Fire Drill 023: Boston Tee Party with Geoff Ogilvy

here is give the Time. Hello. This is Alan Shipknuck back for another Fire Drill podcast, sitting on the couch next to me. Uh. Michael Bamberger, Ryan French beamed in from the other side of the world. Jeff Ogilvie shout out to the Arcadian Hotel here in Brookline that it's our host this week and they've taken care of us, and uh, we're very grateful for the hospitality. I also like to thank our corporate sponsors who get us here and help us keep the lights on. That would part

points our favorite scoring app. It's quite ingenious. We encourage you guys to check it out. A fun way to to mix things up. When you're playing with your buddies, your family or whomever. And of course I'd like to mention our long time corporate partners, Link Soul. Uh. There was actually I got swept into this debate on Twitter. Someone just randomly tweeted anybody anybody out there still wear like cotton clothing on the golf course. I was like, hell,

yeah to me, it's so much more comfortable. I don't want all that synthetic stuff scratching at my skin like uh one of my John Travolta wearing polyester now and Links Soul, as we know, makes by far the most comfortable soft is stuff out there. They do have some a few synthetic things if that's your jam, But um, you know, we love Link Soul and we all wear it and we're grateful. So let's get to this podcast. So let's start with the country Club as a venue. Um,

who joke is it? They couldn't find a better name, No, nothing good, Peter Jacobson, they couldn't come up with a name that's so great. But it really it's a special place. I mean, I hadn't been back on the ground since the ninety nine Ryder Cup, and I love just the rock outcroppings and the land forms, and it feels like this place is as old as time and it has a real stateliness. Ryan, I know this was your first day at the US Open. You've got to go out

there and walk a practice round. What were you impressions of the course and just just being at the US Open. Let's start there. Yeah, I mean, it's it's surreal on a personal level. But also I've been to a lot of tour events and been lucky enough to caddy and see these guys in corn ferre events from Monday qualifiers or tour events, and like chipping and putting around the green in a practice round is just so common and

just you don't even pay attention. But today to watch players like hit little you know, dribbling shanks and literally with and just stumble kind of all over themselves, it's just I mean, it's it's what makes the US Open the u s Open, and you the few groups I follow, like, they all talk about it as they leave the green like, whoa, this place is really hard and uh And obviously I filed a qualifier, so I was like, Luke, how hard is this on a scale of one to tend? He said,

probably a thirteen. For the listeners who haven't had chance to read your story, just briefly talk about the person you're following this week and why you chose him. Yeah, Luke Annon, And I mean just kind of what makes the U s open my favorite uh major obviously or my favorite event is you know you can be Luke Annon, who's a mini tour player. Um, you know, he told me in the interview for the story he hasn't won since he was a sophomore. An amateur event in Kansas

is sophomore year in college. And uh, his dad's a preacher, and he worked as a janitor from age thirteen to four years old and when he turned pro that's how he made it for a while before he got some financial help. Is he worked two weeks on as the janitor at his dad's church and then two weeks playing, and then two weeks back as the janitor. And it just kind of like what the US Opened to me entails.

It just is for the dreamers. You're you're gonna look up and down the leader board and for the casual golf and it's going to be a bunch of no names mixed in with a bunch of the big names, and it's what makes the U s Open great that, Um, you know, does he have a chance? Probably not no, but does he think he has a chance, of course. And you know I made even as simple as a

made cut Alan is so huge for this guy. It's gonna guarantee whatever last places thirty five th dollars or forty thou dollars, and that can keep his dream going. I mean, he was out of money at Sectional Space. Really he considered. He told me I probably wouldn't have gone if I had got money back if I were able to get money back from my flight, but I can only get flight credit, so I decided to go anyway, and he got through. So it's just, uh, what what

makes this championship special? From the guys I follow? I love that Jeff, your name is on the trophy. I know this is a special week for you in your words? What makes the US Open the US Open? Ryan touched on it there a little bit. Um those practice rounds, when I mean we start hearing about a month before, it's like, oh my god, you've been a Brooklyn yet, You've been a Wingfoot, yet you've been This is the hardest one we've ever had gone over the top. This

is gonna be the hardest thing we've ever seen. And sure enough, on Monday, the whole field is chipping fifty bowls around every grain and walking around and like shaking their head and rolling their eyes of their caddies saying that done it again. This is really hard. This is really hard. But they're fun times. I mean, it's it's I think for those who play, if for that for golf is their thing, I mean, competitive golf is their thing.

