Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
Speaker 2: When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball.
Speaker 1: In a brid egg Friday egg, the dreaded Friday Friday,
Speaker 1: Frida egggg fridagg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to
Speaker 1: run off of the hump course.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Speaker 2: I am your host, Andy Johnson. It is the US Open.
Speaker 2: We are here US Open Week at Sunday, the US Open.
Speaker 2: I am pumped. We are gonna be playing this at
Speaker 2: Pinehurst number two this year. It'll be the first of
Speaker 2: a run of five appearances for Pinehurst number two in
Speaker 2: the next twenty five years. So it should be a
Speaker 2: big tail tell sign of how major championships, particularly the
Speaker 2: US Open, is going to play out over the next
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of years. And to do our
Speaker 2: traditional five things about this major podcast, we have get
Speaker 2: a Griff podcast Host Shane Bacon KFT Corn Corn Ferry Tour.
Speaker 2: You know announcer Shane Bacon, a man that wears many hats,
Speaker 2: founder of Grounder Repair, Logo Redesign Business. You know, a
Speaker 2: man of many talents. Shane Bacon. Welcome on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Andy. That is quite an intro, my goodness. I mean
Speaker 1: that's like one of the best most professional ones you've
Speaker 1: ever done. No children's book author.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, there's too many.
Speaker 1: Us USAM qualifier didn't break eighty at USAM. You didn't
Speaker 1: get any of that stuff in there, Like you can't
Speaker 1: get that in I'm so pumped to be joined by you. Hey,
Speaker 1: you're are you a hot coffee guy? You're you're holding
Speaker 1: your cofee guy about right now? Are you only hot
Speaker 1: coffee guy? Or do you get into iced ever?
Speaker 2: Look at this sea cup? Nice, I use this. I
Speaker 2: use this cup specifically for this podcast about the US Open.
Speaker 2: I decided to go with the US Open coffee mug.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the great things about where I live,
Speaker 2: I think one of the greatest, most underrated, under talked
Speaker 2: about things, is that you have basically the perfect coffee
Speaker 2: climate where in the mornings I go hot coffee because
Speaker 2: you know, mornings I wake up it's usually about, you know,
Speaker 2: sub sixty degrees, and then if I need an afternoon jolt,
Speaker 2: I always go ice coffee and it'll be you know,
Speaker 2: sixty plus degrees, perfect weather for ice coffee. I like that,
Speaker 2: what are you? Are you ice coffee? Like I think
Speaker 2: if I was in Chicago, the way my my coffee
Speaker 2: works in Chicago is summer was like exclusively ice coffee.
Speaker 2: I used to make ice coffee. Now I don't. I
Speaker 2: can't put the ice coffee into the fridge or else
Speaker 2: I am going to be drinking too much coffee. So
Speaker 2: I like have to like require myself to leave to
Speaker 2: go get an afternoon coffee. Otherwise I will just drink
Speaker 2: afternoon coffee. Does that make sense. I'm not a big
Speaker 2: fan of drinking afternoon coffee. I only do it when
Speaker 2: I need to do stuff. What's your coffee behavior?
Speaker 1: So you know, we're both partners with our good friends
Speaker 1: a good walk who do just an amazing, amazing job
Speaker 1: with their coffee. I will make the cold brew out
Speaker 1: of their coffee. I'll get the ground coffee and then
Speaker 1: make it with the toddy cold brew system. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty much a coldbrew guy at this point. I'll
Speaker 1: have I'll have hot coffee on golf trips, like if
Speaker 1: you're abandoned or you know, I was just up in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: like Aaron Hills has great coffee in their cabins. I'll
Speaker 1: I'll have hot coffee there, but if I'm at home,
Speaker 1: I'm likely going to have a cold brew that I
Speaker 1: make with good walk or I'm gonna go out and
Speaker 1: get like a Starbucks cold verse like that, which I'm
Speaker 1: heavy right now because I'm on the road. I'm doing
Speaker 1: corn ferry this week, headed into the US Open, by
Speaker 1: the way.
Speaker 2: At this point, At this point, I think the cold
Speaker 2: brew might be the only drinkable Starbucks coffee.
Speaker 1: I think that's a very fair point to say. Andy,
Speaker 1: guess how many guys in the KFT event this week
Speaker 1: are playing in the US Open next week. I bet
Speaker 1: you can't get it right.
Speaker 2: I can't. I know I'm not going to get the
Speaker 2: number right, but I was looking through it. I mean,
Speaker 2: you've got like Tim Widing, you got Isaiah by.
Speaker 1: The way, is how we say that now?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna stick with Widing because I like
Speaker 2: how skinny is with a name Widing. He's a very
Speaker 2: slender guy, and I think it just ruins the whole.
Speaker 2: Like you know, I always love when you when you
Speaker 2: have names that contradict the appearance of someone you know.
Speaker 1: I agree, agree, wholeheartedly. We had seven guys in the
Speaker 1: field at the BN you were.
Speaker 2: Playing Frankie Frankie kappin Sapin well Saffin again. I I
Speaker 2: like the idea of Frankie kappin the second being a
Speaker 2: mob boss. So we're gonna start this with me, you know,
Speaker 2: being disrespectful to all these people's names, but you know,
Speaker 2: some sometimes you got to look at the name and say, like, hey,
Speaker 2: I could I could really make a name for myself
Speaker 2: if I if I leaned into this, look at.
Speaker 1: You, look at you go, Yeah, seven guys in the
Speaker 1: KFT event or playing uh playing US Open next week,
Speaker 1: and then of course you got ben Cole's in the
Speaker 1: field because he was number one on the KFT points list,
Speaker 1: so KFT represented next to next week at the at
Speaker 1: the US Open.
Speaker 2: Do you think I should change the way my name's
Speaker 2: pronounced to Andy Onnsen j J s.
Speaker 1: Maybe Hanson Hanson.
Speaker 2: You could go with I'm I'm Shane Mason, because.
Speaker 1: It would be epic if I did do a different
Speaker 1: pronunciation of bacon, which has never existed in the history.
Speaker 1: I will get this, Andy, I will get people occasionally
Speaker 1: that ask kind of spell my last name and I'm
Speaker 1: there's only one way, dude, There's only one way. I
Speaker 1: got nothing else for you.
Speaker 2: Well, that's uh, that was one of my things, one
Speaker 2: of my things, I think kind of how I'll always
Speaker 2: remember Xander, our most recent major champion, the champion of
Speaker 2: the PGA Championship last month, How I will always remember him.
Speaker 2: I will always remember watching him, Cameron Champ and Trey
Speaker 2: Mullnax play the first round at Aaron Hill's US Open.
Speaker 2: They were basically three qualifiers. I think maybe Champ might
Speaker 2: have had some exemption, but I think they were three qualifiers.
Speaker 2: They were at the end of the bus on Thursday afternoon,
Speaker 2: and they were all playing pretty good golf. I think
Speaker 2: moll Nax and Xander in particular were playing great golf,
Speaker 2: and Xander kept it going and it was really the
Speaker 2: standout early per performance in his PGA Tour career that
Speaker 2: launched him into really a star. He became a star
Speaker 2: shortly after he carried that performance, that confidence they gained
Speaker 2: from the US Open, which he qualified into into a
Speaker 2: you know what, became a really stout major championship career
Speaker 2: up to his win at the PGA Championship. So Xander
Speaker 2: Schaffley is like a great example of what qualifying for
Speaker 2: a major can provide these there are a lot of
Speaker 2: world class talents that have qualified into this tournament that
Speaker 2: wouldn't be in the Masters because you have to have
Speaker 2: be a world class talent with world class results to
Speaker 2: get into the Masters. The PGA is a similar where
Speaker 2: you know, the only way you're qualifying in is with results.
Speaker 2: This is a championship that allows world class players to
Speaker 2: qualify in. It allows world class amateurs like yourself to
Speaker 2: get into sectional qualifying and have a chance to qualify in.
Speaker 2: But I think, like one of my big stories, and
Speaker 2: this is what I love about the US Open, is
Speaker 2: the idea of like, are we going to see a
Speaker 2: qualifier make a run and have a Xander like jump
Speaker 2: coming off of a run. It's one of the things
Speaker 2: that you love about sports. It's you know, you have
Speaker 2: occasionally players that get a ten day contract with a
Speaker 2: team and parlay you know, in the NBA, and parlay
Speaker 2: it into a long NBA career. This is kind of
Speaker 2: golf's version of that, where you know, whether it's Monday
Speaker 2: qualifying on the PGA Tour and turning into hot run
Speaker 2: that gets you a card eventually the US Open could
Speaker 2: be one of that of one of those moments. And
Speaker 2: I pulled a couple of names that just just to watch,
Speaker 2: and like, how I thought about this was like super
Speaker 2: talented players who haven't necessarily been on the big stage,
Speaker 2: and it could be they've been beat up a little
Speaker 2: bit by the process of getting to the PGA Tour
Speaker 2: that could be there on the PGA Tour, they just
Speaker 2: haven't had a breakout, real breakout performance. Four. I have
Speaker 2: four names here. Isaiah Selinda, former Walker Cupper, plays on
Speaker 2: the corn Ferry Tour at you know, just a weird time.
Speaker 2: He stayed amateur rather than turn pro to play in
Speaker 2: a Walker Cup. And this is a guy that was
Speaker 2: his peers have all like his peers, people that were
Speaker 2: thought of to be of the same level have are
Speaker 2: basically all on the PGA Tour, all having very strong careers.
