Fire Drill 031: On the Eve of The Open

sant Andrew, but we've retreated to our neutral corners. Of course, Matt is somewhere more exciting than our hotel rooms. So, uh, what does the scene there, Matt bring it, bring it to life for our listeners where I'm at a MasterCard event.

Trevor Immelman just held court and uh talked, you know, poetically about the sort of the nostalgia of being in the Jigger in for the one hundred and fiftieth playing of the Open Championship and his transition from playing to TV and talking about the golf course and how this is going to be a really fast week. I mean, the ball is going to not stop moving. And the only thing he made a great comment about the only thing that that the ball is up against his time.

The only thing that will stop the ball is time. And that you know he thinks twenty under is in play and that fifty nine is in play. Without elements, this golf course is vulnerable. He's justin Thomas to win. Interesting. I mean, it's been fun to watch the practice rounds. It's it's certainly a racetrack, even though we got a little shower of this afternoon. But um, it's funny. I wish they would just cut all the rough down. That there's more rough on the old course has ever been.

I think in these conditions it'd be more fun if if they shaved all the grass down like the old Augusta National and really the old the previous old course, and just let the ball run forever it would it's not gonna stop that winds up in a bunker or in the hole. And um, but Michael, what have you seen from the golf course that that you like? As we're here on the eve of the Open, well, I would just say I have a totally different view that Trevor Immelman is a lot more about tournament golf than

I ever could. But to me, an old course that plays super fast like this is really really challenging because it's so much guesswork. Um, I just I don't see how guys could possibly get to twenty under if, if ever, if every t shot you're afraid about, you can't stop the ball from going into a bunker, and once you're in the bunker's all hell breaks loose. You can't stop

the ball from going over the eighteenth green. You know, there's numerous things that every single hole, even the first with the burn, every single hole has something that can really go wrong. When the course is playing so fast, you can't control your golf ball. So I would not

agree with the assessment that it's playing fast. Therefore we're going to have low winning scores well, and the greens are super firm, so you look at I mean, Jordan Speed said earlier in the week that this is the most important week for lag putting there is because even a well struck short iron may trickle forty or fifty feet pass. You know, you know they're going to be using that. One of the defenses of the course is the swales and the humps and the hollows on the

greens and they're gonna put. I'm sure the pins in some challenging spots, so there's going to be a lot of challenging two put especially if you're putting in the wind. So I agree. I mean, I guess the X factors. If you can drive a handful of part fours, which is certainly possible out here, and you can two put those, there are birdie chances. But I think there'll be a really wide dispersion of scores. I mean, someone who's really playing well and the putter fields good in their hand,

they could shoot a low one. But I think you can see a lot of seventy six and seventy eights where guys just are overwhelmed by the precision that's required in the patients and all the questions that are asked

by this golf course. I was talking about these puttings and lag putting, and Roddy car is here in the crowd and asked Trevor about a player like will Zlaturus, who obviously has control of his golf ball, but being having sixty seventy foot eighty foot putts could expose that, you know, a faulty putting stroke like that's like, that's something that these guys aren't used to so and Trevor

was saying, yeah, that's a really good point. Roddy Car obviously son of the great Joe Car who was three time British am Champ, and Roddy Car made the winning putt on the eighteenth hold of the Old Course to win the Walker Cup in front of his legendary father, who was the first Irishman to be the RNA Captain.

Brought that point up. They were having this ongoing conversation about how putting is going to be a huge factor this week, and it's not just from five feet or ten feet, it's more from fifty feet and seventy feet you could say, seventy five yards even, you know guys, Will put from way way off the green. Tiger did that, willing me think what year was it so dry? I guess that would have been No. Five when he one. He was putting from wildly far off the green. But

just a quick note on Will's alad horse. Having watched him, you know, pretty closely in the three Majors, so he played really beautifully, not really well beautifully. I think lag putting is a tremendous strength for Wills alad Horse. It's really six feet an end when things get a little dicey. But he's got beautiful distance control that I've seen, Allen, have you seen otherwise? Yeah, No, he's he's I mean, putting stats are actually quite good for the season and

