Witness insurmountable deficits turn into unforgettable victories at the Travelers Championship, the northeast one and only PGA Tour signature event. See Scotty Scheffler, Rory McElroy, Victor Hovelin, Patrick Cantley, and returning champion Keegan Bradley, as well as other PGA Tour stars in all four days of the competition at close by TPC River Highlands. The Excitement tees off June nineteenth through the twenty third. For tickets and information, visit Travelers Championship
dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one. It's the Son of Witch podcast. This week's guest. After just what was an amazing US Open with Bryce and d Chambeau as now the twenty twenty four US Open, I caught up with Robert rock I had him on the podcast back in twenty twenty one. The Rocky played last week at the USA. He qualified and it's a great story.
He had an almost twenty year career on the DP World Tour twice a winner be Tiger Woods down the Stretch in twenty twelve at the ABADABHSBC Championship, and he really doesn't play a lot of competitive golf these days, but he has one of I mean, it's one of the best golf swings I've ever seen. It is a golf swing if you are a golf nerd or golf swing pervert, everybody loves his golf swing. And it was a really I thought it was one of the really
cool stories last week. Didn't make the cut at a really good first round, but the golf course was really, really hard. I caught up with him on Sunday and he had a lot of good things to say about his week, about how he qualified, and I just think it's a really cool story about a guy that isn't really playing full time to qualify for a major. And yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot to learn from it. Listen, he's doing a lot of coaching now, he's still doing
a lot of playing. But one of last week's really really cool stories. It's a really cool interview with Robert rock Enjoy it. Rocky, we had you on the podcast I think back in two thousand in one, but obviously this stage your life and this stage of your career for you to qualify for the US Open, I thought we'd get on and talk about the week and stuff. Obviously not the second round you wanted, but just the impetus at this stage your career. I mean, you had
such a successful career on DP World. You know, you had wins, you'd be Tiger and Abadhabi, But at this stage of your life, what was the reason why you wanted to try and qualify for.
A major again?
And then talk us through qualifying and getting to, you know, one of the biggest majors in our sport.
There's probably a little bit of a twisted experiment for me really because I haven't haven't played hardly at all in two years.
No for the people listening to this, Rocky, I mean, the fact that you haven't really played competitive golf in a number of years, I think is testament to the game that you've always had. But I think it's also a testament to be just golf porn. Amazing golf swing.
That you've gone.
And I don't know if you I was on the Pudding Green. I can't remember what day it was, but you were on the Pudding Green and Tiger and his son Charlie were there, and you know, he introduced you to Charlie and I heard him say this, guy's got the best golf swing in the game.
So, I mean, your.
Golf swing has always been for the for the golf pervs like us. You are somebody I will watch hit golf balls.
So thank you.
The fact that you didn't really play competitively for two years. And where did you try and qualify for the US Open?
All right? So? And why yeah, I've done the qualifier at Walton Heath for the last oh god knows how many years, which is a great of course, brilliant school. It's a wicked day, right, So you go, you go to Walton Heath, you played thirty six sols by both courses. That people are just free to roam all over the place. They're walking their dogs, watching golves. It's a cool event, right, And as far as European Golf's concerned, it's probably one of the best fields that we assembled for sure, right,
is better than most tournaments. So it was a chant. That was my last chance to enter at that stage. I don't think I'll enter US Open qualifying at regional stage, which I mean, and I'll have to come over here to do it. You still had status. I don't know, I don't know why i'd stays played right two years off, but you've won on DP, so yes, I forget what category made me enter, but I thought, while it's there, i'll have a go. And two years two years I
played the open qualifier. Last year it was only one shot out and I played really nice there. But I was first out in that qualifier and misjudged the scoring, played the last role really cautiously and missed out by one. And then and the previous last year I played qualifier at Warton Heath as well and sort of surprised myself in the first round. I think I got it four under at one point and then made a really stupid course management era which was down to not playing right.
I wasn't sharp enough and I just wasn't thinking well enough. But a few weeks ago played Warton Heath again, got to play with really good friend James Morrison. Good player, great play. I used to used to coach James actually until he fired me. Bless him, maybe we want to hire you. And he played really nice right, so we're having quite a good game. We were both well under par.
I messed it up a little bit. I had a chance on a par five again made a stupid course management decision because I wasn't thinking sharp, but I was only I was only laser in the yardages. I didn't bother with the book. I just thought, I'm going for a game out with James, have a bit of a bit of a laugh, see if I can put together
a couple of decent rounds. But I hit the ball brilliant first day and hold a few putts and then hit a three wood over the back of a par five, which was stupid because it was just an eye on to the front edge and two put right, and that would have got me to five under for the day on the first round, which I think with another par five to go, I should have closed that round at five or six under, which James did. James finished at five. I finished at three, and I thought, oh, well, that
was good fun. That's my chance for a bit of enthusiasm for the second round. Thought that's that gone, but I'll just coach round with James because he's playing well. He might in And then the second round I started off, actually started for the first hole a bit sort of casually thinking I'm just accompanying James because he's five underd I'm three on you, not thinking you're gonna make it no no furthest thing from mine at that point, right,
I almost thought, well, my back's not great. I'll probably probably hobble in and just support him. So I messed the first hole up, which was an easy short part for missed a little pot on the second for a birdie, and then I birdied the third. We'd gone me to four under, and I think James had stayed at five. Then I birdied. I think I birdied the next. Yeah. The next hole a luckie shot out of the heather which rolled down to like six foot or six foot
ten foot to hold that. So I'm now five under, right, I'm saying as James, and an hour ago I was thinking, but he's getting in Now I'm on the same score, you ever know, right? And then I made a couple more birdies and I got to eight underpart, and then I started to realize that I actually was getting close to getting in here, and I've got five those holes to go, and that that dawned on me a bit too.
Mine shifts because we just had the last major with the PJA at Valhalla and that famous duel where Tiger and Bob May are playing on Sunday and everybody remembers that, But I remember Tiger talking to me about that round back when my dad was working with him, and he said that there was a point late in the round on that Sunday to where up until that point, Bob May never thought he was going to beat Tiger Woods in the final round of a major championship in two thousand,
like nobody thought that, Like the best players in the world didn't. Bj Singh didn't think that, Ernie Els didn't think they had a real chance to beat when he was Bob May definitely didn't think, but he.
Was free wheeling it.
And I remember Tiger saying that there was a point to where he had a putt for Parr and Bob May, like Tiger said, I had like a six seven footer and Bob May had hid it in there closer for Bertie, and he said, I made mine. And he said his father had told him watch other players as a junior, watch player's routines, because if their routine alters, they're nervous. And he said he took one extra practice stroke and one extra look and he missed the pot.
And he said he.
Knew that up until that point, he was just freewheeling it, didn't expect it. But he said that was the first put that he knew he needed to make, but he expected to make and he missed it. And that mind shift of you're freewheeling it. You've got no expectations, right, And so many people listening to this podcast will be like that. They'll have a good score, they'll just be freewheeling it, and then they make that mistake. I can break ninety to day if I par in and that
can be really you got to avoids. You're trying to qualify for a major. You've got no expectations, and all of a sudden you're like, I'm eight under with five to play, So how did you handle the next five?
