WEBVTT - Takeaways from the 2023 PGA Championship 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.560 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:04.960 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:06.440 And when I find my ball in a. 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.520 Brid egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida, egg 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.280 Frida egg egg Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:13.960 About ready to run off of the hump. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:39.000 And Joseph on Sunday morning, May twenty first, you tweeted 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.280 and I quote brings me no joy to report that 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:46.000 the media pendulum has swung way too far on Michael Block, 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.760 hoping the broadcast focuses on players with a legitimate chance 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.840 of winning. Less than six hours later, Michael Block made 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.319 a hole in one on the par three fifteenth hole 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:00.120 at the PGA Championship. Joseph, will you apologize. 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.240 You're starting this episode by turning the people against me. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.560 This is a tough jumping off point, the hill that 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.000 I have to die on. But Garrett, when he made 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:10.200 that hole in one, was that to. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.120 Win to win our hearts? 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:14.360 Clearly. 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:16.800 I mean, if if you're reading any social media or 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.520 listening to the broadcast, it's one of the greatest shots 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.559 in the history of golf, and it couldn't have happened 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.479 to a more deserving individual. I mean, I was expecting 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.040 them to say something like, Michael Blocks the type of 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.319 guy that I want to marry my daughter. That was 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.440 the level that we were at on Sunday. And to 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.680 be honest, if there were enough cameras around, he'd probably 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:38.480 think about doing it. 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.319 My goodness, I really have turned the people against you 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.720 already in this episode. I didn't realize that your hatred 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:46.880 went this deep. I thought that you were going to 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.720 take this opportunity to back off, apologize and just let 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:52.960 people enjoy it. But no, that doesn't seem to be 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:53.360 the case. 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.080 Look, it's not really a Michael Block take, though he's 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.760 very camera aware. This is more about how the runs 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.440 every good story into the ground and just beats it 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.960 over and over again until we're sick of it. So, yeah, 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.720 I know a little little cynical here. So I apologize 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.040 to people if they're already you know, turned against me now, 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:15.880 but I do stand behind that. I think it was 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:16.560 a little much. 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:19.880 Well, I have to admit I have to come clean 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.359 in the company slack on Saturday, maybe it was, yeah, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.720 it was Saturday. It was Saturday. So there were some 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.160 things going on on the golf course that were significant. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.520 When the broadcast went back to another walk and talk 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.680 interview with Michael Block on the fourteenth hole, I was like, yeah, 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.120 you know, I've had enough. I think this is enough. 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.000 He seems like a really nice guy, and this is 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:45.360 a great story. It really is a uniquely PGA championship story. 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.519 It's it's the thing that can happen at this major 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.160 that can't happen at any other major. But they they 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:56.560 really seized it. You could see the media apparatus kind 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.000 of starting to gather momentum, and man, when he made 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.280 that hole in one on fifteen, it extended the story 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.360 a few beats longer than I thought it would, and 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.120 it seemed to justify the focus on him earlier in 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.440 the week. And so it's a tough hill to die 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.760 on right now. But I think that when we get 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.280 four weeks from now and he's getting more and more 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.040 exemptions into PGA Tour events, that there are going to 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.760 be probably more people starting to side with you. But 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.240 we'll see. It was a lovely, lovely moment on the 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.519 fifteenth t I think even you would have to, I 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.480 would have to admit that it was cool. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.320 It was cool, right we're more on the Like I 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.920 texted Andy and Brennan, He's going to start getting sponsors exemptions, 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.200 and then he started getting sponsors exemptions like that. That 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.360 is the part that it was a little bit much 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.400 about the story. It's not really a Michael Block thing. 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.360 All Right. You're listening to the Frida Egg Podcast. I'm 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.320 Garrett Morrison. That is Joseph Lamannia, and today we are 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.440 discussing takeaways from the twenty twenty three PGA Championship at 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.640 Oak Hill. We're going to talk about the winner, Brooks Kopka, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.040 as well as the two other players who had a 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:06.400 chance to win, Victor Hovlin and Scottie Scheffler. We're also 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.120 going to give our final thoughts on the venue at 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:13.000 Oak Hill Country Club. So let's start with Koepka. What 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:14.840 was his edge this week? 