2018 U.S. Open Recap with Brendan Porath and Sean Martin

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the fried Egg Podcast. This episode, as with all of our US open content, is brought to you by Greater Than Sports Drink. Greater Than is the first coconut water based sports drink. They are delicious and delivered two times electrolytes with no added sugars. You can use the promo code the fried Egg on drinkgt dot com for twenty percent off your first purchase. That's the fried Egg with No Spaces. The other option is you can sign up for their subscription service and have greater Than delivered right to your door every month. With your subscription this week you will get a free fried Egg hat. That's drinkgt dot com to purchase Greater Than and if you go with the promo code, the promo code is the fried Egg with No Spaces for twenty percent off without further ado. Here's Brendan Porth and Sean Martin.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: I miss a green for example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.

00:01:02
Speaker 3: And when I find my.

00:01:03
Speaker 4: Ball in a brid Egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. I am joined by Sean Martin of the PGA Tour and Brendan Pora of s P Nation. Guys, welcome on, Thanks for.

00:01:51
Speaker 3: Having us, Andy, thanks for having me back.

00:01:53
Speaker 1: You know what a what a call by Brendan with the the repeat of the Brooks CapCo win and at Shinnaka.

00:02:02
Speaker 3: You know, every now and then you put up a shot and it goes in A'm not a hero, I'm not a genius, but I just got this one right and I appreciate the credit. You know, a lot of times people just try to put you down when you get one wrong, like you know, Xander Shopley, he was, he was in the mix a little bit, but t six, Come on, that's not winning. So I'm very, very proud of my call. It took a lot of courage to go out there and pick the defending champ, you know, pick one of the very best players in the world. But you know, I went out, went out on that limb, and I'm happy it paid off.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: You know, you guys, are you're missing the point of the first question. You know, now we've got xanderschof with a second second straight top ten in the US Open. So play it's more than the underrated card.

00:02:51
Speaker 4: Maybe this this mistake is going to like haunt my career. I feel like it's just it's inescapable.

00:03:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's gonna be a tough one, you know when you make make comments like that, you know, without any context around him.

00:03:09
Speaker 4: Well especially, I mean, I've been doing this for about a dozen years now, and I feel like I've never been recognized at a course until the US Open. I had like three people call me, just random fans in the gallery and say, hey, nice work on the Friday podcast. So I feel like the Frida egg is both my biggest gift but then also just it's a career defining mistake.

00:03:29
Speaker 1: So what did you guys think of the the action at Shanika?

00:03:35
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Sean, you know, at the end of the day, and I thought Curtis Strange had a great point. He kind of said, you know, Brooks, he didn't get the credit he deserved for winning last year because everyone talked about it wasn't a real US Open quote unquote, and so now winning at Shinnakok. It doesn't get much truer of a US Open Test than Shinnakock, and so that proves that he just has what it takes to compete at this event. And so I think that was the biggest thing. It confirmed that Brooks isn't just some mindless basher, that his game's a lot more well round him than we realized. I think I think people saw it first of colonial, he scrambled really well to put pressure on Justin Rose there, and then he did it again this week, scrambled really well. So that's the same thing with Dustin too. We saw it. Everyone just gets so obsessed with length that they're like, oh, these guys are just bombers. But they both hit it fairly straight for how far they hit it, and then they have good short games as well. Yeah.

00:04:28
Speaker 3: I love the ambient airport noise, Sean, It's really pleasant.

00:04:33
Speaker 4: Sorry, I'm a family man. I gotet home.

00:04:36
Speaker 3: Eventually bring some authenticity as a you know, reporter on the ground here. You know, I actually just wrote like about a thousand words on this or not just but this morning last night, you know, I think, like I don't know, I'd ask Andy like before the week. You know, let's set aside all the freaking car crashes in the middle of it and running into the guardrail and screwing up this or that. Phil. But like at the start of the week, if you said the top ranks strokes game approach player is going to win at Shinnecock, and the guy who's second in that stat on Sunday is going to win at Shinnacock. I think that's probably what you'd want and what you'd hope for at a venue like this, right, I mean, that's that's what we reduced Kepka to, just the biceps and the power, but it's hardly past the bystaps, right sure, But like we've reduced it to nothing more than that. And you know, his approach game was what won him the championship. Scrambling, you know, certainly eleven fourteen other spots is what kind of kept kept dustin, kept you know, eventually Fleetwood at arm's length. It was so much more than driving, and driving actually wasn't really a part of this win. And I think like despite all the intervening missteps, the mistakes, the you know, Phil's rakegate and Mike Davis having more press conferences and all this stuff. Like at the start of the week you wanted the best you know, ball striker to win, and the best ball striker this week won.

00:06:05
Speaker 4: The best ball striker or second best ball striker was second. Yeah, right, and we would have missed eight fairways for the whole week, by the way.

00:06:13
Speaker 1: That's okay, that's pretty good. Yeah, I agree. I think Brooks was was clearing away the best all round player. I think what the golf course did exceptionally well was it really zeroed in on what people weren't doing well. And like we saw on I remember after the second round, they you know, Mark Brody put up his strokes gained stats and you saw just that that cook.

00:06:39
Speaker 4: Sorry, you know, security alert. Get there's a long one.

00:06:51
Speaker 3: You can't find a choir room. PGA Tour doesn't have you on, uh you know the United Club or whatever.

00:06:58
Speaker 4: Come on it slipped airport is even smaller than Jacksonville's airport and there's no there's no United Club here.

00:07:05
Speaker 3: Okay.

00:07:05
Speaker 1: So so anyway, so it identified and after after Friday, Mark Brody put up those strokes gain stats and you saw the glaring thing and with Dustin was he was losing shots and approach, and he was putting out of this world good like unforeseen good putting, and sure enough over the weekend that putting putter cools off and all of a sudden he tumbles down the leaderboard.

00:07:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, the iron play is disconcerting. I was, you know, I saw a lot of those tweets. I was kind of defending, and I was wrong at the point that I thought dust would be fine because I thought, you know, if they were both the level out in return to me, he'd gained a few more shirts with the iron play on the weekend and then lose a few more with the putting. And it wasn't like he was holding thirty footersm all over the place. It was he was making every six footer that he needed to make, and obviously that just stopped. You know, the greens got a little bumpy. I think that was a part of it. But I mean, he was the seventh guy to take a four shot lead at the halfway point of US Open and only the second to loser, which is a little bit disconcerted, especially after earlier this season. You know, he lost a six shot lead at the HSBC, and I was talking to Kyle about it the only major that he's won was one where he didn't know what his score was because of the whole penalty thing. And I think, I don't know, maybe I'm over analyzing. I think that kind of helped him. He just decided, well, I just got to play. I don't know where I stand on the leaderboard, but he's Dustin. He's lost some leads and obviously we saw the earl his career with pebble and all those things, but still still kind of happens more than you would think with him.

