Fire Drill 027: A Wild One at the Open

war of attrition. The wind came in, the temperature dropped. I think it's been an absolutely riveting day of golf. Ryan, you were out there watching. What are your what are your thoughts on on this US Open, how it's developed. Yeah, I mean it's very cool and just to be out there for my first time and yeah, I mean it's playing very hard. Um it is. Uh, it's just cool to be out there. I mean it was a great leaderboard obviously. Um. I mean I can't wait to watch

the finish. I know some of your beloved qualifiers have fallen off the board, but here it comes Adam Padwin. This is definitely big boy golf. M Jeff watching H Jeff Ogiley by the ways here Milacael Bapers on my left. Ryan French is on my right. I should have done that earlier. My apologies. M Jeff watching at home. What are you see out of this golf course and the way this tournament is shaping up for the Sunday Finnish? Yeah, I mean it's been pretty compelling, Hanna. Um looks tough

out there. That's kind of more fun to watch today than it would be to play. I think um Will's played Gride again. I mean, look, it's look, there's a little bit of southern hills about Will out there, and Fitch Pat Matt Fitzpatrick up there again, and Rom's hanging in there all it looks like he's about to make a boggy, So yeah, fun. Rory's had a tough duy Scottie out of control there for a bit, and then as fast as he went up, he went down. So yeah,

I'm just compelling viewing, I guess. I mean, you spend your life buying us opens you kind of don't really understand sort of the joy people get to watch sort of play a struggle. But today I've kind of enjoyed it. Michael, how much do you love the way this course is

testing the player. It's big, jackular and you know Jeff's point, it's not so much really seeing him struggle, it's just seeing what what has literally been said for a hundred years that the best golf courses will produce over seventy Joel holes the best players, and we're seeing this, you know, all ten names like we saw in nineteen seventy four wing Foot, you know, when it was a murderers row. This is a murderers row of the of the game today.

So it must say something about the quality of the golfers and the quality of the courses and how they're and how they're matching up. It's just couldn't be more fun. I mean, there's some thrilling us open bogie's going on out there, like a lot of guys making six eight footers to save bogie, which is monumental something like this. And I didn't think the course was set up that much more difficult. You know, the greens are still little receptive, but this big wind and this cold are came in

and man, that just changed everything. Yeah, it's now if you're on the wrong side of this green, you're praying you can tupe. You've got no chance of making there's no bombs to be made any downhills. Six footer and the wind looks so difficult. It just looks really really hard in the appropriately hard, not like weird hard, just appropriately hard. Yeah, Jeff. And if you rank the things that players dislike the least from a scoring standpoint, there's brick,

hard greens, there's long rough. But where does a cold, heavy wind fit into that? Yeah, that's pretty up there. I mean, I think if we have if we have soft, if we have soft grains, we generally score pretty well, even outside everything else usually, but if you have firm grains in a wind cold wind, especially, the ball goes shorter. Modern equipment seems to go shorter in the cold. The

temperatures set of temperature dependent a little bit. Yeah, wind is tough, especially blustery wind, and even hitting shots sometimes in the wind you can sort of manage. But putting in the wind on fast grains is really really hard,

maybe the hardest thing. I know. People talk about it a little bit, but putting in the wind, especially on days like this, when you've got six footers and you start really thinking, well, I really want to make this, but I really don't want to have six feet coming back, so you start getting defensive over puts and the balls wobbling and you're moving around and stuff. So wind I wouldn't say an equalizer the least preferred option for weather. I would have thought it. If it's raining and it's

coming straight down, it's not so bad. But if it's blowing really hard, golf gets really difficult. I mean, I'm not sure the average fan understands how much the wind can move a ball on the ground when there's so little grass underneath it. Right, Because the greens that we play, I don't feel like wind affects the puts that much. But these things are shaped so slick, they're like there's no friction there. How like Jeff on an eight foot or with a this serious cross went on a really

fast green. I mean, how much can that really affect the role of the put? Oh? I can affect it a lot. I mean some greens are some greens to sort of sit down below the bunkers, or they've got some trees and stuff around, are usually okay, but there's a lot of exposed grains around them. You could have a dead straight part that would break from outside the hole in a proper cross wind, for sure, And so then it gets complicated when you've got a right to

left part and the wind's buying left to right. If you've got a downhill put that you have to hit really really softly if the ball's blowing. If the ball is rolling slowly, it's going to get hit a lot

