Ranking the 2022 Major Championships with Geoff Shackelford

00:00:00
Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg, Frida Egg Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hup course.

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today I am joined by Jeff Shackelford. It was a spectacular year in twenty twenty two of major championship golf, and I think it got overshadowed a little bit by everything that's going on off the course with Live in, the Upstart League and the disruption it's caused to golf. So I wanted to have Jeff on to talk about the men's majors and really what unfolded there and keep the talk about Really. I think when we look back on it, it will be a historic year of major championships. I can't think of one recently that was better. Obviously, we've had years that have had better singular moments like Tiger Woods, but as a collective, I don't think we've had any that really really stand up when you run down the list of them, you know, every single one of them had really memorable moments, both early rounds and later rounds. So Jeff and I discussed this year's majors, what made them special and they lived up to the hype. So, without further ado, here is Jeff Shackleford. All right, mister Shackelford. Welcome back. You're on the podcast as the Forefront Major Championship newsletter. You know, the Quadrilateral, the your jack of Ultra, it's at the Quadrilateral. Your large staff you managed to you know, perfection as well as you know running everything from finances to logistics, you know, mister Shackelford, welcome on here. We are excited to talk strictly about the majors in twenty twenty two, which was a wonderful year of major championships, and I wanted to kind of relive the golf. I feel like it's gotten kind of trampled and is almost underreported on how great of a major championship season we had this year.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: Well, thanks, Andy, Yeah, it's good to be back, and it was a sensational year.

00:02:39
Speaker 4: I mean, we've had a couple.

00:02:40
Speaker 2: Of great seasons lately in the Majors, and I think this is one where, you know, sometimes we judge them by how the players go on and play later on, but I think, and well, we'll see how this group does in their careers, and in history may look back on it like, wow, they were kind of hit wonders.

00:03:00
Speaker 4: But I think that if you really look at this year, it was just kind of a dreamy blend of venues and set up weather.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: It was interesting but not fatal to the outcome of the event. I don't think, although I think the Masters was dulled a little bit by the cold, but I think the thing that was really cool or that you would say to somebody if down the road, this turns out to be like a you know, on Hell Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stuart sink WAYI yang here in terms of player careers, that you'd say, well, you know, all these players were basically the best players at.

00:03:41
Speaker 4: The time coming into the event. And I don't think you could say.

00:03:45
Speaker 2: That every year in Majors it always feels like there's somebody who's coming in really playing great and they get screwed by a draw or they just don't play well. It just felt like every one of the majors. The people we knew were trending in the right direction were reward and that is rewarding as a viewer, but it's also a compliment to the setup and the course and the whole thing. So just yeah, I thought it was a sensational year all the way around, and we knew it was going to be good too, and and then you kind of throw in the way every venue played out. And again that cold weather was a little bit weird at at Augusta and Southern Hills. But and what that kind of does to the players, I think is underestimated.

00:04:27
Speaker 4: So but all in all, just a.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, fantastic finishes and I'm very happy to be focused on covering the major championships.

00:04:37
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:04:37
Speaker 3: I think when when the PGA made them move to from trump Edminster to Southern Hills, you know, two years ago it set up. You know, you looked at the calendar and you're like, wow, I you know, I don't know if if we'll ever see a lineup that really matches this in terms of interest in golf courses. Obviously you have you have the Masters at Augusta every single year, but then adding in Southern Hills, which you know, I thought the renovation that Gil and his team did, and obviously the setup the with Russ Meyers the Grondome there, it was a sensational major championship post. We hadn't seen Brookline in forever, and you know, Brookline comes back and and really, like I thought, was as good of a US Open host as we've seen in some time. And then obviously, uh, ending it with the old course for the one hundred and fiftieth was just kind of a romantic way. But I think, you know, going into it, you know with the venues, you looked at the venues and you thought, wow, this could be a really special year just from a television product. But then to get the dramatic finishes at you know, the PGA, the US Open and the Open, and you know, the most dominant player coming in at the at the Masters winning in a kind of somewhat of a runaway fashion felt fitting for that event with the way Scheffler played coming into it.

00:06:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, we always have at least one major year or it's just it just falls pretty flat. And it seems like, I mean just going through the years, and each one got better as the year went on. I Mean, the PGA was a little bit weird. I think the weather was part of that. And then it all kind of came together in a crazy way on Sunday, and Scheffler was really screwed by the luck.

00:06:32
Speaker 4: Of the drawing.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: I think that was probably the one situation that was unfortunate, but it just happens. And then, yeah, the quality of the finishes of the last two were just off the charts great. And you know, people probably laugh at us obsessing about architecture, of course, set up, but if you're ever gonna say to people, well, this is why you do these restorations, this is why the setup. This is a year you would just point to and say, I think especially because we've been to Southern Hills and the country Club before and they were good, solid venues in the past, but they went to another level in the way and the stuff that they brought out of the players and the Yeah, I mean, I just you can never put a number or way to measure how much more enjoyable it is when the players are tested, but they're rewarded. And we had and you're almost old enough. I'm definitely old enough to just have been through so many majors where the setup put the guys on just full defensive mode the whole time, and it was boring to watch and you didn't feel good at the end. You just felt like the player hung on the best one instead of the player that pulled off some incredible shots. And I think that's what stood out this year was just the overall reward for great play that we had some epic I mean, we had two all time great closing rounds in a major with Rory at the Masters and Cameron Smith at the Open, and then yeah, I mean that alone right there, those two rounds were just remarkable, and we didn't have years like that where that kind of thing could happen.

00:08:22
Speaker 4: So it really validates to be.

00:08:27
Speaker 2: When you open up these venues a little bit with trade removal and you don't choke them with narrow fairways and get the rough silly, and you let the players put on a show. They still separated the fields very nicely.

00:08:44
Speaker 4: You know.

00:08:45
Speaker 2: The only quibble obviously is the old course. The whole locations get ridiculous, and I don't know how you ever can quantify that in terms of Cameron Smith's final round, but I sure feel like that sixty four was more like a sixty or sixty one. Uh, but yeah's just several holes there that in all four days, by the way, not just Sunday that that you just you just you aren't rewarded even if you hit an A plus drive on on some of those holes where that where you take on the trouble. So yeah, just a sensational year that way. Venue wise, we were really spoiled.

00:09:20
Speaker 3: I think something that that a memory that and we'll get into we're going to rank uh the majors one through four.

00:09:28
Speaker 1: But you know, we talk about a couple of memories.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: This is not one of the memories that I have written down, but you know, one of the memories that that points to the you know what what you were talking about with UH with restoration is was will Zl Taurus on the eighteenth hole at Southern Hills. I think it was either at the end of regulation or a playoff. He hit it way over right, if you remember, and he and he hung up in short grass. He wasn't in rough and and you know he was blocked by trees, but he was in the short grass and he hit this huge swooping cut from there to avoid the tree. And typically that situation it would be rough and you'd be in rough and you know what rough would do, would it would really limit your ability to hit that cut shot? And I think it ended up just short. It was a thrilling shot, like it ended up on the fringe. Great, great shot, and like for a moment, I think he thought it was perfect. You know, everybody, it's right online, you're watching it, and it's like that moment, that shot is a shot that if that golf course isn't restored, if it's narrow, if it's thick rough, that doesn't happen. You know, he's hitting it out like probably short left and hitting a pitch shot up and instead we got that. Like you know, I think moments in golf when you're watching golf is you know, it pays me say, you see the shot tracer, right, I'm always an anti shot tracer guy, But you see the shot tracer and you see the cut and you're like, oh, that's going right at it, and you can see his reaction of watching it, you know, intently, and it's like, where's this going to end up?

00:11:06
Speaker 1: Where's it going to land, where's it ending up?

00:11:08
Speaker 3: That the moment of your kind of like and that's one of the things that golf has is that, you know, wondering where the ball is going to end up is one of the most beautiful things for a golf fan to wash right.

00:11:19
Speaker 1: Is that suspense And.