It's sort of the ultimate test. Sometimes it's a little over the top, but that's kind of part of the fun, I think. I mean, it's easier to say now that I'm sitting here talking about it rather than doing it. It's part of the fun. But um, they're big weeks, and it's just on a scale that I mean, the Open Championship gets to a little sort of similar sort of scale and a different feeling. I mean, the Masters is quite intimate in a way. I mean, it's quite

obviously a massive event. It's not very intimate outside the gates, but once you're inside Augusta, it's quite an intimate field. The US Open is anything but intimate feeling. It's just absolutely massive, big structures, big stands, massive tense tons of people. From Monday morning, everybody's there. It's loud, um, and it's just it's a loud course. Like it's just it's just hard. From the first hole every path forwards like a part five.

Greens are tough, pins are tough, and it's just it's one of those really really really low grinding weeks in pro golf that when you actually play well, it's right. It's not really I wouldn't say playing well in the US Open is fun, but it's infinitely satisfying, probably the most rewarding round you can play as anything near bar or under. Part of it was open because you've just you've come up with some some special stuff eighteen times in a row. Like, it's just it's just a great challenge.

And coming down the stretch, coming on the weekends, they're fantastic tournaments. Um, it's sort of battle of attrition, survival of the fittest rather than then no one's really running away and he was opening very rarely. It's usually sort of hang on for dear life. And there's twenty or thirty guys in after Thursday and fifth day and after Friday and then gradually get down to the last nine holes and there's only two or three left, you know, and it's just got that real feel of the who

can hang on? And I just think there's something uniquely special about that. I mean, as I said, it's probably not that much fun to play, but incredibly rewarding to play well. Jeff, this is just a question that I like, obviously, outside of winning on that Sunday, did you ever walk off of around after around at the US Open and field good or do you just like, you know, whether where it fits in the field. Obviously you can get a feel of like that part is going to be

great or whatever. But I assume it's just such a grind that you're just kind of relief, don't matter like that that round us over. You're never obviously you don't have that feeling of like sixty three or sixty four that you know it was great, you hit it great. Did you ever remember walking off and thinking like, wow, that was a really great round or does it just such a grind? I think first round at Tori, I

think Fergie actually reminded me M Doug Ferguson. For everyone else, um great Apai Roda used to follow us around and actually walk around on the golf course, unlike a lot of his peers. UM used to enjoy dug out there

in the Hawaiian Ship. But anyway, I came off. I shot under par on the first round at Tory in two thousand night, and he came up to me and typical fergu fashion, says, you know, you're the only champion whoever won the US Open and never shut around under par in the US Open, and now you have so well done. Um. But I remember really enjoying Tory all of it, um, and that first round especially, you will have to check the thing. I sat one or two under in the first round, and yeah, that was a

really nice feeling. I mean I've walked off. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Chambers. I shot a few under in the last round, enjoyed Chambers Bay Towards the end of that tournament. I actually enjoyed Chaine Chambers by a lot more than most guys did. I thought that was a real opportunity week. But yeah, it's not fun. But as I said, it's just it's the ultimate test in a way, that grindy test. I mean, some golfers love to just play and hit beautiful shots of great grass, and it's all about hitting

the great shots for them. And there's other golfers who just love that really hard grind. You know, there's no right or wrong, but there's some golfers who just gravitate towards that really really hard sort of grinding thing. And you guys can relate to these guys, you know, the guys when they walk in the media tet, the ones who really love the grind. I mean, I was probably guy.