Because that can go one of two ways. Absolutely, I was eight under and I'm standing on a par five and I hit brilliant three with off the tea just short of this fair way trap, which was the hard shot. So I've got a five iron into this par five, pretty easy flag, and I thought, hang on a minute, I'm going nine under here right before of it. No, but I pulled this five on, which was typical. That's my typical shot when yeah, I pull it when I get I'm a little bit nervous and a bit quick.
So I pulled it to left of the green, lagged to put woefully short, and missed it. And I thought, damn it, that's that's pretty much on queue with how how I was feeling. I thought, right, I got to Yeah, I got to reevaluate quick.
So are you starting to get ahead of yourself at that point to to thinking about the outcome? Because we're always telling our junior golfers and people, listen, stick with the process, don't think about the result. Don't think about the outcome. That is really hard to do when you're really and it is a skill that, like you said, you have to learn that skill.
It's the whole point of practicing horse management.
When you're not playing a lot for an elite player like yourself, like you said, you make some sloppy boat he's some sloppy mistakes because you're just not short because you haven't had.
To think like that.
Yeah, so four holes left in the qualify over the US Open, you're eight under.
Yeah, talk me through it. So I wasn't quite aware that I was getting that tight, but the five iron reminded me that i'd really put myself into the right zone. I'm if i'd a birdied that hole, which I should have done dead easy, i'd i'd I'm nine under. I'm on the qualifying mark in my own head. I hadn't actually looked at how many places were playing for because I didn't really consider it as a qualifier. So so
i'm the next hole. I'm so I'm eight under. And the next hole is a blind t shop sharply around the corner. You can't see the fairway. And James went first, and he showed me the lion right and I've been driving it brilliant and I completely bailed out on this t shot. Hit it right. I thought, damn it, that's my chance gone right, both power and a par five. I'm in the in the row or the heather. I thought, well, it's fun while it lasted. This is going to be
a bogie here, maybe worse. And I've got three holes left, the reasonably hard holes to finish. Thought, oh well, I've got ahead of myself. I deserve that i'd hit a provision or found the first drive. They're both in the same place. My only option was to chip it into the green side bonker. I'd run it under the trees into the bonker. I thought, well, smart play front, that was a smart enough play. I thought, I've got away with it, finding.
In the front bunkery somehow find a way to make a park.
Yeah, and then that's then I'm going to need to probably nick one coming in if that goes to plan and hold the bon.
I knew you were going to say that that's unbelievab Yeah.
It was unbelievable. I was on the up slope. I've been practicing. I hadn't been practicing bunker shots, but I've been. I've been rehashing this Bonker lesson. I got off Krista Marco right off an op slope. I've told so many people in the past month about how to hit these up slow bunker shots.
All right, for all the listeners tell us how to hit the upslide. So when it's on an up slope, what did Krista Marco tell you what we played?
Well? Can everyone listen? Yeah, I've known with christ Marco in Abbadabbi guy must be ten ten or more years ago, a right, neither of us were having a particularly good day. He found the front bunker on a load of high on the up slope to back pins, and he must have here half a dozen of them. They're all just pitched right by the hole, tapping in for pars and birdies. And I've never seen anyone do it so well on the up slope. On the up slide, which is a tough, tough shot because.
You've got to try and get your body in the right place.
You've got to you got to somehow get distance on it right. And there were thirty five yard bunker shots that were brilliant. So at the end of the round we're packing up bus stuff and I got mate, I'm sorry, I'm such a good day, but please tell me how you played those right, because I need I need that shot right. All of us need that shot. It's such a hard shot. It it's easy. He's just hock them.
Pete Cowan talks a lot about I mean, I've spent a lot of time obviously around Brooks and the work that he does with Pete Cowen. Pete talks a lot about hooking some chips and stuff like that.
Yeah, I think the average golfer.
It can help all the rest of us, the non tour players, to think a little bit like, but why does that work?
Well, he didn't explain in too much detail at the time, because.
But I know you went back and figured it out.
Yes, so he as we do when we miscuts. We want to get out of there, don't we. That's right. I was thankfully I was smart enough to not ask too much and piss him off. But I went back and pondered it, and I thought, yes, it just makes perfect sense. And when you when you're trying to draw or hook something, you shift your path a little bit
more into out, which generally makes the club follow the slope. Pies, you're on an up slope, you're going from low to high right and out to win path is high to line.
It's easier to draw it off an uphill lie than to try and fade it. Yeah, of course, and it's eisier to have faded off of downhill.
I use the path on bunker shots a lot just to follow that slope, and most of our most people that try in that up hill lie bunker shot. The hard part is to stop the club burying into the sand so much, which takes out all of the energy. It's all, and you have to hit them so hard if you're going to cut across them and That's what I was guilty of at the time. Is it trying to hit the ball so hard on a op hill bunker shot with an open face cutting across it, trying
to get it to go thirty yards. It's just it just doesn't happen, does it. It's just too hard. So as soon as you start, you just shift the path as much into out as you need to to make it just skim the sound like a normal bunker shot, And my bunker shots have been instantly bare.
Well because on the up slope that makes for everyone listening. The reason why that makes sense is when it's a regular bunker shot, most players are doing the draw. They're too shallow, the arc bottoms out, they hit behind it, or they blade it. So we're always trying to have players on. An easy fix for bunkers is to get a little bit steeper to get the club working more
up and down. But when it's on in upslope, that's the death move because you're going to hit it straight into the sand and you can't make a big enough swing to offset it.
Especially with a face open as well. You kind of slice in an open blade straight underneath the ball and there's nothing actually hitting the ball at that point is other than the amount of sand you try and shift. So probably since that day my bunker shots have got miles better. And of course I've been sort of teaching that bunker shot. I think I've done a session with Georgia Hall previously and a few hours that i'd seen
at the Belfry or it went with. I seem to have done that lesson a lot, right, So I thought, tell you what, you might as well actually sort of practice what you peach a little bit here, and so you haul the bunker gone. Now a panic even more. Yeah, I have three holes left your nine under it, and now I'm in right, I can only mess up, So now you can only suck it up. And I hit a lovely drive on the next pulled my wedge thankfully, two put it, and then I pulled two drives in
a row. Actually know there was a part five which was a really long Part five, but a really good drive there. Good three would down it, but it went in the heather, chipped it on leg this pot up. Two pointed that and then I pulled it on the next after tea and it went towards some trees. But I knew there was there was space over there, but
it was obviously it wasn't intentional. Ran through the trees like little clump of trees but not with rough round them, and ran onto the I think it's the second tee of the course we were playing, and I had eighty yards left clear line at the flag. I thought, God, you're so lucky here, right, do not do not mess this up? Right? It's just a log wed. It's a love web, a log wedge onto a green, right.
Twentier room to run it, lots of options, couldn't be easier.
So what option did you take?
Because with eighty yards you could either hit the low runner of the one that checked, or you could carry.
The normal, normal full lob wedge for me goes eighty one yards right, So I say, you couldn't ask for a better break here? Number right? And I quit on this swing like you wouldn't believe. I slowed down, thankfully. I still struck it okay, but I thought, God, that was that was like a slow motion. Where do you have left for a park? Well, it somehow took a bounce and popped up onto the green about not not pin high, but it was about thirty four up over sort of a corner of the green that was raised
by the bunker. Not my favorite part by any means, and I hold that pot as well, right, and James was like, James.
Said, yes, get in now you're ten under.