mid to long range. I agree. He looks really smooth, and it's just it's just when the closer he gets to the whole, the more the putter can wobble. And you know it's purely psychological, right because the stroke looks great from twenty five feet so, but even so he still makes a lot of them. It doesn't necessarily look pretty, but it's like Billy Mayferd. They go in so you'll

take it. But that's what's so fascinating about this golf course, is this this battle between power and finesse and which style is going to prevail and everyone can play the golf course differently. I mean, we've been talking about it feels like for a month since we got here, and I just can't wait to see how it's going to shake out. I mean, it's the most fascinating golf course there is to watch these guys play and what is

your level of excitement Michael extremely huh. You know, you know, it's really neat Tiger in the press conference yesterday, Like there's been a lot of talk appropriately this is one one hundred and fiftieth playing of the of the of the Open Championship or is it one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first part of me for not knowing, But one fifty is the number that we do now and and Tigers start in nineteen sixty. So yeah, okay,

that helps. So the one hundred and fiftyth playing of the Open and uh, you know, boiler play question to Tiger, you know, does this one feel more historic than the others? And Tigers like, yeah, it actually does. And I think what's happened in this particular Open, there's been a lot of emphasis on Bobby Jones, on Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods and winning at Saint Andrew's and Bopa Bopa Bob generation generation, and I just feel like the any Open

at St. Andrews is a cause for golfing celebration. Of course, this one is at an even higher level because of this number one fifty and because we're really thinking about that for American golfers especially, but that line from Jones to Nicholas to Tiger Woods as we never have before.

So you know, it's interesting here, trevel immam and bring up Justin Thomas, you know, who would love to win his third major championship here and has been getting the stick for weeks, if not years, some Tiger Woods about you know, when you're gonna win something other than a PJA championship. U. So, I think the stakes are high and the excitement levels are really really high. What have

you felt in the air, Matt. You've been sort of hopping from rooftop to rooftop and you've been sort of behind the velvet rope a little bit here this week again, what what what is the what has the atmosphere been like that you've been able to partake in? I think, you know, I'm looking I'm literally looking at looking at a sign that says everything has led to this. This is like a big sort of marketing slant of what's

what's transpiring here? And but I come back to it because it actually feels like for me personally, for my love of the game. Michael, you know you got emotional even in the previous podcast just talking about sort of

just this. I keep saying like this, being here, being a part of this at the Old Course, the one hundred and fiftieth, playing all that I've learned about Old Tom Morris the last few months as we've been preparing these this multi series package on an homage to what he's meant to the game, getting to know Sheila Walker, his great great granddaughter, me and my life and my career. I'm looking around Scott Tally, I've been working with for twenty five years, who works with Jack Nicholas, Who's been

very emotional being here. He got the keys to the city, literally getting you know, noticeably and physically emotional about reflecting on his time and his relationship with Saint Andrew's in the Old Course, Tiger, knowing what we know about Tiger, sort of the passing of these batons from this other generation to whatever's happening to this next generation. Bumping into

so many different people, places and things. We've all been moving through this game together as journalists, as players, as caddies, as fans, as you know. This all has been culminating to me to this event, this venue, this time in the history of the game of golf. It's this massive intersection with all of it and just bumping into Mark Mulvoy on the street. Mark Mulvoy, famous legendary editor and publisher of Sports Illustrated. Who hired you? Alan, Who you

worked for? Michael? Who I worked for? Who? Like everybody is here, this is all happening, and it just it feels like it's one big great massage of the soul as it relates to my relationship and our relationship with the game of golf. When Matt said, I think we both I'm sure we would both completely agree with and of course it didn't even need to be said by

by Map. For our listeners who may not follow a game as closely, it's such a time of a people in the game, no matter where you think about, no matter what you think about live golf or the Department of Justice investigation, and there's such you can look at in a black and white way, you can look at

a nuanced way. However, you just look at it. But we're going to get a break from all that because golf's been played on this golf course for hundreds of years, and this tournament has been played for you know, one hundred and fifty plus one hundred and fifty times anyway. And it has nothing to do with the Department Justice