00:11:21
Speaker 3: In that situation it would have been a very boring kind of chip out, short right or short left, chip up situation. Instead, we see a great ball striker hit a shot that is you know, we rarely see a swooping cut, you know, shot with an iron trying to hit it onto the green.

00:11:40
Speaker 4: Well, you know that hole.

00:11:41
Speaker 2: There were multiple instances where that hole in the past prevented anything interesting from happening. And don't forget besides that shot by Xalatorus and the recovery and the fun of seeing a recovery play and wondering, you know, also wondering how it could go wrong, and the announcers.

00:11:58
Speaker 4: Always do a great job of that. I'll forget that.

00:12:01
Speaker 2: You know, Meto Pereira's drive ends up in the creek because of the expansion of the fairway moments.

00:12:08
Speaker 4: Oh okay, I didn't.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: Know that, so anyway, that but the point is a lot went on on that hole. I thought it was easily those two finishing holes were easily the most radically different holes this year, and they totally impacted the championship. I think in all great ways. It's not like the creek, you know, reached out and grabbed meadows drive. You hit a bad drive, so anyway, I just all the dimensions that came into play. I mean, the old seventeenth was always revered there as one of the great short part fours, and I was like, well, it's just a nice little drive and pitch. I never quite got it. And then obviously what happened this year with all the expansion of the fairway, all the different ways to play it. You could drive it kind of bomb it, left try to get up and down. I mean, all the things that came about by opening that up and getting the shorter grass around the green. It was fun to watch in the practice rounds, just watching guys try to map out a way to attack it. So all those dimensions, I think in the past were viewed as negatives because they could lead to Bertie's God Forbid. And now it feels like we're getting even with the technology. We're getting past that fear from the people who do the setup and the realization that oh wait, no, this is more interesting to watch but it's also by having those options for these guys actually more difficult when they have options, and then they get under pressure and then they see what other people are doing and they try to they can't. They're not thinking clearly, and that's where things get interesting and where you weed out the really good player from the truly all time player. And I think that's it's just so cool to see the architecture do that.

00:13:54
Speaker 3: I think a big theme of this year's Majors is the venues. Obviously we talked about that, but also what's happened with the venue wars, the hoarding of venues, and we had arguably two of our premiere PGA and US Open venues on display that we didn't necessarily know were premiere, and it's like you leave them. I remember at the end of each of those weeks, I was just like both times, I had the same feeling of I'm really sad that this championship isn't coming back here anytime soon, and I don't see on the schedule when it's even a feasible time for this to come back. And it illuminates what has been going on with venue selection and booking these things out between the PGA. I think they're obviously guilty, but less so guilty than the USGA, which is effectively completely booked through for the next twenty five years, and it's like, well, what can we get When can we get the country Club again? When can we get Southern Hills again? Because they were well attended and the and the golf courses just were so good for the modern game.

00:15:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they both really didn't. You didn't feel like they discriminated. It felt like every kind of player could play well on them, and they just worked visually, they worked logistically, you know. I think the country Club was sort of seen as we just have to get through this kind of thing. And the USGA got rave reviews from people I talked to on site. They had a very you know, I'm sure it was a lot more work, kind of complicated shuttle system, but they were all these options and people said it was great and they had a you know, and then they got on the property and it felt good and felt big and felt like a US Open And yeah, you heard that comment a lot too.

00:15:55
Speaker 4: It felt like this feels like the US Open again.

00:15:57
Speaker 2: And that was without Yeah, that was with some, but it was it was with a combination of things that came together, and you're right, twenty thirty eight is probably the next time they can go there, which is amazing because because Boston is a good sports market and it's like, wow, we don't have a tour event there now, I mean they live goes on there once, they probably aren't scheduled to go back, I don't think. So it's a market that would embrace the golf and wow, we don't have a date for you. And the country Club, by the way, should be saluted to. I think it was a club that the USGA and them had some historically have had differences and it's been a little bit of a weird struggle over time. And there was no sense of that. There was no sense of you know where it's your at this at the country club, and how lucky we are to be there.

00:16:48
Speaker 4: They were welcoming.

00:16:49
Speaker 2: The whole thing just worked, and I got the sense from the players they felt that way. And so just a home run and then yeah, same thing with Southern Hills. Twenty thirty two is probably the next option. And look at what Seth was said this year about it's almost irresponsible this kind of going way out because we just did we put this together in eighteen months? And yeah, they had a senior pgare and I had a people in place, and it's a market that doesn't get majors and they embraced it.

00:17:15
Speaker 4: Blah blah blah that. But it's still a lot of work.

00:17:18
Speaker 2: To put that thing together and have it seemed like it was years in planning, and then have the golf course to be a home run. And know that May, I think is pretty clearly a tricky month for venues. And so when you look at Kiwa and then you look at this at Southern Hills, you're like, well, those are basically two places that are to me, should be sort of every seven year PGA Championship venues if they're going to stay in May. They just work on so many levels, and you know, we've got the schedules really heavily booked, with two two committed to Frisco that hasn't even opened yet, Quayle Hollow, which is uh, you know, seen plenty, and then you know Valhallis got one more and I never begrudge valhallicaus Louisville is a great sports town and really embraces the championship and it produces exciting golf and you just can't you can't beat that when you course has that kind of track record. But that'll probably be the last one for them.

00:18:20
Speaker 4: For a while.

00:18:21
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a weird, weird thing, this locking up venues. And it's not like the USJA is locking up bad ones. It's just that I think there's something weird when you don't have those openings on the schedule for the obvious ones at work or to give other places some hope or some incentive. There's a long list of reasons. I mean, it's a first world thing, but still it's it's weird.

00:18:45
Speaker 3: All right, let's talk about the majors and let's just kind of go through them.

00:18:49
Speaker 1: We'll go through them chronologically.

00:18:51
Speaker 3: I asked you to, you know, I think a way we could go through these as favorite early round, favorite early memory, or lasting memory. Not necessarily favorite. It could be you know, downer and then you know late round memory. So let's start with the Masters. What do you remember most from the early round?

00:19:13
Speaker 2: I mean, I think the two things that stand out, Well, it was overall it was just kind of weird, but mostly beccause you know, it just was a Scheffler just sort of took charge on Friday, and it was sort of strange, like, I know some of you guys weren't playing great coming into this, but this is this is bizarre and they'll let him dominate. But I mean, Tiger's opening seventy one is pretty miraculous when you think about it more and more, the way the year went, the way even the weekend went there with his putting, and he did that with I think a bogie on on eight that was pretty nuts, and then and one other one from that Cam Smith doubling one and eighteen and playing eight under par for the sixteen whole stretch in between was really he really had a stunning Masters me He had more birdies and schefflers, So yeah, it was it was a weird Uh, it was a weird Masters just in a sense because of the weather. I really mostly the weather, and I think I guess I was a little surprised. I feel like going into that event, those first two days are a little more exciting, but kind of going into that event, we really knew a lot of the top guys weren't really that sharp, and it played out that way. The course just kind of exposed who was on on farm and.

00:20:34
Speaker 4: Who wasn't you.