But there's something really when you're playing well and you're having a fight for power on every hole and you get it up and down on one hole and it's like, well, that's the best up and down I've had a year. And then you've got to do it again on the next hole, and then you get to a five part four, you've got to do it again. And when you keep coming up with the goods, um incredibly rewarding. Yeah. So

I've enjoyed a few rounds at the US Open. I've been annoyed, well more than I haven't been, but ultimately frustrated usually, But um, it doesn't take sixty three and then you should even power or better. And the Open generally you're very very happy, and yes you're kind of shuffed if you like, you're just you feel a warm inside. It's like I did it one more day down. It's

a good feeling. I mean in some ways is that the easiest majors are weird because so many guys are beaten mentally and emotionally and they just don't have that grind or that that that mental makeup to do that four days in a row does how much is there's the field thinned out before they've even hit a Yeah, I wouldn't easiest major to win is the wrong way

to say it. Certainly the least people to beat. Um. I would say there is certainly half the field has written themselves off by Monday night, um, and then there's probably another half of that the next the last half another quarter of it goes after Thursday, UM, and then you sort of fighting it out. Chambers was very obviously like that most guys had completely written that tournament off

as a real tournament by Tuesday. Um. It was clearly to me going to suit a really really good player and look, the best player in the world one at the time and the best pattern in the world one at the time you put bad you get bad greens, and they were atrocious greens really at Chambers. But you get bad grains on a setup like that, and the best part is going to win, and he did. So I don't think you could argue with the champion that that tournament got and that was that was the most

obvious one I ever played. That most people just wrote themselves off before the tournament even started. But it happens that most use opens um. So yeah, you're right, and that there's an element of there's Look, there's other guys who just don't think they can, just don't think they can. I mean, it's and to be honest, I've played a few years opens Earlier's just like I just I don't know how they shoot under path or seven to holes

around there's just no chance um. But then you sort of get used to when you get better at it.

There's a lot of guys who just don't really just getting hit over the head seventy two times in a row, five and a half hours set, four rounds in a row, it just wears people out eventually, And like the strongest survival, the most peak headed, stubborn survive, really, I think sometimes too I wouldn't say easy to win, but I would say you've got the least people to beat out of probably any tournament in the world, because most guys, yeah,

they've written themselves off before it starts. Jeff, do you think you have an insight into what John ram might be thinking right now as the defending champion? Can you call your mindset when you went to Oak martin two thousand seven as the defending champion. Yeah, I mean he's probably feeling up and about. I would have thought I felt pretty good about that. I don't think my game was quite as good in OH seven as it was those six. Um. I played with Tiger and Richie Ramsey

the first two rounds. That was a pretty memorable at Oak Monto. So it was a memorable open, such a cool place. Um played quite well. I played well enough, sort of midfield after two rounds or something like that, and then just sort of didn't really get it going on the weekend. Um, But I think you'll be feeling all right. I mean it's his sort of goal off, right. I mean it's going to be pretty long, as they always are. They've seen some pretty long path forwards out

there on the scorecard. Um, so it's gonna be tough. And he's a real grinder too, you know, if he gets the short game going, and he's sort of he's one of those emotional sort of guys that seems to turn those sort of situations in the positive side. I think he's better when it gets really really hard and really really important. He seems to focus all this that emotional energy the right direction. Um. But he's probably just excited a little bit. There's a little bit of a

melancholy feel too that like it's over. Uh, you know, like I got a better win again. Otherwise they're not going to say we're won the US Open this year. Um. But yeah, I would have said, you're always buying every time you go back to somewhere that you've won. The next year as a defending champion, it's a good feeling. Um, you feel good, you feel confident, and you're the last

person to have done it. Um, you know sort of yeah, And there's a little the first day a little bit sort of more nervous than a normal one, probably just because I don't know, there's just added stuff to it. But he'll be feeling it, right. I would think he'll be out. You'll be. It's better to be defending champion than not be, well, said Michael. For for both of you and I, this is our first time on the ground since Ryder Cup, which of course it was Epicum.