investigation or live golf or greed or anything else. It really is about playing for a jug and that's, you know, on a very primitive, weird, funky public golf course where this time and night, you know, it's what is it here? It's nearly ten o'clock at night as we're doing this at Saint Angew's time. I've been on the golf course. I'm sure we all have. At ten o'clock at night. Weird animals come out of the gorse and the heather at this time. You're like animals like you've never seen

before in your life anywhere. Like they look like rabbits, but they've got like a shark's tail, and weird, weird animals. It's a weird golf course. None of the holes makes sense, you know, as as Fred told me the other way, it's like Fred Couples. It's like, you know, Gary Player told me I played the course all wrong. It's like I didn't know any other way to play it. There are so many different routes to the whole. And so

I think we're in for four great days. I think Michael's been smoking the fescue, not just chipping off of it, but well share for God's sakes, Jesus. I mean, it's funny because one thing that's great about the Old Course is these intensely nerdy discussions about the how each hole should or could be played. And you see this on golf Twitter. You're here in the pubs. It certainly be a talking point in the telecast. You know, the bunkers

are all famous, the whole names, the double greens. You know, there literally is three or four different routes to play every hole, like you know, say the Principles nose. Who would name a trap the Principles Nose. It's fantastic. I mean, it's so what you think about, Like like when Bethpage hosted you having Bethpage hosted the PGA Chamship, there was

one way to play every hole. You had to try and fit it in that the narrow fairway between the rough, the long rough and the and the deep bunkers, and you just had to hit it to the middle of green and try and two put it was. It rewarded excellence, but it was boring as hell. And the Old Course

it's so free wheeling. I mean, all, all three guys in the group tomorrow can can play the whole completely differently, different clubs off the tea, different lines of attack, and so it's just it's such fun viewing for for even casual fans, but especially the more so fisticate golfan and especially those use who have been lucky to actually play the course and we know how we played the whole. Like there's just something magic about the viewing experience of

this tournament on this golf course. But by the way, I mean, these guys right now wind at their backs, they're hitting three irons to the green off of eighteen. They're they're literally having conversations about how two iron is

too much off the eighteenth tee. Uh. I mean, this is this is zaniness right now, Like what's going to actually transpire what they're going to be hitting off teas or how they're gonna be hitting on Some are saying they want to hit less off the teeth so they have more club in their hands so that they can actually get some spin so they can have a chance of stopping the ball on the green instead of hitting you know, instead of I don't know, this is I just have a feeling this could take on a whole

new character and life because of what is going to be the conditions and the speed of the fairways. What Matto said the beauty. What Matto said is that it shows that the course is totally counterintuitive in golf's counter intuitive. It's like, you know, Brian Harmon and Lee Trevino talking on the range the other day and they're talking about, you know, Brian's lefty, but I'll just say, you know, lead foot, rear foot, left, you know, tip right in

the golfer, left foot, right foot. It's like whatever the left foot's doing, the rights doing something else, and everything works in counterbalancing golf. So like when the ordinary golfer thinks, oh fast course, you can drive it. You know, we who drive it to twenty can drive it to forty. They hate that. And what Matches said is so true.

They'd rather hit a longer club in with a lofted club, hopefully off some actual grass and possibly well not possibly spin it and stop it because that that they can control.

So you know that, but not everybody's really going to have that creative breakthrough where they can where they can think that way, which probably means is actually probably a very small number of players who have both the golf skill and the and the really the intellectual nature like Tiger and Nicholas have, and other winners here have had over the years, Bobby Jones to be successful here, it's

probably actually a very short list, right. Well, I want to talk about Tiger because there's much focus on him. There has been every tournament round he's played this year. But I think there is a sense in the year, even though he hasn't said it, like this is his harah at the Old Course and maybe even for the British Open in general and the um because it's going to be such a chess match out there. Could is it? Can we dream? And it's a flat course, easy to