00:20:36
Speaker 3: Uh, I think you know early is you can't ignore Tiger. That was like the dominant. I will never forget I was.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:20:44
Speaker 3: I was by the tree by the first tea, and I'll never forget. I was in a conversation back to the tee and I heard this just incredible roar, Like just like you didn't have to turn around. You knew Tiger Woods coming to the tee. That's one thing that I'll never ever forget in my life is that roar and that you know, you get I got immediately got goosebumps, and you don't have to turn around. You know who's going to the first tee. But then you know, watching him effectively will his way to making the cut, you know, and I think this is true for the PGA, and here him making the cut, you know, and then seeing some of the players the top of the inform elite players who missed the cut. You're just like, this guy is on a whole different in a whole different stratosphere in terms of a competitor because him getting through that, given the circumstances of how soon and with the injury, and you know how you saw him later in the in the year, especially at like the Open. You can just tell how how bad and how painful it must have been for him to get through and make the cut. I mean, unbelievable achievement, and tied to that, I'll never forget watching Tiger. I was sitting behind the ninth green watching him on the second round and and Scotty Scheffler was a couple groups behind him, And as the green vacated he finished up. I'm looking and there's Scottie Scheffler, the hottest player in the world, the number one rank player in the world, who's currently blitzing the field, and there was not a soul really watching him as he's going up eight. Like there the the pat there's no patrons. There's the the you know, the you could just see clear as day through that like kind of those trees. And usually if you know, with Tiger's there, it's just a se see of people and and here it's just like it's a barren. It'd be like you were out there in the morning during a practice round before the fans had been let in. You know, you're looking out as Scheffler, who's who's just taking a part of the golf course has won what was it four of the last six events coming in or three of the last five events coming into the event, And just like those were the two early early round memories, but mostly top pairer to Tiger, And it's just like the ability for Tiger to just take the oxygen out of anything else happening on site was my early route memory.

00:23:16
Speaker 2: I was on thirteen when he came through, and as soon as Tiger went through, the place just vacated, and there were a couple of younger guys sitting in front of me that I could have a kind of I could be myself and make comments and not get too many dirty looks from from older patron type of people. I'm like, people, the leader's coming, where are you going? Like why are you leaving? But it's a weird it's a weird situation there people. It's an early crowd that leaves early. I would say they have dinner or somewhere to get to. It's always strange to me that I would I would love to see the masters have an afternoon pass so that those grand stands remain full, but that's not happening.

00:23:56
Speaker 1: What's what's your late late round memory?

00:24:00
Speaker 2: Well, obviously Saturday and Sunday. We're a little bit wild with the drop on Saturday on eighteen that I'm still not, you know, thrilled with, not overly comfortable with it was by the book, blah blah blah. But it was for Scheffler on eighteen that I think he got a huge break there that he was able to take a full swing and he hit an unbelievable shot. I mean, arguably the shot of the tournament of three iron was about he hit it about two fifty. It ended up because it went long, so that that was a huge memory. And then him grinding late on Saturday down on the range in the dark was a was a wild scene. And then yeah, Sunday he was in control and Rory's round was fantastic and it was that weird little double at the end. But I, you know, the the idea that he came in and sat down and just revealed this. I did even go down for the winner's press conference. I was sitting up in my seat and I was listening and trying to put my newsletter together, and I didn't expect, I mean, I would go down there if I thought was going to be interesting.

00:25:10
Speaker 4: I did not go down.

00:25:10
Speaker 2: There and I'm listening and he starts telling the story about how he broke down and he felt overwhelmed and he was a sobbing mess. And it's like that takes that takes you know, a couple of divorces and depositions and others, about twenty five years to pull that out out of a guy to admit that. So I that just has stuck with me, that he opened up about that and that he overcame it and won the Masters.

00:25:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:25:39
Speaker 3: I you know, for me, I was I was going to go with that, uh that drop, but I will, I will, I'll change course with that do that No, but I think another moment. It's just like the unbelievable ability for the twelfth hole to always kind of be this foreman of position in that tournament. And you know, we saw it with Tiger when Tiger won in twenty nineteen, it just be like, you know, effectively the hole that decided the tournament.

00:26:11
Speaker 1: This year, we had you know, kind of a crazy with camp Smith.

00:26:15
Speaker 3: Campsmith was lurking like all day and obviously it looked early like he was gonna be in control. But then Scotty had the chipen on three and he's still hanging around, and he's making a charge. And we saw at the Players, we saw at the Open just how dangerous this guy is down the stretch like in and he will go out and hunt down people. And here he is in that same position. He cuts it to three, and then the twelfth hole he just makes this awful golf swing and bites him and just, you know, the I think one of the things I you know, this was the first one that I covered on the ground in one of my big takeaways of the Masters. You know, and it's been said, but I could you don't really understand it until you're there for days. It's just how challenging that golf course is and how hard it must be to get committed over shots with the way the way you can't feel the wind. And I think that you know, when you're that twelfth t is just kind of the encapsulation of what makes you know those small targets and the conditions where you you just can't get yourself comfortable and you have to have such commitment over what you believe that number is. And I think that was a shot where he just didn't really know what the wind was doing. I was standing there and you know, you're looking and it's everywhere you look, it feels you know, it looks different, which way the wind's blowing, and he just hit an awful golf shot, right.

00:27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. After the round, he said that he felt like it was the right club. It was nine iron, It was basically one hundred and sixty yard shot, and he just felt like he didn't hit a good shot, and that was that. I'm sorry, but the record is very on that whole. In fact, this book, I'm I'm I'm finishing up on golf architecture. I go back to that moment because it's just another one in the long list of moments on number twelve where players just just for whatever reason except Tiger Woods and a few others, can't accept that the angle, the way that green sits at an angle, you just don't go with that, that that flag because and the forecast and win was directly into you that final round. So even if you felt no win and you felt like the nine iron could get there, there's a reason you always play to the center of the green and play that shot. What Tiger does. What Ken Venturrey was would ramble about every year and beg guys to do and and I it's the genius of the whole, but it's also a little bit of a to me, it's a I feel like it was a mental mistake, the idea that he was thinking that club could get there, and just because he didn't feel the wind, you had to know that was a direction it was coming from. And it's up there somewhere, there's something there. So I thought it was a monumental mistake from a guy who didn't make many mistakes this year.

00:29:06
Speaker 3: I think you just hit on one of my you know, obviously, like analytics has brought this whole you know, course management strategy. Oh, you know, golf architecture doesn't matter, and you just effectively explained why golf architecture matters. Great golf architecture can lull people into making bad decisions. And the twelfth hole at Augusta is the is the quintessential. It's a shot that you know you can hit it, and it puts especially with great players, you know, like a tour pro that's attempting to win a Master's they believe they can hit any shot. It pits a player's ego against what they should do. And the twelfth hole is the perfect example of that and play out with golf architecture, and like everybody knows they should hit it to the middle of the green, but it's so difficult in the moment to do that and not and pass up on Hey, I've got a nine iron from a perfect lie and I can hit this right at that flag.

00:30:10
Speaker 2: And I don't you know, I just I would love to know more what goes through the mind. I mean, we know Tiger, it's just a no brainer for him, and he's willing to even make make four three putting taking that pin out of play than he is to go at it. And it really is, though, so fascinating how it happens every year. And yeah, i'd just be interesting to hear what cam Smith says maybe five ten years from now, and reflecting on that shot, I get why he sort of was defensive at the moment after and I also just can't fathom that a nine iron would have worked even if the wind was just completely dead still. But whatever it was, it was again exciting moment. The amen corner did its thing, and it'll be very different next year with a new te so we'll see how that plays.

00:30:58
Speaker 4: Thirteen.

00:30:58
Speaker 3: That is, we'll talk about that thirteenth the ad nauseum uh in in March and April, that's.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Gonna be, that's gonna be beaten into the crowd.

00:31:09
Speaker 3: So let's talk about the uh the PGA Championship, the second major of the year, which was won by Justin Thomas.

00:31:18
Speaker 1: Uh. He won in a playoff over Will's al Torus.

00:31:22
Speaker 3: It seems to me the lasting memory of this major will not be Justin Thomas's win, but rather what happened around it. So what's your early round memory from Southern Hills.

00:31:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, Thursday Friday.

00:31:34
Speaker 2: I guess what I go back to is that that the draw was was definitely the one this year where the weather really impacted those those late early guys.

00:31:44
Speaker 4: And and the early late had a huge advantage.

00:31:47
Speaker 2: That kind of sticks out to me just because it essentially killed Scheffler's chances of winning.

00:31:55
Speaker 4: You know.

00:31:56
Speaker 2: I think the the other standout for me with some of the bitching about bunkers, Uh, it was a little stuff.

00:32:04
Speaker 1: It was.

00:32:05
Speaker 4: I mean, that was just just so bizarre the whole thing.