No, I think that got me to got me to nine under. So now two holes left, one hole that was the seventeen one hole left, pulled the three wood. But playing partner James, he was class right because he was still going first, he's gone on the last t. I've gone, you up the laser. I haven't got a book. And the cross bunker didn't know how far it was
away right, and it was a nice warm day. The fairways are running fast, and I thought, driver probably gets in that bunker, but I don't know for certain, and I want to get as close as I can because I need this to be an easy shark. Right. Him and his caddy were talking out loud. Thankfully it's three in this. I overheard him saying three twenty to the bonker.
I thought, right, driver does get in that, so three would down the left a little bit, found a great lie lob wedge eased off on it too much again, and I thought, oh, please carry the bunker and the heather, and it just about carried both and just trickled down fifteen foot. I thought, wow, I got fifteen foot now and I'm in. I'm already in. I think this is enough. Everyone else around me was acting like it was enough enough. I didn't know. I didn't have any spots. We were
playing for you make it? No, no, no. It was such a weak week effort, but I wasn't going to three put that and regret.
How long was the wait to figure out if you made it?
Most of the afternoon I had to do an interview and stop, but I'll come in at second. I was in second place at nine under, and then they said there's nine places and there's a load of good players behind me. Right, You're like, this isn't going to stare. Thanks for all the praise on shooting nine unders, but I thought, I'm not sure this is in yet. But I mean it drifted out a little bit. I finished fourth, but I was only one away from the playoff in the end, so it was a long way. I had
a couple of beers. I was so stressed right because it was such a The last four holes just took me through it unbelievably it was that I'd forgotten what it was like playing qualifiers.
And when's the last time you played a full schedule on DP world?
What year? God like fall schedule. I don't actually know. I know I played fifteen events for the last three years I was playing.
Whence the last time you played twenty events? Twenty two to twenty five events?
Oh, ages, Ages, Maybe the first year back from COVID, I might have gone twenty events. Yeah, the year before that, I was slowing down. I was really struggling with my back when I was playing loads of events, and it was taking the fun out of it, right, because it was hurting when I was practicing. It was hurting when I was a tournament, so I was doing doing all sorts of time. When I was doing yoga, I was
taking loads of pills. I was even starting running, right, I don't do that right just to that's great for your back. I remember one tournament I just felt the urge to run down the fairway because I was my hips on my back were just felt so stiff. So I feel like that all the time. Rocket.
I feel the urge to run away from tour clars, I feel the urge to run the other way.
So I haven't played a lot.
So you get here, you get to Pinehurts, and again you've qualified for one.
That you know is going to be. Yeah.
I mean, this is an iconic, it's fiery, it's bouncy. But for your game, you've got to love a place like this, because this is a ball striker's paradise.
You have to control your absolutely is now I've been here and seeing it, it absolutely is. Yeah. And the excitement lasted for about a day for qualifying, and then it turned into shit, what have I got myself into here? Right? It would have been hard enough qualifying just for a regular event, thinking I am playing, I must still up for this, And then I thought US Open. Yeah, it's like you're throwing yourself back in at the proper deepend don't you do? You show up here? When did you
get here? It came Monday? Monday. I did loads of loads of practice at home, just trying to build the swing, get it into good or the expectations.
Obviously, you go into trying to qualify for the US Open with zero expectations. You qualify, then you show up to the US Open. What were the expectations at the beginning of the week. Did you think if I can make the cut, it's a good week.
Yeah. I wanted to. Like I said at the start, it was a little bit of a twisted experiment to see whether just working on the things that I had done with my swing over the last ten years or so, whether I could just tap back to those quickly enough get the swing looking like it used to look or be a little bit slower, right, and see if those you know, the notes and notes that I would have had from tournaments and my swing thoughts that I relied on, like,
would they work two years later? Right? Would they still? Could have still do it right? Could have still hit the ball as well? Shut even part of the first round? They obviously were. That's what I wanted to do, really, was to come and see if I could. I haven't played in front of a lot of people, are they ever? Right? But this is a lot of people.
There's a lot of people, a lot of people, two hundred thousand people here this and.
It's potentially embarrassing. But the first few days here on the range were great. Got to see a load of people like yourself that I haven't seen in ages, right.
And the cool thing was I were lovely to me, and I watched you. I mean you are a golf pervert and a golf nerd like the rest of us that are instructors. I watched you with your all access badge when you weren't actually practicing yourself. You're standing on the range looking at golf swings.
Yeah. Watching the players.
Witness insurmountable deficits turn into unforgettable victories at the Travelers Championship, the northeast one and only PGA Tour signature event. See Scotty Scheffler, Worry McElroy, Victor Howlin, Patrick Cantley and returning champion Keegan Bradley, as well as other PGA Tour stars in all four days of the competition at close by TPC River Highlands. The excitement tees off June nineteenth through the twenty third. For tickets and information, visit Travelers Championship
dot com. The Travelers Championship there is only one obviously seventy the first round. You played fantastic the first round.
What was that like? So was it a carryover from the qualifier? Obviously?
And it's interesting, Rocky. The Walton Heath and this course they're not miles apart in kind of how they're set up.
And yeah, driving wise, so.
It's very similar because why if you miss a fair way there, you're making X if you're lucky to find it. And and in Walton Heath, I remember the first time I played there. I snapped pooked a T shirt and it's sitting in this ice plant.
I'm like, oh, yeah, I.
Can hit this easy, and I took a swing and thing went sideway. You can get lucky here, Phil talked about I talked about this on on my podcast last week. Phil said that the hard part about this golf course is if you get offline, it baits you into thinking, Okay, I can probably get this lie there. He said, You've got to lay up short and you can play this course from the front of these greens. It's hard to play from left, right or over the green.
Absolutely. I made that mistake a couple of times. Friday, but Thursday, when I had some who'd you play with? I played with Neil Shipley, and.
I mean Neil Shipley for a college golfer. He played great, played Braided Augusta and he's playing He's played good this week.
He's really good. Yeah, he's got good, good all around. Get drove it lovely, putt it nice, seemed to smile player. Played with Nico. He was a good player too. He had a rough start and battle back and played really well Friday. So two nice lads to play with. But I drove it really well on Thursday, right, I didn't wasn't really in any bother I think I had most of fair ways would you have to do around here? Which couldn't have gone better really because my iron play
was good. I didn't miss many greens. I think when I missed a green, I was a little bit short and I just put it up, And I think I saved two pars from the bunkers on the right sides, which were easy bunker shots.
You were early late or late early early late early late, which was I think the better draw this week?
Yeah? Possibly? Yeah. Playing early was great for me having just got in it because it was a little quieter, It was a little softer.
Were as many people down the sides of the fairways'.
Like I was being solely judged on every shot, right, but it was it was so draining that first eight. Did you enjoy it? I loved it. I loved it. I came in here, my back was sore when I was finished. My head was hurting from the amount of concentration right, because I hadn't tried that hard at golf probably in nearly ten years.
I don't think everyone listening has any real understanding. It's to how mentally taxing majors are. Augusta's mentally taxing in
a different way than US Opened. They set these up to be a test of they're testing your game, your technique, but I think what the US Open always tests is your mental strength because the way the USGA likes to set these golf courses up, and especially here at Pinehurst number two ruck these greens can sometimes be forty paces deep and there might be ten paces for them to put pins, So mentally it's very draining.
