WEBVTT - Colin Sheehan - Part 1 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.559 Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:09.360 I apologize to everyone for the long hiatus from this podcast. 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.040 This fall has been very busy with the launch of 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.720 the Shotgun Start and then a lot of other stuff 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:22.119 including ton of travel, So just been a little bit 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:24.880 of a break. But we are going to be coming 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.720 back strong now with at least hopefully weekly podcast for 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.400 the remainder of twenty eighteen and then twenty nineteen also, 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.240 so expect a lot of new interviews to come up 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:43.120 in the near future. Today, I'm really excited for the 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.880 first part of a two part podcast with Colin Shean. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.600 Most of you probably won't recognize his name. He is 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:57.160 the Yale golf coach and a former prolific golf writer. 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:02.920 He played at Yale, also for a golf magazine in 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.680 the late nineties and early two thousands, and also published 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:12.440 a book about the US Amateur in the mid two thousands. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.000 So Colin is a great golf course architecture mind, college 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.319 golf coach and also a founder of the Outpost Club. 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.959 So we had a great discussion. It's going to be 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.720 a two part podcast, and part one focuses in on 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:34.479 the Yale golf team his coaching there the Yale Golf 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.560 course and then amateur golf and the USM. So I 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.920 hope you guys enjoy. Part two will be up either 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.480 later this week or for Monday of next week without 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.080 further ado. Here is Colin I miss the. 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.800 Green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:53.960 ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.440 find my ball in a Brida Egg Friday Egg, the 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.880 dread and Friday Friday, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Fridagg brid 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.200 Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off with the hup. 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:30.680 You graduated Yale in nineteen ninety seven, how would you 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.359 say that college golf has changed since then? 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:45.040 Like all int of athletics, probably getting more serious, taking taking, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:51.959 sort of following the lead of revenue generating sports. We're 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.320 very lucky in the IVY League. We're not part of 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:58.119 the machine that is the NCAA. We're in the NIT, 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:04.120 We're in the we're amateur athletics, and we remain so. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.080 In some ways we're closer to D three, where the 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.359 kids pay to come to school, and yeah, they get 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.880 a little bit of support in the process. They don't 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:20.959 let us support unqualified candidates, but they help, they help. 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.320 It does help sort of, you know, help grease the 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:32.000 skid for the for the applicants. But the kids in 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.480 at least in terms of golf. The beautiful thing is 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.119 they take it so seriously and it's not any it's 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.480 not getting covered on Sports Center, and it's there's very 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.080 little attention. If it wasn't for the occasional parent or girlfriend, 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:51.000 that wouldn't be any spectators. And yet the kids play 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:52.800 their hearts out. They put it all on the line. 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:58.640 Very lucky. It's one hundred and twenty two year old program. 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.440 We had twenty one nation old championships, calling the Hickory 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:08.600 Crafted era, but uh, it's it's truly amateur athletic in 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:13.560 the best sense of it. And you know, academics are 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.080 the top priority, but their sport is a close second, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.960 and they're dedicated to their craft. We face we face 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.720 some sort of headwinds of academic rigor and or an 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.680 academic threshold and the recruiting pop protests, and we are 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:31.599 in the Northeast. 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.400 You touched on a little bit being student athletes. Uh 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.880 no scholarships. Uh, I imagine the class riggers of an 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.960 IVY league university have a you know, a large effect 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.760 on practice time. How how much less would you say, 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.960 in terms of hours at the course or hours practicing 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:57.200 do IVY League players spend then your Power Conference players. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.520 Well, that's a good question. I wonder how much Illinois practices. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.120 There's an NCAA limit to twenty hours on six days 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.840 of the week, but I know the kids can voluntarily 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.840 practice more than that. I mean, we're lucky. We start 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.640 at the end of August when classes begin, and the 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.640 kids go pedal to the medal for about five six 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.520 weeks and by then they're running on fumes around around 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.320 the time of midterms and when classes are really starting 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:28.240 to really ratchet up. So we'll practice during the week 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:33.760 three to six. We're very lucky. The Yale golf course 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:37.279 is only twelve minutes from campus, and in that time 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.080 you go from sort of a downtown area of New 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.599 Haven out into the sort of forest where you don't 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.120 see a single house from anywhere on the course. It 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.520 really is a on its own. Just leaving campus at 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.360 two forty five, getting