Geoff Ogilvy - The 2019 PGA Championship, Bethpage Black, and Brooks Koepka

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg Podcast. Today's episode is powered by tdam or Trade. Every stroke counts on the scorecard and every penny counts in the market. That's why Tedammerior Trade is committed to straightforward pricing with no surprises, so you're free to swing with confidence. Visit tdomritrade dot com slash Friday Egg member SIPC. Today's episode is part two of the conversation we had with Jeff Ogilvy. In part one, we talked about Tiger's win Trinity Forrest and caught up on what's been going on in golf, but in this episode we focus in on beth Page and the twenty nineteen PGA Championship. Jeff talks about his experience at Bethpage, the new schedule, and much more. Without further ado, here is Jeff Ogilvy.

00:00:49
Speaker 2: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in.

00:00:55
Speaker 3: A frid Egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Friday Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg Egg, Friday Bride Egg.

00:01:00
Speaker 2: Lee, I'm about ready to run off of the.

00:01:31
Speaker 1: PGA is here, So the schedule is the schedule is kind of crazy. I can't I'm not ready for the ready for another major. I'm I'm used to this lull. I'm curious from a player standpoint, did you like the cadence like where you have, like the US Open, you had the one, one month later, you had to open, one month later you have the PGA. Do you like that that successive cadence more or did you like you know, do you do you like the lull of the Master to the US Open?

00:02:03
Speaker 3: Well, I kind of I'm not doing this this year, so I can't really speak for how they're feeling. But it does seem to have come up quick after the Masters this one, but the Open always seem to come up very quick after the US Open, and the PGA used to seem to come up really quick. That it was a bit of a blur from the US Open to the PGA traditionally, and now it might feel like it's a bit of a blur from the Masters to the Open. I don't know. I think it's I like the players back in March better. I think it's just it's just a more interesting course, not so hot, you know, they can they can set it up a little bit more interestingly with an overseas the PGA. Now it's time will tell I guess I always love this is My favorite stretch on tour was from the Masters to the US Open, because it's just every week is good. I mean, Hilton Head's great. I think New Orleans is a great city to visit. Charlotte's a great tournament, then Nelson's a great tournament. Colonial is a great tournament, Memorial is a great tournament. And we always just loved this run. And I always had trouble taking a week off. So to put a Major in the middle of all that is going to be interesting, and there might be a bit of attrition field wise for the tournaments around it, because may just take a lot out of the guys at the top of the field. You get in the top of the leaderboard, it takes a lot out of it. So it's certainly completely changed, like the feel of the year, and like you say, the cadence is different. It used to be like you kind of had that Masters as an outlier, like kind of way before everything else. That was kind of like the measure of where you're at, and you had this really great run of tournaments to kind of fine form for that really important summer, and now you kind of get if you're not ready just after the Masters, where you haven't got long to get ready for the PGA. It's it's gonna be different. I don't know.

00:03:54
Speaker 4: I imagine if you're playing good golf, it's better.

00:03:59
Speaker 3: If you're playing well, you want it to be a big tournament every week, certainly or very regularly. It's going to change. The PGA was always traditionally really hot, the hottest one of the four. These tournaments have a feel, you know. The Masters has a feel because it's the same week on the same course every year, just has a feel. Generally, tournaments stay similar dates and so they just developed fields. Whereas to me, even though it was a long time when the players moved to May, it never had the same feel. It never felt right to me because the first seven or eight times I played it was in March. And the PGA is going to be the same. You're going to get some pretty crazy weather potentially in May, especially in New York this year. You've obviously got well, you've got you could probably go everywhere in May, right, there's not many places you can't go in May, but you can go to some places that'll be pretty cold.

00:04:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, that will kill one in a couple of years. Is not looking fun?

00:04:56
Speaker 3: Rochester, Rochester in May. I mean it could still be snowing, right, we'll see. I mean, but that's interesting, I think. But it'll be different, so it'll feel different. And there's for guys like Phil and Tiger and the guys in their thirties and late thirties and forties who've been doing this for twenty years, it's going to take a few years to get used to the PGA being in May. Just one that feel wise, you know. So we'll see. Beth Page is a big time venue and no tournament. Regardless of what I've ever played at Bethpage, it's always felt like a mega tournament just because of the venue and the crowd. And I don't think it'll take them too long to work out that it's a major. But it's different. It's certainly different. I think it's better long run, don't you think, I mean, wind up everything before football kind of gets going. And certainly everyone's the pg'll get better ratings this year. I would imagine that it has for a long time because everyone's so amped from the Masters, and if Tiger gets on the leaderboard again, which I'm sure he will because Bethpage is one of his sort of places, it's it's gonna be it's gonna be a good thing for the PAGA. I think of it originally, I mean.

