It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to you every Wednesday.
The Pot is back. Took a couple weeks off, took a much needed holiday last week.
I've been in Europe. This is week four on the road for me. So and I am at the Open Championship Hoylake for the last major of the year. And what are we going to get? John Ram wins the Masters. We have brooks Kepka winning the PGA, Wyndham Clark winning the US Open and now Hoylake. Who is going to lift the claret jug defending champion is cam Smith. Cam one recently about a week week ago on Live and
Roy McElroy won on Sunday at the Scottish Open. So they were the two that were fighting down the stretch at St Andrews last year. They're both coming in here in fantastic form. Are they going to make a run? I think obviously everyone is expecting Roy McElroy.
To make one, make a run.
He won here in two thousand and fourteen. He comes off of winning the Scottish Open and he got it done. I think the way that he won the Scottish Open very very windy link style golf course which believe it or not, hasn't always suited Rory's game. When he did win in twenty fourteen, obviously it wasn't the kind of Classic Open championship conditions, but.
He got it done.
I thought it was a really big win for him, coming off the way he played at the US Open, and I think Roy's got a point to prove. I think with everything that's happened over the last year, all the stuff that happened with Live, the current situation, with where we are today, which if you can tell me where we are today in professional golf more than I do, because I still think we're a lot in the dark
as to what actually is going to happen. But I definitely think Rory comes in here playing some amazing golf. And I had a ringside see I was down at the Live tournament and watched Cam Smith. He shot sixty three one day and hit nine greens his short game. But the way he puts the golf ball, I just don't know if you can find someone that puts the ball better than him right now. He is a pure, pure putter, very similar to the runs that we've seen Jordan Speith get on. Cam has this amazing ability to
make twenty five thirty footers when he needs to. Sometimes it's for Birdie, sometimes it's for Parr. And I think because he puts so well, it kind of overshadows how just ridiculous his short game is, which is it's pretty dirty. His short game is unbelievable. He played a practice round, so yesterday Tuesday, played a ninth hole practice round. It was Brooks Koepka, the Ryder Cup captain, Zach Johnson, and then Adam Scott and Cam Smith and I got to walk nine holes, got to watch Cam and I talked
to him a little bit about his putting. And I think it's something that anytime you're around someone that does something so well, I want to try and ask them as much as I can about how they do it, why they do it. And I've heard Cam before talk about how he doesn't have a lot of mechanics. But his coach, Grant Field, who I had on the pod about month month and a half ago, if you haven't had a chance to check that one out, it's fantastic. But Cam kind of does the same thing every time
when he warms up. He uses a putting mirror for his eyeline.
But in talking to Grant.
One of the things that he works really really hard on is aiming the putter and consistently aiming the putter for the line that he's choosing. Yeah, so obviously everyone listening is going to say, yeah. I mean, of course, you.
Can be a good putter if you aim the putter.
But ask yourself how diligent and how constant you focus on aiming the putter. I think a lot of people are worried about their stroke. They're worried about the mechanics of their stroke. But you've got one of the best putters on the planet and one of the best putters I've ever seen, and he doesn't really have any mechanical thoughts, and he focuses a lot on aiming the putter consistently.
But I think we were on the sixth or seventh green yesterday and I said to him, he was, you know, hitting some putts, and I said, you know, what do you think about when you putt? And he said, I don't really think that much, but what I do think about a lot is the speed that the ball is going to go in the hole. And again, that's another kind of comment that sounds like a throwaway comment.
Oh yeah.
Obviously the speed at which the ball goes in the hole is important. But for a guy like Cam, I mean, he's focusing on aiming the putter consistently, and he's focusing on the speed at which the ball is going in the hole. He said that he likes to pick out a spot and kind of putt to that kind of general area of where that spot is. But when you watch his stroke, he definitely doesn't have that long follow through that I see a lot of players struggle with.