walk at warm temperatures? You know Tiger when when the temperatures getting the fifties, like you can get it an open that's not good for his back. It just seems like everything's kind of aligned. Has been almost boughb me out there, like can we let her sell dream that that Tiger the master strategist and tactician, the greatest thinker in the game along with Nicholas, Like is it possible that he can just finagle his way into contention? On

this golf course. I mean, obviously it's possible. There's no way it's not possible, So therefore it's possible he is tiger fricking I would say it's Tiger's tiger fucking woods. I mean that's that's I mean, you know, eighty two

and fifteen doesn't happen by accidents. So and I think there's regardless of whatever he's dealing with physically, spiritually, emotionally, like you don't think he doesn't want to make one last you know, you know, fist pound on top of a table to the rest of the generational stuff that he's created. In terms of the competition, I mean, all the ribbing that he's giving is actually ribbing himself, Like

this is the way he winds him stuff up. There's tales of him at a dare manner, going out in the morning, practicing playing eighteen holes, bally Bunyan, flying back, taking a nap, going out hitting balls for an hour, then going out and chipping and putting around the greens for an hour until dark. Like it's not like he's been laying in bed and just saying, oh, I'm this is gonna be my swan song. I'm gonna miss the cut and I'm gonna wave goodbye. He's like he's spending

entire days practicing. Today he stopped at seventeen, went back over to the range, hit more ball, Like I mean, would any of us actually be surprised given all that we've just said about the way this course needs to be played, how it's going to be a tactician, How it's going to have to be someone who can spend four rounds without finding a bunker, like he's already done.

I mean, if he's in the final pairing on Sunday, we'd all be really surprised about the fact that we allowed ourselves to be surprised that he's in the final pairing. What do you think, Michael, I agree with. I agree with that Tiger can bunt play bunt golf as well as anybody. And this is going to be a bunt golf course. And I mean, like you showed at Hoylake, you know, he took he took much off much, he took much less club off the tay to consistently play

away from the bunkers. I think I think there he won seventy two holes without being in a bunker as well, and very sell. He very seldom. I know, he had no three putts that I can recall, and he put it's a fabulous putter in the wind. He's a fabulous lag putter. He has said numerous times that you know, it's not the putting and the chipping, it's the driving game, and that you know gust and National in southern hills, but especially gust and National. Without a driving game, there

really was no chance. Plus the walk, you know here, the walk he should be relatively easy and unless it's crazy, crazy low, I think he can't contend the way he played Royal Melbourne. I mean, you know, his body is way more beat up now than it was at Royal Melbourne. But he was the best golfer in the field, I mean at Royal Melbourne. Numerous people have told us. I dont think Jeff Ogilby has sold us that that was all guile in golfing, sophistication and intelligence and shot making.

I only watched on TV, but I couldn't believe how how how he played some of those souls and uh, you know this this course is Royal Melbourne on steroids. Really, Yeah, that's a great point and it's also an interesting you know, Tiger went into his press conference and really threw down a marker. Not it was about live golf, but it was. It was a more. It was also his worldview. You know, you gotta earn it, you got to earn everything in

this game. And he almost seems offended, though I know he's offended by this shift in the sport where guys are getting guaranteed money and the competitive nature of the actual tournaments has been reduced and devalued. And if there was ever a week that Tiger's gonna have the red ass more than usual, it's this week because he's just he's finally kind of taken a stance on I'll live golf, and it offends him as the ultimate competitor, as the

ultimate grinder. And so it's like, if he has one last lesson to impart on all these whipper snappers and all these guys who have been uh, you know, basically subservient to him throughout his career, they're like, you know, he wants to remind them one more time, like this is how it's done, boys, This is the level of desire you have to have. I'll get up at three in the morning to get my body work in and he's pushed himself really hard. As you said, Matt like him.

He's walked a lot of holes, he's played a lot of golf like he's he's leaven no bullets in the chamber like he it's he might shut it down for nine months after this. And so he's pushing himself to the absolute limit. And it's very admirable and inspiring to see.