00:06:04
Speaker 1: Winning Tiger winning was like the best thing that could have happened for the PGA, obviously, because like, and it's a great thing for golf because there's this this buzz, you know, and everybody's looking forward to the next one. I mean, the best, the greatest record chase there is in golf is back on all of a sudden, and uh, I think the one thing that has to happen is the rest of the golf world has to adjust because now the other championships, whether they be seniors or the women's championships, like they're kind of in some bad spots and somebody needs to move into the September slot, which is a great month for golf that has nothing.

00:06:44
Speaker 3: Now September doesn't not have the wind. The FedEx got playoffs.

00:06:51
Speaker 1: Finish August, so now it's they got the European Tour.

00:06:55
Speaker 3: But you know that's but this is everything. This is I mean, you specifically asking for it, but everyone was asking for it. Finish it before football, finish it before football. Why wouldn't you finish the fo fotball? And this is what everyone asked for. I think it's great.

00:07:07
Speaker 1: I'm just an angry raider living in the living in this rush. I don't know what I'm going to breathe. You know, I need to have.

00:07:13
Speaker 3: My little lull, jaded cynical. Nothing's perfect, right because if there's no pro golf getting played, I mean, you've got you're right about a lot of different stuff, but no pro golf getting played, everyone kind of gets brought to golf rights they move on to football, which they do anyway. I think it's look, I think it's sensible. I think it's the behemoth of the Europe that the US PGA Tour is just by nature of its monopoly really or dominance, has inadvertently bullied the other tours in the world. And I think if it gives a bit of space to golf outside of the US, I think that's good. It's it's it's certainly well. I mean the cynics would say it's been done on purpose, but I don't think it has. It's just an inaverted side effect of being such a big, impressive, amazing machine and this finishing a little bit earlier, like it'll expose some of the better tournaments in Europe. I mean that the schedule has got some great tournaments around that time of the year, and maybe more people watch it because they're a bit staff for golf who don't want to watch football on the weekends. I don't know, it just.

00:08:17
Speaker 4: Uh that's to me.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: It is Actually it presents a really big opportunity because like the diehard golfers don't go anywhere in September, they're still there. It's like if the if, if the women could put together move one of their premier tournaments or a couple of their premier tournaments there all of a sudden, you know, they might have a good, good, really good audience on weekends. And you know, the the European Tour, I think they shifted some of their best tournaments.

00:08:44
Speaker 4: But back you know.

00:08:46
Speaker 1: We get sidetracked here the the PGA, So yeah, with the media, with fans, the PGA has always been kind of the fourth leg like, as a player, is there is there any thing different?

00:09:00
Speaker 4: Does it have it?

00:09:01
Speaker 1: You know, you talked about feels earlier in history, chasing history. Is there a different feel to the PGA than than every every other major, Well.

00:09:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, because each one of them, each one of the first three, well traditionally the first three. The other three have such distinct feels. I mean, the Masters clearly has a feel all of its own because it is what it is. The Open in Britain, I mean, is clearly a pretty obvious feel. It's it's around the only tournament that you play on a link on links like that, and that is pretty distinct too. And you've traveled a lot, You've probably been in America or year as a PGA to a player, and you get over there, it's completely different. The US Open is a distinct feel because it's just a battle of attrition and usually one of the great courses in America set up to win it an inch of its life, and that has a distinct feel. So the PGA has a hard time being feel like that. The PGA feels like a really amazing PGA to event, you know, it feels like a really great version of the Wells Fargo or Memorial or you know, one of those really kind of big feeling PGA two events. The PGA feels like just a bigger version of that, like just an amped up version of a normal PGA Tour event, which I think is why you see a bigger range of players contend in them, because it's more what they used to do. Like there's different skills to win a US Open like that you don't get exposed to unless you've played a lot of different stuff like that. The Masters is a thing of its own, and the Open again is a thing on its own. So the PGA is just a big scale PGA to event. That's what it's always felt like to me. So it's distinctly different from the other three, but they're all different from each other anyway. So I've always thought it was miss not misunderstood, but kind of a it was the ugly step child or something.

00:11:03
Speaker 2: Right.