00:08:41
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing that now Brooks Kopka has more majors than Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jason Day. You know a list of players that Sean mccheel. Ye, Sean mccheel. But what do you guys think about you know, brooks Koepka, and you know he's got two US Opens and now only one PGA Tour event that he's won, And you know, what do you think about the three peat? And why why doesn't he win more on the PGA Tour?

00:09:14
Speaker 3: I think just because the PGA Tour is a second rate organization with second rate employees. Uh just kidding, I would hope, So just kidding Sean, uh No, I think you can start on that's that's not good. Yeah, I think uh, I think he just you know, he's who do we see it was it? Who said it was on? Hel Cabrera, Kyle Kyle Porter. I think said that. I mean, there are these players that just get up for these majors, right or you know, I think that's or whatever. For whatever reason, the setups at regular events allow more kind of middling talents into the field or less kind of doesn't necessarily separate the week from the chaf as much. And maybe it's it's sometimes you know, there's fluky things for whatever reason that Kopka hasn't won. He certainly contended at a fair amount. But you know, I think, like he said, he's like, I've been pretty disappointed with my career and only having one PGA Tour win. I think you can't argue with his major championship career setting. Aside, we've heard it all like over the last twenty four hours now, just how much he's so regularly in contention, whether it's every kind of test, whether it's a British Open or a US Open Masters. He plays well at these big events, and I think, you know, the three p It's hard, you know, it's hard not to put him as the favorite for next year. Of course we have twelve months, but Pebble Beach, you know, he played this one basically like at the start of the season, with minimal practice. Of course, he looked good for a day at the Players, look good at Colonial, but he didn't play the Masters, he didn't have much of a season under his belt, and he just came out and won it. Well, well kind of everyone else crumbled on the weekend or you know, receded, I should say. So it's hard for me not to think, you know, at Pebble Beach, and we certainly won't overlook him now as a back to champion, but you know, I think he should be the favorite based on what we see and how his game suits the US Open. Yeah.

00:11:20
Speaker 4: I think he's one of those guys who just thrives on tougher layouts. I mean, he finished second with Justin Rose at Colonial, where he had to shoot I think eighteen seventeen hunder one, So he I mean, he can go low. It's not a concern. Obviously, he's a great player, but I think he's just you know, places like Shinnacock and US Opens, they eliminate so much the field because you're, you know, if you're missing fairways. He's strong enough that if he misses the fairways, he can muscle out and get it on the green or near the green. And if he gets near the green and get up and down, he's long enough that when he does hit the fairway, he's hitting really high, towering fades that can hold these greens. So I think, you know, of courses like Shinnakock, so many guys were eliminated before they even started play on Thursday, that he's just a guy who excels. I mean, he's got the full package for a top golf course and he's perfectly suited for these I think too, the mental strength is big. I think, you know, he had some really great stuff to say when you know, he's asked why he didn't complain about this setup, and he's just like, I'm just not gonna make excuses. I like to, you know, like Nicholas said, I like to see when guys are eliminated because they start complaining about the course. So I think I think he loves the challenge. He said he likes playing discipline golf, which I thought was really cool to hear from a twenty eight year old guy who's known as a bomber. So I think he just he loves this challenge more than like an eighteen under winning score.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it's just a more rounded test, and you see, you know who the real class players are more often with these US openings. I think in particular, Shinnakaka is more so than almost everywhere else. I mean, you you guys saw it being out there like you can't not do something well, Like if you were a bad potter, you were going to have a lot of three putts out there, if if you were a bad chipper like that short area short grass around the greens was just going to eat you alive. In terms of Saturday, you know, we get we got to talk about it. What what what are your you know, cliff note thoughts on what all that happened?

00:13:18
Speaker 4: I think one thing I loved. I feel like you were almost in damage control. There was just content being pumped out about why it was okay some of these balls were rolling off the greens from certain angles. And again I think I was talking to Colin Brendan about this, but I just wish they had done a better job on TV explaining that to people. Why, Hey, yeah, this guy's in the fairway, but he's on the wrong side of the fairway, and here's how he's being penalized for hitting out on the wrong side of the fairway, and that's why his ball and lands on the green is rolling off of the green. I just that needs to be really well explained on television, partly because you can't see the contours of greens as well on TV, and then also just because I think, you know, not everyone's woke to with an angle, So I think that's really imperative for TV to kind of do the education and the work that you were doing on Twitter. But yeah, I mean the golf course got away from them and they and they admit that, and I don't know, it's just it's it doesn't make sense. Mean Friday, it was, it was early, it was it was damp, It rained hard for a little bit, but it was damp, it was as stopped as it was going to be, and it was still playing hard. They didn't need to mess with the golf course, but they just they kind of just feel like they have to. I guess.

00:14:22
Speaker 3: So it wasn't good. But while no one enjoys like breathing in, consuming shoveling with two spoons, the kind of USGA bashing and all all the attempt and drama with it, than me, I'm not sure, Like it's as bad as the kind of outcry. They made some bad pins, they let the conditions get to a place they didn't want them to be. But we started to point with the US Open, that is, there's no margin for error. And I think it's so fascinating that as soon as one player, as soon as one player comes off the course, and this case is Zach Johnson, you know, who can be prickly and it's not like always the most measured guy. I mean, he just he lets it rip sometimes and he said, you know, really dramatically, you know, like someone had just you know, shot his dog out back, like it's gone. It's gone. No, we're not getting it back. We lost it. It's gone. I hate it. I feel bad for the members. I feel like, you know, it's like a tragedy, like yes, the course, probably the course went to a place they didn't want it to be. But all it takes at the US Open is one player to say that and all the media pounces all the other players. You see it as like an opening of the door and the gate to like tweet about it, to come in and like add to the chorus, like and it just kind of snowballs into the entire championship being wrecked. Whereas like you here last night, like people say it was a mockery and the US Open was you know, they just they completely screwed it up again, like this wasn't two thousand and four. It's just it wasn't. They put a couple of bad pins and they had conditions get to a place they didn't think they would. Now it was it over the line, like probably, But I think it's snowball based on Zach Johnson's comment, And that's all it takes at a US Open because there is no margin, like there's never any gonna be any like serious pushback. In fact, it's gonna go the other way. Yeah.