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.159 I'm so impressed with Brooks Koepka, Like I think of 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.839 any golfer that I've been trying to predict in my life, 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.120 he's the one I've gotten wrong the most. I finally 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.680 maybe got wise to it in twenty twenty three, where 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.359 I've just been high brooks Kopka because I've learned my 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:34.159 lesson in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. Brooks is 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:41.720 so tactical, surgical with his iron play, powerful player, disciplined. 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.760 He's a gamer and he shows up like he just 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.040 knows when he's going into the round what he's about 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.280 to do. And there's something pretty mesmerizing about watching him 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.599 pick a part of golf course. I know this is 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.200 a point that's been emphasized probably on the Frida Egg Pod, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.920 definitely on the Shotgun Start pod. Like when a golfer 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.200 makes something look really boring, that's about as high of 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.120 a compliment as you can pay a golfer. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.279 And Brooks does that. He's just surgical. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:09.320 What do you think his key shot was in the 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:10.000 final round? 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.040 I don't know. I mean I think was it just. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.240 An accumulation, because that's what it is with Brooks kept gut, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.320 he doesn't it's not like he does things that are 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.000 like super spectacular. 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.480 I think probably a couple moments. One that sticks out 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.800 to me was saving bogie on number six. So after 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.000 hitting that drive out right into the creek that the 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:34.840 wheels could have come off there maybe a little bit, 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.800 and it's just very Brooks to not let that happen. 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.520 I think the other moment for me was stuffing the 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.640 wedge on two, just kind of making it clear from 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.880 the beginning that he was dialed in. And obviously the 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.560 Masters didn't quite go his way. He didn't bring anything 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.680 in the final round, and I think starting off on 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.520 a good foot this past Sunday stuff in that wedgend 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.520 on two and making birdie kind of set the tone 0:05:58.560 --> 0:05:59.080 pretty early. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.000 People would point to the bunker shot from the Friday 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.760 lie on eleven. There is some argument as to whether 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.280 it was really that hard of a shot, and he, uh, 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.600 you know, he ended up making bogie. In any case, 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.880 it's not like he he got it within inches, but 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.080 you know, that was certainly a moment that people were 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.839 impressed with. I also wrote down the bogie save on 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.239 number six. So he pushed his drive into Allen's Creek 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:35.400 and ended up taking a drop on the other side 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:40.240 of Allen's Creek from the green, and there's a tree 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:44.200 blocking the green from that angle. So he was hitting 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:48.479 out of pretty thick rough. It wasn't like super trampled 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.160 down rough or anything. He was he was dropping his 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:56.200 ball in legitimate Oak Hill PGA Championship rough and hitting 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:00.160 a mid to long iron out of it over a 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.880 tree from a bad angle, and he hit it to 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.720 twenty five feet thirty feet or so it was. 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:09.920 It was forty five feet. I just pulled up the trail, but. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.160 It was past the hole. It landed just in the 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.920 right spot. And because he couldn't get any spin on 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.240 the shot, obviously, and so it ran well past the hole. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:22.120 But that's within sort of the circle of lag putting 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:24.560 friendship for Brooks Kopka. You know he's going to two 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.560 putt from there. And that shot was just unbelievable. That's 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:29.880 such a hard shot. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:30.760 Crazy shot. 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:32.760 And if I remember correctly, when he hit it, he 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.960 was like sit down a little bit, and it was 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.920 forty five feet long. Like yeah, he's so dialed that 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.720 he knew exactly where that ball was going. He's so 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.640 much control over his irons, Like Brooks Kepka is a 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.320 generational ball striker. 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.600 Do you have any Do you have any predictions? It's 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.760 tricky with Brooks because obviously his his body is an issue. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.040 We forget that because he looks healthy right now. But 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.240 a guy who has had knee pro problems, leg problems 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.720 in the past is probably going to have them in 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:09.120 the future, Do you see him reeling off multiple more majors? 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.600 Yeah, I think I think three more is pretty conceivable. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:19.200 He's thirty three, let's say another six years of really 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:23.800 strong golf and picking off one every other year seems 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.360 quite reasonable to me. So Fienz's career at eight or 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.280 nine majors, I would not be surprised at the same time, right, 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.040 we know how golf is. If he never wins one again, 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.320 it shouldn't surprise anybody like that happens all the time. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:40.040 So I think eight majors is very well within reach. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.720 Eight majors I'm looking this up right now, would put 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.839 Brooks in the league of Tom Watson, Gary Player and 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.480 Ben Hogan are at nine. That's the kind of rarefied 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.760 company the Brooks Kepka seems to be headed toward. And 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.559 you know what makes him such a difficult player to 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:04.440 understand and is that his form in regular events, which 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:09.120 are for him live golf events, really doesn't mean anything 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.079 when it comes to predicting how he's going to do 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.839 in a major, because he is so outrageously better in 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.000 major championships than he is in regular events. 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.400 Yeah, I think it's why I've gotten Brooks so wrong 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.480 in like twenty seventeen twenty eighteen era, because I didn't 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.079 really necessarily believe in players like that who can just 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.480 turn it on in majors and show nothing leading up 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.800 to it. But I actually think he probably gets bored 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.240 with some of the standard PGA Tour setups now live setups, 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.640 and when he gets to a major, he actually wants 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:44.760 to turn it on. He knows people are watching. He 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:46.920 likes going to other sporting events, right, he likes going 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.839 to big NBA games, like I think he likes the 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.719 feeling of being a big game hunter, and at some 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.120 point it becomes hard to deny that that's what's happening. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.120 So I think that's what's happening. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.720 Do you think that's what it is? That it's really 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.679 that kind of romantic narrative of the guy who can 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.079 step up in big moments. Is there another explanation that 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.040 we can look for for his sort of out performance 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:11.560 in the four majors. 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.280 I think it's a couple things. I think major championship 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.120 setups allow him to hit more demanding shots that separate 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.440 himself more from some of the other players who, I mean, 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.640 you're not gonna tpc's summer lends not really giving you 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:28.800 the same opportunities to step up and hit some of 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.440 these pure iron shots, and it doesn't demand the same 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.000 quality of play. I also think those events probably get 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.160 a little bit boring for Brooks, Like, why am I here? 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.280 What does a win mean versus a major championship? We 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.720 all know what that means. So it's not unique to Brooks, right, 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:51.199 Tigers talked about only carrying, only caring about major championship trophies. 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:55.280 I just think we're in a championship oriented mindset, especially 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.920 true for Brooks, not true for everybody, but I think 0:10:57.960 --> 0:10:59.000 it's true for a lot of fans. 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.240 Yeah yeah, but you know, Tiger played really well in 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.040 regular PGA Tour events, so much so that he won 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.760 the most of them ever, aside from Sam Snead, who's 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.640 a lot of whose wins or maybe not ones that 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.439 we should necessarily count as full PGA Tour events. But 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:18.000 I don't want to open up that can of worms. 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:23.880 Tiger was great no matter what the event was. His 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:28.400 competitiveness wasn't selective. It seemed to kick in whenever he 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:30.720 was playing a golf event, whether it was a major 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.040 or you know, I would imagine he was incredibly competitive 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.679 in normal money games that he played at Medallist or whatever. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:43.079 Brooks seems to have a competitiveness that is selective or 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.400 a focus that is selective, and he summons it at 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.520 these four majors. Now, I think I would also point 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.880 out that his five majors have all come at the 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:58.840 PGA Championship in the US Open, and those tournaments, especially recently, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:03.960 have had pretty similar setups. Shinnecock Hills, Aaron Hills. Okay, 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.840 you know those were as US Opens. Those were maybe 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.600 not typical US Open setups, and so maybe this take 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:16.559 isn't as ironclads as I wish it were. But the 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:20.040 fact that he has won only PGA Championships in US Opens, 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:21.800 do you think that's significant and do you think that 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.600 tells us something about those tournaments? 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.640 Honestly, no, because I'm a huge core setup person. But 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:31.200 Brooks had a very good chance of winning the twenty 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.680 nineteen Masters, he had a very good chance of winning 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.760 the twenty twenty three Masters. Yep, he's won at Scottsdale. 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.240 A little bit of a different test, pretty significant iron test. 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.600 He actually can't really spray it out there. You could 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.240 spray it at Okill, so Brooks has shown that he 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.559 can do it on a variety of courses. Open championships, 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:50.719 you got to be on the right side of a 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.040 draw often, like there's just a little more variants involved, 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:55.760 and that's maybe a little bit of a different style. 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.280 But I wouldn't be surprised if Brooks is in contention 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.320 at an Open Championship either. So for some players, I agree, 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:04.160 and maybe we'll touch on this a little bit with 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.080 somebody like Rory, But I think Rory's best chances are 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.120 going to be setups like this at o'kill. I don't 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.080 feel that as much that way about somebody like Brooks. 