Now you you know, I go back to talking to Pat Perez, you know, in that bar that night after the JP McManus program and Pat Perez entire would have known each other forever, I mean, and Pat Perez is like Tiger wouldn't even when when Pat Perez went up to talk to him, Tiger, you know, yeah, shook his hand, but didn't even look at him when he shook his

hand to him. And there's a wild, you know, big rumor he Deki Matziyama's going to Live right after the Open Championship, and that you know that they the Live wants a DECKI knowing his global presence and bringing all of Asia with them, that that's going to be their marquee guy, and that they're going to pay more for him than any other player by far, almost double triple what they might have paid for Dustin Johnson and Brooks Kepka.

And the thing that's keeping him from saying I'm in is the idea of Tiger Woods, essentially saying you go and you're dead to me. I mean, it's pretty obvious anybody who goes is dead to him. And this has become again Tiger versus Phil. It's gonna always be Tiger versus Phil. And at the end of the day, if he can use this moment, then the odds saw the the the holy ground, uh, to try to make some sort of last competitive stand. I mean, I'm not betting

against him. He has shown throughout his career his tremendous pension for making history. Uh. You know, he completed the career grand Slam here here at the Old Course. Uh. This week, Uh in terms of passing of the torch kind of thing. Uh, he's he's won majors. When Jack has uh bed farewell to one event or Arnold another event um, and and this week, uh, Nicholas is sort of making a farewell to uh to Saint Andrew's and the Old Course and and became an honorary citizen of

m of the of Saint Andrew's. Uh, Tiger was made an Honorary member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, along with um Rory McElroy and Uh and Paul laurie U. He loves to rise to the occasion. No. One of his dad's phrases of life was you know, let the legend grow. He's done that his entire life, and this would be incredibly fitting. It also would give him eighty three. He he you know, he'd bump Sampson head off that list.

In my opinion, he already has. But you know if technically, if you look at the list, they're both tied to eighty two, and it would be really really fitting. And I think those things do factor in to Tiger's mindset in ways that are you know, don't lend themselves to actual real analysis, except for it shows up at the end.

I love Jack saying your career is not complete unless you went and open at Saint Andrew's, which is kind of a dickiest thing to say, because he's he's you know, taken out Watson, he's taken out Palmer, He's taken he's taken out a lot of these guys who had all of fame careers who had five career doesn't matter because he hasn't one of the old. Yeah, he's devaluing Phil. I mean it's easy to say it when you got one, but you know it's it's kind of funny. But there

is that element and you know that. I mean, it is the It is the holiest of the holy if you can win here. And how much would Tiger love to deny all these guys deny a Rory, deny jt to deny Speed, Like there's an element of I have something that you don't have, and I don't want to share it. And I think that's a factor too. I mean, Tigers just love to win. He loves to beat guys. He likes he likes to like take their manhood and this is this would be the ultimate flex. I mean,

so anyway, that's a factor. I think it's really a nutty comment. Now, Nicholas, I'm sure you know that's all. Nicholas got it from Jones, and Nicholas gave it to Tiger. And of course it's easy for Tiger to talk about it now because he's got to him and big jacket to him. But it is another little thing like winning a green jacket for the first time. As Molinari and Tony Finou and all those other guys found out, it is a lot harder to win a green jack for a green jacket for the first time than it is

for the fifth time. That's what we found in twenty nineteen. And it's a lot harder to win your first Open championship at an old course and it is a third time. So down this stretch it's another little psychological I mean, it's been so long since we've really thought about Tiger that way. Tiger the mind game player. But Tiger plays mind games like nobody's business. Chiefly goes he's so much better than everybody else where he was, you know, in his long heyday. But also because to the kind of

thing that we're talking about, I already got mine. You think you're ever gonna yours? Probably not, And so I think I think there's something to all that where you're saying, O, yeah, that's great stuff. Well, we could go on down the list of contenders, but our heart's not in it like that. That's for lesser podcast. We're just here to celebrate the course, the tournament, capture the essence of it all. I think