00:11:03
Speaker 3: No one really quite gave it the complete respect that the other three had. But I don't think that's fair. I think it's it's it's just probably the biggest tournament of that normal type, if you like, of the year.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: I mean, in a way, did you feel like it was closer It felt more like the players than it felt like the other three majors.

00:11:29
Speaker 3: Well, it felt more like the players did in March. The main players, to me, felt like it was trying to be the US Open a little bit. Sometimes, at least on Sundays, it would the setup would get pretty extreme, like as I said, like Memorial Charlotte, one of these big kind of the two events that just kind of grabbed it, captured attention and got great fields. They feel like big versions of that to me. The PGA is lot of people. There's obviously a lot more corporate stuff. There's a lot more peripheral stuff at a major than there is a normal PGA to event, more kind of infrastructure and more traffic and just more people. But it just felt like the biggest version of what we did every week, you know, really important. It's the ten year exemption, it's a major. It's it's history, it's the Hall of fame for people, it's all that stuff. And it feels like that. But you knew standing on the first tea that the setup was going to be like a PGA to a style setup, just a little bit more difficult, or maybe not even necessarily more difficult, just a regular kind of kind of long bit of rough, you know, like tough pins, but not crazy. Just play the best play the best goal. If you can win a normal PGA to event, you can win the player, you can win the PGA. Traditionally, that's how it felt like. Whereas the other ones, there's there's extra skills you need at the other ones, but the skill to win the PGA for me always felt like just you go to be the best kind of golf of that kind of American tournament, golf course thing. The other three are little unique. Yeah, I mean it's fantastic, it's great. And there was something about it being the last one, Glory's last shot or whatever they used to say. I mean that hopefully it doesn't lose. I mean it might elevate it being the second one.

00:13:20
Speaker 4: You know, I was thinking about it.

00:13:22
Speaker 1: I think it's more fitting to end with the Open too than it does is with ending with the PGA, you know.

00:13:31
Speaker 3: I mean, look, they're all cool, but it's kind of there's bookends, Like the Masters is for most people the coolest one, but the Open for a lot of people is the coolest one too, because it's the links and it's the oldest one and it's a different style completely. And if you poll the players once they've played a few Opens, they're like, Wow, this is pretty special. I mean, it feels pretty special, so it'll always hold its own and be special last, whereas the PGA in the middle might get elevated a little bit, you know, because it's everybody's thinking about golf right now because of the U S Open's coming.

00:14:03
Speaker 1: And I feel like this schedule setup would be more advantageous to to really rattling off majors too. You know, like if Tiger had had this schedule setup, maybe he wins more. I don't know, though he won quite a bit, He won quite a baby.

00:14:24
Speaker 3: And then he's won fifteen, he's done.

00:14:25
Speaker 4: Okay.

00:14:28
Speaker 3: Maybe certainly a guy in form you would, I think you're you might start regularly seeing everyone who contends, see everyone who contends in the Masters. Not necessarily you might see a whole different bunch of characters in the US Open, but it is quite close. Guys are still probably in reasonable form. The guys who are playing well there, you might see similar guys fighting it out a month later at the PGA, and that would be interesting, you know, because there's always you know, milin arian Tiger in the last group. Again, there'd be something really special cool about that. Brooks is right there. Yeah, you might well potentially developed more rivalries because that top fifty guys in the world will be more regularly together, you know, Like, as you said, the cadence is the perfect word. Do you play, you get a month off, you play a big tournament, you have a month off, you play a big tournament, Like it's not a month of a month of majors. There's there's a what was a sense of rhythm to it?

00:15:22
Speaker 4: What was the last like real rivalry.

00:15:26
Speaker 3: Real rivalry. Yeah, I don't know. I mean I think Tiger and Ernie kind of had a little thing developing, but Tiger won all the time, right, so it's not really a rivalry. And it's the same Tiger Deval had a little thing, and Tiger and Phil had a little thing. J J and Tiger had a little thing. Yeah, he got to number one in the world. I think there's been a few little rivalries underneath the top, you know. I think surgery On Harrington had a little thing going for about a year there, you know, because they were both Carnoustie Open and the Oakland Hills PGA. They were both i think one and two in playoffs, and like they were right there. They kind of had a little thing going ride a cup. Maybe there's a few different things like the Asinger and Sevy that was a pretty tense relationship. But but but go back to Nicholas Watson, Nicholas Travino. Nicholas Travino and Nicholas Watson were true rivalries because not always Jack didn't always win, you know, the other one won something a few other times. And that the Tiger era was harder to have rivals because he just beat them all the time. You know, So I think we might have we might develop some now.