I missed that part. I missed the just to trying to make the right decision right sometimes luckily on the first round, some of the yard is that I had once i'd realized that the ball was going quite far as well Hot County, but the yardage is fitted into me just hitting slightly under like they were at the top end of a lower club. So I'd had hit a lot of shots hard knowing that I didn't think I could get there, certainly wouldn't go over the back,
but they might not reach the green. But on the first round I played loads of shots like that and they all they all actually just went that little bit further and made it onto the green right and made it easy. And then in the second round, what'd you shoot day two? Nine over nine?
And you told me after you came and I saw you after the ground, you said, I honestly didn't see nine over today.
And so were you? After shooting even.
Poor in a major championship at a US Open on a golf course like this, Rocky, you've had a you know the math, You're like, Okay, I shoot anything even maybe even two over the more, I'm yeah, I'm gonna make the cut. Yeah by miles, Yeah.
Did you get ahead of yourself? No? But I felt different in what way I know, and it was I wish I didn't. But I was very, very nervous the first day, really really thinking sharp, like I was on edge, and I was really thinking. The nervousness helped you help me better, help me think be Yeah, what the hell happened? On Friday? I warmed up really really well. I hit it lovely on the range, and then the drive down to the tenth didn't really help. A bit of a delay on the.
Tee, yeah, because by the time you seized up a little bit you hit here at Pinehurst, the way they've got this golf course routed, the ninth is miles away from the clubhouse, and the driving range here is miles away from the first hall, so you've got to go to the back of the range and then it's probably about a eight to ten twelve minute yeah, drive out to the tenth and then you walk back from the.
Tenth, so you nearly go in half an hour before you too.
You haven't hit a shot, and everybody in the practice rounds, the two rounds that Brooks and DJ played and started on ten during the practice rounds, they both hit it sideways off the tee because they hadn't hit a ball in thirty minutes.
Yeah, it's harder and our back to down that tenth hole and the tenth hall is it's not an easy hole.
It's a par five, but it's also not an easy hole. But there's only two part of buyers out here. So as a player, you know five and ten at Plaininghurst number two, there are your only chances to make berdies legit berdie proper.
Yeah, the only chance is where you can actually feel late after a good drive. You've just got to end up there. And I didn't play five or ten particularly well this week unfortunately. But ten you need two straight shots. Basically you don't have to flush both shots. But you got them straight and I went down the right, had side both On ten, managed to a lovely shot actually, and got it on the green two parted it and I thought, okay, that's all right, that's all right. I'm
off and running. But I wasn't feeling quite the same unfortunately, and then a bad drive off eleven.
But you said you were nervous on Thursday and it helped you, and you said you felt different on Friday.
It was almost like I felt that Thursday had proved to myself that actually I'm still playing all right. Yeah, you're still agreed, still playing all right? Right, So I should be able to handle this because I've teed off on the cup mark on a Friday before and felt nervous all the way from the.
Also, another thing that I don't think a lot of people listening understand is, regardless of what the tournament is, if you don't get off to a good start on Thursday, right, you know all day Friday you are going to be right around the cut line, and so you know that any bogie you make takes you one step away from the cut and it's stressful because it's hard to free
wheel it in that situation. And it doesn't matter if you're the best player in the world, the number one ranked player in the world, or the three hundredth ranked player in the.
World when you're on the cut line. And at a lot of.
Tour players their rookie year will always have that I didn't get off to a good start on Thursday. So it seems like four tournaments in a row now every Friday, I'm just struggling to make the cut and I'm on the cut mark. And that's that's hard from a decision making standpoint, but I think it's also hard mentally well.
And it's hard to swing like that because it's hard to.
Swing freely knowing that any mistake you make and it can get you. I think into that mindset Rocky of you're trying not to hit bad shots as opposed to trying to hit good shots.
Yeah. Yeah, And I've spent a lot of time in tournaments doing that and sometimes just not hitting a bad shot is what you have to do, right, And when you're a little bit younger, you probably play. And I was watching Neil Shipley just I think I wish I was twenty five playing this round.
Today college golf. Just freewheelly.
He was enjoying it and he played some smart golf. But for those listening that maybe have played some pro goal for events with cuts, right, this tournament and this course is like playing the last hole when you need to make a part to make the court on every hole on hole, and it's a difficult hole, right, and any mistake you make feels like it's going to send you home. Right. So, and I made two early doubles on Friday.
You said that the doubles didn't come from really bad shots, and that's the thing I think everybody that's.
Yeah, they didn't have made a slightly poor rouen on eleven where I've been hearing a nice little drawer with the driver, and I did all of Thursday, drove it lovely. And my last little look up when I was setting up over the ball, I caught a glimpse of an overhanging tree right, which is coming into that eleventh and it is in the way right. But sometimes you hit teacherts like you don't notice, and your ball takes off and it just misses it, and you think, oh, well,
I didn't notice that. That was pretty close. But I got away with that. And then I took one little last look and thought that's tight there, and I hit it and I pushed it straight at this tree and it missed it, but it must have caught some later trees and it bounced down into the it missed the waist area, and it ended up on the pathway. And then I felt like I was a bit of an
amateur golfer at this point. Right. So I'm walking down this pathway to my ball and my ball sitting on the path so I thought, I've got a clean light, right, so that's something. And all I can see down this pathway it's just a straight line through all the pine trees, right, and there's this big, well not big, there's this small patch of light up in the trees. I'm like, oh, that looks good, and that's the only thing you start focusing on. I thought, I'm going down there, and I
thought that'd be stupid. Right, it's the US. I think this is not the time to think, you said me after two years off right, So immediately start looking left. I'm like, God, this chip out's I think this chip out looks harder. But it's hard not to see the nemes glaring at me. But the chip out was off of sandy light. And I'm going across the fairway and I've got to carry the waist, and I think I've got to spin it to make it stop before the other bit of waste, because if you.
Hit it too far, you're going to have the exact same shot.
Yeah, And I thought that's a hard shot. I thought, which one's harder thing? Pulling across the fairway? I thought which one if I messed this chip out? Or if I've got two hundred yards for my third out of the waist. So that's not looking good and I didn't fancy it. And then I looked down. I thought, well, if I can get it through that gap, I'm now probably only twenty yards away from the green, don't know where,
but I'm only going to be twenty yards away. I thought, if I'm in the waist twenty yards away from the green, I could probably get it on the green. So I hear, what club did you hit? Seven? Iron?
Right?
I needed a six to get on the green, But the window for this wasn't wasn't going to be sack. I couldn't do it. So I thought, oh, come on, you're right, you're here. You're here to enjoy it as well. Right, So I thought, Saturday, let's have a go. And I set up over this this boar and I thought, righte, deep breath, and let's just give this a crack. And some of the spectators just started moving a little bit further away. I think you should be all right, right,
but it's them down there that need to worry. And I hit this thing and I struck it perfect, and it took off. It went straight through the gap and hooked through the gap, and I thought, oh my god, I've got where murder. I'm on agreen right, But it didn't go far enough, missed all the trees. It went through like as pure as anything. I thought, Oh, I hope somebody's video dictu I was lovely. But it came
down in the bonker. But on the joint of the bunker, between the bunker and the waist down, I weren't really sure where I was at, and I didn't strike this chip like a little chip or pitch firm enough, finished on the front of green and a three points. So my best shot turned into a double anyway, right, thought, that's welcome, Welcome to the US Welcome to the US Open. Yet and then my next double was a really good
seven eye that landed where I wanted to land. It couldn't keep the chip on the green.