00:32:09
Speaker 2: Guys had plenty of practice shots, they knew they were a little firmer, and and then ESPN had all these different explanations, and it was the pebbles and the this, and and it was like, I just it was just bizarre, uh that that that became a thing with some of the guys. And I mean Tiger had some horrible bunker shots, but he didn't he didn't blame the course.

00:32:31
Speaker 4: He just he just didn't.

00:32:32
Speaker 2: He just didn't evaluate the depth enough or understand the sand well enough. Uh So that was weird. And then I did the vibe was was a little strange. You know, you had Phil back and he didn't he Dave Stockton said he wasn't missed at the champions dinner and it was just it was it was definitely, uh a little I would just call it. The first two days it just seems like it was a little unsettled. I guess would just leave it at that. The whole thing.

00:32:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, it my takeaway was the sand drama.

00:33:05
Speaker 1: It was so strange.

00:33:07
Speaker 3: You know, here you are, you got the greatest professional golfers on the planet, a major championship, the idea that bunkers and bunkers sand, the type of sand becoming this huge story.

00:33:22
Speaker 1: It's you know, that's your job.

00:33:25
Speaker 3: It'd be like a pilot saying, you know, listen, I can't fly through these clouds. You know, I can do the cumulus clouds, clouds, but the nimbus, I don't do that. And you know, the idea when and it kind of like the homogenization of professional golf and the idea that these guys go and play every single course and the tour's aim is to make them the same as the other course the next week, right is Rory had a great quote about it where he talked about, you know, weekend, week out, you know, the tour tries to be the same so you don't have to do prep. And the idea of like, oh, we're just gonna present these guys with the same test every week.

00:34:10
Speaker 1: And and kind of.

00:34:11
Speaker 3: Like how that robs golf fans, how it how it dumbs down and dulls down the game and and prohibits us from watching. You know, these these really cool situations right the unfold and these different you know, one player, you know, the idea of like think about if tennis played on the same court every round, right, like we would have been law. We wouldn't get Rafa Nadal's like clay dominance, like his career, the incredible things they did at the French Open. And you know then also his evolution to become an all surface player, like we would lose that, and and the idea that golf has actively done this to their own game, is it I will? You know that was a lasting memory just in terms of of you know, how how poorly thought out. You know, the people that set up pro golf have it like you know that that the idea that everything should be the same and that this different sand that's a delightful sand to play out of having played there, like it, it's beautiful sand. Like the fact that it was different caused this huge uproar and the idea that they it shouldn't be the sand that they should replace. It's just silly, like the sand you know, and this probably gets into a wider discussion, but like sand should almost always be local in my opinion, you know, these these courses spend unbelievable sums of money to import sand from Ohio or Pennsylvania, you know, across the country, when really, if you want your golf course to be unique to your area, one way you can do it is by having local sand.

00:35:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, the beach sand at the old courses still the beach sand they don't. They don't try to bring in something to appease the players, by the way, just to be on brand with this podcast. The other thing that the players seem to not mentioned in this horrible bunker situation was nobody's ball was plugging, which is the thing they really hate. I thought they could always get off get out of a bunker, even if it's firm. Fried eggs. Not so much. And the ball wasn't plugging, so that wasn't an issue, and the course was in immaculate condition. They had all the practice around time in the world to get used to them, and they did, at least the guys I watched. So yeah, it was really strange and it's unfortunate, and yeah, I just and again on this book I'm working. I have a lot on local knowledge effect. It's one of my projects to try to trim it down. But I'm always fascinated by how local knowledge is offensive to some people now that it's not seen as a thing that, oh, here's a way I can get an advantage by figuring out the local stuff that I need to know. It's gone the other way, And I'm trying to write that this is something you should cherish as as something to be able to outsmart your opponents with by picking up this stuff. And they had, you know, and again there was no heavy rain that changed them.

00:37:20
Speaker 4: It was just weird.

00:37:20
Speaker 2: Anyway, I'm sure Russ is listening to us right now, just going all right, stop, move on. He doesn't want to hear it, all right.

00:37:29
Speaker 1: Late Round, Late Round Memories.

00:37:33
Speaker 2: Well, Sunday was just wild in the sense that you were like you said earlier, it was essentially metos. CBS was brought in Joaquin Neman to give the life story because it just didn't look like anybody was going to catch him. Justin Thomas Shanks it on the sixth hall. We never saw that on the broadcast. He faced a grueling decision on thirteen and he and Bones had the greatest conversation. And thank god I picked it up on the Feature Group and you could go back and watch it on the Feature Group. That never made the air because we were doing the Meadow Praierra life story and again, yeah, hey, they had to do it like this guy looks like he's gonna win, But we missed a couple of key moments from the eventual winners Final Round. I just can't. I just can't wrap my head around the fact somebody cold shanked it. He had one twenty one in according to shottlink into alf ver six at Bones, I did check. I did ask Bones, who is not a fan of rangefinders, as you might imagine, he's a pretty traditionalist type. The rangefinder was used after the shank. He said, I never thought I never thought I'd use it, and I certainly never thought I'd use it in that situation. So he overcomes a cold shank to win a major, and then thirteen he gets basically the same situation a little different lie in the playoff and and also lays up and then plays, you know, seventeen so beautifully. So I I I A lot of people will probably remember Metos drive on eighteen, and it was it was. It was not pretty the swing, but I I just kind of on on justin Thomas and and overcoming the shank and and and then just playing so beautifully on the back nine and in the playoff. But you don't think it'll be remembered for for any of that.

00:39:27
Speaker 1: I don't know.

00:39:28
Speaker 3: I think, I mean, I think there's gonna be sub memory of that, but I think it will always be the Beato falling apart before our eyes, just the lead disintegrating into the back.

00:39:39
Speaker 1: Nine wears on and you know, and JT posted the numbers.

00:39:43
Speaker 2: It.

00:39:43
Speaker 3: You know, it's so often in majors where you know they say, oh, you know, you never know he posts the number. It's the rare time that it actually came to Fruition where that number posted. Despite you know, there's some scoring opportunities down the stretch of that route, you know, like that it's not a of course, that's just got like a incredibly taxing finishing stretch.

00:40:04
Speaker 1: It's not easy.

00:40:06
Speaker 3: You know, sixteen and eighteen are bears, but you know along the way thirteen, fifteen, seventeen are all holes with some good shots, are are very attainable birdies. So with that, my kind of centers around Meadow and Cam Young, two young players, both quint essentially rookies. I think Veto didn't really technically be a it wasn't technically a rookie because of the battlefield up last year. But these two rookies, young players in the moment and just how difficult it is to get it done. We saw Cameron Young make a double on the sixteenth hole that kind of ended his chances, and you know, you looked at him, it was like, oh wow, this guy might be might be the guy it was starting to look like that and kind of coming out of at that point in his season.

00:40:54
Speaker 1: It was a real surprise that he was there.

00:40:57
Speaker 3: I don't think it is anymore, but you know, it was a surprise that he'd be in here, and then you start to examine it like it was kind of his coming out party. But with Meto and him both having those struggles. Uh, Meto, you know, you you watch him hit shots for effectively two days. Every shot you see Meto and just the way in which he went up to that eighteenth t it was so drastically different, and and it was a rare time. I think, like you know, these elite players especially make you know, take Cameron Smith at the Open, make look at make winning a major look quintessentially easy when it was so extraordinarily difficult, difficult, And that was a rare opportunity. And you know, it happens every five to ten years where we see a player that that really you can watch and say he definitely felt it in that moment. You know, it was it was almost an out of body experience. Uh, for Brito Pereira, it seemed like how fast everything move for him, from just getting up there. I mean the camera wasn't even ready for the shot. He was going so fast.

00:42:07
Speaker 2: Well, and by contrast, I think if you look at Justin Thomas, I think that's what stood out when you watched him that when we did finally the times we saw him on Sunday, he was slowing the game down. Not in an obnoxious way, but for him, I think he's somebody who can at times, you know, just seem he just he doesn't look happy, comfortable, whatever. You could just see it was a different per He was in a mode. He was in control of emotions, the whole thing, tempo, and that's why you play seventy two holes.