00:16:41
Speaker 1: You know, I could see Brooks being getting in a rivalry with somebody.

00:16:46
Speaker 3: You know, he's in a rivalry with Brandle at the moment, which is quite fun.

00:16:51
Speaker 4: Where do you fall on that?

00:16:52
Speaker 1: On the on the analyst critiquing players.

00:16:58
Speaker 3: It, I mean, it's part of it. Like it's you wouldn't watch the golf channel or read the articles if it was not saying anything. You know, we all editorial and opinion is what we tune in for. I mean, look at Fox News, look at the News, you know. I mean, it's all about editorial and opinion. Golf channels the same. Brandle has a role. It's the same as Johnny did I mean, he's not necessarily right, but it adds to the broadcast and it entertains people. It I don't think. I think it's if a player has been in the position of Brooks or Tiger or like being up there and contended. Maybe Brandle didn't quite get there, but he was a pretty good player and he has a pretty good understanding of golf. I don't know. I don't know, And you hate to see opinions that you don't agree with, right, But that's kind of part of the fun. If it makes more people tune in next week, then it's good. I would say it's not fair. I think a bit harsh on Brooks. He seems to forget everyone seems to forget Brooks for some reason. But I think that's too Brooks's advantage, to be honest with you, you.

00:18:07
Speaker 4: Know, it's funny.

00:18:08
Speaker 1: I was just doing some research for another pod and I found this clip from or this this quote of Brooks from the Pinehurst US Open, and it was like, when nobody knew who Brooks was and he they I guess they took his name off the leaderboard before they like, they like took it off before they should have, and he ended up being like T four and he was like he was like I almost went up my Keddy and I were laughing about it when we were walking off eighteen when they were taking my name off and I almost walked up there to say you should leave it up there or something some crazy thing.

00:18:45
Speaker 4: But it was funny, like from the very beginning, he's been.

00:18:50
Speaker 3: The guy. There's always been guys at the media have not that have missed, you know. I mean, Billy Casper won forty something tournaments against like Nicholas Auto Gary the whole time. I mean it was ridiculous, fifty tournaments. I don't know. He was prolific, and no one ever talks about him like there's always, for whatever reason, whatever it is about some people seem to catch the analyst's attention and get written about and talked about more often than some people don't. I mean, Brooks has had the best last twelve months of anyone almost almost ever, certainly in the majors, and it seems like he's it's like it's Rory and Tiger, Rory versus Tiger. It's like, well, hang on a minute, Brooks is actually the one with the runs on the board at the moment, so History's always done that. There's always been guys who've got forgotten. It's not forgotten, but not as noticeable, yeah or whatever. For whatever reason, it's because he doesn't open his mouth very much, which is to his credit, Brooks, he just goes about his business and takes the trophy home on Sunday night. You know, doesn't like carry on too much, which is I think most players on tour, if you asked him, is pretty high on everyone's list of who's who's the best? So, uh, I don't know, what do you say. It's just some people, some people get noticed and some people don't. I don't know.

00:20:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if you look, if you put together like a list of most complete player, like you don't look at any part of Brooks's game and be like, ah, you know, he could do that a little better. Everything he's like extremely great at and which makes total sense why he plays so well major championships.

00:20:26
Speaker 3: And he's become just uh, it's probably he doesn't seem to get it done in the regular tournaments quite as much. You know, like the guys who get attention, the Ricky's and the Rory's and the Tigers, and they are always in contention every week they play, Brooks seems to just pop up in the really really big ones and he pops up and he wins. You know, So maybe there's something in that. I don't know, and there's nothing against Brooks. Maybe he's thinking about the majors and that's his focus and he's working on stuff in the average in the middle weeks that he's just trying to get ready for the majors. I'm not sure, but he's certainly he's the best we've seen since Tiger in the last nine holes when he's closed those majors that he closed out. I mean it was rock solid last year when Fleetwood posted that score, I mean at s Chinnacock. To do that, that's pretty special.

00:21:19
Speaker 1: I mean that the shot he hit on sixteen at Bell Reeve, that two forty four iron to like four feet was one of the greatest shots I've ever seen in my life.

00:21:30
Speaker 3: I mean, and Chamber was in Chambers. It was which was the one Aaron Hills he I mean it sort of kind of got closed with five sixcels a plain. He just buried every home. He buried like three four holes in a row. It's just like completely closed the deal. I mean, nobody does that for their first major, you know, so he's closing the deal is outrageously good. So anytime anyone has a conversation, doesn't mention him. When it comes to me to being one of the best is I'm probably going to disagree with him. But again, if that's the Brandle's position, that's fine. I mean, as I said, if that makes me more paple chain in and watch it, then he's doing his job. I mean, that's his role. I think more people hint at golf.