to the course on some beautiful 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.320 day in September, did balls for half an hour and 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.680 then play like a twilight nine with your teammates or 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.960 some of your best friends. Like it's a pretty good 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:06.080 three hours on just some weekday. Afternoon, you come, they 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.599 come back to campus around six fifteen, go to the 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:13.080 dining halls, feeling refreshed, feeling wonderful. Yeah, seriously, but we 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:14.520 don't you know, we don't have that. I don't have 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.479 that conflict of interest about the about the sort of 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.640 performance of the team, about having that sort of be 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.320 It's never a job for the kids. You know, they 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.520 don't need to be motivated. And I don't suspect I 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.880 don't begrudge any kid who goes to a major conference 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:34.520 and maybe even accepts a little scholarship money. I don't. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:36.560 I mean, I'm always impressed with the kids that do that. 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.599 They have a sort of vision, and but you wind 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:42.800 up working for the program, you know, they sort of 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.840 own you. And a lot of coaches like they want 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.440 their kids eligible, but they need them maximizing their practice, 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.360 and and you know, the kids don't. I don't find 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.799 it hard for them to have a quality undergraduate experience 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:03.760 trying to balance a series serious athletic commitment in addition 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.840 to being a student, in addition to having an addition 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:11.600 to sort of taking advantage of it was four years, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:13.200 should be four wonderful years of your life. 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.000 Yeah. Yeah, So you've won Coach of the Year a 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.680 couple of times in the Northeast saw Yeah. And you 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:24.120 guys have won a bunch of Ivy League championships since 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.600 you've been there, a bunch of McDonald Cups, a lot 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:28.880 of the ternaments that you play regularly, you guys have won. 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:35.080 How would you say that your approach to coaching these 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.200 kids differs from either, you know, the coach you had 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.000 at Yale or and also other coaches you see around. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:46.400 Well. I had a legend when I was at Yale, 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.040 Dave Patterson. He was there thirty three years born in Paisley, Scottish, 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.520 Emma Gray. He was there from nineteen seventy five to 0:07:55.520 --> 0:08:00.720 two thousand and eight. He was he was wonderful. I 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:02.600 don't want to compare. I definitely do not want to 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.080 compare anything that I did to him. He's he's amazing, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.239 or any of the other coaches in the IVY League. 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:15.000 I just my own approach. I try to be relaxed. 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.560 I sort of have a degree. I have a serious 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.600 degree of sympathy for the kids and as they navigate 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.080 being an undergraduate, being in college, being eighteen to twenty two, 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:31.120 trying to play golf. I do my best in the 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.959 recruiting process, try to get try to get some really 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:41.960 good players. The team's success helps helps that, and you know, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:48.080 I try to have them just be in in just 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.080 a sort of positive mindset, try to have it, try 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.960 to have his little stress and drama. On the team 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:59.280 side of things, we never focus on winning. We go 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.480 to tournaments with with with a team that's always pretty good, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.640 but we you know, we just focus on being the 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.920 being the smartest team out there, the fewest unforced airs, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.800 like hedging and playing the odds, knowing when to attack 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:17.960 and when to be smart, and when to lay back, 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.360 and and things you might do on your own when 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.280 you're playing tournaments in the summer. Don't aren't really sort 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:28.640 of maybe always appropriate for for the you know, for 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.600 a situation when you're when you're playing on behalf of others, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.960 there's we kind of we kind of look down on 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:35.400 stupid choices. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:41.200 Yeah, I never really thought about that. But the playing 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.760 team golf with the five five. So in college golf, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.160 five scores, you have five players and four scores count, 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.000 like a quadruple bogie from one of your players, like 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:53.000 is devastating. 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.880 And team golf, yeah, like they're going to have bad days, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.760 they're going to miss shots, but like you can't ever 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.480 let your score be any higher than it should have been. 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.400 And I've got certain players who love to attack and 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.600 take risks. You know, I got to give a shout 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.000 out to Johnny Lai class of seventeen. I mean, the 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.680 guy just you know, he you know, he was he 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.960 was like Maverick out there. It was dangerous. But but 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.319 I've had a few others Henry deserves a shout out. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.600 Sometimes just hating driver being aggressive and I'm not going 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:31.720 to stop that. I you know, I sometimes I and 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:36.440 sometimes enjoy watching that. But you're right, you can't. You know, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.880 there's just there's just an entirely different element played on 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.439 behalf of others. That's the most beautiful thing about it. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:47.080 Like you you sacrifice on behalf of your teammates to 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.440 sort of be prepared for that tournament. You sort of 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.120 you get work done earlier in the week. You don't 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.960 necessarily go out a certain night. You you know, you 0:10:56.000 --> 0:11:00.000 spend an extra half hour being you know, a dress 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.240 seen sort of aspects of your game that needed. And 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:05.880 then for to have five guys go out over a 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:10.040 fifty four whole tournament to sort of compete under pressure 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.600 down the stretch, to have those scores sort of add 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.560 up to a team went after the fact is just 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:20.680 it's fabulous and for the and for the for a 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:22.439 player to be the one that sort of drags the 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.680 team across the finish line is just There's there's nothing 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:26.920 more gratifying than that. 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:33.440 Johnny Laie all time uh golf name. You've mentioned the 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.040 Yale course a couple of times, so it's the top 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:40.600 rated collegiate golf course in the country. Do you think 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.280 it has like an impact on recruiting? Does it help 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.360 you get kids because you play a better golf course 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:47.360 than most schools. 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.440 I think it has to. I'm very so all all 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.840 all all conversations about the Yale golf course, uh, you know, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.600 must include the sort of disclaimer that I'm biased, that 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.880 I think it's fabulous, and I actually I have to 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.680 defend it a lot of times to the other coaches, 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:10.600 particularly you know, Michael Hugh's up there at Brown and 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.240 Will Green down at Princeton. There's sort of there's a 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.240 lot of Yale course haters. There's a lot of blind 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:20.280 shot haters, you know McDonald. There's people that don't see 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:25.840 the light. But the facility is incredible. Like I said, 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.719 twelve minutes from campus in and it feels like you're 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.280 in a nature preserve. You could be in western Massachusetts. 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.560 It's like you're up in the Berkshires. When you're playing, 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:42.920 it's it's like, yeah, it's it's It gives you that 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.160 sort of just feeling of being away. It really was. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.319 I having been there recently, I can attest to this. 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.560 I was, I was in New Haven, I was staying 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.920 down there and I was looking around when I got in, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.400 I'm like, God, it's so flat, you know, I don't 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.520 know what everybody talking about with this, you know wilderness 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.160 that is Yale. And all of a sudden, the next 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.400 morning I'm driving up and it just like transforms about 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.319 five minutes outside of the course and you're just like, oh, 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.680 these are the hills and everything, and then you're there. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:18.559 It's just so secluded and it's a it's an incredible 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:22.280 golf course. I found myself midway through my first round 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:26.800 telling the guy I was playing with, fellow podcast guest 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.160 Riley Johns. I was saying, God, I need to move 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.520 to New Haven. I want to play this place every day. 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.839 And yeah, yeah, so smart guy. 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:38.760 You're a smart guy. 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:43.160 So in terms of you know, everybody always always says, 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:48.880 you know, the Yale course, what it could be versus 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.079 you know what it is and what it is now 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.480 is a great golf course. But what do you think 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:57.080 the ceiling on the Yale course if it ever, you know, 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.600 reached its full potential and got back to it's you know, 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.400 original self. So say with with great conditioning. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.160 Right, So you know, I'm very blessed. I get to 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.440 play some good golf around you know, here and there. 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.840 And I don't think there's a course in America that 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.120 when I come home from playing it that I don't 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.480 think Yale stands shoulders shoulder with. So it's in a 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.280 it's in a it's in the peer group of the 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.640 first order whatever that is, first twenty five courses. I'm 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.160 not going to suggest it's top ten, but you know, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:35.000 like if even at some point it whatever, whatever Chicago 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.720 Golf is rated, Yale better be ranked higher. Whatever you know, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.520 it's it's it's in the twenties it's in the low twenties, 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.240 it's in the high teens. That's a restored Yale. I 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:47.880 think the date it opened it was in the top 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.920 ten in America and now it's one hundred and ninety nine. 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:55.440 That's an interesting story. But it's you just you can 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.400 tell that it's it's ceiling is at some point this 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:03.080 course is that conversation are just so good. It's just 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.560 you know, you're splitting hairs. You're splitting hairs among the 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.040 sort of grade eating whole courses of America and Yales 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:11.480 in that conversation. 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.680 Having been around it so long and so many times, 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.480 what's the aspect of Yale that and the course that 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.400 you love the most. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.480 There's no question it's challenging, but it's wide. It's come 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.800 back to the field in terms of difficulty in the 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:35.880 modern age with equipment. I think that the idea of 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:41.200 the golf course it presents it has a sort of 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:48.680 a deceptively playable, fair, sort of straightforward strategy of sorts 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:53.360 like it's it's not a complicated course to solve, but 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.280 it's challenging. And I think like in that era of 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.680 McDonald's golf, like they didn't every client had a different request, 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.880 and Yale came along, brought McDonald out of retirement essentially 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:11.160 to build his design, his last course. And on the 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:15.360 committee that Yale put together included an undergraduate who was 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.680 Jess Sweetzer, who had just won the US Amateur that 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:26.400 fall at the country Club, beating Bobby Jones, and you know, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.880 among others. And I think that was the course that 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:35.120 McDonald and Rayner built that was intended for the highest 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.360 caliber of golfer in the country. It was the closest 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:44.200 thing to essentially a building someone trying to build a 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.080 US Open venue from that era. I mean, that's really 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:51.800 what it was. It had to be essentially a standard 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.880 scratch score of like seventy eight when it opened in 0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:01.200 the Hickory era, with wound balls and wearing tweed jackets. 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:04.960 Even the drive on one alone, I mean, it wasn't. 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.040 It was not a course for everybody. Even though there 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.920 were three sets of teas and they did promote three courses, 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.400 there were just certain bunkers that I can't imagine your 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.720 average person would have could have, could have could have 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:19.480 recovered from. 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.600 I think it's like an endemic, like a problem with 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.399 American golf, with like where a bunker people feel like 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.920 they have to be able to easily recover from nowadays. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.360 I remember during the US Open, people were appalled when 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.159 guys were missing in a bunker at Shinnakok and couldn't 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:41.480 keep the ball on a green. And it's like if 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.320 the ball, if that was a water hazard, you know, 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.760 nobody would ever complain about it, you know, and the 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.439 guy would be dropping and hitting his third shot or 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.520 his fourth shot instead of having a chance to make 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.080 a bunker shot and you know, make a birdie. It's like, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.760 it's crazy to me because like a really deep bunker 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.520 at Yale, say, like the second, you know, if you 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.640 hit it in there, it's essentially like going into the water, 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:07.040 right and. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.199 You can play that shot. You know. It's it's not 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.760 an the way the sort of I'm fascinated that those 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.000 bunkers predate the sort of bounce the Saracen wedge. You 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:18.720 would have had to just open up a sort of 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.840 thin soled niblick in the old days and play a 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:28.359 play a really sort of clever h picked bunker shot 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.159 out of the out of the out of the sand. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.520 It must have been. It must have been so hard. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.679 When when you guys have the McDonald Cup and all 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:39.960 you know, you get this year you had Illinois there, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:41.840 you know, a couple of tiers. Years ago you had 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.040 Illinois there with you know, they have now four or 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.760 five guys from that team that are on you know, 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.600 either at the web dot Com PGA Tour or European Tour. 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.560 What did What kind of shots are they hitting into 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.159 the greens now versus you know this golf course that 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.480 when it opened and was like a par seventy eight. 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.920 Yeah, it's just it's unfair the loft of the iron 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:11.439 they're hitting into the greens like seventeen for those for 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.520 any good college kid, you know, the longer hitters on 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:19.040 my team, it's drive and pitching wedge. The Principal's nose 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:24.399 is an is an afterthought. There's there's a number of 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.080 bunkers on the course that my players are never going 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.560 to be in. They're never they're never in the right 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.560 trap on seven. They're no longer in the bunkers on eight. 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.640 You know, it's just that those shots, those targets used 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.040 to ask you to sort of approach them with the 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.680 loft of a four or five or a present day 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.440 six iron, and it's just it fundamentally alters the sort 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.720 of the difficulty when it's a nine iron or eight 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.960 iron or sandwich. That's that's unfortunately, you know. I think 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.320 the hole it plays the most differently today from from 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:02.679 in the nineties is eight. I tell this to people, 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.840 it's become a birdie hole for the for the good 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.560 college golfer. They rip driver up on the ridge, they've 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:11.960 got an attacking wedge, they see the pin, they see 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:13.880 the green, they've got the bank on the right to help, 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.399 and they're generally disappointed if they're not ten feet with 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.760 like a good luck at Bertie and the old days 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.840 hit a spinny driver with like the original great big birth. 