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.600 Koepka, Why do you feel that way about Rory? 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.839 Rory really does spray the golf ball with driver, and 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.839 a setup like this really allows him to free wheel 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:26.400 a little bit. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:26.960 Off of the tee. 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.040 Sure, I don't want to jump too far ahead. 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.880 Maybe we're getting into Oakhill in a little bit, But 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.280 at oak Hill you could have wide misses and the 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.360 fairways were so narrow that very rarely were you actually 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.640 hitting the fairway. So it just allows you to bomb. 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.520 As long as you're not blocking yourself out with trees, 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.079 you're kind of just ripping driver. At Augusta, you can't 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.520 do that. Like if you flare one way out right, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.199 you're getting deeper and deeper into the trees. Gets a 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:59.439 little more tricky to save par Bogie Oak Hill was 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.760 a free wheel. See Bryson doing well, you see Rory 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.480 doing well. I think Bryson and Rory will tend to 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.320 do well at similar majors over the next couple of years. 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.880 The Tory Pines type setups where again you have a 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:13.800 lot of room off the tee and you don't have 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.920 like these penalty hazards lining the fairways with the exception 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.480 of whole six and sort of seven. It just allows 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:23.240 you to be much more aggressive off of the tea, 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.040 get a little more creative. I think dog legs right 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.200 like holes four, seventeen and eighteen. Those set up really 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:32.960 well for players like Rory and Bryson. So I don't 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.359 expect Rory to have a ton of success at Augusta LACC. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.160 I think he's got some course management issues and some 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.080 shot selection issues that he's got to work through. Otherwise 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.680 he'd be right there. But Brooks doesn't. I don't have 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:46.600 that concern as much. 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.160 Well, let's get into that a little bit with Rory. 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.720 You know, I want to jump quickly to Victor Hovelin 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:56.360 and Scotti Scheffler, who were truly in contention where Rory wasn't. 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:01.400 But what were Rory's issues with Corseman and shot selection 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.880 this week, especially when you compare him to somebody who 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:08.960 was playing like Brooks Kopka did. 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:09.800 Look. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.800 People give a lot of different explanations for Rory. Maybe 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.240 he's not mentally in it. Whatever, I'm gonna stay consistent, 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:18.960 have the same conversation we had in twenty twenty two 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.000 after the Open Championship. I think ninety plus percent of 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.080 Rory's issues are shot selection. People are going to focus 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.520 a lot on the layup iron shot on seven off 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.320 the tea that went into the water. That was not good, right, 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.920 That's reflective of some course management issues a little bit. 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.200 But I take much more issue with the web shot 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.600 on whole two on Sunday, where he's got like one 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:44.480 hundred and thirty yards from the middle of the fairway, 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.960 tries to peel this little like sweepy fade into the 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:54.240 front right location short sides himself, has no chance, doesn't 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.680 really have that doesn't have a great look at par 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.480 makes bogie. Other players make birdies there. If you watch 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.880 what Brooks, Keopka did there, what Victor Hoveland did, Scotti, Scheffler, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.240 they're not hitting these sweepy fades where they're trying to 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:09.560 get it right next to the hole. 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:10.520 They're aiming a. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.400 Little bit left, hitting their stock fade in there, and 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.200 if it goes a little right and gets close to 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.480 the whole, excellent. But this is the same conversation that 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.760 we had I remember talking about at St. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:22.160 Andrews. 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.440 I think this is Friday Round part three eleven. At 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.720 Saint Andrews. He tried to hit Rory tried to hit 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.200 this massive draw from about like one hundred and eighty yards, 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.440 started at like thirty yards right of the flag, ends 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.640 up flaring it out right, making bogie. So people can 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.040 talk about like strokes gained approach, strokes gained putting there, 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.440 but there's some strokes gained shot selection. And I think 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.640 that's what my biggest issue is. It always is with 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.920 Rory is just being a little bit too clever, trying 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:59.920 to strive for perfection too much, whereas other players like Scheffler, Hoveland, Kepka, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.520 they're taking those stock shots into conservative targets, and if 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.919 it already did that, I'm very confident he'd start hoisting 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:07.320 some major championship trophies. 