There is definitely a hit. It's something that my dad believes very very strongly in I think Tiger Woods, who's one of the greatest pure putters of all time, as well, there is a definite hit. And I think if you're struggling with your putter, one of the thoughts that you could use is creating a consistent collision between the club and the ball how you strike the golf ball when you putt. And Cam hits a lot of really good putts,
as all great putters do. And one of the other things that my dad always says about great putters is their putts have the go in look. Cam's putts always have the go in look. They always look like they're going in. So I think he comes into this week as defending champion on good form, having just won. He knows how to get it done. He knows what it takes to win a major championship, and he knows what it takes to win a Claret Juck. As I mentioned,
Rory comes back twenty fourteen. He won here seventeen under. Ricky Fowler finished fifteen under in twenty fourteen, Ricky just coming off I think one of the most important wins of his career. He'd gone three years without a win. It's the job done a couple weeks ago at Rocket Mortgage in Detroit, and I think that was a huge, huge win. He's finished second here before. Does Ricky now find some form in the major championships? But I think Rory will come here with a lot of self belief.
He'll obviously come back.
Here knowing that he is won here before and lifted a Cleric jug. I think the I wouldn't say it's the difficulty, but the constant theme with Rory McElroy is he won two majors in twenty fourteen. He won here at Hoylake and then he won the PGA at Valhalla. And I've said this before on the pod. I've said this before in interviews. If someone told you in twenty fourteen that in twenty twenty three, when we came back to Hoylake, that brooks Kepka would have more majors than
Rory McElroy, I think people would be surprised. I don't say that because like coach brooks Kepka. I say that because to me, that's a testament to the greatness of Roy McRoy. I think most people in twenty fourteen when he won here at Hoylake, I think most people would have they never would have believed that he didn't win double digit majors by now. That's how prolific his talent is. That's how dominant Rory can be. But it has been
nine years since he's won a major championship. And I don't think it's a question of if Roy McRoy is going to win another major. I think it's a question of when. But when that happens, I think it's important. I think the longer he goes without if he goes another cycle this year in twenty twenty three, with everything that's been going on, with everything that he volunteered, for with the PGA Tour, with everything that the PGA Tour asked him to do. I think it's interesting that no
press conference at the US Open. I don't think he had a press conference at Hartford. There was no press conference last week at the Scottish Open, and I don't think he's done a press conference yet here at the Open Championship now. For someone that has been a very, very vocal spokesperson for the PGA Tour, I think it's I think it's interesting that someone that has been the most vocal person in the game has chosen not to do press conferences.
I don't know what to read into that.
Rory said it Hartford he was just going to get back to playing golf, didn't want to answer a lot of the live questions that he was constantly getting asked, and then in Scotland last week said if liv was the only tour that he was going to play on, he'd retire. So I think the longer Rory goes without winning another major, the louder the drums are going to beat. And I think he is one one of the favorites this week. I think he's I think you can tell that he feels like he is out to prove something.
He's out to prove that he is Rory McElroy. And I also think that in his mind, Rory sees himself as kind of the leader of the PGA Tour and if he wins, and if he wins major championships, I think he It's just my opinion, but I think he thinks that's a win for his cause, which is the PGA Tour. But I think he will come in this week with a lot, a lot of.
Buzz.
I think he's every I mean, obviously Golf Channel, all the people on social media, they're gonna they're gonna paint him as as the favorite, and I think you can make an argument for that. So I want to thank our partners at RAPSODO. If you've been listening since the beginning, you know I'm a massive fan of RAPS mobile launch monitors. They're easy to use, extremely portable, and provide the same
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year of premium membership free again. That's code CH three at rapsodo dot com for seventy dollars off the m l M two Pro, a year of Premium membership and a dozen RPT golf balls. I was here in twenty fourteen and I wanted to share an interesting story.
It was funny.
We went out yesterday and played a practice round and we were waiting for the group in front of us to go off on the first hole and Adam Scott was there and Brooks was there, and Scotty and Brooks were there first and they said, hey, you want to play and Scotty said yeah, I've got cam Smith to join us. And I was like, Brooks was like cool, and then Zach Johnson joined. Who's the Ryder Cup Captain? I think a lot of people read into that yesterday.
