WEBVTT - Oakmont Reactions and Andy’s Scottish Journey 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.800 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.920 And when I find my ball in a Friday Egg, 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.080 Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Friday Frida Egg, fridagg 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:13.160 Bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:39.839 Off of the Welcome back to another edition of the 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:43.639 Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson. Today 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:48.160 I'm excited. This is like an immediate reaction podcast. I'm 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.839 joined by Garrett Morrison, former co host of this podcast, 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.520 now as his own pod, Design and Golf. We just 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:58.800 got done, both of us playing Oakmont for the first time. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.800 We played in the USGA media day for the upcoming 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.000 US Open, so I figured we could chat a little 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.720 bit golf courses. We're going to talk about Oakman here 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.959 at the top initial thoughts. We aren't gonna get like 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.000 super nitty gritty. We're gonna give the high level kind 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.039 of takeaways. Then we're going to talk a little bit 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.920 about my trip to Scotland on the back half of 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.360 this which was an exciting, exciting trip. I've been on 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.880 a kind of a marathon trip here, rolling from Scotland 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.160 right into Oakmont and now and then I'll go home. 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:37.320 So jet lagged fresh off a Links golf extravaganza is 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:43.399 definitely the best way to experience Oakmont, especially because I 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:48.160 had my Echo Bio H five. Echo is a partner 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.760 of ours and they'll be sponsoring a lot of our 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.600 US Open coverage. It was great to be out there. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.200 I got more weather at Oakmont. I dealt with like 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.520 more weather at Oakmont in one day, and I did 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.240 for a week and a half in Scotland. So my 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.920 Echo Biome h fives were killing it. These shoes were 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:14.720 actually inspired. Their design was inspired from the rugged Scottish 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:20.240 Highlands and these are some of the most innovative and 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.720 have some of the most technology in a golf shoe 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.760 that you can find. So it features they're all new 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.959 echo texts, waterproof membrane that's what kept my feet very 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:35.200 dry today. And it also has the next generation biome 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:40.959 golf shoe, which it's a sporty, modern aesthetic, but it's 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:45.720 crafted from that premium Echo performance leather. They have a 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.760 seam knit sock construction, so the way that works is 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.080 it's not really like a tongue, it's more like a 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.600 sock at the top. I found it pretty nice because 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.320 sometimes like a tongue can move around cause you a 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.000 little discomfort. This is more like just like having another 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:02.919 sock and you tie it on it. So if you're 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.720 interested in the biome h five, check out us dot 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:13.240 Echo dot us dot Echo dot com slash golf. All right, Garrett, 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.839 welcome on Oakmon. First uh, first time there, first time 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.840 on the property? Like me, what was your initial I 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:26.320 guess actually, like, what did you expect Oakmont to be like? 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:33.919 And what what initially was different than you expected? Well? 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.760 I expected it to be hard, right, because that's what 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:41.920 you hear about Oakmont, that it's hard, And I suppose 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.440 from reading a little bit about it, I expected the 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:50.440 land to be kind of what it was just brownie impressive, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:56.680 heavily sloped, big, The whole course felt big. I expected 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:58.840 to be able to see across the whole corridors because 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.440 I've heard plenty about the tree removal at Oakmont, heard 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.480 that story many times. So the course kind of looked 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.440 how I expected. When we arrived. I wasn't surprised by 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.960 anything I saw out of the windows in the clubhouse 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:16.000 when we were in there listening to the USGA presentations 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.359 during media day. We went during media day. I'm not 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.520 sure if you mentioned that. When I actually got on 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.000 the course and started playing the golf holes, a number 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.320 of things surprised me, and we can get into all 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:35.159 of them, but first and foremost, the greens shocked me. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.200 I'm not sure if I had anything in particular that 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.520 I was expecting from the greens, but they're different than 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.479 any greens I've ever played on. They're different in construction, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.400 they're different in how they play. They're much harder than 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:56.080 anyone could ever imagine to play with any precision whatsoever. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.839 So that was the thing that really jumped out at me. 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.440 And some other things did too, but that was the 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:04.279 big one. 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.919 I had always heard that the greens were awesome, Like 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.080 I'd always heard that they were, you know, one of 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.760 the five best sets of greens in American golf. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.919 When people say it's a great set of greens, you 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.599 know to expect something special, but it's not exactly clear 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:22.400 what you should expect. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.920 Right, Yeah, I thought they were like wildly unique too. 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:30.800 Yeah they are not. They're not like your your template 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.720 or like your you know. I think it benefits because 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:39.880 phones the designer has only only designed one golf course. Yeah, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.440 so you don't see any similarities to like other sets 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:48.320 of greens really out there. They are very unique to Oakmont. Like, 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.520 for me, one green that just like jumps to mind 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.839 is the ninth that has this channel that kind of 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.200 like is like an L shape through the green and 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.839 it's incredible and it's like, Oh, that's really cool green. 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.200 And it kind of goes through like the middle of 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.960 the green and then it goes along the back that 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:12.160 l like trough and and I'm like, God, that's so cool. 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.920 I haven't seen anything like that anywhere else. And I'm like, oh, well, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.920 that's because he hasn't designed anywhere else, you know, the 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.520 guy that designed Oakmont. So I think that's like one 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.719 of the reasons I think I was like pretty shocked 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.880 at how much I liked the golf course. I think 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:34.680 I just generally have an aversion to like contrived hard. 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.919 I really dislike when golf courses are just trying to 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.479 be hard, like their identity is that they're hard, and 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.320 then they do almost gimmicky things to make it hard, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:47.680 such as. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.400 The reason that they're hard is gimmicks. Yes, not because 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.920 the land and the and the bones of the design make. 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.120 It so yeah. Yeah, And I just thought Oakmon's more 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.200 just like, no, it's just really hard, yeah, and it's 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.920 every SHOT's achievable. And I think that's where I like 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.239 struggle with some courses that are hard, Like it's just like, well, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.840 like I probably would only hit that fairway like once 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.080 out of like five balls anyways, so it's not a 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.800 big surprise I missed the fairway here, But at Oakmont, 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:22.840 I did feel like I could hit every fairaway. I 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.160 did feel like if I executed the shot, I could 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.640 hit a really good shot. I felt like I had 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:32.160 good looks at birdies occasionally if I hit good shots. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.200 But I also like as soon as I hit a 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.680 bad one, I was like, oh no, that's gonna go. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.600 And then in some cases the recovery was a lot 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:41.880 of fun because of the greens. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.600 Yeah, the course puts you in a blender super quickly. 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.520 If you're in the wrong place off the tee, then 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.840 you're super lucky if you can make bogie, you know, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.880 because I mean that's this is partly because of the rough, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.200 but even if the rough were lower, the way the 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:03.440 course works against you once you get off of the 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:08.160 garden path is something that comes from the slope and 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.560 the design the slope of the property and the design 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.800 of the course, which makes it feel like an honest challenge, right, 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.559 because it's the property, because it's the way the holes 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.600 are laid across the land. Because that's the primary reason 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.200 that it's a hard course, and that the rough and 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.520 the deep bunkers are sort of additions to that. Because 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.439 it feels naturally tough. That's why maybe it's not bothersome 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.400 that it is so hard, but it's I mean incredibly hard. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.520 It's it's very hard. It's very hard. But I agree 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.720 with you, it's naturally hard. Ye. What the reason it's 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.679 hard is because you are having to navigate this extremely 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:53.640 rugged piece of ground. And I think like the way 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:58.199 they're kind of broad, it's I think you could think 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.480 of a rugged and you might think of like England 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.520 where you have these like kind of rollly glacial like 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.960 movements and that's like you know, you go up and down. 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.720 Like one of course that would jump to mind would 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.440 be like Shinnecock Hills where you have like some chop 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.000 to the movement. 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.240 It's almost doonesy. Yeah, it's like big versions of dunes. 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:26.840 Oakmont is like very broad slopes that the property just navigates, 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.520 and it's like you're not really ever playing over them. 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.800 You're just playing along them or down them a lot. 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.680 And it makes it very hard because you get these 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.760 very uneven lies, and for the most part, the design 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:50.000 counters the lies where you're on a down slope and 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.480 then the green is screaming away, or you're on a 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.680 side slope and the balls below your feet for a 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.760 righty but you really want to keep it up the left, 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.880 you know, or keep it toward to the left side 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:03.360 of the green. 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:04.000 You know. 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.559 Those are the ways that the slopes kind of interact. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.880 I thought it was interesting. We had a chat with 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:17.319 the club historian and he talked about how phones designed 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:22.400 this golf course after a trip to Scotland to see Links, 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.880 and I was like, huh, Like I never thought of 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:32.000 Oakmont and Links golf in the same realm, But I 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:35.320 think like maybe this uniqueness of this trip that I 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.079 just went on. I came back and I was looking around. 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.760 I was like, you know, the way that this golf 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:46.320 course interacts with its natural ground is so similar to 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.720 the way Links golf courses interact with the ground in 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.680 the sense that like a lot of stuff was not built. 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.440 It just was kind of like plopped on top of 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:58.000 the ground. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.760 Yeah. I think that's my biggest take away actually from 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.680 the course, the kind of overarching takeaway I had, which 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.080 is that this really is a lay of the land 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.920 golf course. This is, in a funny way, a highly 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.480 minimalistic design, even though it doesn't look like that. It 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.120 doesn't communicate that in its esthetics because the bunkers are 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.640 so built up, and because they have these ditches running 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.760 through the course that look somewhat constructed, and there's a 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.680 slight Victorian flavor to the construction style of the golf features. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.640 But if you look at the course in its totality, 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.920 take a bird's eye view of it, it's basically these 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:46.280 two hillsides that feed toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike. At the 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:50.240 bottom the Pennsylvania Turnpike behaves almost like a river in 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.199 this property. It's the low point, and you have these 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.160 two hillsides that are kind of facing that low point, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:02.200 and the course works down up across these hillsides on 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.880 diagonals across it. And that's where its variety comes from, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.400 not from moving earth and making holes look different from 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:15.840 each other because they're artificially constructed in different ways, but 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.920 because the holes are using those hillsides differently, and it's 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.839 a pretty simple piece of land, like it's not, as 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.360 you said, like Shinnecock Hills is more of this rolling, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.800 tumbling piece of land that's more conventionally what a really 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.640 good golf property would be. Hillside properties can be a 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.680 problematic because they can be repetitive. If you don't have 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.120 a good routing, you can just be going up and 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:44.079 down all day. But here every hole is immediately distinctive 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:48.760 because of its relationship to the land. There are some 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.960 varieties of undulations out there, Like it's not just completely 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.760 flat hillsides, you know, tilted toward one direction. You know 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:01.400 when you get back into sixteen seventeen and there's sort 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.600 of a dip there and some more variety in the landforms. 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.960 But for the most part, it's a fairly straightforward property 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.920 that the routing just manages to find infinite variety in. 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.120 And I think that's the brilliance of the course. And 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.280 then that extends even to the greens which are lay 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.920 of the land, because you know, they didn't build up 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.400 these greens very much. If you walk around them. You 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:32.319 don't see these big ledges that the architects used to 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.120 make the greens flatter. Right, If you go to Augusta National, 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.480 for instance, this is maybe the best example. Augusta National 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:45.000 represents a more modern way of building greens, I think 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:49.400 on a hilly site where by nineteen the early nineteen thirties, 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.960 Alistair McKenzie had figured out that he could use certain 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:57.480 kinds of equipment to make routing a golf course easier 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:02.240 and make his greens more And one way to do 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.719 that would be to prop the greens up against the hillside. 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.520 In other words, you have a high point and a 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.079 low point. If the green is sitting on a high 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.920 point and a low point, then you just lift the 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.760 low point up with some dirt and you have a 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.560 flatter surface to work with, and then you can contour 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.640 that surface to make it interesting. That would be the 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.680 method that architects in the nineteen twenties and thirties came 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.880 up with to build greens, and that method is still 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:35.760 used today at Oakmont. This was built in nineteen oh three. 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.800 That's so early in American golf architecture. That's so early 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.120 in golf architecture period like Sunningdale had basically just been 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.240 built a couple of years earlier. This was in. 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.520 National Golfleet's got built basically ten yeah, eight years later. 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.320 Eight years later, nineteen eleven, I think is when it opened. 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:01.160 Nineteen oh three is ancient days in America golf architecture. 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.520 And you can see that because the greens are not 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.360 constructed in the way that architects learned how to do later. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.040 They're very lay of the land. They sit flush with 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.400 the land, and that's why some of them have such 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.960 amazing slope. But the solutions that Phones came up with 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.800 to make those greens lay of the land but also 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:27.120 playable and interesting are fascinating. You know. He basically cut 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:29.400 channels through them to drain them and also to create 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.280 pinnable sections. He did a bunch of weird things out 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:39.040 there that architects after nineteen twenty didn't really do at all. 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.560 And so, yeah, a very lay of the land course 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:48.360 that just finds different solutions for its property than most 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.640 courses built later would have. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.520 I think that the thing about the lay of the 0:15:55.600 --> 0:16:01.560 land aspect, there's obviously like great long views, especially from 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.920 like the higher points in the property, whether you're up 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:09.080 by the clubhouse on on the I'm not sure what 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.960 directional that side is. It would be the south side 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.600 of the turnpike. 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.160 Or I mean on the other side from the clubhouse 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:17.800 you're talking about. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.040 No, No, that'd be the north side on the other side, 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:20.680 I think. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.119 So the same side as the clubhouse, the clubhouse side. 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.360 So well like it whether I'm just saying, the long 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:30.000 views from the clubhouse really area, right, and then the 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.320 long views from up on like three. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:34.280 Yeah, which is on the other side of the property 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:35.520 from the clubhouse. 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.520 They're amazing, and I think like one of the things 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:39.760 I was thinking about while I was out there was 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:44.480 like if you just like if you if there were 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:48.920 no fairway grass, if it was just rough, you would 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.520 just look at it and be like, oh, it's just there. 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.640 You wouldn't see any like construction, right. 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.000 Yeah, it blends back in. Yeah, it really does, which 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.720 again people might find weird because bunkers are not created 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.760 in a way that looks naturalistic. Now, but for the 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.120 most part, the golf course kind of if you take 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.240 away all the agronomy and all the color contrasts from 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.879 bunker sand and rough and fairway grass and green grass, 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.240 the golf course kind of disappears back into the landscape 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.800 because they just weren't able to move that much dirt. 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:24.080 They just it was like little bits at a time 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.280 that prop up a little section of the green there. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.359 Maybe dig a bunker here so we could lift this 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.080 up here. But very simple moves. And when you look 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.640 at it from a long view, as you're saying, it's 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:41.760 just it's almost not there except for the agronomic presentation, 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.280 which is very eye catching, you know. 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.680 Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, with regards to the greens, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.800 I don't know of any golf course that I've ever 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.120 played that has more greens that run away, Yeah, and 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:58.560 like viciously run away. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:03.280 Really yeah, not not your you know, not your sort 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.520 of kindergarten level runaway green. These ones run away with 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:09.040 the slope of the hill that they're on. 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:13.439 So I counted six run greens that run away, and 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.359 that what I mean by that is they slope from 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:18.160 the front of the green to the back of the green. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.359 And I think that's like super interesting when you start 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.760 talking about championship golf, because the best players in the 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:30.679 world at this point, particularly now, thrive by command of 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:37.600 the ball and understanding. They love the predictability. They love 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:39.640 when the ball's in the air because they know it's 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.680 where it's going to land. Like when they get flustered 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.600 is when the ball when they don't have control of 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:50.400 the ball. And I think six fallway greens is a 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.080 fascinating way to Like, a heavy amount of fall away 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.639 greens is a fascinating way to challenge these players because 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.359 to to hit into a fallaway green, you have to 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:07.760 get the right trajectory, the right amount of spin, and 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.879 you have to hit the shot solidly, like if you 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.120 hit it off the toe, then the spin won't be right. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.000 If you hit a little thin, it'll skip a little 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:21.760 bit further. Basically, fall away greens magnify the the great 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.680 shots like it. It is a natural way to create 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:33.320 a large like amplifies the dispersion of good or bad. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.280 It's like firmness, Yes, it's like it's the same similar 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.400 effect to firmness, except it's just done with with slope. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:43.840 And it also has a way of getting in your 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.959 head too, because you really start to think about like 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:49.680 if you have one that runs through the green, then 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.080 you're thinking, oh, I gotta be careful on the next one. 