What did it feel like to be back? What are your first impressions of the country club as a seeing with new eyes? You know, I was thinking about what Jeff said, and it's it's so correct. The scale of US Opens is so overwhelming, and even Open Champions there was a big pieces of property, often in big car parks and all the rest, but it's nothing like the sprawl of US Open. But the first thing that struck me when we got here today, Alan was that yellow clubhouse. Jeff,

have you been here before? Part of me if this was asked earlier, have you have you been? I have not. I haven't. I'm sure you've seen it on TV and Brian, you saw it today for the first time probably, But they have this chart. They've got lots and lots of buildings here and that looks like high school gyms all over the place. But then they had this charming yellow clubhouse and as the starting point, like, who would ever choose yellow for a clubhouse? But it works so well.

So you know, I think my first thought was, uh, they got a short golf season here, but they got a beautiful place to do it. And uh, I was with Crenshaw the other week at Memorial and Crenshaw played and I believe the nineteen sixty eight U S Junior here and he was written up, Ryan, tell me if you know this name, I know Jeff and I will know this name. Well, would you know the name of

Herbert Warren Wind? Is that meaningful to you? No, it's okay, so it's right or long before your time him and but but uh, he really venerated master the Master's tournam in the British open the in the US and particularly Benny. He's writing about Crenshaw being here in sixty eight for the U S. G A Juniors, and Crenshaw said to her and her put it in a story about Crenshaw

many years later. I like the early morning cool and how you had to wear a sweater and so like you don't think of Oakmont is charming, but like I think of that when I saw the Yellow Clubhouse, and I thought of that exchange of of her be Ben Ben Crenshaw. There's a quality of charm to this place. And also all those year round sports curling and kind of racket sport. There's a maginabal squash and park tennis,

every kind of tennis. I'm sure. Yeah. Well, and you're right that the scale of the Open is the grand stands and and and the build out of the media center and the tents and all that. But the golf

course feels very intimate to me. And you know, these really are the smallest greens and championship golf along with pebble beat and like you're and the ferries are pretty tight and twisty, and you look out there, it's like, man, they have to go from here all the way to there, and the green is that small, Like how can anybody hit that green and regulate it? And just just walking around a little bit and seeing that visually, to me,

it's very intimidating. There's you know that I've got that beautiful heather that's not right off the ferry, but it frames it and and in your eye, it's like, man, it's a To me, it feels a little claustrophobic this golf course, and I'm sure some of the players will be feeling that on the tea boxes. Jeff is a

golf course architecture buff. And you in the US Open winner, and you look at the list of all the venues, do you sometimes think, oh, I'd like to get myself to Myopia Hunt or Philadelphia Cricket or or the country Club and check it out, or uh that does your mind run that way at all? The old venues were

always the most interesting in the best. I mean, look, I say, I've talked about Tori before at two and Tori was my favorite US Open to play outside of Wingfoot, the one that I won, because I don't know, there's something about the West Coast and that perfect press seen weather and um, I don't know that's because the Opens are so often brought with storms and hot, humid weather and stuff. And the rest of the country and the

California was just so nice. But Wingfoot Oakmont. Um, as you say up that New England, New England is such a beautiful place to play golf. I mean it's where it's still got that very English feel about it. Um. It was the first place. It was the first place golf was played in America. I think brook Line was one of the very first clubs I wasn't the first club, but it was in the first few painful I think

um of clubs in the US. And it's just this, and it hasn't really been infected with what's infected the rest of golf and the rest of the US at least, like just the sort of just the blanket perfect green and striping fairways and bright white sand and stuff. It's still sort of feels like it's probably a bit like this a hundred years ago at book Line, you know, I mean, it still feels like that. And there's old places.

Um Marian was a fantastic open even though that comes with a lot of logistical issues, it was a beautiful places to play the open um. Yeah, the old ones are certainly better, and the courses have quirk, you know, and quirk and nuance is really what makes golf special. Most of my peers would disagree, but because it seems to take the fairness out of it. But it's just part of what makes golf great is just every single place you ever play is different, every whole you play

is different. And when you go to places like Brookline and in regions like New England, is just full of quirk and different stuff. It's old. They're unashamedly not going to change it from how it's always been. I mean, I know, girls been there and sort of made it, sort of re established a lot of the stuff they used to do, but it's got a lot of length that it didn't have before. But it's still going to