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.680 We're a big Bertha and have one sixty seven and 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:35.680 a crosswind in early April, with the approach was blind hitting, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.080 hitting like a six iron and praying not to miss 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.360 an either bunker. I mean, that was how you played 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.120 the eighth hole at Yeo. You tried not to make 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:50.040 a nine. And now it's like a birdie hole, you know. Unfortunately, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.000 that's the reality of where we've let the ball and 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.800 the game go. I'm so disappointed that a game of 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:02.000 tradition let itself let itself get sort of run rough 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.679 shot over by the equipment by a sort of a 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:11.120 sort of a compliant regularly you know, governing body and 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.320 and uh technology companies run amook. 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:20.040 Yeah, it's uh, it's crazy that like uh businesses that 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:22.960 profit off the game or have more power than the 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:24.760 governing body in a sense. 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:27.840 Yeah, I mean it's a shame that, like, you know, 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:30.560 even though for as much as baseball changes, Wrigley Field 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.520 and and Fenway Park and are the identical dimensions and 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:38.480 they're still using sort of you know, ash bats and 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:41.639 and the ball might be changing a little, but essentially 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.320 it's the same game. Like I can't believe we weren't 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.199 able to stop it at some point. But and so 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:49.960 I don't think I don't think a course has been 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:55.840 more has been more adversely affected, more adversely affected than Yale. 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.520 Just do you the The NCAA said they love to 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.399 bring a national chance being shipped. Yeah, we've offered it 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.280 would be a wonderful place in late May, early June. 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.199 We'd have we'd be able to have these amazing events 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.280 for the field on campus. And yet we need to 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.639 add we need to add four They've told us we 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:14.920 need to add four hundred yards to our golf course. 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:21.680 It's crazy. Minimum minimum, I mean minimum, it's us. So 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:25.359 I played there a couple of days and it was funny. 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.160 I was playing with you. I ripped a t shot 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.960 on one with a regular driver, regular ball, had a 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:36.800 wedge in, and then I pulled out the hickory shafted 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.480 driver with a ballotta ball, and I barely carry the 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.240 water by like three yards. I mean I carried the 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:46.840 water hazard by three yards. I would have had like 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:50.879 two twenty blind shot into the first green, and instead 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:53.679 I had one hundred and thirty yards with a and hit. 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.159 It gives a little pitching wedge into the green, and 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:57.520 I mean, it's madness to me. 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:01.119 There's in the original in the original description of how 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:03.720 the first hole was played, they reference if you didn't care, 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.520 if you didn't hit your drive far enough, you'd have 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:09.760 a blind shot. They're implying that it was they They 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.320 projected that people would be on the upslope of the 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.720 fairway and have a blind shot from two ten into 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:18.600 the green. Think about that hole right out of the blox. 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:22.000 That's already a that's already a four point five, that's 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.200 already a par five out of the Blox in nineteen 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.920 twenty six. Yeah on want yell alone, and now yeah, 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:30.359 now they just now the guys sply driver and they 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.400 get a sort of kicking a forward into the right 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:35.080 sort of kick to the middle of the fairway and 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:37.480 down below and it's it's a nine iron or wedge 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:38.720 or whatever. It's Yeah. 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:43.480 It's so, if you could make one change to college golf, 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:44.280 what would it be. 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:49.440 Well, everyone would wagh if you could wave the magic 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:52.200 wand you'd have golfers would play in four hours and 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:55.879 threesome would it would be done in four hours and 0:23:56.000 --> 0:23:59.520 fifteen minutes. I understand why pace of play is an issue. 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:03.040 You're trying, like we mentioned earlier, you can't shoot a 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:05.560 stroke higher. You don't want to shoot a single stroke 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:07.159 worse than you you could have had. You know, you 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:09.960 have to take your time on short putts. That really 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:12.399 is it. It's it's the putting that sort of is 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:16.800 a is the sort of is the speed bump. But 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:23.280 if I could change, I wish that clubs would also 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:26.600 make themselves more available. It's a shame. The majority of 0:24:26.680 --> 0:24:32.680 the college golf schedule is uh is Monday Tuesday events 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:35.920 with a Sunday afternoon practice round. It's understandable why it's 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:40.840 when the facilities are made available. So, but that's a 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:43.520 lot of class being missed. I know, maybe you know, 0:24:43.680 --> 0:24:45.920 even the sort of major programs that's that has to 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:49.119