Speaker 2: To point to this point, he kind of got beat
Speaker 2: up by the system, didn't have a place to play,
Speaker 2: you know, when he didn't get through Q school. Then
Speaker 2: COVID hit and he was basically froze out of any
Speaker 2: form of golf. And he's super super talented kid, hits
Speaker 2: it long and someone you know, he's already won. He
Speaker 2: won on the corn Ferry Tour this year. So when
Speaker 2: I expect to be playing the PGA Tour for fifteen years.
Speaker 1: And Andy on that too easy to forget that Isaiah
Speaker 1: played excellent in the amateur at Pineers number two back
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. I mean, this is a guy that
Speaker 1: made the round of sixteen and you know it ran
Speaker 1: into one of the other great young players that were
Speaker 1: in the field that week to lose and not advance
Speaker 1: to the quarterfinals. But has experienced in piners number two,
Speaker 1: has experienced in USGA Championships around pine ER's number two,
Speaker 1: which I think is going to be really really important.
Speaker 1: This feels like Andy and you would know better than me.
Speaker 1: This feels like a golf course where the more you
Speaker 1: play it, the better you understand, like where to go
Speaker 1: and where not to go. And to me, I think that.
Speaker 2: Could be a good thing or a bad thing there.
Speaker 1: Well, I think for the pros it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I think for idiots like you and me, it's not
Speaker 1: so good. But you know, I just I think that
Speaker 1: seeing this place the way it played, I was out
Speaker 1: there covering it for the amateur. I mean, it was spicy,
Speaker 1: it was firm, was what you'd expect pinor number two
Speaker 1: to be, so I think him being involved in that
Speaker 1: is also a good thing for his his chances.
Speaker 2: Another name along the same lines and his former teammate
Speaker 2: Brandon Wu who plays on the PGA Tour. He was
Speaker 2: the medallist at that usam uh he qualified in out
Speaker 2: of the Dallas one with all the pros. Just another
Speaker 2: name he played on tour. Obviously a very decorated amateur
Speaker 2: career and has been on the PGA Tour for a
Speaker 2: couple of years, just hasn't broken through. Another name, Rico Hooey,
Speaker 2: who played great on the corn Ferry Tour last year.
Speaker 2: I think he hasn't had a ton of starts on
Speaker 2: the PGA Tour. It's kind of a weird year, I think,
Speaker 2: to be a PGA Tour rookie coming out of the
Speaker 2: corn Ferry Tour.
Speaker 1: Yes, if you want to play golf, it's a weird year.
Speaker 2: It's very strange year. And then the last one who
Speaker 2: I think like, I think you look at like the
Speaker 2: live players and I think a lot of them have
Speaker 2: have probably maybe regressed a little since they went there.
Speaker 2: But a young player who I've been super impressed with
Speaker 2: who I think has really worked, who's improving at a
Speaker 2: very quick rate, is David Pouche, young Spanish player, and
Speaker 2: he qualified in. I think he's he's been like super
Speaker 2: what's been impressed about him. He's playing on this tour
Speaker 2: where you know, money is no no object of anybody,
Speaker 2: you know, concern of anybody that's playing somewhat good golf there.
Speaker 2: And he's been out grinding on the Asian Tour in
Speaker 2: weeks off trying to up his world ranking. He clearly
Speaker 2: wants to. I think he's got This is all anecdotal
Speaker 2: just for observer from Afar. It seems like this guy
Speaker 2: wants to be a world class player, and by what
Speaker 2: I mean a world class player playing in major championships.
Speaker 2: So he qualified in, was the medalist at Lake Mercaid,
Speaker 2: and I'm I'm super interested to watch him continue evolve.
Speaker 2: I think he's only like at twenty one years old
Speaker 2: right now, so.
Speaker 1: Well so so that that kind of leads into something
Speaker 1: I have as one of my five things Andy, because
Speaker 1: I think you're you're onto something here. I mean the
Speaker 1: US Open, It's it's one of the great events in sports.
Speaker 1: Because of what you just said, young players can qualify
Speaker 1: in Guys like Ben James, you know who I think
Speaker 1: is is headed quickly to the PGA Tour, I mean metalist,
Speaker 1: you know, shoots sixty four in the second round there
Speaker 1: to qualify for the US Open, made it run last
Speaker 1: year at the US Amate, a great young player. And
Speaker 1: then I was thinking about some of the maybe maybe
Speaker 1: more notable names that qualified through sectionals, and I think
Speaker 1: Harry Higgs is obviously an easy pick considering the way
Speaker 1: he's played on the corn Ferry Tour over the last month,
Speaker 1: couple of wins there. I feel like Harry's got a
Speaker 1: lot of confidence coming in feels a little andy like
Speaker 1: what we saw with Jason Gore years ago. And Jason
Speaker 1: Gore is playing awesome golf I think at the time
Speaker 1: on the web dot Com Tour, and then gets to
Speaker 1: the US Open and contends and you know, gets some stuff.
Speaker 1: I think he was in the final pairing on Sunday
Speaker 1: there at bet Page Black. And then Zach Blair I
Speaker 1: think is a name we should obviously, you know, focus
Speaker 1: on as well, just considering how good the short game is.
Speaker 1: The piner's number two. As we know, we'll test a
Speaker 1: lot of pitch shots and shots around the greens. I
Speaker 1: don't think you've got to be overly long to play
Speaker 1: well at Piner's number two, especially as firm and as
Speaker 1: fast as it is it's expecting to play. So I
Speaker 1: feel like zb coming in with the way he's been
Speaker 1: playing as somebody to at least circle if you're looking,
Speaker 1: maybe outside the top thirty names in terms of favorites.
Speaker 1: But one of the things I wrote down Andy is
Speaker 1: Pineer's number two US Opens. Every time they've had a
Speaker 1: US Open there, we've had a random guy in the mix.
Speaker 1: So I wrote down, who's going to be the random
Speaker 1: guy in the mix this year? So twenty fourteen it
Speaker 1: was Eric Compton, if you remember in the mix, I
Speaker 1: mean nobody was going to catch Kimer, but Eric Compton
Speaker 1: I think finished third. That week five was our champion.
Speaker 1: Was the random guy in the mix, Michael Campbell, and
Speaker 1: then ninety nine it was Tim Herron was in the
Speaker 1: mix kind of with Payne, Phil and Tiger going into
Speaker 1: that Sunday. So who's going to be the random player
Speaker 1: for this US Open? I looked at ben On. He's
Speaker 1: played great golf, not excellent golf, and I'm not sold
Speaker 1: on the short game. There, So I think my random guy.
Speaker 1: I was kind of going through the names and the
Speaker 1: odds and some of these players on who I think
Speaker 1: has a chance that's maybe well off the list of
Speaker 1: players you'd expect to contend, and I think I've landed
Speaker 1: on Alex Norn. I'm very consistent this season, finished t
Speaker 1: for T twelfth at the PGA, and I was looking
Speaker 1: at his numbers Andy, and they're pretty remarkable. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tita Green on the PGA Tour this year, he's eleventh
Speaker 1: off the T forty second approach, twenty sixth around the green, ninth,
Speaker 1: he's fourth in stross game total. I mean that's obviously,
Speaker 1: when you combine everything and look at great numbers, very impressive.
Speaker 1: I mean you're up there with guys like Scotti and
Speaker 1: Xander and Rory when you're landing fourth. So I feel like,
Speaker 1: as I'm looking at who's going to be the next
Speaker 1: rant quote unquote random player to make a run of
Speaker 1: the US Open at Pinehurst, considering it's happened every time
Speaker 1: we've gone to Pinehurst, number two, I think my guy
Speaker 1: is Alex Nornah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's played unbelievable golf. I think I meant to
Speaker 2: do this at the top. But here's a little bit
Speaker 2: of the championship history of Pineers. Number two for those
Speaker 2: that aren't. You touched on it a little bit. So
Speaker 2: you have twenty fourteen, most recently Martin Kaimer wins at
Speaker 2: minus nine, Fowler and Compton are at minus one, and
Speaker 2: then you have Keegan, Jason Day, DJ Brooks and Henrik
Speaker 2: Stenson at plus one. So big lift separations.
Speaker 1: Andy Brooks just sneaking in there, man, just total.
Speaker 2: That was like the first big big Brooks moment.
Speaker 1: So crazy. It's like these little moments, like a little
Speaker 1: bit what you talked on, you touched on with Xander
Speaker 1: at Aaron Hills. It's these little moments when you're a nope,
Speaker 1: quote unquote nobody in golf and you just have this
Speaker 1: moment at this stage and you go, Okay, I can
Speaker 1: contend here, and then you know three years later you
Speaker 1: want to us opened very interesting.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and five, Michael Campbell wins at even, Tiger
Speaker 2: is at plus two, Tim Clark's Orgio and Mark Hensby.
Speaker 2: If you if you didn't go Tim Harron, you could
Speaker 2: have gone Mark Hensby there. I guess Tim Harron was
Speaker 2: ninety nine ninety nine.
Speaker 1: He was he was a little bit more in the
Speaker 1: hunt through three rounds.
Speaker 2: But yes, yes, Hensby at plus five and then ninety nine.
Speaker 2: Payne Stewart wins obviously a historic major at minus one,
Speaker 2: Michelson's at even and VJ and Tiger are at plus one.
Speaker 2: I think the next scores were plus five. I think
Speaker 2: one of the things you see with with Pinehurst is
Speaker 2: it does through three of these and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: It does really allow people to lift and separate.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: I think it's just the challenge of of I mean,
Speaker 2: just the challenge of approaching these greens, I think is
Speaker 2: what creates that lift in separation. All right, let's take
Speaker 2: a quick break to talk about our part partner Echo.