harder than if the ball is rolling fast. So there's a lot of complications, there's a lot of guesswork, and there's a fair bit of luck involved, I think sometimes because gusty wind is up and down and you can do all the calculating you want and aim at left edge if it's blowing left edge, if you just get if if the gust lays down, it just to go straight, and if you get a really big gust, it breaks more than the whole. So it's a little bit random. But at the end of the day, when it's like this,

good putters usually hole puts. Anyway, the harder putting gets, the better putters get further in front. Usually putting is a headspace more than any sort of technique probably, and great putters have great minds about putting, And yeah, I

don't know, it's tough. Is there a certain kind of putting stroke that lends itself to putting better in windy conditions like this, you would think, I mean, I mean the sort of snetcer thing, which is the extreme end of the scale, the really sort of short, firm, sort of poppy thing he puts incredibly well on poor greens and in poor conditions. But yeah, just that solid looking stroke, you know, the big wavy ben crunchhaor thing. I'm sure

he putt a grain in the wind. I'm not picking on bend, but like that big sort of Laura Roberts ben crunch or that really slow thing probably doesn't work quite as well. But modern modern putters are a lot bigger and a lot heavier than they used to be. A lot of mallets is a lot more weight in putters than they used to be. So the putter, probably the stroke is probably less important than just as I said,

the attitude towards putting the patients. If if your ball blows offline or it's wobbling when you hit it and stuff, you just gotta have patience and realize that it's happening to everyone, and you're gonna mike some and you're gonna miss some I love all that. It's so it's so insider you Ryan, what did you think the vibe out there? Because I feel like the crowds there were significantly larger

than the first two rounds. I don't think they sold more tickets or or what happened, but I feel like a major uptick in the energy and and and the vibe. What was your take? Yeah, definitely better. Uh, some more people drinking, so funnier crowds that had some energy. There was chance going on. I mean it was, I mean what I would expect from a Boston crowd. It was. It was a lot of fun out there. And they're really adopting, of course, as they would Keegan Bradley uh

as one of their own. And that's part of the greatness of Boston. That's part of the greatness of the Open is that you know, at any open, Uh, they'll suddenly be a crowd favor And I would say it right now for sure it's Keegan Bradley. Oh, no question. Did you hear anything funny out there? Yeah? John Ram got called chunky but handsome. Um, I mean there's always I mean, I'm always amazed that people like are so dedicated to like just yelling at another adult. You know,

it's just like what the hell are you doing? Like, okay, you want to like go John? I mean I was walking on four and John Ram was like here to the camera away from us and go John, Go John, over and over and over and over and over again. And John is like just looking straight ahead and just like I mean there's no way Jeff can maybe tell us, but like there's no way that doesn't annoy the shit out of you. Like okay, dude, I got it. Seven,

let's joke. Let's go John to go, And the discipline not to even look over there, just like that's impressive. I mean, how much at a big tournament, Jeff, when the fans are well lubricated and getting rowdy, Like, how can that really affect a player and get in their head and irritate them? Or how easy is it to drown that out? I mean, well, like in Boston and New York, it's very hard to drown out. Phoenix would be another one too. Look, it's fun if it's in

a good spirit. I think I think most guys enjoy the good spirit. I think when it flips a little negative, I think guys that can really get under their skin. Um, it's fun. I mean, Phoenix can be one or the other. You know, in New York, I think's the best place that if you if there's if there's a guy doing that and they yell loud. In New York and Boston's probably pretty similar. If you turn around and acknowledge them, they get happy and then they get quiet. You know,

they just want to be acknowledged. I'm here, Yeah, you're you're part of this show, like, well done, thanks, riding on and then just quiet and down place. Um, look, I don't know, it's tough. They get very loud. You understand that they're having fun. But if it's positive, I think it's great. If it gets negative, it gets a bit aggravating. Yeah. One of the other stories in my book at All is Amazes Me win at the Atlanta Athletic Club when Michelson two thousand one PG Championship against