we've done that. Do you guys have any any final thoughts before we get we light the candle on on this open well. I mean, I'm staying at the Rusicks Hotel. I'm hanging out in the new revamped deck overlooking this incredible venue. It's like the giant aquarium in which you're just sitting there watching the world go by, and players play these shots and hit these puts to the eighteenth

green and chip around this. Then we went up to the top of the rooftop at the Hamilton Hall, and now we're down here at the jigger in I mean you you are. You can't take four steps without bumping into these little slices of why all of this is so special, Why Saint Andrew's and the Old Course is the greatest venue in golf. Why when people ask me, oh, Scotland or Ireland, and I say, look, you got to do both. But if you only have to pick one, check the box of Saint Andrew's, Bandon or Saint Andrew's

Like I love man, I named my son Bandon. But you go to Saint Andrew's and you walk around this town, you queue up and you in that box like you and I did Alan in the nineties. You get on that list, you get this round of golf under your belt, you experience what this is, what this is, and then you come back at a time like this and you just let it all shower all over you, like we are all doing for the next few days, experiencing just

the greatest game, the greatest venue. The people you meet in this game, they're all here right now, bumping into them every five feet. I'm just grateful. I'm really appreciative and grateful that whatever I've chosen as my career in life has led me to this moment right now. And I'm honored to be on with you, guys. I'm honored to be able to talk to the game with you guys. I missed Jeff Ogilvie. I wish he was on, and we're going to here from later in the week. I

just I'm in. I feel like I were you were Michael the other night. I'm literally gonna cry. I mean, this is this is the good stuff, and um, I can't wait. But Matt, you've buried the lead. What did Mulvoy shoot today? Oh, Michael, I shot seventy one and seventy two. I had an afternoon round, I chased the sun and made seven birdies, missed two putts. And anyway, enough about your game, let me telling you about a bit more more about my game, the great Mark. Only

the three of us know how good that is. Uh, well, you know that was perfect. That's so good. That was perfect. Yeah, I mean I wrote I wrote this for the Firepit Collective dot com. But um, you know, we've all been doing this for a long time. And actually, young Dan Rapford asking me at the US Open, he said, you still get excited when you show up for these things, you know, meaning the major championships, And I had to

think about it. I've still been thinking about it, and I get excited on Sunday that the adrenaline of the last round, the energy of writing on deadline, like that's what really fires me up. And sometimes, you know, early in the week opening round, I gotta, I gotta, I've got to get there. But it's a different feeling, like I want to go to sleep as soon as we take this podcast so I can wake up early so I can get out there. Like it is really um,

like you know, the first it's like Kwanza morning. We're just so excited, like to open the presence and um, so yeah, it's it's it's absolutely a different feeling, um than anywhere else. And Michael's eloquently captured that all week in his stories, and um, you just feel it in the air. I mean though the players are excited, the fans are excited, the town's on fire. Is this gonna

be one heck of a week? By the way, did you guys see the the two pictures I tweeted out where you see in midday where you don't see any of the younger elations on the eighteenth fairway, and then at twilight afternoon when the shadows are exposing sort of like literally the ground looks as though it's risen risen up, you know, two three feet knobs, and it's it's like it's almost like it comes to life as the day

comes to rest. It's it's like the ocean. I always say that, like when you know, if you stand on the sixteenth tee and that whole often gets overlooked because you know your head and the next next up is the roadhole everything, but that, to me is one of the most amazing fairways in golf. It's just like rolling waves and it's not massive dunes and huge undulations. It's subtle, but you stand there and you just look at it and it's such a special piece of ground. But yeah,