That wasn't by design. I was walking up to the eight, walking up to the first t and Zach Dunton was walking along beside me and he came up and said.
Are you go?
Are you guys going out? His Brooks going out? I said yeah, he's going out right now and he said, oh cool, I'll join up. I thought it was really good. There were a lot of really good conversations. They talked a lot about the Ryder Cup, and they talked a lot about the selection, which I think you'll you'll all be hearing more about as we get closer to the Ryder Cup. But I think it was really important. You know, Zach made a comment that the Ryder Cup is the
Ryder Cup. It's not the PGA Tour Ryder Cup, It's the Ryder Cup, and he wanted the best players from the United States playing on that team. So whatever side you're on of this live PGA Tour debate, you're going to see pretty positive you're gonna see Brooks kept on this team. And I wouldn't be surprised if you see on the American side, if you saw another live player. There are a lot of people listening that won't like that. But unless they changed the rules, brooks Keepka most likely
is qualified for that team. And I think Zach is going to look at other players and how they are playing, and if that player is playing on live. It seemed to me that Zach didn't seem to be against picking players that are playing well, regardless of where they're playing. So, but in twenty fourteen, I had set up I was working with Ernie Els at the time and had set up for Ernie Els to play.
A practice round with Brooks.
And you know, Ernie was a big, you know, big star at the time, had won they had won his fourth major in twenty twelve up at Mirfield, and he was a four time major champion, and any time that I could get Brooks out with a guy like Ernie El's, it was a great learning experience for Brooks. My dad used to do that for Tiger Woods when he was growing up, when he was younger and qualifying for all
these majors. He'd set up for him to play with Greg Norman, He'd set up for him to play with Sevi Bias Steros, He'd set up for him to play with Raymond Floyd, some of the old school, old guard guys. And that's one of the ways I think Tiger learned. He learned how the greats of the past did things, and I think it was a huge part of Tiger's learning curve. That was something that was really important for me at that early stage of Brooks's career. But obviously
Brooks idolizes like everybody does. They idolized Tiger Woods. But Brooks's real idol and he had a serious man crush on him and still a little bit does today. Was Adam Scott. I mean Scott, he has always been you know, the golf swing, the way that Adam care himself, the professionalism. Adam is a very, very classy classy player, and he's a classy person both on and off the golf course. So I knew that Adam was going to join us
for that practice round, but I didn't tell Brooks. And it was so funny that day back in twenty fourteen, Adam walked onto the he was walking towards the first tea and Brooks was like, is Scotty joining us? And I was like, yeah, Scotty's joining us in the group, and he was pretty nervous. Adam had never met him, and I asked Brooks and I asked Adam yesterday, who's the fourth in the group. And I'm drawing a blank. They're drawing a blank. I'm sure it'll come back to
me at some point. But they played a match and Ernie said, what's the team's and Scotty said, well, I'll take Brooks. And so it was raining, it was blowing. Adam had Stevie Williams on the bag and so everybody got up. First hole is a little dog leg from right to left. I mean, one of the things about Hoylake is it is it favors long hitters, and it
favors people that can drive the golf ball. And you're going to need to drive the golf ball well this week if you're going to have a chance to win, because you can get it in a bunker up against face and you're looking at making double. You can hit it offline, get a bad lie, hit it in a gorse bush, hit it in the thick, thick rough and you're staring double bogie in the face. So everybody gets up and hits Ernie gets up and hits Adam the other player.
Drive me crazy. I can't remember who this is.
And then Brooks got up and just absolutely hammered a drive. If I remember correctly, not everybody hit their best drive on that first hole back in twenty fourteen. But Brooks stood up and just hit a hammer fade. And we were walking down the fairway and Stevie Williams looked at me and he said, where's this kid play? I said, well, he's just finished fourth in the US Open at Pinehurst that Martin Kimer won. He was on the Challenge Tour, and you know he's playing, you know, half in Europe,
half in the States. And Stevie said, man, that's sound with the driver. That's a different sound. And I think Brooks knocked it stiff on the first hole. Birdied the first hole and Scotty said, well, that's my partner. And you could just see that that Brooks was some of the nervousness that he had.