00:42:44
Speaker 1: What about the US Open, Brookline.

00:42:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say the first two rounds, but I think I liked that they just felt like a typical US Open. You had some surprise stories. You had your Joel Damon, I'm not worthy to play this. I don't even know why I bothered to qualify, and then there he is, you know, at the top of the leader board. You had the stars kind of finally wake up in the afternoon on Friday, of Morecawa and Ron playing really well. So I just liked that the first two days were kind of your uh normal, uneventful style US Open, other than you know, the broadcast was lampooned, and I am sorry. I wasn't in the media center. I was out watching golf when the uh I think I was when the broadcast ended and we had the heroin overdose drug scene. Right, you know, we just go from you know, we'll see tomorrow to to some awful harder moment. Geez, you know, sorry, I missed that, that lovely moment in USGA television golf history. But yeah, and I had I had a cool experience taking Ben Crenshaw over to Francis. We met restored house. He'd never been to the house, you know, stuff like that. So I just I just liked that the first two rounds were kind of traditional US Open. Some some no names, some qualifiers stories, and we were passed the live drama stuff from earlier in the week. We're talking world rankings and all that. So I like that it was a traditional in a boring way.

00:44:24
Speaker 1: Now for a quick word from our sponsor, the USGA.

00:44:27
Speaker 3: We all know the USGA for things like championships like the US Open that we just talked about rules and handicapping. But they are also the biggest investor in golf's future through programs that help courses manage water fuel resources. They have programs that expand junior golf. They have programs that make sure all races, genders, and ages have access to golf and feel welcome to play. All the work the USGA does wouldn't be possible without the support of USGA members.

00:44:59
Speaker 1: This is the bag tag.

00:45:00
Speaker 3: You get the bag tag, you get the hat, you get the rules book, you get other benefits. But you know, the biggest part about being a USGA member, signing up for the USGA membership is that your money goes to impact the game. You know, this is a affordable membership. It's an easy way to contribute to the next generation of golf. So I'd sign up for the USGA membership. I'm a member. When you join the USGA, you not only leave a positive impact on the game you love, but you also get benefits. You know that include a subscription to the Golf journal that they have that goes out quarterly. It's got a great feature every magazine with an architect talking about a hole they love. I think I just saw in the last one or one of the recent ones. Rob Collins did one on the third whole Aposta Tiempo. I really enjoyed reading that. Visit USGA dot org slash join. That's USGA dot org slash join and you can sign up to be a member there. Thanks, And now back to Jeff Shackelford. I think all the majors once the golf started that it was like a refuge from all the off course live PGA Tour drama. Like every single one, it was like this great four day sanctuary, and then the second that it was over it started back up.

00:46:26
Speaker 1: But during those rounds it was just this wonderful refuge.

00:46:29
Speaker 3: And you know, for me, this was the first time that we saw Phil playing on in a non live event, and to me it just was like kind of like the shelling out of Phil Mickelson and the hollowing out of Phil Mickelson and just how you know, he trudged around there seemingly lifeless for two rounds and you know, you think about it. To me, it was just one of those where you look back to Kiowa, which was just a little more than a year ago, and how drastically different the aura and the facade of Phil Mickelson was in such a short period of time. You know, him being at that tournament will be at something I remember, you know, posts this you know thing, and who knows how it plays out in the future, what his legacy ends up up being. I think, you know, is still a little bit you know, up in the air with this, with the live PGA tour stuff. But this was, you know, I think a rock bottom moment for Phil Micholson in his in his career as a golfer.

00:47:41
Speaker 2: Well, and especially it's a tournament that it's he's so identified with all the near misses, and it's his birthday and America and you know, all that kind of stuff. It I think that just sort of compounded the whole.

00:47:55
Speaker 4: Oddity of it.

00:47:56
Speaker 2: And yeah, I don't think his legacy, see, I think his legacy is set as a as a as an all time great player, and when we're few years removed from this, well, we'll remember that PGA and then that was it. I mean, it was it was like the Nicholas said, although Nicholas still played well after eighty six, so I don't know, I shouldn't say that he still had some moments, and then he still had some moments as a senior too. I yeah, I don't know if Phil ever gets the Yeah, he's a mojo guy, to use Johnny's favorite word, and he's he's somebody who feeds on on on being the man and being being Phil and kind of being an entertainer. And it just feels like that's gonna be very hard to get back.

00:48:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, what about late round.

00:48:42
Speaker 2: Well, the weekend at the country Club was amazing. I mean Saturday was just beautiful, chaos. It kind of you know, the eleventh pole we'd heard all about and it was good. It wasn't I mean it was I think it was just right. It didn't overwhelm the the championship, but they played it shorter and they moved the pin in a kind of tough spot, crazy spot in the back, and some chaos happened there, and I just my memory is just Saturday. It was just a great day that kind of set up Sunday with so many people with a chance to win. And then and then obviously the final round. You know, it's funny the shot, obviously, Fitzpatrick's bunker shot is amazing and remarkable and I still think about it and enjoy it, and I've even had to defend it a few times from people. That's those guys had great fairway bunker shots all the time. No, no, no, it was the weakness in his game. The US opened on the line. It was chaos out there. It was crazy. He did get a good lie slightly uphill. Yeah, he had a few things working for it. It's still a bunker shot where you and you have to carry it to the green. All the stuff going on, give me a break. But the shot that I go back to and I was standing next to you and we couldn't see it, but you know, it was dark, it was cool, and xalatauris bouncing back on sixteen and that iron shot he hit with such confidence and after Fitzpatrick Birdie's fifteen and boom, he just gets up there and hits that shot makes the pot, which you know a four footer with him or I think it was about four when you say maybe five, it's about four or five feet right. Anyway, that one that one has that shots state problem, it's in the problem.

00:50:27
Speaker 4: So there you go.

00:50:27
Speaker 2: Whatever at the distance was, it was not good. And that Birdie and the way he played that. I just that's a moment. It still kind of gives me goosebumps. And it's not a moment. It's not an easy hole, and it wasn't a you know, you just didn't feel like at the moment back to the Mojo word like he would have it, and boy, he just did. He just just didn't even wasn't even phased by the previous hole.

00:50:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I it's hard not to.

00:50:55
Speaker 3: You know, the weekend was extraordinary, the challenge in just the pace of the golf course and the conditions on Saturday. I don't I don't think you know, there was there was tough days at the PGA, but I don't think anything resembled just like what the modern what type of a modern test it could be with enough space, you know, rough that wasn't too much, It wasn't overwhelming rough, you know, but like it produced this unpredictability and then the firmness and what win. You know, you kind of had a lot of different elements that made that challenge so great that day Saturday obviously all timer and then Sunday that final round. I mean from the from the get go, from those guys getting out on the course.

00:51:44
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of days, a lot of majors.

00:51:46
Speaker 3: What I like to do with final rounds is kind of kind of sit back and watch and then go out for the back nine because you kind of let the story develop.

00:51:57
Speaker 1: But that day there's so much going on.

00:51:59
Speaker 3: And remember right out of the gate it seemed like it was going to be the Scottie Scheffler show. Yeah, and just like you know, it's so hard to sustain that great play on that golf course. And then you know where Xalturus was a little slow out of the gates, then he brought his in. Just the energy at that golf course, on that back nine and just with everything going on, and you know, this is that what one of those things that those old courses have is that proximity. It's the closeness and how you know, you just feel that that energy and what's going on around the course happening as in just then it became that duel with Fitzpatrick and obviously with zal Torus. You know the this year was a year of year, missus, and that putt on eighteen. I there's a picture where I think we're sitting next to each other and the expression on our faces and obviously is Zalat horses hunched over you just you felt like it was going in. You felt like it was going to a playoff, and to have it just hang on that lip, I mean I almost felt cheated that that didn't end in a playoff.