00:22:06
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00:23:05
Speaker 3: And Andy North Squad got to us opens how many total did he win? And he's he in the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure. I don't know that would be interesting.

00:23:16
Speaker 4: If you win three, you're in for sure.

00:23:18
Speaker 3: It's got two you're in. Two's got to be well, it does depends. I don't know who. Look the Hall of Fames a little bit. Uh. It's a really cool thing, but I think it's kind of been a bit, uh, I don't know, taint it a little bit because they feel like they have to have a ceremony every year. So some years it feels like they let people in just because they want to let people in, you know. I mean, what's wrong with going every five years and not letting anyone in, you know, just because there isn't anyone?

00:23:43
Speaker 1: That's what the that's what the Baseball Hall of Fame does so well if nobody gets in, nobody gets in.

00:23:50
Speaker 3: And you just don't have the ceremony, you know, like maybe you only do it when there's two or three really obvious people. And I don't think and I don't really think it's cool when they induct people while they're still playing, you know, I think they should be done. I think it's more we know you're going to be done. And that's what they do in the football and the baseball too, right, I mean they.

00:24:11
Speaker 4: Wait till, yeah, five years after.

00:24:15
Speaker 3: And I know golf has never really stopped, but maybe it should after fifty or something. But we've had like current players getting their induction and then going to play the Players Championship next week. It just doesn't seem the same as the other sports. You know, it just feels like, Wow, he's going to get in, so let's put him in now. It's well, I don't know, yeah, maybe get voted in, but you're going to be in, and then you have the ceremony later. I don't know. But and it should be in s and Andrew's or something probably shouldn't it. It should be or Pinehurst or Pebble Beach or like, shouldn't be National Golf Links or National Golf Links or something. Yeah, but anyway, it is what it is. It's a it's it's a great thing. I mean, anyone who's never been there should go because it's a pretty cool place. But yeah, I don't know. Brooks is outrageous if you ask, if you pull the players on tours, like, no one wants to come down the last night holes against him because he's going to hit further than you, he's going to hit it closer than you, and he's going to hold more puts than you. It seems like the last nine a.

00:25:13
Speaker 4: Little edge too.

00:25:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he doesn't. I feel like he doesn't. It's always easy to play with a comfortable pairing. I feel like Brooks wouldn't mind if he knew you didn't like him.

00:25:26
Speaker 3: You know, he's pretty, he's pretty likable. I mean, him and Dustin, they're so likable you can't be mad at You can't ever get mad at them because they're just super nice to everybody, from the top of the tour to the bottom of the tour and the bagroom and everybody. I mean Brooks, Brooks and Dustin are so nice to everybody. That everybody likes them, so I think they'd be a comfortable pair for anyone except for how intimidating their golf games are. I mean, they both got talk about intimidating golf games. To play with both of them, it's like, well, these guys are really good.

00:25:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's guy.

00:25:58
Speaker 1: I mean it's so hard, especially, I feel like in match play, if you're twenty yards behind someone, it's not as big of a deal as in stroke play, because like match play, if you're twenty yards behind, you get to hit the shot first, you know, and you can put a little pressure on it. But in stroke play you just feel like you're, yeah, this guy's playing a different golf course.

00:26:20
Speaker 3: And I know the courses that we play, the length of the part fours and part fives especially, but say the part four is we play four hundred and eighty to five hundred yard part fours all the time, and your neck on a little bill, you don't hit your best and you've got a four on in Well, these guys have got wedge in this. I mean the difference sort of four on and a wedge is just you can't beat that guy. You're never going to beat that guy. But if the hole was a little bit shorter and you had a nine on and they just did it like a sixty yard sand on. That's completely different. Not on a sixty and not on you feel like you can hit close to the hole right, But a four onto a wedge or a four onto an eight on, I mean, that's just such a different. It's just it's kind of the length of the courses we play. It seems to accentuate their advantage, which is why they're all playing so well, and they should have that advantage. But it's intimidating, certainly.

00:27:05
Speaker 1: Carrying us in here perfectly because we should have been talking about this twenty minutes ago. But Beth Page, you it's a big golf course obviously very narrow set up, and you were saying right before, it always seems to rain a bath Page. So what do you what do you think you know of, Beth Page? And you know what type of player would you look at this week?

