fired up?
Speaker 4: You know, I'm so lucky, Shane that I don't have
Speaker 4: to worry about I know. It's like I even so
Speaker 4: much that I don't care who wins. Okay, I really
Speaker 4: don't care who wins. I don't really have to know
Speaker 4: what people say, What score do they? What score are
Speaker 4: they on radar?
Speaker 1: It's not my job.
Speaker 4: It's not my job. My job is to concentrate on
Speaker 4: how that was lying. My job is sight, sound, smells, really,
Speaker 4: I mean, what they are facing, what is going on?
Speaker 4: Is my job to know if he's one under or
Speaker 4: two under? Is like I didn't know the first round
Speaker 4: of the Masters. When I was out this year with
Speaker 4: Scottie first round shot six under, I could have sworn
Speaker 4: he was two. Really, I stood up on the eighteenth
Speaker 4: green behind the ground and looked up on that big
Speaker 4: wide board and I went, no, no, no, no, they've
Speaker 4: got that wrong. Then you think this or no, there's
Speaker 4: no way they've got that wrong. Here at the Master,
Speaker 4: there's no way they're having it wrong. Six under couldn't
Speaker 4: believe it. Well, I mean, I just I just I
Speaker 4: just call what you guys, the viewing audience want to know.
Speaker 4: So I don't Brory all these guys tigers, you know
Speaker 4: back in the day that was I saw some things
Speaker 4: with him. I mean I think we all saw some
Speaker 4: things with him. You just shook your head and just
Speaker 4: started laughing. And yeah, but watching guys, I like watching
Speaker 4: guys play with long players. It was short watched the
Speaker 4: way you know Kevin case New or someone like that
Speaker 4: playing with Rory McElroy. See how he gets around and
Speaker 4: there's a great job.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I think people that I mean, I've
Speaker 2: done on course a little bit in my career, and
Speaker 2: I don't think people quite understand the cadence that you're
Speaker 2: going through. I mean, you're trying to stand one hundred
Speaker 2: yards or maybe a couple hundred yards away from the
Speaker 2: tee so they can't hear you. Maybe you can see
Speaker 2: the club or you're just going up to the fairway
Speaker 2: to get up there, so you get a number and
Speaker 2: you can kind of look at the lie and you
Speaker 2: can get out of their way. I mean, it's really
Speaker 2: this kind of song and dance that I don't think
Speaker 2: people that have either been out to a golf tournament
Speaker 2: before are obviously done on course commentary understands that there's
Speaker 2: this you're it's like a four and a half hour,
Speaker 2: you know, dance party you're basically having with the golf
Speaker 2: course and try not to get in the player's kitchens
Speaker 2: while also trying to get the information, you know, out
Speaker 2: on the telecast.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a very good point. Over here in America,
Speaker 4: a lot of the on courses seem to stand just
Speaker 4: on the off the tee where I am up with
Speaker 4: the landingside right on is way ahead and I go
Speaker 4: to sometimes I used to go to Bones. I said
Speaker 4: what east, and well, I want to see what they
Speaker 4: head off the team. I said, well, I can ask
Speaker 4: my producer of the tea. I could just press a button.
Speaker 4: They go, that's the last of the job for me.
Speaker 2: That's the information you can see too that that's that's
Speaker 2: not my first producer when I did it on course,
Speaker 2: he said, that's not your job telling them driver a
Speaker 2: three wood, it's like a poor three is different.
Speaker 1: You know less.
Speaker 4: But I can find that whether it's a five iron,
Speaker 4: because what you've got to do is match. If he's
Speaker 4: hitting the five iron on a past three, it comes
Speaker 4: up on the screen. I can't go six one because
Speaker 4: they're going to go on home. This guy doesn't know
Speaker 4: what he's doing. So you've got a little bit of help.
Speaker 4: But when it comes down to the meat of it all,
Speaker 4: I have to be in front. I have to save
Speaker 4: that balls in a divot. If it's over there under
Speaker 4: a tree in the grass, I have to be up there.
Speaker 4: And then I keep on going forward. And then I
Speaker 4: when they hit the green, I can get up there.
Speaker 4: Line the putts up, move to a high spot. I'm
Speaker 4: nowhere near them. They don't even know they know I'm
Speaker 4: out there, but I'm never in their way. And and
Speaker 4: that's the way standing behind them, as a lot of
Speaker 4: Americans do.
Speaker 1: I'm not you know, everybody's situation does.
Speaker 4: Everyone's different. But I just don't see why they do that.
Speaker 4: They're getting too close to them, and well there's potential
Speaker 4: there for them to tell them to go away. Where
Speaker 4: I'm seeing everything, but I'm just way in front of them.
Speaker 2: Radar, if you didn't get a chance to read a pipe,
Speaker 2: let's say you were Russian, or you couldn't get up
Speaker 2: there in time, and the host says, Radar, what does
Speaker 2: this putt do? What's your go to line when you
Speaker 2: don't know what the putt does?