00:53:12
Speaker 2: You could actually see us in a photo. We weren't blocked out by the Netflix crew bringing the family out onto the green and just just like just taking over. Sorry, I had to those those giant camera rigs of There's got It better be good television. My god, they were in your face and enormous. But yeah, that was that was the only bummer I would I wanted a playoff, of course, I wanted it to start on seventeen. I don't know why the USGA paked one and eighteen as the playoff holes, and we never found out, but it did feel like that was the only thing missing from that event was to go to a playoff with those two. But it was still so so special, And I think to your point on Fitzpatrick and not to pick on Luke Donald, his fellow Northwestern great, but uh, you know, we've seen a lot of players who who are not the longest hitters, who play a certain way, Uh, try to make some changes and improvements and have it go bad very quickly. There's there's a long list of those guys who felt like I got to hit it longer to compete in the modern game, and and they screw up their their their their swing, or they screw something up. And he certainly hasn't done that. And I think he's going to be a very good player in majors, just depending on how his attitude is. Man, that was the thing that was a little disappointing at the Old Course. Was he he just yeah, I mean he was beautifully honest. He just said, I don't just I just don't like this. I don't. There are a lot of a lot of Brits who don't like links golf. They like inland, narrow, uh tree lined. You know, Monty was kind of the same way, and he plays a lot like money in certain ways. But he was playing so well, and you just wonder did he did he I'm not saying he talked himself out of a win at the Old Course, but you do wonder he was he was there and and and he didn't even like it and and had a chance. Uh he was playing well and so like, what what did you you know? Attitude wise? I think that's when you'd be it'd be interesting to hear how he reflects on that, or maybe that's what makes him good.

00:55:18
Speaker 4: Is he just is.

00:55:20
Speaker 2: He's got some he's got an energy about him where it's just like he's no messing around and this is what I do and I'll do it if it fits here, it fits. If not, I move on to the next one. And so I'm very curious to see what he does the next few few years and in the majors. I think he's going to be, Uh, he's gonna be a regular presence because his game just generally works on the kind of courses that are coming up.

00:55:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, when your when your game has no discernible weaknesses, which is effectively what he's built now shoring up the driver. It is, Uh, it works everywhere. It's amazing thing. What are You're good at everything? Yeah, you could play.

00:56:01
Speaker 1: In a lot of golf different types of golf course as well.

00:56:04
Speaker 3: All right, last but not least, uh, the the Open Championship. And I believe everybody is always a victim of recency bias, and I, uh, you know, I have been in my life but with this, I think that this will go down as one of the all time final rounds and in UH in Open Championship history, in terms of what we saw out there. Uh, the back nine by camera Smith was absolutely extraordinary and.

00:56:31
Speaker 1: Obviously one hundred and fiftieth at Saint Andrew's. It was. It was a delightful week. The golf course was was so firm and fiery.

00:56:41
Speaker 3: Obviously you talked about the pins, they were they were set up to prevent fifty nines, and I think it it did take away slightly from some of the interesting and fun pins and and kind of the playfulness that the old course could evoked.

00:56:56
Speaker 1: But what are what are your memories from from the Open?

00:57:01
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the first two days. Obviously, I don't want to start with the negative, so I'll go with the positive. Was uh. Karen Young's press conference after his sixty four in the opening was just a phenomenal session. It was kind of intense. It was a little weird, but but not but not not rude or anything. Just yeah, it's just kind of his delivery style. He's just a pretty focused, intense guy. But he was he's opinionated and he and he absolutely asserted that the way he played the game with power was was he was going to use that as an advantage. Uh, you know his backstory of having played there and made the made the pilgrimage trip as a kid and teed off nervously in front of the clubhouse. That was that was just really cool and kind of unexpected. You know, I just didn't know that much about his story there, and and I think I'd seen something about it, but he really didn't think a whole lot of it. So when you shoot sixty four in the opener, really cool. And then obviously the negative was the pace of play and the RNA I think bungled some things. Yeah, they the set up the first two days. I saw final round pins from twenty fifteen those first two days, but more poorly that you know, they just didn't have they didn't quite have the game plan dialed in on some gaps and the tee times and some maybe better marshaling. So you didn't have guys in the fairway on fourteen waving up people from the tee, and you had four groups at one point on fourteen, and so people were waiting where they weren't supposed to be, and there was they got that ironed out by the weekend, but it it of course led to this ridiculous afternoon situation of six twenty. For those last few groups playing in the dark, I kept waiting for them to call the round. They didn't. Those last maybe two groups really played in the dark. I went out there for Matt Griffin's group with live golf Gredelri Canner and it was it was getting pretty dark, and it was it was Matt hit a couple of great shots, but what was sad was the flow was so bad. You know, it's just for a player to to to take that long and on a golf course like that, it takes away from things a little bit. So that was that was the downside I guess of the of the first two days, I'd say and kind of that's that's that's That's the extent of my takeaway. And I mean there's so much more, but those were the main takeaways for the openers.

00:59:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it was a great first couple of rounds.

00:59:33
Speaker 4: For me.

00:59:34
Speaker 3: The early round stuff will always center on my first trip to Saint Andrews.

00:59:39
Speaker 1: That was the overwhelming thing.

00:59:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just the town, the walking around the golf course. You know, one thing that was I was I stayed in the dorms like you did, and it was just my urs was right off eighteen and just every day leaving the media center and walking, Yeah, we would walk down on the golf course to the dorm That's something I'll never forget. And just you know, in terms of the community around it, the way the town's intertwined and and just Scottish Scottish culture will be my lasting memory from the early round of the of the Open that I think when I think about, like what was the overwhelming thoughts is was really just being being there and being a part of that that uh you know, the fact you know that just the way that that town's kind of you know, all these people come in from all over the golf world and in a way it kind of acts like I would imagine the community is on a on a regular basis where everybody knows each other and and and such. But you know, with with the golf community descending in, it kind of then acts as the same type of community hub right for for the people in golf, right and then uh yeah, and so that that that'll be my lasting memory. What what about the uh the final rounds the last two by the way, just.

01:01:06
Speaker 2: Not to go down a rat hole. But I do want to I do need to ask, because I haven't spoken to you about this. So you played Ealy. You had this dreamy evening round Furman Fast. Ely's beautiful and wonderful and cool, and you were you were feeling like that was about as as good as golf could get for you. And I said, but you have a round it coming at North Barrick. You also got to play the old course. But I said, I could, could you just hold off until that round in North Barrick. So, uh, now you've you've played them, I'm just curious, did it did did North Barrack's architecture, you know, pull the heartstrings even a little more?

01:01:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I love I think North Berrick is a better golf course than Ely. Uh if you if you put it up, But I will say there's something about Ely, you know. The circumstances I think people always undervalue. You can get into a you know, and I'm probably guilt most guilty of this. You can get in a pure architecture, but there are circumstances with the El Roude. I was like coming off of a deathly, deathly case of food poisoning. And that Wednesday after that Wednesday afternoon was the first moment that we played ee that for that Wednesday, you know when you turn off of a off of a bug, you know, and and you finally start to feel off yourself again. It was, Yeah, it was that moment in my my you know, kind of journey through that where I began to feel like a human again and I went we you go went out there and you chase I chase sun.

01:02:43
Speaker 4: You know.

01:02:43
Speaker 3: It was we finished at dark and there was something that aspect of it. I think that that round and I mean the old course two days after an open extraordinary, Like one of my regrets was that we didn't get to spend We had budget the whole day for North Barrick and we didn't get to do the whole day. That was one of my biggest regrets. And that's because we threw the old course out. Like so it's just like one of those things where that that North Barrick Old Course day became like this marathon day and the Ely round was like at the end of this like it was like the I was like waking up again. I get that from fog So I think that both those courses are better golf courses. But I would say to people that like Ely is one that you absolutely cannot miss and just the overall experience, and in a way it's a more authentic town course. I think North Barrick holds onto its membership and everything, but Ely hasn't been commercialized to the extent of the old course and North Barrack where you get a little bit more of an authentic Scottish club experience. There no question, it's got such a cool routing and and I talked about this on a little bit, but like it's funny. I was talking with somebody at our event last week who's you know, pretty well traveled golfer, and I said to him he was asking. He was like, I'm so happy you went to Ely. Anyways, I was like, you know, when when fifteen turns back to the ocean, you know we're playing, we're chasing the light. I mean I I wanted to just like sit down in the fairway and sit there.