Speaker 2: The latest from Echo Golf is the LT one. It's
Speaker 2: sneakers style, modern design. It's really good looking shoe, you know.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things I appreciate about Echo
Speaker 2: is obviously the comfort, and they've got some good style,
Speaker 2: but they are always uh innovating and pushing forward. And
Speaker 2: the LT one features an L Y t R foam
Speaker 2: that is an advanced bounce and rebound material embedded in
Speaker 2: the soul. It makes a cloud like comfort and walking
Speaker 2: eighteen has never felt better. I'm really pumped. I'm getting
Speaker 2: my lt ones down in Pinehurst. I've been wearing the evrs,
Speaker 2: which has been a great shoe. It's awesome. Uh and
Speaker 2: they're super durable and they last a long time. But
Speaker 2: I would go check out the lt one. They have
Speaker 2: laced and boa options are obviously waterproof, and check them
Speaker 2: out at Echo dot com. Golf.
Speaker 1: My next thing, my fourth thing, if you will, will
Speaker 1: somebody finish? Will somebody finish? Under par? I mean I
Speaker 1: wrote down similar things to what you just said. Twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: three guys finished under par. Nobody finished under par. Ninety
Speaker 1: nine one guy finished under par. In the three US
Speaker 1: Opens headed into twenty four we've had exactly one player
Speaker 1: better one under par at a US Open at Pinehurst
Speaker 1: number two. So I just you know, we talked so
Speaker 1: much about these US Opens, like what do we want
Speaker 1: them to be? Do we want them to be tough?
Speaker 1: Do we want them to be brutal? Do you want
Speaker 1: guys to go out there and still be able to
Speaker 1: make birdies? This place feels like a golf course that
Speaker 1: you're just not going to see people touch double digit
Speaker 1: under par unless you're absolute lap in the field like
Speaker 1: we saw with Kaimer, right. And so my question to
Speaker 1: you is, and I talked to some people over the
Speaker 1: last couple of days preparing for the podcast that either
Speaker 1: live in Pinehurst or work you know, for the USJA
Speaker 1: and around the US Open. They're saying conditions are where
Speaker 1: they want them to be. It is firm, you know,
Speaker 1: it is fast, it is tough. It's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: again like they're expecting it to be. I don't think
Speaker 1: they've had a ton of rainy andy in the area
Speaker 1: over the last couple of weeks, which I know they want.
Speaker 1: They wanted to be relatively browned out. So it feels
Speaker 1: like we're setting ourselves up for another US Open where
Speaker 1: if you go out and make a whole bunch of pars,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be in the hunt. Do you see the
Speaker 1: same thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just think this this parlays into my kind
Speaker 2: of golf course thing. I think it's just it's just
Speaker 2: a brutally tough place to play golf. There are certain
Speaker 2: golf courses that are just naturally hard, and this is
Speaker 2: one of them. I don't know if naturally is the
Speaker 2: right word, since since the greens are propped up and
Speaker 2: artificially hard. I guess, and this intentionally difficult, but I
Speaker 2: think this golf course is just it's just so difficult
Speaker 2: to get comfortable on it. And I did a podcast
Speaker 2: with Garrett where we talked about this a lot right
Speaker 2: before this one. But every t shot seemingly plays a
Speaker 2: little bit on a diagonal, which means you have to
Speaker 2: pick line and distance off the tee. That's an uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: uncomfortable way to play golf. It's a huge juxtaposition from
Speaker 2: our last major championship host Valhalla, which is just bombs
Speaker 2: away you have to and then when you're approaching the green,
Speaker 2: I think, what's the unique thing? The targets are just
Speaker 2: so small and with the way modern golf, this is
Speaker 2: what I'm excited to watch. Like one of my five
Speaker 2: things is just like modern golf has this theory of
Speaker 2: like you gotta aim five yards right, like you just
Speaker 2: always aim away from it. It's not modern golf, it's
Speaker 2: you know, golf with a brain. People have been doing
Speaker 2: this for years. But the idea of hey that pins
Speaker 2: tucked left, you need to aim five yards right and
Speaker 2: be happy with the disper dispersion. I think that worked
Speaker 2: really well. When there's rough catching the ball at Pinehurst,
Speaker 2: the ball rolls away because of the edges, and the
Speaker 2: edges of the greens are all crowned or predominantly all crowned,
Speaker 2: and then you have short grass that kind of sends
Speaker 2: the ball further away. I think that like just generally
Speaker 2: disrupts the formulaic nature of this strategy that people deploy.
Speaker 2: It's based off of a large sampling of PGA tour
Speaker 2: courses where the ball stops, there's rough around the greens,
Speaker 2: and the ball stops they aren't, you know, crown greens
Speaker 2: where the ball rolls away. So the idea of aiming
Speaker 2: away here I think is a little bit less advantageous
Speaker 2: because the ball rolls away here, and I think what's
Speaker 2: going to have to happen. Players have to take on
Speaker 2: a little bit more risk. And I'm not saying like
Speaker 2: they need to go fire at every flag, but the
Speaker 2: targets are so small here that you have to take
Speaker 2: You have to do things that you don't want to
Speaker 2: do with a with a somewhat regular occurrence. That's the
Speaker 2: way I feel when you play here is when you
Speaker 2: play tentatively, it really really choose you up like I
Speaker 2: you know it is. It is. If you're not playing
Speaker 2: committed golf and really confident with your your golf swing,
Speaker 2: you you don't have much of a chance here. I
Speaker 2: don't know how you feel about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think you're spot on. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I played it last year, I've played it
Speaker 1: a few times. It's one of my favorite courses to
Speaker 1: play because of how much you've got to be thinking
Speaker 1: all the time. And also to your point, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of step up and hit a golf shot, which
Speaker 1: I think major championship golf should be. I think there
Speaker 1: should be a lot less we can bail out here.
Speaker 1: We have to hit the golf shot on this at
Speaker 1: this spot, at this time, and if I don't pull
Speaker 1: the golf shot off, I've got to hit an unbelievable
Speaker 1: shot just to say par right. I feel like Pianeer's
Speaker 1: number two is an easy place to get to three
Speaker 1: and four over, and it's a super hard place to
Speaker 1: get back to even right. There's not a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of birdies out on this golf course. The par fives
Speaker 1: are difficult, the short par fours are difficult. And you
Speaker 1: said it, I mean even with the sand wedge in
Speaker 1: a labuche. I remember last year, you know, I was
Speaker 1: playing with some very good players, you know, played with
Speaker 1: a buddy of mine that played mini toward golf and
Speaker 1: Joel Kladd, who's you know, a scratch golfer, and you know,
Speaker 1: you're four and five holes into it explaining to them
Speaker 1: that there's not really any place to bail right. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can maybe hit it fifteen feet away from if
Speaker 1: the pin's left in those trouble you could maybe hit
Speaker 1: it fifteen feet to the bigger side of the green.
Speaker 1: That's kind of it. And if you do bail out,
Speaker 1: the pitch shot, the chip shot, whatever you're picking from
Speaker 1: that point forward is going to have to be extremely creative.
Speaker 1: Like going back to Joel last year, Joel plays at
Speaker 1: a course in southern California where it does have runoff areas.
Speaker 1: He hits a lot of like bump and run five
Speaker 1: irons there when he's playing golf. He hit that shot
Speaker 1: to perfection around Pinehurs number two. So there is an
Speaker 1: open championship element around the greens. But when I'm looking
Speaker 1: at people and I've got some names on my list,
Speaker 1: we'll get two of my five things but when I
Speaker 1: I'm looking at these level of players, Yes, you've got
Speaker 1: to be a great iron player, but the creativity with
Speaker 1: your hands has got to be there, and there are
Speaker 1: there are gonna be a lot of golf shots you
Speaker 1: don't see even at true in my opinion, you'll see
Speaker 1: players trying to play at the US Open.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you hit on something. Also when you
Speaker 2: brought up ZB is that I don't think you necessarily
Speaker 2: have to. I think power is always a huge advantage, right,
Speaker 2: Like it's like I'm going to turn down being a
Speaker 2: long hitter at any golf course. I'm good, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: you know what, I prefer to hit it to ad.
Speaker 1: I don't need those twenty yards. It's fine, just keep those.
Speaker 2: Things forty forty yards. But one of the things that
Speaker 2: Pine Nurse does is it chokes at three hundred yards
Speaker 2: like almost every hole. So I that's That's the other
Speaker 2: thing is that how how much risk are our player
Speaker 2: is going to take on? Are we going to see
Speaker 2: a lot of drivers out here? I think the games
Speaker 2: the game's changed a ton since twenty fourteen, ten years ago.
Speaker 2: I mean it's changed a lot. So are we going
Speaker 2: to see a ton of drivers like the number of
Speaker 2: players that hit it over three hundred yards, it's I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's a multiple of twenty fourteen. So my my question,
Speaker 2: one of my questions with the golf course is at too,
Speaker 2: is how much of a driver test is it still?
Speaker 2: You know, and and with it especially going forward the
Speaker 2: way they kind of and I want to be clear,
Speaker 2: they did renovation and this was one of Mike Davis'
Speaker 2: input was we wanted this to choke in with bunkers
Speaker 2: and native at three hundred yards. So you know, while
Speaker 2: it doesn't present like your your US Open venue where
Speaker 2: the USGA narrowed fairways like because you see the rough
Speaker 2: come in here, they did it very they concealed it
Speaker 2: very well with native, it does choke. It gets very
Speaker 2: narrow at three hundred yards on almost every hole. So
Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to see where where, how that how
Speaker 2: that has like just like an overall holistic effect on
Speaker 2: how many drivers are we seeing. I think it's important
Speaker 2: for a golf course to allow players to hit driver
Speaker 2: because you want to examine the driver test. It's not
Speaker 2: what it used to be with in terms of driver
Speaker 2: forgiveness has gotten so good that like hitting a driver isn't.