00:16:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:16:31
Speaker 4: But the problem is, I don't know why they feel like they have to toe the line, like you don't need to push the line. At Shinnacock, there was one guy under party six holes.

00:16:38
Speaker 1: I think the thing that happened is like it was like they were a toenail above the line, like an untrimmed toenail above the line.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: They had two very imagery.

00:16:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had two bad pins. And like this is the thing that was driving me nuts, was like we've gotten so far into this like kind of like soft goth that we see week to week, that people like when some misses an approach shot on a par four into a short sided green side bunker with a downslopely and they can't hold the green, that's perfectly fine, that is okay, that is fair because they they hid it in the worst spot on the green. You know.

00:17:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, people aren't accustomed to the idea that hey, just because you're in the fairway that's not good enough, or just because they landed on the green, that's not good enough. They think again because of soft setups that if you landed on the fairway, you did your job, and if you land on the green, you did your job. Well, when there's great architecture, like our boy William Flynn, that's not necessarily the case. You got to do more than just that.

00:17:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, And we saw it with like Brooks. Brooks and Justin Rose were on a really similar line, but Brooks played ten yards left of the flag and used the contours or I mean justin Rose, you use the contours to move the ball into the pin to like five feet makes Birdie Brooks fires it at the flag, has too much spin on it and spins off into a bunker. It's like, you know, that's that's the thin margin that makes the US Open so great. That's how it separates, you know, like you can't take a shot off out there, and like you even saw Ian Poulter talk about how he lost you know, he lost his his focus for a shot and it ended up you know, ruining is the end of his second round where he played so great. I think that's you know, it has to be pretty close to the line. But like with Shinnikock, just like you said, Sean is and Brendan is, Like with Shinnacock, you could be at eighty five percent of the line and it would be spectacular, you know, every day, and I think yesterday we saw like seventy five to seventy percent of the line because they overreacted and went the complete opposite way. And you know, like eleven center pins on a Sunday of a US open to me is unacceptable, Like the pin on eleven was the was the pin type of pin that we should have seen around the majority of the golf course where it really asked them to step out of the comfort zone and hit a shot, and if they didn't hit the shot they were they would get you know, severely penalized. Or you could play twenty feet short like we saw with Tony Finow and make birdie.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would. I guess i'd ask you, like, what did you find more upsetting the Saturday the Saturday setup or yesterday? I mean Saturday. Obviously you're gonna get much more vocal reaction about it from the players, But I mean I think yesterday it was pretty unfortunate like that that just sucked. I thought that was as much of a mistake by the USGA, and as as as Saturday. You know, I just I'm not trying to be like a sadist here and wanting to see all these you know, everyone kind of or Mascus wanted to see all these people, you know, be beat up, but like I just would just like it to be you know, I thought they overreacted.

00:19:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I thought, like, you know, if you use one hundred percent as like you're right on the line, like absolutely perfect spot. I think Saturday they were at one hundred and five percent and on yesterday they were at seventy percent. So yesterday it was way worse in my mind in terms of like they had two bad pins, so maybe it was one hundred and ten percent, you know, two bad pins, and yesterday you could make an argument and that on the same side that they had probably like seven or eight bad pins. You know where you know you got to get. You can't test these guys if you put every pin in the center of the green, because they're too good and they are never gonna miss when they're in the center of the green. You know, they're just gonna miss very irregularly. When you push them over to the edges and you force them to decide whether I'm gonna go at the flag or whether I'm gonna play it safe, that is that is what you're trying to get out of the you know, world's best players, and that is an actual test of their game. You know, it's not just you know, if it's in the middle of the green, it's point and shoot for these guys.

00:20:58
Speaker 4: Well, I I.

00:21:00
Speaker 3: Myself for the you know, I left Saturday night, came home to watch on TV yesterday, So I think cure myself for phil sins so that he could be saved. Sean, I want to know what what was it like on the ground there yesterday. It's like they softened it up. I mean, it seemed like just seemed like a little bit of the air was taken out of, taken out of like the tension drama. And I don't know edginess of the whole thing.

00:21:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, uh, I mean, actually, I mean, honestly, the start of the final round was fun. I mean you had Patrick Gree burning five out of seven. You had guys making birdies. The hard part is and I think that really it goes into like Green Heights and how much you mow and roll. The problem is there's no humidity here. It's it was fairly warm and it's windy, so you can throw a ton of water on the golf course in the morning, but it's no matter what, it's gonna dry out in the afternoon. And that's why we kept seeing these huge disparities between morning and afternoon on the weekend. And so it was it was a cool mixture of like the front nine, all these guys they're getting into the mikes and the back nine was just a grind. But you did again almost have I mean, fleetwood Rownd was amazing and if he did win, he was a deservant winner. But I just did. Yeah, it was too much of a disparity as the day went on. That's scoring.

00:22:14
Speaker 1: That's kind of what the way I felt again is they did it in the same fashion as they made They tried to soften like that the beauty and the you know, the thing that makes Shinnecock so tough is the thing that makes Shinnikock like the world's best golf courses. It's on this unbelievable piece of land. It's built on pure sand, so it dries out like you know, you could be playing set to play there in the afternoon, get three inches of rain and be perfectly fine to play at one o'clock, you know, like you know, the greens would have bounced, and like that's the beauty of Shinnakock Hills. And I think one of the things is they when they tried to soften it so much yesterday, they just all they did was the exact same thing.

00:22:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, guys talked about how it was two different golf courses when you made the turn. The late starters, dude. So the early starters obviously had all eighteen holes of that, but then the late starters were like and he saw it Sunday, the front nine and the back nine were two totally different golf courses. I mean, guys were tearing up the front nine. I think Tron compared it to I think he said he went soft on the USUA, went soft in the millennials. Gave them all the puppy and avocado toast. Was a great tweet. The data looked like we were gonna have just like sixty fives all over the place, but that wasn't the case because then the back nine, the more the courses out in those wings, the back line was just so hard and guys were hanging on. It was fun to watch. I don't know if it's necessarily the best display.

00:23:32
Speaker 3: Of the course.

00:23:34
Speaker 1: All right, yeah, go ahead, Phil.