feel like it did a hundred years ago. And I just think that's beautiful out of place like that, And that's just part of what golf is. Golf is such a great sport. I mean, all the other sports they just player and newer and newer and newer stadiums and better, better surfaces, and everything is perfect. I think golf we

do that a lot too. But I think one of the enduring charms is that every now and we can go to a course that's over a hundred years old and with a yellow clubhouse and um, different sort of textures is alan referenced out the course with all the different grasses and textures in different shapes and stuff. And you can go and place place like that and we play the biggest tournament in the country on it, in

the world maybe on it, which is fantastic. When you when you go to Madonna, Um, can you use the words quirk, a nuance and uh and still still and still get the job. I mean they're they're they're good words, aren't they in the sales pitch? But um, there's a big difference between people thinking they want quirk and then when you actually do it, do they actually really want it? You know? Um, it's look, it's something sometimes you can't

it's hard to create quirk. Quirk is the golf course has just naturally been put in a place where you've just got to go around something quirky, like a stone wall or something interesting. So we certainly love to try to introduce quirk in our golf courses and that sort of stuff, but it's sometimes received well sometimes not. Sometimes quirk has been a bit watered down in modern days to sort of modern golfers, like the idea of the quirk,

but not necessarily the reality. It's like it's like corporate corporate quirk. Um, well, let's talk about some of the players in the field, Ryan, are they tell our our listeners and probably Michael and Jeff and I as well. Who are some other fun stories among the qualifiers And as you said, these guys might not factor on Sunday, but they add a lot of heart to Thursday and Friday.

So who should we be watching out for it? Yeah, a couple of guys that I think might have a chance to um make the cut uh and play well. M J. Duffy on the corn Ferry Tour, a legendary Monday qualifier, got through twelve of twenty in UH in two years prior to this, prior to having status, So I don't think anyone would be too surprised if he played well. And then I tweeted today Sam Stevens kind

of a mini tour legend. UH dominated in all the All Pro Tour, which no one's ever heard of, of course, UM, for three or four years after college, and then finally got status. UM. A couple of good stories. I mean, I'm gonna talk to Brady Caulkins tomorrow. It's just kind of a legend. UH has dominated the Dakotas Tour and has a lot of fun on the Dakotas Tour and UH many stories of him partying till wee hours of the night and then UH and then showing up and

shooting sixty four. A quick story a player missed the cut and was going to caddy for him went out with Brady and party till three in the morning, and uh, couldn't even get out of bed. And he just assumed that Brady had withdrawn from the final round because there's no way that Brady could have, you know, even got out of bed. And Brady shot sixty three and one by seven. And and this Caddy former player, current player, but was catting that day, was like, I've I have

no idea how he's done it. So Brady is kind of a legend, is super super talented, So um, we'll see. Uh, but there's many uh. I mean again, for a lot of these guys, making the cut is going to at least prolong their their career for an extra year or whatever, that forty or whatever. For last places, it goes a long way. So we want to send you the Safari Tour, but you clearly need to hang out in the Dakota Storks.

Remember you tell me, isn't there some dude who like took his baby to a strip club on the Dakotas. I mean, the Kodas Tour is the by far the hardest. I mean, there's not a lot to do in you know, far off distances, like you know, remote towns in the Dakotas. So it's just a legendary tour with a lot of lifers out there. And uh yeah, when babies go to strip clubs it. I mean, that's a place you need to visit. So we'll do it right and stop talking about just getting getting a van and do it. But

that's a sidebar. Um, Michael, who who are you curious to watch this week? Would have just followed up on something I would actually encourage it. Well, no, not on this, not on the script club. But Jeff, I'm sure you've had this experience, and Tiger has had it many times and he's always a great sport about it. But at a U s Open especially, you can get some really random pairings on a Saturday or any day, but in your status, more likely on a Saturday guy makes the cut.