So do you think the difficulty has been around this course? And where is the borderline on golf courses like this, Rocky in your opinion on fair versus not fair? Because they are tucking pins here this week in places that the only I guess the argument would be, if you hit a good shot, you get rewarded, but you can hit a good shot here and get screwed. So you said to me earlier, you love the golf course, you love the setup. But for you as a player, for
a golf course like this, it happens. I think at golf courses like this, and it happens at the Open Championship when the weather gets bad. Where is the line for you where it is fair but not fair?
I think around the greens it's fair, right, because there's always a shot to play. There's always a shot to get it on the green, right. The score in this environment is almost irrelevant sometimes, So when I missed the green on the part three, I actually I went second to play. I followed Nico's seven nine. I was in two minds whether an eight or seven. He at seven on the green about fifteen foot away, thought, right, that's
a shot. I felt like it exactly the same shot, probably landed a yard or two further than his onement over the back. My mistake at that point was I got a nice lie on the back, tried a open faced b lood wedge, hopefully with a little bit spin on it. I haven't been playing enough to know whether I'm really getting these things spinning properly or not. But there was a shot there to play, and I hit it tiny bit too hard and I probably went a
little bit too straight. I was aiming right at the flag for sure, because I was trying to just get it on the green, but I was sort of on the boulder side trying to get spin rather than actually just dump this on the green and see where it finishes. There was certainly a shot to play, and then the next shot was apart from the front edge, which was
easy enough, but I under hit it. So now I've got I had eight for a bow with about three foot slope swing on it right and a bit a lovely ta shot, and I've felt like I've it my chip all right. But if you hit it in the wrong place, you've got to be smart enough to know now's not the time. This is a four right, you're on a path three and you've bet a lovely shop. It doesn't mean you need a three right. You need a four and you need to not And I think that.
Is something incredibly powerful for everyone listening that doesn't have the skill set of someone like yourself that has had a career on on on tour. It's sometimes I keep saying this and people that are listening are going to get tired of this. The way your score is going to get better for the average golfer is to make more bogies. It's not to make more birdies. It's not
to make more pars. The average golfer that is listening that is just ten to twenty five if you made more bogies for the rest of this year, as opposed to making doubles, triples, quads.
Your scores are going to plump it, and your ego has got a lot to do with that massively. I'm thinking I can hit this spinny chip that I've probably done a few times right recently, but my short games not in the sort of realms of where maybe Chefflers or Jordan Speeds or everyone who's at the top of their game right now has got full control of their
strike and their spin. And I've probably watched that shot on TV Friday morning from over the back, seeing somebody nip it nice and it checked and then just fed down to take it. I can do that. I've done it beforpriately. I think I could do that right right now. I don't know whether I can do it or not. And most of my chips aren't going to come off as high spinning as I see them, so I should have gone right. Just remember what you do in here and just somehow get this on the green.
And you're in the coaching world now like I am. And for everyone listening, you shoot nine over for the tournament. Missed the cut, yeah, but five over makes the cut. The two doubles you make, you make pars there. And I keep saying this double bogies, big numbers or destructive and destroy your cord.
So not that out now, It wasn't you keep the doubles off, which is your priority, especially on day one and two in this If I don't double bogie a whole, I probably well, I'm pretty sure I'd still be playing today, And I don't mind if I make double bogies on Saturday or Sunday. Right coming where from where I've come from? So how do you grade yourself this week? What grade would you give yourself? And how did you my first round? Yeah, my first round really.
Is in the first round seventy in a major Pinehurst US Open. Does that make you go I want to start playing again?
No, it makes me want to play more majors. It doesn't make me want to play normal tournaments. Right, it makes me want to I want to test my brain making these decisions because regular golf.
Again, how could they know? The average golfer doesn't realize it's watching on TV. The difference between a regular tournament of the nine days, This is golf on If there's something else other than steroids, this is golf on that.
Yeah, this is testing all your experience everything. You can't say get around here. Now everything you know about your own game, right, have you got the discipline to just say to yourself, I can't do this shop right, but I can do that one and that one will get me afore and that's all I need here.
But this is also the equivalent of a fifteen to twenty handicapper going out and playing their home course which has slow greens that don't have slope in every round is a major for you.
It really is.
And if you can think about it like that and say, okay, today is a major. If I go out and don't make mental mistakes today, I'm going to make some technique mistakes.
Everybody does. Yeh.
The best players in the worm Bryson d Chambeau Saturday made a double coming.
In nothing as well.
But every round of golf, the everyday golfer that's listening to the pod, it is a major. Treat it like that and just say listen, think well, manage your game with the skill set that you've got.
You've got, yeah, because you can ease he watch somebody tea off and go oh that drive looks nice. I'm going to do that.
But what's the grade do you give yourself this week?
I think my first round was certainly ride up there as a plus. Yeah, I was really pleased with that. I could have shot under par and I got to the last hole with a pot for a birdie, and I thought, well, underpart would have got me in the top ten. And then I thought, well, don't be too greedy, too greedy here, right? What am I going to feel more pissed off at? Right? Am I going to feel pissed off at one over? Or I'm going to be super excited at one under? And I thought, I'll tell
you what, the one over was going to hurt more? Right, So I just lagged it off and thought, levels levels a great day out there, right, And I was just so relieved that I managed to get round okay with very little prep. Right, I hadn't and even played and even played an eighteen old practice round basically so to battle my way round with. I think I had my fullest amount of energy on that first day, and I might have been lacking a little bit second date. So
I'm disappointing myself that I made the wrong choices. Friday a chance to had a chance to make the cook because I was five over for the first nine and then I played the first four really really well, hit some great shots and a thinner pitching edge on the fifth over the green, which I mean, it's just such a standard shot, right. I wasn't even trying to do anything special with it. I was trying to hit it maybe a little bit harder to make sure it got there.
But I was trying to play the shorter club and not go over the back of thind it. I thought, may you come all the way to the US open your thinner pitchingmage, I when that's pathetic, right? So I boge you that, and that's what made me chase on the last few holes. Unfortunately, I think I could have coasted it in, but you never knowd I could have
three pointed from nowhere. But I got to the same position as Francesco did on the night needing hole in one to make the coup, and my my seven, I landed about two yards left a where his did and I made a fire.
So yeah, Rockie, let's talk about the golf swing I mentioned earlier in Tiger Woods.
I mean, Brad Faxon stopped recording video your golf swing. So many players were looking at your golf swing. I mean, are you aware of the golf swing that you have, you must be aware of it. I mean, you were as close to a lot of people's idea of perfection with the way that you move the golf club. But I know you're as critical as all golfers are of their.
Own move.
How did you go about getting the golf swing that you have? If anybody listening hasn't seen you hit a golf ball, you can find it online.
Go look at it.
It is as close to aesthetically perfect as possible.
But how did you come about that?
And what are the things that you work on that you think make your swing good? And what are some things that you think make golf swings good?
Right?