00:23:41
Speaker 3: I'm still waiting for his letter of apology to come through to my kids. You know, I think, you know he needs to hand a dress her, put a stamp on each envelope, and mail it to everyone involved in US junior golf in this country an apology for his actions. Go ahead, shoah.

00:24:03
Speaker 4: I just I mean, I definitely, I mean I fall into the camp that I feel like a lot of people did well. He's a lot of media that it was. I feel like it's a serious breach. I mean, I thought Bamberger put it very well that you know, forget the you know, every the rule, the eight hundred pages of the rule book and the decisions book, but the genesis of the game rule probably it might be one one, it might not, but you play the balls of the lies, and what Phil did just breaks that rule which it comes as all rules and what the game is based around. And I think it should have been a serious breach. I think he should have been dcubed. It was amazing to me how many fans though thought the media was just being cranky media that just wanted to hammer fill for it and didn't really, I guess have a problem with it, which I don't know. I just found that very surprising. Uh, it's not a good precedent, I don't. I mean, there's very few situations where I think people would feel like they want to run after their ball and whack it to take the two strokes. But I mean it's that you have a president now you have a legal president on it. So I feel like I need to rewrite that rule.

00:25:07
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm ever gonna forget that image because I had just gotten I had gotten home as I was like, I was like laying in bed watching I was really tired. I barely got any sleep, and like, I mean, like my immediate reaction was like, wait, what the fuck just happened?

00:25:25
Speaker 4: Did that really?

00:25:26
Speaker 1: Just like, you know, that was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in a golf tournament.

00:25:31
Speaker 4: I mean it was.

00:25:32
Speaker 1: It was absolutely crazy, and you know, with regards to like kind of the way I would view the situation, like, all right, if Dylan Meyer had done that, would he have been playing golf past that hole?

00:25:46
Speaker 3: Right?

00:25:47
Speaker 4: I think the one thing I didn't like either, was that the technicality they freed Phil on was that because it was a golf stroke, because he took an actual stroke at it versus like raaking year, it was okay, And that's not a just because what he did look like a golf stroke, which really it didn't because he was he was in motion while he was doing it. Uh, it was okay. Just yeah, I mean, I was lazy journalist. I was in the media center stuff in my face with free lunch, and I thought, and it was like, I just you're just didn't shot you? Like, did that that really just happened? Was this from a practice round? Were the showing a replay from Tuesday? What's going on here? And then it was yeah, it was amazing.

00:26:24
Speaker 3: I think that's that's a great point, Sean. Uh, it's just such a technicality we're getting. We got so in the weeds on this about like this rule supersedes this one or this rule. It's already covered by this rule. So he can't do you know, can't use the serious breach like and we only use it for extreme exception, like had he just put his putter down to stop it? But I don't even know if he was, like he says it was all premeditated and planned. I don't know that in the moment there's planning to take a stroke. I think he was just trying to bat it back. I don't think he was considering what he was doing a stroke.

00:26:58
Speaker 1: So here's the thing he could have taken. And like this happens at at like Seminole and like the Coleman all the time, as people take unplayables after they putt, because it'll roll off and roll into like pal mattow bushes.

00:27:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Brandon Brandon steaming right now, he's brought up a cocktail circuit media but so so.

00:27:20
Speaker 1: So like a five footer downhill, Like you're like, he would have been more advantageous for taking the unplayable because he would have been putting from the same spot like eight feet for seven right, So, like he clearly didn't know the rules, because that would have been the best mood.

00:27:38
Speaker 4: You've kind of gave him up. He said that after it happened, still said to him, well, I don't know what happens now. I guess we'll find out.

00:27:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, so like my in my opinion, like I don't know, you know it just like it's what sucks, is like he made a horrible mistake, like and then he backed it up with a lie.

00:27:58
Speaker 4: Also, I thought, yeah, that's the thing too. I thought that it would have been this amazing moment and this amazing sympathetic story if he had come out and said, guys, I was so excited to come to Shannankock. I've been close here twice before. The crew Grand Slam means so much to me. I'm forty eight years old. I know only have so many chances, you know. I thought I still had a chance on Saturday if I pulled the Neil Lancaster shot at twenty nine. But my US album was over and I just snapped and it was just too much and it was a momentary lapse. The moment got the best to me. I think that would be so sympathetic. It's like, we know how much this tournament means to him, and people would have sympathized with that that it just you eventually, you just you lose it because there's so much stress and so much pressure under the moment. I think that would have been a sympathetic story, but now it's you know, we're parsing out details of a he said, Beef said, kind of situation.

00:28:46
Speaker 3: God, No, yeah, I think he was just pissed off in the moment. He was pissed off of that pin. He thought that pin was bogus, and you know it turned out to be, you know, kind of excoriated a little later by other players, and he snapped. No, I don't think it was as calculated. I think he wanted to show up the USGA by doing it. And he's certainly accomplished that. But I don't think like there was a calculated like thinking about how it would play in the rule book when he did it.

00:29:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think he just lost it and that would have been like the best course of action is to say I lost it, and that's perfectly acceptable.

00:29:24
Speaker 3: You know, what was your hottest take? What was the hottest take you saw in reaction to that? Because we're in the media bubble, As Phil as Sean said, were you kind of like, I think we all agree that he should have been decuted or it was very bad and wrong, But like, I mean, I thought, like, I mean, some of the reaction was over the top, but I just I think it was still wrong.

00:29:47
Speaker 1: You know, you know at the moment that just just stuck in my mind the whole time was Shooter McGavin when he's in the office of of of their made up tour and he's like, you got a kick off? That's and I feel like there were people that were like kick them off the tour man from the game.

00:30:09
Speaker 3: I saw one guy say like he needs to apologize to everyone involved and withdraw immediately.

00:30:15
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't know, God, oh, now, let's take a break to talk about our sponsor, greater Than, this week's Winter Brooks Koepka works out. In case you hadn't heard, golf is a sport and it's important to stay hydrated to play your best. My favorite way to do so is with greater Than. I played East Hampton Golf Club this week and they had it stocked in their halfway house. Sure enough, I made three birdies after drinking Agt at the turn. You can purchase greater Than on their website at drinkgt dot com and use the promo code the fried Egg with no Spaces for twenty percent off your first order. I use their subscription service that delivers it right to my door every month. It's really easy, convenient, and you can also sign up for that on their website and this week you will get a free fried egg cat with your subscription. That's drink gt dot com. Back to the course. I think car for the Course had a good question here what course improved? What did you like more? The wider fairways are the bigger greens.