01:04:25
Speaker 1: It just like it was like an emotion was brought to me. I thought the round was over.

01:04:30
Speaker 3: I thought we were going back to town and they brought us back to this unsurreal setting one last time, and I just and I said, I said to this guy, I said, I want I almost cried because of the you know, just the the the feel of the place that he goes.

01:04:49
Speaker 1: You know, I felt the same way. I just was.

01:04:51
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe that we got one last look at that ocean, and it's it's a place that you know, of all the places I I can't wait to return to almost every course we played at some point in my life, but Elie's the one that I most want to get back to.

01:05:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's also yeah, it's an afternoon course. It's it's one that definitely you want to play in the afternoon. It just takes on something special. Some places are morning places in summer afternoon places. And the light, the way, it's it's the look, Yeah, it's it's it's it's an adventure and it There are just some courses that are that are the routing is more adventurous and it and it it maybe it makes up for some weak holds or something. There's a lot of links like that there. But it just like the twists, the turns and and the surprises and yeah, it's it's it's magical.

01:05:40
Speaker 3: So that's kind of the sad thing is is that you never about golf courses, right, is that that first time you play, there's such an uh a feeling of like discovery, right, And it's like the adventure of like you like, I felt myself, like you know, I felt terrible. I felt myself just like running over hills to see what was next.

01:06:05
Speaker 1: I just could not wait.

01:06:07
Speaker 3: And after there, I think that's why maybe this like there's such a culture around like going and seeing new courses and why people like it so much is that once it's once you've done it once that you don't there you don't have that sense of like, I don't know what's next.

01:06:29
Speaker 2: Well, And that's the ultimate trick, isn't it of an architect to make you want to discover new things more and more? And it's it's it's where rating rankings kind of get and got us in trouble. They they a lot of evaluations are made on one round, but we know that some of the best places, yeah, they blow you away the first time, but they keep it going when you keep going back. In some places, all the mysteries are solved the first time. And so again it's something I've been I've been kind of flushing out trying to do in this book, to try to make people think about what are those things that do resonate besides the obvious the views, the setting, the conditioning, the ambiance, whatever you want, all the words, but those little intangibles in the course that you discover that architects are sometimes not really allowed to do because they've got to make an impression that first time. And I think that's another reason why the links are just so enchanting and wonderful, especially any year like this where everything was so firm and fast, and I just don't think, you know, back to Saint Andrew's, I mean, I don't even know what that color was. By the weekend, it was sort of it went from blonde to kind of the gray, the sort of dead gray fescue. And it was amazing too, by the way, because I think the day I went out on, oh, Monday afternoon, I went back over there, I went around town.

01:07:57
Speaker 4: It was hot.

01:07:58
Speaker 2: It was the hottest day, or the next day I think was the hottest recorded Dan Skyllen, but they had clearly drenched the old course Sunday night. You can see the fescue already coming back colorwise is amazing. It's an amazing grass. But to move this along, because I did put us down that rattle the weekend, you know, you and I were kind of bouncing back and forth there on Kim and Rory, and I'm still stuck on how well Rory played and what a smart round it was. And he played the way you're supposed to play with the lead there and took the key trouble out of the way, and I just feel bad for him. He just really just did what you should do, and he was in control, and he was slightly off with about four or five iron shots, and that was the difference between seventy and sixty seven, probably in the difference in the championship. But that's the beauty of what transpired. Cam Smith wasn't off, and I think, I guess I'm still just hung up on his focus and that calm watching that conversation on sixteen T with Sam Pinfeld is his caddy, which has just got to be one of the great caddy names ever, and just kind of the debate, and it wasn't a debate about driver laying up, It was just what's going to be that club that takes the bunkers out of play. I think he hit five iron long five iron, and so just that atmosphere about around what he was doing and how locked he and he was, and then just yeah, my general kind of sadness that that Rory.

01:09:41
Speaker 4: It's hard.

01:09:41
Speaker 2: It's hard to watch when somebody you feel like they just did nothing wrong, they just got beat. It's it's obviously compelling to see somebody go out and grab it and win it. But I feel like with the old course and the whole thing, his history there, his history on Links, and for him to play that well on a Links that baked out not his favorite thing, kind of like Phil coming around on Link's golf, I think it would have been a similar type of win in terms of history of the game. So again, I don't I'm not trying to dump on Cameron Smith because because what he did was amazing. It's just that's I am left though, with that sense that we were deprived of something slightly on the in terms of the grand scope of major championship golf.

01:10:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, Cam Smith hunting Rory down really and obviously Cameron Young finished second, but Rory, you know, he kind of attempted to make an eagle on the last. I think if if he was playing for second, he could have he probably would have had a tidy up and down there on eighteen. I go back and forth on Rory. I think he played the round that Tiger would have played. And I as great a player Tiger is, I think Rory played a round that Rory wouldn't play.

01:11:02
Speaker 1: And when you.

01:11:03
Speaker 3: Look at what makes players great, and the identity of players is that they are unique and and and them in their own way. And I think Rory's style of play has to be free wheeling, it has to be aggressive, and and it was too cautious. It was he he he allowed Cameron Smith. He opened the door for Cameron Smith to come come in and and I think, like.

01:11:35
Speaker 1: It's so like, it's so difficult.

01:11:38
Speaker 3: You're talking about two world class players, two of the best players in the in the in the world, and both of them at playing a fantastic tournament. And what a perfect course for Cameron Smith. You know, I think that's the that the thing. I'll I think Rory got left off the hook a little bit and and to shoot you know that score on that day with no wind, it was at a US Open. That's the seventy five and we're saying completely different things.

01:12:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, but I mean he had to take the guys were hitting it in the burn on one and I'm sure he knew that from where he was staying, and I'm pretty sure his dad was scouting. Now, like he had to take that out of play. Is if he does that, you know, the round just starts off on a horrible note because guys were hitting it in there. It was the wind was sneaky. But what I wanted to point out to your point on the sluggish was the vibe there with Hovelin on Saturday was so good. I mean, they walk at the same pace, they play at the same pace. They were both playing great and obviously Hoblin just didn't have it on Sunday. And again that's not an excuse for Rory, but it did make a difference, I think for him Saturday and made a difference. It helped him, and I think Sunday it again, small thing, but it is one of those little things. You need all those little things to go right in a major, and you kind of felt like I and Hoblin would have that same vibe on on Sunday, and it didn't it didn't happen.

01:13:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly one that will be studied forever, you know, and thought it remembered forever, and and you know, you definitely feel like it's one that that he kind of slipped away. But that's part of part of major championship golf. It's what makes it so entertaining is that the you know, the I and that's the thing that's where I I don't feel I felt like Rory was trying to hang on instead of trying to win.

01:13:32
Speaker 2: Yeah. Perhaps, uh that's it. I mean he had I was out on seven, he hit an amazing drive on seven, and he just pulled the wedge just a little bit. I mean three or four shots like that. I just feel like he put himself in pretty aggressive positions and it just for whatever reason, it he was just a little bit off in that ground when the ground is that firm too. And again I'm making a lot of excuses for him. But the same thing happened with Tiger Carnousti when when Molinari just played a flawless round and Tiger, Tiger missed two shots in that final round and one of them was a miscalculation. And the other one was just kind of a just kind of not a great t shot. But the fine line is just it's just intense. And again, I you know, for Rory, that's not been the kind of golf that he has played well on at all. You know, when he went a Hawila like it was it was soft. So I admire the way he played, and I I guess I just I got to think at his his at this point in his life, he did think about, well, if I go out there and try too hard and play kind of free wheeling golf and I pump one out on eighteen or something and I cast myself to open, I'm going to be really sick to my stomach. And by the way, not that it mattered because he had to make two on eighteen, but the wind did kind of come up, and I think he was in between clubs there. I don't I don't think anybody got to ask him, and we certainly were gonna ask in that post round thing. But and again it really didn't matter, but it I think driver was still too much. I don't think he really had a shot for eighteen with just a little bit of wind. Again, the first world problem, Yeah.