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.359 That shot on the second hole killed me. I mean, 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.720 he had just birdied one, stuck at two inches on 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.159 his approach seemed to, you know, have that feeling of 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.160 making a charge. Now, I'm not sure that he ever 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.639 could have gotten to minus nine. You know, he started 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.639 the day at minus one, I believe, and got to 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.679 two with that birdy at one. But as soon as 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.040 he you know, from the middle of the fairway after 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.520 a perfect t shot on two, short sighted himself to 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.080 that pin. I was like, this is this is not happening. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.560 It just doesn't seem like he has the right mentality. Now, 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.520 maybe there's a possibility that he was aiming at the 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.600 fat side of the green and just hit an incredible push. 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.320 I don't want to assume that I know what he 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.440 intended to do there, but it just seems really unlikely. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.200 I think that or right, that he was trying to 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:05.640 feed a cute little fade into that front right pin 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.320 and he just pushed it five ten yards and short 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.720 sighted himself, And it was a shot that he should 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.240 not have attempted, and that kind of stuff is really 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.800 frustrating with Rory because this is an extremely intelligent individual 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.600 and such a talented golfer, but he does seem to 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.960 have a little bit of a weakness when it comes 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:31.480 to shot selection in big moments where it's clear that 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.920 his mentality is win or go home. I'm going to 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.680 attack pins and if I miss then it wasn't meant 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.520 to be. But I think that he probably could back 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:44.560 into a few more wins than he does. 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.800 Definitely, And for a little context here that when he 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.760 went into the creak on number seven off of the tea, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.399 ends up making bogie there, loses about a half of 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.119 a shot to the field, and not many guys are 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:02.760 making birdies there. It's a mistake demanding tricky t shot. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.159 I kind of write that off as a little bit fluky, 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.800 still not good. But when you make boge on number two, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.720 you're giving up over a shot to the field. You're 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.320 giving two shots up to the leaders who all made 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.639 birdie there. So that's a costly one. And I think 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.720 the misconception with some of this conservative conservatism, like be 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:24.399 conservative on your targets, is that. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.160 People who like me are arguing that you will. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.160 It. I think people think you won't make as many 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.560 birdies that way, but that's actually not true. You're gonna 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.280 stumble into a lot of birdies that way. So it's 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.600 not true that once you're down and you're chasing, you 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:43.719 need to start attacking all of the pins. You can 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.120 be conservative on your approach targets and you're still gonna 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.719 make a lot of birdies and you're gonna avoid all 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.760 those sloppy bogies. So if I'm positive positive, if Rory 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.800 adopted a little bit more of a modern philosophy around 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.960 course management and shot selection, he'd be hanging with the 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.359 guys that are beating him consistently. It's not a talent issue. 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.600 It's a mindset like it is a course management shot 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:06.320 selection issue. 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.760 All right, let's touch on Hoveland and Scheffler, maybe just 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.600 a quick takeaway for each. So Hobland, he was part 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.040 of the main story of Sunday for most of the day. 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:23.959 The story was the duel between Kopka and Hoveland. Then 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.520 the sixteenth hole came around and Hoveland got into an 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.600 issue with the fairway bunker there double bogied that hole. 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.520 When Koepka burdied it, ended up losing by two, but 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.040 he hung in there for a while on Sunday. It 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.720 wasn't the same sort of fading away act that he 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.199 did at Saint Andrews where he just wasn't a factor. 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.520 He was a factor. And so what's your main takeaway 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.560 for Hobland this week? Positive or negative? 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.520 Very positive? I follow Victor Hobland pretty closely. I'm pretty 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:57.800 he and Scotti Scheffler tend to play some of the 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:02.040 best course management, have the best approach to their games, 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.640 so I always watch their targets and how they play 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.879 golf courses very closely. I think with Victor Hovelin what 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:12.359 I've noticed this year, the ball striking has been incredible 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.440 like it normally is, and the challenges have been on 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:20.320 these tight line chips. So at Augusta really this this year. 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:22.520 The firmest day was Sunday, and there were a couple 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.000 of short game shots where Victor just can't clip it 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:28.760 and spin it like some of the other players and 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.560 have as much control versus somebody like Scottie Scheffler. So 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:37.680 the thick rough kind of protected Victor from some of 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:39.280 those touchy short game shots. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.240 It's a different technique, it's it's a hack, and we 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:44.040 saw him hit a couple of really good ones on 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:45.000