00:31:25
Speaker 4: I think the bigger greens because I think it the wider fairways were playable and frankly, probably necessarily with all the cross winds and the way the wind blows across the fairways. I think it would have been absolute carnage if they'd been twenty six yards wide. But I thought the expanding greens were cool because what that exposed and what that made into putting surface were those steep slopes on the edges that really emphasized, you know, the weight that angles and really made you play to the safe side and play to the correct side, and play the correct shot because it was so penal if you did hit the edge of the greens. It's not like it just made greens bigger so people could put you know, more often. It was actually it was making the greens bigger, made them more penal, and I thought it made for an interesting test.

00:32:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I loved I loved the you know, the improved or the enlarge screens. I think, you know, Davis said, well, we'll get to him later, but you know, he said, media day, let's try and focus on that. I mean, everyone's gona talk about the fairway with and grouse about that. But like the improved green size is really like the genius of this restoration. I don't know, I think obviously all the way around, I thought it was improved improved test, but just watching like obviously you spotlighted it in your preview to Andy fourteen, it was just so cool seeing it kind of come down off both sides and I stood on like the hill above that I didn't even like go inside the ropes there and just kind of watched, you know, approach shots come in and bound off both sides, or even like Fleetwood, you could leave it short. Maybe sometimes the smart play was to leave it short and put from off the he made a birdie outlet. So I loved like the green size.

00:33:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I think like I think they kind of go hand in hand, like you know, like if you're gonna do one, like I think the first thing you do is get the width and then you get the greens. But the greens are I think showed so much like my one of my favorite print in My Favorite Things is unpinnable surface on greens where most people would be like, oh what the what's this point, It's like, well, that takes like an average shot and just like runs it off the green, and that to me is like the beauty of golf. And what it does is it brings precision. Like in two thousand and four that just stopped in rough two yards off the green, and then we were seeing balls roll thirty yards off the green. We saw tiger Woods make a seven on the easiest role on the golf course because of unpinnable surface and short grass around the greens, I think, like anybody that wants to argue with like, I think it was such a big tournament for with and short grass because it actually showed like, hey, this is a lot more interesting brand of golf than just watching people hack it out and seeing people, you know, really struggle from places that were accustomed to seeing them just you know, slide of sixty degree under some thick rough and get it on the green close. I think in terms of the we'll see what you know they do with twenty twenty six, but like you know, a lot of places can't do that. I think, like you're not going to see it happened at Pebble, You're not going to see it happen at Wingfoot, but hopefully we'll see it more at some other venues.

00:34:38
Speaker 3: What will you what will you see at Pebble? I mean, I think we kind of know already, but it's just going to be and Wingfoot it's going to be more of the smaller greens of thick ruff around it, less closely mown and green surrounds.

00:34:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's going to be the case.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: What are what are the other what are the other like blue Blood us Open that you have that kind of of like green surrounds.

00:35:01
Speaker 4: I think you know, they have a lot of unpittable green surfaces Augusta and St. Andrews and those are pretty good courses.

00:35:07
Speaker 1: Yet Pinehurst, L A c. C. You'll see that with You definitely won't see that with with Reese's pieces in uh in San Diego. But yeah, it will be goodbye to shortcress of the at the p g A. You know, I was talking with Zach yesterday and we were talking about.

00:35:33
Speaker 4: Ye back on a on a single name basis now.

00:35:38
Speaker 1: So we were talking about I was driving back and uh from my from playing golf, and uh we're talking about how the U s g A just can't seem to get it right. But the p g A, I think is the one that sets up the golf course the best, but they just get the worst golf courses. Like if I think it's somehow like the PGA and USGA could collude together, where the USGA handled getting the golf course and the PGA set it up. I think we'd be absolutely perfect.

00:36:13
Speaker 4: I wish they could share golf courses. I don't like this whole you know, East Coast, West Coast turf battle, PGA courses, USGA courses switching sides, and once you go to one side, you're not going to the other. Like I mean, there's some great golf courses that they don't need to be dominated by just one organization and the other. I wish. I mean, I'll just get along.

00:36:34
Speaker 3: That's been going on forever. I don't think it's gonna change. You go with the one or you go with the other. I have I have a I don't know if it's a hot take moderately take that. I don't think. I'm not sure the USGA should have custody of our national championship anymore. So.

00:36:49
Speaker 4: I won't know if the Buck Club will be a USGA or PGA site.

00:36:53
Speaker 1: I don't think it'll be either exclusive. I think it will be a cocktail tour site.

00:37:01
Speaker 3: The Blair no, but I think getting back to this setup, like I don't know, like how many times can we mess out? We live in the real world where you lose your job if you f up four out of five years, or you have these colossal screw ups in the most important moments of every you know, every other year. Like the NCAA like can do this, you know, the USGA apparently can. I think it's interesting, like Frank Nabolo said, you know, like a month or two ago, like whatever he said. He said, the pro game at the highest level, and like the amateur game, you know, the regular weekend game have never felt farther apart, and that's extremely dangerous. And like the USBA has this task of regulating both and setting up a championship for one and kind of setting the rules and daily daily I don't know, routines of the regular kind of bolt the amateur game. I'm not sure they're like equipped to handle both. And I feel like I don't know that they should have like custody of national championship anymore. Maybe like we should have, you know, maybe they set up they tended. I guess they seem to operate the amateur events well enough, although Andy, you've told me some stories of underwhelming officials, But you know, I like there should be some sort of dedicated committee maybe for the us for the US Open that's not necessarily fully us GA controls that are that they're doing everything else, you know, the other weeks of the year, and and it just of course this is like their primary championship and they're focused on it years in advance. But it feels like maybe we should use some other voices, like make some mishmash committee of of pros Jeff Ogilvie type Andy uh, some sort of I don't think like different all sorts of different voices.

00:38:55
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, it's such they're under sid scrutiny and like the line is so small, like I almost feel like everybody's condition to complain about the USGA also, you know, and I think like there's stuff like the Masters hasn't ever allowed anybody to be in a position to complain.

00:39:18
Speaker 3: You know.

00:39:18
Speaker 4: Like part of that is because they're okay with low scores. I mean, they they're okay with the score of the course being scorable.

00:39:25
Speaker 1: You know.