I saw that picture, those pictures you posted, Matt. I thought it was really cool to how much it does come alive. It would be it would be neat to run those pictures in conjunction with the text of what Jeff Ogilvie said on our podcast the other day where he introduces the idea of what the old Course is

and why it's so great. Because when when Jeff so those a couple hundred words so us the other day, it felt like he'd been waiting his whole life to express that, or maybe he has many times before, but he absolutely captured the essence of it, including talking about playing it just as a you know, a regular Joe golfer, you know, a highly skilled one, but celebrated Joe golfer, you know, rolling up to the starter set to try to get a tea time with his dad and then

you know, later having a tea time in a British open, which of course is part of the huge magic of this whole thing. Unlike Augusta National is that literally hundreds of thousands of people around the world, we'll have had the experience of having played the old course and watching it in person or on TV, and having you know, a really deep understanding of what it is to try to do this, try to win this thing, or just actually play in the thing for four rounds. Uh. You know,

there are goals and goals. You know, we're so we emphasize the winner so much, but just to get in the field is such a journey. You know, we have a whole separate podcast or a whole separate series devoted to that idea, but just the dream. There are so many players in this field who have almost no chance of making a cup, but they got some chance. But just getting in the field itself is such an accomplishment one that they will literally help hold onto for the

rest of their lives. So there are layers and layers and layers of the thing. And if I could just follow up to your point about you know, that's a very thoughtful question on from from Dan Rapp report to

two and a very thoughtful answer. And for me it's different, like because what I see is, you know, we've all read a lot of golf history and we've covered a lot of golf, and the game is going to go on way after after we're gone, and it's just neat to know that there's a bunch of names in the field, names that we don't even know. And some of those players will turn into Justin not many, but one or two of them will turn into Justin Thomas and Wills alators.

And there will be fans like Rory McElroy was, you know, twenty plus years ago, who will emerge from out of the gallery rope. Someday they'll be in the in the field themselves, and they'll try and they'll be trying to make a cut and trying to contend and trying to win, and the game just carries on and on and on, and you know, it's unlike, you know, maybe Jack Willis will be back here, but probably probably won't, and there will never be another Jack Nicholas. But then Lee Travina

will rise to the you know, golf's elder statesman. He's well, excuse me, there at the same age. That's not a good example. But Tom Watson and you know, various others, and then another generation and then before you know it, Tiger will be there, and you know, and then Tiger will be gone and then Royal will be there. And this whole path of life that is golf and golf triggers so much in all of us in so many

different ways. That's part of what we're doing here. And uh so it's neat to be on the eve of it, and uh and it's neat to know in five or six or seven years, you know, some group will come back and do this all again. It be you know, slightly different, but basically the same. Your essay on the eve of the Open, which is now Firepit Collective dot com, including all the stuff that you've already written and some of the stuff you know that will that we've already

produced leading up to this week is all there. And I just you know, I just want to thank our sponsors. Obviously, use part Points, It's an incredible app were Links Soul, It's an incredible brand. Uh you know, use Dormy Workshop makes incredible leather goods. I think we just have to say thank you to the people who support us, who

allow us to have these opportunities. MasterCard. I'm here with them now because they funded and supported our opportunity to tell those stories we told when we rolled into Saint Andrews in February, and I mean, you know, and again the Rustick's Hotel for supporting us and being able to give us a place to stay for this week. So I just guy, I feel like, you know, thank you to the people who allow us to do what we do,

which just tell stories fully endorsed that. Um. Yeah, no, we're all very lucky to be here, and I know that none of us take it for granted, and it is it is a special part of our life. So a shout out to our colleague Colt, who, poor bastard young kid loves golf here for the first time and shut down by the by the COVID nineteen verse. We miss your, Colt, and hope you're feeling better. No one is more bumped out than cold. The guy is like

he's talking about a thoroughbread they got. I mean, he's like the thoroughbread when they when they, when they when the bell goes off and the gates fly open, and sometimes the gates don't fly open. He's the horse that's been left back in the gate. The gate didn't open for that thoroughbread. He's waiting for his chance to run. Run, Colt run, Yeah, I know, it's a bad beat, Well we'll sold your on in his honor. So this is

a fun conversation. I love your guys as a spirit on all this and thanks to all listeners out there. We are going to be back at it pretty much every day now for the rest of this week, maybe some surprise guests if we can make that happen. So this has been another fire Drill podcast. I'm Alan Schipnak. That was Michael Bamberger and Matt Janella. Thanks for tuning in and we'll do it again soon. Put another log on the fire nobody hears. Get the time