You've literally never heard of the guy in your life. You don't know what tour he's playing on. How many holes does it take for you to know if the guy has any chance of ever making in professional golf or not? Can you tell right away or or how long does it take? Um? You get it? I think in one haul. Thanks believable. What are some of the tells. I don't know that. It's like it's all those areas of gray that I don't know. It's just you can just tell. You can tell where the heads out, how

they hit it. You can tell by the strak of the bowl with a lot of guds. You can tell the sort of the visions they make in one hole. You can generally tell. Look, there are surprises, there's outliers to that. There's some guys everything. There's some guys who have made it today who I'd never talk about now. Um that I still don't know how they're making it. You know, so there are there's no exact science to it,

but you can generally tell. I mean, you could use you could tell seventy five of it by just looking at the warm up on the rage probably, um, And I don't know what that is. I think it's just that we see so many great players so often that there's some of these sort of undefinable hallmarks that they

all have, even though they all do different. Stuff's got nothing to do with their swing or nothing to do with anything else, just the way they carry themselves, the way they strike the ball off the club face of the way they hold their golf bag, the way they

lean against their partner. I don't know. There's there's all these sort of things that you can tell Stria that like, you know, the golfers that I've seen who made it, they all do those things and you're not doing any of them, so you're probably not making it, you know what I mean. The p g A, you get some interesting to put the p g A pros in the PGA A quite interesting because they're really really crafty golfers who play money against them against play for money against

their members all the time. Their craft, but they don't act like tour players. Um because as I said that, these are all indefinable qualities. But um, players who make it generally have a certain sort of checklist of sort of mannerisms or sort of as as a hallmarks, And you can usually tell pretty quick if he doesn't. And you can tell that you can it's often a mental thing.

You can tell they're out of their depth by just how they're trying to see the ball up in the first two You know, um, and you feel for them because I bet you you like that when you're young as well. Um. It's this fast. That's why us are

so good. I mean, it's it's it's the biggest assault on your sensors as a golfer that there is, you know, I mean the Masters and sixteen of Phoenix, and there's some moments that are really sort of stressful in progolf, but the Open is the ultimate stress test and it will expose every sort of weakness that you've got and every sort of mental frailty that's in there, and it just comes out for all to see. And it's it's

like watching a car reckon. It's that you can't really look away, Like you don't really want to say it, but you can't look away. It's it's fascinating to watch. When you were when you were starting to get really good at golf and you were thinking about the four majors, did you think of the U S Open is the one that you had the best chance to win. No, I thought the US was the least chance. To be honest, all Australia, I think there are a chance, at least

once you grew up in Melbourne. I think there a chance at the Master's because it's very similar to Melbourne. UM the golf you have to play, UM, the Open Championship is the one that sort of Australians have always sort of had a big affinity for, again because we grew up with firm golf and bouncy stuff and we don't actually play links golf, but Australian golf is quite a lot closer to link style golf than it is

in the US. And the US Open I tended if I did have any sort of weaknesses growing I probably wasn't. I didn't drive the ball the straightest, and historically growing up watching US Opens and the way everybody talks about them still to this day, well maybe a little bit since Bryson sort of got involved, but um, everybody still thinks it's a straight hidden contest. It is just just isn't. Um, it's a short game contest. It's a short game and

a patient's contest. An a little bit of strength throughout the Brooks, Dust and Tiger sort of the strength out of the rough. But um, it's a short game contest. And I didn't really realize that until I won. When I finished, It's like nobody hits fairways out here. They're so narrow that even straight hitters can't hit fairways. Um, and I don't I think the Bryson theory is just a little bit too extreme, Like you can't miss every

fair way either, I mean you have to. It's some um, but it really is a test of you're going to drive in the rough five six seven times a day, five six seven times a day. At best, you're gonna miss grains probably more so you've got to get up and if you want to shot even part for the week, that's thirty forty up and downs, you're gonna have to tough up and downs are gonna have to make in a week if you want to get anywhere near the lead. So, I mean, um, in hindsight, and my short game was

outrageous there in that sort of period. In hindsight, it was the most obvious one for me to win. But before getting there, I thought, no, I thought was the lowest chance. Well, and that's why people who are baffled by Phil's Nicholson's record in at the US Open aren't paying attention because and I was just saying this earlier today to Michael, like these greens are so small, everyone's gonna miss the green. So it does become a chipping contest even more than other venues for the Open Lake.