00:39:25
Speaker 4: They set up the Sunday pins in places where guys can get them and create excitement and create roars, and I know it's not the US Open's brand, but at the same time, you know, Mike Davis said, I've worked at the USBA for thirty years. I've never heard anyone talk about, oh, we have to emphasize par as a winning score. But there obviously was some desire to get back to par for a winning score this week. You know there was you only had one guy under par. I think five to six under is a great winning score. But there was obviously a desire that they didn't want that. They wanted it to get back to par. And I mean, I think it starts with the problem there. I know par is a social construct. It also I don't know, it's just I want I want setting up so well they had to mess with it when I really did not have to touch it.

00:40:08
Speaker 1: I don't think I want a tournament to have a sliding par from day to day, because like Saturday is a perfect example. Is like two was a par four. Yeah, the the fourteen was a par four or part five.

00:40:26
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, they played harder than one of the pure strokebbage play harder than one of the.

00:40:31
Speaker 1: Par fives, and like just just put it out there, like today is a par seventy two. Deal with it.

00:40:36
Speaker 4: You know they did that.

00:40:38
Speaker 3: Chamber Chambers Day eighteenth all and dared him to make it up, make it a par four again on Sunday. He said he's going to play it the first fairway. You remember that, And then Davis Accley asked, made it a par five again for Sunday.

00:40:51
Speaker 2: It's just par is like the dumbest thing in the world, because, like I at one point on Saturday, I like had to say, Saturday was like the worst day of my life.

00:41:05
Speaker 1: Maybe not the worst day, but like honestly, the coverage ended and I just like felt like I had just like like been in like the most intense like pressure chamber fight with like a thousand people, and like, what was it?

00:41:20
Speaker 4: You were?

00:41:22
Speaker 3: You were?

00:41:25
Speaker 1: The weirdest thing was that I fell back like and and like all of sudden, I like realized I was, like, what was weird? Is that like everybody that was attacking me last year when I was defending Aaron Hills and like saying like, hey, the conditions aren't right, We're just seeing good golf, Like it's it's dead, calm, it's soft, and like people are being allowed to play their game. That all those people that were like attacking me were all of a sudden not my team, and I and I for a second, I was like, wait a second, am I on the wrong side of this thing? But it all comes back to par you know, that's the problem. I think.

00:42:08
Speaker 3: See, I think Mike Davis is actually not that bad. I don't know. It seems like some people think he needs to be fired or removed or whatever. I think he's I think he's probably the actual like he's the good one in the group, and he's just kind of constrained and trapped by his organization's history of I don't know, wanting a final score that's in the that in this identity that's par and I think he would. I think he's the most woke of the bunch and trying to get away from get away from it, but while also trying to balance the constraints of the organization he works for. But maybe that's just that, maybe a crockpot theory, and he maybe you know, bumbling clown. But I don't think he is as bad as I think he's just kind of really constrained by those around him and the organizations history.

00:43:01
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. I think that he I think he knows what he's doing.

00:43:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and he's done a lot of good. I mean, he's been behind a lot of the you know, weights and angles and going to brown golf courses, going to rescue golf courses, going back to public courses. So he's I mean, he's done a lot of good for the USCA and the championship.

00:43:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that like in general, Like I mean, I hate to bring this I but it all goes back to like we're living in the steroid era of golf. You know, like we can't hold on to the same records. Like remember when Brady Anderson. Just to clarify, yeah, not actual steroids, it's it's like it's the technical equipment and technical Yeah, the equipment and technology has made it like a like baseball when it was steroids. But like remember when Brady Anderson went from a guy that was a leadoff hitter that hit ten homers a year to like two years in a row he had fifty homers. Like can we forget Yeah, And you know, like that's exact same thing that's happened with golf. It's like all of a sudden, you've got all these like you can't hold on to the same records. Like Brady Anderson, he wouldn't have hit one hundred. You know, he wouldn't have hit eighty home runs had he not taken steroids, like so he wouldn't like when you look at career home run less, like Brady Anderson shouldn't be where he is on the career home run less. So I think with like golf, the same thing. You have to look at this like, okay, like Brooks Koepka shot fourteen under at Aaron Hills. It was a par seventy two, but like you can't look at that and be like, oh, that was like, you know, Mike Davis's fault. It's like he didn't there was no defense, there was no wind, and it was a soft golf course. Like I think if the wind had blown like it blew at Shinnecock at Aaron Hills, we would have had scores like in the the four to eight under range.

00:44:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought I loved it. I saw this in an old Ben Hogan interview with like ninety eighty three, and then Curtis Range cited it when I was talking to him yesterday that back then, someone asked Hogan if the players of today, which was nineteen eighty three, were better than the players in his era, and he said I sure hope. So if they're not, then we contributed nothing to the game. These guys are building on what we did and making it better. And so for so many reasons, you know, technology, TrackMan, swing, instruction, equipment, these guys are are better players. You have a better level of golf being played now than in the nineteen fifties, you know, And so if you want to shoot the same scores, the one thing you do is you make the golf courses extremely difficult. I mean, you watch old film of the Masters, and guys are like banging, bumping runs across us, these shaggy bermuda greens, and now you know, greens are stimping at twelve and thirteen, and of course they're seventy hundred yards long. And so if we weren't so obsessed with maintaining the same winning scores, you know, we wouldn't have to push the edge with course setup. But you have to push the edge of the course set up if you are obsessed with keeping the same winning scores is thirty years ago.

00:46:00
Speaker 1: Hmhm, So I mean I think I think that something I mean, I just I think something like this is all gonna come to like a tide and like I I mean, this I think is gonna be We're gonna look back on shinnakokas being one of those moments where you know that there the line of good setup and bad setup is like narrower than it's ever been, you know.

00:46:24
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:46:24
Speaker 3: And here's the thing, Like, it's very very clear the players absolutely hate the USGA. It's not unanimous, but it's a consensus and they do not like the USGA. And there's seems like we're headed for something with the ball and it's only gonna work get worse. It's pretty clear that the pros there's only a few that would probably be against rolling back the ball or some sort of restricted flight. It's only gonna get worse, make that relationship more tense, uh more fraught with you know, kind of derision and anger. I think it's I think we're headed for pretty ugly and the relationship is I don't think it's ever gonna be good, but it seems to be, you know, as bad as ever. And I think it's only gonna get worse once something happens with the ball.