But there I think the rain really.
Came in that day, and I think what we played played one to three four.
I think we played.
About five six holes and Brooks never missed a shot and it was blowing twenty and it was raining sideways and there was a par five I want to say six maybe and straight in the wind. Brooks hammered a drive and he hit this low bullet stinger three two iron underneath the wind, got it up on the front edge. And Stevie Williams, who you know Caddy Tiger for all of his major championships, just said the majority of them except the one in twenty nineteen, just said, man.
That's different.
And in later years Stevie went on to write an artist, you know, got asked about, you know, good players, and he said, you know, the quality of strike that he saw Brooks kept at a very very young age, and I think it was really interesting, you know, coming back, you know, we talked about that practice round and in twenty fourteen, a lot yesterday when we were in the practice round with Adam scott and we were talking about, you know, just I was talking with Scottie about how
crazy things have become and how everyone's lives have changed and where everybody was in twenty fourteen versus where they are in twenty and twenty three, and it was pretty special, man. It was a proud moment for me and and looking
at you know, that was right at the beginning. I think I was two years in and working with Brooks and to think that, you know, almost a decade later, he's got five majors and has done all the things that he's done and gotten to number one in the world, and you don't get those moments off in life, those those moments to kind of reflect, and Scotty and I talked a lot about it yesterday. You couldn't talk about Hoylake without two thousand and six. I was here for
that Open Championship as well. Tiger Woods won eighteen under one driver the entire week. It's one of the hottest major championships that I've ever been to. It was a absolute heat wave here outside of Liverpool. There were no fans to be bought. Everyone was there's not a lot of air conditioning in the houses that everyone's staying in in the hotels, and it was a heat wave.
It was in the mid nineties.
Every day the golf course was like concrete. It was the fairways were like runway. The balls were bouncing, the balls were rolling, and it was ridiculously hot. There wasn't a tremendous amount of wind, and other than the first day. For the last three rounds, Tiger, if I remember correctly, I don't think Tiger he had one driver all week, and I think it was in the first round. So for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, he never hit a driver. He basically just hit a lot of stingers, a lot
of irons. The ball was going miles And in two thousand and six, I mean that was when Tiger Woods was you know, head and shoulders above the rest. He was in full kind of old school Tiger mode. Was working with Hank Haney at that time. His win percentage was through the roof and it was not long after
his father died. And I think everybody remembers if Tiger on the last hole when he putted out kind of you know, collapsing in Stevie Williams's arms and you know, crying his eyes out because it was the first major championship that he was going to win without his father being able to see it. And I think it showed a very very human side of Tiger that you know, not of people have ever really gotten to see. So two thousand and six Tiger Woods eighteen under, twenty fourteen,
Rory McElroy seventeen under. I mean, we went out today. I was in a practice round today Wednesday. It was Brooks DJ and Gary Woodland and it was raining when we teed off, and you know, I thought maybe they would play only nine holes, but everybody said, listen, we're probably going to have to play in the rain unless it's lightning.
They don't really stop.
Play at the Open Championship unless it's really really high winds. These are link style golf courses, so there's no water that's going to collect on any of these greens because they're you know, they're so sandy, and that's one of the great things about links golf. But it was windy today. It was really windy yesterday afternoon for the practice.
Round that I walked, and then.
Walked eighteen today and it rained pretty much NonStop, not torrential rain, but the umbrellas were up, just a steady, steady, that kind of Open Championship rain that we've seen in the past where you know, the telecast comes on and the conditions aren't good and everybody knows the conditions aren't.
Going to be good.