Speaker 2: I don't think the greatest skill challenge like it used
Speaker 2: to be in the nineteen eighties. Maybe, but it's still
Speaker 2: I think an important recipe of a championship golf course.
Speaker 2: And and if it if it gets a point of
Speaker 2: like these guys are, you know, are hitting four or
Speaker 2: five drivers around, I think you need to start to
Speaker 2: look at like, what what are we doing with some
Speaker 2: of these narrowing areas and are we limiting the the
Speaker 2: interest in the in the in the golf course by
Speaker 2: doing that so.
Speaker 1: So that that actually that actually leads right in andy
Speaker 1: to I have. You know, we did five things. I
Speaker 1: did a couple of golf course things and a couple
Speaker 1: scoring things and.
Speaker 2: Knocking him out here quick. I think we're both down
Speaker 2: to three.
Speaker 1: This is I got three left and this is one
Speaker 1: of my big things. And I think I said this
Speaker 1: before the year started. This was my pick to win
Speaker 1: this US Open. It feels like it's cam Smith time
Speaker 1: this week. No better venue for him in terms of
Speaker 1: a major championship. In my opinion, I feel like there
Speaker 1: are places that make sense when you look at cam
Speaker 1: Smith as a pro golfer, When you look at cam
Speaker 1: Smith as a top ten golfer in the world, the
Speaker 1: Old Course obviously being one of them. You don't have
Speaker 1: to drive a golf ball super well. Augusta National and
Speaker 1: another five top tens, and his last seven starts at
Speaker 1: the Masters. And I think Pinehurst is absolutely perfect for Cam.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the driving of the golf ball. He is
Speaker 1: not a great driver of the golf ball. He won't
Speaker 1: have to hit as many drivers as he typically does,
Speaker 1: I think at most major venues. And I think, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know Cam Smith. I've talked to him a
Speaker 1: couple of times in my life, but I feel like
Speaker 1: Cam Smith is one of those players that gets more
Speaker 1: interested when the golf course gets him interested, right when
Speaker 1: they ask the questions that Cam wants to answer. This
Speaker 1: feels like a place like that where you've got to
Speaker 1: pitch the golf all exceptionally well. He's one of the
Speaker 1: best in the world at that. There are crazy bunker
Speaker 1: shots you're gonna have to hit. He's unbelievable like that.
Speaker 1: And and you know this, if you pick Pinehurs number
Speaker 1: two up and said it anywhere in the world, I
Speaker 1: think it would make the most sense for it to
Speaker 1: be in the sand belt of Australia. So for me,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at cam Smith as not just my pick,
Speaker 1: but a serious favorite to top five, top ten, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to do, because again, I feel like this
Speaker 1: golf course doesn't set up well for a lot of players.
Speaker 1: I think it sets up very very well for Cam Smith,
Speaker 1: and he's sneaky played pretty good in the majors over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. I mean, after the Open
Speaker 1: Championship win, I think we all kind of saw him
Speaker 1: go to Live and go is this guy gonna show
Speaker 1: up and play golf anymore? He's played pretty good in
Speaker 1: the majors, especially at some of the courses I mentioned.
Speaker 1: So I feel like cam Smith is a heavy name
Speaker 1: to think about this week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's played. He's he's played Okay. I
Speaker 2: don't think we've seen him really in the mix in
Speaker 2: anything like where it's like he's gonna win, but he
Speaker 2: I think he's played. He's played decent this the last
Speaker 2: couple of months on Live. I it's hard to judge.
Speaker 2: I think like John Rom's like a great example of
Speaker 2: like it's really hard to judge what's going on on LIV.
Speaker 2: Like for world class players, I think it's pretty easy
Speaker 2: to career top tens there, but it's very difficult to
Speaker 2: understand what the the state of their game is. I think,
Speaker 2: like obviously, I think every golf course in the world
Speaker 2: is is a good setup for him. Scotty Scheffler is
Speaker 2: one that you know, this golf course might be might
Speaker 2: be the Uh.
Speaker 1: We'll get Andy. We'll get to that in a minute.
Speaker 1: I got on my list as well, and my last
Speaker 1: thing is Scotty specific, so we'll get we'll get to mister.
Speaker 1: But real quick just just just want to just want
Speaker 1: to touch on came real quick wins the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two Open. Hasn't missed a cutting a major since the win.
Speaker 1: Finished fourth of the US Open last year, t ninth
Speaker 1: of the PG last year, and T six that Augusta
Speaker 1: this year. So he hasn't necessarily been in contention at
Speaker 1: these major championships, but he's played good enough golf to
Speaker 1: you know, find himself in the top ten comes Sunday evening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and when he's going, I think like a great
Speaker 2: approach player too, So I think that's the other aspect,
Speaker 2: Like I think if you everything from te after the
Speaker 2: t shot into the green, he's a top five player
Speaker 2: in the world, and I think that's super important at
Speaker 2: Pinehurst number two. Yeah, I've got I'll go with another
Speaker 2: live player. I've got two live players. On to my
Speaker 2: next things. I'll go with John ram here. He signed
Speaker 2: the live deal obviously in the Winner. I think he
Speaker 2: anticipated it being a short window of him playing live golf.
Speaker 1: I think he thought, Andy, you you know, like on
Speaker 1: a much lower level, I was listening to you guys
Speaker 1: at the Shotguns start talking about the framework agreement or
Speaker 1: whatever they call it, being a year ago. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember there were talks and we might have done
Speaker 1: this offline as much as we did online. But when
Speaker 1: Rom signed the live deal, Remember when you guys were talking,
Speaker 1: You're like, I think he's expecting to be and why
Speaker 1: in playing in this thing? Like That's how quickly I
Speaker 1: think John Rohm thought that that stuff was going to
Speaker 1: be hided out.
Speaker 2: And I, you know, listen like he's got the This
Speaker 2: is the worst start to a major championship season of
Speaker 2: his entire career, dating back to when he was an
Speaker 2: amateur and when t at the Master's miscut at the PGA.
Speaker 2: And this is a small sample size. I just don't
Speaker 2: think it's possible for anybody to take a big bag
Speaker 2: of money like that and not get a little.
Speaker 1: Soft I would agree wholeheartedly. I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: it's it's extremely hard to be pressing, and I think
Speaker 1: one of the hardest things. We've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this with Live. I think this is no not to
Speaker 1: live the product, but I think it's hard to find
Speaker 1: form in the way they go about their business. It's
Speaker 1: it's sporadic and it's scheduling. It's kind of all over
Speaker 1: the place worldwide. Playing as much golf as you typically do,
Speaker 1: there's only ten or twelve guys that you think you
Speaker 1: really should be contending and competing with. That's not the
Speaker 1: feel you're gonna get. PJ Tour weeks week tw week. Andy,
Speaker 1: look at the two guys that have beat Scotti Scheffler
Speaker 1: this season on the PGA Tour. These are not top
Speaker 1: twenty guys in the world. These are relatively random PGA
Speaker 1: Tour players that found their game that week and were
Speaker 1: able to beat, not just contend with beat the best
Speaker 1: golfer in the world. That's the difference, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: in PGA Tour golf, even signature event golf, and Live
Speaker 1: right now is there is still the sixtieth seventieth guy
Speaker 1: in the field that can beat the number one guy
Speaker 1: in the world on any given week at a PJ
Speaker 1: Tour event.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like the bottom fifteen on LIV aren't gonna
Speaker 2: beat John Rahm. No with I mean it might be
Speaker 2: like a sporadic once every thirty times might beat them,
Speaker 2: but not like have a chance to beat like and
Speaker 2: they beat him in the sense that John rom plays
Speaker 2: bad and finishes fifteenth and they finish fourteenth, Right, I
Speaker 2: think like I think, I think there's an adjustment period,
Speaker 2: and I I think you can play and we've seen
Speaker 2: people play good major championship golf from Live. I think
Speaker 2: the important caveat here is there's an adjustment period they
Speaker 2: like you have to like. John Rahm is to me
Speaker 2: seems like a very much a creature of habit, like
Speaker 2: he likes the way way things are like and this
Speaker 2: is the way things are, this is the way I
Speaker 2: do things. Him going to Live has completely disrupted the
Speaker 2: way he prepares for major championship. He talked about it
Speaker 2: a little bit like I'm playing less golf like, and
Speaker 2: I think he's at this place where he probably like
Speaker 2: if he didn't if if if he went to live
Speaker 2: on his own recon it didn't take whatever, hundreds of
Speaker 2: millions of dollars to go there. I think we'd hear
Speaker 2: like this is just you know, you'd probably hear a
Speaker 2: very candidate on Rahm being like, this is not working
Speaker 2: for me. I think I need to do this. I
Speaker 2: need to do this. I wonder how much how much
Speaker 2: practice and prep he he had in his life before
Speaker 2: maybe the Masters outside of playing these you know, three
Speaker 2: round events like listen, like John Rohm's a level of player.
Speaker 2: He's a generational talent in a in a fifty person
Speaker 2: field that's got a very weak bottom of the field.