Speaker 4: Well, I always see it because, to be honest with you,
Speaker 4: the only reason I would do that is because if
Speaker 4: I can't read it. Sometimes it's interesting, you know, with us,
Speaker 4: even as golfers, you go, I don't.
Speaker 1: Know what this is going to happen here.
Speaker 4: Most of the time, I'll say it on it I've
Speaker 4: got no id ot to do. But my go to
Speaker 4: line if I'm in a little bit of trouble out there,
Speaker 4: Jeez tear what the smell of Burger's over there is
Speaker 4: just unbelievable. The hot dogs, I mean, I mean, the
Speaker 4: miss ohios that are out here are just unreal. Oh,
Speaker 4: the winds just got up, gee, wiz might affect this part,
Speaker 4: which is just a little uphill.
Speaker 2: I remember I missed maybe but one of my first
Speaker 2: time courus Marty, and I was like, I know, is
Speaker 2: this is a really tough read?
Speaker 1: Is what I said, Just throw it out there.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you've just got to come out with things that
Speaker 4: you know, other things. If you can't pick that.
Speaker 3: En coourse commentaries or you carry Green's books, is that
Speaker 3: a thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean some do. Some bring Greens books. Some
Speaker 2: have yardage books.
Speaker 4: I mean there's there's there's there's arrows in our Greens books.
Speaker 4: But to be perfectly, you know, this is a one
Speaker 4: that if I'm out there with Maltby, say Maltby or
Speaker 4: another few guys will go together. We'll all because is
Speaker 4: the same as me. He's always in front, even though
Speaker 4: Roger's got a buggy and and and we we go
Speaker 4: up there, we'll look at me and I'll look at
Speaker 4: him right left, and they'll full go.
Speaker 3: So there's a few of us crowdsourcing it.
Speaker 4: You know, you get a line, we're all only human.
Speaker 4: I maybe you get a read wrong. I mean, you
Speaker 4: know it's going to happen, but you don't want to
Speaker 4: get too many wrong because that's your job. I mean, look,
Speaker 4: it's fun stiff on courses to me.
Speaker 1: I just go on play now.
Speaker 4: And there's a lot of them out there. I'm not
Speaker 4: going to mention any name and I'm like, wait a second,
Speaker 4: come on, let's just get something. Give me something here,
Speaker 4: give me, give me something, because it's at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, it's golf is entertainment. This is entertainment.
Speaker 4: What we're doing right here. We are here to give
Speaker 4: them something, and you know we're just you know, boring.
Speaker 4: I just don't think it cuts it.
Speaker 2: But how do you mix that in because your job
Speaker 2: is I mean, your job is to be informative, but
Speaker 2: you're also very funny and you're entertaining. So how do
Speaker 2: you weave that in as it's just your personality.
Speaker 4: I don't try to be an. I'm not. I'm just
Speaker 4: I'm like this away from it, I'm just a bit mad.
Speaker 4: Probably they should just lock me up. I suppose it's
Speaker 4: a rubber room somewhere. But you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: all of us. I mean it's like, you know, it's
Speaker 4: just as I always believe it. It's entertainment and if
Speaker 4: you can bring entertainment to it. Look, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 4: with being stiff. And you know, this is an uphill hug.
Speaker 4: There's a seven nine the winds out of the right
Speaker 4: hand side. I mean it's like, I mean, you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: all right, okay, but let's talk about something else. There
Speaker 4: might be something funny. There's a streaker running down the
Speaker 4: middle of the fairway. Well the cat the producer is
Speaker 4: not going to show the streaker, but we can talk
Speaker 4: about the streak.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 4: It's like, where did that happen? Tory Pines, wasn't it
Speaker 4: Tory Pines? There was a streaker in the US Open.
Speaker 2: Famous one was the daily one at the Open was
Speaker 2: like the most famous I think streaker he chases it's.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, but yeah, whatever's going on. There's so many
Speaker 4: things to talk about out there in our job that
Speaker 4: some people just miss a trick. But when they listen
Speaker 4: to your podcast, guys here, yeah they're gonna go well
Speaker 4: yeah maybe, but maybe they'll go non.
Speaker 1: Must not red or.
Speaker 3: We've had a lot of tour players on the podcast.
Speaker 3: I've liked auson the question of.
Speaker 1: Like shaping the ball.
Speaker 3: I like when I like when watching the elite players
Speaker 3: move the golf ball high, low, left, right, right, the left,
Speaker 3: who have in the modern era right now, Baba curves
Speaker 3: it a lot.
Speaker 4: Baba, yeah, Bubba, he just comes straight to mind, Yeah
Speaker 4: doesn't he? I mean, just bend it like Bubba. I mean,
Speaker 4: he just that shot at the Masters down the right
Speaker 4: hand side with that wedge, what was at one hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty or something around there. That was an incredible
Speaker 4: shot that made Bubba that shot. I'm not sure if
Speaker 4: that was his first Master's win or his second Masters
Speaker 4: win first first. Yeah, and he he just bends the
Speaker 4: ball so so so it just it's quite incredible. But
Speaker 4: now we are looking at Scotty. Scotty, Scotty, he can
Speaker 4: he can shape it, especially with the driver he gets.