01:15:18
Speaker 1: The uh it was a great open.

01:15:20
Speaker 3: It was uh Cam Smith, Uh obviously that back nine. So many shots he just And the thing about it too with Cam is he kind of thought it wasn't gonna happen when he I don't he didn't birdie nine, right, Yeah, you know, he hit it in a perfect spot and he didn't get take advantage of there. And for it to have, you know, the birdie on eleven, that's a shot I'll never forget, you know, to make birdie there. It just he he had the guts and with the way those pins were, like you said, like that round was four shots tougher because of where the pins were and the guts to hit some of the shots that he hit is you know. And I think that's the thing that you know from his wigs at the Players, like the shot he hit on seventeen at the Players, some of the shots he hit down the stretch of the old course. That is the guy that I would not want to see in my rear view mirror, just because of the way he puts the ball and and the way he hit his approach shots. And it'll be really interesting to see what the majors hold for camp Smith next year.

01:16:26
Speaker 1: Now that he's a lid player, right.

01:16:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just wonder what I've been wondering this a lot, Well, will they lose some edge? And I'm not just focusing on fifty four holes, just kind of the Yeah, there's a there's a rhythm to the schedule, and it's not exactly perfect right now because I think we've got some majors a little close together. But whatever it's, it's we know what it is. We know and events kind of give you a sense of where your game's at. So I just think it's gonna be really interesting for somebody like him, and maybe if Keopka were to get healthy and be back in his old form or some I can't maybe Dustin Johnson a little bit, but a few a few of those guys. I just wonder what that's going to do to them. And we're going to find out how much that that kind of build up to the majors, especially the Masters, what it means to their game, and what it puts you through. I mean, you know, I'm a firm believer that that that play on the West Coast and in certain events in Florida really does give you generally a good sense and the numbers I think back it up for the most part of me, a couple outliers here and there, But they give you that sense. They put you through a lot of different conditions and grasses and things that prepare you. So it's going to be a very interesting element of twenty twenty three to see what for those for somebody like him, especially who seems to be a great golf course player and thrives in certain conditions and obviously loves links golf, but also just I feel like he can play a lot of places as well with as you say, the way he putts and everything else, and he just has a sense about the way. It just feels like he cuts through a lot of clutter. And so yeah, that's gonna be a big, big element of twenty twenty three for him and whoever else makes the leap to team golf.

01:18:22
Speaker 3: All right, now, we've got way too long here. We we can't leave without your ranking one through four. This is the hardest year maybe to rank one through four. What do you? How are you going with these?

01:18:37
Speaker 2: Yeah? I was surprised my reader poll. It was overwhelming on the old the Open and the old course. And I keep I just I kind of keep going back to the US Open. Maybe it's because we've been a little bit nostalgic for the for the US Open to just be a US Open and more traditional and play out the way you hope, and then that amazing finish. So yeah, I have to give the Open the first vote, just because it was amazing in most regards. But I would I would, I would have the US Open and then and then the PGA pretty close there.

01:19:13
Speaker 4: You know.

01:19:13
Speaker 2: The only thing that really held the PGA back, I guess was the weather was a little weird, and you know, the weather was weird all year, and that's another thing. It's a credit to all these people who set up these places that they made I do. Yeah, in years past, we would have had a debacle this year, but the comedy you know, the country, every one of them really had a chance to have something go badly wrong and they didn't. And so that's a little bit of a tip of the cap to those people for for preventing debacles that we might have seen in the past. And that's Yeah, they've learned from some mistakes and they've they've managed things better and they have the tools to do it. So I guess I go, you know, Open, the US Open, PGA, and then the Masters for it you I.

01:19:58
Speaker 3: Go Open, US Open, PGA Masters, and I think all of them were great. Like and in another year the Masters probably, I don't think it would be number one, but it might be two or three given everything and Tiger.

01:20:13
Speaker 1: Uh.

01:20:14
Speaker 3: You know, that was a extremely emotional event, and yet it's the fourth because of how extraordinary the other events were. I think like the PGAs three for me, because there was a real real snooze factor potential. Uh at the at the beginning of Sunday and and the end of Saturday, like you know.

01:20:34
Speaker 1: It was people were worried.

01:20:36
Speaker 3: It was it was gonna be real kind of great your teeth Okay, Well that happened and uh and in the excitement really came from the last hour of the tournament. So, Jeff, what's what's the what's the date on the book that you've referenced a few times? Uh? And where can people read, uh get your Great Lateral newsletter?

01:21:01
Speaker 1: How do they get that?

01:21:02
Speaker 2: Well, that's easy to just you know, search my name g off A, G E O F F and golf on Google and my website or the Quadra Quadra Lateral. And now I can't even say it. Well, somebody called it the collateral the other day. That's why I go with the Quad A lot that is easy to find as well, and.

01:21:22
Speaker 4: You can sign up.

01:21:22
Speaker 2: It's free and you can make a contribution. You get to get other editions and some other things that go with it. And the book is scheduled for next spring. You know, we have some supply chain issues, but I'm going to guess it'll be late spring. I'm going to hit send on the manuscript next week. I'm really some days I'm beyond elated about it. And then there are other days. Of course, you read some stuff and you go, geez, didn't I write that like three pages before? And then so I'm in that final stages of printing it out and editing and trimming and redpen and it's just different than editing on the screen, but it's better, and so I'm excited. It's a different way to look at It's golf architecture for normal people as a title, and I'm sticking with that, and it's just I think it's a way to look at basically, it's a way to have a more constructive and critical eye without turning into you or me perfect to retain their normal seed, retain their santas insanity, to be able to hold their own conversation, to pick up other details, enjoy a course more, but without completely losing their mind. Not that I'm saying you've lost your mind, but we we do notice some weird things that other people don't notice.

01:22:37
Speaker 3: If you're if if if my wife was od, she'd tell everybody that I've lost my mind. So, uh, that's that's not attult necessarily. So Jeff, thank you so much for coming on and uh reliving this awesome year of men's major championships. And uh, we'll talk to you soon and everybody should go sign up for the quad.

01:22:58
Speaker 1: Uh, and we look forward to the new book.

01:23:01
Speaker 3: I've been hoping you write more books since your past books have been so wonderful.

01:23:09
Speaker 2: Great, well, thank you Andy. I look forward to getting it out there and hearing what people think. Thanks a lot.

01:23:25
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's episode was edited by Meg Atkins.

01:23:32
Speaker 1: Thank you Meg.

01:23:34
Speaker 3: As a quick reminder, we've kind of restructured the Frida Egg newsletter.

01:23:39
Speaker 1: It is free.

01:23:40
Speaker 3: It goes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday straight to your inbox, and really it tells you what's going on in golf, but also adds a perspective, so you know, it's got the writing of Will Knights, it's got the writing of Brendan Porth, Garrett Morrison, meg Atkins and myself and day Wednesday Friday, you will have us weigh in on some topic that's going on in golf or and as well as the news. So it's the easiest way to stay up to date with golf and also to get a little bit of color to.

01:24:13
Speaker 1: The situations going on.

01:24:16
Speaker 3: You can sign up at our website, The Friday dot Com or check our social media handles.

01:24:20
Speaker 1: There are sign up options there as well.

01:24:23
Speaker 3: So thank you and we will be back later this week. We've got the President's Cup, so we will be back later this week with a little podcast on the President's Cup.

01:24:34
Speaker 1: And thanks for listening.