David Thoms and gets down to the seventieth hole. He's got this long part and some fans yelled, uh something about the break. Phil. It's it's really slow put you know, and on some level the fans know what they're talking about. If you camp out around a green for an hour or two and you see a lot of putts and you're you're a golfer. You can kind of get a fuel for it, like you have some information. And Phil said, like he heard it and it hit his subconscious and

so he hit his putt harder. It went eight feet by, he missed the comebacker, and in a lot of ways it cost him the PG championship. I give him credit for actually saying it and being honest about it, But I mean, is that a thing, Jeff, where like fans will will shout out information that might or might not be relevant, and like has it ever affected you? Absolutely? Um? Yeah, absolutely, Like Brake's left, Jeff. It Brake's left, Jeff. And then you sort of think, well, I know it breaks left,

but does it make more than I left? More than I think? And now I hit it high, and now you don't want to miss it left, because then they're all going to get into your saying, I told you're broke left, so you may be hitting a bit too high. And yeah it's I mean, they like you're right. They do. They've been watching pots old eye and may people have been missing it left old eye. Then they're just trying to help all, as I said, to be part of

the show or whatever. But then you start thinking, well, if I miss it left, they're just going to give me the I tell just so, so I better give it a bit more than I can see. And maybe I'm saying what it was anyway, And yeah, it's um it. Generally it happens a few times. You generally get pretty good at drowning it out and just doing your own thing, but you certainly listen, and it certainly happens a lot, Yeah, Jeff.

When the USJ committee meets side to side on the course setup, they have of course an idea of what they want for Sunday, probably going months back. To what degree would they adjust at all in terms of actual position tea markers, actual position of the whole at what point to what degree would they make late weak adjustments, if at all, depending on whether leaderboard or otherwise, I don't know. I think the USGA is probably pretty set. I hope they're fluid with the weather forecast. They have

sort of contingency sort of ideas. Certainly, t I think tea positions would be pretty fluid depending on conditions the pins. As you said, they probably decided that three years ago where they were going to put the pins, you know, during the week, and hopefully there's contingencies for crazy winds and stuff. I would have feel like the USG has a sort of organization that wouldn't have contingency plans for that. I mean, Augusta certainly is very Augusta certainly seems to

move the course around depending on the week. You know, they seem to set the course up each day as appropriate to how it's playing and how it went the day before. USGA. I don't know. I think Matis probably can move around a little bit, but I think the pins are probably set in stone. I would that would be my guests. Hopefully there's contingency, but I don't know. Well, tomorrow will be interesting because the highest forecast now for fifty nine. It's gonna be cold, and you know, we

saw a big wind blow through here. You know, I feel like they've not really pushed this course that hard. You know, we're talking about they put water on the greens yesterday, so cold weather. Could they would they tip it out and really like let's make this a allbuster or are they afraid of going too far in one direction? So I think we'll get some of the some of the answer to your question tomorrow. Michael. Yeah, how tough they set up knowing that it's gonna it might be

at the end of the day. We've got one or two guys under part exactly, so um as we're sitting here. Fitzpatrick just Birdie the seventeenth hole. He's a solo leader at five under. And he's a really interesting case. Like you know, he's always been known just greedy, grinder on dangerous on tough courses, didn't hit it far enough to be a serious contender. But over the last couple of years, like he's embraced the stack system. He's added excuse me, a lot of horsepower and a lot of speed, and

like he's hitting it really far for a guy his size. Now, I mean, Jeff, can you talk about a similar evolution? I mean, how hard is that for a short hitter to become an above average hitter? And when you have that skill set like he has and then you add another whatever ten fifty twenty yards, Like, how dangerous does that does that make a guy like Matt Fitzpatrick. Oh yeah, I mean he's the real deal now. And he was quite short when I first played with him, and I

thought he was going to struggle at big courses. But yeah, he's got longer. I don't know he used to. I think it's a lot easier than it used to be. I think the science is really good now. I think golf has been overscienced from a playing perspective in most areas. But I think the physical stuff like that, the sort of sort of fine tuning the gym programs, and the sort of the light clubs and the heavy clubs and the speed stuff that people do, I think is pretty

good now. I think there used to be whenever someone chased a bit of distance, it was usually that was the end of their career and they would go off the wrong way. But I think now it seems to be pretty well worked out. Everybody's doing it. I mean, I think it's a little bit sort of overrated just

gaining more distance. You still need to make parts of chip, and Tiger won all the major hitting two arms off the tea and stuff, so I still think it's a fraction overrated, but it's a much It's a much more exact science now, and there's a much better understanding of how to create speed without trashing your golf game and equipment, so you can you can do so much more with equipment set up now to maximize what you're doing. Whereas before it was just find the best club you could

and work out to hit that one far. Now you can really sort of there's so many shafts and so many head options, and so many weights you can do in the club, and so many different things that they've learned R and D wise with drivers and golf balls that it sort of compliments the physical stuff you're doing. That's that's fascinating, Jeff, because it seems to me, if you're, if you're really really good at golf, you'd much rather change your shaft in your head than change your body.