Speaker 2: You can roll out of bed and finish in the
Speaker 2: top ten when you're this talented.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So I think like there's like this smoke of like, oh,
Speaker 2: he hasn't won, but he's been, you know, top ten
Speaker 2: in every event on LIV. That's not an accomplishment for
Speaker 2: this guy. And I'm sorry that I'm holding him to
Speaker 2: a higher standard. But after last year's Masters win and
Speaker 2: near missed you at the Open Championship contended, you know,
Speaker 2: at the Open Championship T two the year year before,
Speaker 2: he finishes top ten in every major. Two years ago,
Speaker 2: he finishes top ten in every major contended and a
Speaker 2: bunch of them. This is like, is this guy going
Speaker 2: to get to six or seven? He's in his like
Speaker 2: late twenties at this point. This is the time, This
Speaker 2: is the time, this is his this was supposed to
Speaker 2: be this when you look at his career when you
Speaker 2: zoom out, this is one of his five or six
Speaker 2: years of the meat of his career, and he's off
Speaker 2: to the worst major championship start of his career. Now,
Speaker 2: could things turn around? Could he win this week? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: But like you know, when we zoom out, when we
Speaker 2: look at like, I'm sure this thing's gonna get resolved
Speaker 2: and we're gonna have people playing back together. Maybe probably
Speaker 2: not next year, Maybe it's the next year when we
Speaker 2: zoom out fifteen years from now, at John Rahm's career,
Speaker 2: if if, if the major championships don't kind of turn
Speaker 2: around this year, I think John Rahm will have a
Speaker 2: you know, he's never gonna regret the three four hundred
Speaker 2: million that's in his bank account, but he will have
Speaker 2: a regret of you know what, I wasted one of
Speaker 2: my prime years of my career. So I think that's
Speaker 2: like to me, like in terms of like player interest, storyline,
Speaker 2: John Rahm is number one for me, Like interesting it
Speaker 2: is it is put up or shut up time for him,
Speaker 2: and like if he if he has another lackluster or performance,
Speaker 2: I just like don't know how you don't look at like, Okay,
Speaker 2: you're You're just not the same you know, hundreds of
Speaker 2: millions of dollars, You're not the same guy right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, Andy, you and I are both big sports fans.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, golf has never dealt with this before,
Speaker 1: but almost every other sport does. Is guys get traded
Speaker 1: or demand trades in the prime of their career, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. And there
Speaker 1: are plenty of players that we can circle and go, Man,
Speaker 1: if Griffy hadn't gone to the Reds, like what would
Speaker 1: have happened in Seattle? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, if the thunder stay stuck together, you know, yeah, if.
Speaker 1: They don't, If they don't, if they don't short James
Speaker 1: Harden four million bucks and they keep that core three together,
Speaker 1: are they the dynasty that Golden State turned into? Like
Speaker 1: there are swinging door moments in every team sport across
Speaker 1: the board for decades and decades, and golf never had
Speaker 1: to deal with this because golf didn't have anywhere players
Speaker 1: could get traded to. But I think your point is
Speaker 1: extremely valid on John Rahm. Obviously, this is a guy
Speaker 1: that is extremely competitive across the board, and it feels
Speaker 1: like right now maybe he's not getting that competitiveness he
Speaker 1: hoped to get at live. And again, like you said,
Speaker 1: things could flip right now. But I think of all
Speaker 1: the people like Bryson to me is benefited from Live
Speaker 1: Golf a little less exposure. We can kind of get
Speaker 1: to pick and choose your spons You get to lean
Speaker 1: into social media and do a great job with YouTube.
Speaker 1: That's a great place. It's it's not live, it's edited.
Speaker 1: You know, all those things I think play into Bryson's hands.
Speaker 1: Right Live seems to work well for Bryson and Schambeau.
Speaker 1: It might not be working well for John Rohm. You know,
Speaker 1: both things can be true. So it's gonna be very
Speaker 1: very interested this week if John Ram has a bad
Speaker 1: US Open at Pineher's number two at a place where
Speaker 1: short game is the premium, premium thing that you've got
Speaker 1: to lean on, and John Ram has one of the
Speaker 1: best short games in the world. Then you're going to
Speaker 1: really start to wonder who's this guy gonna be because,
Speaker 1: like you said, you go a full season, he turns
Speaker 1: thirty in November. Andy, you know, like right now thirty
Speaker 1: is getting older. Off on the men's side, right we're
Speaker 1: getting where this thing's get younger by the year. He's
Speaker 1: gonna turn thirty and then all of a sudden, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be thirty two. And if he's sitting on one
Speaker 1: major championship at thirty two, this is going to be
Speaker 1: a moment he's going to look back on and go,
Speaker 1: was this a decision that may or may not have
Speaker 1: disrupted my career? Now? Easier to do that when you
Speaker 1: got three hundred mil in the bank. But you know,
Speaker 1: I mean when you're looking at a guy that's thinking
Speaker 1: about trophies and you know, wants to be one of
Speaker 1: the best of his generation, he's got to kind of
Speaker 1: start to step it up. Now.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think, like John Rahm's had a great
Speaker 2: career to date and everything, but this is where that
Speaker 2: age debate is that like age isn't talked about enough
Speaker 2: with young players in the sport. John Ram was a
Speaker 2: really old rookie on the PGA Tour. Like I mean
Speaker 2: it was like late twenty three twenty four when he
Speaker 2: would like really burst on the scene. You think about
Speaker 2: what what player like Rory Macelelroy did before twenty four,
Speaker 2: you know what I even like, I always think like
Speaker 2: Joaquin Neeman's a great example. Joaquin Nemans still like only
Speaker 2: twenty four. He's been he's been out there forever. It's
Speaker 2: like we and I think, like this is this is
Speaker 2: a part of like you know, I'm not gonna this
Speaker 2: is not besmirching Ludwig at all. I think I've been
Speaker 2: super impressed. But Ludvig's twenty four. He's an old old
Speaker 2: young player, right, And I think like age needs to
Speaker 2: be especially with golf. It wasn't as important when it
Speaker 2: took people a long time to figure out like oh
Speaker 2: the courses, how to play the courses, and everything wasn't
Speaker 2: as dialed in as it is now where it's it's
Speaker 2: never been easier to be a young player on tour
Speaker 2: with the data and track man and everything. But like,
Speaker 2: age is always an important thing to consider because I
Speaker 2: do I we're gonna see we're we're seeing less and
Speaker 2: less players, Like I mean, forty used to be like
Speaker 2: you're still a favorite, and forty is like I can't
Speaker 2: believe this guy's forty. Like look at like Adam Scott
Speaker 2: and Justin Rose Jason Jason Jason Day is an old
Speaker 2: old man and that used to be like kind of
Speaker 2: like a normal age to be on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: So I think it's just an important thing to note
Speaker 2: with these players were and I think like PGA Tour
Speaker 2: you has created this like very big incentive for the
Speaker 2: top players to stick around with that card. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, you know, like these guys are getting
Speaker 2: out there at twenty three when I think a lot
Speaker 2: of them could be out there when they're nineteen. They're
Speaker 2: they're that level of talent, right like I you're seeing
Speaker 2: it now with these sixteen year olds that are coming
Speaker 2: on and like firston on the scene and like making
Speaker 2: cuts at sixteen, Like we remember like special special players
Speaker 2: like Tiger playing the Riviera, he didn't make the cut
Speaker 2: like these kids now like they're more equipped, they're better
Speaker 2: than ever. And and like you said with rom like
Speaker 2: I mean listen, like he's gonna be thirty, Like this
Speaker 2: is not He's not a spring chicken. He feels young
Speaker 2: because he hasn't been around that long because of how
Speaker 2: old of a rookie he.
Speaker 1: Was, right, Yeah, yeah. By the way, I think I
Speaker 1: said he had one major, obviously he's got two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Andy, I was. It's funny. I
Speaker 1: was listening to I was listening to this Kobe Bryant
Speaker 1: interview last night with Big kat in a Ron. I
Speaker 1: think it was like years ago for pardon my take
Speaker 1: or something. I mean, I think it was maybe twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen or twenty the biggest one life.
Speaker 2: Well, I've been you know, I ran into I ran
Speaker 2: into a former major champion that.
Speaker 1: Looks like my hole in one jar from back in
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 2: I ran into a former major champion, a tennis player,
Speaker 2: and he was toting around this monster jug. I've always
Speaker 2: wanted a monster jug of water, yeah, said something. And
Speaker 2: he's like, this is this is the way, this is
Speaker 2: the way you hydrate.
Speaker 1: Just so people listening and aren't watching. And he's got
Speaker 1: like a sixty ounce Mason jar that he's drinking water
Speaker 1: out of with no eyes.
Speaker 2: It's been super effective for me, Like I just I've
Speaker 2: been I feel more hydrated than I've ever.
Speaker 1: Been so no Stanley sponsorship for the Fried Egg, but
Speaker 1: if the Mason Jars want to sponsor.
Speaker 2: The works for a ball corporation.
Speaker 1: To listen. I was listening to this Kobe interview and
Speaker 1: they were talking about Kobe's decision to turn pro out
Speaker 1: of high school, and he was talking about how he
Speaker 1: felt like he had the skill set to play professional basketball.
Speaker 1: But what he said was there were so many players
Speaker 1: in the NBA that were getting later in their careers
Speaker 1: that he said, I want to watch them. I want
Speaker 1: to play against them, and I want to learn from
Speaker 1: them on the court. And I think your point about
Speaker 1: staying around in college or maybe not turning pro to
Speaker 1: your twenty three or twenty four. If you turn pro
Speaker 1: at eighteen and you've got the skill set to be
Speaker 1: able to stick around and keep your card, you're going
Speaker 1: to be watching your quote unquote professional peers. You're gonna
Speaker 1: watch Scott, You're gonna watch Rory, You're gonna watch Joaquin.
Speaker 1: You're gonna watch that crew of players, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to pick up things that they do, the
Speaker 1: way they practice, the way they go about their business.