So the caddies in the group, Butchi who caddies for Gary Woodland, Ricky Eliatoro caddies for Brooks, and then Austin Johnson, a J who caddies for DJ. They were talking about where the wind was. They were talking about, you know, with their respective players. A lot of it was what were the carry numbers to the bunkers, what were short numbers to the bunkers, and that.
I've said this before. I love the practice runs.
I love going out and being able to watch the interaction, especially on a difficult day today where the caddies, you know, the caddies are soaked, right, the player takes the umbrella. There's only one umbrella on the bag and the player is going.
To take it.
So I always had practice rounds if we're walking around, try and get the umbrella over some of the caddies, and they all said today and don't bother because I'm already soaked and I'm not going to get any dryer. So but it was really really windy. It was it was rainy, and it's it's this is a difficult golf course. You have to drive the golf ball in play off
the team, obviously, I think everybody knows that. But when the conditions get really, really tough, when the grips are wet, when it's windy, when the umbrella's up, when the umbrella's down, when the players trying to get underneath the umbrella to get the club and the caddies are trying to get the towels keep the towels dry, it gets dicey out there, and I think you can you can hit some bad shots just because it's hard to get one hundred prepared in the time that you've got because of all of
the things that you're trying to do from a playing standpoint. You're trying to get the yardage, you're trying to keep the clubs clean, it's raining, you're trying to keep the umbrella up. So I think that's one of the difficulties in playing in this But I don't think it's going to be warm enough over the next four days for there to be really any lightning, and so they are into play and they were going to play through whatever
the conditions that are out there or out there. So I think the forecast as always is late early the break, or is early late the break.
You'd never know.
And I think out of all of the major championships, this one can somewhat be down, not so much to luck, but based off of if there is severe weather, there is probably going to be one morning or one afternoon where the weather is better where the front is blowing in in the afternoon or the front blew out in the afternoon. I'm looking outside right now and it's not raining.
It doesn't look very windy. So today would have been an example of a day to where it rained pretty much NonStop until gosh, we went out to hit balls and it just started. DJ just started to hit balls right around nine thirty ten o'clock this morning, and halfway through that he was teeing off with the guys around eleven, and really about halfway through that warm up, it basically
just started the rain. So the umbrella went up and it basically rained from about eleven until they teed off at eleven, and it rained solid until we got to around the fourteenth fifteenth hole. We finished right around three o'clock this afternoon. So there's an example of let's say you teed off late. Let's say you're one of the
afternoon players. The guys in the morning are just gonna stay and play in constant, steady rain, and the guys in the afternoon might get conditions to where the rain stops, the wind dies down, and the golf course then becomes wet and it becomes somewhat gettable to where there's pins that you could go at that maybe you couldn't go out in the morning. I think a lot of trying to aim for the center of these greens, not worrying
about where the flag is. And then there's there's some quirky things about this the third hole, all the way down the right hand side, there's basically directly off the right side of the freeway there's internal out of bounds. So if you block a t shot at all at the third hole, your reteam because it's going to go out of bounds if you hit it to the right, and then do you overcompensate for that and pull it left, and then you get out very much like a Links
golf course. This golf course starts right by the clubhouse, goes all the way out to the tenth hole, and then eleven you turn back. Are you turning back into the wind? Are you turning back downwind? I think sometimes downwind here at the Open Championship, when the wind really does get up, can be as difficult as into the wind, because you're trying to figure out how that's going to affect is going to knock.
The ball out of the guy?
The greens then start to get really, really firm, so I think it is going to be a very very good test. One of the things that a lot of players and caddies and everyone is talking about is the redesign of the seventeenth hole.
It's a short part three.
There have been a couple of people that have made some really I guess controversial comments. You could make anything there. You could be trying to hit the middle of the green and if you don't stop it, you could land it on the putting surface. It could roll off and you could make X. You could make bogie, you could make double, you could make quad. I think we could see people on a short par three. I think you could see some eight nines, maybe even some double digit
numbers because the bunkering is so severe. They've redesigned it to where you're hitting up to a plateau and there is a tremendous amount of runoff area. To the right of the seventeenth hole, there are deep bunkers. There's a big cavernous bunker front left.