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.240 And they're graded differently I just like I can't get 0:19:56.280 --> 0:20:00.040 over I read putts with my feet and I I 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.120 cannot get over how like I'm not an ame pointer. 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.200 I know on an ame point, but I just walk 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.840 around and I feel what's going on in my feet 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.320 and then I read the putt like I get behind 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:16.240 and I could not get over how my feet felt today. 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.920 There are a few greens at Augusta National that made 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.200 my feet feel this way, but like form the most part, 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:27.440 my feet were just they were. It was nuts all 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.040 day because like you could just feel how much up 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.920 certain puts were, how much down certain puts were, the 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:40.480 immense side slopes. I think that's it. It just you 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:42.440 have to be in the right spots. And I think 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:47.200 we can get into kind of the the gill work 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.560 that's been done. But I think adding a little bit 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:55.640 of width has amplified these greens because there's a little 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.240 bit more space and real estate to play and the 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:03.200 and obviously recapturing also part of this restoration that happened 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:08.440 last year. They recaptured really the last two years, recaptured 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.760 a lot of green space that they didn't have, So 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.080 the greens have gotten more interesting and there's also a 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.560 little bit more space. There's not that. This is not 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.800 like a really huge wide. It's not like we're playing 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.480 at eighteen at LACC here. But there's just a little 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.560 bit more space to operate in the fairway. 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:33.240 Yeah, and just in spots where you might want to 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.520 play toward the edge of the fairway to gain some 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.760 kind of advantage. So it's not like an overall widening 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:41.639 of the fairways. I think if people look at the 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:46.719 aerials and compare them between you know, twenty twenty and 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:51.439 twenty twenty four, that they won't see that much difference 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.399 in the fairway wits. It's just in particular places where 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.440 they've recaptured some fairway, often in the run ups to 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.720 greens in cool ways, so that now you have short 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.560 grass running up to a green side bunker instead of 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:09.400 rough defending that bunker basically, So there's some of that. 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.360 But then in the landing zones for drives, yeah, there's 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:14.560 some more width here and there, but it's just in 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.680 spots where maybe you would want to find a new 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:21.040 angle into the green. And then the green expansions are 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.359 sort of done in the same spirit, where you push 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.000 the green to the edge of the green pad, not 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:31.040 with the intention of creating more forgiveness necessarily though it 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.719 may do that for amateurs, but for pros who are 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:36.480 going to be playing this course when they have the 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:40.040 hardest pin positions, those pin positions are just going to 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.480 become harder because now they're out toward the edge of 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:47.239 the green pad like hanging over these bunkers. And so 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:50.800 part of the reason that you then recapture some fairway 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.679 with in certain areas is to allow good players to 0:22:56.480 --> 0:23:00.000 attack certain pins by trying to find these new sections 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:03.879 the fair way. And so it doesn't necessarily make the 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.480 course more forgiving, but it does make it slightly more 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.600 dynamic and interesting. I think, yeah, I. 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:13.919 Loved some of the new pockets. I thought that, you know, 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:16.520 one of the things like us when we play these 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:19.000 media days, like you never know what you're gonna get 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.240 from the whole location standpoint. They were showing up. They 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:25.480 were showing off the pockets today like sometimes you get 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:29.320 just dead center of the green every hole. Today they 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.840 were they were flashing some some whole locations. I thought, like, 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.240 I got right out of the gate. The we teed 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:39.359 off four, but the fifth hole had like some some 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.439 left hole. They it was the back left hole location, 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:44.359 and it was funny. I was like right down the 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:46.040 middle and I was looking at it, and I was 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:48.560 in just the short rough. I was in like the 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:51.920 first cut, and I was looking at it. I was 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:54.399 like and I had like a little wedge into the green, 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.879 and I'm like, God, I like I needed to be 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:00.720 on the right side to really like have a good 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.159 go at this hole. Like I had to just like 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:06.159 hope that I caught the slope to turn it in, 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:08.840 but like I couldn't play at it. And it's just 0:24:09.640 --> 0:24:12.760 it's interesting because if you get into the right spot. 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:15.880 This isn't, by no means a golf course where you're 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:19.639 going to be often thinking about trying to hit it 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:23.680 and do a different spot, but there are opportunities, especially, 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:28.240 Like I think what's neat about this golf course is 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:32.040 it does have some shorter par fours that are not 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:36.240