00:27:28
Speaker 3: Well, so, someone who can hit the ball long and high. It's a carry course. Almost every hole the green, there is trouble short of the green, and quite a lot of them are up. A lot of the holes of bath Badge you go down off the tee and then up like a second you go down and up like very four you go down and up. Five you go down and up. Six, you go down and up like So if you drive it in the rough, you can't get it on the greens because it's you kind of down in heavy ruff trying to hit it to this green that you have to carry it to. There's not a whole lot of chasing it up the fairway and getting it on the green at Bethpage. So it's a guy who can hit it a long way in the air, and it's very difficult to win it from the rough if you're not driving it straight. So yeah, Brooks Dust and Fleetwood like Rory, these guys, I mean someone like Bubba. You know, these guys who can carry it a long way, who hit a lot of fairways, hitting it long. They're the guys who are going to do who traditionally have done the best there. I mean, I've played a few tournaments there and it's almost impossible to have a good score if you're drive in the ruff, and it's really difficult to have a good score. Say like a molin Ai. He's pretty long now, but he's long when there's a little bit of role.

00:28:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, like knuckleballs.

00:28:52
Speaker 3: He swings it really really well, and I think swinging it really well, like the way he swings it. And he's got the shorter arms and he's not a tall guy, so he have trouble for flying at three twenty. He might be able to roll at three twenty, but he's not flying at three twenty. And beth Page is is a carry course. It's a big Greg Norman and his prime like Nicholas in his prime, like Tiger and his prime is just big, long and high in the air.

00:29:13
Speaker 1: I feel like Jason Day is kind of like that too. He hits it really high and far, he carries it long.

00:29:19
Speaker 3: I would have said Jason would be a great chance at Bethpage if he's playing like he was informed at the Masters, So I imagine he's still informed of his body's al right at the moment. That sort of player, and look, more players of that player now than before, you know, because it's kind of where golf's gone. But you're not going to get away with a bad week off the tee and win at beth Page. Some weeks we've seen guys do that because you can hack it up the fairway and roll it up to the greens and stuff. You can't do that at Beth Page. So, I mean, if if anyone's got the inclination, go back and watch two thousand and two, especially like there's a couple of good videos of t of Tiger's last round and it was just the most ball striking clinic long slog. I mean, I don't know if anyone remembers that week, but there was fairways that were two hundred and eighty to get to. You know, guys would like trying to drive it into the cross the walk path because it was too far to get to the fairways. It was such a long course, and it probably doesn't play quite as long now because it's probly seventeen years later, but it's super long and all carry and it's a mint because a mint course it's so I mean, it's it's intimidating, and I don't know why everyone lines up at three o'clock in the morning to play it, because it must beat everybody up over around the head. But it's for players of our level. It's a fantastic place, and the last four or five holes might have the best atmosphere and golf outside the Masters. I mean, it is just what a feel when you cross back across that road. Just incredible. What how does it?

00:30:52
Speaker 1: How would you compare I'm curious just you know, both tilling Hass courses, both major championship venues.

00:30:58
Speaker 4: How would you compare Beth wing Foot?

00:31:03
Speaker 3: Completely different? Wow? Yeah, completely different. Wing Foot's challenges the greens. There's certainly in US open set up narrow and it's I guess it's not long in modern standards, but it's long enough. And Wingfoot's about managing the slopes on the greens, keeping it under the hole, hitting it kind of front edge most of the week, and like not taking on too much. And it rewards well hit sensibly chosen shots, whereas Beth Page just rewards. And I don't know what state Beth Pages in after Reese redid it, which, by the way, I think this is Reese's. I haven't seen all the Reces redos, but this is the one I really like. I think Beth Page is great. It's it's it's more of a pure like long ball striking test. I would say wing Foot there's a little bit more more strategic test, more thoughts about where to leave it. Around the greens. The beth Page, if you hit it above the hole, you've got a chance. Have you hit it above the whole of wingfoot, You've got no chance at all. So it's a it's just it's more of a ball striking test and wingfoot's more of a strategy test. I would say. But as I said, I don't know what I don't know what beth Page looked like before Reese did it, so I know.

00:32:19
Speaker 4: It was run down.

00:32:21
Speaker 1: So like the beth Page is really rewards sheer power and where wing foot is more precision.