Speaker 4: Seems does this seem to miss a fairway?
Speaker 1: Scotty Scheffler, It's a really long and really straight. It's crazy.
Speaker 2: He just finds a lot of fairways, you know, for
Speaker 2: a longer player.
Speaker 4: It's just an incredible golfer and an incredible person.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 4: He really is always remembers my name and he's just
Speaker 4: a lovely, lovely guy. But the golf ball, I don't
Speaker 4: believe lends itself to bending it. Like when we were younger,
Speaker 4: I was younger that the old remember the old tool Bilata.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, it was like chewing gum was like
Speaker 4: a piece of like a piece of putty.
Speaker 1: You could get your finger and.
Speaker 2: Oh you could you could you could run old one.
Speaker 2: I had irons when I was a kid. This was
Speaker 2: before pro v days. I had irons and it had
Speaker 2: a little globe in the middle of the iron, right
Speaker 2: in the sweet spot. And I remember I was playing
Speaker 2: a tour blata and I was, you know, ten, eleven,
Speaker 2: twelve years old, and I munched one and it was
Speaker 2: one of the first times I could really feel like
Speaker 2: compression with the iron. And I got up there in
Speaker 2: the little globe in the middle of the iron had
Speaker 2: been imprinted in the middle. Oh yeah, likes, I'm taking
Speaker 2: this out of the play.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean bending the golf ball. It's a very
Speaker 4: good question. They seem to bend the golf ball now
Speaker 4: a lot with the driver predominantly from left to right.
Speaker 4: Can't really do it from right to left trampoline effect now.
Speaker 4: But you know, Rory is about the only guy who
Speaker 4: draws when he's driving the golf ball. He's best hits
Speaker 4: a soft right to left draw. There aren't many guys
Speaker 4: that do it. Scotty can do it. Tiger obviously back
Speaker 4: in the day, could do it. But if you look
Speaker 4: at the guys that you know, you know they want
Speaker 4: to just fair way find it and hit that. They
Speaker 4: hit it low and they just peel it, but when
Speaker 4: it comes to their eyns, they don't move it that much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's kind of what I've noticed. But I'm interested
Speaker 3: in that. You know, I see like a player like
Speaker 3: Justin Thomas. Yeah, you know, curving it into different pins
Speaker 3: and things that.
Speaker 4: But he's unreal. He's beautiful. When he was playing his best,
Speaker 4: that driver, that low.
Speaker 1: Thing is like when he won the players.
Speaker 2: Remember he hit the shell on sixteen, that was the
Speaker 2: swinging dry and then on eighteen he hit the low
Speaker 2: one EGA.
Speaker 4: A couple of years ago, he had that thing going.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had Yeah, But then we had Victor on
Speaker 3: right after, right before he won the Tour Championship, when
Speaker 3: he was playing his best, and we asked him and
Speaker 3: he's like, I just hit a dead straight with parents.
Speaker 1: He don't want it to fall in when he was
Speaker 1: playing his best.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Victor, right now, you know he tinkered. Victor's going
Speaker 4: to be back in five seconds. I mean, Victor's going
Speaker 4: to be absolutely funny. He's just one of those guys.
Speaker 4: I don't know what he why he did it, you know,
Speaker 4: tried all this stuff and he's not playing awful. But
Speaker 4: he's Look, this guy works so hard and he's a
Speaker 4: golf junkie, junkie and he will be back within either.
Speaker 4: Don't worry about Victor, Victor. Do you've worried about Victor? Amus?
Speaker 4: Did he win last year thirty five million?
Speaker 1: Ye, he had a pretty decent year.
Speaker 4: He's about twenty twenty three and he could own Oslo
Speaker 4: where he comes from.
Speaker 2: Red Or how often you're on the road, Like, how
Speaker 2: many weeks a year you on the road? Twenty two
Speaker 2: weeks a year?
Speaker 4: Twenty two weeks. I just a few other things for ping.
Speaker 4: And you know, I love twenty two. I used to
Speaker 4: do like twenty seven, but now it's twenty two. It's
Speaker 4: perfect for me. Well, he's me trying to play golf.
Speaker 2: And I mean, I met you at the President's couple
Speaker 2: years ago at Liberty National, and I've been a fan
Speaker 2: ever since. I find you again. I think you do
Speaker 2: a lot of what I love about golf. You make
Speaker 2: it fun, you make it entertaining, you kind of keep
Speaker 2: it light and at the same time, you know what
Speaker 2: you're talking about. So I've been a big fan for
Speaker 2: a long time and we really appreciate the time.
Speaker 4: And it's been great thank you ever so much, loving you,
Speaker 4: loving your work.
Speaker 2: Though Radar Wayne Riley, thank you so much. This is
Speaker 2: the ping proven Grounds podcast