Because you've change your body, your swing is going to have to change as well as you saw a tiger as you soon braced Shambo and Rory, lots of people over the years. But if you're just used the shaft in the head, it's more organic with it. Would that be largely a accurate or Yeah? And I think and I think, look, a lot of it is confidence too. Like when you feel confident with a golf say a driver, you're trying to hit it far. When you feel confident with the driver, you just hit it harder. You just

do because you feel better about it. And if you feel that the driver's going a bit skewy, you start slowing down because you're just not sure where it's going to go. So there's a lot to that. There's a lot. It's a lot more of an exact science getting drivers into people's hands, and there's more of an understanding of sort of what stuff will allow you to sort of see the shape that you want. If you see the shape that you want in the ball flight that you want,

you get more confident. So you just naturally hit it harder anyway because you're more confident. So that all sort of compliments that the physical stuff you're doing. So I think it's it's pretty well understood now. It seems to be all the attention in golf the last sort of ten years has gone on how to get guys to hit it further. And when you get smart minds on things, good things usually happen. I still think, as I said,

I still think it's a fraction overrated. But for a guy like Matt, it was probably necessary to compete on the big on the big courses because he's got every other every other part of the game. So he gains ten or fifteen yards, he's going to be He's pretty dangerous. Right. He reminds me of the bastall player who's got all the skills and then all of a sudden he grows like eight inches one summer and he's like, now he's he's the best player on the court. Like it's really interesting. Um, Ryan,

Adam Hadwin just finished office round. He's tied for third. He seems like, you're kind of guy. Yeah, I mean he's had some success. He's not I mean, he's he's a nice dude. He's not really a like a grinder. I mean he's done pretty well. Yeah, I mean, Ryan, can I ask you, what do you mean he is or isn't grinders? The greatest grinder in the history of golf is Tiger Woods. So what exactly? So my my, yeah, I mean obviously he grinds. I think Tiger grinds the greatest.

But a grinder is like Hayden Buckley, like wasn't supposed to be here? Who says, So you're you're using it as an adjective or a noun. He's using it as a genre. He's talking about scrappy dude coming from the minor leagues. I understand. Yeah, to me, a grinder or someone like they are so desperate to stay in this game, they will do whatever they have to do, hopefully within legal bounds, to stay in the game. I totally agree,

except they don't have the talent that Tiger has. I'm not I'm not discounting that Tiger was grinded Tiger Tiger, but you know, Buckley, grind off the charts and talent off the charts. You got Tiger Woods. We've never seen anything like it. Hayden Buckley like what you know, I mean, obviously very talented, but like has to work harder or as hard, doesn't have the skills to do it. So he's he might win one or two PJA two events in his entire life. I see some of our colleagues

eating pizza. What's up with that? Do you think pie is being served? Yes? Stay focused, Michael, oh, yes, say? Can I ask a question for all three of you? Jensen, you know, and when Jeff first came on too, of course this wasn't the case. These major seasons are short and intense, and this year in particularly to go from augustin National Scottish Shuffler, a Great PJA Championship at Southern Hills, a great US Open here, and then we're going to the Old Course. There are no bad opens up the

Old Course. What do you all think about? You know, April, May, June, July bam bam, bam bam, and then we're out. I like it. I mean, it's kind of it's just like you get into this rhythm and then you throw the players in there in March too. Yeah, you just have kind of a five month run, four month run that really defines the whole golf season. And then then you come into the FedEx Cup and we don't care about that much, but it kind of puts a cherry on top of the whole year. And now we get some

live events. And now we got live Jeff, how do you feel about a jest? But a lot of these guys are excited about the live events run. Yeah. True. Wow. Look, it's making it's making room for the other half of the year. And it's like if you get a role in the first half of the year and then there's room to do other stuff in the other half of the year. Maybe the players are the best part about it is the players in March is so much better than in May. It's yes, it's just not even close

for me. Yeah, and that the PAGI is weird, I think in my it takes a while to get used to still for me, sure for you guys too, but it feels like this is the one after the Masters. Still to me, in my head, I sort of forget the PGA has been on already just because it was forever the last one and I don't know the PGA. There was something about it being the last one, like when it's buried in the middle, it's going to get it, it's not going to be there. There was a coolness

about it. Was like the last shot for the year, right, the last chance. That was it. That was it sales pitch. But like the the cadence of them now is perfect, right, you have one, you have a month off, you have one, you have a month off, you have one, you have a month off. It kind of it's nice. It's a nice sort of rhythm to the season. Yeah, it kind of. I think we can all agree that PGA is always going to be for the most people's rankings of the majors.