00:32:35
Speaker 3: I would say, and good and sensible wing foot. You've got to make up a few there's a few decisions to make strategy wise, you've got to you're got to think it through a little bit. Beth Page, I would say, there's a little bit less of that, and it's you've got to you've got to move the both both ball the ball both ways. There's some great angles on the fairways at beth Page where you kind of you can see the whole fairway and it's sitting down you like a right to left angle or left right angle. It really is kind of hard to hit draws on some holes and make them fit and phase and up, so you've got to just strike the ball. It's an execution contest. I would call it okay beth Page, whereas a wing foot's got more of a a mental execution test as well as anything else.

00:33:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, what were you of your favorite or most interesting holes at beth Page?

00:33:25
Speaker 3: As I said, the first hole might be one of my favorite, like it's a it's a cool, it's a I don't love those downhill shots. But the second shot, the green just reminds me of a green in the UK. It just it sits on the ground really nicely. It's got this cool little lumps and slopes in it and stuff. I love the first for whatever reason. And it's so grand. I mean, beth Page is such a big scale. The second hole, you're down through this little valley and up for the green. It's pretty cool. And four isn't outrageously fun. I don't know if they're playing as a four or five, but it should be a five. Five yeah, where it's quite short but very difficultly on the green And as I said that, the fairly is right there, like I hate the term, but right there in front of you, like you see everything you have to do and you just have to execute. But as when you cross, there's a lot of variety. Albeit it's all very long, but you change direction quite a lot. It's kind of an out and back course. You go a long way from the clubhouse and you kind of come back and yeah, and you play the first hole on the I want to say the clubhouse side of the road. You cross the road and you play all the way through to thirteen, and you feel like you're kind of away from everything. And then when you come back and play fourteen, is it fourteen fifteen forty? I think it's fifteen fifteen, sixteen seven out, you're fifteen, You play fourteen in the path three and you come back on fifteen and it's just as I said. The feel in those last four holes is something special, like fifteen sixteen, seventeen eighteens are let down of a hole, but seventeen it's really amazing, kind of big scale amphitheater. Part three fifteen is this crazy, like that hole up to that green that's way up in the air and really slopey, and I really enjoy the finish. It's in a big tournament and the pj'll carry this little bit. But when there is the President's Cup of the Rider Cup there at some point Presence Cup maybe right.

00:35:22
Speaker 4: I think it's the Present or it's the Ryder Cup.

00:35:24
Speaker 3: It's PGA the Ryder Cup there when they when those groups come back under the fifteenth, you are gonna it's going to be an atmosphere that no one's ever felt. It is a really really kind of special kind of I don't know, there's something about it. No short part fours really not that I remember. I mean the first hole, I guess it's quite short. It's it's it's a slog of long shots, you know. Pretty much the short ones seem to get uphill or play really they play long, you know, and especially if it's been raining. I don't know, like it's it's just a good, strong golf course that you won't like if you're not playing well, and you'll probably enjoy if you're playing well.

00:36:08
Speaker 1: If you're not playing well, you'll probably no way you're not playing well.

00:36:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially if you're not driving it well. If you're not driving it well, it's going to be a long week because you're not going to hit many greens because they're rough. Historically, they've liked to grow up pretty thick, and especially if it's rained, and there are rumors that the rough's pretty thick, So it's a driving week for sure. Driving is the ultimate test at Bethpage. And then it's very playable. If you're hitting it in three twenty up the middle of every fair, you're three hundred midle of a fail, You've got every chance. But not doing that, it's going to be tough. It's great. It's definitely worth anyone who's not been there. There are a lot of courses I like better that I think are architecturally more significant and better courses probably all around, and more enjoyable for a larger cross section of golfers. But the experience of playing beth Page, and I think lining up with the locals and how proud the locals are of the course. I've never been anywhere when people are more proud of their course. The people in Long Island, even if they've never played it, they're proud of It's like they're all members. It's like the whole area of Long Island a member of beth Page. This is our place. This is going to beat you up the Black Corse. I mean, it's just brilliant, like just it's just got such a good feel about it. Once in every golfer's lifetime if they have the opportunities to go sit in the car park in the dark and go try to play the Black Corse and there's that sign on the first t like extreme difficulty, like play it, don't risk and all. It's just so dramatic. It's a cool places.

00:37:36
Speaker 4: It was supposed to be the public country club.

00:37:39
Speaker 3: You know, well, certainly when we play it, it feels like it's that I don't know what condition it's in for the rest of the year. But when we play it, and there's five or six courses there, right, there's a ton of courses, it's best Page State Park in general is massive. Yeah, it's a massive place.