00:47:10
Speaker 1: You know, it's ironic with Zach Johnson, and I love the way you described how how he delivered his message on Saturday, but like he was the guy, like, you know, if I would have like looked at that field and like, who was a guy that actually legitimately had a shot? Zach Johnson was the guy that had the best chance if the golf course was like exceptionally hard of any player in the field, Like he won the Masters when the when they were in the hard era of the Masters, he should have like wanted the golf course to be unbelievably hard.

00:47:45
Speaker 3: That's a good point. I mean, that's seems like, yeah, I was shocked. I saw him and Paul Casey come up the course as we were waiting for Phil because they were right behind him on Saturday, and like they just blew open this door, like slammed it again the house and like when I was like, oh, what happened there? I saw and I looked later Casey found a double. But I didn't expect Johnson to like go off on sky Sports, and like I said, it just opens the can of worms and everyone piles on thereafter.

00:48:14
Speaker 1: Hey, Sean, you're you got the you gotta get on your flight, so you're lucky enough to escape. Overrated, underrated, I.

00:48:23
Speaker 4: Am all all too happy to miss that. Yeah, I don't repeat the same debucles last time.

00:48:30
Speaker 1: Yeah we will. We will catch you soon and have a safe flight and Brendan and I will wrap up this uh this pod. All right, Thanks guys, see it, see it, you know, get in to uh some more of these questions, Brendan. Now that we've lost the airport ambient noise, it's a lot quieter. Is Philip Johnson? Is Speath becoming the forgotten man? And and to make that question a little little bit bigger, who's the guy that missed the cut, missed the weekend that you were You're kind of most disappointed in. I thought.

00:49:11
Speaker 3: Rory is making me reconsider his entire career. That's that's probably excessive, But I just I'm a little concerned about is us open track record, it's future prospects, the weight we should have signed twenty eleven. I mean, I love the guy. He's one of my favorite players. I just was disappointed to see him implode.

00:49:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, with Rory, I think it's also it's going to be something that we see more with this era of players because the money is so much, you know where, Like I'm not going to say he cares less but like it's hard to care as much when you know, you you know, he's he's set, and I think what happens is like that it makes you sit back and really appreciate athletes like like Tiger and you could say Lebron and Michael Jordan and Kobe fall into this group where like winning at all costs is what drives them.

00:50:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I and I think that's I think that's I think that's part of why I like him. I love Roy is like he is pretty honest, and I think he's not this like robot, this psychotic competitive robot, and I think he's willing to admit that. I think that's part of why we like him. Maybe you know why he you know, sometimes doesn't really you know, maybe doesn't give a rip as much as the other guy.

00:50:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, like I think he likes like I think like last year, I don't think he It kind of got the feeling he didn't like golf, And this year, I kind of get the feeling he loves golf again, but like, you know, at the same time, like I like, I personally loved that he was like out playing the best golf courses in the world. This Yeah, that's like, I think that's cool. Like he he was out, like and he's talking about how much fun he's having it because like, you know, at the end of the day, that's really what you know, competitive golf is like a subset of the overall game. And like him being out, you know, saying, like talking about how much fun he's having playing the greatest golf courses. Like, at the end of the day, that's what the majority of the public does golf for, is fun.

00:51:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, I love hearing that too.

00:51:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, i'd say. And then with Speeth the putter, it's crazy. I mean, all right, I don't think we're anywhere near like the Chuck naw block throwing the first base spot. But yep, you know the second baseball reference I've made.

00:51:48
Speaker 3: I mean it happened on his very first hole of the week. They start on ten, having on ten missed one from four feet. We were often running. I think I think there's some real stuff going on there. He doesn't want to talk to the media. He wants to talk to them less. I think like he's struggling. Clearly was something that I think is more than just like a cold spell. You know, we heard I think Brandall Chamberlie was talking about like the white knuckles of like a forward press. Like I just I think there's like we're kind of in a danger zone with him, and then like he's really and he's not a happy camper about it too.

00:52:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would.

00:52:31
Speaker 3: I would agree with that.

00:52:32
Speaker 1: I think he's hitting the ball better than ever and that might even make it more frustrating and could be one of the things that is making him struggle more.

00:52:43
Speaker 3: So.

00:52:44
Speaker 1: Overrated, underrated, Joey d what'd you say, Joey d oh, Joey d oh?

00:52:54
Speaker 3: God?

00:52:54
Speaker 1: And this is who said that? Who asked this? It's Marcus Starr.

00:53:00
Speaker 3: Mean, oh gosh. I will be charitable. I'll say he's underrated. He's clearly yielding results. I don't know if he's the one that's winning major championships, But as a character, I think he's vastly underrated. He's great for my my my purposes, great for content. Seems like quite the character. You know. It's like a older man in a flat brimmed hat and a ripped you know, shirt that's too small, too small for him, and he's got a bit of personality. I think he's underrated as a character.

00:53:38
Speaker 1: I think he's definitely underrated. He Joey d has made Brandle backtrack on his lifting take. Do you notice that yesterday?

00:53:51
Speaker 3: No?

00:53:52
Speaker 1: No, he talked about how how big and strong Kopka was and how you know he thought Tiger would be the only one and he was wrong.

00:54:04
Speaker 3: H Amazing said, it's a said day when Branda's backtracking on anything.

00:54:11
Speaker 1: That's what I gathered. At least somebody might be what do you think about microphones in the cup?

00:54:20
Speaker 3: They are fine. I don't know if they're underrated, but I think it's a cool element to the broadcast. I think maybe they were overused, if that makes sense. I was out on the course, so I'm kind of in and out of the broadcast. But it seems like it makes the I think a time when you're using them a lot. It seemed to make the broadcast choppy because there were too many idiots cursing, or sometimes a player was cursing and they'd have to dump it and you'd get silenced, and you know, all of a sudden, Bucks being Joe Bucker whoever. The analyst is heard the strains being interrupted by it. I didn't mind. I didn't mind hearing the sound effect of the ball going in the hole. And I think it does add value when you do pick pick up like a player caddy conversation that you otherwise would.

00:55:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the microphones are really good for the game. And you know, people, it would be unbelievable if you could have like an uncensored version of the you know, like if there, if there was another network. And I know this would be incredibly hard and expensive, but I would honestly pay for an uncensored version.

00:55:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, put on like the Spice channel or something whatever that was just completely unedited, uncensored and all all microphone, all the open, all the time.

00:55:37
Speaker 1: What did What did you think about it having whole sixteen as a three shot par five?