Okay, yes, I think it's important to know this isn't my golf swing, right, my golf swing that I started with, it might have looked okay, sort of tempo wise, but when you started, yeah, and me, when I turned pro, I didn't like it. It didn't feel right to me. It didn't feel like a swing. It felt like a bit of a hit. It felt like a decent backswing, but I felt like my downswing just wasn't didn't feel easy.
And when I watched some really good pros that I admired when I was younger, all of them, basically, whether it be Sevy Faldo, Nick Price, Tiger Hogan, snead on the endless list of people to look at, isn't there? I think mine doesn't feel like that on the way down. Feels all right going back, but it doesn't feel right coming down. It feels like something's not right. So I set about in a pretty determined and relentless way of
trying to change that. Rather than actually trying to be super competitive in saying I just need what I need to do to win tournaments or play good, that just became my obsession. So I've got to make this feel better for me because that's what I want to do. And I wasn't a tournament pro at that time, right,
I was just a local club pro. So I just chipped away at that day by day, finally got a picture in my head of what I wanted mustling to look like, which was what which is pretty much what it looks like now.
Yeah, no, no, no, you have a My daughter just graduated from Dartmouth and Roger Federer gave the commencement speech, and it was fascinating. He said, everybody looked at my game and says it was effortless. But he said nothing was effortless, every shot, nothing was effortless. He said everything I did was my team, myself. There was work, there was purpose and stuff. So when we look at your golf swing, it seems very unencumbered by lack of excess movement.
That's basically what I wanted to do. I wanted to to rip out all the bits that I didn't feel necessary. They didn't give me that, you didn't need, I didn't need. I didn't I didn't need that. I didn't like trying to repeat that, things that didn't make any sense to him,
didn't have any logic to it, right. I just wanted to rip all of that out and see what I ended up with, basically, which would be in essence, a simple turn and minimal Yeah, and I suppose it all balls down for me that I think the turn in the swing is quite straightforward, right, once you've got an idea of you're trying to turn on a slight tilted angle with your shoulders and things heading down towards the ball without too much shift one way or another. But
obviously I don't try and stay perfectly still. I like my head to move from side to side a little bit and knowing when when it's okay to do that. Then it's pretty much all about how your right arm folds on the way back right. So the left arm. If you're going to accept that your left arm's going to stay pretty straight, it hasn't got to do anything.
So everything else is the right arm. So if you fold the right arm in order, and you've trained yourself to keep your turn on a thick sort of axis, then you've got to got to bend your right arm and straighten it at the right time, in the right order right.
Because you teach now as well. I think what you're saying is, I think the average golfer has so much much excess movement, and I think that movement Rockie comes because we're static. I gave a lesson once and it's something that's always stuck with me. I gave a lesson once to a guy that had sold his semi conductor company to the US government for a gajillion dollars, and he wanted to learn how to play golf. And when I tell you, this guy had no talent, he had
no talent. He could be one of the most unathletic human beings I've ever met, So trying to teach him to play, even swing a golf club was very difficult. But he said something in a break where he was putting more band aids on his hands for the blisters that has stuck with you. It was twenty years ago.
He said.
The hardest part about golf for me is I'm starting at zero energy. And I just went, Yeah, we put you in a position.
We tell you there's no other sport to generate.
Tennis Tennis, you're serving, but you're serving because you're trying to make the other player move as a returner of SERVI you're trying to guess where they're going. Yeah, Cricket, you're standing there, you don't know were the balls coming, baseball, whatever.
That golf is.
We put you in a static position, and I think in an effort to get power. So many golfers move in an effort to try and get power. And like you said, it really is can your golf swing For people that watch it looks so simple, but you're trying to make it simple.
Yeah, I'm trying to. I don't feel like I'm anyway a sort of talented or athletic sort of person. I've got lots of evidence in other sports to suggest I'm no good at stuff. Right. So one of my I guess key beliefs was that can I build a swing that makes me all right at this right without relying on any sort of talent I might not have? Right? So if I can build a swing that it's a ball in a direction quite reliably, then that's in one part and it takes heedable movement. Yeah, And can I
understand it? Can I keep doing it? Can I learn when it falls apart on me? And then the other bits for golf, like you're chipping and you're putting in your Bonker shots. That for me is where there's no avoiding a bit of talent, Right. You need to be able to see these things.
Your technique will get you to a certain point. Yeah, but to become Sevy Patrick read exactly these Shane.
Lowry, I don't see it.
The magicians and that that is the next level.
That's the next level onwards. And I think when people ask me about talent in sport, I think you've only figured that out at the end. Right, So I'm pretty sure are it more balls than most? Right? Obviously, There'll be some that have it more than me, but not many. But the frustrating part is when you get to the end, you know I can't have done much more, and then you look at people like Shane and Rory and you think, I'll tell you what, no matter what I did right,
my car just wasn't fast. They could have had two years off like me and still beat me. Right. That's annoying, right, But actually talent isn't it.
But you've got Tiger Woods who a lot of people. Obviously you know there's been a bunch of it. But the two main areas of Tiger's dominance were when he worked with my father and he worked with Hank Haney. I think Hank gets maligned a lot because everybody likes aesthetically maybe the golf swing that Tiger had with my dad because of the positions, but the win rate and the majors, the golf swing that Tiger built with Hank
Haney was as good, if not better. I'm biased because when I look at Tiger's golf swing, I remember the glory years that was kind of the model of the Adam Stott model. When Tiger Woods, who's in my opinion, I didn't grow up in the Jack Nichols hera. But when Tiger Woods tells his son he's got the greatest swing in the game, does that register to you, Rocky? Does that make you go, that's fucking pretty cool?
Do you go? No?
No, no, But you have to when somebody like that says something, there has to be in an acknowledgment, Rocky in your own head, in a quiet moment when you're by yourself, to say to yourself, the goat just told me that my golf swing is the best he's ever seen. That must mean something.
Yeah, it's just lovely in there, because.
For everyone listening, Tiger does not throw those bouquets out at all. He spends the majority of his career telling everybody they're no good. So when I actually heard that, I watched your reaction. You took it well, you blew it off. But that has to mean some. Like Tiger has said to me, you know, I grew up with I watched him. I videoed the first golf lesson he had with my dad. I've known him a long time and I'm by no means close to him.
But every now and.
Again, over the last ten years, he has said to me, Hey, good job with DJ, good job with Brooks. When he says that I do the same thing as you, I blow it off and say thanks man.
You know they're great players stuff. But in quiet.
Moments by myself, I have said to myself, it makes me feel like I made it when Tiger.
If Tiger says something to you about or Tiger says than about anyone, Right, he's a man, isn't he He's a man. So the fact that Tiger actually even knows who I am.
Right, well, you smoked his as said an album, which doesn't happen very often.
No, But I'm more than happy that I can remember being an assistant pro watching him when that first Masters sat in the was actually in the bar in the clubhouse, thinking wow, look at this dude. This is some golf we're starting to see. Not my wildest dreams did I think like twenty odd years later I would have played golf with him. I would actually sort of know him to the point where I'm okay just going up to
him saying, Hi, you're right. So yeah, It's just it makes all the hitting the balls worthwhile.
But as a golf pervert like I am, Ludwig Oberg I mean, how good is this kid's golf swing? And you've been around the game, you know that there's more to the game than just a golf swing. But from a technique standpoint, this kid, it is so damn good.
So good, And when you just love to start your career at that point like that, well.