Speaker 1: Maybe your game isn't great for two years, but the
Speaker 1: stuff you're going to learn in those two years is
Speaker 1: going to be massively important for when you start to
Speaker 1: feel comfortable in those moments. So yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: a really interesting thing about PJ Tour. You does a
Speaker 1: great job of incentivizing players to stay till their seniors
Speaker 1: because you could get a PGA Tour card or you
Speaker 1: can get a ton of starts on the corn Ferry Tour,
Speaker 1: which is huge for these players. But if you're a
Speaker 1: generational level player, maybe Michael thorpe Jornsen, you know, when
Speaker 1: he's not injured, is generational loot big maybe generational right,
Speaker 1: you know, John Rohm, potentially generational type of player. Maybe
Speaker 1: there is a level of thinking about turning pro a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier so you could get those reps alongside
Speaker 1: the piers you're going to be competing again against the
Speaker 1: next four or five years.
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Speaker 2: think the PGA Tour system was a little bit more accessible,
Speaker 2: and I I think the idea of like, like you
Speaker 2: finish a college like if you're a college athlete, like
Speaker 2: think about this, like if you're a college golfer and
Speaker 2: I'm a sophomore, finished my sophomore year and I'm thinking
Speaker 2: about turn pro and it's like, well, like sixty percent
Speaker 2: of the corn Ferry schedule is done. I'm not getting
Speaker 2: a card that way the PGA Tour. The only way
Speaker 2: I'm getting up there is if I finished top five
Speaker 2: in Q school in this one tournament against a lot
Speaker 2: of great players, or or through corn Ferry, which is
Speaker 2: which is basically like it's a crapshoot for me to
Speaker 2: get into that top thirty that and with that few
Speaker 2: starts like the whole system, and like I mean, this
Speaker 2: is like a dynamic with the sport that that I
Speaker 2: believe is holding some young players back. Is that like
Speaker 2: it is unlike any other sport where the college golf
Speaker 2: schedule ends in the middle of the professional golf schedule,
Speaker 2: Like no other sport works this way, right like a
Speaker 2: college football in the NFL end roughly at the same time,
Speaker 2: and the off season's a line the NBA, like college
Speaker 2: baseball doesn't just extend through the summer, it ends in
Speaker 2: the spring, and its like I guess college baseball might
Speaker 2: be the only comp right where your season ends and
Speaker 2: it's the middle of the MLB season, so there's the comp.
Speaker 2: But you're being drafted into a farm system for a
Speaker 2: team and you join, like, I think this is like
Speaker 2: it's really a broken And we saw before PGA Tour
Speaker 2: you adapted their rules. I can't believe we're talking about this.
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, we'll move past it when you're done.
Speaker 2: But before PGA Tour adapted their rules that you adapted
Speaker 2: the rules, we were seeing an influx of players like
Speaker 2: Davis Riley, will Z l Torres term pro in the
Speaker 2: middle of the winter, basically at the end of the
Speaker 2: fall season. They were leaving there. And it was it
Speaker 2: was smart move because it's like I align my schedule
Speaker 2: with that year, and I think, like, listen, like, I
Speaker 2: think it's a great change of like, but I think
Speaker 2: that PGA Tour you should be like, hey, if Jackson
Speaker 2: Coyven was the best player in college golf this year,
Speaker 2: he should get a exactly. He should. He should get
Speaker 2: his PGA Tour card, right, Like, I think that's the
Speaker 2: way it should work. That it's kind of silly to
Speaker 2: me that you have to be a senior to cash in.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the point of that is incentivizing
Speaker 1: guys to stick around. But yeah, I think about it, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're ready to go, go, you're ready to
Speaker 2: go cash in on your career. We see it all
Speaker 2: over the place, like what if Jordan Speed had stayed
Speaker 2: till he was senior, would he have one major?
Speaker 1: Andy. I was talking to Austin Greeser on the phone
Speaker 1: the other day, obviously turned pro this week at the
Speaker 1: corn Firy event. I thought he sounds set something really
Speaker 1: interested to me. I was talking about preparing for the
Speaker 1: corn Faery and professional golf, and he said, the interesting
Speaker 1: thing is college golf courses in college setups are tougher
Speaker 1: than the corn Ferry Tour. So he said, I roll
Speaker 1: into the corn Faery Tour and it's not very intimidating
Speaker 1: because I've played so many of these high level amter events.
Speaker 1: You know, he nearly wins the US Amateur at Oakmont,
Speaker 1: he plays in the Masters, like he's checked all these
Speaker 1: boxes at tough places. You show up to the KFT
Speaker 1: and you're not that intimidated. But again, it's such a
Speaker 1: short season. You have that you've got to play excellent,
Speaker 1: excellent golf in a four month run with the most
Speaker 1: pressure in your life to get your card, or you're
Speaker 1: kind of figuring out what you're gonna do the next year.
Speaker 1: It's not great, but yeah, we're talking to us open,
Speaker 1: so let's move on.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: I got something for you, Andy, go for it. It's
Speaker 1: a point you made on the pod. I think it
Speaker 1: was on Shotgun Start. Maybe Brandon made it, but I
Speaker 1: thought it was a great point, and I was thinking
Speaker 1: think a lot about it the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: I cannot believe you're drinking out of that charge Jesus.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could put like daffodils in that thing.
Speaker 1: You could put a lot of a lot of flowers
Speaker 1: in your Mason jar.
Speaker 2: Try it out, Try it out.
Speaker 1: I don't know how. I don't even know if Amazon
Speaker 1: will ship that big of a jug. So talking about
Speaker 1: Rory in Major Championships a few weeks ago on the
Speaker 1: Shotgun Start, and I thought you and Brenda made a
Speaker 1: great point. You said it feels like Rory used to
Speaker 1: play the easy venues the best. You think about his
Speaker 1: wins soft Congressional Valhalla, Kiowa, like very soft and scorable.
Speaker 1: You know, he blows the field away in a lot
Speaker 1: of those places, And now it feels like he plays
Speaker 1: the harder golf courses better. And I thought it was
Speaker 1: a stude. I thought it was absolutely accurate when you
Speaker 1: kind of look at the way Rory has played and
Speaker 1: Rory's contended and major championship golf. I also think about
Speaker 1: Rory at Pioneer's number two, and I think we love
Speaker 1: to gloss and glow about Rory's driving. I think maybe
Speaker 1: the most underrated thing in golf right now is Rory
Speaker 1: mclory's ability to pitch the golf ball. You think about
Speaker 1: how many pitches he has around the greens. I mean,
Speaker 1: he can hit it low with spin, he hits it high,
Speaker 1: he holds out a lot. He's a very very underrated
Speaker 1: bunker player as well. I think this sneaky plays well
Speaker 1: into Rory's game. It's tough, It's gonna be tough, even
Speaker 1: par Is gonna be a great score, and you've got
Speaker 1: to be creative around greens. And I feel like we
Speaker 1: don't give. We don't give Rory the flowers we should
Speaker 1: in terms of pitching and chipping. And I feel like
Speaker 1: he's gonna showcase that this week at Pioneers number two.
Speaker 1: And listen, I'm not gonna pick Rory. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think I've kind of done that for the last decade
Speaker 1: and I'm a little tired of picking him. But I
Speaker 1: will say, I think he's gonna get you. That's fine.
Speaker 1: I hope he does. Man, I hope he comes up
Speaker 1: and just and just and just buzzes me in the
Speaker 1: back with the victory. But I feel like this is
Speaker 1: a place that if he can drive the golf ball
Speaker 1: at a Rory average level or above, I think he's
Speaker 1: got an incredible advantage in a place like this, considering
Speaker 1: the mix of power off the tee and touching finesse
Speaker 1: around the greens.
Speaker 2: I think something else that I think, like, obviously, the
Speaker 2: proach play is kind of the the the delta for Rory,
Speaker 2: right and when his approach plays cut, I honestly think
Speaker 2: this this golf course might expose some people that we
Speaker 2: think are great approach play players that are kind of
Speaker 2: just like I hit it here, and the golf course
Speaker 2: never punishment punishes me.
Speaker 1: Can you give me an example of that.
Speaker 2: I don't really. I just think there's probably like a
Speaker 2: lot of players, Like I think Rory probably gets a
Speaker 2: little over aggressive for a weekend week out player with
Speaker 2: his approach targets. But I think here that aggression might
Speaker 2: pay off because it's so punishing everywhere around the greens.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, like if if there's a touch flag and
Speaker 1: you miss it short side, and it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: even if you miss it on the fat side of
Speaker 1: things anyway, So it's.
Speaker 2: Just exactly like everything feels short sighted. Yeah, that where
Speaker 2: I think like his approach play is like kind of
Speaker 2: like when it's on, it's like, all right, get your popcorn.
Speaker 2: But here, I think there are gonna be a lot
Speaker 2: of players that like just like they miss a lot.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll never forget Jeff Ogilvie's quote years ago
Speaker 2: on this podcast of like if you put me in
Speaker 2: the middle of the fairway with a wedge in my
Speaker 2: hand on every hole, I'd be happy if I hit
Speaker 2: twelve greens. You know, I like, I always I think
Speaker 2: about that all the time, Like this guy that want
Speaker 2: of us up and.
Speaker 1: Saying this, yeah, wing foot, He's saying that that's crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And so when I think about that, I think
Speaker 2: like there is like an idea of like I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's not about like how bad you know how, It's
Speaker 2: more about like how many spectacular approach shots do you
Speaker 2: hit in a given week, and less about the average, right,
Speaker 2: because like average, like average are going to get penalized here,
Speaker 2: And I think that maybe the penalty for being over
Speaker 2: aggressive here isn't quite as high as Augusta National because
Speaker 2: there isn't the water, right, Like I'm just thinking about,
Speaker 2: like trying to think about the golf course in the
Speaker 2: I think you can be a little bit more. It
Speaker 2: feels like a golf course that you shouldn't be aggressive on,
Speaker 2: but it actually, in turn is a golf course that
Speaker 2: you might want to be a little bit more aggressive
Speaker 2: on your approach play because if you're short side yourself
Speaker 2: versus fat side yourself with some of these pins, it's
Speaker 2: not a big difference. But at Augusta National, if you
Speaker 2: short side yourself, you're just dead.