00:55:43
Speaker 3: I thought it was cool. What's what's the issue with it? What is there? I mean, I like how it was kind of fun to watch those guys yesterday try to put it in the right there and and have an angle in and they have a full edge and not a full edge, but they had a wedg shot. I know, I see no issue with it. I loved having a really full medi three shot part five that wasn't like a chip shot, you know, that was like an actual web shot.

00:56:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I it's funny because like I really like I think three shot par fives are extreme. It's like the hardest thing to design and golf today it's you know, like and have it be interesting. And I don't think it shows well on TV unfortunately. But I think one of the things that those par fives at Shinnacock were unbelievable at is like they gave you like a really good chance of birdie, both of them. So like so like you know, yesterday the wind was howling into sixteen and it was a true three shot par five for everybody. But like if the wind isn't dead into you, you know, it puts a question because so like the same thing with five if you were over the back, Like so if you play it just short of five yard short, you have like the easiest chip shot. Like there's not an easier shot on that golf course than just short of five. But when you go for it, then if you miss long left, you're absolutely dead, you know. Or if you know you miss right, you're you're in a really bad spot. So like it's like one of those things like it. I think that that whole golf course is kind of defined by this, Like you know, asking players to decide how you know, like it just constantly tests their appetite for risk. And I think sixteen is the same way. Like, you know, if it's not dead end of the wind like it was yesterday, it it gives you like a seventy yard wedge eighty yard web shot, But the second you try and play it up close, all those bunkers are in the in the way, like and you know, so you don't get that that little pitch shot on that one. But like you know, you can take walk away with four and a half on both those holes like pretty much every day of the week, but you could get yourself in a lot of trouble when you go for it off of a good drive.

00:58:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I thought I was startling to see Reid, like a good wedge player, come up with such a shitty shot there.

00:58:07
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody only, But that goes back to what we were talking about with Kapka. He was the only guy that hit that shot.

00:58:13
Speaker 3: Yeah right right.

00:58:15
Speaker 1: I think if you look at it from that perspective, that showed in a micro like in a vacuum like kind of why he won.

00:58:27
Speaker 3: No, I completely agree. I think that's we would get con up on like the mashing and it was, Yeah, it was his webshot he executed and spots that a lot of other guys couldn't. And even even when saving Bogie at eleven.

00:58:43
Speaker 1: You know, or like how good was that par save on fourteen? How good was that web shot he hid in from seventy yards?

00:58:51
Speaker 3: You know?

00:58:51
Speaker 1: That was unbelievably just a beautiful putt. And then he made the putt like his his putting was so good too, you know.

00:59:00
Speaker 3: Sure there were so many times of like, you know, is this the three footer that's kind of kind of lip out or burn the edge? And every time he never gave anything back.

00:59:09
Speaker 1: Like dead Center too, ok, never getting invited to come on the pod overrated and underrated.

00:59:17
Speaker 3: I think it's underrated and just just do it forever. You're gonna put him on ice.

00:59:22
Speaker 1: Well, if Smartin keeps calling in from airports, he might, you know, get footed for for audio reasons.

00:59:30
Speaker 3: We got we had airport this time, and the preview pot. He was like running laps around his hotel room, rustle in the microphone. I think Martin Martin is parilously close to missing the cut.

00:59:41
Speaker 1: Martin does not respect good audio.

00:59:45
Speaker 3: No, he was terrible in Augusta too. Huh.

00:59:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's an habitual line stepper with the audio.

00:59:52
Speaker 3: I love this. We waited for him to get off and just spuried him in the ground.

00:59:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:59:57
Speaker 1: Well, he texted us last night. He was like, I'm gonna call from the airport and I was like, airport, I remember that, all right? Overrated, underrated, last one we'll do here USGA US open course setups.

01:00:23
Speaker 3: Huh. I think overrated.

01:00:30
Speaker 4: I think it's.

01:00:33
Speaker 3: It's great for content, and it's a major championship and everyone's there to right content and talk and shout and scream, and there are a lot of like general media people there that aren't in golf and they want something to write about other than Tiger Woods, and that's what you default too. I think the impact maybe is less than we that is not like commensurate with all that ship at her and writing and shouting about it. I think, you know, core setup is obviously critical and USJ has screwed it up a lot like that's this isn't to like minimize that, but I think, uh, it's talked about a little too much, and we continue to get the right winners at these events that doesn't justify the course setup, you know, mistakes, but you know, I think like if we saw a setup completely like make a farce of a championship or or kind of completely screw somebody out of a major, then you then then we can get into it more. But I think it's just I think it's become overrated as like a as a topic.

01:01:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's I think it's under I think they do, like actually an underrated good job. But yeah, of all the events, they are under the the I guess the biggest microscope because like people come into the event expecting it to be a storyline and so and it's an easy one for people to to jump on, you know, whether it be even the broadcast team. I mean they were talking about it before it was ever ever a problem, like you know, like that was the thing is. I thought that set up on Saturday was like so good for nine holes, and like you know, it hit the back nine and I was sitting there and I was like, I was like, okay, Like if you get through ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, like without like any big issues, it's kind of you're kind of on the home stretch because those souls are so exposed. But I mean it's just there's the lines too small, you know, as is, and everybody's looking for it.

01:02:54
Speaker 3: So it's I mean the most offensive. I was less offended by the set up than when I happened upon Rusty Knocks in his h vineyard vines. I never saw MOLNACX, but I did see Russell Knox in his red white and blue Scotsman. Did you see red white and blue skyline shirt?

01:03:17
Speaker 1: Did you see Piercy was wearing on Saturday the like an American flag ribboned shirt from eyes on and he got ejected. There might be something to it.

01:03:28
Speaker 3: I think there might be something to it, but yeah, it was. I walked into Russell Knox following uh with with a friend. Friend looked at me, He's like, you look like look like you just saw a homicide. I guess like my moth was like jaw was on the ground. Why why is the Scottish guy have the New York skyline red white and blue on his on his shirt?

01:03:49
Speaker 1: I think anyway, I think you need to dive in deeper and get a correlation between gimmicky scripting and performance.

01:03:59
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, to have some get some big data involved. You have to be, bring pricing in, get some Microsoft surfaces and dive into it.

01:04:06
Speaker 1: All. Right, Hey, everybody, check out your new piece and we will. Uh, we'll talk to you soon. And thanks for coming on Andy, great being with you. Thanks again for having me. Yeah, we'll talk soon. You've been listening to the fried Egg podcast. We do the digging for you.