Last year at this time, I think this is right around the time he turned pro. So the things that he's doing, second at the Master's, top ten in.
The world, Ryder Cup all I don't know.
But when you look at his golf swings, what are the things you like about his move?
And well, if I'd have had that swing when I started, I wouldn't have it. I would have it any balls, I think i'd I'd be probably two million balls better off, and I'll probably have a much nicer feeling back, right, And.
I think the kids got an enormous runway, ye in a very long, long runway.
Any hope he makes the right decisions, because we all as golfers, we get to the crossroads sometimes where we're tempted to make a choice and and and change something. Most and nearly all the time, it's to get better, isn't it right? And he doesn't need to do that. If he can just wait patiently and see what that game brings him over a twenty year live spanning golf, he'll be quite happy without the end, I'm pretty sure. But he might get impatient and might go, tay, you,
what I need to be able to do this? I need to be able to do that, And those are things you learned.
Climber won a major in the Players in the same year as a fader of the golf ball. That was his second major champions So he's got two majors and a Players Championship and he tried to draw the golf learn how to draw the golf ball to win it a gust.
The problem is when you're playing really good, you think you're capable of everything, don't you. You never think you're not going to play bad nah, And you think, well, tell you what I can do all this? Alright, I've got all that ticked off, so I'm going to do
this as well. And it's that as well, this shot, yeah, and that adding that bit messes up with the stuff that you're already good at, right, And that's that's an amazing If somebody can stop him doing that, that'll be brilliant, because he'll be awesome.
Lastly, the complete one hundred and eighty degree opposite of lud big Oberg and the complete one hundred and eighty degree opposite of everyone out here.
Bryson d Chambea love Bryceon, I mean absolutely love him.
So what do you like about it? Because here's my uncle Billy, my dad's youngest brother. There was a year to where when in the heyday, when it's like two thousand, two thousand and one, and Tiger and Adam are out at my dad's place in Vegas and they're both hitting balls. It's two thousand and two thousand and one, and they both look like you can't swing the golf club any better. And my dad's youngest brother and uncle Billy said, you know,
it's crazy. Two of the greatest ball strikers of all time, Lee, Trevino Hailer. When Hale shut took it inside, came over it, hit fades, Trevino wide open, took it outside, dropped it under, hit draws. He's like, everyone is trying to teach, and everybody wants to swing like Tiger and Adam. No one is trying to swing like two or three. Bryson nobody is going to try and teach that or do that. Yeah, but what do you like about Bryson's golf swing? But and then what do you like about Bryson's game?
I remember being in Abu Dabbi probably this might be when Bryson was still an amateur, when he led the Masters at one point, so they the January before all that. I'm hitting balls in Abadabi, just normal hitting balls, young lad hitting balls behind me, And how clear he was his machine gun in these three woods. His caddies just keeps turning them off right and he's and he's hitting them, and I think I've got relatively keen ear for strike after about sort of a dozen of and I'm like,
here's a missed one. These are all awesome right out of the center right and the quick right be happening so fast it makes you listen. So turn around like this dude. He's got the Hogan hat on. Yeah, who's this dude. He's got his coach with him, Mike Shy, and it's.
Got the weird golf clubs of the grip.
Yeah, and we just got chatting. And I met him, So I met him a long long time ago, and we got chatting and they got a bit of golf machine background with Mike Bryson dow a lot of stuff then. But he had a really nice looking swing at that point. Really liked it. I mean he's still there right. The golf swing is.
The golf swing has gotten better over since he won it wingfoot. I mean, he's been on live for the last two and a half years, and so you know there's a lot of people going, oh, we haven't seen him play. I mean I've I've been to every live event. I've watched the maturation of his game.
What we're seeing right now is not a surprise. He's figured out.
Yeah, he went down the rabbit hole of the long drive and all of that stuff. He realized that wasn't sustainable and it wasn't manageable.
No, but he's added something to him and he hasn't messed himself well doing it, and he still can hit it. Yeah, three fifty three give and display yesterday it was incredible.
But he has some very unique things in his golf swing. Yeah, and I think his superpower Rockie is first of all, he doesn't care what you think. No, in his head, what he is doing, he believes. I've asked him before, and my dad said to him once, what's with all this stuff, you know, trying to chip with a seven iron and stuff like my But in his head, he told me, listen, everybody thinks I'm crazy. I'm trying through all of this stuff that looks crazy to other people.
I believe this can make the game.
Simple for me.
And that's really horrid for people on the outside to look at because all of the crazy, weird.
Stuff he does.
But he's like, listen, I'm just trying to make it as simple as possible.
Yeah, And he's done it from a point where he was actually really good in the first place too, Right, so he's been really brave.
USM one tournaments, Ryder Cups, and then he goes on the long.
Driver rabbit, tried everything with putting his iron players unique. He's driving is now unique. Right one irons now his long driver driver that I don't know one else.
Uses, agrees a loft on his driver rock.
And she showed it me on Tuesday. He showed me his six arm Tuesday, which actually looked like a short three iron to me.
But and the new irons have bulge and roll, so like a driver at the toe they're kind of going away from you. But he in his head, he's like, listen at the speed I'm hitting it. If I hit it off the toe, I need to be able to have equipment that keeps on. Yeah, He's like, that's just designed around.
On the key parts in this game. I think is is your determination to to a plan and not have people talk you out of it. Right, If you're determined that this is what you want to do, and you've got a vision for how you see yourself playing a game, and you can stick to that path and every day you get slightly closer to it, right, it keeps you on the straight and narrow every day. That stops you veering off on little tangents that can either derail you
completely or delay your progress for years. And I remember when I was I was the only man on the back of the range with my camera and my tripod, and I'm mountain of balls and I'm playing rubbish and people are judging what I'm trying to do in my swing, and luckily, luckily I stuck to it because I was missing cuts. I was playing terrible, right, but I was sure that if I hit the ball better and more reliable and the way you wanted to, and I did it. I would enjoy being a pro, I would have. I
would enjoy how my game felt. I would I was certainly enjoying the grind of trying to do it right. That was what That's what got me up every morning, right to keep working towards his swing. That I got in my head and it was my plan for making me a golf bro right, and thankfully it lasted me twenty years. Bryson does the same thing. He has a plan, he's so determined. Yeah, and he's done it from such a really good starting point, right. So he's obviously got
loads of talent. He's a smart kid, and he's brave enough to take a punt on what he thinks he's better.
Hold you now forty seven forty seven And for everyone listening, this the last thing I'll set it because I know you've got to go. I think you have one of the best golf swings I've ever seen, Thank you very I've seen a lot of golf swings, and I think the way that you swing the golf club is as good as it gets. But the last thing I will say the hair, Rocky, you have the best hair in the game. You've never worn a hat because the hair
is so good at forty seven. Now the visor the choice to wear the vison now because a couple of years ago I busted your balls because you had we'd like the British and you had like a trill be kind of ha. I said, there's absolutely no way that's going on your head, and you're like, I might put it on.
You didn't put it on all week.
If you wore a visor this week best here in the game, talk me through the visor choice.
The visor's purely for this this temperature, in this sun. Right. I used to be able to do it all day long, sound the rain, just get somburned and just off and not worry about it. But now it just gets you when you get older, don't it. And I feel myself going a little bit dizzy sometimes, and of course if I don't.