Speaker 1: You make a boat yep.
Speaker 2: And there's always a good place to miss. I think,
Speaker 2: like the good place to miss at Pinehurst is is
Speaker 2: where fifteen handicappers miss it's short of the green. These
Speaker 2: guys aren't gonna be like I'm I'm gonna play the
Speaker 2: to short of the green to pitch up like, that's
Speaker 2: not gonna It might happen if they're in the waist sometimes,
Speaker 2: but that's not That's not the way professional golf works,
Speaker 2: which is why this golf course is so playable for
Speaker 2: a fifteen handicap and so diabolically difficult for the world's
Speaker 2: best player. So, I, you know, I agree with that
Speaker 2: Rory sentiment. I think he's gonna be off everybody's radar
Speaker 2: this week, Like he's not on my five things to watch.
Speaker 2: And I think that's because you just like naturally are like,
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a Rory course. But I you know,
Speaker 2: so much of this stuff is counterintuitive, all right. I
Speaker 2: have Bryson on mine.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: I think he's been kind of like a sneaky maybe
Speaker 2: the story of golf this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, Scott, you still have to say Scott, we
Speaker 1: still see Scott. You'd have to say Scotty and Nelly
Speaker 1: above Bryson. But I think Bryson's probably in the top
Speaker 1: three or four storylines. I agree with you.
Speaker 2: We've seen him specialized, like he specializes in that Valhalla
Speaker 2: wing foot, oak hill, narrow fairway, thick rough type setup.
Speaker 2: Right that that's where we've seen him play really well.
Speaker 2: This year Masters was like a revelation like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: like Bryson's playing well at Augusta and you know, I
Speaker 2: want to say, like he played really well in round
Speaker 2: one and it was like it kind of was like
Speaker 2: leaking oil after round one, but like he had a
Speaker 2: really good finish at Augusta. And I think that bryceon
Speaker 2: Pineer's number two on paper does not set up well
Speaker 2: for Bryson. This doesn't seem like a place that's going
Speaker 2: to be super friendly. But like my question is, like
Speaker 2: are we seeing Bryson like become this like really great
Speaker 2: all around player. Have we seen him like he's evolved,
Speaker 2: And like my question is is this like the third
Speaker 2: evolution of Bryson to Shamba where he came in as
Speaker 2: like this really good all around player, transformed into the
Speaker 2: into the hulk, became this burley boy, this big big boy,
Speaker 2: this lumbering master of the golf ball that just hit it,
Speaker 2: you know, far, and became this specialist of this one
Speaker 2: setup and now has he evolved back into maybe the
Speaker 2: into the best version of him, the best where he
Speaker 2: can hit it long, but he has all the rest
Speaker 2: of the skills. Like I think this week is a
Speaker 2: really good barometer of like can Bryson, Like I think
Speaker 2: Bryson became this specialist, like okay, this type of course, Like,
Speaker 2: but is Bryson now like any golf course you put
Speaker 2: him on, you have to consider him a top five
Speaker 2: to seven favorite, And this week is a big barometer
Speaker 2: of that. I I wholeheartedly I've said this before. I
Speaker 2: wholeheartedly believe that what he's doing on YouTube is making
Speaker 2: him a better, more well rounded player, playing these like
Speaker 2: weird formats he played Hickory golf, Like, I think this
Speaker 2: stuff makes him better. I think like he's playing the
Speaker 2: one Club Challenge with Sergio. I think, without a doubt
Speaker 2: this stuff is taking him out of that super analytical
Speaker 2: this is the way I play golf and showing him
Speaker 2: other ways in developing his shot making skills.
Speaker 1: Still got the six iron linked lab which I just
Speaker 1: don't love it at this golf.
Speaker 2: My bigots everywhere my.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean maybe my I I feel like this
Speaker 1: is like the worst golf course for Bryson, I mean,
Speaker 1: if he needs a cut, I'd be shocked.
Speaker 2: So this is this is why I'm super interested, Like
Speaker 2: what if he if he if he contends here?
Speaker 1: This is this is kind of like the the Obviously
Speaker 1: I'm not comparing to Bryson the Tiger, but I think
Speaker 1: this may be to your What your point is here
Speaker 1: is like is this Tiger's Hoylake right where it's like
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take driver out of my hands and
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna beat you guys. Right, It's like I'll
Speaker 1: just take this thing that once was a big weapon
Speaker 1: of mine out of my hands, and I'll just hit
Speaker 1: iron off every tee and I'm still good enough to
Speaker 1: play and contend against you. It's I think for Bryson
Speaker 1: here it's power. Probably not the biggest factor you're going
Speaker 1: to see at other major venues, right, Obviously not nearly
Speaker 1: as big a factor as you saw at Valhalla Augusta
Speaker 1: still leans into power if you could hit a long
Speaker 1: way and hit it relatively straight. I think Truon, if
Speaker 1: you beat it in the open course, it probably helps,
Speaker 1: even though I think Truon might be on the lower
Speaker 1: end of those types of golf courses. I just feel
Speaker 1: like what Bryson does well, I don't know if this
Speaker 1: place really kind of you know, like highlights those things,
Speaker 1: and what he does poorly at times I think is
Speaker 1: important around Pineer's number two. So yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: a great point. If he plays well here, it could
Speaker 1: be Bryson's you know, big moment. If I can contend
Speaker 1: any place, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: All right, what's your last one? It's Scotti Scheffler. I
Speaker 2: knew you were the last one.
Speaker 1: Scott.
Speaker 2: I knew. I just left him off mine because I
Speaker 2: knew were going to talk about him. Yeah, yeah, for sure,
Speaker 2: he's my pick to win. Though I'm picking Scotty, I haven't.
Speaker 2: I haven't picked him in won and done, I somehow
Speaker 2: talked myself out of the Masters. I'm not doing it
Speaker 2: this time.
Speaker 1: So I was thinking about Scotty Scheffler and Pineurs number
Speaker 1: two because I think you said you touched on earlier, Andy,
Speaker 1: and I'll get your points on it in a in
Speaker 1: a second, it feels like legitimately the perfect set up
Speaker 1: for Scotty Scheffler. If you asked, you know, the USGA
Speaker 1: to set up a US Open golf course. I was
Speaker 1: thinking back to twenty fifteen, right, the Jordan Speed run.
Speaker 1: So he comes off the Masters, which is a golf
Speaker 1: course that I think Jordan Speed in modern you know,
Speaker 1: in modern pro golf understands and plays as well as
Speaker 1: anybody that plays Augusta. Now Scotty's probably replaced Jordan that
Speaker 1: in that you know department, But for six seven years
Speaker 1: it was Jordan' speef in Augusta. What US Open venue
Speaker 1: does he have after that? Chambers Bay, which is probably
Speaker 1: the best US Open golf course that Jordan Speif will
Speaker 1: ever face. Don't have to drive the golf ball extremely straight,
Speaker 1: lean heavily on your iron play, and make a lot
Speaker 1: of eight to twelve foot and he was doing that
Speaker 1: as good as anybody in the world in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: Right when he goes on to win, then what does
Speaker 1: Scotty get in the next stop or what is what
Speaker 1: does Speed get to the next stop in the open road?
Speaker 2: Up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Right, I mean super wide kind of plays into Jordan's hands.
Speaker 1: He's a shot out of the playoff, nearly wins three
Speaker 1: in a row. I feel like this lineup for Scotty.
Speaker 2: Val Healla, like Valhalla might have been the worst set
Speaker 2: up possible.
Speaker 1: Totally agree, totally agree, like like that part separate driving. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you're looking at the US Open venue, I think
Speaker 1: back to twenty fifteen and Jordan set up extremely well.
Speaker 1: For Jordan, he had a great run at the major
Speaker 1: championships then. And I feel like right now, Scotty comes
Speaker 1: off the win at the Masters, has the weird ass
Speaker 1: situation at the PGA, and doesn't play well in that
Speaker 1: third round, and that really was it for Scotty. I mean,
Speaker 1: was in contention outside of the third round. And now
Speaker 1: you're getting to a place that if you're like, all right, man,
Speaker 1: do you need to drive it? You know, relatively straight
Speaker 1: and long helps. Sure, Scotty does that. Great. You need
Speaker 1: to be a great iron player that hitchers with almost
Speaker 1: every iron you have in your hand Yep, Scotty does that.
Speaker 1: Oh and by the way, are you a very good
Speaker 1: picture of the golf ball? Oh? Yeah, I'm one of
Speaker 1: the best in the world. All right, here's Piner's number
Speaker 1: two for you. I feel like, if there's ever a
Speaker 1: place to put a bed in or talk to your
Speaker 1: friends about a guy doing what Kimer did in fourteen,
Speaker 1: it feels like Scotty could win this thing. By six
Speaker 1: seven eight shots considering the golf course in his skill set.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I listen, Like, if there's gonna be one player
Speaker 2: that I think will separate lift and make this a
Speaker 2: weekend snoozefest, it's Scotty Scheffler just for all. I think,
Speaker 2: Like the biggest thing is that I just think he's
Speaker 2: going to be playing from better positions than everybody else.
Speaker 2: I think the driver, I mean, we talk about the
Speaker 2: iron play, We've talked about the short game. I think
Speaker 2: a lot. The driver's so good, Like he's not the
Speaker 2: longest guy out there, And I love how people like
Speaker 2: point It's like, well, the number one player in the
Speaker 2: world is like six sixtieth and driving distance, It's like, well,
Speaker 2: he's still got plenty of gas in the tank. He's
Speaker 2: hidden it.