Um so in some ways. I hear you're saying, Jeff, it was almost a little bit of a letdown in the end with the PG. But to end with the major season, the open at Saint Andrew's, I mean that's a plus plus, Like it's a little better exclamation point I think on that whole part of the schedule. Yeah, before we go too far, afueld from Adam had when I just want to point out that he met his now wife on tinder Um while he was traveling the tour which this week. This week, the Wichita event is

on the corn Ferry tour. This week he met his wife. This is their anniversary X amount of years ago in uh at the corn Ferry event. What what a what a story that'll be? Yeah, So I'll tho us out to you Ryan and to you Jeff. We don't have to say any names. If you want to offer initials or other identifying details, that's why. But what are the best stories we've heard about players hookups on the road.

It just seems Jermaine, given Hadwin's lofty position on on the leaderboard, don't be shy, Jeff, go ahead, I don't know. Wis Hilton head back in the good old days. That was always a the punning grind of hilton Heads always been a pretty good hunting ground for the boys. Um, look, I don't know. I know Adam really well. Um, and she's great, Jessica, right, yeah, Yeah, the fact that they met on Tinder does not mean she can't be great. I feel like there's a little bit of judgment in

that comment there, Jeff, there was no judgment. That's how it's done. That's how it's done these days. You don't camp out at the bar anymore. You just you just found them off the thing. There's a few, quite a few boys who have brought out them. I mean they get the dms set to them on Instagram and they just basically picked from a bunch of good choices and out they come for a few weeks and off they go and then another one comes out. So there's been a few of play that game for a while. It's

a different it. Look, it's a different world now. It used to be hard work. You used to have to put all afternoon at hilton Head, but now you can just sit on your phone. Yeah, Strokes game putty really changed the week after the Masters, for sure, Ryan, come on the greedy minor leagues. You must have some stories. Latin American tour gentleman met a fine Colombian woman and brought her back to the hotel. There was a knock on the door and it was her husband, and he

ran out of the Uh. He jumped out of the first It was on the first floor, the window. He had none of his clothes, his yardage book was in there. Everything. Uh it was. It was a bad situation, mostly first golf because his yardage book was it was fine. He escaped, but uh, I mean, Jeff will tell you, without your yardage book and all the notes, shit's going sideways. Like he never went back to his hotel room. He just like abandoned the plano was her hotel room. It was

her hotel rooms. That's an important piece of all Right, this begs a lot of questions. We're gonna We're gonna save those for another podcast. I feel like this could be an entire podcast that would be amazing if we could get Jeff to be like unfiltered about stories he's heard. Oh man, oh man, can we get Tiger on here? Jeff Michael Michael ast Jeff, I mean, ask of Tiger if we can get him on here and tell some stories. I'll go to Steinberg and he'll go yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah yeah. I'm I'm sure we'll get it. Yes. But has Tiger ever done a podcast? I don't think he has he ever been a guest on a podcast, not that I don't think, so let's ask. I mean, that's actually unbelievable. The first person ever gets a Tiger here, he comes, Tiger, come on in, right, I mean, in this day and age, that like every player's done podcast. That's just the thing. Jeff along along the lines where you were saying a minute ago. Uh, Alan knows this

very well. But Alan and I had a Boston him Jim Harry for years at Sports Illustrated, and he was like a savant for story ideas, and and Jeff Maggert had won some big event and I think a million dollars, well, probably the Tour Championship, and and Harry said, there's no way this guy is this boring. Go see the guy and see what he's up to. So went and saw Jeff Maggert I think at the UH at one of those events outside DC when the Kemper Open was there,

and we talked about a sex life. For about three hours on the record. That was interesting. Absolutely did you wrote the story? Oh it's a classic. We're just talking about this last night at dinner. And not only did Jeff talk in great vivid detail about sex life, Michael also interviewed his his ex wife his new wife like it was utterly fasting that all these people just told you everything. And the mother who said he seems for a while like he was dealing with depression issues, but