So I don't. I'm not saying Phils are gonna win or maybe even not contend given everything else that's going on, but this this place to his strength and you know, other other players like that. So that' isn't that the funny thing though? That's the irony is like everybody thought that Fred Funk was like the U s Open like specialist, right and anyone who hits all Calvin Pate, Fred Funk

based straight hitters of it, fairways all day. Actually, the best US Open record outside of a guy who for a guy who didn't win one is Phil for the last twenty or thirty years. And the guy really has never hit very many fairways, and he's had an outrageous short game, and he's had the best US Open record in the last twenty years. It's a thirty years incredible. But then there's Hall Ruin and uh, Scott Simpson and a lot of guys who were you know, fairway and

green golfers. But I think the nature US Open has changed over time as well. Yeah, well for sure, And you know that was that was the Brooks template, like as as Jeff was saying, instead of hitting two iron off the tree, tea and trying to thread the fairway.

Just smash driver, get as close as you can to the green and then you can muscle a wedge up onto the pudding surface or nearby like there's no there's no benefit and thrilling back off the tea because you're gonna hit just as many with your driver as you are with with with another club, and then you might as well just put yourself as close to green as possible.

And obviously Bryson took that to the logical extreme. So you know, Phil has always been a power player, so he kind of he kind of figured that out as well. And just just smash driver and then go chase it and and see what happens. Um, here's an odd thing for everybody. Um, it was hard not to watch that Canadian Open last week and see, you know, always it going to be some kind of referendum on the greatness

that the PGA Tour. And now isn't it lucky for the PGA Tour that Rory Mcarey one the thing because he's the poster child for the PA Tour. Is is, you know, is golf and it's best. Um, I wonder if there'll be any of that this week here um, you have a sense of that. Yeah, we talked about that in in our Phil Mickelson UH press Conference reaction podcast.

But the majors have never been more important than they are right now as the tours getting watered down and a lot of big names are playing in a four whole exhibition, the meaning of the majors are just elevated. They're just they just are that much more important now as a measuring stick as bringing all the top players together. I mean, if if, if these guys don't get to play in tour events, which means World Golf Championships or the players, there's gonna be four times a year the

best players are in the same place. It's just the majors and that's it, right. So then to that are and Jeff please try them in here if you care to. But are you playing is a little bit in additional all the things that you're trying to do to us open and it's so difficult. Are you playing for country as well? And country in this sense is the PGA Tour or you know, fly the flag for the pH A Tour, fly the flag for live golf. To be crude about it, I'm not in the locker room at

the moment, So I'm out of that feeling. You certainly are playing for country, um Australians. For an Australian, generally, when we play overseas, we always feel like we're playing for country. I mean, look at the way Scottie reacted at the Masters, the way Cam carries himself leash. I mean,

it's just that's what we do. And certainly the American players playing for country in the US open Um, it seems to have a definite it's very elevated sort of national pride for the for the American guys when they play the U s open you can sense it and you feel it amongst the guys, the two of a to a thing. I don't know, golfs in a really interesting phase at the moment um. I think everyone's getting a bit reactive to this whole thing. Let's just I'll

stay out of that. But yeah, you're certainly playing for country. And we saw less hear what John rom I mean, he he went to seve A and uh, you know the great other the other great Spanish players that pursuded him very very quickly and very beautifully, very meaningfully. I mean, the depth of it, uh, really struck me. And Uh, one of the things that struck me going to a lot of US Opens over the years is just how

much US Open means to person. I think, I think it's struck me the most when uh when when for the most. The first time I felt that the most was Ray Floyd when at Schanica Hills and here's the son of a clip pro, uh winning on this historic golf course. And it was you know, it's the Venturi quote,

My god, I've won the Open. Yeah, I mean, there's It's just that's why we love these tournaments so much, is because guys don't break down in tears when they win the Canadian Open like they might throw a little shade like Roy did or you know, but there's just something so meaningful about about these weeks. That's always been the case. They only become a bigger deal. Um, just just as a parting thought. I mean, um, you know, Ryan, I love you're talking about how how this weekn can

change a guy's life. Um, for all of us as golfens is there is there one U S Open, just as a fan that you remember the most. I like the Ray Floyd, but I want to hear yours. I mean I think Lucas Glover because he was a qualifier. I mean, like so brand again, like if you go to a qualifier, I don't know how many you've been to or if you've ever been to it, Like it is what a lot of people don't see about pro golf. Um,