So forty seven are we looking at Senior Tour?
We bet Champs Tour. Earlier we had a little bit of joke because they've got the barber shopping here, aren't we, right, And we thought, what about barber? What about a barber on a driving range, right, because instead of having to go into town as to get your hair cut. You could just go and hit some balls, wait in line, get your hair done. We're quite cool.
Don't dodge the question you're thinking about Champs Tour.
Champion Store is hard to get on it good, good enough. I would love to play it, but going through the Q school for just a few spots it's a big ask.
Last year at the US Open, we were on the putting green and someone was talking about the Champs Tour and DJ was putting and somebody said, DJ, you can play the Champs Tour when you're old enough. And he didn't say anything, and he just looked at all of us and he said, bro, a lot of shit has to go wrong in my life for.
Me to be Champ Camps Tour.
Yeah, I think we are going to see you post fifty winning golf tournaments on the Champs Tour. That's how good. I think your act is rocky. Great to see you this week. I think it's been a hell of a week. I think it's been one of the really cool stories and always good to talk to you.
Thank you very much, right a little bit, thank you.
So that was Robert rock And, like I said, one of the cool stories to come out of last week. As I said earlier, Bryson Deshambeau, he's the twenty twenty four US Open champion. I think that's one of the best golf tournaments I've seen a long time. It's definitely one of the best majors I've seen in a long time. It was a tough one for Rory McElroy. And I'm a Rory McElroy fan. I think he's one of the best in the game. And it's tough, you know, when you're on that side of things. I mean, I've been
on that side of things as a coach. I've watched players in majors have chances to win and when they don't, it's it's tough. And you can see that Rory's feeling it right now. But what a performance by Bryson Deschambeau. And I think we are seeing a change in Bryson. I think he has matured a lot. But from a game standpoint, this is not a surprise to me. I've watched Bryson over the last two and a half years. I've watched his game mature really over the last year
and a half. I've seen him play some unbelievable golf and yeah, it's a hell of a performance. Two time major champion, now two US Opens, and he's going to be a threat now moving forward in all the majors. The confidence he's got and the way that he was able to perform. The shot he hit on eighteen I think is under pressure. I think it's one of the best shots I've seen under pressure in a.
Long, long time.
And the way he played down the stretch. I mean, look on the thirteenth hole, Rory makes Berdie, Bryson makes bogie on twelve, He's got a two shot lead, and from then on in Bryson shoots won over and wins. And yeah, there's going to be people asking a lot of questions about what happened with Rory, and this will be a tough one. But what I will say is
I watched up close in twenty twelve. I was working with Ernie Els at the time, and Ernie made a lengthy harputt on the eighteenth hole, had a really really good final round. I think he shot a couple under. But Adam Scott bogied I think four holes coming in and it was devastating. It was devastating to watch. It was tough for Adam, but he won the Masters the following I think the following year, so I think Rory will be back. I think he's just too good of
a player. But yeah, it was it was fun to watch. I think it was something that we needed. I think Bryson right now is moving the needle. Obviously, no one's going to move the needle like Tiger Woods. But I think Bryson has superstar status and he's won a lot of golf tournaments recently.
He had a chance.
I mean, he could could easily have won two majors this year, finished second at the PGA and now the US Open chairman. I think he's going to be one of the favorites as as we go into the Open Championship, the last major of the year. But and here's the other thing. You can watch Bryson play. You've always been able to watch Bryson play since he made the switch to come to live. That's what you want to do. If you want to watch Bryson Deschambeau play golf, you
can watch it. You can watch him play live. You can go to live events and watch the US Open champion play golf. I think the brand of golf he plays, I think the way he plays the game. I think the way he has matured, I think the content that he is putting out there, he's second to none really in the professional game, and I think there are going to be a lot of players looking at what Bryson is doing and saying, Okay, can I do that. I think Live has allowed Bryson to come out of his shell.
He loves the team format, he loves the crushers, and I have seen a big change in Bryson from the player he was when he turned pro.
He was he was awkward. I think he, you know, it.
Was kind of, you know, the scientist, kind of a nutty professor. And I really have seen a change in him and anybody that thinks this is an act. A lot of professional athletes, a lot of people in the public eye. The person they are away from the golf course, the stage, the court, the field, whatever, is different from what the public sees. But I believe there's a genuineness to it. I think Bryson is really, really smart, and I think, like a lot of people, he is using
social media to his advantage. Absolutely, I one hundred percent think he's doing that. But show me somebody that's not trying to do that now. Show me people in the public eye that are famous, that are trying to use social media for their own gain. Everybody is trying to do that. You can monetize social media now and you can have an impact. So I'm here for it. I'm here for the Bryson show. He's a hell of a golfer. He hit some shots last week that nobody else.
Is going to hit.
And his putting is putting's joke right now. His short game, some of the short game shots. I mean on Sunday, he hit some short game shots that you know, the Golf Channel guys are just hoping and the NBC guys, they're hoping he doesn't get it up and down, and he did, and it was fascinating. Where does y mclroy go from here? I think he just goes back to being Roy McElroy. He hit the golf ball last week is as good as I've seen him hit the golf ball. You can't drive the golf ball much better than he
drove it. Yeah, Okay, he had a couple of bad drives coming down the stretch. I mean, Bryson was hitting it all over the place and still managed to win. Right, You're gonna hit bad shots, You're gonna make bad swings, you're gonna hit bad drives. But Rory is as good as anyone in the game when he's on. He's one
of those players. I've said it loads of times. When he's on, you're gonna make an argument that he's the best player in the game, Scotty Scheffler when he's on, in the way Scotty Scheffler has been playing, he's the best player in the game when he's on. And didn't have his best week last week. But the Bryson show is real, and I'll keep saying this. Bryson plays on live. If you want to watch live golf. It doesn't mean
that you don't have to watch the PGA Tour. Doesn't mean that you can't be a fan of the PGA Tour. If you want to watch Bryson d Schambeau play golf, and if you like the way he plays, and if you like him as a person and you like all the things that he's doing, he plays on live. That's where he plays. And if you want to watch him, you can buy tickets and go to the live events and watch him. You watch it on the CW. You can watch it on the app, you can watch it
on all the platforms that lives on. And it doesn't mean that you can't be You can be a Bryson D Shambeau fan and you can be a Roy McRoy fan. You really can. And I've been saying this for two and a half years now. You do not have to choose between the PGA Tour between Live, between DP World, between the Asian Tour, between the Champs Tour, between the LPGA Tour.
You do not have to choose.
You can watch golf wherever you want to. It's all readily available. And I think Bryson is a big part of where professional golf is right now. I think he's a big part of where professional golf is going. And you're now looking at two guys that have gone to Live in the last two years that have won major championships brooks Keepka, Bryson d Chambeau.
They play on live.
You make your own conclusions based off of that, but that's where they play. And Roy McElroy plays on the PGA Tour, that's where he plays. That's where he chooses to play. Bryson chooses to play golf on live, but it was a hell of a performance. I got to catch up with him today and you know, I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the person he's become, and he's a hell of a golfer. Anybody that thinks that Bryce it is in the real deal.
He is the real deal.
And he's got two major championships now and it is going to be incredibly interesting to see where his career goes from here. I want to thank everyone for listening, rate, review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. Son of a Butch comes to you almost every Wednesday.
We'll be back next week.