not anymore. I'm making that last part of it. I don't want to depression issues, because he did have depression issues according to the letter. He's a complicated, interesting guy. But man alive, did he hit the golf ball straight? I'm sure you built a lot with him? What an exit? I'm just I'm just trying what he just wants to jail. And the whole thing, Jeff Magger hit the ball straight

or stop at Michael is ridiculous. And Brian, here's another guy, Ryan, just so you know, here's another guy who hit a really straight Brian Gay, Well, what about his sex life? That's not um. Although Brian Gay I saw him at a when justin Timberlake first became the who in Las Vegas, there was a great concert where I went to it, Like fifty cent was there and a bunch of other big name people get got up and jammed with Timberlakes. One of the best concerts ever and all the tour

players turned out because I got tickets. And I thought Brian Gages is boring. Dude. He showed up and he was in like snay skin boots, skin tight jeans, like this black leather shirt. There was like unbuttoned to his belly button. I was like, clearly, Brian Gay is more interesting than I thought. And that led to a whole big story. And I've always loved Brian Gay and Kimberly his bride. And if you see Brian Gay when you go to the Dylan show in a couple of weeks

in Santa Cruz, you better write that up. I will write that up. And if he wears that same outfit to Dylan and Santa Cruz, it will not fly. Well, yeah that I am going to Dylan next week. I refused to let go that we had. We transitioned from Jeff Maggert's sex play for three Hours to House Trady hits the Ball. Hey, no one cares about how straight

Jeff it's a family podcast, right. I still when you rank the most mortifying ways to loser major championship, like blowing like a two and a half of put pot, like Scott Hope, that's on the list. Um to Chip Chen, Yeah, yeah, to Chip Chen signing the incorrect scorecard. Uh, like Devin Devin Senzo Like but Jeff Maggert when he joined himself in the chest at Augusta, I remember he was that fairway bunker. Was that maybe on five? Ye? Like? Uh, maybe earlier in the round earlier it was three three,

he was on three? Like were you playing with him? Remember? Do you think now that the rules changed, he's super pissed off about it. No, it's just much a gentleman for that. A guy named Bill Campbell is a former person in USJA. Spent fifty years of his life trying to get that rule changed. He died and they changed it. But it was a bad rule. I mean, you got two shots for hitting yourself coming on. I mean, this is this is why I questioned my my space on

this podcast is things like that. I mean, I don't even know who that guy is, and like, I mean, but what do we know about some of your players? And we're all educating each other here. Ryan, Um, all right, let's try and bring this back to the issue at hand. Here we've gone very far afield. But this is the United States Open Championship. Yeah, we're heading into the final round. It's it's an A plus leaderboard. Yep. Um. We know it's gonna be cold. We don't know how Windi's gonna

be tomorrow. They're such a lurker. It's so obvious. Sam Burns absolutely Alan still got it. Well. I mean, he struts around like he's already won five US Opens, like the guy has one of the all times struts. I will say Rory McElroy is playing an extremely impressive round because he's got nothing, but he is grinding so hard and he's made some great bogies. He's made some great start three and now he's won. Yeah yeah, but I

mean he looks like he's shooting eighties. So if Rory he's still got three more holes to go as we tape this, if you can get in the barn like Jeff knowing what you know, what would you hazard? Will be the winning score tomorrow? Oh, it's gonna be called. It's not gonna be any better than four unders it yeah yeah, I would sell two yeah something, yeah, yeah, which means anyone who's at plus one even plus two that they go out early and you know, shooted or

sixty six would been unbelievable. Round sixty seven would be incredible, like Dustin Johnson's plus two if he goes out and just you know, free wheels a little bit because he's just far enough out of the league, like uh, you never know. But you know, it's amazing about this board top, you know from the name, so we can see right here and this is a total compliment to the US Open, no flash, all substance. You know, that's true right down the list, and it's it's it's great to see him.

You know, as we've said many times, you know, how did Chad Campbell not when you know a US Open? How did Jeff Maggert not want to use Open? But there is a type of golf that wins US Opens and every one of these guys, no, no, John bram is a super mega talent, but he's still oh he's a grinding mold. Yeah, he's like every which way to Sunday, you know. Yeah, Seby didn't fit the mold and he never want to US Open. Yeah, you know that's not Nick Faldo never when he US Open. That's why I believe.