I mean there's no one there. It's on you know often okay, to nondescript golf courses, whether it's a Monday qualifier or in this case the sectionals. Uh, I mean it's it's the true grind. There's no you have to find your own motivation. There's no fans, there's no scoreboards, there's no nothing. Uh, you have to you know, you're looking at the scoreboard on your phone. Um. So you know,

Lucas is a pretty quiet, not a huge personality. But the fact that he went from playing and I don't know where he played, I assume Columbus and then onto the U S Open is is pretty sweet. What's it's obviously Lucas Lucas is accomplished, but it's what gives all these guys hope. Uh, they're not out there trying to play pro golf thinking that when they get to this point, they're just happy to be here. You know. I asked Luke in like, straight up, can you win the Open?

He's like, yeah, I can win the Open? Is it true? It doesn't matter. He believes it. That's awesome. How about you, Jeff, is there is there an early U S Open memory that sticks out for you? Um? I don't know. I mean I watched them all when I was a kid. I mean Hyler running around the grain at Madonna. I think it was pretty cool. Um, that was a pretty

cool one. But McDonald, I mean Tiger in two thousand, that's pretty etched in the memory, even though I was already played up and playing by then and he was a peer at that point. Um, that was pretty outrighteous, just from how do you possibly do that? And we'll never say that, Well, you never say never, but it's it's hard to imagine we'll ever say someone went and open by fifteen shots again, um, and then four weeks

later went and opened by nine. I mean he beat the best golfers in the world over eight rounds by twenty four shots. Like that period for me is the most memorable. Yeah, incredible. Yeah, for me, it would be the eight two US Open at Pebble Beats you know that was I was living fifteen miles away. There weren't a lot of golf fans in in my family, but for some reason it was on the TV and I

just got caught up in it. And you know, big Jack, this beautiful head of hair, and they're wearing stylish sweaters and I can still remember and bouncing out off the flag in h I'm sorry, noisy too. That's seventy two. I got my my opens mixed up. I was watching those highlights were on and that got sucked. We got sucked into it. And then eighty two was Watson and like his his sprint around the green like I was like, well,

I didn't know they did that in golf. That was cool, Like he uh, he was really into that, and you know, I thought golfers were so stated. I had actually probably been to a couple of Crosby clam bakes at that

point and never see anything like that. And so it's kind of like what you're saying with Jeff with Hail Irwin, like you remember that the emotion, you remember that, the joy, the exuberance, and uh, I said that that Watson moment was cool, Like how about big Jack congratulating on Colin Montgomery. I'm winning that US Open when he's sitting Yeah, I mean, were you watching that, Jeff? I remember that? Yeah? You finished?

He finished what two or three hours? Yeah, the wind came up and went crazy, but then kites went you know, he actually kept his ball and play a little bit. It was amazing that when I was a spectator and I was out there watching Dr Gil and he was hitting some of the coolest little tricky knockdown long iron and running it up to the greens, and it was like that was a memorable open too. I mean, Pebble's funky,

but it's had some good open you know. Someone at the U. S J Museum told me that this single most covided club that they would want for their collection is Watson's Sandwich from that seventy. First of all, he won't give it up. It's worth millions. Yeah, that's all that's on brand to UM. All right, Well, we're not gonna ask for picks because we don't care and we don't do that. We're we're a different kind of podcast. But uh, this has been another fire drill. We be

doing these all week long. UM. Jeff, thank you for your time and your insight and uh Ryan French. We always appreciate your contributions. Michael Bamberger, second podcast today that we've done. It's a rare pleasure. So this island ship nuk Um. We do want to tip our cap to our venue here which is the Arcadian Hotel in Brookline. Uh. They it's a nice host for us and they helped us out with the help help get us all here,

So thank you to those. It's fine folks, and we'll we'll be doing this all week long, so appreciate you all you guys listening and more to come. Put another log on the fire and we hear is get the time