In talking to.
The players today, they thought that maybe the left bunker, that is green side, might be the play. If you're going to miss it, that might be a better up and down. But if you're hitting something and the prevailing wind takes this ball down to the right of the seventeenth green, you're I mean, do you try and putt it? Do you try and chip it? You try and hit it into the bank, and there's not a lot of
room on the green. The green has all of these kind of false front there's a big false front at the front edge over the back of the green is dead because it runs off and then runs into some thick, thick, nasty, nasty stuff. Massive fall off to the right hand side. Left looked a little bit easier of an up and down, but regard depending on where they put the pins, it's going to be very, very difficult. I think it's to
be controversial. There are I've heard some players, some caddies that say, listen, it could you could have a one to two shot lead and make X make a seven and lose the tournament on one hole. A lot of players are liking it to the seventeenth hole at TPC, meaning that it comes very very late in the round. It's a short iron. You're probably only going to be hitting regular conditions. I think today it was right around one hundred and forty yards, so guys are chipping wedges.
But if the wind gets up, you're going to have to make a full swing to an elevated green to where you can't really see a lot. And will the seventeenth hole, which has been redesigned, will that play a big role in the outcome of this tournament.
I think time will tell.
But this is one of my favorite of the majors. It is a true open. I love the fact that you've got so many players here from so many different countries.
It's a good one.
And you know, I was lucky enough to work with Ernie Als in twenty twelve and I got to catch up with Ernie. He plays on the champions Tour. Now, even though we live in Jupiter, live in the same place, I don't really get to see Orny that often, and normally over the last four or five years, it's always around the Open Championship. So I saw him yesterday.
It was great.
Got to give him a big hug, and you know, we talked about, you know, that Open Championship that he won in twenty twelve and how special that was. And he was so funny. He made a comment and he was he swore and he said, man, Brooks has got one more major than I do, and he's got five and I've only got four.
In it you could tell it. It pisses Ernie off. He's a great champion.
Obviously he's happy for Brooks, but you know, I love that about Ernie, the competitive spirit. But it was great to catch up with Ernie. He's such a great champion. He's won a Cleric Drug twice, two time US Open Champion, and a two time Open champion, So it was great to catch up with him. And like I said, this is one of my favorite tournaments of the year. I'm
a little biased as a coach. It was the first major championship that I was a part of on the winning side Whin or Anyone here or Royal Live Them in twenty twelve. So the Open Championship is always very special for me. I prefer it when it's in Scotland, which that's controversial, that's controversial, But I think we're going to have a great tournament. And like I said, earlist by third one that I've been to at Hoylake and
I saw some great golf when Tiger Woods won. There was some amazing golf when Rory McIlroy won in twenty fourteen. Does Rory get to five? Does he get to five majors? Does he end the major season this year with the major that everybody.
Wants him to win.
He wants to win it, The fans want to want him to win it. The PGA Tour definitely wants him to win it. And I think we're in for a great week always, always, always, this Major Championship, more than any will throw up a maybe not an unknown but maybe not a household name, not a superstar that will be on the leaderboard deep into Sunday. And is it a Cinderella story? Does someone come out of nowhere like Todd Hamilton did it truon in two thousand and four.
I believe or.
Do we get the usual cast to characters, but I think there are a lot of players playing really really well right now, and if the last three Majors or anything to go by, I think we've had it a fantastic major season here in twenty twenty three. I'm really really looking forward to it, and so I hope all of you are going to be watching Get Up Early if you're in the States, if you're in the UK. The great thing about being over here in the UK
is Sky Sports does an amazing job covering this. You turn on the TV at six o'clock in the morning, they share the first shot and the last shot hold, so it'll be.
On all day.
But I'm really looking forward to it, and I think it's going to be a fantastic Major.
So the pod is back.
I want to thank everyone for listening. Son of a Butcher comes to you every Wednesday.
We will see you next week.