00:37:55
Speaker 1: The Red Course is supposed to be really good too. It's another telling has it's supposed to be real fun.

00:38:02
Speaker 3: So it's great land. It's a cool place. I mean, as I said, it's just it's it's got an atmosphere all of its own, and there's that that local pride in the place. That's pretty unique and as a as a true municipal course, city owned course, there can't be many in the world that are on the same level.

00:38:24
Speaker 1: You know, it's every every municipal, every big city should have a have a great golf course, whether it's a championship not necessarily a championship course, but just a great facility because that's it's a great facility.

00:38:38
Speaker 3: It's a great facility. It's I think the conditioning is what you would find at most country clubs. The clubhouse is like a country club clubhouse everywhere. Should You're right, it's it's an experience, even if it cost people a couple hundred dollars to play, like local residents get it for eighty bucks and visitors have to pay three hundred. Whatever it is. It's like every it'd be great for every city if they to turn what their course that has the most potential into that style of place. You know, just a year, remember for the day, you know, Like it's it's like.

00:39:10
Speaker 1: If you were if you're a kid and you know you had your regular muni but you played there a few times a year.

00:39:19
Speaker 4: I don't think like I always talk about it like it's important, like for.

00:39:23
Speaker 1: The Chicago District Golf Association to get good venues for their state ams and stuff because of the juniors, you know, so then they play a real golf course for State Am and it's going to help them when they play the US AM.

00:39:39
Speaker 3: You know.

00:39:40
Speaker 1: And if you're a kid and you're playing against kids that played play out of you know, Shinnecock, but you place Beth Page every once a while, you're not going to get You're not going to go somewhere and be intimidated.

00:39:54
Speaker 3: Now, And that's a treat too, right. I mean the amate a golf tournaments Australia was always very good and Britain and I played a little bit of amateur golf in the UK. All their amateur tournaments were on their best courses, courses that we couldn't get on unless there was a tournament there, right, we didn't get onto You didn't play Millfield, no chance playing Millfield less British amateur was there, you know, and it was just like what a tree. You get to play Millfield like five times in a week, like just incredible practice rounds and like just for that alone, I mean a lot of these kids and these golfers access to these courses is basically impossible. I mean, Beth Paige, you got to park at three o'clock in the morning, right, like something like that. Chicago golf for the like stuff like that. These places are inaccessible unless you have tournaments, and I think that's kind of it's good prestige for the courses to have these tournaments, and it's just an opportunity for everyone. It makes more kids probably want to play tournament golf when they're at places where maybe they they don't know their local golf course. They get to play the real special one in the tournament. I mean, that's a good thing. That was my favorite thing about AMI golf was where we played the tournaments places that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to get on.

00:41:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's like the thing it is like I've I know that some golf associations struggle with courses giving up their time, but it's like the most important thing for those courses, Like it's what you know, And I always say, it's like it's one one day every ten years, so one day, can you give a couple of days every three thy three hundred and sixty five days? Can you give four days to your local golf association?

00:41:26
Speaker 3: I think And look, I mean most a lot of golf courses agree with that and probably do that, but there's probably more that don't.

00:41:33
Speaker 4: All right, last question, Uh, what's uh? Who's your winner?

00:41:39
Speaker 3: I have you know what? I think it's Rory's turn. I think Rory's gonna win. It's a perfect course for him. Uh slightly forgotten at the moment. Slightly I say, not really, but it's a place for Royal Dustin. But I'll still I'll go for Rory.

00:41:58
Speaker 4: That's y I've got.

00:41:59
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go Rory. I think I was thinking Rory or Dustin, and I'm I think I may go Rory too. He's he's gonna he's got to win a major one of these days, one of these times. You know, he's too good to have a drought like he's got right now.

00:42:15
Speaker 3: He's too good. And I think best page cancels out a lot of the field because of the long straight requirement. I think it'll be one of those really really big hitters, and he's one of those, and he's one of the best of those, right, So let's go for Rory. He'll make a few.

00:42:31
Speaker 4: All right, Well, we'll talk soon. Good luck with that.

00:42:35
Speaker 1: Australian winner's TH's Northerners don't don't feel that bad.

00:42:41
Speaker 3: No, It's nothing like a Chicago It's not a Chicago winter by any means, but it's I've been in Arizona for a while, so this is a fresh fresh thing for me in my having fifty degrees in sideways, Ryan, but that's a.

00:42:54
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Fried Egg podcast.

00:42:57
Speaker 3: We do the digging for you.