Speaker 1: He's in the passing thirty past more cal in the
Speaker 1: final of the match. Yeah, right, Like I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean this, this guy's got another gear. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And and the thing about his driver is he's so accurate.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing as it's an extension of the
Speaker 2: iron play. Why the iron I mean, the iron play
Speaker 2: is extraordinary, but the driver is just an extension of that.
Speaker 2: Like he's a great long iron player because he he
Speaker 2: hits it so precise with his long irons. The driver
Speaker 2: is such a weapon. It's not going to jump off
Speaker 2: the page on paper when you look at his number
Speaker 2: of drive is driving distance number, but the precision of
Speaker 2: it is just like it is always in the window, right.
Speaker 2: He just doesn't miss his windows. And I think, like
Speaker 2: at a golf course like Pineers, like he's just going
Speaker 2: to give himself more if he's driving the ball decently,
Speaker 2: He's going to give himself more opportunities to hit irons,
Speaker 2: which irons are the thing that he does better than
Speaker 2: anybody else. And then you know he said the top
Speaker 2: three pitchers if he misses the green, Like, I just
Speaker 2: think this is this is a prime Scottie Scheffler week.
Speaker 2: I I if he if he's got his B game,
Speaker 2: I have a hard time. I like, you know, if
Speaker 2: Scotty Scheffler has a C game, what where do you
Speaker 2: think he finishes?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think he contends with a C game.
Speaker 1: I think he intends at the US Open with a
Speaker 1: C game.
Speaker 2: That's that's the way I feel. I feel like it
Speaker 2: like it's like a T four if he if he's
Speaker 2: got a C game.
Speaker 1: Oh well, I mean what was it? Was it O
Speaker 1: five when Tiger was chasing Campbell and it felt like
Speaker 1: Tiger had a C game in nearly one there, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it kind of feels very similar to
Speaker 1: Scotty this week. It's like, if he has his best stuff,
Speaker 1: he's going to Martin Kaymer the field. If he has
Speaker 1: his C game, he'll have a chance to win. And
Speaker 1: I mean that's a scary thing. And I think Andy,
Speaker 1: everything you said about Rory and aggressiveness with the approach play,
Speaker 1: I feel like that could all be applied to Scotty,
Speaker 1: if not applied heavier to Scotty where he can be
Speaker 1: more aggressive knowing I can miss greens and still get
Speaker 1: the ball up and down.
Speaker 2: I think that's an interesting Scotty is a super conservative player.
Speaker 2: I think that's like, I think that that would be
Speaker 2: my one thing where like what's the adjustment period for
Speaker 2: him to possibly shift his strategy to become a little
Speaker 2: bit more aggressive. He might be right out of the gate.
Speaker 2: I think, like, I think that's like probably an underrated
Speaker 2: thing that people don't talk about. With Scotty and and
Speaker 2: Ted Scott is those guys seemingly prepare for golf courses
Speaker 2: as well, if not better than anybody else. And I
Speaker 2: think it's easy when you look at like how he
Speaker 2: hits the ball to say that, but I think their
Speaker 2: game plan in general, like Scotty doesn't like give away stuff,
Speaker 2: so I I I think I have some faith like
Speaker 2: you're saying, like, I think like if it becomes who
Speaker 2: can who can take on a little bit more risk
Speaker 2: better than anybody else. Is the guy that hits the
Speaker 2: best iron boat shots on tour?
Speaker 1: Right, yes, yes, I mean and again like Andy, I
Speaker 1: think and you can correct me here, but the one
Speaker 1: part of Scotty's game that isn't the best in the
Speaker 1: world is the putting. And it feels like at Piner's
Speaker 1: Number two, when you get on these greens in verdiable positions,
Speaker 1: the putts aren't extremely difficult. I mean, they can still
Speaker 1: be tough, but it feels like once you find yourself
Speaker 1: on these difficult greens to hit, that's not the hardest
Speaker 1: part of the golf course.
Speaker 2: I think the thing about Scotty is like it's similar
Speaker 2: to Zlataurus, where it's like I I'm like terrified if
Speaker 2: he's ten feet away that if I was putt playing
Speaker 2: against him, I'm like, I would be terrified anytime he's
Speaker 2: like seven or I think he's like very good outside
Speaker 2: of eight feet. Like to me, it seems like he
Speaker 2: makes a lot of twenty footers, Like just this is
Speaker 2: anecdotal me watching golf, but it seems like he makes
Speaker 2: a lot of mid range putts. I think the issue
Speaker 2: is a little bit on the short, short putting side
Speaker 2: of things. But I yeah, I'm not really worried. I think,
Speaker 2: like the guy, his floor is so insanely high. All right.
Speaker 2: My last thing, Uh, I think Xander took our best
Speaker 2: player without a major off the board. I think he
Speaker 2: was like, by far the best player without a major
Speaker 2: when I'm when I'm zooming out, So I think like
Speaker 2: we're back to like who's the best player without a major?
Speaker 2: You got Ricky eight wins of players he's finished his
Speaker 2: second in every major except for the PGA, which he's
Speaker 2: finished third.
Speaker 1: And play played played great at Pinehurst when it was
Speaker 1: your last time.
Speaker 2: Nine top fives and thirteen top tens. He's not playing
Speaker 2: great golf right now, but he played well last year's
Speaker 2: US Open. You got Victor eight wins, a FedEx Cup title,
Speaker 2: only three top fives in majors obviously, the three top
Speaker 2: fives have come in very short order recently. Again, when
Speaker 2: you talk about young players, like he turned pro before
Speaker 2: his senior year, so he's a little bit younger than
Speaker 2: you would think, Like he's not. He wasn't a twenty
Speaker 2: three year old rookie. So Victor is still young even
Speaker 2: though he's been out there for a while now. Patrick
Speaker 2: can't lay eight wins, only one major top five, twenty ninth.
Speaker 1: Star crazy crazy, what was that was that? Twenty nineteen Masters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not playing good golf either.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Max Homa six wins, one major, top five obviously
Speaker 2: that was this year's Master's nineteen starts not that many starts.
Speaker 2: Tony fenw six wins, four top fives and majors, ten
Speaker 2: top tens and thirty two events. Like I kind of like,
Speaker 2: I think it's like feed or Victor.
Speaker 1: It's Victor. For me, it's for sure Victor. I just
Speaker 1: feel like the play of late in the majors, and
Speaker 1: I mean I think you know you're forgetting that you're
Speaker 1: talking about his top fives and the way he's played
Speaker 1: in the majors. I mean, you forget final group at
Speaker 1: the Open two years ago, playing alongside Rory like a
Speaker 1: lot of different experiences in the majors over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and obviously, I mean, you know, going
Speaker 1: back to mister Mayo seems to have been an incredible
Speaker 1: elixir for Victor. So I again, I.
Speaker 2: Don't it seems like an odd It might be an
Speaker 2: odd pairing, it might be an uncomfortable pairing, but it works.
Speaker 2: That's sometimes how life works.
Speaker 1: Sometimes those teammates on basketball teams aren't the most normal
Speaker 1: of people together, but they work together. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at Stephen Draymond for goodness sakes, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think you'd necessarily pair those guys up personality wise, but
Speaker 1: they've won a lot of championships together. I don't think
Speaker 1: this is a great golf course for Victor Hobblin personally,
Speaker 1: because I'm again, if you're gonna expose a part of
Speaker 1: the game, you hate that it exposed the part of
Speaker 1: your game you struggle with the most. That being said,
Speaker 1: who the heck knows With Victor. It seems like he
Speaker 1: came out of nowhere at that PGA championship. So I
Speaker 1: would say Victor is my easy answer for best player
Speaker 1: currently without a major championship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would, I would agree. I think like f
Speaker 2: now's a sneaky second. I thought about putting like Tommy
Speaker 2: Fleetwood in there, but there's just not off of a
Speaker 2: winning resume outside of I think we're at like the
Speaker 2: stage where it's like, I think Victor nobody deserves a major, right,
Speaker 2: Like you don't look at anybody, and it's like we're
Speaker 2: back to the stage where you feel like everybody who
Speaker 2: who really deserves a major has a major.
Speaker 1: Maybe outside of Victor, I would say probably outside of Victory.
Speaker 1: And you could maybe make that argument for Ricky from
Speaker 1: back in the day, just because as good as as
Speaker 1: good as Ricky played back in the day at the majors,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So it's a it's just like we're back, we've normalized
Speaker 2: again where it's it's there. But all right, Shane, who
Speaker 2: your pick is? Scotty your pick?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go cam Smith.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Scotty, all right, I got I got Scotty. Where
Speaker 2: do you think the winning score is gonna be?
Speaker 1: I think three underwins.
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna go to six.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, okay, only one person ever at a US
Speaker 1: Open a pine has got the six hunder to win,
Speaker 1: so I mean, actually only one person's ever gotten to
Speaker 1: three hunderd to win, So we're both kind of going
Speaker 1: off the off the norm over the last few years.
Speaker 2: So all right, well this should be a great, great
Speaker 2: US Open. Look forward to watching it, and uh hopefully
Speaker 2: you know, people who listen on on Sunday morning will
Speaker 2: listen to your your final round broadcast at corn Fairy.
Speaker 1: Corn Fairy BMW, baby jump in. I think we're on
Speaker 1: at U maybe like seven pm, five pm something like
Speaker 1: that Eastern. Just look'll figure it out.
Speaker 2: There'll be you know, a few thousand people that will
Speaker 2: listen to this by then.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: All right, Thanks Shane, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: No problem, buddy, anytime.
Speaker 2: All right. Today's episode was produced and edited by Matt Rusis.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Matt. A quick reminder sign up for Club
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