I believe. Yeah, you know that Tom Kite did. Of course, that Ben Cronshaw didn't. Of course. Yeah, some things makes sense all that. Yeah, so this board makes sense, and I'm happy for the USGA. I mean, I think they think they needed a week like this. It's been a crazy hectic year in the world and end in golf, and it's just a delight to come here to this old timey course and see an old timey leader board

and have this cool weather. It's just great. It's fun. Yeah, I think we, I think all of us probably have recognized when the USGA makes mistakes and they have their shortcomings,

like any big organization. But I think I can't speak for Ryan, he's sort of an anarchist, but me, you and Jeff like we appreciate the USGA that they they are the governing force in this game and their hearts in the right place and so so I think some people delight when they screw up the setup and they get to rip them, including some players and some reporters. But I like when this is successful. He goes open

I feel a bit of re leaf almost. Yeah, when if they shoot twenty under, if the old course is still for four days and there's twenty under, the RNA, guys be like, that's cool. They may not use the phrase, but they'll be all right with it, and that's that's great too. Is there any do you have any emotion, Jeff, just watching this open playout with beautiful golf course, nice set up, no controversy, great players on the board. Is that sort of pleasing for you in some way? Yeah? Absolutely,

agree with everything you guys have said. Absolutely. It's they need they need a win. A man, it's a good year for a win too, right, especially at a great course like this, great venue. It's unfolding like it's going to be a great one. I mean, it's just it's there's nothing worse than when they go to a place like Shinnecock, which is one of the best courses in the world, and yeah, they just get to it. They just get too excited and they just just make Shinnicock

looks stupid. Like it's just incredibly annoying and frustrating. This is a win. This is a win. Whatever happens tomorrow, it doesn't seem like it's going to be anything but another day like this and a good player is going to win. Um, the USG I need to win every now and then. Yep. I'm sticking to a Brookline police officer today. And you know, he was here in Ada, and he was here in ninety nine for the Ryder Cup, and he was here. I don't know if he was

here in sixty three. Of course he's here this year. It's like they've had nothing but good tournament. Something guy says, and what about thirteen And he wasn't talking about the USAM and in twenty thirteen he was talking about the fact that they've had nothing but great US opens here And yet you know it's not on the road to Yeah, as you said, for the reason, you know, the follow the money reasons. But it's a shame really. Yeah, well,

you know it's not set in stone. I mean the USG has scheduled out a number of opens, but there's there's some empty spot for sure. They're not they're not books all the two thousand and fifty one or whatever, like yeah, I mean the PGA is yeah, yeah, I mean this has been so successful. I think there's been so much praise, like, hopefully they'll re examine it, so, you know, let's find a way to get back here in a decade. Like I think that that can happen.

You know, when something exceeds expectations and people fall in love with it and it's universally acclaim, they would would be silly not to rethink it. Yea. Now whether like the Club Brooklyn wants it back and um, you know that's maybe a secondary issue, but it it would be cool to have about do we want to do we want to make predictions for tomorrow? Are we that kind of podcast? I don't think so. No, No, we're not. Okay, all right, well let's this is a short snappy uh

fire drill. That's good. People are busy on Saturday night. But Jeff, what is your T shirt indicated? I can't say it from here? It's links all Oh yeah, yeah, I think yeah? What an organic? Yeah, little add Where do you go? Yep? Do we have any other sponsors? Very nice links? Also of the sponsors today is a sponsor. Yeah. We want the listeners at home to know that that is the meaning of organic. That was organic. That is the meaning we could only barely did you hear Ogilby Segue.

Did the organic cotton in the shirt? Yeah, I mean that's the biggest takeaway for me. Jeff Maggert sex life. I mean, I don't even know what to say about it. We should also mention our favorite golf at Part Points. It's also one of our sponsors, and sometimes we joke around, but we do love our sponsors because they help us keep the lights on and we get to do cool stuff like this. So thank you to Part Points and Links Soul. Thank you to the listeners for being here.

It's been an incredibly long I feel like I've been at the Country Girl for a month. Yeah, is well, we don't get here on Monday, and we did this year. Yeah, it was neat. I've liked it. Yeah, flood of content and for the late tea times on Suturday and Sunday. Hopefully all you guys out there are catching up. You go to our landing page Firepit Collective dot com. You can click on one button. It'll take you everything we've done this week, so I hope you'll check that out.

So Jeff, thank you for your time and your insight. Michael Ryan, we'll do this again. Thanks for listening and We'll do it again tomorrow when we have a champion. That's it. From the country Club at Brookline, Massachusetts. Put another log on the fire. Nobody hears. Get the time